Towards Sustainable Regeneration of City Regions

Abstract

As the competition among city regions becomes increasingly harsh in the age of globalization, regional cities have increasingly be requested to play key roles as driving forces of city regions. Sustainable urban regeneration is understood as the regeneration of the attractiveness of cities in a sustainable manner in response to an ever-changing external world. How can this conceptual meaning of sustainable urban regeneration be interpreted in spatial terms? Fig. 16-1 illustrates the relationships between urbanization and the directions of urban spatial development. In the age of urbanization and motorization, selective redevelopment of city center areas and suburban development are facilitated at the same time and sprawl type of spatial development occurs (suburbanization stage). Generally, cities in the developing world are now at this stage of urban development. On the other hand, in the cities where urbanization has already reached a matured stage as observed in most developed countries, investment in extended urban areas becomes a mainstream trend as evidenced in the emergence of edge cities, and investment in old city center areas decreases significantly, in particular, in the old industrial areas. This stage of urban development can be called as the exsurbanization stage.