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Rapid urbanization presents one of the most urgent challenges of our times. Cities must cope with poor air quality, heat island effects, increased flood risk and the frequency/severity of extreme events (e.g., droughts and heat waves), increasing crime and social inequity, poverty and degraded urban environments, amongst other negative consequences. Climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as sustainable management are therefore key challenges for cities in Europe and around the world. What must be developed therefore is a robust, wide evidence-base and reference framework of nature-based solutions (NBS) – measures that mimic the complex features and processes of natural ecosystems – for local/regional city authorities and other policy and decision makers to increase climate resilience and address inclusive urban regeneration in cities. In response to this need, we propose an applicative framework for NBS using the structure of the DPSIR (Driving force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response) model, in conformity with European Community standards. Indeed, under the umbrella of the EC's Framework Program – Horizon 2020 – international institutions, scientific experts and policy makers worldwide are seeking to increase collaboration with cities to enhance ecosystem services and develop the evidence-base for the economic, social and environmental benefits of nature-based solutions. They are eager to exchange knowledge and inspire positive action for nature in urban areas to meet their growing social and environmental challenges. The time has come to acknowledge NBS as the most fitting response to the numerous challenges posed by our changing climate and for the realization of sustainable and healthy cities. It is hoped that this article will pioneer others in settling the issue for NBS as the undisputable answer to challenged urban landscapes and societies globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing transport CO2 emissions is important in the development of low-carbon strategies, but studies based on mixed land use are rare. This study assessed CO2 emissions from passenger transport in traffic analysis zones (TAZs) at the community level, based on a combination of the mixed-use development model and the vehicle emission calculation model. Based on mixed land use and transport accessibility, the mixed-use development model was adopted to estimate travel demand, including travel modes and distances. As a leading low-carbon city project of international cooperation in China, Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City Core Area was chosen as a case study. The results clearly illustrate travel demand and CO2 emissions of different travel modes between communities and show that car trips account for the vast majority of emissions in all types of travel modes in each community. Spatial emission differences are prominently associated with inadequately mixed land use layouts and unbalanced transport accessibility. The findings demonstrate the significance of the mixed land use and associated job-housing balance in reducing passenger CO2 emissions from passenger transport, especially in per capita emissions. Policy implications are given based on the results to facilitate sophisticated transport emission control at a finer spatial scale. This new framework can be used for assessing the impacts of urban planning on transport emissions to promote sustainable urbanization in developing countries.

Increasing global urbanization yields substantial potential for enhanced sustainability through careful management of urban development and optimized resource use efficiency. Nature-based solutions (NBS) can provide a means for cities to successfully navigate the water-energy-climate relationship, thus enhancing urban resilience. Implementation of NBS can improve local or regional economic resilience underpinned by the sustainable use of natural resources. The innovative governance, institutional, business, and finance models and frameworks inherent to NBS implementation also provide a wealth of opportunity for social transformation and increased social inclusiveness in cities. The ultimate benefit of NBS implementation in cities is increased livability, which is typically measured as a function of multiple social, economic and environmental variables. Given the range of different interventions classified as NBS and the cross-sectoral character of their co-benefits, different assessment schemes can be used to evaluate NBS performance and impact. Herein, performance and impact indicators within three robust NBS- and Smart City-related assessment schemes—Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), Knowledge and Learning Mechanism on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (EKLIPSE), and Smart City Performance Measurement Framework (CITYkeys)—were critically analyzed with respect to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” Each selected assessment scheme was benchmarked with respect to the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators' global indicator framework for the sub-objectives of SDG 11. The alignment between each of the selected NBS assessment schemes and the SDG indicator framework was mapped with particular emphasis on consistency with city-level framework indicators for each SDG 11 sub-objective. The results were illustrated as composite scores describing the alignment of the analyzed NBS and Smart city assessment schemes with the SDG 11 sub-objectives. These results facilitate NBS assessment scheme selection based on alignment between each analyzed assessment scheme and specific SDG 11 sub-objectives. Cities face multiple challenges amidst a complex hierarchy of legislative, regulatory and other stakeholder obligations. The present study showed that strategic selection of an NBS assessment scheme which closely aligns with one or more sub-objectives within SDG 11 can maximize operational efficiency by exploiting synergies between evaluation schemes.

