Environmental Performance Of Cities Research Articles

Does city smartness improve urban environment and reduce income disparity? Evidence from an empirical analysis of major cities worldwide

Urban policymakers are often proud to advertise their cities as smart, emphasizing the wide–scale adoption of internet technologies, innovation activities, and the number of universities the city hosts as proof of successful transition towards greater smartness. Question, however, remains whether the accumulation of these attributes results in tangible benefits for local residents. To answer this question, we compare different metrices of city smartness with several indicators of intra–urban income disparity and environmental performance, using data available for 100+ major cities worldwide. As the analysis indicates, the proliferation of internet technologies and the number of universities the city hosts, i.e., popular ways of advancing “smartness”, are not related to either intra–urban income disparity or environmental performance of cities per se. We thus suggest that the transition of cities towards greater smartness should be focused on people's needs and ICT-using skills, not on ICT proliferation per se. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first that links the level of city smartness with intra–urban income inequality and environmental performance of cities and substantiates these links empirically. By accumulating this knowledge, the study helps to understand better the smart city phenomenon and its impact on urban development.

Infrastructure Projects for Green Cities between Implementation Challenges and Efficiency Indicators

The world's population will be 9.2 billion in 2050, which is 2.2 billion more than today, with most of the increase in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. That will negatively affect the availability of arable land, infrastructure, and environmental performance of cities, furthermore, achieving sustainability pillars (environmental, economic, social) becomes mandatory for all countries after signing in the recommendation of the 2015 UN Summit, many initiatives and concepts were adopted to face these challenges and accomplish sustainable development. The green cities concept (GCC) and its strategies are considered an optimum approach to achieve sustainable development objectives and overcome these challenges, by enhancing performance for the existing infrastructure, reducing natural resource consumption, decreasing CO2 emission, and engaging citizens in decision-making. On another hand, infrastructure projects are vital for achieving (GCC) concept because it reflects the progress and economic performance of countries. This study discusses the green cities, conventional and green infrastructure challenges, then presents Public-Private Partnership (PPPs) as a tool for implementing and overcoming its challenges from the green economy and green contracts perspectives. In addition, concluding an Operational Framework for implementing infrastructure projects by (PPPs) which determines the main phases in (PPPs), allocates the most important strategies for each phase, and indicates the main internal stockholders who share in decision-making. Finally, the study assigns (53) efficiency indicators and obtains a weight for each indicator by identifying the Relative Importance Index through an online questionnaire evaluated by (15) experts to track the achievement of the operational framework.

Trolleybus power supply system with high-voltage battery

Public transport in cities in recent years has received more attention to increase the comfort of life in megacities. The economic and environmental performance of cities can be improved by efficiently connecting public transport resources and increasing vehicle mobility. Over the last two decades, there has been a huge increase in population in developing countries. Population growth has led to an increase in demand for mobility. If the transport infrastructure is not able to meet the requirements, it leads to an increase in the waiting time for public transport and congestion on the streets. Public transport can be more attractive by providing door-to-door mobility, and the development of transport services is an important factor for life in megacities. Transport sustainability, environmental conditions, health and economic well-being can be enhanced by moving to more mobile public transport. Simply put, mobility by public transport makes it possible to reduce the adverse effects of car use on the environment and health. The level of mobility of the city can be improved by providing a well-organized transport system. Therefore, the accessibility of public transport stops, the connectivity of public transport modes and the mobility of the system should be considered to ensure a user-friendly public transport system. The purpose of this article is to create a trolleybus power supply system with a high-voltage battery, which would reduce the load on the network during vehicle acceleration, and with the help of an additional converter was able to recover energy during braking to the battery. Therefore, the article considered the modes of movement of the trolleybus and on the basis of these data proposed a power supply system using a rechargeable battery. This type of vehicle power supply will increase the mobility of the trolleybus due to the use of a power battery, which in turn is useful in traffic jams, accidents, as well as in the absence of a network. The calculation of inverters required for the operation of such a system is shown. The control will take place by means of a relay control, which will allow the trolleybus to move autonomously, as well as allow it to store energy to the battery.

Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics

Today’s smart city agendas are the latest iteration of urban sociotechnical innovation. Their aim is to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the economic and environmental performance of cities while hopefully providing a better quality of life for residents. Urban planners have a long-standing tradition of aligning technological innovation with the built environment and residents but have been only peripherally engaged in smart cities debates to date. However, this situation is beginning to change as iconic, one-of-a-kind smart projects are giving way to the ‘actually existing’ smart city and ICT interventions are emerging as ubiquitous features of twenty-first century cities. The aim of this thematic issue is to explore the various ways that smart cities are influencing and being influenced by urban planning. The articles provide empirical evidence of how urban planners are engaging with processes of smart urbanisation through projects, practices, and politics. They reveal the profound and lasting influence of digitalisation on urban planning and the multiple opportunities for urban planners to serve as champions and drivers of the smart city.

City-level environmental performance in China

Measuring cities’ environmental performance can provide an analytical foundation for evaluating and comparing the governmental efforts in improving environmental performance and promoting sustainable development. In this paper, we employ an Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to measure the environmental performance of 105 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2013 in China. Based on the city-level results, we can further derive the EPIs of different regions as well as the country. Our empirical results showed that there exists a large variation in the environmental performance of different cities. From the regional perspective, the EPI of eastern region was higher than that of western region, although the two regions were close to each other. The difference of EPI increasing led to an unstable increase in the overall EPI of the country. Furthermore, based on influence factor analysis, economic scale and industrial structure had a significant impact on the environmental performance of cities and then came up with suggestions to formulate the environmental policies, keeping in view the economic background and the other pragmatic characteristics of cities.

Cities – good for the environment?

Cities have been essential for human development and socioeconomic development. Cities have shaped the environment and the climate system for many years. The rate of impact has accelerated since the Industrial Revolution. As we have progressed through different phases of the Industrial Revolution, resource use has continued to grow. The economic system is based on consumerism and growth. The global population has continued to grow. Urbanisation has increased with more than half of the global population living in cities. This is forecast to grow to 70 percent of the global population by 2050. There is considerable interest in improving the environmental performance of cities. We will need smart solutions for energy, transport and resource use, to produce only a low environmental footprint. This effort will require both smart solutions and an evaluation of our lifestyles. Future cities must focus on human well-being and reduce consumerism. Humanity must aim for sustainability as a rule.

Sustainable City Growth New Models for the Post-Industrial City

This paper reports on research in the area of Green Urbanism and new models for urban growth and neighborhoods, as cities need to transform from a fossil-based model to a model based on sustainable energy sources. The paper deals with cross-cutting issues in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design and addresses the question of how we can best cohesively integrate all aspects of energy systems, transport systems, waste and water management, passive and active strategies, natural ventilation and so on, into contemporary urban design of Eco-Cities with an improved environmental performance of cities. This text reflects upon practical strategies focused on increasing sustainability beyond and within the scope of individual buildings and provides a context for a general discourse about the regeneration of the city centre, its transformation to a sustainable model, and discusses how urbanism is affected (and can be expected to be even more affected in future) by the paradigms of ecology. Recent examples for the application of such urban design principles are the two proposals for the Australian city of Newcastle: the City Campus and Port City projects. These case studies illustrate that it is less environmentally damaging to stimulate growth within the established city centre rather than sprawling into new, formerly un-built areas. Three steps from passive building design to active mechanical equipment. The designer needs to take full advantage of basic, passive building strategies first, before adding mechanical active equipment. Motto: More with less. The entire urban metabolism is based on energy supply. However, a new symbiosis between countryside and city is emerging: The century-old tension between rural and urban might finally get resolved, where the city stops to grow at the expense of its rural hinterland.