Urban Sustainability Challenges Research Articles

Revisiting China’s Urban Transition from the Perspective of Urbanisation: A Critical Review and Analysis

Amidst global sustainability challenges across domains such as energy, water, and transportation, China’s urbanisation process presents unique socio-economic dynamics, particularly following the Reform and Opening Up policy. The existing literature has not fully captured the complex interplay between urban growth and sustainability challenges in China, nor has it adequately explored the phased nature of urbanisation informed by evolving policies. This paper provides a comprehensive review of China’s urban transition, emphasising its evolution since the Reform and Opening Up policy. Through systematic analysis, it delineates the multifaceted nature of urbanisation, reflecting on policy impacts and socio-economic shifts. Findings indicate transformative urban growth characterised by new challenges in environmental sustainability, social equity, and urban–rural integration. The research unveils the transition to a human-centric urban development model, highlighting policy shifts towards sustainable practices. The results suggest a nuanced urban–rural convergence, advocating for participatory governance and balanced growth. The unique contribution of this study lies in its empirical and theoretical examination of China’s urbanisation within a global context, offering a critical perspective on policy formulation and sustainable urban development.

Education in collaboration with cities: the intentions of transdisciplinary courses

Purpose In collaboration with their home cities, universities increasingly develop courses in which students investigate urban sustainability challenges. This paper aims to understand how far-reaching the collaboration with urban stakeholders in these courses is and what students are meant to learn from the transdisciplinary pedagogies. Design/methodology/approach This research is designed as a qualitative multiple-case study into the intentions of transdisciplinary courses in which universities collaborate with their home cities: Delft University of Technology in Delft and Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions in Amsterdam. The study compares the written intentions of eight courses in course descriptions with the ideal intentions that teachers describe in interviews. Findings First, seven of the eight investigated courses were designed for urban stakeholders to participate at a distance or as a client but rarely was a course intended to lead to a collaborative partnership between the city and students. Second, the metacognitive learning objectives, such as learning to deal with biases and values of others or getting to know one’s strengths and weaknesses in collaboration, were often absent in the course descriptions. Learning objectives relating to metacognition are at the heart of transdisciplinary work, yet when they remain implicit in the learning objectives, they are difficult to teach. Originality/value This paper presents insight into the levels of participation intended in transdisciplinary courses. Furthermore, it shows the (mis)alignment between intended learning objectives in course descriptions and teachers’ ideals. Understanding both the current state of transdisciplinarity in sustainability courses and what teachers envision is vital for the next steps in the development of transdisciplinary education.

Evaluation of the Thermal Performance of Two Passive Facade System Solutions for Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is essential for the future of the planet. Using passive elements, like ventilated facades based on insulation and air chambers, or living walls, which are solutions based on nature, is a powerful strategy for cities to improve their thermal environment, reduce energy consumption, and mitigate the effects of climate change. This approach allows for the quantification of the influence of passive surfaces on energy fluxes compared to bare surfaces. In addition, it delves into understanding how the incorporation of vegetation on building facades alters surface energy fluxes, involving a combination of physical and biochemical processes. This comprehensive investigation seeks to harness the potential of passive and natural solutions to address the pressing challenges of urban sustainability and climate resilience. This research uses a surface energy balance model to analyze the thermal performance of two facades using experimental data from a PASLINK test cell. This study uses the grey box RC model, which links continuous-time ordinary differential equations with discrete measurement data points. This model provides insight into the complex interplay among factors that influence the thermal behavior of building facades, with the goal of comprehensively understanding how ventilated and green facades affect the dynamics of energy flow compared to conventional facades. The initial thermal resistance of the bare facade was 0.75 (°C m2)/W. The introduction of a ventilated facade significantly increased this thermal resistance to 2.47 (°C m2)/W due to the insulating capacity of the air chamber and its insulating layer (1.70 (°C m2)/W). Regarding the modular living wall, it obtained a thermal resistance value of 1.22 (°C m2)/W (this vegetated facade does not have an insulating layer). In this context, the modular living wall proved to be effective in reducing convective energy by 68% compared with the non-green facade. It is crucial to highlight that evapotranspiration was the primary mechanism for energy dissipation in the green facade. The experiments conclusively show that both the modular living wall and open-ventilated facade significantly reduce solar heat loads compared with non-passive bare wall facades, demonstrating their effectiveness in enhancing thermal performance and minimizing heat absorption.