The rapid growth and expansion of urbanized landscapes in cities has resulted in an increase in air temperature and has lowered the bioclimatic comfort levels in urban landscapes. Recent studies to estimate the climatic response of urban landscape conversion have mostly examined the relationship between land use/land cover (LULC) change and land surface temperature (LST) data collected using advanced remote sensing (RS) techniques instead of atmospheric temperature. In this respect, four decadal Landsat images from the 1980s were used to investigate the impact of landscape transformation on atmospheric temperature. The mean and average minimum and maximum monthly air temperature datasets were used in the analysis. The CORINE (Coordination of Information on Environment) index was used to determine LULC diversity in an urban development boundary and urban periphery. Consequently, clustered LULC change values for the last three decades were integrated with decadal air temperature anomalies. The findings revealed an important relationship between monthly mean air temperature and land changes over recent decades, which resulted in an increase in urban fabric land use, deforestation land cover changes and conversion of permanent crop fields to artificial green houses for earlier vegetable production; the R-sqr values for these regressions were 97.7%, 88.5% and 90.6% respectively. On the other hand, the most important increasing temperature trends were obtained for the average monthly minimum air temperature, which supports the global warming concerns of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and related studies, which have concluded that an increased nighttime temperature results in urban heat islands (UHIs). The results should be used to support better urban landscape plans and architectural designs to improve human thermal comfort for sustainable urban life in Mediterranean cities. Street geometry and orientation to wind breeze, the Height/Width H/W ratio of buildings, and sizes of open and green spaces should be examined carefully in urban planning and design for climate adaptation.

As the transport sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, the effect of urbanization on transport CO2 emissions in developing cities has become a key issue under global climate change. Examining the case of Xi'an, this paper aims to explore the spatial distribution of commuting CO2 emissions and influencing factors in the new, urban industry zones and city centers considering Xi'an's transition from a monocentric to a polycentric city in the process of urbanization. Based on household survey data from 1501 respondents, there are obvious differences in commuting CO2 emissions between new industry zones and city centers: City centers feature lower household emissions of 2.86 kg CO2 per week, whereas new industry zones generally have higher household emissions of 3.20 kg CO2 per week. Contrary to previous research results, not all new industry zones have high levels of CO2 emissions; with the rapid development of various types of industries, even a minimum level of household emissions of 2.53 kg CO2 per week is possible. The uneven distribution of commuting CO2 emissions is not uniformly affected by spatial parameters such as job–housing balance, residential density, employment density, and land use diversity. Optimum combination of the spatial parameters and travel pattern along with corresponding transport infrastructure construction may be an appropriate path to reduction and control of emissions from commuting.

Abstract The recurrence of similar problems caused by human errors in urbanization process is common throughout the world. However, the knowledge learnt from these problems should become lessons and important references for decision-making to avoid the recurrence of these problems, thus urban development can be sustainable. It is considered of imperative importance to incorporate the lessons experienced into the decision-making process in a way that can help foresee the potential problems and take proper measures for addressing the problems. There are few studies that have been conducted to investigate the similarity between the current scenario of urbanization practice and the previous context of lesson cases. The ignorance of this similarity presents a significant barrier for decision makers to learn from the existing lessons effectively thus to have references of how to make better decisions for future urbanization practices. This paper presents a Lessons Mining System (LMS) to assist in mining lessons experienced from previous practices. The establishment of LMS is based on Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) theory and the similarity matching principles. The system includes five components, namely, Lessons-case Representation, Lessons-case Store, Lessons-case Retrieval, Lessons-case Application, and Lessons-case Update. LMS can facilitate decision makers to understand what potential problems might occur from their current actions by referring to the lessons experienced previously in similar circumstances. This understanding can help decision makers take preventive measures against the potential problems. The use of LMS can send alarming messages to decision makers about what possible problematic consequence may occur, thus they can modify their actions before too late. A demonstration of Yangwu Town is presented to show the application of LMS, and the result shows that the lessons mined can provide valuable references for the government of Yangwu Town to improve their decision-making quality. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • A Lessons Mining System (LMS) is proposed. • LMS is a new method of mining lessons learnt from urbanization problems. • LMS can facilitate decision-makers to foresee potential problems. • LMS can facilitate decision-makers to improve decision-making quality. • A demonstration of Yangwu Town is used to show the application of LMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Urbanization-Resources-Environment complex system reflects sustainable urbanization. • A coordinated development index will indicate the coordination in a complex system. • Coordination in Jing-Jin-Ji region was poor and spatially differentiated. • Improving coordination through a zoning strategy will increase sustainable urbanization. Abstract China's rapid urbanization has produced a number of resources and environmental problems, making it necessary to provide a scientific basis for the promotion of sustainable urbanization. This study integrates systems theory with complexity science to create an Urbanization-Resources-Environment complex system (URE) to assess the sustainability of urbanization, beginning by conjoining a theory of urbanization and ecological environment coupling. We developed a comprehensive coordinated development index for URE (URECDI) to represent the internal connectivity and influence between the urbanization, resources and environmental subsystems, and also indicate the sustainability of urbanization. This study analyzed trends observed in URE for 13 cities in the Jing-Jin-Ji region (JJJ) of China, using statistical data collected from 2005 to 2015. The main results are: (1) urbanization efficiency, resource utilization efficiency and environmental quality are the largest influences on the indices, which indicates that they are key factors in the behavior of URE; (2) coordination between subsystems of URE within JJJ was not good, but showed an increasing trend during 2005–2015; and (3) URECDI indicated significant differences between 13 cities, which suggests that we can increase coordination within URE by implementing a zoning strategy, and adjusting policies and investment to favor low-coordinated cities. The coordinated development index can reveal the overall characteristics of URE and ensure regionally sustainable urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts for implementing sustainable urbanization have been reported and documented around the world. These efforts have led to a vast number of exemplary sustainable urbanization practices, classified as best practices. Best practices contain valuable information in the form of experiences, and learning from them represents an opportunity to replicate successful practices in other cities. This study collected and analyzed 185 best practices in sustainable urbanization from around the world. The main areas of action, the key methods adopted and the outcomes achieved by these practices were identified. Key elements in successful sustainable urbanization strategies were found by conducting a series of association analyses between the areas of action, methods and outcomes. Findings highlight the importance of community participation, capacity building, education, partnerships and job creation in achieving urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Urban Land Use Policy is a critical component of sustainable land use in China, aiming to improve the urban land use efficiency, increase land output, protect the land ecological environment and realize the sustainable utilization of urban land resources. As part of the strategy for sustainable urbanization, the Sustainable Urban Land Use Policy has been implemented in some cities for years. To evaluate the effectiveness and reveal the future direction of development of this policy, it is essential to analyze this policy in the framework of sustainable urbanization. It is possibly a reliable measure to evaluate the effectiveness of this policy by assessing the contribution of sustainable urban land use policies to sustainable urbanization strategies and the trend of contribution over time. This paper measured the degree of sustainable urbanization and sustainable urban land use with necessary Control Variables and Instrument Variables using panel data of 31 provincial capital cities from 2000 to 2008 and 2009 to 2014. The regression results showed that the Sustainable Urban Land Use Policy had a significant positive effect on China's sustainable urbanization and the effectiveness improved after 2008. From the aspect the mechanism, the contribution of this policy to sustainable urbanization was to promote economic growth, thereby, to improve the social welfare. In contrast, the role of promoting urban development potential and the decreasing urban resource consumption was not so significant. Therefore, while maintaining the existing achievements through macro-control, reducing resource consumption, increase land use intensity, improve urban development potential are the further goals of land use policy in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adaptation of urbanised areas to climate change is currently one of the key challenges in the domain of urban policy. The diversity of environmental determinants requires the formulation of individual plans dedicated to the most significant local issues. This article serves as a methodic proposition for the stage of retrieving data (with the PESTEL and the Delphi method), systemic diagnosis (evaluation of risk and susceptibility), prognosis (goal trees, goal intensity map) and the formulation of urban adaptation plans. The suggested solution complies with the Polish guidelines for establishing adaptation plans. The proposed methodological approach guarantees the participation of various groups of stakeholders in the process of working on urban adaptation plans, which is in accordance with the current tendencies to strengthen the role of public participation in spatial management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urbanization-environment nexus has been widely studied and discussed in academia and practice. However, previous studies have primarily relied on empirical analyses using outcome indicators such as CO 2 emissions and often overlooked the role of policy and governance, which is not compatible with China's unique top-down urbanization model. To address this gap, this study presents a new perspective on the urbanization-environmental nexus by analyzing the impacts of ecological policy considerations on urbanization. It