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Changing the paradigm towards sustainability falls implicitly in transforming the urban systems, as most of the world's population lives in cities. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process is relevant in this context because it supports the evaluation of the sustainability of the plans and promotes open and accountable decision-making. However, SEA processes are embedded in a broader decision-making context, where the different roles of the actors and their impacts on the planning process remain unclear. This study explores the contributions of the SEA actors and how they influence the outcomes of SEA towards sustainability, employing a case study research design and a content analysis on the SEA of 12 Municipal Master Plans (MMP) in Portugal. Results show that public participation tends to be weak and is only sought after all decisions have been made in the planning process. The study revealed that the SEA practitioner's role is distanced from the MMP planning team, constraining their capacity to influence the plan development. The results highlighted the significance of initiating actors' involvement at the beginning of the assessment process and improving the knowledge exchange between the actors. These strategies have the potential to foster collaboration, transparency, and a more integrated approach to SEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of metropolises that occupy a secondary place in urban systems and distinguishes between the intermediation and other strategic roles that they can play. As an empirical approximation to secondary cities, the paper operationalises mid-sized cities according to population size and evaluates the economic performance of metropolitan areas within Mexico's urban system. Drawing on the theories of borrowed size and agglomeration shadows, the paper discusses whether mid-sized metropolitan areas in Mexico have evolved into intermediate urban centres that can drive development and growth. Additionally, the study identifies the economic performance factors across the group of mid-sized metropolises. Different economic performance indicators are calculated and an econometric model is estimated for the period 2008–2018. We find that, with a few exceptions, mid-sized metropolitan areas in Mexico have not evolved into intermediate metropolises and face challenges that limit their strategic role in their respective urban system. This analysis contributes to the literature on secondary cities by studying and providing empirical insights into the functioning and evolution of urban systems that have traditionally been centralised around a single megacity, such as Mexico City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of metropolises that occupy a secondary place in urban systems and distinguishes between the intermediation and other strategic roles that they can play. As an empirical approximation to secondary cities, the paper operationalises mid-sized cities according to population size and evaluates the economic performance of metropolitan areas within Mexico’s urban system. Drawing on the theories of borrowed size and agglomeration shadows, the paper discusses whether mid-sized metropolitan areas in Mexico have evolved into intermediate urban centres that can drive development and growth. Additionally, the study identifies the economic performance factors across the group of mid-sized metropolises. Different economic performance indicators are calculated and an econometric model is estimated for the period 2008–2018. We find that, with a few exceptions, mid-sized metropolitan areas in Mexico have not evolved into intermediate metropolises and face challenges that limit their strategic role in their respective urban system. This analysis contributes to the literature on secondary cities by studying and providing empirical insights into the functioning and evolution of urban systems that have traditionally been centralised around a single megacity, such as Mexico City.

Community and city leaders are interested in achieving sustainability goals, providing resilient energy infrastructure, and improving economic competitiveness. Community-level data acquisition and analysis can provide energy and associated benefits that are not possible at the single building level. However, there is a lack of organizational structure, common semantic data models, interoperable systems, and methods to support data-driven decision-making for community-scale energy supply and demand systems. We explored the need and opportunity for a Community Energy Operations and Planning System (Community EOPS), a potential data exchange platform. We conducted “customer discovery” interviews, and reviewed literature, public tools, and technology platforms to identify key energy data “users” and use cases in communities. The key users of the Community EOPS could be developers of mixed-use districts, corporate, defense and university campus energy managers, and city managers of cities that own their energy utility. The value could be for community planning and reporting (for energy data-integrated land use planning and community infrastructure investments in microgrids, storage, district heating and cooling), energy efficiency (leveraging optimizations for community scale energy supply and demand), flexible load management (grid-edge load management to offset, shift, and flatten loads for multiple buildings and EV fleets), cost savings and revenue generation (participating in grid services), and social benefits such as energy resilience, equity, and awareness. We developed a conceptual Community EOPS architecture with recommendations for streamlined and prioritized data acquisition, sharing, and integration driven by prioritized use cases, common metrics, and actionable visualizations that can provide value to a community’s users.

