Sustainable Community Planning Research Articles

LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE FORECASTING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

The article examines the aspects of land surface temperature forecasting for effective planning and development of sustainable cities and communities. The relevance of the research lies in the need to develop effective approaches to the analysis and forecasting of climate data, for the timely determination of existing problems and ways to solve them, in accordance with civilizational challenges. The trends of changes in the land surface temperature from the middle of the 20th to the beginning of the 21st century were analyzed, using the example of five megacities located in different regions: Tokyo (Japan), Lagos (Nigeria), Berlin (Germany), Singapore (Singapore) and Belo Horizonte (Brazil). The results of the analysis of changes in average monthly and average annual temperatures are presented. The factors affecting the formation of the temperature regime of each of the cities are determined. The role of urbanization as a key factor in the development of the city is described, the main challenges caused by it are considered. An overview of megacities from the point of view of sustainable development was carried out. Prospects for urban development and measures aimed at reducing the urban heat island effect are considered. The role of modern technologies, in particular machine learning for predicting the land surface temperature, is described. The expediency of land surface temperature forecasting, in order to implement strategies for mitigating negative consequences and achieving the goals of sustainable development, is substantiated. The conducted research makes it possible to be convinced of the need for a responsible approach to the design and development of sustainable cities and communities. The temperature of the earth’s surface is one of the key indicators that allows you to monitor the main trends of urban life and can be an indicator of the effectiveness of strategies used to increase comfort and sustainable development.

Sustainable Community Transformation and Planning Based on Community Layout and Low Impact Development Concept

The Sustainable Cities and Communities emphasized in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are cities and residential communities that prioritize inclusivity, safety, and resilience against disaster risks. China's urbanization process has embarked on a trajectory of rapid development, characterized by substantial advancements in urban construction and continuous enhancements to the urban landscape and environment. Confronted with an immense urban population scale, the sustainable transformation of traditional communities has emerged as the primary focus for establishing resilient communities. This paper compares the disparities between communities established by the traditional community model and sustainable community concept, scrutinizes the limitations of traditional community models, and proposes strategies for the sustainable transformation of traditional communities through adopting low impact development concepts in rainwater management. For the "block" layout, this paper proposes enhancing the connectivity of green spaces and promoting diversity. For the "central" layout, it is recommended to optimize access roads, including pedestrian and vehicle routes, by integrating green spaces. In the case of an "intensive" layout, emphasis should be placed on improving resource utilization efficiency through multi-functional approaches. For the planning of new sustainable communities, this paper puts forward suggestions from the micro and macro planning levels.

The climate-biodiversity-health nexus: a framework for integrated community sustainability planning in the Anthropocene

Integrated approaches to planning and policy are important for making progress toward sustainability. A variety of frameworks have been developed for facilitating such approaches to planning and policy, such as the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. However, the WEF nexus has been criticized for a lack of clarity in how to apply the framework, whereas a goals-oriented framework potentially could be more easily applied and operationalized. This paper proposes such a framework, referred to here as the climate-biodiversity-health (CBH) nexus. The paper details the features of the CBH nexus framework, the interactions among its domains, and its potential applications. The CBH nexus consists of three domains (i.e., climate action, biodiversity conservation, and community health) and six subdomains (i.e., climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, habitat protection and regeneration, wildlife health and welfare, physical health, and mental health). The framework can be applied in practice to develop checklists/toolkits for guiding new development and as a basis for creating community indicator systems. It can also be applied in research to identify gaps in planning and policy documents and as a lens for participatory modeling exercises. Continued experimentation with, and improvement of, the CBH framework will reveal its most useful applications, thereby opening new opportunities for communities to effectively develop and implement integrated sustainability plans and policies.

