Eco-city Projects Research Articles

Prizes for fantasy: The role of the urban awards industry in validating greenfield eco-cities

A distinct wave of self-proclaimed ‘eco-cities’ has emerged over the past two decades, claiming to pioneer sustainable urban solutions to a range of environmental challenges by building new cities from scratch. Despite little evidence that such projects succeed in achieving their green aims, a burgeoning awards industry is recognizing eco-city developers for their leadership in sustainable urbanism. In this article, we examine Forest City, a new eco-city project in Malaysia, to make three main arguments. First, we introduce the range of awards Forest City has won, showing how the developer uses these awards to generate publicity and push back against criticism. Second, we outline the damage that Forest City has caused to nearby ecosystems and livelihoods to demonstrate the blind spots of awards committees. Third, we argue that awards for projects like Forest City suggest a troubling conflation of sustainable design with spectacular eco-cities, lending credibility to unproven projects that are far from realizing their stated goals. We suggest that the urban awards industry deserves greater critical scholarly attention regarding the ways in which awards-granting agencies and urban prizes contribute to the circulation of normative eco-city ideals, which are often profit-driven and highly damaging to local environments and social sustainability.

Eco-cities as urban laboratories of Chinese ecological modernization: eco-experimentation and the modernization of urban governance

ABSTRACT Eco-cities have emerged as important sites for urban experiments on ecological modernization (EM). China has fully embraced this approach by building hundreds of high-profile eco-cities. This study investigated how the modernization of urban governance affects eco-cities and eco-experimentation, focusing on the relationship between the government and businesses. Our in-depth case study revealed the following: (1) the modernization of hierarchical governance to enhance financial prudence conflicts with the resource-demanding nature of eco-city projects; (2) building international collaborations through modernized network governance is crucial for Chinese EM; however, sustaining these collaborations remains a challenge; and (3) the modernization of urban governance, both vertically and horizontally, remains firmly situated within an authoritarian political framework. The pressure to pursue socioeconomic priorities as dictated by the central government forces local agencies to adopt conflicting strategies that undermine the quality and authenticity of the pursuit of EM via urban eco-experimentation.

Bibliometric review about eco-cites and urban sustainable development: trend topics.

The world is undergoing exponential urbanization, with consequences for society in general, both for cities and people, with serious economic, social and environmental implications. Therefore, it is crucial to reconsider urban models of cities, to ensure global, long-term sustainability. Numerous researchers have argued that one of these models involves eco-city projects, and this study aims to carry out a systematic review of the literature on this topic, through bibliometrics. To do so, the Smarter, Prisma and Vantage Point methods were used, reflecting the originality of the study. The results obtained show that China has aroused researchers’ interest regarding its eco-city projects, with most studies being empirical, and so this study complements them. The main contribution of this research lies in identifying the keywords most used by authors, these being eco-cities, sustainable cities (cluster 1) and eco-cities, China, sustainable urban development and eco-cycle model (cluster 2). Finally, implications for theory and practice are presented, together with suggestions for future research.

Eco-districts and data-driven smart eco-cities: Emerging approaches to strategic planning by design and spatial scaling and evaluation by technology

