Urban Energy Infrastructure Research Articles

Impact of urban form on carbon emissions of residents in counties: evidence from Yangtze River Delta, China.

Urban form is a key factor affecting carbon emissions. Accurately estimating the impact of urban form on the carbon emissions of residents (CER) is an important prerequisite for China to adopt effective low-carbon spatial planning strategies and respond to climate change. However, counties mainly account for China's energy consumption, and the relationship between their urban form and the CER remains unclear, limiting their low-carbon development. Therefore, in this study, the PLS-SEM model and data from 90 counties in the Yangtze River Delta are used to determine the extent and ways that urban form affects the CER. The model considers the impact of both geometric-aspect urban form factors (urban scale, compactness, spatial structure, and urban shape) and built environment-aspect urban form factors (public service facilities, urban greening, road traffic, public transportation, and urban energy infrastructure) on the CER. The results indicate that urban form factors related to the built environment (public service facilities, urban greening, road systems, and municipal infrastructure) have a direct impact on the CER. Geometric-aspect urban form factors (size, compactness, spatial structure, and shape) not only directly affect the CER but also indirectly affect the CER by altering built environment-aspect urban form factors. This study identifies the complex relationship between urban form and the CER, facilitating the coordinated integration of multiple elements and providing a basis for the formulation of low-carbon spatial planning strategies for counties.

Statistical Evaluation of Sustainable Urban Planning: Integrating Renewable Energy Sources, Energy-Efficient Buildings, and Climate Resilience Measures

In the face of increasing climate-related challenges, sustainable urban energy networks must grapple with transmission congestion in deregulated power systems. This study introduces a novel statistical approach that synergizes two powerful methodologies for evaluating and managing urban energy networks: the integration of photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy sources and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU)-based PV forecasting. By combining evolutionary optimization techniques with GRU forecasting, we aim to bolster the sustainability and reliability of urban energy networks while addressing climate change adaptation. In this study, we employ statistical methods, including generator sensitivity ratios and bus sensitivity ratios (BSR), to pinpoint optimal locations for PV power integration within urban networks. The Lion Optimization Algorithm (LOA), an evolutionary optimization method, is employed within a digital twin framework to optimize active power rescheduling values and congestion prices. The incorporation of GRU-based PV forecasting enhances the precision and resilience of our energy management approach. Through extensive simulations conducted on the New England 39-bus system, our findings reveal that the combination of the LOA method and GRU forecasting outperforms traditional optimization techniques such as the Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). This dual-optimization strategy leads to significantly reduced active power rescheduling values and congestion prices, underlining the potential of our statistical model to effectively manage congestion in transmission lines within sustainable urban energy networks. In the context of integrating renewable PV sources and adapting urban energy infrastructure to climate change impacts, the synergy of evolutionary optimization and GRU-based forecasting offers a robust pathway to enhance sustainability and reliability in urban energy networks.

A review on technological and urban sustainability perspectives of advanced building‐integrated photovoltaics

AbstractWith the escalating urgency for sustainable energy alternatives, solar power in urban landscapes has gained prominence. Building‐integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems are pivotal in this shift, blending efficient energy generation with architectural aesthetics. This review casts a spotlight on BIPV technologies, with a special emphasis on the less‐explored semitransparent photovoltaics (PVs). These systems are not only energy generators but also natural light facilitators, setting them apart from their opaque PV counterparts. Advancements in both transparent and opaque PV, such as crystalline silicon, are discussed. However, the paper prioritizes semitransparent PV's unique benefits, including harmonious integration with building design and simultaneous energy and daylight management. An exhaustive examination of current literature and developments sketches BIPV's trajectory, highlighting applications, challenges, and technological strides. The narrative extols the aesthetic, financial, and efficiency merits of BIPV, particularly the semitransparent variants' blend of functionality and design. Performance optimization of BIPV systems is scrutinized across various environments and architectural styles. This meticulous discussion seeks to clarify the status quo, emerging research avenues, and future prospects of BIPV in fostering a greener energy transition. The review compares BIPV configurations with traditional solar PV systems, charting a path for enhanced energy production, cost efficiency, and aesthetic integration, with semitransparent PV as a key player. By exploring the interplay between architectural design, energy efficiency, and urban planning, this paper aims to solidify the groundwork for future research, reinforcing the sustainability narrative in urban energy infrastructure.