Identifying film tourism impacts on grassroots communities: implications for film tourism development and community planning

ABSTRACT This study aims to identify and itemise a comprehensive list of film tourism impacts perceived by the local communities in a mainstream tourism destination where film tourism has emerged as a new type of special interest tourism. The findings suggest a total of 22 items that have been perceived as the impacts of film tourism on the local communities of Ubud in Bali, Indonesia, associated with the Hollywood film adaption Eat Pray Love (2010). Of them, 10 items represent the immediate impacts as the result of activities during film production, while 12 items are post-production impacts followed by the influx of film tourists. The study makes a specific kind of contribution to future film tourism studies for scale development and validation and relevant stakeholders for more realistic, sustainable film tourism destination development and community planning.

Integrated Sustainability Planning and Local Food Systems: Examining Areas of and Gaps in Food Systems Integration in Community Sustainability Plans for Municipalities across British Columbia

No “one size fits all” approach exists for local sustainability and food systems planning. Such planning must balance needs for being both comprehensive and place-based. The current study explores this tension by examining Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSP) developed by municipalities in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The research examines items and actions related to food systems (focusing on agriculture and food production) in the ICSPs of municipalities in different regions across BC to (1) identify how municipalities “integrate” food systems with other sustainability objectives, (2) elucidate how place and geography influence integrated planning, and (3) reveal gaps in integrated approaches to developing local food systems. The study employs document analysis and thematic coding methodology. The results indicate that common areas of food systems integration in ICSPs include local economy and education. Many plans outline goals for bolstering local food economies and building local food capacity through community participation and engagement. Findings also show how foci and approaches for developing sustainable food systems vary by region. The study elucidates how food systems are integrated within place-based sustainability plans as well as reveals gaps that local governments can address when adopting and implementing integrated sustainability plans for improving food systems.

Contemporary integrated community planning: mixed-age, sustainability and disaster-resilient approaches

In recent years, conventional concepts of social reform planning for sustainable, safe and disaster-resilient communities have continuously driven the thought and practice of community planning and management; furthermore, environmental safety has become the common foundation of these visionary community models. Additionally, low birth rates and aging populations have become common social problems in numerous developed countries. This study integrated the design and planning of sustainable, disaster-resilient and intergenerational collective communities to develop factors and models of an intergenerational community. Moreover, this study constructed evaluation indicators for intergenerational communities under a safety basis, which were used as the foundation for planning and designing strategies. The system of intergenerational disaster-resilient collective community planning indicators covers 5 dimensions and 26 indicators, which focuses primarily on the establishment of community safety mechanisms and physical and mental health care for residents, including intergenerational community interactivity, provision of education and employment opportunities, provision of health and medical services, along with environmental and ecological conservation and maintenance management. By reconstructing the communication and economic model of communities as a whole, establishing community disaster management awareness and mechanisms on this basis is essential to facilitate their progress toward sustainable development. Through this framework of indicators, we aim to provide communities with a reference for future transformations in response to societal shifts.

Invited perspectives: Building sustainable and resilient communities – recommended actions for natural hazard scientists

Abstract. Reducing disaster risk is critical to securing the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and natural hazard scientists make a key contribution to achieving this aim. Understanding Earth processes and dynamics underpins hazard analysis, which (alongside analysis of other disaster risk drivers) informs the actions required to manage and reduce disaster risk. Here we suggest how natural hazard research scientists can better contribute to the planning and development of sustainable and resilient communities through improved engagement in disaster risk reduction (DRR). Building on existing good practice, this perspective piece aims to provoke discussion in the natural hazard science community about how we can strengthen our engagement in DRR. We set out seven recommendations for enhancing the integration of natural hazard science into DRR: (i) characterise multi-hazard environments; (ii) prioritise effective, positive, long-term partnerships; (iii) understand and listen to your stakeholders; (iv) embed cultural understanding into natural hazard research; (v) ensure improved and equitable access to hazard information; (vi) champion people-centred DRR (leaving no one behind); and (vii) improve links between DRR and sustainable development. We then proceed to synthesise key actions that natural hazard scientists and research funders should consider taking to improve education, training, and research design and to strengthen institutional, financial, and policy actions. We suggest that these actions should help to strengthen the effective application of natural hazard science to reduce disaster risk. By recognising and taking steps to address the issues raised in these recommendations, we propose that the natural hazard science community can more effectively contribute to the inter-/transdisciplinary, integrated work required to improve DRR.

