Sustainable Urban Transformation Research Articles

Sustainable urban transformations based on integrated microgrid designs

AbstractThe impacts of natural hazards on infrastructure, enhanced by climate change, are increasingly more severe emphasizing the necessity of resilient energy grids. Microgrids, tailored energy systems for specific neighbourhoods and districts, play a pivotal role in sustaining energy supply during main grid outages. These solutions not only mitigate economic losses and well-being disruptions against escalating hazards but also enhance city resilience in alignment with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11. However, disregarding socioeconomic factors in defining microgrid boundaries risks perpetuating inequalities and impeding progress towards other SDG 11 targets, including fair democratic participation. Our approach integrates social and technical indicators to bolster urban microgrid planning. Through a case study in a US county, we illustrate how integrated microgrid planning effectively intertwines urban resilience, well-being and equity while promoting sustainable development. This study underscores the importance of integrated microgrid planning for sustainable and resilient urban transformation amid environmental and societal challenges.

Urban Digital Twins Empowering Energy Transition: Citizen-Driven Sustainable Urban Transformation towards Positive Energy Districts

Urban Digital Twins Empowering Energy Transition: Citizen-Driven Sustainable Urban Transformation towards Positive Energy Districts

The Impact of Multi-Dimensional Urbanization on CO2 Emissions: Empirical Evidence from Jiangsu, China, at the County Level

Understanding the underlying mechanism of how various dimensions of urbanization affect CO2 emissions could be helpful for achieving the goal of low-carbon cities in China. However, previous research has seldomly examined this relationship granularly in economically developed regions at the micro level, nor did they examine the mediating effects of economic development, industrial structure, and coal consumption. Using the panel dataset of 80 counties from 2002 to 2021 at the county level in Jiangsu, China, this study investigates the direct and indirect effects of population, economic, and land urbanizations on CO2 emissions in Jiangsu province and examines the regional heterogeneity. The findings indicate that population and economic urbanization have positive impacts on CO2 emissions, whereas land urbanization has insignificant effects. This finding is supported by various robustness tests. Population and economic urbanizations are found to have significantly positive impacts on CO2 emissions in the southern and northern Jiangsu regions, whereas none of the three dimensions are significant in the middle Jiangsu region. Economic urbanization contributes the most to CO2 emissions in southern Jiangsu. In addition, our results indicate that multi-dimensional urbanizations affect CO2 emissions through the mediating roles of economic development, industrial structure, and coal consumption. Our analysis shed some insights into the nuanced relationship between multi-dimensional urbanization and carbon emissions, which could contribute to sustainable urban transformation.

Exploring low-carbon and sustainable urban transformation design using ChatGPT and artificial bee colony algorithm

The aim of this study is to provide effective solutions to promote the transition of resource-based cities to low carbon and sustainable development. Firstly, this study investigates the background of low-carbon transformation of resource-based cities. Secondly, it introduces the application method of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) in detail. Finally, this study proposes a comprehensive application of ChatGPT and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. The results show that the average energy utilization efficiency improvement index of the group using ChatGPT is 0.11. The average energy efficiency improvement index of the group using ABC algorithm is 0.02 higher than that of the control group. The integrated application of ChatGPT and ABC algorithm can further improve the low-carbon transformation effect of resource-based cities and achieve the goal of green development.

Community Engagement in Urban Experiments: Joint Effort for Sustainable Urban Transformation

The increasing complexity of urban regeneration issues has recently made multi-stakeholder collaboration an important part to solve policy problems. While residents form an important part in a variety of collaborative governance processes, approaches used are often criticized as too formal, and lacking more inclusive participation. Therefore, new informal mechanisms of collaboration are sought, to ensure a more effective engagement and representation of population groups. Although community-led participation is the approach that leads to a more effective collaborative process, issues of power and inequality are a challenge in many places in planning practice [13]. Ways of civic empowerment, communication, and negotiation provide participants with transformative learning opportunities so that not only their arguments change but also the participants of the participation process themselves [6]. In order to test urban development ideas, the notion of "urban experiment" has been developed in recent years as a recognized and effective approach. The urban environment is viewed as a creative laboratory for testing the implementation of diverse initiatives and innovations [8]. The inner-city neighbourhoods in many cities are struggling to ensure vitality and liveability, thus these areas often represent a widespread location of urban experiments. In addition to these questions, the problem of community representation manifests itself in many inner cities. The potential to transform city centre streets and vacant areas into user-friendly urban spaces and the impact of those transformations on the city’s livability were recently tested by Riga municipality. Urban experiments varied in scale and form, resulting in street pedestrianization, urban gardens, and other temporary initiatives, which allowed more space for walking and cycling, street sales, social events and other activities. Thus, the aim of this article is to explore processes of testbed planning with regard to the role of community participation in the designing, implementing, and analysing phases of the experiment. After presenting the findings, the article concludes with a discussion on factors that influence public participation in collaborative governance including communication, the balance of interests, and the degree of resident involvement in decision-making.