Cities are real, physical, material concentrations of human activities and built environments, but they are also portals that allow and require unique ways of perceiving relations across space and time. Photography, especially the genre of seductive urban landscape views so often deployed by airlines, realtors, and city boosters, distorts our perceptions of space-time. These distortions are particularly serious in the unique configuration of Indigeneity and transnationalization that constitutes the lands presently known as Canada and British Columbia. Drawing inspiration from Sontag's dark but essential Regarding the Pain of Others, and focusing on the Vancouver global city region, this article seeks to develop critical captions for urban landscape views as what Eugène Atget portrayed as crime-scene evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability in cities, and its accurate and exhaustive assessment, represent a major keystone of environmental sciences and policy making in urban planning. This study aims to provide methods for a reproducible, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analysis of urban residential choices and mobility, which are key components of an urban system's sustainability. Using the DPSIR framework for building agent evolution rules, we design an agent-based model of the canton of Geneva, Switzerland. The model leverages real geographical data for the canton of Geneva and its public transportation network. The resulting simulations show the dynamics of the relocation choices of commuters, in terms of the function of their travel time by public transportation to their workplace. Results show that areas around the city centre are generally preferred, but high rent prices and housing availability may prevent most residents from relocating to these areas. Other preferred housing locations are distributed around major tram and train lines and where rent prices are generally lower. The model and its associated tools are capable of spatialising aggregated statistical datasets, inferring spatial correlations, and providing qualitative and quantitative analysis of relocation dynamics. Such achievements are made possible thanks to the efficient visualisation of our results. The agent-based modelling methodology represents an adequate solution for understanding complex phenomena related to sustainability in urban systems, which can be used as guidance for policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the circular economy (CE) gaining more traction worldwide, local authorities are engaging in efforts to develop circular strategies at the urban level. Developing and monitoring such strategies require detailed quantitative information on material and energy flows, which can be obtained through an urban metabolism (UM) analysis. This study demonstrates a bottom‐up approach to analyze UM at the sectoral level based on material and energy flow analysis (MEFA), aiming to examine its utility within the context of the CE. The analysis is performed for Umeå urban area (Sweden) with a 5‐year timeframe (2017–2021). The application of MEFA provides a detailed quantitative description of material and energy flows per sector, indicating the critical sectors in terms of resource consumption and waste generation and the most significant flows. More specifically, it reveals that the construction sector and households are key sectors within Umeå's UM and that construction materials, food products, fossil fuels, and drinking water are significant metabolic flows. Furthermore, the application of MEFA with a multi‐year timeframe uncovers trends in consumption rates of materials and generation rates of waste and emissions, revealing, for example, the correlation of material consumption and waste generation with the level of construction activity. Overall, by illustrating the potential of MEFA to provide a detailed quantitative analysis of material and energy flows, this study emphasizes its utility in supporting the design and monitoring of circular strategies at the urban level. At the same time, it highlights limitations of the method and suggests areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the configuration and activities of the area of influence of the port system of Cartagena de Indias and its impact on urban mobility during the period 2018-2020. The methodology describes the dimensions of geographical scope and territorial configuration, differentiating the spatial configuration linked to the logistical specialisation of the port, and then reviews the statistics on flows of cargo vehicles and passengers accessing the land corridor in the urban area. Next, a focus group is used to assess the conflicts in the face of port operations by analysing their impact on the uses and densities of flows. The results highlight the convergence and conflicts of port flows with those of daily urban mobility, validating the hypothesis of mobility difficulties due to the intensity and proximity of port activities. Finally, improvements to the governance of the city-port interface are recommended and road infrastructure interventions are proposed and assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In an urban environment, different types of actors (individuals, households, community groups, institutions, governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), community-based