Climate action assessment in three small municipalities in British Columbia: advancements vis-à-vis major neighboring cities

This paper applied a recently developed Local Government Climate Action Assessment Framework to identify whether small municipalities in British Columbia are on track to meet their climate targets and to better understand the effectiveness of their climate-related actions. The aim of this paper was (1) to further test the assessment framework by evaluating its applicability for smaller municipalities, (2) to evaluate and categorize local progress in three small cities, namely Campbell River, Prince George and Revelstoke, and (3) to contrast these climate actions with actions taken by larger municipalities in BC, using the same assessment framework. This assessment revealed that key external support made available to expand on their Integrated Community Sustainability Plans provided for striking similarities among the three case studies regarding their strategies and plan formulations for which actions were largely transformative or reformative. However, the three small cities were lacking periodic reporting and monitoring of actions and presented shorter timeframes of up to 20-50 years for their planning horizons, all of which negatively impact their prioritization strategies. The main difference between larger and smaller cities was found among actions related to the feedback and evaluation category of the framework, with smaller cities performing more poorly. Greater shift in priorities away from climate change-related actions were evident in smaller local governments, signalling their more vulnerable position regarding changes in leadership in local and provincial administrations. This study highlights the key role that strategic alliances, networks, and external champions as partners play in planning and implementing climate action and in increasing public interest in sustainability. Thus, these should be fostered and promoted to keep building local capacity and effectively accelerate greater change through e.g., strengthening their capacity to implement, monitor and evaluate climate actions.

Exploring Challenges in Space Syntax Theory Building: The Use of Positivist and Hermeneutic Explanatory Models

The planning and building of sustainable cities and communities yields operational theories on urban space. The novelty of this paper is that it discusses and explores the challenges for space syntax theory building within two key research traditions: positivism and hermeneutics. Applying a theory of science perspective, we first discuss the explanatory power of space syntax and its applications. Next, we distinguish between theories that attempt to explain a phenomenon and theories that seek to understand it, based on Von Wright’s modal logics and Bhaskar’s critical realism models. We demonstrate that space syntax research that focuses on spatial configurative changes in built environments, movement and economic activities can explain changes in a built environment in terms of cause and effect (positivism), whereas historical research or research focusing on social rationality, space and crime or cognition seeks to develop an understanding of the inherent cultural meaning of the space under investigation (hermeneutics). Evidently, the effect of human intentions and behaviour on spatial structures depends on the type of rationality underlying these intentions, which is the focus of this study. Positivist explanatory models are appropriate for examining market rationality in cases that entail unambiguous intentionality and that are associated with a high degree of predictability. By contrast, other kinds of reasoning require a hermeneutic understanding.

Implementing Community Sustainability Plans through Partnership: Examining the Relationship between Partnership Structural Features and Climate Change Mitigation Outcomes

Addressing society’s most complex challenges, such as climate change, requires bringing together stakeholders from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors. At the municipal level, multi-stakeholder partnerships are often formed to implement community sustainability plans. However, these partnerships can create new challenges, as it is cumbersome to coordinate action among a group that is made up of such diverse stakeholders. Past research suggests that it is important for these partnerships to have the appropriate structures in place to mitigate some of the coordination challenges to which they are prone. Yet, very few studies have examined the influence that different structural features have on plan outcomes. This article seeks to address this important research gap by using quantitative methods to examine five different features that can compose partnership structures—oversight, monitoring and evaluation, partner engagement, communication, and community wide-actions and their impact on climate change mitigation outcomes. Based on data collected through a global survey and publicly available greenhouse gases emission data from 72 different partnerships that implement community sustainability plans (CSPs), this study finds that structural features related to oversight and community-wide actions are positively associated with climate change mitigation outcomes. These results indicate that certain features of partnership structures may be more important for achieving desirable climate change mitigation outcomes, and thus contribute to research on collaborative governance structures and climate action.