Environmental Management Expenditure and Fiscal Sustainability of South African Urban Municipalities: A Panel Data Model

Globally, instituting good environmental management practices within cities in developing countries is a climate-induced risk mitigation strategy. It is, however, an opportunity for local municipalities to achieve fiscal sustainability objectives and environmentally responsible decisions. Cash-constrained local municipalities are characterized by failures to balance environmental and financial needs, resulting in complex urban sustainability challenges. Therefore, this article examines the relationship between environmental management expenditure and fiscal sustainability (FS) in South African local municipalities to contribute to the debate concerning the sustainability of environmental protection projects in local municipalities. The study employed ordinary least squares and feasible generalized least squares to estimate coefficients of linear regression equations involving data collected from 30 local municipalities from 2012 to 2021. The results suggest that only wastewater and environmental protection expenditures positively impact FS, with solid waste management expenditure influencing the FS negatively. Lessons from the research will assist policymakers and municipal administrators in addressing environmental policy incoherence for the improved financial viability of environmental protection projects. Lastly, future research can focus on environmental data collection and reporting for improved and informed environmental protection decisions.

Hyperlocal environmental data with a mobile platform in urban environments

Environmental data with a high spatio-temporal resolution is vital in informing actions toward tackling urban sustainability challenges. Yet, access to hyperlocal environmental data sources is limited due to the lack of monitoring infrastructure, consistent data quality, and data availability to the public. This paper reports environmental data (PM, NO2, temperature, and relative humidity) collected from 2020 to 2022 and calibrated in four deployments in three global cities. Each data collection campaign targeted a specific urban environmental problem related to air quality, such as tree diversity, community exposure disparities, and excess fossil fuel usage. Firstly, we introduce the mobile platform design and its deployment in Boston (US), NYC (US), and Beirut (Lebanon). Secondly, we present the data cleaning and validation process, for the air quality data. Lastly, we explain the data format and how hyperlocal environmental datasets can be used standalone and with other data to assist evidence-based decision-making. Our mobile environmental sensing datasets include cities of varying scales, aiming to address data scarcity in developing regions and support evidence-based environmental policymaking.

Barriers and Solutions to Green Facade Implementation—A Review of Literature and a Case Study of Leipzig, Germany

The expansion of green infrastructure through vertical forms of greenery is an innovative way to address urban sustainability challenges. Despite various social, economic, and environmental benefits, however, facade greening is rarely implemented. This article examines barriers to and solutions for the implementation of green facades through a systematic literature review and a participatory case study of Leipzig, Germany. We found a total of 24 social, political-administrative, economic, practical-technical, and environmental barriers hindering key actors to (successfully) implement green facades. The lack of information and knowledge was found to be an underlying issue. Solutions co-created with local stakeholders and experts include the provision of informative, regulatory, and financial incentives, the adaptation of political-administrative strategies, regulations, and procedures, as well as the support of the practical-technical implementation process through information and experts. To overcome barriers, various measures must be combined, but establishing public relations and advisory services on green facades is of priority in Leipzig. By combining insights from academic literature with applied knowledge of a diverse group of local actors, we identify how barriers to facade greening may be overcome in the specific case of a major German city and provide a blueprint for similar research in other socio-political contexts.

Understanding advances and challenges of urban water security and sustainability in China based on water footprint dynamics

Sustainability of China’s numerous cities are threatened by both quantity- and quality-induced water scarcity, which can be measured by the water footprint from a consumption (WFcons) or production (WFprod) perspective. Although WFcons was widely assessed, the changes in WFprod of China’s cities were still unclear. A large-scale decrease in urban WFprod in China was found, with the average WFprod decreasing from 13.8 billion m3 to 10.3 billion m3 and the per capita WFprod decreasing from 1614.8 m3/person to 1184.0 m3/person (i.e., falling by more than a quarter in just six years). Such shrinkage was particularly evident in drylands, eliminating the water deficit in Xi’an and Xining. The reduction in grey WFprod caused by implementing water pollution prevention policies and other relevant measures played the most important role in the savings. In the future, the implementation of updated pollution discharge standards is projected to allow more cities to escape water deficits; however, the rapid growth of the domestic and ecological blue WFprod caused by urbanization and urban greening would destabilize this prospect. Thus, attention should be given to both water pollution prevention and domestic and ecological blue WFprod restriction to further alleviate urban water scarcity in China.