The relationship between urban transformation and sustainability: a bibliometric analysis and exploring existing trends

ABSTRACT Urban transformation and sustainability research are current issues in the construction industry. This study aims to comprehend the past and current trends in the relationship between urban transformation and sustainability through a literature review and bibliometric analysis, focusing on the themes that these studies concentrate on and determining the main subjects addressed within these themes. The study examined research articles that mention the concepts of “urban transformation” and “sustainability” in their title, abstract and keywords, published between 2002–2022 in the Scopus database. A total of 86 articles were analyzed in detail. The findings have clearly indicated 3 main issues of paramount importance: (1) Developing countries must prioritize sustainability in urban planning to align with global trends. (2) Collaborative initiatives involving diverse stakeholders are not just beneficial but essential for advancing sustainable urban development. (3) Integrating environmental, climate, and energy aspects into the framework of urban transformation and sustainability is not merely advantageous but crucial. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on urban transformation by providing a general framework and a systematized understanding of the issues related to urban transformation and sustainability. Furthermore, it is expected to raise awareness among implementers and policymakers regarding sustainable urban transformation issues that have emerged in recent years.

Technological design for the environmental transition of the city. Opportunities for innovation

In the contemporary context of the polycrisis, ways and criteria for sustainable urban transformation are discussed that shift the needle of ecological transition from building to city, towards energy self-sufficiency and social self-determination. Alternative forms of management, containment and production of clean and accessible energy from renewable sources are explored that have feedback in terms of process, design and social innovation. The paper aims to highlight the active and adaptive dimensions of technological design in its ability to support and promote behaviour favouring sustainable environmental transition.

Interplay of Engineering Skills, Aesthetic Creativity, and Ethical Judgement in the Creation of Sustainable Urban Transformations

This paper examines a PBL project module “Sustainable Urban Transformation” in an Urban Design master’s education. The module combines urban design and hydrology engineering. Within the module, students are supported by lectures and study circles on various dimensions of sustainability, especially vis-a-vis climate change. However, they are left with the freedom to choose how they balance between design and engineering approaches when they give a physical form for sustainability in the site transformation projects with which they work through the semester. This paper discusses the development of their skills building on three Aristotelean concepts: techne (engineering), poiesis (aesthetic form-giving), and phronesis (making of ethical judgments). The last two concepts, the paper argues, are especially important when at issue is design education. Based on an analysis of the student projects in Fall 2022, the paper examines whether and how the students manage to find a balance between engineering skills, on the one hand, and aesthetic creativity and ethical judgement, on the other hand, in their project work.

Towards Assessing Embodied Emissions in Existing Buildings LCA—Comparison of Continuing Use, Energetic Refurbishment versus Demolition and New Construction

One of the main objectives facing climate protection targets is how to deal with the existing building stock. Refurbishment measures are essential to ensure sustainable urban transformation. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) enable refurbishment measures to be evaluated holistically at the environmental level. However, there is still no sufficient methodological basis for the uniform evaluation. This present paper proposes a new perspective for comparing the continuing use with refurbishment as well as the demolition and new construction of a building. Thus, two new indicators are presented and elaborated regarding refurbishment measures: sustained emissions and the avoidance potential. To verify and validate the newly developed methodology, we implement it as part of this case study. We compare the environmental impact of a building’s continuing use with refurbishment measures as well as demolition and a replacement building with functional equivalence. The results indicate the environmental benefits of refurbishment measures compared to other approaches towards existing buildings. Although new buildings typically possess a superior energy standard, nevertheless, irrespective of the major impact of operational energy, refurbishment measures appear to be the most viable option for dealing with existing buildings over their life cycle.