A Theoretical Framework for Bolstering Human-Nature Connections and Urban Resilience via Green Infrastructure

Demand for resources and changing structures of human settlements arising from population growth are impacting via the twin crises of anthropogenic climate change and declining human health. Informed by documentary research, this article explores how Urban Resilience Theory (URT) and Human-Nature Connection Theory (HNCT) can inform urban development that leverages urban green infrastructure (UGI) to mitigate and meditate these two crises. The findings of this article are that UGI can be the foundation for action to reduce the severity and impact of those crises and progress inclusive and sustainable community planning and urban development. In summary, the URT promotes improvement in policy and planning frameworks, risk reduction techniques, adaptation strategies, disaster recovery mechanisms, environmentally sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel energy, the building of social capital, and integration of ecologically sustainable UGI. Further, the HNCT advocates pro-environmental behaviors to increase the amount and accessibility of quality remnant and restored UGI to realize the human health benefits provided by nature, while simultaneously enhancing the ecological diversity and health of indigenous ecosystems. The synthesis of this article postulates that realizing the combined potential of URT and HNCT is essential to deliver healthy urban settlements that accommodate projected urban population growth towards the end of the 21st-century.

GIS for planning a sustainable and inclusive community: multi-criteria suitability analysis for siting low-income housing in a sustainable community and suitable neighborhood in Buffalo Metropolitan Area, New York

This study utilized Geographic Information System (GIS) as a tool for sustainable community planning which incorporateslow-income communities into current sustainable neighborhoods. GIS suitability analysis aimed at finding suitable and sustainable neighborhoods for locating subsidized housing projects for low-income families through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in the Buffalo Metropolitan Area (BMA), New York. LIHTC projects allocate 30% of their rental units for low-income families. They must be located in sustainable neighborhoods to ensure economically and socially sustainable livesfor low-income inhabitants. Data was collected from various New York State government agencies and used as input for several raster-based criteria maps using GIS network analysis, raster cost-distance analysis, Kernel density analysis, raster-based local statistics, and surface analysis.The criteria of sustainable neighborhoodsusing GIS multi-criteria analysis (MCA) were grouped into five factors, namely public amenities, economic viability, population growth, property conditions, and environmental factors. A final suitability map was created by multiplying the derived raster maps with their respective weight resulting from the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). The study found several locations in suburban areas of the BMA that meet the criteria and canbe usedby the Buffalo Metropolitan Housing Authority (BMHA) to site the LIHTC housing.

Application of a multi-hazard risk assessment for local planning

Multi-hazard assessments are increasingly vital to communities as exposures continue to change. Their data can provide a nuanced understanding of hazard interactions and their contribution to risk reduction. In previous work, the Patterns of Risk using an Integrated Spatial Multi-Hazard (PRISM) approach produces composite measures of vulnerability and risk at the county level for this purpose. The approach has the flexibility to be applied at a local level to benefit hazard vulnerability assessments and community sustainability planning activities. In this article, we use U.S. census tracts as proxy for neighbourhoods for a localized PRISM approach. The goal is to demonstrate the applicability of the PRISM approach at the community level and identify vulnerabilities in social, cultural, economic, and built systems for use in comparative analyses and mitigation planning. Exposure estimates are created using spatial extents and modelled data from 12 natural and 4 technological hazards. Land area, population counts, and property values are used to estimate vulnerability. National patterns of exposure, vulnerability, and risk reveal distinct regional trends that point to the importance of how impacts are defined. Eight case study examples demonstrate how the data can be analyzed to compare drivers of community vulnerability and risk.