organizations (CBO) and public and private organizations, etc.) play critical roles in enhancing urban resilience to adapt to the impacts of climate change. To identify and prioritize aspects of climate resilience planning, this study aims to examine the potential impacts of climate change on diverse urban systems and evaluate the capacities of various actors to adapt to climatic stress. Design/methodology/approach: This research selects Mongla, a coastal as well as port town in south-western Bangladesh that faces climate risks including frequent cyclones, storm surges and salinity intrusion due to sea-level and temperature rise, as reported in the National Climate Vulnerability Index 2018. This research uses the methodology proposed by ICLEI South Asia's Climate Resilient Cities Action Plan and accesses different urban actors' adaptive capacity for contributing to enhancing climate resilience based on three broad characteristics: the capacity to organize and respond, availability of resources and access to information. The cumulative scores of these characteristics aid in determining the climate adaptive capacity of each urban actor. Findings: The identified 53 actors are grouped into four categories: government (local and national); international/local NGOs, CBOs and associations; community representatives and private sectors and groups and individuals. The group of NGOs, CBOs and associations has a higher overall adaptive potential than all other actor groups, according to the study. When it comes to practicing adaptive capacity, government institutions are in the second-highest position. But, the Khulna development authority, the government agency that is in charge of overseeing all forms of urban development, scored poorly on all fragile urban systems. However, the performance of the fourth group of urban actors is very subpar when it comes to adapting to climatic stress, which emphasizes the need for focused interventions. Research limitations/implications: Variations in adaptive capacities to climate change across different actors are particularly useful for targeting actors with lower levels of climate adaptive capacities in Mongla town. Originality/value: This paper particularly addresses the research gap in assessing the adapting capacity of urban actors in Mongla port-town. Policymakers and practitioners can create and carry out targeted interventions that address the particular needs and concerns of vulnerable actors by making use of the insights obtained from this kind of study, thereby assisting in the development of climate resilience in any urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ESTOA: Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca is the property of ESTOA Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Economic resilience is crucial for urban sustainability as it ensures stability and growth in the face of external shocks, promotes social cohesion and inclusivity, fosters environmental sustainability, and enhances cities' adaptability to future challenges. This study expands the conventional perspective on economic resilience beyond the context of shocks, focusing on the inherent resilience of regional economic systems. A novel method for quantifying economic resilience is introduced, emphasizing system sensitivity and adaptability. Using Chinese prefecture-level city data and an econometric model, we empirically examine how Fintech, a major digital transition in current urban systems, affects economic resilience. The findings reveal that Fintech has a substantial positive effect on economic resilience, primarily through the upgrading of industrial structures and technological innovation. Furthermore, there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of Fintech on economic resilience, with more pronounced contributions in the east, central, and western regions of China, as opposed to the northeast. Additionally, the impact of Fintech on economic resilience is more substantial in large-scale cities. The promotion of economic resilience through digital transformation serves as a potent risk prevention measure. Understanding the role of economic resilience in urban systems holds valuable implications for countries worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the detailed exploration of urban park soundscapes through graph theory, this study presents a nuanced examination of the acoustic environments of two urban parks located in Wrocław, Poland, and Ankara, Turkey. The research captures the diversity of sound events within these parks, emphasizing the co-occurrence and interconnectivity of natural and anthropogenic sounds. By mapping these sounds into a network, the research provides a novel perspective on urban soundscapes, emphasizing the usefulness of some of indicators stemming from graph science in the realms of urban park acoustics. The findings suggest that a holistic approach to urban park design, considering the various measures of acoustic ecosystem organization, can contribute significantly to urban planning and environmental conservation. Through detailed analysis, the study reveals the potential of graph-theoretical approaches in understanding and improving the auditory experiences in urban green spaces, highlighting the synergy between different sound sources and their collective impact on the urban park ecosystem.