In recent years, the world has witnessed significant progress in implementing numerous eco-district and eco-city projects, which are under the banner of experimentation or seen as sites of innovation. Indeed, the rise of such initiatives serves as a sign of renewed attempts to experiment or innovate in designing urban futures in an increasingly urbanized and datafied society. In light of this, a number of alternative models of eco-urbanism have been proposed by scholars and promoted by policy makers. The prominent among these models are sustainable urban districts and data-driven smart eco-cities. At the core of these models is a range of compact and ecological design strategies and static and dynamic conceptions of spatial scaling. These are intended to produce and boost the benefits of sustainability on the basis of a set of integrated approaches—increasingly supported by big data technologies—as a way to overcome new challenges and introduce new solutions. Based on two case studies conducted on three of the ecologically and technologically leading cities in Europe—Stockholm, Malmö, and Barcelona, this paper analyses and discusses the role and relevance of integrating density, mixed land use, greening, and low-energy buildings to the sustainability of emerging eco-districts; the new conceptions of cities and their spatial scales in the context of data-driven smart eco-cities; and the opportunities and challenges of smart urban metabolism with respect to the evaluation of eco-districts. This study shows that combining compact and ecological design strategies improves the performance of eco-districts with respect to the three dimensions of sustainability, as well as paves the way for their balanced integration for producing synergistic effects. Also, this study highlights the innovative potential and enabling role of urban computing and intelligence in transforming the spatial scaling of data-driven smart eco-cities through generating the kind of designs that increase the effects of sustainability as outcomes of processes. Moreover, this study reveals the advantages of the data-driven approach to the analysis of the flows of resources in urban environments in relation to the evaluation of sustainable urban district development. This paper concludes that data-driven smart planning and evaluation holds great potential for facilitating progress towards achieving the goals of sustainability thanks to the proven role and untapped potential of big data technologies in monitoring, understanding, and analyzing urban processes and systems in real-time.

Governing eco-cities in China: Urban climate experimentation, international cooperation, and multilevel governance

International cooperation has become an important element of urban climate experimentation, particularly in developing countries. Using the Sino-German Eco-Park in Qingdao as a case study, we argue that while multilevel governance and international cooperation are often discussed separately, these two governance tendencies are in fact both important to China’s urban climate experimentation. In particular, Chinese multilevel governance enables bilateral cooperation by (re)shaping the national vision at the local level and resolving potential conflicts or contradictions. It also allows local and foreign intermediaries to coordinate and match resources among different interests and actors. The effectiveness of multilevel governance in eco-city projects is conditioned by intermediary institutions’ resources and capabilities. Effectiveness also depends on maintaining the attention of national governments to the eco-city projects. Thus, the cooperative form, the actors’ attributes, and the resources mobilised by actors are three important factors that affect the outcomes of international eco-city projects.

A Critical Regionalism in the Golf Architecture: Masdar’s ‘Eco-city Project’

This article investigates how architecture design of the present adopts the values of the past and echoes Kenneth Frampton’s critical regionalism to address this question. For Frampton, architecture design is regionally influenced because it essentially deals with “specificity and locality”, however, remains sceptic to “universal technology”. Masdar City’s design represents a valuable case for this article due to this case casting light on the complexity embedded in intertwining the modernist technologies and the regional architecture. The case study’s analyses suggest that the design of the present evolves from this complexity witnessing a deviation from a “universal technology” and a local architecture. Interpretation for this deviation in Masdar City’s design points to the vernacular architecture that stitches the “globe” and the “local”. A universal technology has been witnessed in Masdar City’s design to yield support for the vernacular approaches while a local architecture holds on the vernacular’s concepts of the traditional architecture. What Frampton’s critical regionalism appears to overlook are the vernacular approaches that in analysis of this article embrace a model of the design principles for the “tectonics” to be realised. The key argument brought forward in this article concerns Frampton’s critical regionalism that yet lacks a realistic approach to produce a sense within a local context, thereby needing to neatly twist the vernacular approaches with its critical regionalism’s synthesis.

Exposing smart cities and eco-cities: Frankenstein urbanism and the sustainability challenges of the experimental city

In recent years, the world has seen the emergence of a number of urban projects which, under the banner of experimentation, have promoted alternative models of city-making capable, in theory, of creating sustainable built environments. Among these supposedly experimental models, the smart city and the eco-city stand out in terms of geographical diffusion, and are hailed by their advocates as the mark of an innovative urbanism based on a scientific approach to urban development. Through the analysis of Hong Kong and Masdar City, examples of a smart-city agenda and an eco-city project respectively, this paper questions the sustainability of so-called smart cities and eco-cities, by investigating the extent to which they are developed in a controlled and systematic manner as their developers claim. More specifically, the paper counterclaims mainstream understandings of smart and ecological urbanism, arguing that what are promoted as cohesive settlements shaped by a homogeneous vision of the sustainable city, are actually fragmented cities made of disconnected and often incongruous pieces of urban fabric. Theoretically, these claims are discussed through the concept of Frankenstein urbanism which draws upon Mary Shelley’s novel as a metaphor for unsuccessful experiments generated by the forced union of different, incompatible elements.

