City Strategies Research Articles

Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Coastal Cities of Australia: A Comparative Study of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane

This comparative study explores climate change adaptation strategies in the coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. It examines the effectiveness of various policies, infrastructure projects, technological innovations, and community engagement programs designed to mitigate climate impacts. The research highlights how each city has tailored its approach to address specific geographic and socio-economic challenges. Key findings indicate that smart city technologies, robust urban planning, and active community involvement are critical components of successful adaptation. Despite significant achievements, challenges such as funding constraints, technological disparities, and the need for continuous public engagement remain. The study concludes with strategic recommendations for enhancing resilience and sustainability in coastal cities, emphasizing the importance of integrated and adaptive planning.

Analysis of the Impact of Urban Green Spaces on Mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, characterized by higher temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings, poses significant challenges for energy consumption, air quality, and public health. This study examines the impact of urban green spaces on mitigating the UHI effect in four major Spanish cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia. Using high-resolution satellite imagery, ground-based temperature measurements, and advanced GIS and statistical modeling techniques, we quantified the temperature differences between green and non-green urban areas. Our findings indicate that green spaces, including parks, street trees, and green roofs, significantly reduce urban temperatures, with parks exhibiting the highest cooling effects. The spatial analysis revealed that UHI hotspots are concentrated in densely built-up areas, while green spaces effectively mitigate these effects. Seasonal variations show that the cooling benefits of green spaces are more pronounced during the summer months. This study highlights the importance of incorporating diverse and well-distributed green spaces in urban planning to enhance thermal comfort, reduce energy consumption, and improve urban livability. Policy recommendations are provided to guide the integration of green infrastructure in climate adaptation strategies for Spanish cities.

Classification of Smart and Sustainable Urban Mobility

The main purpose of this article is to identify and classify smart and sustainable urban mobility solutions in the context of three narratives for sustainable mobility: electromobility, collective transport 2.0 and low-mobility societies. The research process of this study included the following methods: review of the literature, namely, strategic European documents, sustainable urban mobility plans in chosen cities and scientific publications addressing smart and sustainable mobility, case studies of selected cities in Europe and technology mapping to visualize the study results. The main result of this study is the review of various smart and sustainable urban solutions (SSUM) and their classification within the three narratives of electromobility, collective transport 2.0 and low-mobility societies. This article expands the concept of the three narratives for sustainable mobility with the aspect of smart mobility enriched with the variety of example solutions, case studies and good practices within mobility strategies in European cities. The study results can be useful for different stakeholders engaged in developing and introducing the sustainable mobility strategies in cities. Based on the catalogue of SSUM solutions, presented case studies and good practices, they may gain the necessary knowledge, consider the possible initiatives towards green transformation in cities and finally adjust them to the citizens’ need.

South Tangerang City's Strategy In Building A Brand Image Through Pamulang Square As Creative Tourism

The City of South Tangerang is trying to build a brand image by 2023. The concept of building a South Tangerang square is a positive thing in the environment, especially for the people of South Tangerang City. One of the goals is to provide entertainment with facilities and comfort for the community, such as exercising, gathering with family, especially for South Tangerang residents. South Tangerang Square can also help build and create a positive brand image in society. This research aims to find out the strategies carried out by the South Tangerang City government department in an effort to build a brand image through Pamulang Square as creative tourism. This research was conducted in South Tangerang City in 2023. This research approach is descriptive qualitative. Data were collected through observations at the location of Pamulang Square and interviews with administrators at the South Tangerang City Environmental Service. Source triangulation was carried out by interviewing residents who had visited the square. The results of this research show that the strategy used by the City of South Tangerang can make the public aware of the South Tangerang City square as an environmentally friendly location, thereby making it a location that can be used as a creative public space. The existence of regional, national and even international scale events held in the square shows that the city of South Tangerang is a creative tourist destination, thus attracting more and more tourists or visitors

Positioning the Creative City Agenda Within Urban Policy Discourse: The Malaysian Scenario

As the hype of the creative city model transcends Western borders to Eastern settings, Malaysian cities are fast embracing it as sine qua non urban development strategy. The global creative city model, however, is fraught with conceptual and operational ambiguities when dissecting the notions of “cultural industries” and “creative industries”. The “knowledge economy-based concept of creative industries” is widely critiqued as being void of cultural content. Malaysia is also caught in this conundrum due to national aspirations to be a knowledge and creative economy. The aim of this article is to examine how the Malaysian creative city agenda is positioned within urban policy discourse as the nation’s structural base shifts from industrial to services and the creative economy. Based on qualitative research techniques (i.e. interviews, focus group discussions, fieldwork observations), primary data was collected in selected Malaysian cities from 2019 to 2021. The study indicated that the creative city strategy is still nascent in Malaysia and not systematically integrated and intersected across urban policy domains. This article recommends the need to integrate the elements of culture and creativity more distinctively across all urban policy domains in the quest to develop culturally sensitive and sustainable Malaysian creative cities.