Misfortunes never come singly. A holistic approach to urban resilience and sustainability challenges

Making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable is one of the main global commitments for urban development, on which the Covid-19 pandemic adds both pressure and windows of opportunity. Despite an emerging scholarship, ambiguities exist with regard to the similarities, differences and trade-offs between urban resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness and other related concepts. Our empirical research aims to broaden understanding of urban resilience - sustainability nexus and its connection with urban safety and inclusiveness. To this end, we explore the variation in the perception of urban challenges and the interplay between the hazards, shocks and stresses identified and encoded by the cities participating in the 100 Resilient Cities (100 RC) Programme. The results of a multiple correspondence analysis show that hazards and acute shocks cluster together and differentiate from chronic stresses. This allowed us to discriminate between two dimensions: urban resilience and urban sustainability; at their intersection we found different “latent” challenges that score relatively high on both dimensions and represent what we call the urban safety and inclusiveness dimension. A fertile seedbed has been created for adding to the existing literature a new representation of the relationship between urban resilience and sustainability, with forays into safety and inclusiveness as well.

Diffusion of Cement Kiln Co-Processing of Contaminated Soil in Selected Provinces of China: Engineering Practices, Modeling, and Driving Factors

Promoting the diffusion of remediation technologies is an attractive solution to environmental protection and urban sustainability challenges. To better understand technology diffusion, we reviewed the engineering practices of cement kiln co-processing (CKC) of contaminated soil and obtained diffusion parameters using the Bass model in three provinces of China. Our results show that CKC has been adopted for the disposal of multiple contaminants and that the optimal feed rate of contaminated soil is 4–5%. The obtained diffusion parameters can be used to analyze and predict CKC diffusion. Driving factors analysis suggest that CKC diffusion is regulation-driven and obeys the S-curve pattern. Policies at the national level shape the basic pattern of the diffusion curve, while local policies, market scales, and contaminant types produce variations in diffusion rates across provinces. Results also reveal that the co-processing quota management on contaminated soil has little impact on CKC adoption. This study provides insights into contaminated soil remediation technology diffusion and the effectiveness of environmental policy implementation at home and abroad.

Integration of knowledge systems in urban farming initiatives: insight from Taipei Garden City.

There is growing interest globally in the potential of urban farming to respond to a breadth of urban sustainability challenges. Yet it is also recognised that the policy and implementation of this nature-based strategy is influenced by an underlying science–policy–practice community. The aim of this paper is to understand how different actors and knowledges come together to form a science–policy–practice community for a citywide urban farming initiative—Taipei Garden City. The result shows that the science–policy–practice community was formed in a dynamic ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ process. This allows long-term public–private partnership to be developed and enables different knowledges and experiences to co-exist in policies and practices. This study argues that in-between spaces and actors, who can cut across different fora, are vital to make urban farming interventions happen. Nonetheless, we also question the extent to which embodied and experiential knowledge is sufficient to support environmentally and socially appropriate outcomes for attaining urban sustainability.

Border troubles: urban nature and the remaking of public/private divides

ABSTRACT Traditional interventions to “bring nature into the city” were often motivated by a concern to create forms of public space which would provide a public good. Despite such well-intentioned motivations, these public forms of urban nature have always been to some extent bounded, serving some in favor of others, authorizing particular uses and forms of behavior as more or less legitimate, and policing the boundaries of who is/not included in such space. In this paper, we argue that new interventions seeking to bring nature-based solutions (NBS) into the city serve to further trouble these boundaries. NBS seek to use nature to address urban sustainability challenges and they navigate and serve to reconfigure what is (and is not) public in the city. We draw on research undertaken in three cities – Newcastle (United Kingdom), Cape Town (South Africa) and Athens (Greece) to explore the ways in which notions of the private and the public are being remade with and through nature, and its implications for how we might understand urban politics. Our conclusions point to the need for governance arrangements that can support the long-term stewardship of nature in the public interest and with due accountability and we suggest three arrangements.

A Nanotechnology Foresight Perspective for South Africa

This study aims to apply nanotechnology in industry and its impact on economic growth and sustainable development, creating job opportunities and reducing unemployment and poverty in society. From this perspective, one way of sustainable development is to pay attention to economic progress in the context of new technologies, especially nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is an important tool for addressing urban sustainability challenges, including climate change, water pollution, access to healthy food and public safety. It is a deep scientific horizon with high potential in the production of products and the processing of new technologies, where new technologies are evidence of the political, civic, economic, and social empowerment that are all building blocks, both for global goals and for grandiose visions and expectations for prosperity.