Bilevel Optimal Economic Dispatch of CNG Main Station Considering Demand Response

Compressed natural gas (CNG) main stations are critical components of the urban energy infrastructure for CNG distribution. Due to its high electrification and significant power consumption, researching the economic operation of the CNG main station in demand response (DR)-based electricity pricing environments is crucial. In this paper, the dehydration process is considered in the CNG main station energy consumption model to enhance its participation in DR. A bilevel economic dispatch model for the CNG main station is proposed, considering critical peak pricing. The upper-level and lower-level models represent the energy cost minimization problems of the pre-system and rear-system, respectively, with safety operation constraints. The bilevel programming model is solved using a genetic algorithm combined with a bilevel programming method, which has better efficiency and convergence. The proposed optimization scheme has better control performance and stability, reduces the daily electricity cost by approximately 21.04%, and decreases the compressor switching frequency by 50.00% without changing the CNG filling demand, thus significantly extending the compressor’s service life. Moreover, the average comprehensive power cost of processing one unit of CNG reduces 20.62%.

A framework approach to the design of energy efficient residential buildings in Nigeria

The main objective of the Nigerian building sector working on achieving energy efficiency is to decrease energy demand of buildings and thereby reduce the negative implications of urban development and poor energy infrastructure on people's wellbeing. One of the key strategies being adopted for substantial reduction of energy demand in the Building Energy Efficiency Guide for Nigeria is the bioclimatic architectural design approach. Hence, intelligent design of buildings, especially the building envelope, can considerably improve energy efficiency and help to realize heating and cooling targets. The aim of this paper is to promote and encourage sustainable building development in Nigeria by developing a systematic and context-based framework for the design of energy efficient residential buildings. This study adopted a mixed method approach of interviews with 12 architects and 22 householders. Moreover, measurements and observational surveys of 22 existing buildings that fit into three distinct building typologies were conducted. Three existing buildings were investigated using a building simulation approach to compare their performances, especially in terms of thermal comfort. The data collected was analysed using content analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, and simulations. The interviews with architects and householders showed enormous potential to reduce residential buildings’ energy demand. To achieve this, the interviewees emphasized the need for strong collaboration between all stakeholders in the building sector. Measurements, observational surveys, and case studies of existing buildings confirmed that thermal discomfort in residential buildings and challenges with building design, have a significant effect on the building occupants’ wellbeing. The research developed a framework for the design of energy-efficient residential building, which is expected to enhance sustainability, particularly in the building sector. The framework was produced based on the findings from the research data and the review of relevant literature. It involves an integrated process focused on bridging the gap between building stakeholders achieving sustainability in buildings. Ultimately, the framework is hoped to guide professionals in the design of energy-efficient buildings and assist institutions on policy guidelines.

When Environmental Inequality Racialized: Historical Evidence from Providence, Rhode Island

The authors use multiple logistic regression techniques to investigate whether individuals’ occupation, nativity, race, and ethnicity predict residential proximity to large-scale energy infrastructure in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1880 and 1930. Results indicate that in 1880, environmental risks associated with urban energy infrastructure fell most heavily on working-class immigrants; by 1930, those risks disproportionately affected the city’s small population of African American and Latinx residents. Across this 50-year span, environmental inequality racialized such that Providence’s gas lines effectively came to describe the city’s sharpening color line. The article concludes with a discussion of how a historical perspective can help clarify the dynamic relationship between environmental risk and urbanization in the (re)production of racial, ethnic, and economic inequality.

A Systematic Methodology for Design of Sustainable Urban Neighborhood Energy Infrastructure

The growing share of global energy consumption by cities (currently over 65%) raises the requirements for a systematic holistic approach for designing urban energy infrastructure in order to ensure its sustainability. A literature review of state-of-the-art modeling of urban energy infrastructure design emphasized the incomprehensive sustainability of the performed evaluations, as they accounted for several aspects of sustainability but missed others. Omitting important aspects can have significant implications which can put the sustainability of the energy infrastructure at risk. In this study, we attempted to develop a comprehensive model for designing sustainable energy infrastructure for urban districts, which accounts for the four aspects of sustainability: social, technical, environmental, and economic. The model is based on a four-step methodology: district characterization, a technological survey for distributed generation and energy storage, selecting suitable technologies according to social and technical criteria, and simulations of different energy infrastructure configurations to find the most suitable configurations basing on economic and environmental criteria. The research includes a case study in which the model was implemented for the Technion campus in Haifa. The developed model proved to be a comprehensive, efficient, and versatile tool for designing urban energy infrastructure.

