Urban Governance Research Articles

Trade-offs and synergies pattern evolution of ecosystem structure-resilience-activity-services (SRAS) in the Belt and Road Initiative region

This study develops an analytical framework comprising “ecosystem pattern – trade-off and synergy process – multidimensional response mechanism – future risk management” to investigate the evolution of trade-off and synergy patterns of SRAS performance and its sustainability among BRI nations and 80 representative cities. The synergistic levels of SRAS in BRI countries declined, but will increase in the future, the increased trend of BRI cities will transfer to decline in the future. The interaction of multi-dimensional human urban activities could achieve a stronger impact on SRAS performance synergies of BRI countries and cities, and the PD-LU and PD-ED were the dominant interaction influence chains, respectively. This study was the first one to holistically reveal the evolution of trade-off and synergy patterns of SRAS performances, at both nation and city levels, in the BRI region. It also contributes new perspectives from the BRI region to the sustainable urban planning, terrestrial ecosystems conservation, and urban ecological governance programs.

Urban low-carbon governance and ecological efficiency: new evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

IntroductionIn the search for sustainable development, urban eco-development is becoming a core agenda for all countries. China’s low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy is an important initiative to promote urban low-carbon governance. And exploring the direction of LCCP policy is an important step towards sustainable urban development.MethodsSuper-SBM is employed to calculate urban ecological efficiency using panel data from 254 prefecture-level cities between 2007 and 2020. The methods of kernel density estimation and spatial Markov chains are applied to the spatial analysis of urban ecological efficiency. The spatial analyses examine the spatiotemporal patterns and dynamic evolving trends of urban ecological efficiency. Additionally, the multiperiod difference-in-differences method is used to assess the impact of the LCCP policy on urban ecological efficiency. On this basis, we apply the method of mechanism analysis to discuss the influence mechanism.ResultsThe results indicate that urban ecological efficiency gradually forms a continuous spatial clustering pattern, although there is a widening tendency in the absolute differences. In the subsequent transfer process, the spatial factor plays a highly significant role. Benchmark regressions and auxiliary robustness tests demonstrate that the LCCP policy is effective in improving urban ecological efficiency. Further analysis shows that the effect of LCCP policies on ecological efficiency can be transmitted by promoting green technology innovation as well as facilitating a low-carbon transition in the energy mix. The above findings indicate the presence of the "Green Innovation Effect" and the "Decoupling Effect".DiscussionThese discoveries enhance the theoretical framework of urban ecology and offer valuable insights for other regions seeking to implement low-carbon urban governance.

Evaluating coupling coordination between urban smart performance and low-carbon level in China’s pilot cities with mixed methods

The construction models of smart cities and low-carbon cities are crucial for advancing global urbanization, enhancing urban governance, and addressing major urban challenges. Despite significant advancements in smart and low-carbon city research, a consensus on their coupling coordination remains elusive. This study employs mixed-method research, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses, to investigate the coupling coordination between urban smart performance (SCP) and low-carbon level (LCL) across 52 typical smart and low-carbon pilot cities in China. Independent evaluation models for SCP and LCL qualitatively assess the current state of smart and low-carbon city construction. Additionally, an Entropy–TOPSIS–Pearson correlation–Coupling coordination degree (ETPC) analysis model quantitatively examines their relationship. The results reveal that smart city initiatives in China significantly outperform low-carbon city development, with notable disparities in SCP and LCL between eastern, non-resource-based, and central cities versus western, resource-dependent, and peripheral cities. A strong positive correlation exists between urban SCP and overall LCL, with significant correlations in management, society, and economy, and moderate to weak correlations in environmental quality and culture. As SCP levels improve, the coupling coordination degree between the urban SCP and LCL systems also increases, driven primarily by economic, management, and societal factors. Conversely, the subsystems of low-carbon culture and environmental quality show poorer integration. Based on these findings, this study proposes an evaluation system for smart and low-carbon coupling coordination development, outlining pathways for future development from the perspective of urban complex systems.