Exploring the connection between transdisciplinary co-production and urban sustainability solutions: a case study at an urban stream management symposium

Urban sustainability challenges are complex, impacting a wide range of stakeholders. It is commonly accepted that sustainable solutions must integrate scientific knowledge from a variety of disciplines, coupled with community stakeholder ideas, norms, and practices in ways that link knowledge to decision-making and action. Jointly researching problems and co-designing solutions, known as co-production, requires working together in teams. Interestingly, the intersection of co-production and team science has been understudied. We address this gap by asking: Does team formation – specifically, single-, multi- or trans-disciplinary teams – impact the process and perceived efficacy of sustainability solutions? Using case study data collected at the 5th Symposium for Urbanization and Stream Ecology (SUSE5), held in February 2020, we explore the impact of bringing different types of teams together to generate solutions to real-world “wicked problems” surrounding urban streams in Austin, Texas. We found that the solutions generated by trans-disciplinary teams – i.e., teams that include multiple disciplines and community members – were on average rated higher by their peers than solutions from single- or multi-disciplinary teams. However, our findings suggest that some transdisciplinary teams found it difficult to get through the different stages of problem definition to solution design. The findings from this limited but novel and unique case study make two important contributions to the literature. First, co-production leads to more agreeable solutions to urban sustainability challenges. Second, co-production team dynamics are likely to be more complicated and variable than disciplinary or multidisciplinary teams. A better understanding of these opportunities and challenges can inform institutions and agencies employing a community-engaged process to solve urban sustainability challenges.

Transformative, interdisciplinary and intercultural learning for developing HEI students' sustainability-oriented competences: a case study.

The literature has produced relevant theoretical insights into pedagogical frameworks, tools and competences that would be best suited to teach sustainability at higher education (HE). This article contributes to such a discussion using a course on sustainability developed by us as a case study. Two research questions are tackled in this article: (1) How to empower students to address urban sustainability challenges through the inclusion of transformative, interdisciplinary and intercultural learning into the current HE system? (2) Which pedagogical tools can be used to develop students’ sustainability-oriented competences? To address the research questions, the case study consists of two parts. First, by reflecting on the course design, this article aims to shed light on the benefits and challenges of transformative pedagogy and of an interdisciplinary and intercultural framework. Second, by analyzing students’ learning diaries (N = 36) using thematic analysis, this article offers insights into some of the students’ learning process, allowing us to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the course design as well as draw implications to improve and renew courses on sustainability in HE. The findings from the learning diaries indicate the students’ thirst for formal knowledge on sustainability, which they connected to their professional development and yearning for action. The learning diaries also suggest students’ increasing awareness of sustainability as a systemic and structural issue during the course, which aligns with the transformative learning framework used. Finally, this study emphasizes the need for structural support to meaningfully integrate sustainability in HE curricula and teaching practices.

Methods for Uncovering Discourses That Shape the Urban Imaginary in Helsinki's Smart City

In modern urban environments the technologies that are basic to everyday life have become further embedded in that life. Smart cities are one example of the acceleration of technological change in order to engage with urban sustainability challenges, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools as one mode of engagement. However, the discourses through which cities engage with smart city growth and management can have long-term consequences for diverse knowledge held within the imaginaries of situated smart urbanism. As the city of Helsinki increasingly focuses on sustainable smart city initiatives, concurrent research suggests that smart urbanism is at a crossroads, where developers must decide how smart cities choose to engage with its residents' knowledge. This research sets out to ask, how are top-down smart city interventions communicated on Twitter (de)legitimizing diverse knowledge in situated smart urbanism? We draw from Foucaudian theory to identify which discourses are elevated, through statements posted on the social media platform Twitter. By answering this question, our goal in this paper is to examine how Foucault's methods can be used to highlight unseen assumptions about smart urbanism in Helsinki. Our objective is to identify overarching narratives and potential contested conceptualizations of smart urbanism in Helsinki. With our methods, we contribute a novel angle to surfacing power relations that are becoming evident in the development of AI-governed smart cities.

Almost there: On the importance of a comprehensive entrepreneurial ecosystem for developing sustainable urban food forest enterprises

AbstractSustainable food forests offer multiple benefits to urban sustainability challenges. Research to date mostly describes structure and services of individual food forests but provides little evidence and guidance for implementation. This study analyzes and evaluates an ongoing, multiyear, transdisciplinary project developing a sustainable urban food forest enterprise in Phoenix, AZ, through a collaboration between researchers and a coalition of nonprofit organizations. Unlike other food forest projects run by nonprofit organizations, this food forest originated as a sustainable enterprise that would provide jobs and livelihood opportunities in an economically marginalized urban area while pursuing social and environmental goals such as providing healthy food and a cooler microclimate. Efforts to date have built a coalition of supporters, secured a suitable site, codeveloped a vision and an action plan, and fundraised a major start‐up donation. We evaluate these outcomes against a suite of success factors derived from implementation of other food forests and explain challenges in realizing these factors through the lens of a comprehensive sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem. Data for the accompanying research was collected through direct and participant observations, review of project documents, informal conversations, a stakeholder survey, and research diary reflections. Research findings indicate that despite achieving all the success factors, at least to some extent, the underdeveloped sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem jeopardizes long‐term success and multiplication efforts. These findings confirm the importance of a sufficiently developed entrepreneurial ecosystem for successful development of sustainable food enterprises. They offer guidance to food entrepreneurs, urban developers, and city officials on how to develop and support sustainable food forest enterprises.

