Application of the Nexus Approach as an Integrated Urban Planning Framework: From Theory to Practice and Back Again

Urbanization has created some of the world's greatest development challenges. At the same time, cities present an opportunity to tackle these challenges comprehensively. For this, an integrated urban development approach is needed. The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus approach offers cities an integrated urban planning framework to devise sustainability pathways. However, so far there exist no comprehensive guidelines to aid municipal government decision-making on how to apply the Nexus approach in an urban context. This paper highlights the origins of the WEF Nexus approach within the integrated urban planning discourse. It explains the method to introduce Nexus with special emphasis on Nexus training supporting the implementation of the Nexus approach. The “Urban Nexus Development Cycle” as part of the Nexus training, guiding urban practitioners to overcome “silo thinking” is the innovative element as well as the pro-active involvement of universities in the Nexus process.

Recognizing Principles of Integrated Urban Planning in Historical Development of the City: A Case Study of Banja Luka

Integrated urban planning is based on the necessity of constantly adapting to complex social processes and applying methodology that supports multidisciplinarity, flexibility, and adaptability. In trying to achieve future visions and to meet trends of urbanization, inherited contextual values are often forgotten. Although the impression that everything was better before is based on nostalgia, the urban development history should still be analyzed. This article analyzes principles of integrated urban planning by reviewing twentieth-century development of Banja Luka. The objective is to recognize, to evaluate, and to adapt those principles to the contemporary context and to reconsider them in the future. The analysis shows the positive and negative values of the development, which reveals that the principles of integrated urban planning were present in each period. As their singularity and fragmentation without the systematic integration was not efficient enough, recommendations for improving integrated urban planning in the specific context are given.

Integrated sustainable urban planning: a new agenda for future urban planning in Malaysia

Purpose This paper aims to propose an integrated urban planning framework to achieve sustainable urban development (SUD) in the Malaysian context. Design/methodology/approach In the course of developing this framework, this paper reviews the related literature and Malaysian policies, programs and plans. Findings The findings highlight the importance of developing an integrated urban planning framework with respect to the processes, content and outcomes to achieve SUD in the Malaysian context. Successful SUD planning should be participatory and based on building consensus. Moreover, the content of the plan should include economic growth, social inclusion and development and environmental protection components. Originality/value This study makes a valuable theoretical contribution to the SUD and urban planning literature by proposing an urban planning framework for the promotion of SUD. In addition, this study has a number of practical implications for the Government of Malaysia and local authorities aiming to facilitate SUD.

Planners and the new urban agenda: will we lead the agenda, or will the agenda lead us?

The United Nation’s New Urban Agenda has created a playbook for planning advocates. It opens possibilities for building inclusive, integrated urban planning in countries where planning has been top-down and limited in scope. Yet it raises concerns about ignoring the power of industry and imposition of global ideas inappropriate to national contexts. Success will require strengthened capacity building for the urban professions, and sensitivity in adapting global best practices to national contexts.

Correction to: Formation of the modern scenic city of Hangzhou: towards conservation integrated urban planning, 1950s–1990s

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Cultural resilience and the Smart and Sustainable City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the conceptualisation of the Smart Sustainable City (SSC) with new concepts of resilience thinking in relation to urgent societal challenges facing the built environment. The paper aims to identify novel methodologies for smart reuse of heritage sites with a pluralist past as integral to inclusive urban development. Design/methodology/approach SSC concepts in the global literature are studied to define a new reference framework for integrated urban planning strategies in which cultural resilience and co-creation matter. This framework, augmented by UNESCO’s holistic recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), was tested in two investigative projects: the historic centre of South Africa’s capital Tshwane and the proximate former Westfort leprosy colony. Findings The research confirms that SSC concepts need enlargement to become more inclusive in acknowledging “cultural diversity” of communities and engaging “chrono-diversity” of extant fabric. A paradigm shift in the discourse on integrated urban (re)development and adaptive reuse of built heritage is identified, influenced by resilience and sustainability thinking. Both projects show that different architectural intervention strategies are required to modulate built fabric and its emergent qualities and to unlock embedded cultural energy. Originality/value Together with a critical review of SSC concepts and the HUL in relation to urban (re)development, this paper provides innovative methodologies on creative adaptation of urban heritage, reconciling “hard” and “soft” issues, tested in the highly resilient systems of Tshwane.