ARCHITECTURAL AND PLANNING ELEMENTS AS A FACTOR OF URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Cities are complex systems consisting of capital objects (architectural objects, transport system and other infrastructural systems), state and non-state institutions, social and economic processes, people (in their various aspects and types of activities), also natural components (topography, hydrography, climate). The article discusses issues related to these specifi c aspects and the relationship between the elements of the architectural and planning structure of the city as a space and a system. Within the framework of the study, a morphological analysis of planning and development was carried out using the example of Samara in the context of sustainable development in order to identify and systematize universal urban elements.

Resources and Environment Carrying Capacity, Social Development and Their Decoupling Relationship: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China

With the rapid urbanization in recent decades, resource shortage and environmental damage have hindered the process of urban sustainable development (SD). As a yardstick of sustainable development, the evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC) and its decoupling relationship with social comprehensive development index (SCDI) are of great significance. In this paper, RECC and SCDI are taken as research objects to establish resource and environment system evaluation index system and social comprehensive development level evaluation index system, respectively. Then, the RECC and SCDI of 17 cities in Hubei province during 2009–2018 are calculated by the projection pursuit model based on genetic algorithm, and their spatial-temporal variance characteristics are analyzed. On this basis, the RECC-SCDI Tapio decoupling model is constructed to explore the decoupling relationship between RECC and SCDI. The result shows that: (1) The RECC of Hubei shows a V-shaped development trend during 2009–2018. The SCDI of Hubei rose steadily during 2009–2018. (2) RECC in western and eastern Hubei Province is higher than that in central Hubei Province. SCDI in eastern and central Hubei Province is higher than that in the west. (3) 11 of the 17 cities in Hubei Province have got rid of excessive dependence on resources environment for social development. The study could contribute to scientific and effective policies be formulated by government to promote urban sustainable development.

Assessment of Urban Ecological Quality and Spatial Heterogeneity Based on Remote Sensing: A Case Study of the Rapid Urbanization of Wuhan City

Rapid urbanization significantly affects the productivity of the terrestrial ecosystem and the foundation of regional ecosystem services, thereby detrimentally influencing the ecological environment and urban ecological security. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also require accurate and timely assessments of where people live in order to develop, implement and monitor sustainable development policies. Sustainable development also emphasizes the process of protecting the ecological environment for future generations while maintaining the current needs of mankind. We propose a comprehensive evaluation method for urban ecological quality (UEQ) using Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI/TIRS images to extract remote sensing information representing four ecological elements, namely humidity, greenness, heat and dryness. An improved comprehensive remote sensing ecological index (IRSEI) evaluation model is constructed by combining the entropy weight method and principal component analysis. This modeling is applied to the city of Wuhan, China, from 1995 to 2020. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted on the geographic clusters of the IRSEI. The results show that (1) from 1995 to 2015, the mean IRSEI of Wuhan city decreased from 0.60 to 0.47, indicating that environmental deterioration overwhelmed improvements; (2) the global Moran’s I for IRSEI ranged from 0.535 to 0.592 from 1995 to 2020, indicating significant heterogeneity in its spatial distribution, highlighting that high and low clusters gradually developed at the edge of the city and at the city center, respectively; (3) the high clusters are mainly distributed in the Huangpi and Jiangxia districts, and the low clusters at the city center, which exhibits a dense population and intense human activity. This paper uses remote sensing index methods to evaluate UEQ as a scientific theoretical basis for the improvement of UEQ, the control of UEQ and the formulation of urban sustainable development strategies in the future. Our results show that the UEQ method is a low-cost, feasible and simple technique that can be used for territorial spatial control and spatiotemporal urban sustainable development.