Making sense of sewage sludge as a renewable resource in the urban U.S.

Prior to industrialization, human excrement was commonly employed as a resource for agricultural fertilization. Following the advent of the hydraulic sanitation system, however, it became increasingly channeled into waterways rather than reincorporated into terrestrial agro-ecosystems. To counter this trend, more and more industrial cities are seeking to utilize treated sanitation waste, or “biosolids,” as a renewable resource that can be applied as a soil amendment in urban recreational settings, including parks, gardens, and golf courses. This article examines how the use of biosolids in the American city of Chicago comes to “make sense”—experientially, economically, and ecologically—to users and wastewater experts. Furthermore, it considers how sanitation infrastructures, social norms, and safety concerns both contour and constrain such usage. Ultimately, this article identifies how direct sensorial experiences (particularly of odors or their absence) as well as notions of economic and ecological “good sense” contribute to the social acceptability of biosolids usage. However, contaminants of emerging concern that are barely perceptible in sanitation waste raise more profound questions about the challenges of urban sustainability in this period known as late industrialism.

Ecological Embeddedness in the Maya Built Environment: Inspiration for Contemporary Cities

Cities nowadays are the most significant source of environmental degradation threatening local and global ecosystems. Interestingly, many ancient settlements present excellent lessons and inspiration for addressing our current urban predicaments, given their environmental stewardship. This research explores how the ecologically embedded settlement patterns, building configurations, urban agriculture and home gardening, and water conservation of the Maya-built environment can offer insights about mitigating contemporary urban sustainability challenges. Mayans’ respect for nature not only guaranteed sustainable habitats but also engendered one of the most remarkable civilizations in a region that did not offer generous support for human accommodation. The Mayan world view promoted the idea of one spirit dwelling in all humans and other-than-human entities in an environment, making everything sacred and kin to everything else. The regional climate was kept under control by protecting the vegetation that also provided other ecological benefits. Land use was mixed, and residences were constructed with native and recyclable materials utilizing natural light and ventilation. The Mayan civilization inspires us to manage and protect plants, not cut them down; conserve water, not waste it; listen to the environmental feedback, not reject it; and, most importantly, it begs us to embrace nature as our own mother, not disown it as something dispensable. These principles have significant implications on urban land-use planning and policies today.

Green infrastructure and urbanisation in suburban Beijing: An improved neighbourhood assessment framework

Rapid urbanisation has resulted in a series of urban sustainability challenges. Green infrastructure, with its associated emphasis on multifunctionality, has been advocated by scholars and practitioners alike as a key part of responses seeking the transition to sustainable urban environments. In support of this, a number of assessment frameworks have emerged which seek to assess green infrastructure needs and opportunities. Increasingly it has been recognised that such frameworks will need to provide a greater degree of emphasis upon social and perceptual values and focus more actively upon the neighbourhood scale. This need is particularly apparent within a Chinese context. Research on the role of green infrastructure within China, however, has tended to prioritise comprehensive city-wide or regional assessments. To date, there have been very few studies at the neighbourhood level which have attempted to consider both objective and subjective GI characteristics and how barriers might be mediated. In response, this paper seeks to develop an improved understanding of neighbourhood level GI needs. Through the use of both objective and subjective indicators linked to levels of green infrastructure provision and satisfaction, we outline how strategic responses might be developed to different neighbourhood contexts to aid a more adaptive and spatially sensitive approach to sustainable urbanisation.

Chiefs, land professionals and hybrid planning in Tamale and Techiman, Ghana: Implications for sustainable urban development

ABSTRACT A dual land administration system in Ghana necessitates the adoption of hybrid and locally adaptive planning practices. However, whilst the scholarly discourse on hybrid planning is burgeoning, its implications for sustainable urban development are limited. Using qualitative case studies of data collected from interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in Tamale and Techiman, this paper highlights the implications of hybrid planning for sustainable urban development. Although in tune with current proposals for collaborative land use planning, hybrid planning practices in peri-urban areas are dominated by land-owning chiefs who finance land use planning activities, leading to a negotiated planning and land delivery system. This engenders urban sustainability challenges, including tenure insecurities, land speculation and urban sprawl and hinders the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal 11. Thus, urban planners must re-examine current planning practices and leverage the New Urban Agenda to explore innovative ways of ensuring sustainable urban expansion.