How heritage cities can sustain everyday living support while preserving historical value is a central question in sustainable urban governance. Existing studies have focused mainly on heritage identification, conservation performance, or tourism development but have paid less attention to how relatively fixed heritage endowments are converted into contemporary living support. This study examines 143 national historical and cultural cities in China. It develops a fixed heritage endowment index (fixed HEI) and comparable living support indices (comparable LSI) for 2012 and 2022. Within a dual-scale framework of 5km grids and city/county units, Markov transition matrices, transition type profiling, and XGBoost-SHAP are combined to identify living support conversion in high-heritage resource units and its associated conditions. The share of nonzero LSI grids increased from 45.58% in 2012 to 61.27% in 2022, indicating an expansion of observable living support intensity under a harmonized POI framework rather than a precise increase in the absolute stock of facilities. In the high-resource sample, 70.22% of the HL grids remained HL, 29.78% shifted to HH, and 98.97% of the HH grids remained stable. The main model-based association structure focused on road network density, the impervious surface area ratio, and population density, and spatial lag robustness checks further revealed that neighborhood road network density provided additional explanatory information. These results show that high heritage endowments do not automatically translate into high levels of living support. This study moves research on historic cities from static resource evaluation to resource conversion diagnosis and suggests that heritage city governance should shift from resource identification to the governance of resource conversion capacity.

This study aimed to analyze healthy and sustainable city-related news articles in South Korea to identify key themes in media discourse and their temporal changes, and to examine their alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This was a retrospective observational study using text mining and topic modeling of news articles from a nationwide news database spanning 2004-2024. News articles (n = 15,137) containing the term "healthy city" were collected from the BIGKinds news big data system. After data preprocessing, Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling was applied to identify main themes. Topic temporal changes were analyzed through linear trend analysis, and topics were evaluated for SDG relevance. Ten main topics were identified through topic modeling: eight related to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and two to SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). Topics showing significant increase over time included urban planning, policy governance, and policy evaluation. Interest decreased significantly in region-specific development, physical activity infrastructure, and local tourism. Notable gaps were found in addressing WHO-emphasized SDGs 2, 6, 12, and 13. South Korean media discourse on healthy cities has shifted from physical infrastructure development to urban planning and governance. While strongly aligned with SDG 11, findings suggest the need for a more balanced approach that addresses gaps in environmental sustainability while maintaining effective governance.

ABSTRACT This article situates the growing importance of cities in migrant and refugee emplacement within the mutations and contestations of neoliberal urbanism and shifting forms of state power under the changing conjuncture of neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on ethnographic research on temporary protection regime for displaced Ukrainians in Vienna and extractive reconstruction following urban warfare in Nusaybin it examines how governing the displaced through top-down emergency laws and regulations has become a key arena for reshaping urban and state power. It explores the tensions between municipal and central authorities to scrutinize the ambiguous role of urban governments and the ways in which the governance of displacement is mobilized to establish new urban orders with particular attention to the increasing involvement and control of state authority. The article highlights how racialized hierarchies and ethnicity are entangled with the expansion of authoritarian rule in governing the cities and the displaced of populations.

This article explores the conditions of risk action by examining why acknowledged seismic risk often fails to generate participation in collective risk reduction measures. Drawing on the case of housing renewal in Istanbul, Türkiye, it argues that seismic risk does not operate as a continuous motivational force but as a latent condition whose influence is activated only when specific agency-enabling thresholds are crossed. Rather than interpreting non-action as a deficit of risk perception, the study demonstrates how constrained feasibility, institutional uncertainty, and threatened social continuity delimit households’ capacity to act, rendering risk practically secondary. The analysis is based on an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. Qualitative dimensions are tested through a field survey experiment, combining ordered logit modelling with a randomised gain–loss framing vignette under fixed risk and cost conditions. The findings show that seismic risk remains behaviourally dormant unless households perceive renewal as feasible, institutionally credible, and socially sustainable. Economic capacity emerges as a binding precondition for action, while trust in proximate implementing institutions conditions willingness independently of general state trust. Experimental results demonstrate that informational framing does not mobilise action in the presence of binding constraints. Gain framing increases willingness only among financially constrained households by reconfiguring feasibility, while loss framing fails to produce behavioural change. The article contributes to risk research by re-specifying the role of risk in collective decision-making. It introduces the concept of a risk action threshold, showing that risk becomes consequential only after agency constraints are relaxed. This perspective explains the systematic underperformance of awareness-based and nudge-oriented policies in urban risk governance and redirects attention from persuasion toward the institutional and material conditions that make risk actionable.