is the first to provide theoretical deductions and empirical extensions of such effects, using general equilibrium models, welfare analysis, and regression analysis with Chinese provincial data. The study draws three key findings. Firstly, it provides both theoretical models and empirical evidence from China that substantiate the negative impacts of ecological policy considerations on urbanization. Secondly, the study highlights the regional heterogeneity of the impacts, which are more significant across central and western regions of China and in regions without pilot cities of pollution rights trading (PRT) or carbon emission trading (CET) schemes. Finally, the study identifies two effective mechanisms for realizing the negative effects: reducing urban gas supply and labor-intensive industrial output. In order to strike a balance between urbanization and eco-environment, it is crucial to upgrade and implement the green transformation of urban energy systems and labor-intensive industrial production modes. These conclusions enrich our theoretical and empirical understanding of the urbanization-environment nexus, and emphasize the critical role of policy making and government intervention in achieving sustainable urbanization and ecological civilization construction in China. • The negative impact of ecological policy considerations on urbanization is substantiated. • Such negative impact is regionally heterogeneous. • Impacts are more evident in the central, western and non-pilot regions. • The upgrading and green transformation of energy system and labor-intensive industrial production are crucial mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability remains an undeniable, yet obscure, destination for humanity to reach. Although progress has been made, there remains no agreed upon method for spatial scientists, nor landscape and regional planners to use during sustainable development assessments. Furthermore, limited examples exist that investigate relationships between-landscape form (e.g. urban configuration) and population dynamics (e.g. number of settlements)- and a local measure of sustainable development. Using a recently published local sustainable development index (LSDI) for Moldova, a regional spatial analysis was created to further elucidate strengths and weaknesses of index-based assessments of sustainable landscape function. Using a one-to-many relationship, sixty-six landscapes were joined to 399 mean LSDI sample locations for the quantitative spatial assessment ( n = 399). A rarity of this study was that it employed the Eastern School of Geography's “landscape units” for Moldova during geospatial data aggregation and spatially enabled regression. Moran's I scatterplot and spatial correlogram were used to visualize spatial autocorrelation dynamics of LSDI. Three local conditional autoregressive (CAR) models were made, with all explaining over 70% of LSDI variation. The two strongest positive predictors of LSDI were city population density and road intersection density, while the two most consistent negative were settlement density and distance between urban land cover patches (ENN_AM). Findings suggest index-based landscape valuations could suffer from spurious inferential correlations when landscape-calculated sub-metrics (i.e., proportion agricultural land) are included within evaluation indices. This phenomenon complicates the interpretation of results during regional analyses, thus potentially hindering sustainable development planning and policy responses across spatial scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chongming Island, a large island off the Shanghai Coast, is China's first and only endorsed eco-island. The Chinese central government and the Shanghai provincial government have placed high bets on making Chongming a world-class example of sustainable urbanization and involved the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for valuable knowledge transfer. However, to what extent is it feasible to preserve the green, open and natural character of the island given the enormous urbanization pressure Shanghai faces? In this contribution, the authors examine to what extent the lofty goals formulated in the various national, provincial and local plans are effectively implemented. They claim that existing assessments are useful, but rely too heavily on technocratic indicator systems to allow for insights regarding on the ground implementation. They analyse existing assessment studies on eco island development, but then develop a broader planning and policy oriented assessment matrix of their own which they apply in an independent field study. They find that the Shanghai and Chongming authorities are generally taking their eco island development task seriously through restricting urban development to certain locations, opening eco-parks, developing an integrated water system, and invest substantial resources into making it happen. However, a sustainable public transport system is still missing and at a few locations commercially attractive to real estate development villa parks and skyscrapers have emerged. By synthesizing data from existing evaluations with information retrieved following the format of their assessment matrix, an analysis of the eco island's implementation which connects more closely with the situation experienced on the ground has been generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urbanization emphasizes properly handling the relationships between people, people and society, and people and nature in the process of urban development. However, sometimes these interactions are difficult to quantify. Through an analysis of the structure and functions of the sustainable urbanization system, this paper introduced synergetic theory and constructed a sustainable urbanization synergy system (SUSS) with five subsystems; demographic change, economic development, spatial structure, environmental quality, and social development; to study the synergistic development and orderly evolution trend of the sustainable urbanization