Critical success factors for eco-city development in China

ABSTRACTEco-city is a solution to address environmental and economic development issues and a model for future city development. However, without understanding the key activities of the eco-city, its success and subsequent benefits cannot be guaranteed. The objective of this paper is to identify critical success factors (CSFs) of eco-city and analyse the inter-relationship among them. To achieve this, 19 CSFs were identified through literature review and interviews. A questionnaire-based survey is then conducted to obtain opinions from professionals. The population of this study is 372 with 108 completed and valid questionnaires received. ‘Clear definition and targets’, ‘conflicting interests among stakeholders’, ‘residents’ behaviour and awareness of environment protection and energy conservation’ and ‘management in operation stage of eco-city’ were identified to be the most important factors. The five underlying CSF groupings included ‘governance’, ‘competence and behaviour of stakeholders’, ‘knowledge and market support’, ‘plan of the city’ and ‘external environment.’ The results showed the ranking of the CSFs and five underlying groupings. The findings serve not only to assist stakeholders of the eco-city to gain a better understanding of a successful development, but also serve as a useful reference for managers when adopting strategies in future for the development of eco-city projects.

Citizen participation in China’s eco-city development. Will ‘new-type urbanization’ generate a breakthrough in realizing it?

China’s recently adopted ‘new-type urbanization’ policy puts a heavier emphasis on the social and environmental aspects of urban development than previous plan documents. This includes the aspect of citizen participation and a stronger bottom up orientation in decision-making processes, the aspect this paper homes in on. We will examine the realities of citizen participation in eco-city development in China at the local level and do this in one of the most prosperous and administratively forward looking cities in China, Suzhou. The analytical framework with which this analysis is conducted is a combination of Arnstein’s participation ladder and the three dimensions in Fung’s cube. The two cases we have studied are an eco-city project in a village community and one in the old city, to ensure we cover two different modes of participation, one rural and one urban. Three dimensions (participant selection, mode of communication and conversion of discussion output into action) and two policy making phases (decision-making and implementation) are applied to allow for a systematic comparison of the two cases. We find that citizen participation in the rural community is far more collectivist and reactive, while that in the urban setting is more individualist and proactive. Furthermore, in both cases, citizen input in the decision-making phase is quite limited, while during implementation local government appreciates the support and practical input locals can supply. To further enhance citizen participation along the lines proposed in ‘new-type urbanization’, legislative reform and professionalization of officials in dealing with bottom-up input would be essential.

Social sustainability and residents' experiences in a new chinese eco-city

The article argues for a “humanizing” research agenda on newly-built forms of eco-urbanism, such as eco-cities. Taking the example of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, China, the article focuses on urban social sustainability with a specific focus on the lived experiences of new residents of the newly-built eco-city. Drawing on Jane Jacobs' work on the spaces of the city, the article's focus on residents' experiences underlines the key importance of social sustainability when analysing new flagship urban projects, and highlights the need to consider the relational networks of lived experiences of the city as well as the visions and techno-social designs of planners, policymakers and corporate actors in the development of eco-city projects.

The travelling business of sustainable urbanism: International consultants as norm-setters

This article examines the international travels of ideas about sustainable urban planning and design through a focus on private sector architecture, planning and engineering consultants. These consultants, who we refer to as the global intelligence corps (GIC), package up their expertise in urban sustainability as a marketable commodity, and apply it on projects around the world. In doing so, the global intelligence corps shape norms about what constitutes ‘good’ sustainable urban planning, and contribute to the development of an internationalised travelling model of sustainable urbanism. This article draws on a broad study of the industry (GIC) in sustainable urban planning and design, and two in-depth case studies of Swedish global intelligence corps firms working on Chinese Eco-city projects. Analysis of this material illustrates how the global intelligence corps’s work shapes a traveling model of sustainable urbanism, and how this in turn creates and reinforces particular norms in urban planning practice.