ABSTRACT Rapid urbanization in India has intensified the need for decentralized renewable energy solutions, particularly residential rooftop solar systems. Despite dense multilevel institutional support frameworks, adoption trajectories remain uneven across cities. This paper examines the recent deceleration in residential rooftop solar growth in Pune, India, a city widely regarded as a high-performing urban solar market, to address a central question: why does diffusion plateau in institutionally proactive urban contexts despite sustained policy support? Using qualitative cross-stakeholder analysis and embedding the case within a multilevel institutional framework, the study traces a shift from an early phase of incentive-led uptake among well-resourced homeowners to a later stage in which interagency coordination gaps, regulatory revisions, and procedural complexity became increasingly consequential. Although stakeholders frequently cited economic barriers such as upfront costs and payback periods, these constraints were closely linked to institutional design features, including subsidy disbursement processes and compliance requirements. The findings suggest that sustaining decentralized energy transitions beyond early adoption depends less on expanding financial incentives and more on stabilizing governance architecture and reducing administrative friction. By conceptualizing sluggish adoption as institutionally mediated outcomes, the article advances urban governance scholarship on multilevel coordination and the durability of sustainability transitions in rapidly urbanizing contexts.

ABSTRACT This study examines how citizens participate in urban local governance in India, focusing on everyday forms of engagement, levels of involvement, and the structural barriers that shape participation. Using a mixed-methods approach, it draws on survey and interview data from citizens, ward committee members, and elected representatives across selected urban wards. The findings suggest that political parties play a decisive role in shaping participation, often mediating who participates and how. Although ward committees were created to deepen citizen involvement, they frequently function in symbolic rather than substantive ways. Digital tools, especially social media, have widened access to information, but this rarely translates into sustained or meaningful engagement. Despite India’s long-standing participatory framework, obstacles persist, including political interference, limited fiscal autonomy, weak outreach, and citizens’ time and motivation constraints. The study offers practical insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to strengthen inclusive, responsive, and accountable urban governance.

Three-dimensional green quantity (3DGQ) mapping and integrated 2D-3D assessment reveal hidden urban green deficits and inequities.

The housing sector in major cities is facing escalating challenges due to rapid population growth and land scarcity. Consequently, vertical growth has been adopted as a strategic solution to optimize land use while balancing economic, social, and environmental needs. This study examines the phenomenon of vertical growth of the Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA) in Saudi Arabia, from an urban sustainability perspective, focusing on evaluating the current state of multi-story buildings, their determinants, and their impact on quality of life and infrastructure efficiency. This study utilizes a systematic review methodology and a conceptual approach to develop an integrated framework for sustainable vertical growth. Furthermore, an empirical validation was conducted by projecting this framework onto vertical housing projects in Dammam, focusing on challenges related to design, construction quality, shared service management, and the suitability of apartments for family needs. The results indicate that the shift toward vertical growth achieves land-use efficiency, limits random horizontal expansion, and provides economic opportunities. However, it faces social and cultural constraints, most notably the resistance of some families to changing traditional ownership patterns, limited privacy and green spaces, and challenges in building maintenance and operations. The study highlights the importance of integrating urban planning, governance, architectural design, and infrastructure to ensure the sustainability of vertical growth and provide suitable housing alternatives. The study recommends further field research to assess social acceptance, improve quality-of-life indicators, and develop policies encouraging sustainable vertical expansion in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030 and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring cities are more resilient, efficient, sustainable, and liveable.

ABSTRACT This article examines citizen science as situated urban politics in Siena, Italy, through two initiatives engaging students, residents, migrants, volunteers, and researchers in documenting everyday urban life and river ecosystems. Drawing on ethnographic engagement, data walks, and interviews, we argue that citizen science produces more than data: it becomes a relational practice through which participants negotiate belonging, enact presence, and challenge epistemic hierarchies in urban governance. The article shows how digital platforms both enable participation and act as epistemic gatekeepers, making friction a diagnostic and transformative force for more responsive urban knowledge practices.