Forerunner city or net-zero opportunist? Carbon dioxide removal in Stockholm, residual emissions and risks of mitigation deterrence

The City of Stockholm aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 by compensating for residual emissions using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Relying heavily on negative emissions to reach the target, the city's strategy presents an interesting case of net-zero climate policymaking. Based on the analysis of interviews, City Council debates, and policy documents, the Stockholm case underscores the importance of understanding municipal climate policy in a multi-level policy setting, where the ability to govern emissions varies heavily between sectors depending on politics and policy at other levels of governance. Both waste incineration and road transport are perceived to include hard-to-abate emissions in 2030, partly due to governance linkages involving regional, national, and EU-level governing bodies. The energy utility, Stockholm Exergi, plans to implement BECCS, with funding from the EU and other public and private sources, at a heat and power plant. The unique opportunity to use BECCS as part of the city's net-zero target has made it possible to advance the net-zero goal from 2040 to 2030. However, there are risks that relying on BECCS may muffle public debate on what constitutes residual emissions in the city, subsequently leading to smaller municipal investments in emission reductions. Additionally, there are risks that the schedule for implementing BECCS is overly optimistic, meaning goal fulfilment may be threatened. However, this risk is not isolated to BECCS; similar risks are associated with combining fossil fuels with CCS. We recommend that the city critically examines the residual emissions, considers separate targets instead of a net-zero goal, and conducts risk assessments of key mitigation technologies to maintain its status as climate policy forerunner.

The Vancouver socioecological fix: indigenous real-estate development as the city’s imagination of sustainability, affordability, and reconciliation

ABSTRACT In Vancouver, the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations are constructing several large real-estate developments that will deeply impact the Nations and the city itself. Developments such as Sen̓áḵw, Heather Lands, and Jericho Lands envision the construction of thousands of new apartments that will yield billions of Canadian dollars in profits from the Vancouver housing market. This paper is concerned with the enabling conditions for such developments found within the city of Vancouver’s planning policies and underlying geographical imaginations. Through the application of the “socioecological fix”, the paper describes how Vancouver’s planning policies aim at fixing problems of sustainability, housing affordability, and reconciliation based on specific geographical imaginations. This results in the conceptualization of reconciliation as the profit-oriented construction of green and affordable real-estate. In light of scholarship that highlights the intertwined nature of colonialism and capitalism, the paper raises the predicament that the reconciliatory approach conceptualized in city strategies and actively pursued by the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh is envisioning reconciliation as the reproduction of Vancouver real-estate capitalism. How should scholarship contend with reconciliatory approaches that are both reproductive of settler-colonial capitalism, while also offering reconciliation in a concrete form?

Glocalizing sustainability: how accounting begins for sustainable development goals in city administration

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the new performance perspective in cities. It also aims to understand how accounting for SDGs begins in city administrations by following Power’s (2015) fourfold development schema composed of policy object formation, object elaboration, activity orchestration and practice stabilization.Design/methodology/approachFocusing on a network of cities coordinated by the Finnish local government association, we analyzed the six largest cities in Finland employing a holistic multiple case study strategy. Our data consisted of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), city strategies, budget plans, financial statements, as well as results of participant observations and semi-structured interviews with key individuals involved in accounting for SDGs.FindingsWe unveiled the SDG framework as an interpretive scheme through which cities glocalized sustainable development as a novel, simultaneously global and local, performance object. Integration of the new accounts in city management is necessary for these accounts to take life in steering the actions. By creating meaningful alignment and the ability to impact managerial practices, SDGs and VLRs have the potential to influence local actions. Our results indicate further institutionalization progress of sustainability as a performance object through SDG-focused work.Originality/valueWhile prior research has focused mainly on general factors influencing the integration of the sustainability agenda, this study provides a novel perspective by capturing the process and demonstrating empirically how new accounts on SDGs are introduced and deployed in the strategic planning and management of local governments.