The Role of Diversified Geo-Information Technologies in Urban Governance: A Literature Review

Global urbanization has made urban governance a crucial aspect of sustainable urban development. While geo-information technologies have emerged as indispensable tools for effective urban governance, a comprehensive analysis of their application in this context remains lacking. This study seeks to review and assess the pivotal role of geo-information technologies in the field of urban governance. A total of 219 related studies were used for bibliometric analysis and key content analysis. Planning Support Systems (PSSs), Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGISs), Building Information Modeling (BIM), and City Information Modeling (CIM) are identified as the main information technologies progressively employed across diverse stages of urban planning and construction over recent decades. These advancements have propelled the digital and intelligent management of urban areas, yielding significant benefits such as enhanced visualization, informed decision-making, and increased opportunities for citizen participation. However, a noticeable disparity between supply and demand during the application process arises from a lack of transdisciplinary cooperation. This study sheds light on the existing literature and offers policy implications and recommendations for more effective utilization of geo-information technologies in future spatial governance.

The emergence of a modern paradigm for urban health

The importance of urban health in achieving global and planetary health goals is increasingly recognized. Cities offer important opportunities to improve health while also presenting significant challenges. As our understanding of and evidence for the importance of determinants of health beyond health care have grown, the need for urban health policies and actions that transcend disciplinary and sectoral boundaries and involve multiple stakeholders in urban decision-making has become clearer. Current urban health practice builds on decades of conceptual and operational work. This paper traces the evolution of the urban health paradigm through research, policy and practice in recent decades. We suggest that, despite the proven utility of urban health as a paradigm and its conceptual and practical evolution for effective urban health governance, significant challenges remain, especially related to implementing the systems approaches needed to improve health amidst the complexity of urban dynamics.

Digital Governance and Urban Government Service Spaces: Understanding Resident Interaction and Perception in Chinese Cities

With the rapid development of smart cities and the swift transition toward digital governance, optimizing urban spatial governance through digital technology remains underexplored in the Global South, particularly from the perspective of resident perception and interaction. Digitization of government services is a key area of interest in digital governance research; this study investigates the impact of government self-service systems on the spatial perception and behavior of residents in Guangzhou and Foshan, China. Through a mixed-method approach, combining questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews and analyzing them using a structural equation model, the findings reveal that government self-service systems significantly influence residents’ spatial behavior and perception. These systems enhance the efficiency of administrative processes, increase convenience, and lead to temporal-spatial compression, thereby reshaping residents’ physical interactions with urban spaces. The findings provide practical insights for policymakers to enhance urban governance by integrating digital technologies to improve residents’ interaction with government services. These insights can guide the development of more efficient, resident-centered digital governance frameworks, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how digital technology transforms urban spatial governance, highlighting the critical interplay between individuals, technology, and the urban environment. The study likewise provides examples of the ongoing digital transformation of public services in countries of the Global South that are lagging behind in the area of digital governance.

Smart City Initiatives and Urban Governance in India: Evaluating Technological Interventions for Sustainable Development

Smart City Initiatives and Urban Governance in India: Evaluating Technological Interventions for Sustainable Development

Evaluating Nighttime Governance Structures: Implications for Urban Policy in Night Mayor and Consultative Body Models

The rise of night mayors and other nighttime governance bodies represents an emerging model of urban governance. Vibrant nightlife scenes have become central to the identity and economy of global cities. However, the complex needs of nightlife stakeholders pose unique governance challenges. In response, some cities have instituted specialized offices of night mayor to oversee nighttime economic policy. This goal of this article is to examine this solution as a unique governance approach and compare the roles of night mayors to other nighttime consultative bodies like councils, commissions, panels, and boards. Taking into account all kinds of utility derived from nighttime activities, externalities, and stakeholders needs, the author differentiates night mayors’ concentrated leadership from the broader representation of advisory panels. It turns out that night mayors provide centralized oversight, while councils offer grassroots expertise. By working together they can create holistic strategies tailored to nighttime economies.