Urban cells: Extending the energy hub concept to facilitate sector and spatial coupling

• The concept of the urban cell is introduced. • Novel concept help to design interconnected energy infrastructure. • Both sectoral and spatial coupling is considered. • A novel computational model based on modular approach is introduced. • It was shown urban cell concept reduces cost by 37%. • It was shown urban cell concept increases renewable energy capacity by 25%. The rapid growth of urban areas and concerns over climate change make it vital to improve the energy sustainability of cities. Understanding the complex interactions within different sectors (sectoral) and localities (spatial) of cities plays a crucial role in improving efficiency and sustainability, which is extremely challenging due to the complex urban morphology. State-of-the-art energy concepts do not facilitate a detailed consideration of both sectoral and spatial coupling that energy infrastructure maintains at the urban scale. This has become a significant challenge when designing interconnected urban energy infrastructure. The Urban Cell concept is introduced to address this bottleneck. A novel computational model using a modular approach is introduced to create an interconnected urban infrastructure, including the energy, building, and transportation sectors. Optimal sizing of the distributed energy system (including renewables, energy storage, and dispatchable sources) and optimal urban morphology is determined within a modular unit. A game-theoretic approach is used to model the interactions between urban cells (modular units). The study revealed that the urban cell concept can reduce the net present value of the interconnected energy infrastructure by 37% while increasing the installed renewable energy capacity by 25%. This demonstrates the benefit potential of urban cells and the importance of considering interactions between different sectors and different parts within a city. The Urban Cell concept can be used to present the complex interactions maintained within a city.

Investment Planning Methodology for Complex Urban Energy Systems Applied to a Hospital Site

Industrial process integration based on mixed integer linear programming has been used for decades to design and improve industrial processes. The technique has later been extended to solve multi-period and multi-scale problems for the design of urban energy systems. Assistance is indeed required for the elaboration of coordinated investment scheduling strategies to promote renewable and efficient urban energy infrastructure shaping the future energy context for the next decades. Major energy consumers, such as hospital complexes, airports, or educational campuses can act as a driving force for the development of renewable energy cities by attracting profitable large-scale energy networks and infrastructure. The proposed methodology generates optimal alternatives for the replacement, in a long-term perspective, of the various energy supply units and systems considering the evolution of the energy demand and the availability of the energy resources. Energy integration techniques are coupled to a parametric multi-objective optimization routine to select and size the energy equipment with both financial profitability and CO2 emission reduction as objectives. The originality of the developed method lies in the integration of a multi-period mixed integer linear programming formulation to generate long-term investment planning scenarios. The method has been demonstrated on a complex of eight hospitals totaling 466,000 m2 and an operating budget of 1.85 billion USD per year. The energy integration of new centralized and decentralized equipment has been evaluated on a monthly basis over four periods until the year 2035. The results show that among the four scenarios identified, the most optimistic alternative allows to decrease the final energy consumption of about 36%, cut the CO2 emissions by a half, multiply the renewable energy share by a factor 3.5 while reducing the annual total cost by 24%. This scenario considers mainly the integration of a very low temperature district heating with decentralized heat pumps to satisfy the heat requirements below 75°C, as well as heat recovery systems and the refurbishment of about 33% of the building stock.

Towards climate resilient urban energy systems: a review.