Governing Smart City IoT Interventions: A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective

Urban infrastructure systems (UIS) encompass physical infrastructure and human stakeholders, delivering essential services through distributed flow networks. These systems exhibit properties of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS), such as self-organization and adaptivity, which makes them resilient to perturbations from the outside. Smart city strategies advocate for external technology interventions to improve the efficiency and sustainability of UIS. Internet of Things (IoT) is a key enabler for such strategies which helps to gather data from various infrastructure components and optimize flow networks in UIS. Although beneficial, such interventions often give rise to ethical concerns, underscoring the need for appropriate governance measures. In this study, we adopt a CAS perspective to analyse the ethical concerns of a proposed smart city IoT platform in the cities of Karnataka, India. Based on our analysis, we present a framework to aid city authorities in formulating appropriate strategies to govern Smart City IoT interventions in general.

Green in their own way: Pragmatic and progressive means for cities to overcome institutional barriers to sustainability

To realise their potential to lead in sustainability development, cities require both symbolic resources such as social capital and legitimacy and material resources such as financial and technical support. Recent research in urban studies has shown that cities overcome institutional barriers to urban sustainability by drawing on support from their wider environment. However, we argue that resource needs vary depending on whether cities spotlight or sideline sustainability. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sustainability managers in cities with variable seriousness about sustainability, and representatives of city networks and support organisations, we show that cities express different symbolic and material resource needs as well as means to acquire them. When cities express pragmatic needs, they seek to demonstrate political feasibility and look to peer cities for legitimation; when cities express progressive needs, they aim to push the boundaries of technical possibility and broadcast their achievements to the world. Since cities require dissimilar external support, skewed attention towards ‘leading’ cities in extant research limits our understanding of how cities can overcome institutional barriers to climate action, especially when these barriers are high. Our findings offer contributions to the literature on city strategies for climate change on the institutional drivers of urban sustainability.

Research on Green Space Ecosystem Services under the Guidance of Healthy City Orientation

Research on Green Space Ecosystem Services under the Guidance of Healthy City Orientation

Technology and AI Implementation in Heritage Adaptive Reuse as Strategy for Sustainable and Smart City

Adaptive reuse, implementing new functions in buildings that originally had different functions, has been widely applied as a strategy due to the new development high demands and land scarce. With the paradigm of injecting new commercial functions that fulfill society’s contemporary need such as coffee shops in heritage buildings, it is hoped to reduce costs, time and energy consumption in the construction process. Using local materials that are accessed closer to site project can be more environmentally friendly and economically viable effort without reducing functional and aesthetic quality. However, the use of technology is still lacking, for it can be an additional solution so that coffee shops have added value that can be successful socially, culturally, economically and environmentally. Commercial functions that utilize AI technology, big data, the Internet of things can indirectly support the achievement of sustainable and smart city. Digital documentation of heritage buildings, commercial spot mapping, visitor motivations and preferences monitoring can be examples for technology use, even more over can spread awareness and knowledge about heritage buildings. This qualitative research method uses literature study and field observations, with goal to know the role of technology and of realizing a smart and sustainable city in heritage buildings.

An integrated QFD framework for smart city strategy development

PurposeIn this study, the deployment of an integrated Quality Function Deployment (QFD) decision framework is presented to help cities design targeted strategies to become “smart”. Arguably smart cities leverage advanced technologies to enhance their smartness to improve everyday urban life. To this end, a QFD – Analytic Hierarchy Process – Analytic Network Process (QFD-AHP-ANP) framework is proposed to deliver guidance for selecting the appropriate mix of smart technologies based on the specific smart needs of each city.Design/methodology/approachThe AHP and ANP methods are incorporated into QFD to enhance its methodological robustness in formulating the decision problem. AHP accurately captures and translates the “Voice of the Experts” into prioritized “Smart City” dimensions, while establishing inter-relationships between these dimensions and “Smart City Technologies”. Meanwhile, ANP explores tradeoffs among the technologies, enabling well-informed decisions. The framework’s effectiveness is evaluated through an illustrative application in the city of Thessaloniki.FindingsApplying the framework to this real-world context confirms its practicality and utility, demonstrating its ability to particularize local, social, political, environmental and economic trends through the resulting mix of technologies in smart urban development strategies.Originality/valueThe importance of this study lies in several aspects. Firstly, it introduces a novel QFD decision framework tailored for smart city strategic planning. Secondly, it contributes to the operationalization of the smart city concept by providing guidance for cities to effectively adopt smart technologies. Finally, this study represents a new field of application for QFD, expanding its scope beyond its traditional domains.