Urban management systems evolve from merely overseeing urban growth to comprehending interactions among cities’ natural, physical, cyber, and social systems. Urban digital twins leverage emerging technologies and serve as platforms to support city transitions. However, a generic urban digital twin framework with essential building blocks leading to a sustainable urban digital transformation is lacking, as most urban digital twin implementations focus on specific application areas and usages. In addition, as urban digital twins are rather new developments, it is important to clarify their concept, definition, and characteristics, including their joint components and functions. This paper presents findings from a domain analysis based on a systematic literature review on urban digital twins, including investigating the concept, definition, and characteristics of urban digital twins and identifying joint components and functions as building blocks for developing a conceptual framework of urban digital twins for sustainable digital transformation. In total, we identified six main components that could be subdivided into 16 sub-components. Moreover, we identified four main features that could be subdivided into ten sub-features. A conceptual framework for urban digital twins is proposed based on those components and features. Two case studies were conducted to illustrate the framework’s applicability. It is an overarching goal that the proposed framework will become a useful reference and decision-making tool for urban planners, designers, constructors, and others.

Copyright of Journal of The Planner & Development is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The landscape of scientific research is rich with experiments aimed at identifying polycentric morphologies, defining their degree of polycentricity, and the socio-economic and environmental relationships that develop within them. However, some aspects are still under-researched, such as defining a procedure for determining the extent of the metropolitan area of influence. This research aims to experiment with a graphical–analytical methodology aimed at identifying and representing the functional area of metropolises, i.e., the territorial limit beyond which a metropolis' attractiveness ceases to exert its territorial influence, and which also allows the territorial ramification of urban cores with greater attractiveness to be determined and visualized graphically. Using Visual Analytics as a conceptual basis, it is possible to combine methods and technologies that harness the potential of human understanding with the increased capabilities of electronic data processing for a more adequate understanding of the research scope. For this research, the graph-analytic mix adopted comprises the graph theory algorithms for the analytical quantification of relationships and the reference surface area of polycentric metropolises. In contrast, the subsequent visualisation of relationships and their spatial branching is based on the electronic evolution of graphical techniques based on the works of Henry Drury Harness and Charles Joseph Minard, particularly those invented to map commuter flows and migrations. The research results, focusing on Northern Italy, demonstrate a highly interconnected and polycentric system, with macro-areas whose functional boundaries seldom coincide with the administrative boundaries of the regions. The research demonstrates the existence of five territorial macro-regions encompassing the 11 regions outlined in the Italian state's legislation, containing polycentric metropolitan systems with distributional characteristics that differ from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of steadily declining Natural Capital and universal recognition of the imperative to reverse this trend before we get to the point that nature is not able to restore itself, cities have a crucial role to play. The UK Government commissioned a comprehensive study into the value of biodiversity, and by extension nature, reinforcing “why we should change our ways”—yet what is missing is the “how?”. This paper uniquely describes both the “how?” and a conclusive demonstration of the remarkable benefits of implementing it in a city. Critical to this process, it took a UK Parliamentary Inquiry to reveal that nature has become invisible within the economy, yet the ecological ecosystem services nature provides have enormous benefits to both people and the economy. Therefore integration—or seamless weaving—of urban greenspace and nature into people's lives and the places where they live, work, and spend their leisure time is vital. Moreover, what nature does not provide must be provided by engineered systems, and these have an economic cost; put another way, there are enormous cost savings to be made by taking advantage of what nature provides. In addressing these issues, this paper is the definitive paper from a 20-year portfolio of research on how to bring about transformative change in the complex system-of-systems that make up our cities, providing as it does the crucial in-depth research into the many diverse strands of governance—the last link in a chain of the creation, testing and proof of efficacy of methodologies underpinning a theory and practice of change for infrastructure and cities. The impact of this portfolio of research on Birmingham is two-fold: the Star Framework that placed natural environment considerations at the heart of all decision-making in the city, and the successful bid for the largest of the UK Future Parks Accelerator awards. While both are transformative in their different ways, yet mutually supportive, the latter enabled the design of a suite of system interventions from which the value of Birmingham's greenspaces is estimated to rise from £11.0 billion to £14.4 billion—a remarkable return on investment from the research's conceptualization of Birmingham's urban greenspace as a “business” (with its associated business models). In achieving this, the necessary enablers of thinking and practicing systemically, seamlessly working across disciplinary boundaries, an unusually strong focus on both the aspirations of all stakeholders and the context in question to define “the problem,” and the testing of proposed system intervention(s) both now and in the future have been iteratively combined. However, it is the critical enabling steps of identifying the complete range of value-generating opportunities that the interventions offer, formulating them into alternative business models to underpin the case for change and ensuring that they are synergistic with all the dimensions of governance that yielded the profound outcomes sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of urban areas and concerns over climate change make it vital to improve the energy sustainability of cities. Understanding the complex interactions within different sectors (sectoral) and localities (spatial) of cities plays a crucial role in improving efficiency and sustainability, which is extremely challenging due to the complex urban morphology. State-of-the-art energy concepts do not facilitate a detailed consideration of both sectoral and spatial coupling that energy infrastructure maintains at the urban scale. This has become a significant challenge when designing interconnected urban energy infrastructure. The Urban Cell concept is introduced to address this bottleneck. A novel computational model using a modular approach is introduced to create an interconnected urban infrastructure, including the energy, building, and transportation sectors. Optimal sizing of the distributed energy system (including renewables, energy storage, and dispatchable sources) and optimal urban morphology is determined within a modular unit. A game-theoretic approach is used to model the interactions between urban cells (modular units). The study revealed that the urban cell concept can reduce the net present value of the interconnected energy infrastructure by 37% while increasing the installed renewable energy capacity by 25%. This demonstrates the benefit potential of urban cells and the importance of considering interactions between different sectors and different parts within a city. The Urban Cell concept can be used to present the complex interactions maintained within a city.

Community and city leaders are interested in achieving sustainability goals, providing resilient energy infrastructure, and improving economic competitiveness. Community-level data acquisition and analysis can provide energy and associated benefits that are not possible at the single building level. However, there is a lack of organizational structure, common semantic data models, interoperable systems, and methods to support data-driven decision-making for community-scale energy supply and demand systems. We explored the need and opportunity for a Community Energy Operations and Planning System (Community EOPS), a potential data exchange platform. We conducted “customer discovery” interviews, and reviewed literature, public tools, and technology platforms to identify key energy data “users” and use cases in communities. The key users of the Community EOPS could be developers of mixed-use districts, corporate, defense and university campus energy managers, and city managers of cities that own their energy utility. The value could be for community planning and reporting (for energy data-integrated land use planning and community infrastructure investments in microgrids, storage, district heating and cooling), energy efficiency (leveraging optimizations for community scale energy supply and demand), flexible load management (grid-edge load management to offset, shift, and flatten loads for multiple buildings and EV fleets), cost savings and revenue generation (participating in grid services), and social benefits such as energy resilience, equity, and awareness. We developed a conceptual Community EOPS architecture with recommendations for streamlined and prioritized data acquisition, sharing, and integration driven by prioritized use cases, common metrics, and actionable visualizations that can provide value to a community’s users.