Enhancing the synergy governance capability of urban communities based on Bayesian network: A case of Jinan city

The rapid pace of urbanization has brought about a plethora of challenges for urban communities, prompting the advocacy of collaborative governance as a means to tackle management issues effectively. However, fostering strong collaboration among multiple governance entities remains a significant hurdle in urban communities governance. This study addresses this challenge by exploring the complex structure of urban communities' collaborative governance systems, with a focus on enhancing collaborative governance capability. Drawing on Bayesian network (BN) theory and utilizing the case of Jinan, this article investigates the intrinsic mechanisms of achieving collaboration in urban communities. This study establishes a Bayesian network model for collaborative governance of urban communities, providing a visual representation of the intricate interactions among multiple governance entities. We employ a data-knowledge-driven approach for BN structure learning. This approach tackles issues such as the lack of cyclic dependency capability and the impact of small datasets on model accuracy. Furthermore, we analyze the collaborative mechanism through Bayesian reasoning. The findings underscore the pivotal entities and five key factors that significantly influence collaborative governance capability. Lastly, policy implications are drawn to enhance the collaborative governance capability of urban communities.

Role of Community Participation in Achieving Low Carbon Lifestyles in Kuala Lumpur

This paper examines community engagement in Kuala Lumpur's Low Carbon Lifestyle (LCL) programs, led by Local Agenda 21 Kuala Lumpur (LA21KL). It investigates how community participation can drive the city's goal to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. The study identifies three key themes based on qualitative research and in-depth interviews: empowering community participation, strengthening engagement in low programs, and green urban governance. This study emphasises the importance of raising awareness about the benefits of LCL programs to boost community involvement. Strategies like fostering local champions are essential for successfully implementing these initiatives.

Urban Governance Research Based on Conjugate Contradiction Analysis: Taking Zibo as an Example

Urban Governance Research Based on Conjugate Contradiction Analysis: Taking Zibo as an Example

Teachers’ Familiarity with the Official Language of Instruction in Selected Urban Government Primary Schools in Solwezi District of Zambia

Teachers’ Familiarity with the Official Language of Instruction in Selected Urban Government Primary Schools in Solwezi District of Zambia

Inclusive Urban Governance: A Study of the Representation of Muslims in Urban Local Bodies

Inclusive Urban Governance: A Study of the Representation of Muslims in Urban Local Bodies

Assessing Ecosystem Services through a multimethodological approach based on multicriteria analysis and cost-benefits analysis: A case study in Turin (Italy)

Ecosystem Services (ESs) are benefits that humans derive from nature, including climate regulation, air and water purification, soil formation, and recreation. Currently, ESs are at the center of green city policies tackling sustainability challenges. Traditionally, ESs have been assessed using monetary estimations, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). These methods are useful for integrating environmental aspects in land use planning but have practical limitations since they focus on analyzing biophysical values and economic benefits. Due to the value pluralism of the ESs concept, intangible/extra-economic elements and the plurality of perspectives of the different stakeholders involved need to be included. Within this context, Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) allows the consideration of multiple problem dimensions and accommodates value pluralism. Based on these premises and limitations, the present paper proposes the integration of CBA and MCDA to evaluate alternative project solutions for green roof installation. The multidimensional outputs from CBA and MCDA are combined in a common aggregation procedure called COSIMA. Starting from a real case in Turin (Northern Italy), this article illustrates the application of COSIMA from the point of view of the best trade-off on the preferences of users and investors. The study results show the suitability of COSIMA for integrating all ESs values (i.e., biophysical, sociocultural, and economic) in urban governance processes.

Neighborhood over nation: Place-based state-making of the middle-class in Mumbai

This article argues that neighborhood-based middle-class civic groups in Mumbai reconfigure and constitute the local state through their everyday operations and social, legal and political interactions with the government. Amid rapid urban transformation, as neighborhoods become more internally differentiated, long-term residents forge ideational territories, rooted in place-based politics to govern their neighborhoods. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I depict three modes of place-based state-making—détournement, quotidian and activist. I argue that middle-class residents choose and privilege their neighborhood over the nation, in local politics, recalibrating laws and regulations to serve their territorial interests. To that end, I develop a theoretical framework to think about the autonomy of sociospatial communities and their statal implications. By focusing on the ‘statization’ of everyday life, this article departs from the distinction between state and non-state actors, and instead (i) distinguishes between state and government, (ii) considers the state to be embedded in the local social space where civic actors can enter the state space and steer local governance, and (iii) highlights how different cultural-historical territories produce distinct configurations of the local state, thereby fragmenting the geography of urban governance.