In favor or against: The influence of skeptical stakeholders in urban innovation projects for green transformation

Skeptical stakeholder involvement – collaborating with stakeholders who may harbor negative attitudes - is a complex, uncertain process that poses substantial challenges for innovation project management. Developing complex innovations like those in urban spaces requires engagement with knowledge, behavioral shifts, and resources from both public and private stakeholders. As a result, these stakeholders might oppose the project's objectives, thereby exerting a significant influence on the project. However, scant attention has been directed toward investigating the role of skeptical stakeholder involvement. The goal of this research is to address this research gap by examining the underexplored impact of skeptical stakeholder involvement on the project front end, thereby underscoring the importance of innovativeness and implementation intention as outcomes during these initial project stages. The study draws on a unique combination of text mining, text analysis, and survey data derived from 107 publicly funded urban innovation projects in Germany. These projects encompass diverse innovation types and technologies that may affect nearly all stakeholders within a given city district, thus making the context an ideal empirical terrain for investigation. The study's findings reveal that (i) skeptical stakeholder involvement positively influences innovativeness and implementation intention, and (ii) a robust reservoir of project management resources, coupled with moderate levels of formal management, facilitates the integration of skeptical stakeholders. The study advances current literature on project stakeholder management and project front-end dynamics by highlighting the positive influences of skeptical stakeholder involvement. Consequently, these outcomes contribute to the broader literature on sustainable urban transformation and enhance our understanding of stakeholder management mechanisms in the realm of urban innovation projects.

Development of freight trip generation model using observed and unobserved information of supply chain characteristics for a sustainable urban transformation

Supply Chain Characteristics (SCC) drive the city logistics to control the economic activities that support urban life and transformation. The dynamics of freight trip activity and SCC in city logistics are less understood by city planners, disrupting the prediction of urban Freight Trip Generation (FTG) models. To develop robust urban FTG models, the present study introduces the concept of estimating the freight trip activity using observed and unobserved (subjective) information of SCC for sustainable urban transport movement. Traditionally, the objective variable excludes the unobserved information of SCC while developing the FTG model; this gap can be addressed by incorporating subjective variables to measure both observed and unobserved information of SCC. A unique framework was designed by a combination of objective and subjective variables through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to estimate the freight trip activity. An Establishment Based Freight Survey (EBFS) collected from an Indian smart city (1793 samples) comprising various SCC was used to test the developed framework. Deployed EFA can identify the subjective variables using latent constructs to explain the observed and unobserved information in the SCC. Then, sequential execution of SEM with hypothesis path structure for estimating the freight trip activity. The direct, indirect, and total effects of the FTG model revealed added advantage of causal inter-relationship of urban freight trip activity and SCC between intermediate and pure receiver establishment. The developed FTG models using observed and unobserved information of SCC predicted freight trip activity with an accuracy of 57% for intermediate and 63% for pure receiver establishment. The effect of SSC on freight trip activity aids in creating sustainable urban freight transportation that could be an agile, responsive, and flexible adaptive system for the global market demand.

Towards 30% Efficiency by 2030 of Eco-Designed Building Integrated Photovoltaics

The necessity of affordable and durable building-integrated photovoltaics has gained widespread importance for the renewable energy transition involving electrification and decarbonization in climate-neutral cities that possess many public health co-benefits. Although the PV market is dominated by polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar cells of the first generation, there is an impetus in the research lately for more sophisticated solar cell architectures with higher efficiency, longer lifetime, and less use of raw materials in an eco-design approach. To accelerate building integration of the next generation of photovoltaics and the associated climate change mitigation benefits, we propose in this work a holistic novel approach to the requirements and associated parameters for the emerging and innovative PV structures, spanning from intrinsic cell properties to panels effect in the urban environment. Within this framework, and supported by building simulation, the improvement of cells’ efficiency is revealed as an important parameter for their wider PV building and urban deployment as well as a major improvement in covering the building energy needs with minimized thermal impact in the urban environment. By analyzing the lab-reported values and the timeline of emerging and novel tandem solar cells, we propose the 30% BIPV efficiency of the eco-designed BIPV products as a central milestone to be attained before 2030 for a sustainable urban transformation.

A high-resolution monitoring approach of urban CO2 fluxes. Part 2 – surface flux optimisation using eddy covariance observations