The role of tree species as a tool for bioaccumulation of heavy metals is an important current issue within the context of the increase of anthropogenic pressure in urban ecosystems. The article presents the results of research on the level of soil contamination with heavy metals and the processes of their accumulation by native and introduced tree species in green spaces of Dnipro city. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to detect concentrations of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb) in soil samples and the assimilation component in trees of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and Norway maple (Acer platanoides). The ranges of mean concentrations of heavy metals at different study sites within the city’s green infrastructure were as follows (mg/kg): 30.7–185.5 for Zn, 5.7–22.4 for Cu, 9.0–31.3 for Pb, and 0.213–0.598 for Cd. With respect to all four of these metals, the soils of the Metallurgists Square location were characterized by the highest concentrations of the metals, and the Pridneprovsky Park in the area of the outskirts of Dnipro city was characterized by the lowest ones. Compared to soils, the two investigated tree species had a significantly lower content of all studied metals in leaves. The heavy metal accumulations in the leaves of both R. pseudoacacia and A. platanoides were observed in the following decreasing order: Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd. Regarding the migration of heavy metals in the soil-plant system, the concentrations of ecopollutants in the plants were found not to be dependent on their content in the soil environment. The calculated bioaccumulation coefficients of heavy metals for both tree species were < 1. However, the results of heavy metal concentration in leaves of both introduced and native tree species evidenced their special role in heavy metal bioaccumulation. Compared to R. pseudoacacia, such native species as A. platanoides can be considered to be a more “sensitive” bioindicator of environmental pollution caused by heavy metals. Planting fast-growing tree species such as R. pseudoacacia and A. platanoides can in a short time be an environmentally appropriate and cost-effective measure to mitigate the unfavourable effects of heavy metals on the environment.

Abstract Non-technical summary Evolutionary biology considers how organisms and populations change over multiple generations, and so is naturally focused on issues of sustainability through time. Yet, sustainability science rarely incorporates evolutionary thinking and most scientists and policy makers do not account for how evolutionary processes contribute to sustainability. Understanding the interplay between evolutionary processes and nature's contribution to people is key to sustaining life on Earth. Technical summary Evolution, the change in gene frequencies within populations, is a process of genetically based modification by descent, providing the raw material essential for adaptation to environmental change. Therefore, it is crucial that we understand evolutionary processes if we aim for a sustainable planet. We here contribute to this development by describing examples of contemporary, rapid evolutionary changes of concern for sustainability, specifically highlighting the global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and how the evolutionary toolbox allowed tracking the origins and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in real time and predicting potential future outbreaks. We also consider how urban development accelerates evolutionary processes such as altered phenotypic and physiological changes and the spread of infectious and zoonotic diseases. We show the importance of evolutionary concepts and techniques for public-health decision making. Many examples of the potential of evolutionary insights contributing to crucial sustainability challenges exist, including infectious and zoonotic diseases, ecosystem and human health, and conservation of natural resources. We thus join recent calls advocating for a stronger collaboration between evolutionary biologists and the sustainability community, increasing interdisciplinarity and the awareness about the knowledge of evolutionary processes for decision making and policies. Social media summary Evolution is fundamental to sustaining life on Earth and should be incorporated in sustainability measures and policies.

Abstract Non-technical summary Tourism significantly boosts a nation's economic growth, but unrestrained practices can cause serious environmental damage. As an essential part of the tourism industry, hotels meet the fundamental needs of tourists. This study examines the sustainable environmental management practices of hotels in Malaysia. It finds that hotels prioritize cost-saving and short-term benefits over long-term environmental gains. The study also reveals variations in sustainable practices based on hotel location and star rating. These insights are useful for various stakeholders in developing strategies and initiatives to achieve sustainable development goals. Technical summary Sustainable environmental management practices (SEMP) are essential to pave the way toward achieving a net-zero emission sustainable future. This study explores the level of SEMP among hotels in Malaysia based on distinct categorizations of location and star ranking. The findings show that hotels in Malaysia adopt higher basic SEMPs but less advanced practices. However, the level of basic and advanced SEMPs in hotels differ according to their geographical locations and star ranking. The findings also suggest that hotels in Malaysia prioritize cost-saving practices and short-term benefits over the long-term benefits of sustainable practices. The study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the variations in the sustainable practices among different categories of hotels. Further, the findings are helpful for practitioners and policymakers in designing tools and measures, and promoting initiatives that best suit different types of hotels. Such efforts are crucial to promote and accelerate the engagement of sustainability practices in hotels.