Advancing urban sustainability transitions: A framework for understanding urban complexity and enhancing integrative transformations

Rapid urbanization and industrialization with their negative repercussions draw attention to the need for urban sustainability. This research built on the urban systems understanding linked with resource utilization, environmental effects, people-environment interactions, and adaptive management by integrating quantitative modelling of urban metabolism with a qualitative investigation into human responses. A hybrid methodology was applied in a typical industrial city of Jinchang, China, which exemplified a model of how complex urban dynamics link to and inform sustainability transitions. The study found that Jinchang City had taken on an unsustainable trajectory underpinned by continuous growth of material consumption, whereas a potential for sustainability transitions was also observed in decoupled negative material outputs, improved material efficiency, and environment regeneration collectively. The challenges in industrial cities have been framed in terms of development model lock-in, conceptual and institutional constraints, innovation and human capital deficiencies, and governance failure. The research proposed a government-led transformation system that integrates multi-level and multi-perspective transformations and management employing discipline insights to facilitate urban sustainability transitions. This involves governance, economic and technological innovations, social transformations, and implementations, in which urban governance and public engagement are essential elements for adapting to undesirable difficulties and exploring locally appropriate strategies. This research provided a theoretical and empirical basis along with scientific and policy implications, which contributed to the developing interdisciplinary knowledge on the understanding of complex urban systems and provided insights into real-world sustainability solutions.

Common good in the urban context – insights from theoretical frameworks

The objective of the study is to analyse the role of the concept of common good in the contemporary field of urban studies. Through an interdisciplinary literature review, the basic explanation of the concept or common good is presented with a focus on common good in the urban environment. This work examines how urban commons became significant in scientific and public debates, translatable into tangible projects. The research results prove the academic and policy discussions focus on urban commons both in theoretical and engaged implementation of experiments in local urban governance. The notion of common good in the urban context, applied in territorial governance practices as commons, has an expanded international geographical reach, popularised within theoretical and more empirical approaches. The findings reveal a correlation between the discourse on urban commons and the proliferation of thematic debates and models; grassroots projects, demonstrating varied impacts by local social, cultural and policy contexts. In conclusion to the study of consecutive contemporary theories, the need to provide accurate elaboration on an urban commoning framework can be stated. This is a gap to bridge for enabling practical sustainable applications.

Urban design leadership: part 1, the styles of leadership

AbstractThis paper, in two parts, explores the styles and application of urban design leadership as a dimension of urban design governance. Part 1 explores the literature on leadership and its relation to urban design. It discusses the relation of urban design leadership to places and situations, first connecting through the fundamentally integrative nature of the activity – vertically, horizontally, and temporally – and second influencing across professional, sectorial, and power contexts. It then conceptualises a typology of leadership – autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, laissez-faire, transactional, transformational, and absent – and considers how these leadership styles, none of which are absolute, influence the process and outcomes of urban design. The paper concludes with a framework for understanding urban design leadership that can be applied to the varied practices of urban design globally. Part 2 tests and illustrates this through its application to the roles and practices of Public Architects across Europe.

Everyday urbanism in Beijing’s edge cities: on spatial and experience patterns

ABSTRACT The concentration of people in mega agglomerations in China has been challenging urban governance to reduce daily commuting by planning and investing in new edge cities. The main objective of this paper is to investigate everyday urbanism in two recently developed edge cities in Beijing by considering spatial conditions as well as resulting activity and experience patterns. The applied mapping surveys include land use distributions and density calculations via evaluating GIS data as well as field observations to investigate the typical experiences of 32 representative neighborhood walks. One of the main findings is the overall dependency of neighborhoods on rigid grid planning defining urbanism with large block sizes, resulting in walking experiences with a majority being dominated by compound walls along main roads and only 15% of walks being experienced along active frontages despite rather high urban densities with up to 300 residents per hectare.

Review of Carolina Sternberg 2023: Neoliberal Urban Governance. Spaces, Culture and Discourses in Buenos Aires and Chicago. Cham: Palgrave

Review of Carolina Sternberg 2023: Neoliberal Urban Governance. Spaces, Culture and Discourses in Buenos Aires and Chicago. Cham: Palgrave