ABSTRACT Why do formally similar multi‐level governance arrangements produce different governance outcomes in urban climate and transport policy? This article examines variation in governance performance across three metropolitan regions in Norway operating under the national Urban Growth Agreement (UGA) framework and pursuing the shared objective of zero growth in private car traffic. Drawing on participatory observation of steering group meetings, three rounds of elite interviews, and document analysis, the study analyzes how polycentric governance operates in practice. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework and Carlisle and Gruby's concept of enabling conditions, it argues that variation in governance performance is explained less by whether enabling conditions are present than by how they are configured across decision arenas. The findings identify three governance configurations: one characterized by structured bargaining and distributive tensions, one by stable coordination supported by technical expertise and consensus‐oriented procedures, and one by consensus‐constrained adaptation shaped by territorial balancing. The findings show that institutional configurations of enabling conditions shape adaptive capacity, institutional fit, and redundancy in polycentric urban climate governance systems.

ABSTRACT Climate-induced mobility in African cities is often portrayed as a rational adaptive response to environmental stress, a framing that obscures the gendered, spatial, and institutional forces shaping who moves, who stays, and who is left behind. Using feminist and participatory methods, this study examines women’s experiences in four climate-vulnerable informal settlements in Accra: Agbogbloshie, Chorkor, Glefe, and Odawna. Insights from gender-segregated focus group discussions and key informant interviews reveal that adaptation emerges not from formal planning but through everyday labour, including carrying children through floodwaters, elevating belongings, and maintaining networks of mutual care. Despite being central to household and community resilience, women’s work remains largely invisible to planners. Mobility is seldom protective, while immobility shaped by poverty, caregiving roles, and insecure tenure can heighten risk. Institutional responses remain fragmented and gender-blind, highlighting the need for urban climate governance grounded in feminist ethics and local knowledge.

An urban and rural spatial governance effectiveness evaluation system based on AI and multimodal data

ABSTRACT This article frames urbicide as a quintessential manifestation of urban commodification, evidenced by the destruction of the built environment and the erasure of social practices that do not align with the accumulation of urban rent. Using the Cerdà Plan as a historical point of departure, the study situates contemporary urbicidal processes within a broader genealogy of the hygienist and utopian urbanism inherent to 19th-century planning ideals. The research analyzes the transformation of Barcelona’s waterfront through two emblematic case studies: the construction of the Olympic Village for the 1992 Olympic Games and the current redevelopment of the Olympic Port for the 2024 America’s Cup. Drawing on architectural ethnography, the paper unpacks how urbicidal logics continue to underpin urban renewal strategies. The findings highlight key dimensions of this process, including the destruction of industrial heritage, the disruption of long-standing neighborhood dynamics, the privatization of urban governance, and the deployment of architectural discourse to pursue utopian visions that divorce design from lived urban reality. The article concludes by advocating for an urbanism rooted in lived experience as a vital strategy to resist and counteract urbicidal tendencies.

IMPACT This article offers important practical insights for policy-makers, cultural managers, and urban governance practitioners. It moves beyond theoretical critique to highlight how non-convergent relationships between powerful organizations, public authorities, and civic actors can transform potential goods into contested and rival resources. For professionals working in fragile urban contexts, the study provides a roadmap to understanding the governance pitfalls of large-scale institutions. Most importantly, the authors identify the regulatory design of concessions as a primary site of institutional friction. By demonstrating how standard concession models can block grassroots participation, the findings call for a shift toward context-sensitive regulatory frameworks that transcend New Public Management constraints. This research serves as a catalyst for reforming concessionary models and institutional arrangements, advocating for governance structures that are inherently dialogic and capable of supporting the ‘urban commons’ rather than merely managing cultural assets.

ABSTRACT As China transitions from rapid urbanisation to high-quality urban renewal, design governance has emerged as a critical approach to fostering sustainable, inclusive urban development. This study proposes an integrated framework that combines design governance with pattern language theory, emphasising the leading role of universities as intellectual agencies in this process. By analysing the shared characteristics of design governance and pattern language – structured processes, integration of top-down and bottom-up inputs, adaptability, collective engagement, and actionable tools, this research develops a methodological framework to address contemporary urban challenges. Using Shenzhen’s barrier-free city planning in Jiahua New Village community as a case study, the framework demonstrates how universities can lead collaborative, iterative design governance processes. The findings highlight universities’ capacity to mediate stakeholder interests, produce knowledge, and develop accessible tools, ensuring sustainable, community-driven urban governance. This study offers practical and theoretical insights for advancing sustainable design governance in China.

Climate driven drought risk and machine learning approaches for urban resilience and sustainable water governance.