Abstract Non-technical summary Effectively addressing climate change requires new approaches to action, implementation and social change. Urban societies are profoundly shaped by faith, with religion influencing the physical environment, institutional structures and lives of citizens. Consequently, there is a need to consider seriously religion's role in mobilizing or constraining climate action in cities. Research is presented that shows the potential of faith-based organizations and faith perspectives to minimize and adapt to climate impacts. A framework for sensitively engaging faith communities in urban climate policy is developed, based on the power of shared values among diverse stakeholder groups to mobilize climate action through partnerships. Technical summary Global environmental research and policy frameworks have begun to emphasize the importance of culture and multi-sector partnerships for urban sustainability governance. However, there has been little explicit attention paid to religion and belief as ubiquitous urban socio-cultural phenomena. This article reviews literature on the intersection of religion and climate change in the context of cities. Religious responses to climate change are presented as a typology spanning physicalities, practices, ‘prophetic’ imagination and policy arenas. Key themes are then intersected with areas of focal activity presented in the most recent IPCC reports. Religion is shown to offer both opportunities and barriers for effective urban climate adaptation and mitigation. A new model of religious-civic partnership is then developed as a framework for guiding urban climate policy implementation. This model presents religion as vital to shaping the ‘value landscape’ of cities and calls for collaborative action based on identifying, enriching and mobilizing shared values. As cities become increasingly more populous, heterogeneous, globally teleconnected and exposed to climate impacts, there is an urgent need for research and policy that effectively engages with the historic and evolving presence and impact of religion within urban environments. Social media summary Effective action on climate change in cities requires new modes of engagement with religious perspectives, grounded in shared values.

Abstract Non-technical summary Cities typically treat migration and sustainability as separate policy domains. When migration is highlighted in the context of sustainability in urban destination areas, it is typically understood to have no, or at worst, negative impacts on sustainability. As a result, migration and migrants are commonly left out of sustainability policy and planning. Here, we present emerging evidence to reframe the debate, demonstrating that migration is a force for sustainable development and that migrants can be sustainability actors in urban environments. We point to key action points for cities to better address the migration–sustainability nexus and harness this potential. Technical summary For long, migration has been recognized in literature as a force for societal transformations. Yet, mainstream policies dealing with sustainability generally downplay the role of migration. The Sustainable Development Goals, for example, frame migration as a temporary phenomenon needing management rather than as an integral part of sustainable development. As a result, cities generally overlook broader perspectives on migration and transformation in their sustainability strategies. Here, we present key policy insights building on an emerging field of research exploring the migration–sustainability nexus in urban governance. We focus specifically on the city scale, recognizing that cities are situated at the crossroads of migration and sustainability challenges and opportunities, bringing new possibilities to address current sustainability challenges. For example, migrants interact with their destination areas through influencing consumption behavior and resource conservation and migration contributes to sustainable development through the potential of enhancing wellbeing of residents. There is thus an urgent opportunity to address policy gaps to embrace the potentially transformative role of migration for sustainability transitions. We present critical action points to incorporate new insights into policymaking, emphasizing integrated, coordinated and reflexive approaches across all levels of governance. Social media summary Migration drives sustainable development. We show how urban governance can seize opportunities for transformation.

In the context of steadily declining Natural Capital and universal recognition of the imperative to reverse this trend before we get to the point that nature is not able to restore itself, cities have a crucial role to play. The UK Government commissioned a comprehensive study into the value of biodiversity, and by extension nature, reinforcing “why we should change our ways”—yet what is missing is the “how?”. This paper uniquely describes both the “how?” and a conclusive demonstration of the remarkable benefits of implementing it in a city. Critical to this process, it took a UK Parliamentary Inquiry to reveal that nature has become invisible within the economy, yet the ecological ecosystem services nature provides have enormous benefits to both people and the economy. Therefore integration—or seamless weaving—of urban greenspace and nature into people's lives and the places where they live, work, and spend their leisure time is vital. Moreover, what nature does not provide must be provided by engineered systems, and these have an economic cost; put another way, there are enormous cost savings to be made by taking advantage of what nature provides. In addressing these issues, this paper is the definitive paper from a 20-year portfolio of research on how to bring about transformative change in the complex system-of-systems that make up our cities, providing as it does the crucial in-depth research into the many diverse strands of governance—the last link in a chain of the creation, testing and proof of efficacy of methodologies underpinning a theory and practice of change for infrastructure and cities. The impact of this portfolio of research on Birmingham is two-fold: the Star Framework that placed natural environment considerations at the heart of all decision-making in the city, and the successful bid for the largest of the UK Future Parks Accelerator awards. While both are transformative in their different ways, yet mutually supportive, the latter enabled the design of a suite of system interventions from which the value of Birmingham's greenspaces is estimated to rise from £11.0 billion to £14.4 billion—a remarkable return on investment from the research's conceptualization of Birmingham's urban greenspace as a “business” (with its associated business models). In achieving this, the necessary enablers of thinking and practicing systemically, seamlessly working across disciplinary boundaries, an unusually strong focus on both the aspirations of all stakeholders and the context in question to define “the problem,” and the testing of proposed system intervention(s) both now and in the future have been iteratively combined. However, it is the critical enabling steps of identifying the complete range of value-generating opportunities that the interventions offer, formulating them into alternative business models to underpin the case for change and ensuring that they are synergistic with all the dimensions of governance that yielded the profound outcomes sought.