Achieving climate neutrality by 2050 requires ground-breaking technological and methodological advancements in climate change mitigation planning and actions from local to regional scales. Monitoring the cities' CO2 emissions with sufficient detail and accuracy is crucial for guiding sustainable urban transformation. Current methodologies for CO2 emission inventories rely on bottom-up (BU) approaches which do not usually offer information on the spatial or temporal variability of the emissions and present substantial uncertainties. This study develops a novel approach which assimilates direct CO2 flux observations from urban eddy covariance (EC) towers with very high spatiotemporal resolution information from an advanced urban BU surface flux model (Part 1 of this study, Stagakis et al., 2023) within a Bayesian inversion framework. The methodology is applied to the city centre of Basel, Switzerland (3 × 3 km domain), taking advantage of two long-term urban EC sites located 1.6 km apart. The data assimilation provides optimised gridded CO2 flux information individually for each urban surface flux component (i.e. building heating emissions, commercial/industrial emissions, traffic emissions, human respiration emissions, biogenic net exchange) at 20 m resolution and weekly time-step. The results demonstrate that urban EC observations can be consistently used to improve high-resolution BU surface CO2 flux model estimations, providing realistic seasonal variabilities of each flux component. Traffic emissions are determined with the greatest confidence among the five flux components during the inversions. The optimised annual anthropogenic emissions are 14.7 % lower than the prior estimate, the human respiration emissions have decreased by 12.1 %, while the biogenic components transformed from a weak sink to a weak source. The root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of the weekly comparisons between EC observations and model outputs are consistently reduced. However, a slight underestimation of the total flux, especially in locations with complex CO2 source/sink mixture, is still evident in the optimised fluxes.

Sustainable decision-making game for the next generation of smart citizens

Cities are increasingly facing the consequences of climate change, it is therefore urgent to take actions to reach the targets set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities, engaging citizens in the sustainable transformation of the built environment is crucial. Moreover, children and youth require specific attention to secure their active participation in the process. ByMaker is a serious game developed to facilitate the participation of children and youth in sustainable urban transformation. The objective of ByMaker is to improve the knowledge about sustainability and raise awareness on the importance of making balanced decisions. While the environmental dimension is already well covered and assimilated by children and youth, the social and economic ones remain more challenging to understand. The method uses a 3D map of the concrete city, interactive elements of popular landmarks and friendly characters of local historical figures. The players are invited to experiment multiple combination of choices corresponding to different scenarios of urban development such as road and transportation, urban nature, residential buildings and public space. The impact of their decisions on the overall sustainability of their city is presented as visual feedback. Scenarios in the game focus on the realization of SDGs’ ambitions and objectives. The vision is both mid-term oriented, addressing the climate urgency and long-term focused to anticipate future needs. Furthermore, ByMaker presents innovative technological solutions to play with. The game was tested in three classes in primary schools in Trondheim, Norway. The feedback guided the further development and improvements such as better visualization, interaction features and simplified scenario descriptions. By playing with ByMaker, children succeeded to learn, experiment, and create their sustainable city.

Mapping soft densification: a geospatial approach for identifying residential infill potentials

Infill development policies have been widely adopted as strategies to reduce urban sprawl and to promote sustainable urban transformation. However, little empirical data are available to analyse infill processes and to facilitate building activity on infill potentials. This is especially true for small-scale residential infill, which often takes place on vacant or underused lots as soft densification. To address this issue, a geospatial method is presented that enables automatic detection of vacant lots for large areas. Cadastral data are used to analyse spatio-temporal development for the period 2011–21 in a German study area, containing large cites as well as rural municipalities. The results show that every fourth vacant lot was mobilised since 2011. However, additional vacant lots emerged in rural areas as new residential development areas are not fully built-up, resulting in a net increase of vacant lots. Although the quantity of vacant lot areas in 2021 suggests a high potential for residential infill, the main development on these infill sites is expected to promote additional single-family housing rather than more dense structures. Practice relevance Automatic identification and monitoring of infill potentials and development are important both for policymaking and for local planning practitioners. For small municipalities with little financial capacities, the approach can provide an overview of their vacant lots and can serve as a basis for strategic planning decisions. For the regional or national level, a yearly monitoring schedule can be established at little cost. Although the approach proves to be robust regarding its precision and is promising for a nationwide application, the data availability for the whole of Germany is awaited and the method needs to be optimised to implement the workflow in practice.

Can Managing Climate Risks Be a Catalyst for Broader Transformative Change?

This essay addresses the long-term effectiveness of urban climate change adaptation approaches, based, inter alia, on work in the C40 city network. We argue that in most cities, the dominant framing of climate risk management almost exclusively focuses on short-term incrementalities and preventive solutions directly tackling hazards, vulnerability, and exposure. This approach has serious flaws, leading to missed opportunities for longer-term sustainable urban development. Until very recently, climate science usually provided only a marginal input to long-term urban planning and design. We argue that any analysis of urban climate risk management and the associated climate services should be broadened beyond solely climate focusing on impacts. In this context, the development of positive urban visions is a key gap for both research and practice. A change is required from negatively addressing risks to positively pursuing a positive vision of attractive, resilient, and sustainable cities. The emphasis on short-term incremental solutions should shift towards long-term transformation. This embodies a paradigm shift from “function follows system” to “system follows function”. For many cities, this also means a change in procedural practice from siloed top-down to integrated, participatory urban transformation. Our main argument in this paper is that simple, longer-term sustainable urban transformation would not only reduce climate risks but also enhance overall environmental quality, economic opportunities, and social wellbeing.