Assessment method of the urban development level in the context of knowledge and innovation economy

The assessment method of the level of industrial city (Zaporozhіzhia) development influence affected by knowledge and innovation economy has been proposed in the article. Assessment of the sustainable development level is represented by three components: economic, social and environmental, each of which is characterized by certain indicators. The algorithm has been worked out to determine knowledge and innovation impact for urban sustainable development. It is comprised of three successive stages: indicators characterizing a certain sub-vector are determined in the first stage; sub-vector indexes are calculated in the second stage: the knowledge and innovation index; the knowledge and innovation index is calculated based on the additive and multiplicative model in the third stage. The knowledge and innovation index is defined as “stimulus” (booster) and “restriction” (depreciation) of urban sustainable development, that is, defined as specific ratios. To substantiate the importance of knowledge and innovation impact, not only quantitative approach to evaluation, but also qualitative analysis based on matrix methods have been applied. Changing specific ratios and the degree of specific ratios impact on urban sustainable development allows to analyze changes (increase or decrease) of sustainability level amid weights alterations. Changing specific ratios forms the priorities of economic policy and strategic landmarks.

RESTRUCTURING THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF URBAN SUSTAINABILITY FROM THE HEALTH DIMENSION

The environmental crisis caused by rapid global urbanization has led to many public health problems, which has gradually become the new normal in the process of achieving sustainable urban development. This study aims to reveal the relationships between health, environment, and urban sustainability from a multidisciplinary perspective. Based on the existing research dimensions of urban sustainable development, the necessity, rationality, and feasibility of introducing the health dimension are proposed, and the research framework of health and urban sustainability is integrated and reconstructed. It is pointed out that scholars and policy makers should take the urban environment as the platform, take the duality of health and sustainability as the starting point, reconstruct the research framework of urban sustainability based on the health dimension, and provide a new theoretical perspective for the realization of urban sustainable development under the new normal.

Bringing the political back in

Christoph Clar argues that recent experiences with urban sustainable development call for urban researchers to integrate the knowledge of both various scientific disciplines and non-scientific actors. Referring to the phenomenon green gentrification, he discusses the contribution of political science for developing critical inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives and illustrates how sustainable development is not only a question of technical solutions, but a deeply political issue. Acknowledging the political dimensions of urban sustainable development would improve the understanding of social, economic, and environmental interrelations and help to develop solutions that do not improve cities' ecological sustainability at the cost of social justice.

Evaluation on Sustainable Development of Urban Agglomeration under the New Urbanization and the Industrial StructureUpgraded Based on a Case Study of Beibu Gulf Urban Agglomeration

The new urbanization has a connotation of human-centered urbanization, covering the synchronization of informatization, industrialization, agricultural modernization and urbanization, the optimization of layout, ecological civilization, cultural inheritance, and the realization of balanced and sustainable development among population, economy, society, resources and environment. Taking the path of new urbanization is the development direction of Chinese cities in the future.It is an important measure taken by the Chinese government to implement the new concept of development to promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure and achieve balanced development between ecological and ecological protection and economic and social development. In this paper, firstly, based on the relevant theories of urbanization at home and abroad, the evaluation index system of urban sustainable development is constructed in five dimensions: economic market driving force, population and social development force, resources and environment carrying capacity, public service guarantee force, and urban-rural integration and aggregation force to study the cities and counties in the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration region. Then, the factor analysis method is used to perform sub-item and comprehensive evaluation on the urban sustainable development capability. Finally, combined with the development characteristics of each city in the urban agglomeration, relevant development strategies and suggestions are put forward to provide reference for the development of urbanization.

Interference Evaluation in Ecological Protection Redline for Urban Environment

The influences of ecological protection redlines on urban sustainable development can significantly vary from place to place with distinct ecological functions and human activity interference. However, recent research lacks the evaluation of ecological functions and human activity interference in ecological protection redline areas near urban areas. This article presents an evaluation method consisting of two evaluation criteria systems: an ecological function evaluation criteria system based on conserving water resources and soil and maintaining biodiversity and a human activity interference evaluation criteria system based on the human activity impact index, population and road network density, and the intensity of tourism activity and livelihood sewage discharge. This evaluation method was verified in Zoige County, China, by using remote sensing data to evaluate ecological functions and human activity interference in the ecological redline area for an urban environment. This evaluation method is one of the preliminary studies of urban sustainable development planning, and the result could provide a basis for the formulation of urban sustainable development strategy.