Eco-City Projects: Incorporating Sustainability Requirements during Pre-Project Planning

ABSTRACTInternational standards exist for evaluating building or neighborhood sustainability. Nonetheless, they are still not available for large-scale developments. Of special interest to practitioners is how to ensure that sustainability requirements of large-scale projects are well integrated in a master plan. This paper provides design managers of new eco-cities with a framework to integrate sustainability in the pre-project planning phase. A case study of a planned eco-city is investigated to delineate its pre-project planning practices, compare them to the proposed framework, and infer lessons learned. The case study highlights the importance of regular interactions between business planners and master planners to incorporate sustainability requirements at early planning phases.

Loss of Ownership of Land and Social Displacement

Rapid urbanization and industrialization has necessitated the need for sustainable eco-development. In response to this urgent demand, India is promoting the concept of eco-cities. One of the most recent ventures towards that objective is ‘New Chandigarh’ developed by GMADA1 in Punjab in the vicinity of Chandigarh. This article attempts to explore gaps in the perception of the local residents of Mullanpur-Garibdass regarding the eco-city development project for which they had to surrender their agricultural land and their traditional village networks and development planner’s perspective of alternative urban spaces. This article is based on observations, case studies and in-depth interviews of 50 local residents of Mullanpur-Garibdass village in Punjab, who had to forgo ownership of their land in both Mullanpur and Devi Nagar. Empirical data suggest that the local residents of these sites did not fully comprehend the consequences of these displacements. They are now regretting the loss of ownership of land and breakdown of village networks that provides social support in the traditional rural social systems.

Eco-cities as an Assemblage of Worlding Practices

Eco-cities are gaining attention in policy and academic circles over the past few years. Yet they pose difficulties as objects of study since they have been diversely defined and implemented. This paper argues that eco-cities are better understood as an assemblage of worlding practices. Combining these two concepts foregoes the emphasis on the eco-city’s physical structures and focuses more on its policy environment and its relations with other locations. The case study being examined is the Philippine’s Clark Green, the country’s first eco-city project. Its main proponent is an independent government agency, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), tasked with developing former military locations for civilian uses. Their vision is to create a world-class project built by international stakeholders in order to elevate the status of the Philippines and the Filipinos. They have chosen to emulate the Songdo International Business District in South Korea as their benchmark model. Not only are they adopting the ideas of a smart city but also similar strategies to enter the international education and logistics industries. The paper will show how the BCDA uses the eco-city idea as a tool to enter various national and international discourses that extend beyond the project’s geographical boundaries. Yet the strategies and visions of an independent government-owned corporation are tempered by challenges from local stakeholders, conflicting national priorities, and failures from similar policies applied elsewhere. The paper highlights the need for worlding projects to be embedded in their own national context for greater policy coordination.

Categorization Framework for Systems Innovation in Eco Cities

Abstract With an increasing concern regarding climate change and the increasingly higher rate of urbanization worldwide, cities are expected to play a more important role in the future global energy system. Therefore, sustainable urban development projects, so-called EcoCities projects, are carried out globally. EcoCities are normally focusing on minimizing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions as well as to serve as platforms for innovation fostering. One good example is Royal Seaport in Stockholm, Sweden in which an Innovation Arena has been established by the utilization of the Triple Helix innovation model where academia, industry and the city are cooperating. Due to the fact that EcoCity projects often are focusing on Innovation creation, this study defines a multi-level perspective framework for systems innovation in such projects. Based on previous studies on systems innovation from a multi-level perspective, the framework explains the occurrence of EcoCity projects as a reaction to the change in climate and urbanization as well as how EcoCities are acting as innovation platforms by simplifying the integration of emerging technologies in the city system. This paper also presents a hypothesis that EcoCity projects enable a shortened time for vision and ideas to transform into inventions and furthermore into innovations by reaching acceptance.