composite system. Using sustainable urbanization in Henan province as an example, a mathematical quantitative model was established to measure the subsystem order degrees and the composite system synergy degree from 2006 to 2015. The results were consistent with the actual situation and indicated that over time, sustainable urbanization in Henan developed towards a more harmonious and orderly state, though the overall synergy degree was not high. It was found that the model was a sound basis for scientific judgment and effective decision-making when seeking to coordinate sustainable urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerosols affect the insolation at ground and thus the Aerosol Optical Depth ( AOD , a measure of aerosol pollution) plays an important role on the variation of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature ( PET ) at locations with different aerosol climatology. The aerosol effects upon PET were studied for the first time at four East Asian cities by coupling a radiative transfer model and a human thermal comfort model which were previously well evaluated. Evident with the MODIS and AERONET AOD observations, the aerosol pollution at Beijing and Seoul was higher than at Chiayi (Taiwan) and Hong Kong. Based on the AERONET data, with background AOD levels the selected temperate cities had similar clear-sky PET values especially during summertime, due to their locations at similar latitudes. This also applied to the sub-tropical cities. Increase in the AOD level to the seasonal average one led to an increase in diffuse solar radiation and in turn an increase in PET for people living in all the cities. However, the heavy aerosol loading environment in Beijing and Seoul in summertime ( AOD s > 3.0 in episodic situations) reduced the total radiative flux and thus PET values in the cities. On the contrary, relatively lower episodic AOD levels in Chiayi and Hong Kong led to strong diffuse and still strong direct radiative fluxes and resulted in higher PET values, relative to those with seasonal averaged AOD levels. People tended to feel from “hot” to “very hot” during summertime when the AOD reached their average levels from the background level. This implies that in future aerosol effects add further burden to the thermal environment apart from the effects of greenhouse gas-induced global warming. Understanding the interaction between ambient aerosols and outdoor thermal environment is an important first step for effective mitigation measures such as urban greening to reduce the risk of human heat stress. It is also critical to make cities more attractive and enhancing to human well-being to achieve enhancing sustainable urbanization as one of the principal goals for the Nature-based Solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has become a main challenge all over developing countries in the 21st Century. However, decision making should take into account the different national situations with their complex factors to achieve sustainable development. As standards of living have risen in urban areas, local/neighbor urbanization has become a coming trend in China. With this in mind, the paper focuses on the optimization of nearby gathered village locations in Population Migration (PM) with consideration of both qualitative and quantitative criteria. Therefore, an integrated multiple objective decision making approach (MODM) under a bi-uncertain environment is proposed to solve this problem, which is based on the comprehensive Economy-Society-Ecology-Resource-Religion (ESERR) urbanization concept. The first step is to establish a bi-uncertain multiple objective programming model orienting the problem. Secondly, the model process is composed of fuzzy random variable transformation and the expected value model based on a new fuzzy measure, which is given accordingly to obtain the equivalent model. Thirdly, in order to describe the model efficiently, the Multi-Objective Adaptive Global Local Neighbor Particle Swarm Optimization (MOAGLNPSO) with three-dimensional Pareto optimal judgment criteria is designed. Finally, a case study is tested to validate the effectiveness and to illustrate the advantages of the whole approach. This novel approach can help optimize sustainable urbanization strategies and ensure their realistic application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Productive building energy efficiency (BEE) work is an approved factor in the progress of sustainable urbanization in China, with the assessment of carbon emission reduction in China's public buildings (CERCPB) being an essential element of this endeavor. Nevertheless, such evaluation has been hampered by inadequate and inefficient approaches; this is the first study to utilize the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index Type I (LMDI-I) to decompose the equation of China's public building carbon emissions (CPBCE) with the connected driving factors (population in China, floor areas of China's existing public buildings, building service level index of China's existing public buildings, and the comparable CPBCE intensity), and this equation was established by the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The LMDI and STIRPAT approaches subsequently assessed the CERCPB values from 2001 to 2015. The results indicated that: (1) Only the contribution of the comparable CPBCE intensity to CPBCE was negative during 2001-2015; this represents the CERCPB value for the period. (2) The assessment results indicated that CERCPB has accumulated considerably with the swift progress of BEE work in China in 2001-2015. The CERCPB values in 2001-2005, 2006-2010, and 2011-2015 were 69.29, 158.53, and 277.86 million tons of carbon dioxide, respectively. (3) This study demonstrated that the positive effect of implementing public BEE work in China had led to significant results in 2001-2015, which can be regarded as a prerequisite for producing the considerable accumulation of CERCPB over this period. Overall, this study illustrated the feasibility of employing the LMDI and