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Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 21695

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Wann-Ming Wey

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Guest Editor

Department of Real Estate and Built Environment, National Taipei University, New Taipei, Taiwan
Interests: urban built environment planning and design; sustainable transportation; smart city and big data; growth management with urban development
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although urbanization brings the benefits of rapid development to us today, at the same time it produces many negative effects in the cities we live in, including the concentration of the population, traffic congestion, housing problems, resource shortages and noise, air, as well as water pollution. In an attempt to solve all those problems existing in our living environment, the emerging urban growth management principles, such as the smart growth principle, sustainable growth principle, and inclusive growth principle, have been successively applied to urban planning practices to respond to all these problems and to improve our quality of life (QoL) in last few decades. As a result, the main concept of various emerging urban growth management principles not only represents one means of facilitating the sustainable built environment to mitigate adverse effects, but could also be interpreted as a specific land use design as well as an urban planning policy that deals with a series of social/natural consequences of urban sprawl.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that there are more and more scientific innovations such as information and communication technology (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing/storage, big data (BD), etc., show their potential for studies of urban development. These cutting-edge technologies and their emerging requirements claim that they promote the sustainability and livability of cities or even that they make cities, society or the environment more efficient as well as smarter than ever. These scientific innovations or innovative technologies should be evaluated carefully by relevant experts or research institutions.

From the viewpoint of studies of the link between sustainable urban development, growth management and their interactions, this Special Issue welcomes theoretical and empirical studies on the following main topics:

Sustainable urban development planning and design;
Sustainable growth management strategies;
Quality of life (social inclusion, participation, environment);
Resource saving (energy, mobility, infrastructure, building);
Innovation (education, economy vs. environment)
Growth management principles in smart city planning and designing;
Low-carbon communities under smart growth;
Walkability/cycling and built environments;
Elderly-friendly living environments;
Resilience and vulnerability in urban development;
Policy-making and sustainable government initiatives for future cities;
Urban design innovation for smart cities;
Big data, AI and smart cities.

Prof. Dr. Wann-Ming Wey
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable urban development
urban growth management
quality of life
social inclusion
compact city
walkability and cycling
environment planning and evaluation
future/smart city
big/open data
AI-related innovative planning technology

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3974 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Is There a Regulation in the Expansion of Urban Spatial Structure? Empirical Study from the Main Urban Area in Zhengzhou, China

by Yanyan Wu and Jiadong Yuan

Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 2883; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052883 - 02 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1581

Abstract

The city is a fundamental regional unit of development. Urban spatial structure is a relationship performance among the physical environment, functional activities, and cultural values. Identifying the urban spatial structure and functional areas accurately is of great significance for optimizing urban planning and promoting urban development. Previous studies have focused on the distribution for the single-functional area in some big cities and urban agglomerations from a view of a static time node, with little focus on multifunctional areas’ distribution from the perspective of comprehensive evolutionary in underdeveloped regions, especially in provincial capitals in the Central Chinese region. Therefore, taking Zhengzhou, a representative National Central City in the undeveloped central part of China as an example, we investigate urban spatial sprawling in the main urban area. Our interest is twofold. Firstly, we investigate the urban center as to whether, and to what extent, scaling in the spatial structure. The second point of importance concerns the comparison of specific types of functional area in the spatial structure and morphology from a microlevel perspective. The identification framework has been constructed to identify and evaluate the urban spatial structure. The research shows the following: (i) There is a strong correlation between the urban center which is extracted and the density in spatial distribution. The density value of POIs decreases from the urban center to the suburbs. This result is in line with objective facts. (ii) The urban center area has expanded by 25.16 km² in 2 years. In the center of the main urban area of Zhengzhou, it is generally accepted that the spatial structure pattern monocentric, but is polycentrically patterned in function. The compactness is increasing in the urban center area. (iii) By identifying the mixed functional area, it presents a circle-layer expanded layout with the comprehensive functional area as the core in 2016 and 2018. The comprehensive functional area has developed significantly and maturely, and in the multifunctional area, the development of the public–residential–business functional area and the public–residential–leisure functional area is relatively mature. In short, this study not only helps strategic planners to strengthen refined management, practical planning, construction, and management integration but also to assess whether policies or actions have been delivered as effectively as planned by identifying the urban spatial structure and revealing the evolution regulation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

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21 pages, 6959 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Analysis of the Empirical Behavior of Municipal Institutional Capacity for the Formulation of Sustainable Growth Management Strategies with a Regional Focus: State of Veracruz, Mexico

by Isabel Lagunes-Gómez, María Graciela Hernández-Orduña, Rene Murrieta-Galindo, Daniel Hernández-Pitalua and Darwin Mayorga-Cruz

Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2000; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042000 - 10 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2032

Abstract

As a governmental function, development for progress and welfare is a highly complex process that involves updating various attributes (such as a paradigm, critical or alternative, depending on of the way in which they are articulated regarding social aspects, environmental, and economic growth, as well as the institutional capacity of public and private actors). Regarding this, we are interested in the municipal institutional capacity (MIC) as a skill to carry out the functions and appropriate tasks that municipalities must fulfill in an effective, efficient, and sustainable way, and it varies considerably, depending on each local context. In order to analyze the relevance of the current official regionalization as a state government strategy for the centralized construction of MIC, an exploratory approach to its spatial behavior in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, was carried out. Given the nature of the study, a purely mixed approach, sequential exploratory design, subnational analysis methodology, and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) were employed. The variable to be analyzed is the 2016 Municipal Functional Capacities Index (Índice de Capacidades Funcionales Municipales (ICFM)), with the Geostatistics Framework cartographic base of the 2020 Population and Housing Census. The analysis units are 212 municipalities in the 2014–2017 government period. As a result, it was confirmed that the current regionalization was irrelevant, owing to the absence of global spatial autocorrelation, and it was concluded that targeted interventions are necessary according to regional modeling techniques, based on scientific evidence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