The communication role of social media in social marketing: a study of the community sustainability knowledge dissemination on LinkedIn and Twitter

This study aims to provide social marketers and researchers with some innovative perspectives on the application of social media in disseminating and promoting new sustainability knowledge to targeted audiences including academics, community sustainability stakeholders, and policy-makers. An online survey was used to examine the audiences’ attitudes of and motivations for engaging in LinkedIn and Twitter sites that disseminate sustainability knowledge. Also, the fact-based measurements from LinkedIn and Twitter showing the participants’ reactions to the contents and formats were analyzed. The results suggest that the infographics message format received the highest engagement and response rates. Participants used Twitter to obtain general sustainability knowledge while being engaged in LinkedIn for specific advice on the implementation of community sustainability plans.

Fishing Community Sustainability Planning: A Roadmap and Examples from the California Coast

Fishing communities are facing a variety of challenges including declines in participation, reduced access to fish resources, aging physical infrastructure, gentrification, competition from foreign imports, the “graying” or aging of their fleets, along with a host of environmental stressors. These factors can represent threats to the continued viability of individual fishing communities. Such communities are clearly in need of tools that will enable them to plan strategically and to be more proactive in charting a sustainable future. This manuscript provides a roadmap for how to engage fishing communities in a bottom-up strategic planning process termed “fishing community sustainability planning” by describing implementation efforts in four diverse California ports: Morro Bay, Monterey, Shelter Cove, and Eureka. The process draws from the literature on sustainability and community development to assess fishing community sustainability around four broad categories: economics and markets; social and community; physical infrastructure and critical services; environment and regulation. Process steps included developing a project team and community coalition, analyzing baseline data, conducting interviews with waterfront stakeholders, hosting public workshops, and drafting a Fishing Community Sustainability Plan (FCSP) that includes concrete recommendations for how a community’s fishing industry and waterfront can be improved. Experiences from the four ports reveal that fishing community sustainability planning can be adapted to a variety of contexts and can contribute tangible benefits to communities. However, there are limitations to what community-scale planning can achieve, as many regulatory decisions that affect communities are enacted at the state or national level. Combining community-level planning with scaled-up fishing community sustainability planning efforts at the state and federal level could help overcome these limitations. FCSP planning is one tool fishing communities should consider as they seek to address threats and plan for their long-term viability.

Evaluating the effectiveness of hazard mapping as climate change adaptation for community planning in degrading permafrost terrain

Permafrost in northern Canada is susceptible to degradation due to rapid climate change, with hazard mapping promoted as an important activity to guide sustainable community adaptation and planning. This paper presents a framework for evaluating permafrost mapping exercises designed to inform climate change adaptation actions. We apply the framework using a case study of the Incorporating Climate Change into Land Development—Terrain Analysis project (ICCiLD). ICCiLD is a hazard mapping project utilizing interferometric synthetic aperture radar to monitor ground disturbance and categorize land development suitability in seven communities in the territory of Nunavut, Canada. We looked at one of the communities, Arviat, as our case study. We examined technical data and drew upon semi-structured interviews (n = 19) with map creators and users. We found ICCiLD added new and relevant information for community planning, increased awareness of the risks posed by permafrost thaw and built stakeholder relations. Strong coordination and high public consciousness of local climate impacts emerged as key factors underpinning project success. Nevertheless, in the case of Arviat, the effectiveness of the hazard maps in influencing land-use planning was constrained by communication challenges between project creators and end-users. These challenges included limited community access to the data and uncertainty surrounding how to operationalize the map suitability classifications. Broader climate change adaptation challenges included the presence of other more immediate community planning priorities and a limited ability to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into a technical mapping project. The lessons from this evaluation provide insight for the development of mapping-based adaptations across Arctic regions.

Spatial disparities in neighborhood public tree coverage: Do modes of transportation matter?