STIRPAT approaches for assessing the CERCPB value. Accordingly, we believe the results of this study are a significant driving force in the next phase of the development of the carbon emission control strategy of public buildings and sustainable urbanization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urbanization policies and strategies are posited as a major tool by which to achieve the sustainable development of growing towns and cities. A major challenge for sustainable urbanization policies and strategies is how to address the complexity of urbanization, especially the ongoing growth of informal settlements and slums in developing countries. It is acknowledged that those living their lives in such housing and settlements suffer greater levels of spatial, economic and social exclusion from the benefits of urbanization that other segments of the urban population. Using a case study approach, this paper examines the range of challenges associated with the growth of informal settlements and slums, seeking to understand how they are positioned via upgrading policies in city urbanization plans and strategies in Indonesia's third largest city, Bandung. The research finds that there has been a shift in kampung and slum upgrading policy from in-situ solutions to vertical housing towers which appear incompatible in accommodating the way of life practiced in kampung adaptive urbanism contexts. The manner in which city governments manage informal settlements and slums by seeking to reshape and restructure the lifestyles of residents to align with formal market measures has a major impact on existing disadvantaged communities. The paper concludes with a call for greater leadership, political commitment and recognition of contextual responses when developing slum upgrading policies set within urbanization policies and strategies branded as sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban and peri-urban forests are recognized as basic elements for Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), as they preserve and may increase environmental quality in urbanized contexts. For this reason, the amount of forest land per inhabitant is a pivotal efficiency indicator to be considered in the sustainable governance, land management, planning and design of metropolitan areas. The present study illustrates a multivariate analysis of per-capita forest area (PFA) in mainland Attica, the urban region surrounding Athens, Greece. Attica is considered a typical case of Mediterranean urbanization where planning has not regulated urban expansion and successive waves of spontaneous growth have occurred over time. In such a context, an analysis of factors that can affect landscape changes in terms of PFA may inform effective strategies for the sustainable management of socio-ecological local systems in light of the NBS perspective. A total of 26 indicators were collected per decade at the municipal scale in the study area with the aim to identify the factors most closely associated to the amount of PFA. Indicators of urban morphology and functions have been considered together with environmental and topographical variables. In Attica, PFA showed a progressive decrease between 1960 and 2010. In particular, PFA progressively declined (1980, 1990) along fringe areas surrounding Athens and in peri-urban districts experiencing dispersed expansion of residential settlements. Distance from core cities and from the seacoast, typical urban functions (e.g., multiple use of buildings and per capita built-up area) and percentage of agricultural land-use in each municipality are the variables most associated with high PFA. In recent years, some municipalities have shown an expansion of forest cover, mainly due to land abandonment and forest recolonization. Findings from this case study have allowed us to identify priorities for NBS at metropolitan level aimed at promoting more sustainable urbanization. Distinctively, proposed NBS basically focus on (i) the effective protection of crop mosaics with relict woodlots; (ii) the improvement of functionality, quality and accessibility of new forests; and (iii) the establishment of new forests in rural municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past twenty years, various sustainable urban development policies and methods had been implemented within China, such that sustainable urbanization is now more widely accepted. Some of these policies and methods have been found to be successful in improving the sustainability of cities in China. Those practices can be defined as the best practices of sustainable urbanization, which can provide useful references for future urban developments. However, few existing studies examine how to learn from these best practices. Combining the methods of content analysis and social network analysis, this paper conducts a comprehensive study on 150 best practices of sustainable urbanization in China. The methods and outcomes of the 150 best practices are identified. The research findings demonstrate the statistics of categories, methods and outcomes of the 150 best practices and the main adopted methods. The achieved outcomes in different regions of China are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development goal (SDG) 11 emphasizes the role of public open space (POS) in creating inclusive and liveable cities. The present study coupled concepts of right to the city, inclusion, and negotiation to illustrate how inner-city children and adults establish a harmonized consumption of a district POS. The study examines how different age groups can achieve a consensus-based consumption of a vulnerable, small, and intensively used POS in Kano City, Nigeria. Data were collected using 358 self-administered questionnaires and field observation and analyzed using thematic content analysis, a multifunctional matrix, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to illustrate the negotiated uses of the POS. The study found that children and adults in this densely populated city depend on the POS covering only 0.5 ha for