Professional Approaches to Street Vending Management: Toward Inclusive Urban Governance in Bangkok1

Urban inequality and the financialization of housing call for a reconsideration of centralized municipal finance. This study introduces Decentralized Behavioral Finance (DBF), a framework integrating behavioral economics, blockchain infrastructures, and participatory governance to realign individual incentives with collective urban outcomes. Grounded in Sen's capability approach, Nash equilibrium theory, and libertarian paternalism, DBF links tokenization and behavioral design to accessibility, capital efficiency, and cooperative stability. Using longitudinal data for Spain (2000–2024) and evidence from tokenized housing initiatives, the analysis shows that citizen participation and technological adoption are positively associated with governance stability and social housing outcomes, while capital concentration exhibits a negative relationship with stability. The paper advances a formal Cooperative Stability Condition, expressed as a structural inequality, under which decentralized governance remains stable when participation amplified by technological enforcement outweighs concentration pressures. By introducing a testable equilibrium condition rather than a descriptive governance model, the study offers an internationally transferable framework for participatory urban finance focused on transparency, inclusion, and institutional resilience. • Introduces a formal Cooperative Stability Condition for urban governance • Integrates behavioral economics and blockchain in municipal finance • Shows participation × technology offsets capital concentration • Provides longitudinal evidence (Spain, 2000–2024) • Proposes a transferable equilibrium framework for cities

Accurate prediction of urban land use changes at fine spatial scales is essential for developing healthy and sustainable cities, yet traditional simulation models struggle to capture local dynamics due to limited availability of fine-grained data and insufficient complexity in modeling urban systems. To address these limitations, we propose a novel approach that leverages advances in pre-trained vision-language foundation models combined with spatial dynamic modeling to forecast detailed urban land use patterns. Specifically, we collected a spatially dense collection of street view images (SVIs) throughout Shenzhen, China, and applied UrbanCLIP, a specialized vision-language prompting framework, to perform zero-shot inference of urban land use directly from images without labeled datasets and model retraining. The resulting fine-grained classifications delineate eight distinct urban land use types, producing a detailed urban functional map. These high-resolution patterns were then integrated into a spatial dynamic model enhanced by polynomial regression to simulate urban evolution toward 2035. This approach effectively captures neighborhood influences, socioeconomic drivers, and urban planning policies. Our simulation provides actionable insights for sustainable development in Shenzhen by identifying areas for balanced growth, targeted infrastructure investments, and ecological preservation. Compared to conventional methods, our methodology significantly improves predictive accuracy and spatial granularity. By incorporating foundation models, our approach addresses traditional data constraints, offering scalable and robust tools for informed urban governance and decision-making. • Proposed a VLM-enhanced framework to predict fine-grained urban land use changes. • Achieved zero-shot land use inference based on street view images. • Produced high-resolution simulations of Shenzhen's urban dynamics toward 2035.

Neighborhoods are critical arenas where urban form, accessibility, and daily life intersect, yet most megacities rely on coarse administrative boundaries that obscure local spatial and social dynamics. There is a persistent gap in objective, multicriteria, and data-driven methods for defining neighborhoods and supporting local planning. This paper proposes a transferable, data-light framework that clusters urban blocks into contiguous neighborhood units, contributing to a consistent socioterritorial definition. The framework incorporates barrier-aware adjacency constraints, PCA and multi-index/ARI-stability evidence based protocol to enable urban delineation. The method integrates three key planning dimensions: (A) built environment, (B) accessibility, and (C) sociodemographic context. After standardization and dimensionality reduction via Principal PCA, clustering is performed using three different algorithms. The algorithm dynamically adjusts the k-optimal value for each case. Applied to São Paulo, a 11.4-million–inhabitant city in Brazil, results indicate distance to high-capacity public transit as the most influential factor, correlating strongly with land value and commercial-service concentration. Population density remains relevant but not deterministic, underscoring the importance of a multi-criteria approach to neighborhood analysis. The clustering reveals socio-spatially cohesive areas that cut across formal administrative boundaries, exposing neighborhood-scale structures often obscured in conventional planning units. Core transit-rich clusters concentrate up to 75% of built area in commercial or service use, while peripheral zones remain underserved. The framework identifies neighborhood areas of influence that can support the delineation of reference perimeters for guiding the public policies, and offers planners a flexible tool for neighborhood-scale policy design, inclusive urban governance, and equitable spatial interventions. • Delimits objectively neighborhoods through unsupervised learning method • Replicable clustering approach strengthens neighborhood delineation in cities • Multi-metric clustering and validation method to analyse urban dynamics • São Paulo application evidences clustering’s relevance to neighborhood planning • Results showed strong alignment between cluster patterns and transit accessibility