Integrating Quantity and Quality to Assess Urban Green Space Improvement in the Compact City

Urban green space (UGS) has gained much attention in terms of urban ecosystems and human health. Measures to improve green space in compact cities are important for urban sustainability. However, there is a knowledge gap between UGS improvement and planning management. Based on the integration of quantity and quality, this research aims to identify UGS changes during urban development and suggest ways to improve green space. We analyse land use changes, conduct a hotspot analysis of land surface temperature (LST) between 2005 and 2015 at the city scale, and examine the changes in small, medium and large patches at the neighbourhood scale to guide decision-makers in UGS management. The results show that (i) the redevelopment of urban brownfields is an effective method for increasing quantity, with differences depending on regional functions; (ii) small, medium and large patches of green space have significance in terms of improving the quality of temperature mitigation, with apparent coldspot clustering from 2005 to 2015; and (iii) the integration of UGS quality and quantity in planning management is beneficial to green space sustainability. Green space improvement needs to emphasize the integration of UGS quantity and quality to accommodate targeted planning for local conditions.

Meshing Sustainability with Satisfaction: An Investigation of Residents’ Perceptions in Three Different Neighbourhoods in Chengdu, China

Can sustainability and liveability be simultaneously pursued at the neighbourhood level? Adopting neighbourhood satisfaction as a proxy to indicate liveability at the neighbourhood scale, this paper investigated how the residential subjective perception of sustainability factors interacted with neighbourhood satisfaction in the context of three different neighbourhoods in Chengdu, China. This began with a comprehensive literature review to construct the neighbourhood sustainability framework. Then, a total of 510 cross-sectional questionnaire surveys was conducted in Chengdu. Logistic regression was employed to investigate significant associations. The findings revealed that the ‘sense and habit of energy saving’ is the only sustainability factor that is negatively associated with neighbourhood satisfaction in commodity-housing neighbourhood. Compared with intangible factors, tangible or physical sustainability factors are more likely to contribute to improving neighbourhood satisfaction and suppressing moving intention. The study also evidenced the contextual differences of significant associations among danwei, resettlement, and commodity-housing neighbourhoods coexisting in transitional China. This calls for adaptive and contextual rather than standardized, top-down strategies for developing sustainable neighbourhood planning to simultaneously promote sustainability and liveability in Chengdu, China. Finally, a specific contextual framework was provided as policy implications for developing local and adaptive solutions.

Probabilistic Modelling of Demographic Changes in Singapore’s Neighbourhoods

Predicting the temporal evolution of the demography and the residents’ spatial movements would immensely aid the estate development and urban planning. The evolution of population in three townships of Singapore is simulated at neighbourhood scale using a novel agent-based probabilistic approach with inputs from large-scale survey and statistical data. The demographic changes due to age-dependent rates of death and fertility are studied by considering the inter-ethnic marriages that has a varying probability depending on the ethnicities of the male and female partners. The predicted changes in the age and household compositions and family types have been found to reflect the population trends in Singapore over the past years. The decline in family types that contain children and the structure of age composition over years underline the issue of prevailing low fertility rates. The strategies for incorporating the population relocation to consider the long-term spatial movement are also discussed. In Singapore’s context, we consider in the relocation model an added complexity of ethnic quota for the residential units developed by public housing board. The ethnicity dependent parameter coupled with other parameters that represent the number of children in a household besides their size, the household income, the proximity of children’s schools, and the places of employment could play a strong role in predicting the spatial evolution of the residents. These predictions can be used by the urban planners and policy makers to improve the quality of life in Singapore.

Sustainability Issues at the Neighbourhood Scale

We previously identified that urban brownfield regeneration projects are relevant strategies to limit urban sprawl while revitalizing portions of cities, namely mixed-use neighbourhoods. Moreover, these neighbourhoods in transition are opportunities to foster the implementation of sustainability objectives within European metropolitan areas. This chapter explore this subject by deepening the sustainability issues at the neighbourhood scale. To provide the basis for discussion, we first attempt to frame the urban sustainability concept and to explain how the neighbourhood scale is a means of action for cities. Then, we analyse the different sustainability issues according to a wide variety of parameters that must especially be taken into account during sustainable neighbourhood projects, and more precisely urban brownfield regeneration projects. These parameters cover the four pillars of sustainability—the environment, society, economy, and governance—and the polycentric reorganization of European metropolitan areas.