recreational, religious, and informal commercial activities. Users reach a consensus regarding sharing and separation of uses in a zero-conflict and lively atmosphere, underscoring the multifunctionality of this small POS. This study contributes to our understanding of the values of POS as a platform for fostering social coexistence, multiculturalism, tolerance, sharing, and collaborative consumption of scarce resources in cities. The study can assist municipalities in developing inclusive strategies for implementing SDG 11 to create more sustainable cities and communities. • The present study analyzes the dynamics of negotiated sharing of public open spaces (POSs) in a traditional African city. • It illustrates how inner-city children and adults establish a harmonized sharing of a public open space in Kano, Nigeria. • Multifunctional matrix illustrates the negotiated uses of the space in a zero-conflict and lively atmosphere. • Diverse users harmoniously share the space for commercial, religious, and recreational activities. • POSs can foster social coexistence, multiculturalism, tolerance, and collaborative consumption of scarce public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) as the emerging leading powers in the world have great influence on the world development. Urbanization process has been a significant engine for development in these countries, which has important effect on the sustainable development globally. However, rapid urbanization has induced various problems, such as air pollution, traffic congestion, habitat destruction, and loss of arable land. These problems present the threats to the sustainable development of urbanization in these countries. This paper presents an evaluation on the dynamic sustainability performance during urbanization process in these countries by applying an elastic coefficient method and a new-type McKinsey matrix. The data used for analysis are collected from World Bank database for the period of 1990–2011. The findings from this study suggest that during the surveyed period the Brazil, Russia and India have been engaging a sustainable urbanization practice, whilst the urbanization processes in China and South Africa are unsustainable. The study provides valuable reference in searching for solutions to further promote sustainable urbanization practice globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization sustainability is intrinsically against incoordination in two distinct forms: incoordination across sustainability dimensions and geographical spaces in sustainability performance. However, the rapid urbanization, particularly in those developing countries such as China, has been bringing along the problems of dimensional incoordination and spatial incoordination. To date, existing studies do not address these two forms of incoordination while assessing the sustainable urbanization. This paper therefore introduces a measurement model to evaluate the incoordination-adjusted sustainability performance during the urbanization process. The proposed model is established based on the examinations of the weak-strong sustainability perspective and the principle of spatial justice theory. The Atkinson Measure is employed to develop the model. A case study of the Chongqing city is conducted to illustrate the process of applying the proposed model. The outcomes from the case study reveal that the model proposed is effective in gauging and monitoring the status and trajectories of sustainability incoordination during the urbanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transit ridership study is an essential part of sustainability, and can provide a deep understanding of people's travel patterns for efficient transportation development and urbanization. However, there is a lack of empirical studies comparing subway and taxi services, and their interactions within a city, that is to say, the interdependent transportation networks. Incorporating new data, this study aims to examine the spatial variation of urban taxi ridership due to the impacts of a new subway line operation opened in 2014 in Wuxi, China. We examine the spatial patterns and interactions of ridership in Wuxi by integrating taxi trajectory from GPS data and subway data from continuously collected fare transactions. The results indicated that the demand for taxi and subway usage is quite elastic with respect to both location and time, and the new subway's opening had more influence on areas adjacent to subway stations and urban center-suburban travel. Furthermore, increases in travel time and distance would increase the demand for subway, while taxi trips largely represented movements for those locations that the subway could not reach. This paper betters the understanding of travel patterns through large volumes of transportation data for sustainable urbanization policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China faces a number of impressive challenges in dealing with climate change: rising energy use, growing emission levels of greenhouse gases, dangerous levels of air pollution over cities and low resilience against flood and drought. Sustainable urbanization has been adopted as a keyword in handling these challenges. The Chinese central government has undertaken a variety of measures, including the launch of large Sino-European programs to learn from 'developed nations'. In the wake of these partnerships, a great variety of cross-national and cross-city agreements were signed. Sino-European cooperation does not often run as smoothly as initially hoped because of diverging interests, cultural misunderstandings and practical limitations. In the background, a mismatch in normative conceptions Chinese and European participants have of 'good governance' plays a role. In this contribution, insights taken from Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of Laws' regarding checks and balances and trias politica (updated to 'sextas politica' for the 21st century) are used to comprehend how the exertion of power is distributed and expected to be distributed