Urban green space has various environmental and ecological benefits, and uneven access to such amenities has drawn substantial attention from policy makers in developing sustainable community planning. In this study, we illustrate the spatial distribution of publicly owned and maintained trees in Edmonton, Canada and assess neighborhoods’ heterogeneous tree availability by using the container approach. Through spatial regression models, we further investigate the association of neighborhood public tree availability with socio-economic status (SES). We contribute to the existing literature by taking resident modes of transportation into consideration, in addition to many other commonly examined SES such as household income and ethnicity. Another unique contribution of this study is that we distinguish trees planted on different location types (i.e., boulevard, park, and buffer areas) when exploring the unequal coverage across neighborhoods and among different SES groups. Key results include: (1) a general examination without differentiating location types can lead to misleading results and thus provide inappropriate policy recommendations; (2) resident modes of transportation is a critical factor associated with a neighborhood’s public tree coverage; and (3) there exists evident spatial dependence on public tree availability between neighborhoods. The results from this study provide important information to better understand the issue and to allocate public resource (such as tree coverage) more efficiently and effectively to support sustainable community development.

The role of leisure in integrated community sustainability plans within Canada

ABSTRACTGiven the preoccupation that all levels of government have been giving to sustainability, those advocating for the role of leisure must be able to clearly articulate how leisure intersects with and supports sustainability. Within Canada, federal and provincial governments have encouraged the development of Integrated Community Sustainability Plans (ICSP) at the municipal level to advance sustainability initiatives. The aim of this study was to determine to what extent ICSPs indicate a role for leisure in achieving sustainability. Using a sample of 18 ICSPs, the analysis revealed that leisure plays a strong and integrated role in sustainability planning suggesting that communities view leisure as a valuable contributor to sustainable communities. Leisure emerged as a potential solution to a broad range of social, environmental and economic issues and strategies transcended sectoral boundaries. The findings highlight the importance of collaborative planning and encourage leisure practitioners to actively engage in sustainability initiatives.

Economic impact of Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast tourism on the regional economy

The coastal economy is highly sensitive to natural and human disasters and changes in economic conditions. This study analyzes the local and regional economic impacts of Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast visitor spending in 2013, aiming to provide guidance on future regional planning and management. IMPLAN input-output models were constructed which capture the connections among the Gulf Coast region and the two states' economies. Economic impacts of visitor spending were calculated with the IMPLAN software. An internet survey of tourists was conducted by Survey Sampling International (SSI) to a nationally representative population. Overall, 2891 individuals responded, for a response rate of 26.2%. Based on the survey data, it was estimated that approximately 16.4 million travelers visited Alabama and Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2013 and the average per visitor spending was $730.11. In total, visitor spending yielded $17.6 billion in sales revenue, $9.4 billion in value added, $5.9 billion in labor income, and about 200,000 full and part-time jobs in the five coastal counties. Comparatively, the leakage of the visitor spending out of the regional economy is small. Coastal tourism also contributed to the economy of inland areas of the two states. But the spillover effect on inland areas and feedback effects on coastal counties were not large. This analysis examined how tourism industry impacted other working waterfront industries as well as the rest of the regional economy. Findings help decision makers look beyond the direct impacts generated by the Gulf Coast tourist spending and contribute to sustainable community planning and management.

Implementing community-based comprehensive sexuality education with high-risk youth in a conservative environment: lessons learned

Although comprehensive sexuality education programmes have the potential to improve the sexual health and well-being of young people, many socially conservative rural states in the USA have laws and policies restricting school-based comprehensive sexuality education and supporting abstinence-only education. This paper describes the process of building a community-university partnership to implement a community-based comprehensive sexuality education peer education programme for high-risk young people and presents preliminary findings from a longitudinal evaluation. Through purposive recruitment, the sample included 386 young people (mean age) who were more diverse than the local community. Important university-community partnership components included (1) establishing local connections and legitimacy, (2) adapting and tailoring programmes to meet community context, (3) sustainability planning, and (4) flexibility, persistence, and patience. Building community trust and capitalising on the mutual benefits of community-university partnerships are effective methods of building community sexuality education programming in a conservative environment. Tailoring evidence-based approaches to comprehensive sexuality education in a politically restrictive environment shows promise in improving the sexual and reproductive health of young people.