Introduction

The regeneration of brownfields in European metropolitan areas represents an important potential to mitigate urban sprawl by increasing density within the existing built fabric and to revitalize portions of cities at the neighbourhood scale. Although research and projects on urban brownfields are active, several issues still need to be overcome, especially regarding the sustainability transition challenge. Based on this observation, we introduce the present book, which proposes an integrated and theoretically grounded approach to highlight how urban brownfield regeneration projects—and the neighbourhood scale that they entail—can effectively contribute to the urban sustainability transitions of metropolitan areas. It is structured in two parts that are both distinct and complementary: the first part aims to clarify the framework of the investigations with definition and analysis and the second part presents a deep analysis of processes, project dynamics, and sustainability assessment approaches of urban brownfield regeneration.

Sustainability Monitoring: Principles, Challenges, and Approaches

Because of the inherent complexity of urban brownfield regeneration projects, achieving sustainability objectives is not easy. It requires approaches adapted to the specificities of this type of operation, that allow for structured and regular follow-up, and that are integrated into the project dynamics. In this chapter, we argue that sustainability monitoring can help address this challenge. We start by defining the principles of sustainability evaluation and monitoring. Then, we look deeper at the challenges of an operational monitoring tool from the brownfield regeneration perspective. On this basis, we plead for the necessity of tailor-made operational monitoring tools for this type of operation and define, to this end, three general requirements for said tools. Finally, we make a critical analysis of existing certifications at the neighbourhood scale and different approaches developed for brownfield regeneration projects.

Urban Brownfields: Origin, Definition, and Diversity

Brownfield is a polysemic notion that encompasses a whole range of diverse spaces. Although there is no official definition at the European level, an emerging consensus has arisen around the urban character of brownfields and the need for intervention. Indeed, their location within metropolitan areas represents a strategic opportunity to densify and rejuvenate the urban fabric at the neighbourhood scale. Hence, we propose a definition of urban brownfields that is flexible enough to optimize the potential development of abandoned sites and precise enough to enable framing the discussion. Then, we take a look at the diversity of urban brownfields in European metropolitan areas by briefly explaining the factors that cause a site to become a brownfield and then attempting to classify different types of urban brownfields. The proposed classification aims to create a non-exhaustive reference framework by offering in-depth knowledge of the urban brownfield and regeneration projects phenomenon across Europe, without setting its meaning in stone.

Conclusion

The inventory of urban brownfields in post-industrial European metropolitan areas and the study of regeneration projects highlight the absolute necessity of these resources for the sustainability transitions of urban territories and the undeniable complexity of this type of process. Given the complexity of the variables involved, there is no simple and unambiguous recipe to make urban territories evolve towards more sustainability. In a synthetic way, we recall how this book examines the strategies and methods of regenerating urban brownfields through the lens of sustainability at the neighbourhood scale. Then, we question how the urban brownfield phenomenon will evolve in the decades to come. Finally, we argue that it is through inter-disciplinarity of approaches that neighbourhoods in transition can contribute, on their scale, to the mutation and adaptability of urban territories.

Industrial destabilisation: The case of Rajajinagar, Bangalore

There has been a recent interest in expanding the focus of deindustrialisation studies to the cities of the Global South. Bangalore, with its long legacy of state sponsored industrialisation, as well as a substantial shift in its economy following economic liberalisation in 1991, presents itself as a suitable case to examine the impacts of industrial transformation. We study the decline of the engineering economy in one of Bangalore’s earliest planned industrial suburbs, Rajajinagar, to understand how industrial restructuring at the city and national scale has affected and reconfigured local economies. Using this case study, we make two main theoretical contributions: one, we bring out shifts at a neighbourhood scale that go beyond the existing literature on neoliberal transformations in Bangalore as well as other Indian cities. Two, the case also allows us to assess the limitations of deindustrialisation as a framework to analyse these changes, and we suggest a modified framework, that of ‘industrial destabilisation’.

FabLab Barcelona—Co-design With Food Surplus: Better Redistributing, Upcycling and Composting

The chapter analyses a co-designed project in the food value chain. Looking at how to identify and stimulate new synergies among the local community in order to co-develop educational, logistic and environmental supports for better redistributing, upcycling and composting food locally, it critically presents the case of a Symbiotic System for food surplus and bio waste valorisation at a neighbourhood scale.