Urban Nature Preservation and Conservation Strategies Based on Biophilic Institutions and Governance: A Lesson Learned from Gold Coast City for Indonesian Cities

Biophilic urbanism is considered as one approach to solve the problem of city’s over-development and may provide opportunities for citizens to connect with the natural environment. This research project is using argumentative approach in attempts to analyse urban nature preservation strategy of the Gold Coast City, based on the biophilic urbanism concept, with a focus on institutions and governance aspect, including biodiversity-related action plans, biophilic support organizations, environmental education, budgets for biophilic urbanism projects, and biophilic-related projects and initiatives. Moreover, it also analyses the constraints to implementing good biophilic governance based on the political/legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors. To determine urban nature conservation and preservation strategies for the Gold Coast’s future, a SWOT analysis was undertaken. The results of this study could usefully give a brief reflection on the possibility of implementing the biophilic city concept for Indonesian cities in general.

Enhancing the performance of sustainable energy management of buildings in smart cities

Energy utilization has been the most influential parameter in recent decades, especially in the smart city model. The energy management system has been a more attractive research problem due to its utility, ability, and applications. This paper has an objective that the article discusses innovative energy management methods for sustainability and highlights the potential for integrated smart energy sources. The discussion also touches on the understanding of energy management and production, various storage systems, and their potential future applications. This paper explores challenges in sustainable smart energy management, focusing on methodologies like smart energy systems, PV calculations, electric grid models, and energy management strategies in smart cities. The passive infrared receiver (PIR) sensor has been used in real-time energy management systems to integrate these methodologies into the city's infrastructure. The energy management design aims to coordinate electrical appliances such as fans and lights to minimize energy consumption. The article proposes new energy management and security techniques based on data sources to enhance city intelligence, adaptability, and sustainability by reducing human involvement in controlling electrical appliances in residential buildings. The proposed design and development system optimizes energy utilization more efficiently and effectively than conventional systems, meeting real-time energy management objectives.

The spatial impact of digital economy on carbon emissions reduction: evidence from 215 cities in China

Introduction: Within the global framework of carbon emissions constraints, the digital economy has become a new strategy for cities to achieve sustainable development. Scholarly literature exploring the spatial spillover and spatial mechanisms of the digital economy on carbon emissions is notably scarce.Methods: To estimate the spatial impact of digital economy on carbon emissions, this paper conducted spatial analysis with the spatial Dubin model and panel data of 215 cities in China from 2011 to 2019.Results: The results show that there is a growing regional agglomeration of the digital economy, whereas the spatial evolution of carbon emissions displays low liquidity and high stability. Second, the digital economy directly reduces urban carbon emissions, and this conclusion is supported through a series of robustness tests. However, there exist negative spatial spillover effects of digital economy on carbon emissions reduction in neighboring cities. Third, mechanism analysis reveals that the digital economy mainly affects urban carbon emissions through two paths: industrial structure upgrading and green technology innovation. Moreover, the influence of digital economy exhibits heterogeneity, with a more pronounced effect observed in the central cities and in large and medium-sized cities, as well as in cities with a high agglomeration of the new energy industry.Discussion: Our paper not only presents new documentary evidence for understanding the relationship between digitalization and decarbonization, but also provides specific references for policy making to accelerate low-carbon urban development.

A Conceptual Exploration of Hidden Spatial Layers: Reading Urban-Breccia

Sustainable urban spaces, from social and cultural perspectives, can be characterized not only by the preservation of the historical cultural structures within them but also by the subjective and collective meanings contributed by the individuals inhabiting these spaces in their daily lives across physical, social, cognitive, and cultural dimensions. Therefore, the planning and construction of socially and culturally sustainable cities is a challenging endeavor due to the intricate and dynamic nature of the urban phenomenon. The main goal of this study is to investigate the meanings of the different layers of the urban space phenomenon and how they can be conceptualized at the core of social and cultural sustainability strategies for cities. The study aims to reconceptualize urban space through the lens of ‘memory’, depicting it as ‘urban-breccia’ that emerges along the axes of remembering–construction and forgetting–destruction, mediated by visible and hidden layers. Within the entirety and variability of physical realities, concepts, phenomena, and occurrences, the urban-breccia generates dynamic, complex, multilayered, and ambiguous relational systems through the struggles of the visible and hidden layers vying for predominance. These relational systems within urban-breccia signify both semantic and syntactic approaches that encompass visible and hidden layers. It is believed that such a study would contribute to the endeavors that seek to find the fundamental domains that render urban spaces culturally and socially sustainable, within the synthesis of urban space’s physical, social, cognitive, and cultural perspectives, through a temporality inherent to memory.