Abstract Background Some of the main urban issues we currently face include ageing populations, the impact of the built environment, and the treatment of urban ecosystems. Yet the dynamic relationships and synergies between these issues, and how they are influenced by urban growth and evolution, receives little attention. Research focus We explore the nexus between people, the urban built environment, and ecosystems as they grow, age, change, and evolve and propose an integrated approach to examine the relationships, synergies, and challenges that may emerge over time within urban neighbourhoods. We argue that this should draw on the lived-experience and wisdom of older people as part of an intergenerational approach underpinned by local, traditional, and ecological knowledge. We propose Growing Older Urbanism as an ecological, co-evolutionary, and complex-adaptive-systems-based framework to explore the nexus between ageing, the built environment, and urban ecosystems and to reveal the synergies and antagonisms that might exist between these three elements. This framework is designed to be used for various types of urban neighbourhoods, and by a diverse range of stakeholders. As part of this approach we provide a preliminary visual canvas to illustrate how the framework might be used within a selected neighbourhood over an agreed timespan. Conclusion This paper presents some early thinking around the Growing Older Urbanism concept, while also outlining questions and a proposed transdisciplinary research programme to further develop the framework. We argue that understanding the relationship between ageing and the co-evolution of people, place, and ecosystems may teach us about our past, present, and future, and help us grow towards inclusive and sustainable communities.

Abstract Transformative urban development is urgent to achieve future sustainable development and wellbeing. Transformation can benefit from shared and cumulative learning on strategies to guide urban development across local to national scales, while also reflecting the complex emergent nature of urban systems, and the need for context-specific and place-based solutions. The article addresses this challenge, drawing on extensive transdisciplinary engagement and National Strategy co-development processes for Australia. This includes generation of two frameworks as boundary objects to assist such transdisciplinary strategy development. An ‘enabling urban systems transformation’ framework comprises four generic overarching transformation enablers and a set of necessary underpinning urban capacities. This also built cumulatively on other sustainability and urban transformation studies. A complementary ‘knowledge for urban systems transformation’ framework comprises key knowledge themes that can support an integrated systems approach to mission-focused urban transformations, such as decarbonising cities. The article provides insights on the transdisciplinary processes, urban systems frameworks, and scoping of key strategies that may help those developing transformation strategies from local to national scales. Science highlights • Transdisciplinary national urban strategy development is used to distil generic frameworks and strategy scopes with potential international application. • The frameworks also build on other published framings to support convergent, cumulative and transdisciplinary urban science. • The ‘enabling transformations’ and ‘urban knowledge’ frameworks include the perspective of those developing sustainable urban systems strategies. • The enabling framework also informs ‘National Urban Policy’ and ‘Knowledge and Innovation Hub’ strategies, and prevailing power imbalances. • The knowledge framework can help frame urban challenges, missions and knowledge programs. Policy and practice recommendations • An urban ‘transformation imperative’ and ‘strategic response’ can be co-developed from local to national scales. • Local initiative is crucial to drive urban strategies, but sustained national leadership with coherent policy across sectors and scales is also key. • Diversity in engagement participation and processes generates whole-of-urban-systems and local-to-national perspectives. • Urban solutions are context-specific but generic frameworks can help collaborative issue framing and responses. • Collaborative issue framing informed by generic frameworks can bring broader perspectives to context-specific and contested policy and practice issues.

Over the past decade, extensive research has focused on the conceptualization and implementation of smart cities, considering aspects such as “City as a system of systems,” “city as an enterprise,” and “city systems integration” as necessary for Smart City Development (SCD). However, despite these considerations, including our existing works, numerous challenges remain in the design and implementation of SCD roadmaps. One critical element for successful SCD is city systems integration, which necessitates cross-sectoral Business Process Change (BPC). However, limited attention has been given to addressing these challenges. To address this gap, our research builds upon and extends our prior works, utilising established principles and research findings to develop and validate a Framework for Addressing the BPC challenges for SCD (FABS). By undertaking a rigorous theoretical adaptation process and incorporating success factors, tools, techniques, and approaches from diverse domains, including enterprise systems, as well as conducting interviews and document analysis, our study contributes to the development of FABS. This empirically supported framework offers a systematic approach to effectively tackle BPC challenges in SCD, enabling smart city developers to assess their current SCD status and readiness for BPC, formulate their SCD roadmap, and assist solution providers in devising specialized tools and techniques tailored for SCD. Thus, our previous works have played a pivotal role in building the foundational components of this research’s outcome, namely the FABS framework, which has the potential to advance the field of smart city development.

