Advancing urban sustainability theory and action: Challenges and opportunities

Childers, Daniel L.; Pickett, Steward T. A.; Grove, J. Morgan; Ogden, Laura A.; Whitmer, Alison

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.022

Cited by 213 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…On the other hand, in many countries, smaller cities may not have the resources necessary for effective planning or design, or for constructing truly innovative buildings and infrastructure, or for protecting green and blue spaces adequately. Paying attention to mid-sized cities and to more dispersed forms of high-intensity urban development, such as that now underway in China and in India, and likely to occur in Africa as well, could have worthwhile environmental and social benefits (Seto 2005, Bai et al 2012, Childers et al 2014. Whatever the size of new or expanded urban settlements, cities are estimated to house the next 3 billion people who will likely be added to the 7.2 billion now alive.…”

Section: Global Diversification Of the Urban Realmmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global urbanization as a shifting context for applying ecological science toward the sustainable city

Pickett

Zhou

2015

Ecosyst Health Sustain

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Abstract. There is an abundance of conceptual frameworks relevant to sustainability in urban systems. However, to advance urban ecological science and its application to sustainable urban transformations, key existing frameworks must be synthesized. This paper is a conceptual synthesis cast in essay form in order to encompass a broad range of relevant ideas. It starts from the premise that the familiar models of metropolitan and megalopolitan urban structure, of industrially driven urban development, and of the contrasts between urban and non-urban lands are manifestly inadequate representations of evolving global reality. Such inadequacy is illustrated with examples from the United States and from China. Both the form and the interactions involved in contemporary urbanization and urban change suggest the need for a new integrated framework synthesizing two existing yet still evolving concepts: (1) The urban megaregion framework accommodates the spatial extent, interdigitation of contrasting land uses, and the linked spatial relations between nominally urban and nominally rural areas. (2) The new concept of the continuum of urbanity emphasizes the shifts in livelihood and lifestyle driven by regional and global teleconnections and their joint effects on local environments and landscapes. Together these frameworks suggest a common conceptual structure for addressing urban areas of different ages, sizes, forms, and dynamics in both urbanizing and urbanized areas in developing and developed countries and regions. The synthesis of frameworks points to empirical research needs, and has the potential to better match sustainability plans and actions with the diverse urban forms and dynamics now appearing around the world.

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Section: Global Diversification Of the Urban Realmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather, it suggests shaping a trajectory that increases sustainability. Urban sustainability is thus a relative concept (Childers et al 2014). How can sustainability be enhanced in urban systems?…”

Section: The Sustainable Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

Global urbanization as a shifting context for applying ecological science toward the sustainable city

Pickett

Zhou

2015

Ecosyst Health Sustain

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“…), to encourage walking and cycling in the urban core, and to support the city's touristic activity (Southworth, 2005;EU-COM, 2011;Browne et al, 2012;Childers et al, 2014). These actions will improve air quality and cut road traffic, which will thus reduce respiratory diseases and the number of traffic accidents, which will have indirect effects on the city's economy (Southworth, 2003;Lindholm, 2012;Quak, 2015)).…”

Section: Objectives Of the Environmental Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

Designing an Environmental Zone in a Mediterranean City to Support City Logistics

Ros-McDonnell¹,

de-la-Fuente-Aragón²,

Ros-McDonnell³

et al. 2018

Int. J. Prod. Manag. Eng.

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European cities are facing enormous challenges in accessibility and livability terms due to several European directives, which are compulsory in the mid/long term, traffic congestion levels are still increasing, and air pollution and noise disturbs citizens' lives. This work presents the study carried out in a Mediterranean city to define an Environmental Zone with traffic restrictions for vehicles in the historical centre of the city of Cartagena (Spain) by exploring different urban logistics measures to tackle main problems caused by freight deliveries and pickups in the city centre. These solutions aimed to enhance the efficiency of vehicles, and to reduce both traffic congestion the environmental impacts caused by freight delivery in the city in order to improve urban sustainability.

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“…Some authors (e.g., [12]) have conceptualized the change from a non-sustainable to a sustainable city as a state change (regime shift), suggesting that understanding such transitions requires knowing: "(1) the triggers that have induced change; (2) situations where crisis triggers change; (3) why cities transition toward more sustainable states on their own, in the absence of crisis; (4) what we can learn from new city transitions; and (5) how resource interactions affect urban transitions [12] (p. 320)". Given this, solutions to urban sustainability challenges may be categorized as follows: for a city in a desirable state, resilience should be fostered to ensure a long-term sustainable trajectory, and for a city in an undesirable state, change should be transformative, meaning the resilience of the system should be deliberately exceeded to foster an alternative, desirable state.…”

Section: Defining Midsize City Resilience and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, large cities and megacities exhibit strong path-dependency that makes altering their developmental trajectory very difficult. Inertia in social systems and infrastructure is a barrier to sustainability in urban systems [12]. For these reasons, we argue that midsize cities are best suited for the study and pursuit of transitions to sustainable states, and provide a large sample size for studies in the United States.…”

Section: Defining Midsize City Resilience and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in Midsize Cities

et al. 2016

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Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy reliance and close management of local ecosystem services. They also may be less path-dependent than larger cities due to shorter average connection length among system components, contributing to higher responsiveness among social, infrastructural, and ecological feedbacks. These distinct midsize city features call for a framework that organizes information and concepts concerning the sustainability of midsize cities specifically. We argue that an integrative approach is necessary to capture properties emergent from the complex interactions of the social, infrastructural, and ecological subsystems that comprise a city system. We suggest approaches to estimate the relative resilience of midsize cities, and include an example assessment to illustrate one such estimation approach. Resilience assessments of a midsize city can be used to examine why some cities end up on sustainable paths while others diverge to unsustainable paths, and which feedbacks may be partially responsible. They also provide insight into how city planners and decision makers can use information about the resilience of midsize cities undergoing growth or shrinkage relative to their larger and smaller counterparts, to transform them into long-term, sustainable social-ecological systems.

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Advancing urban sustainability theory and action: Challenges and opportunities

Cited by 213 publications

References 56 publications

Global urbanization as a shifting context for applying ecological science toward the sustainable city

Global urbanization as a shifting context for applying ecological science toward the sustainable city

Designing an Environmental Zone in a Mediterranean City to Support City Logistics

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in Midsize Cities

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