Climate change and increased urban population are two major concerns for society. Moving towards more sustainable energy solutions in the urban context by integrating renewable energy technologies supports decarbonizing the energy sector and climate change mitigation. A successful transition also needs adequate consideration of climate change including extreme events to ensure the reliable performance of energy systems in the long run. This review provides an overview of and insight into the progress achieved in the energy sector to adapt to climate change, focusing on the climate resilience of urban energy systems. The state-of-the-art methodology to assess impacts of climate change including extreme events and uncertainties on the design and performance of energy systems is described and discussed. Climate resilience is an emerging concept that is increasingly used to represent the durability and stable performance of energy systems against extreme climate events. However, it has not yet been adequately explored and widely used, as its definition has not been clearly articulated and assessment is mostly based on qualitative aspects. This study reveals that a major limitation in the state-of-the-art is the inadequacy of climate change adaptation approaches in designing and preparing urban energy systems to satisfactorily address plausible extreme climate events. Furthermore, the complexity of the climate and energy models and the mismatch between their temporal and spatial resolutions are the major limitations in linking these models. Therefore, few studies have focused on the design and operation of urban energy infrastructure in terms of climate resilience. Considering the occurrence of extreme climate events and increasing demand for implementing climate adaptation strategies, the study highlights the importance of improving energy system models to consider future climate variations including extreme events to identify climate resilient energy transition pathways.

Configurations of renewable power generation in cities using open source approaches: With Philadelphia case study

In this paper, an open source tool is introduced to represent urban energy infrastructure in the City of Philadelphia, and different renewable energy scenarios are compared with respect to minimization of the standard deviation of the residual load. Renewable energy sources play a critical role in the world’s ongoing energy transition in response to climate change. Urban Energy Systems may be particularly sensitive to this transition due to the high energy demand density associated with urban environments. Open energy analysis and modeling tools can provide important information that can be used by urban energy planners, policy makers, and other stakeholders during this transition. In the present study, we apply FlexiGIS, an open energy modeling tool developed in a European context, to a case study in the City of Philadelphia. Due to the importance of open access to energy data, we pay particular attention to open energy data sources. Notably, OpenStreetMap was incomplete in its spatial coverage, but alternate open data resources were identified. This work conducts an optimization of the renewable energy mix to minimize the amount of balancing energy required for the residual load. We observe that Philadelphia has an optimal mix of renewables that favors a roughly even share of wind and solar, but that, compared to a previous case study in Oldenburg, Germany, requires more balancing energy at comparable levels of renewable penetration.

Development of a GIS-based platform for the allocation and optimisation of distributed storage in urban energy systems

As the world is already highly urbanised, energy systems in cities are already responsible for significant amount of the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, climate change mitigation demands a fundamental transformation in the Urban Energy Systems (UES), energy markets and energy policies. In this context, the large shift to micro-generation from renewable energy sources and their integration in the current energy system are a technical challenge for future energy systems design and operation. This will be further exacerbated if flexibilisation technologies such as storage are not efficiently integrated. For this purpose, an accurate modelling and representation of UES requires the characterisation of different urban energy requirements. These requirements, along with the urban fabric of cities, should be adequately incorporated in a spatial-temporal framework including both static and dynamic datasets. In this context, urban energy models provide policymakers with qualitative and quantitative insights for the planning of future UES. Within this framework, urban energy models integrated in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will play an important role due to their multi-layer approach.This study introduces an open source GIS-based platform called FlexiGIS for the optimisation of energy systems in cities. FlexiGIS is used in this contribution to optimally allocate distributed battery storage in urban areas. The FlexiGIS platform provides the urban energy infrastructure (spatial dimension), simulates electricity consumption and generation (spatial and temporal dimension) and performs a linear optimisation for the economic deployment of micro-generation and decentralised storage under different energy scenarios. The first case study considers the city as a single system or ‘energy cell’, while the second one assumes that the city is divided into connected subsystems or districts. The total UES costs and required storage capacities for the investigated scenarios are obtained using optimisation. A key finding is that, for the investigated scenarios, investing in local electricity storage and renewable power generation can significantly reduce the total system costs and increase urban self-sufficiency. This study also highlights that the off-grid scenario (isolated city) is not an optimal choice.

The urban material politics of decarbonization in Stockholm, London and San Francisco