differently in Chinese than in European administrative traditions. The article will end with conclusions on how European misconceptions of Chinese governance complicate Sino-European collaboration in sustainable urbanization policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land allocation for urban growth is central to sustainable development strategy because urban growth can impact space available for food production, ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Urbanization is a growing stressor due the 2.5 billion additional people projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Potential climate change impacts to natural systems increase the need for sustainable urbanization, which should integrate land use needs for urban growth with climate adaptation objectives such as maintaining biodiversity, food production and ecosystem services. Here we compare climate-neutral and climate-adaptive urbanization scenarios to see which produces the most sustainable urbanization, defined as being the most effective at meeting development, conservation, and two climate adaptation objectives. We modeled five urban growth scenarios portraying an increase of 25.8 million people by 2050 for California, USA comprising three climate-neutral scenarios: business-as-usual, compact-new-growth and infill (redevelopment); and two climate-adaptive scenarios: preservation of agricultural climate refugia or future plant dispersal corridors. Infill was the least impacting for the multiple objectives tested; preserving 46–57% more land for other uses. Each climate-adaptive scenario reduced land consumption for its respective target, but increased impacts to the opposite climate-adaptive scenario target. Infill has the potential to contribute towards sustainable urbanization, particularly if combined with other climate adaptation targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urbanization process is creating dramatic and rapid changes globally, with over half of the world's population living in cities. This rapid urbanization growth has led to the need to understand urbanization as a major contributor to not only economic/social transformation but also resource consumption and environmental damage. In this context, ‘sustainable urbanization’ came into being. Theoretical debate on ‘sustainable urbanization’ has been eliminated by the rhetoric and realities of sustainability, while the practical application of this debate to the urbanization process has been both limited and contradictory ( Pinches, 1994 ). From the practical application point of view, many effective urban-rural sustainability practices exist in different situations depending on social, economic, political, cultural development and geographical conditions, which makes it difficult to effectively share the experiences obtained from these practices. It is therefore imperative to establish a fundamental holistic model to share these practical experiences in order to mirror and help transfer the good results already obtained. The aim of the bi-dimensional model for sustainable urbanization is to analyze environmental, social and economic issues in quadrant terms at different stages from a new life cycle perspective of the urban and rural environment. Based on the conceptual model, a Curitiba case is used to demonstrate the way how one of the quadrant I (sustainable urban form) is achieved at city level. It is highlighted that government sponsored urbanization pattern can be efficient. However, practical implementation at city governance/management level is rather more important. This research proposes a roadmap for sustainable urbanization, facilitating the generation of the effective acquisition and sharing of sustainable urbanization experiences to support the decision making processes involved in selecting strategies and solutions. This contribution aims to stimulate innovative methods that are able to cope with current challenging urbanization problems in an integrative manner that is adapted to fluctuating urban demand patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an exploration of the potential impact of Habitat III, the all–United Nations (U.N.) conference that meets every 20 years, I suggest that, in addition to government commitments, clear messaging and strong civic engagement are essential to its success. The basis for these critical elements is already in play, but is it strong enough? In answering this question, I discuss the treatment of cities and human settlements within the U.N. system, the legacies shaping the conference, and the views on sustainable urban development being put forth in its outcome document, the New Urban Agenda (NUA), arguing that the current draft NUA differs from its predecessors, leaving room for strengthening the required advocacy. I conclude with a short challenge to city and regional planners worldwide to become advocates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rapid urbanization process has brought problems to China, such as traffic congestion, air pollution, water pollution and resources scarcity. Sustainable urbanization is commonly appreciated as an effective way to promote the sustainable development. The proper understanding of the sustainable urbanization performance is critical to provide governments with support in making urban development strategies and policies for guiding the sustainable development. This paper utilizes the method of Structural equation modeling (SEM) to establish an assessment model for measuring sustainable urbanization performance. Four unobserved endogenous variables, economic variable, social variable, environment variable and resource variable, and 21 observed endogenous variables comprise the SEM model. A case study of the 31 provinces in China demonstrates the validity of the SEM model and the analysis results indicated that the assessment model could help make more effective policies and strategies for improving urban sustainability by recognizing the statue of sustainable urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]