Urban eco-modernisation and the policy context of new eco-city projects: Where Masdar City fails and why

The development of projects for new eco-cities is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. Alleged eco-cities are being built across a variety of spaces via processes of urbanisation triggering substantial environmental, social and economic impacts. This article investigates how new eco-city projects interpret and practice urban sustainability by focusing on the policy context that underpins their development. The article argues that projects for new eco-cities are shaped in loci by policy agendas tailored around specific economic and political targets. In these terms, the ideas and strategies of urban sustainability adopted by eco-city developers are understood as reflections of broader policy priorities. The case study employed in this article, Masdar City, reveals how the Emirati eco-city initiative is the product of local agendas seeking economic growth via urbanisation to preserve the political institutions of Abu Dhabi. Following the economic imperatives set by the ruling class, the Masdar City project interprets sustainability as ecological modernisation and practices urban environmentalism almost exclusively in economic terms. The article shows how the developers of Masdar City capitalise on sustainability by building an urban platform to develop and commercialise clean-tech products, and concludes that the Emirati alleged eco-city is an example of urban eco-modernisation: a high-tech urban development informed by market analysis rather than ecological studies.

Confucian ecological vision and the Chinese eco-city

“Living in harmony with nature” is the slogan of the Chinese government’s campaign against the environmental crisis and has become the target of many mega eco-city projects which have emerged in China during the last decade. A number of papers in Chinese journals attribute this slogan to the government’s revival of the Confucian ecological vision, combined with western technology. This paper first compares the concept of nature in these mega eco-cities and the Confucian concept of tianrenheyi, the unity of Heaven and Humanity, suggesting that the human–nature relationship in eco-cities is essentially a consumer–commodity relationship, which is void of the sacredness or moral association of the human–nature relationship in the unity of Heaven and Humanity. Secondly, drawing on the theory of ecology and interconnected systems and noting that the failure of eco-city projects lies in the separation of the eco-city from the city itself, I suggest that the eco-city’s approach of taking nature as a guinea pig of technology in a “vacuum space” is quite opposite to the Confucian idea of the unity of Heaven and Humanity which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all inorganic and organic forms. In conclusion, I evoke Wang Shu’s practice of sustainable architecture to illustrate a more authentic, up-to-date interpretation of the Confucian ecological vision—investigating the relational reality, developing one’s moral nature and cultural intuition.

A Tale of Two Eco-Cities: Experimentation under Hierarchy in Shanghai and Tianjin

Two ambitious ‘new city’ projects were launched in China during the past 15 years—the ‘Dongtan eco-city’ project in Shanghai and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project in Tianjin. Both have received much international publicity and attention. However, the Dongtan project has stalled, and will evidently not be revived, while the Tianjin project continues, albeit with more moderate goals. We analyse the two cases, using the concept of ‘experimentation under hierarchy’ to show why one project is proceeding, while the other has failed. The key factors were strong international inputs of expertise and funds in the Tianjin project, along with crucial support from the central government, both of which were lacking in the Dongtan project.

Eco-urbanism and the Eco-city, or, Denying the Right to the City?

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco-cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new-build eco-city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco-cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change: the citizens of the world's least wealthy states. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco-city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco-cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on the multiplication of workers’ geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the ordinary urban spaces and lives of the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.

Implementation of sustainable development on the example of the concept of eco-city

The paper is to present the issue of implementation of sustainable development on the example of eco-city. It highlights the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the phenomenon and notion of eco-city within its different aspects. This issue is discussed in an interdisciplinary manner and combines humanistic and scientific approaches. Hence, the authors of the above text aimed to characterise sustainable development from the theoretical as well as practical perspective. Therefore this paper has two main objectives. The first objective is to analyze the concept of eco-city and guidelines for eco-city development based on the concept of sustainability. The second objective of the paper is to compare assumptions of the concept with contemporary eco-city projects. Whilst the former includes the vision, beginnings and development of eco-cities, the latter is based on the results of the analysis of 8 different eco-city projects.