This paper examines the implementation of carbon governance initiatives targeting urban buildings and energy infrastructure and uses a material politics approach to evaluate whether these practices are triggering trajectories towards decarbonization. Urban low carbon transitions suggest a substantial re-ordering of urban infrastructure. However, there is a critical need to engage with the material implications of low carbon practices since research so far has painted a picture of incremental ambitions struggling in implementation. This paper interrogates how carbon governance is implemented through urban buildings and energy systems, and the implications for urban decarbonization, by drawing on three urban case studies: Stockholm, London and San Francisco. The analysis draws on interviews with representatives from government, industry, utilities, building owners, and non-governmental organizations who are striving to achieve decarbonization in their cities. Patterns are emerging in what is being made to matter politically through the translation of carbon governance into building-energy infrastructure. In particular, the paper finds that (1) a short-term decision making timeline encourages action that incrementally reduces greenhouse gas emissions without fundamentally overcoming carbon lock-in, (2) actors are harnessing exceptional urban space to overcome the tyranny of cost-effectiveness in maintaining fossil fuel entrenchment (with concerning implications for justice and uneven development), (3) there is a pattern of individualization of responsibility for decarbonization, and (4) material politics are limiting the application of low carbon retrofits for the existing built form. Overall, this paper examines the implementation of urban carbon governance while encompassing the messy, materially embedded, and contested nature of infrastructure transformations.

From sustainable to smart: Re-branding or re-assembling urban energy infrastructure?

Visions of sustainable cities have increasingly been substituted by the ambition to become a ‘smart city’ in recent years. Ongoing scholarly discussions often focus on how sustainability and ‘smartness’ relate to each other conceptually, to which extent smart city technologies contribute to making cities more sustainable, and calls to prioritise social issues over technology. The questions of how this ‘shift to smart’ has unfolded, and how it has reshaped strategies and interventions to make cities and their energy infrastructures more sustainable, have however been much less investigated. The aim of this article is to zoom in on the dynamics of such a shift from sustainable to smart. The cities of Malmö and Graz have strong profiles as sustainable cities and have both begun to use smart city branding. We build our analysis on argumentative discourse theory and the concept of socio-material assemblages. Along with a discursive shift from sustainable cities to smart cities, we also observe changes in institutions and socio-material practices. We identify appropriation and colonisation as two dynamics that characterise the relations between assemblages of sustainable and smart cities. We conclude that even when smart city discourses are appropriated by actors in existing sustainable city assemblages, the discursive shift might eventually allow smart city assemblages to colonise existing institutions and socio-material practices. But the shift does not take place through explicit controversy between two discourse coalitions, and it therefore remains important to further investigate the conditions that allow for a change in dynamics from appropriation to colonisation.

The urban resource nexus: On the politics of relationality, water–energy infrastructure and the fallacy of integration

The ‘resource nexus’ has emerged over the past decade as an important new paradigm of environmental governance, which emphasises the interconnections, tensions and synergies between sectors that have traditionally been managed separately. Nexus thinking presents itself as a radically new approach to integrated governance in response to interconnected socio-environmental challenges and constraints. This paper provides a critical review of nexus thinking. The nexus paradigm, we contend, is part of a broader trend towards integrated environmental governance where previously externalised ‘bad’ nature is increasingly internalised by capital. In general, the nexus discourse has become techno-managerial in style, linear in its analysis and reductionist in its recommendations. Focussing particularly on urban water and energy infrastructure as important political sites in the (re)configuration of resource connectivities, we advance two principal arguments. Firstly, that the current nexus thinking inadequately conceptualises the scalar politics of interconnections between resource sectors. Secondly, we challenge the currently pervasive focus on technological and institutional ‘solutions’, efficiency-oriented ecological modernist vision and the presentation of ‘integration’ as a panacea for unsustainable resource practices.

FlexiGIS: an open source GIS-based platform for the optimisation of flexibility options in urban energy systems

Climate change mitigation requires a fundamental transformation in the power supply system particularly in cities. Urban energy models integrated in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been playing a central role in shaping this transformation. In this regards, openness and transparency have been recently gaining a prominent importance and attracting increasing political interest. As renewables share has grown to high levels in cities, flexibilisation options including storage become vital to ensure a reliable, affordable and sustainable Urban Electricity System (UES). Energy modelling provides policymakers with qualitative and quantitative insights required for the planning and operation of future UES. Hence, the representation of UES requires an appropriate characterisation of different urban energy requirements that should be adequately incorporated in a spatial-temporal framework including both static and dynamic datasets. This paper introduces an open GIS-based platform for the optimisation of flexibility options costs and operation in urban areas. The platform reproduces the urban energy infrastructure (spatial dimension), simulates demand and supply (spatial and temporal dimension) and performs a linear programming optimisation to explore scenarios for the economic deployment of micro-generation and decentralised storage. The total UES costs and required storage capacities for different urban energy scenarios are investigated here. A key finding of this contribution is that investing in local electricity storage and on-site renewable power generation can significantly reduce the total system costs and increase urban self-sufficiency. The developed platform is showcased for the city of Oldenburg.