Integrated development of territories as an instrument of sustainable urban transformation

The article discusses the concept related to the integrated development of territories (IDT), specific features of its legal regulation, and its socio-economic and environmental aspects. It considered as an effective instrument of sustainable urban transformation, as it gives opportunities for the rational and efficient use of all types of resources within the territory and for the potential targeted planning of urban areas with a geographically-oriented approach to cities in directions that correspond to the patterns of sustainable spatial development. An experience of engaging different stakeholders partnership in integrated urban development was studied and recommendations for its adaptation to Russian cities were given. The presented analysis of IDT as a long-term instrument of sustainable urban transformation confirms the relevance of developing a methodology for monitoring, analysing, and forecasting the influence of this factor on regional social and economic development as an interdisciplinary research direction. As a practical application authors have made an analysis of the practical implementing IDT project in the Slavyanka residential area in St-Petersburg, presented development of resources in the expert community on this issue and proposed their own approach, according to which the IDT mechanism should be applied to urban areas. Such research would have a practical value for the purposes of making adjustments to regional integrated development of territories programmes and developing new IDT projects in other residential areas.

The Promoting Effect of Mass Media on Participatory Landscape Revitalization—An Analysis from Newspaper Coverages of Participatory Urban Gardening in China

Urban renewal urgently needs to find a new media tool to extensively promote public participation. Professionals also need strong and powerful communication tools for the public. Mass media has the ability to influence human perceptions and behaviors, but its role has been overlooked. This study aims to arouse professionals’ attention to mass media and promote interdisciplinary cooperation through empirical evidence. By observing the performance of participatory urban gardening projects in Chinese newspapers, we highlight the positive effect of mass media on participatory landscape revitalization. We selected two projects in China as samples, collected newspaper reports on them during 2017–2021, and analyzed the textual framing and report communication based on communication theory. According to the result, mass media has four positive effects that not only affect the public but also contribute to participatory landscape revitalization development. Based on the results, we discuss the consistence of views of the mass media and landscape architecture. This study suggests that landscape architecture needs to actively collaborate with public media to better leverage the role of landscape in sustainable urban transformation.

Challenges for sustainable urban transformation in São Paulo: visions, interests and demands under debate

The objective of this article is to map the main actors that seek to exert influence in the regulatory arena of urban policy in São Paulo and to identify whether they converge or not with the principles of sustainable urban transformation, according to the precepts of a compact city, with low-carbon emissions, and which aims to reduce social inequalities and promote environmental qualification. Two attempts to change the zoning law, which ocurred in 2018 and 2019, have been chosen as the stage for analysis. Among the main actors and interests in dispute in this arena, the study has identified real estate developers (increased profit margin), neighborhood associations in the expanded central area of the city (protection of local characteristics) and social movements for housing (accessible decent housing). Within this context, the present article discusses the main pressures for changes in the socio-political pact defined by the 2014 São Paulo Master Plan.

Smarter Together: Monitoring and Evaluation of Integrated Building Solutions for Low-Energy Districts of Lighthouse Cities Lyon, Munich, and Vienna

The Smarter Together project implemented in the three lighthouse cities (LHCs) of Lyon, Munich, and Vienna a set of co-created and integrated smart solutions for a better life in urban districts. The implemented solutions have been monitored using a novel integrated monitoring methodology (IMM) following a co-creation process involving key stakeholders of the LHCs. With focus on holistic building refurbishment and the integration of onsite renewable energy supply (RES), the three LHCs refurbished around 117,497 m2 of floor area and constructed 12,446 m2 of new floor area. They implemented around 833 kWp of PV, 35 kW of solar thermal and 13,122 kW of geothermal heating systems. Altogether, the realized solutions for low-energy districts in the three LHCs will annually save around 4000 MWh/a, generate 1145 MWh/a of RES and reduce around 1496 tCO2/a of CO2 emissions, corresponding to specific values of 37.6 kWh/m2.a and 11.9 kg-CO2/m2.a for final energy saving and CO2 emission reductions, respectively. KPI-based monitoring and evaluation of the implemented solutions provides qualitative and quantitative insight, experience and lessons learned to optimize the process of implementation and deployment of integrated solutions for holistic building refurbishment, and thus contribute to advancing sustainable urban transformation at the district level for both LHCs and FCs.