Cities relate to other cities in many ways, and much scholarly effort goes into uncovering those relationships. Building on the principle that strongly related cities will co-occur frequently in texts, we propose a novel method to classify those toponym co-occurrences using a lexicon-based text-mining method. Millions of webpages are analysed to retrieve how 293 Chinese cities are related in terms of six types: industry, information technology, finance, research, culture and government. Each class displays different network patterns, and this multiplexity is mapped and analysed. Further refinement of this lexicon-based approach can revolutionize the study of inter-urban relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, more than seven million people across the globe starved, and 868 million people were estimated to be undernourished globally. Although the eradication of hunger is a noble goal, the continuously growing world population together with the warning of a future characterized by food insecurity spells ongoing hardship for the future of humankind. This study explores the extent of permaculture literature to establish its potential place within urban systems. A scoping review looks at permaculture literature from the last 8 years to establish its benefits and limitations, possibly within urban systems. Permaculture is mainly studied from social, environmental, and economic perspectives, and mostly within rural contexts. Urban planning directly concerns the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of urban systems. This study thus reveals the possible merits of permaculture for food production within urban systems; however, certain limitations should be kept in mind that may encumber the implementation of permaculture by urban planning.

The present study focuses on the relationship between the coast and the inland within the context of the Liguria region with the aim of formulating a representation based on integrated physical-spatial patterns capable of providing possible answers to the urban-social and ecosystem-environmental issues. The research identifies two contexts of analysis - one in the east and one in the west - that are representative of the critical and fragile phenomena of the entire region, from which it analyses and restores at a spatial level the ecosystem qualities and the degree of innovation that the landscape is capable of producing, in order to understand to what extent strategic planning and the investments generated by recent governance policies generate, reflect on the territorial ecosystem in terms of environmental quality, economicproductive development, sociocultural dimension and politicaltechnological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new unified theoretical general equilibrium model in which the interactions between heterogeneous workers and firms influence heterogeneous city evolutions. Given the heterogeneous worker–firm–city framework, I study in depth the possible heterogenous city evolutions and the resulting implications on the labor market, as well as on overall productivity. In particular, it is shown that the same exogenous shocks may lead to completely different results depending on the relative dominance of the two countervailing effects of congestion and agglomeration. In an open economy setting, it is also shown that such relative dominance may affect the trading partner and generate the comovement of city evolution in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban landslides are increasing globally, mainly caused by human-induced changes in hillsides. Most of these events have caused low-intensity damages to housing and infrastructure. A total of 2038 locations of landslides in the hydrological year of 2010 were used to model landslides' occurrence in the metropolitan region of São Paulo—Brazil—using a social–ecological–technological system's approach, which enables the analysis of urban landslides as the outcome of dynamic socioeconomic and infrastructural conditions alongside climatic and geophysical conditions. A multi-step model approach was used to select the best set of variables related to landslides' occurrence and assess their importance. The value of AUC of the model was 0.9087, denoting the high level of discrimination achieved. Antecedent rainfall played the most important role, followed by terrain slope. Informal settlements, associated with poor constructive practices and a lack of municipal inspection on civil works and buildings, as well as the number of households, which stands for built density and greater alteration in hillsides, yielded a slightly lower contribution. Other variables showed a marginal contribution. These results reinforce the role of local ordinances aimed at restricting occupation in steeper slopes and public policies to promote adequate housing and constructive practices. Future climate projections to MRSP point to the increase in intense rainfall days, making disasters caused by landslides a major source of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic resilience is crucial for urban sustainability as it ensures stability and growth in the face of external shocks, promotes social cohesion and inclusivity, fosters environmental sustainability, and enhances cities’ adaptability to future challenges. This study expands the conventional perspective on economic resilience beyond the context of shocks, focusing on the inherent resilience of regional economic systems. A novel method for quantifying economic resilience is introduced, emphasizing system sensitivity and adaptability. Using Chinese prefecture-level city data and an econometric model, we empirically examine how Fintech, a major digital transition in current urban systems, affects economic resilience. The findings reveal that Fintech has a substantial positive effect on economic resilience, primarily through the upgrading of industrial structures and technological innovation. Furthermore, there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of Fintech on economic resilience, with more pronounced contributions in the east, central, and western regions of China, as opposed to the northeast. Additionally, the impact of Fintech on economic resilience is more substantial in large-scale cities. The promotion of economic resilience through digital transformation serves as a potent risk prevention measure. Understanding the role of economic resilience in urban systems holds valuable implications for countries worldwide.