OpenStreetMap data in modelling the urban energy infrastructure: a first assessment and analysis

Energizing the future energy systems requires comprehensive understanding at the urban level. However, many uncertainties hinder such goals, leastwise the data and tools used in modeling urban energy systems (UES). Urban Energy Modeling including spatial parameters of urban forms and settlements can lead to more sustainable approaches in computational simulations. Moreover, scientific policy advice requires that models and data to be transparent and prepared in an unbiased manner. Hence, benchmarking the quality criteria of open source datasets like OpenStreetMap (OSM) data is needed. This contribution introduces UES modelling and its data requirements for different application sectors. Further, it extends and provides a first assessment of OSM data which is used in modeling energy systems in cities. This data was previously used in the context of a UES model developed by the authors. A main conclusion is that although many OSM features are missing and cannot be extracted from OSM, these datasets constitute a great source of open data which can contribute to a more sustainable and transparent modelling.

Estimation of the building energy use intensity in the urban scale by integrating GIS and big data technology

Buildings are the major source of energy consumption in urban areas. Accurate modeling and forecasting of the building energy use intensity (EUI) in the urban scale have many important applications, such as energy benchmarking and urban energy infrastructure planning. The use of Big Data technology is expected to have the capability of integrating a large number of predictors and giving an accurate prediction of the energy use intensity of buildings in the urban scale. However, past research has often used Big Data technology in estimating energy consumption of a single building rather than the urban scale, due to several challenges such as data collection and feature engineering. This paper therefore proposes a geographic information system integrated data mining methodology framework for estimating the building EUI in the urban scale, including preprocessing, feature selection, and algorithm optimization. Based on 216 prepared features, a case study on estimating the site EUI of 3640 multi-family residential buildings in New York City, was tested and validated using the proposed methodology framework. A comparative study on the feature selection strategies and the commonly used regression algorithms was also included in the case study. The results show that the framework was able to help produce lower estimation errors than previous research, and the model built by the Support Vector Regression algorithm on the features selected by Elastic Net has the least cross-validation mean squared error.

‘We Live on Estimates': Everyday Practices of Prepaid Electricity and the Urban Condition in Maputo, Mozambique

AbstractThis article examines the transition to prepaid electricity happening in Maputo, Mozambique, in order to reflect on the contemporary geographies of urban energy infrastructure and urbanization in sub‐Saharan Africa and other cities of the South. The article draws on fieldwork and archival research conducted in 2013 and 2014, arguing that prepayment constitutes a productive juncture in the urban experience of electricity infrastructure in Maputo's postcolonial moment, not merely a neutral technology or a disciplining technique of government (as argued by some scholarship). The article examines the multiple rationalities implicated in the use of the electricity infrastructure via prepayment and the organization of urban life it engenders (and of which it is also a product) by focusing on the everyday practices surrounding prepaid electricity of urban dwellers in neighbourhoods where the ‘modern infrastructural ideal' may never be fully realized. As a result, it contributes to an understanding of the experience of urban energy in cities where ‘slum urbanism', uncertainty and provisionality are dominant aspects of the urban condition.

Greater Philadelphia and Tianjin Economic Development Area EcoPartnership on urban clean energy infrastructure

The Greater Philadelphia (PHL)-Tianjin Economic-technological Development Area (TEDA) collaboration joined the U.S.-China EcoPartnerships program in July 2014 to jumpstart innovative “Urban Clean Energy Infrastructure” solutions in both regions. This unique combination of real-world technology demonstrations and product showcases will get viable new infrastructure breakthroughs quickly into Chinese and U.S. markets once the EcoPartnership is fully underway. The past year has been spent down-selecting priority technologies and demonstration sites, and the partnership is getting ready to initiate its initial three pilot projects. Urban clean energy infrastructure is a sizable, and yet largely untapped opportunity. The PHL-TEDA EcoPartnership can serve as an important sub-national resource to assist municipalities integrate, at the practical level, their U.S.-China Sustainable City planning efforts with commercially relevant, on-the-ground urban infrastructure project experience.