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12 pages, 1127 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Systematic Mapping of Long-Term Urban Challenges

by Ralf-Martin Soe, Lill Sarv and Mila Gasco-Hernandez

Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 817; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020817 - 12 Jan 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1765

Abstract

This paper investigates on long-term challenges faced by local governments. Using empirical evidence from Estonia, this paper aims to help fill a research gap in that there is a lack of a systematic approach on how to analyze common urban challenges via direct involvement of local governments. In terms of conceptual framework, a unique combination of public value theory and mission-oriented innovation is proposed. The data is collected via questionnaire, interviews and workshops involving up to 35 local governments. It is important that instead of current problems relating only to one city, this study focuses on finding shared, long-term challenges and, from them, generates a list of top 10 challenges. This provides valuable input to initiating new research and innovation projects in the key, smart city domains (e.g., energy, mobility, built environment, governance and data). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

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19 pages, 2773 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Insight into Understanding Urban Vitality: A Case Study in the Chengdu-Chongqing Area Twin-City Economic Circle, China

by Haize Pan, Chuan Yang, Lirong Quan and Longhui Liao

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10068; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810068 - 08 Sep 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3070

Abstract

Addressing the issues caused by urbanization through urban vitality theory has elicited increasing attention in social environment research. However, few studies focus on vitality itself, such as the generative mechanism of urban vitality (GMUV) and the identification of key factors to vitality improvement. Therefore, a new insight into vitality is presented in this study through the exploration of GMUV based on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Concretely, the GMUV and the key factors to vitality improvement are analyzed and identified based on nighttime lights data, points of interest, and the statistical data of the Chengdu-Chongqing Area Twin-City Economic Circle in China. The results show that external representations and internal elements constitute the structural basis of the GMUV and that environmental vitality and social vitality are the key factors to enhance vitality. Finally, suggestions on improving regional vitality are provided to urban policymakers. This study may promote a better understanding of vitality, and the proposed vitality evaluation model may serve as a reference for other regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

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14 pages, 958 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Green Urbanism Embedded in TOD for Urban Built Environment Planning and Design

by Wei Huang and Wann-Ming Wey

Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5293; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195293 - 26 Sep 2019

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4700

Abstract

Even though the TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) concepts contribute great innovations to our next-generation metropolis, their means and focusing are primarily on the sustainable transportation dimension. It is debatable that the development mode advocated by TOD seems to lack relative considerations of both the ecological and environmental dimensions. Consequently, to achieve a better urban life, our urban planning and design should incorporate the consideration of peripheral areas that have not been further valued in the past, such as ecology diversity, natural energy recycling or reuse, and livable habitat, rather than just focusing on the sustainable transportation dimension of conventional TOD. This study thus explores and summarizes the design criteria of Green TOD through literature review and obtains the evaluation criteria via experts. Furthermore, through the FDT (fuzzy Delphi technique) method, the evaluation criteria from the expert questionnaire are screened. In turn, more important evaluation criteria are obtained objectively. Based on the screening results of FDT, we adopt the HOQ (house of quality) model integrated by FANP (fuzzy analytic network process) and QFD (quality function deployment) to allocate the weighting for each criterion scientifically. Finally, the evaluation results and hybrid decision model provided in this study can be used as an initial reference for improving the planning and design of today’s built environment. We believe that these pioneered attempts will help us in attaining our ultimate pursuit of urban sustainability and livability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

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23 pages, 262 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Challenges for Integrating Strategic Environmental Assessment to Enhance Environmental Thinking: A Case Study of Taiwan Energy Policy

by Yen-Yu Wu and Hwong-Wen Ma

Sustainability 2019, 11(3), 609; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030609 - 24 Jan 2019

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3784

Abstract

There is an increasing need to evaluate environmental impacts at higher policy planning levels, especially after the European Union (EU) strategic environmental assessment (SEA) directive proposed in 2001. However, integrating SEA and policy planning processes is challenging owing to institutional challenges and/or political problems. We aimed to explore the challenges of this integration process through in-depth interviews with core stakeholders in Taiwan energy policy making. Our results reveal three main types of challenge related to policy planning, SEA implementation, and difficulties in dealing with environmental issues. The first includes the policy planning model, transparency in the policy planning process, and controversial issues clarification; the second includes the different types of SEA purposes, unclear feedback on policy planning, and public participation limitation; the third includes a lack of knowledge of brokerage processes, scientific uncertainty, the role of the Taiwan EPA (TEPA) for environmental thinking, and the influence of local information in policy planning. The results of this study can be applied to countries that use impact-oriented SEA (currently the most common type of SEA) and consider environmental issues during the energy policy planning process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

13 pages, 2209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Strategy-Based Model for Low Carbon Cities

by Valid Hasyimi and Hossny Azizalrahman

Sustainability 2018, 10(12), 4828; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124828 - 18 Dec 2018

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3461

Abstract

Low carbon cities are increasingly forming a distinct strand of sustainability literature. Models have been developed to measure the performance of low carbon cities. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a strategy-based model to evaluate current performance and predict future conditions of low carbon cities. It examines the dynamic interrelationships between key performance indicators (KPIs), induces changes to city plan targets, and then instantly predicts the outcome of these changes. Designed to be generic and flexible, the proposed model shows how low carbon targets could be used to guide the transformation of low carbon cities under four strategies: (1) Passive intervention, (2) problem solving, (3) trend modifying, and (4) opportunity seeking. Further, the model has been applied to 17 cities and then tested on five cities: London, New York, Barcelona, Dubai, and Istanbul. The paper concludes with policy implications to realign city plans and support low carbon innovation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Growth Management)

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