Accompanying study of the development process towards a smart city strategy-with a particular focus on social change

The development of a smart city strategy will take place in 73 selected cities in Germany as the result of a participation competition. The systematics of the requirements of the state as a funding provider and the approach of local actors will be examined in more detail in this study. The Objectives of the work are a supervised process of a model facility, on the basis of which observations for a process model are to be derived. This model is intended to enable various aspects as a starting point for non-subsidized institutions as well. A particular focus lies on the area of social change, which is difficult to quantify, in terms of social aspects. The Prior work shows that there are three different dimensions of strategy elements to be decided on in order to start subsidy-compliant design projects. On one hand, a team must be required that takes care of the smart city projects next to their regular tasks. Their composition and purpose in doing represent the first dimension. Secondly, the question of setting targets and the associated monitoring of results must be determined. Finally, the path of involving citizens and companies lead to the social legitimacy of the project team. The approach is based on a semi-structured participant observation by the authors. Qualitative insights into practical doing and abstracted findings based on an example case serve as practical recommendations for further and thus complementary consolidation and expansion of the findings. The first Results show that defining key performance indicators and objective key results is quite a new system of performance measurement for public institutions. In particular, the social aspects of living together in cities are difficult to put into key figures due to the diverse composition of society. Local differences with incentives and channels in different forms need to be translated into general insights. The Implications include enabling government leaders to initiate and manage transformative approaches to the digitization of public space. Social change as a field of action for the design of digital solutions will be opened up and brought closer by means of best-practice implementations. The value of the work lies in getting an example of steps towards a planning basis for comprehensive smart city agendas. Furthermore, management tools for digital projects are addressed and methods for the participation of service recipients of public authorities are presented. Through the classified experiences of the prime example, challenges, opportunities, risks but also weaknesses of the path to a smart city emerge, which can be a point of orientation for non-subsidized cities in their own roadmap.

Траектория развития отечественной школы стратегирования: взгляд сквозь время

Strategy, as a relatively young science, is constantly developing and enriching itself. The Russian national school of strategizing was founded by Professor Vladimir L. Kvint. The school has already formed outstanding theoretical and methodological foundations, as well as accumulated significant practical experience as it designed and implemented developmental strategies for countries, regions, cities, industries, and enterprises. Vladimir Kvint has implemented an extensive long-term practice of teaching the theory of strategy and methodology of strategizing at Master’s Degree Programs located at Lomonosov Moscow State University with its branches in Slovenia and Armenia, Kemerovo State University, and MISIS University of Science and Technology. The programs allow specialists to develop a system of strategic thinking and professional competencies in the field of strategizing. This article celebrates Vladimir Kvint’s 75th birthday by praising his main achievements in science and academia as an outstanding theorist and practitioner of strategizing in Russia and abroad.

Inclusive Smart Cities: An Exploratory Study on the London Smart City Strategy

Smart city strategies have been developed in several cities worldwide to improve the well-being of residents, social life and economic welfare through digital transformation and technology-based interventions. The need for cities to supply assistive services and inclusive strategies for all people has also increased with the increasing urban population and smart city applications. Although technology offers several benefits for more inclusive and liveable environments, there are also drawbacks due to difficulties in adapting to digitalization and due to limited accessibility. The present study aims to explore smart city strategies from an inclusiveness perspective by analysing the London smart city strategy as a case study using a qualitative research methodology. Qualitative data analysis was conducted based on secondary data from London smart city strategy documents and semi-structured interviews with domain experts. Although inclusiveness is embedded in the London smart city strategy, there is still room for improvement. The results of this study indicate that spatial inclusion is the major focus of the London smart city policy where inclusive housing, transport and health management systems are promoted with a variety of assistive technologies with some scope on social and economic inclusion. This study proposed ways of boosting inclusiveness by improving citizen engagement through collaborations, increased transparency, and measures for preventing data misuse and misinterpretation. Using London as a case study, potential barriers in implementing inclusive strategies for smart cities in practice are highlighted, which may provide valuable learned lessons for other cities.