Semantic City Planning Systems (SCPS): A Literature Review

This review focuses on recent research literature on the use of Semantic Web Technologies (SWT) in city planning. The review foregrounds representational, evaluative, projective, and synthetical meta-practices as constituent practices of city planning. We structure our review around these four meta-practices that we consider fundamental to those processes. We find that significant research exists in all four metapractices. Linking across domains by combining various methods of semantic knowledge generation, processing, and management is necessary to bridge gaps between these meta-practices and will enable future Semantic City Planning Systems.

Through the Looking Glass: Conceptualising the Theme of Gentrification in Contemporary India

Gentrification, at high levels of granularity, reveals psycho-social, socio-economic and socio-political machinery processes that are specific to particular places. This article critically reviews existing literature to comprehend gentrification in the Indian context. Authors argue that the discord between aspirations and class relations gestates urban informality and suggests a new framework that the authors call the Triquetra of Informality. The framework proposes that interplay among urban entrepreneurialism, bourgeois mode of consumption and subaltern mobilisation are the impetus for contemporary urbanism and gentrification in India.

Transaction Costs in Planning Literature: A Systematic Review

“Transaction costs,” as a well-established theory in New Institutional Economics, has been used to explain and analyze various planning matters for about 30 years since its introduction to planning literature. However, there is no study on how planning-related studies have utilized the theory. This paper conducts a systematic review that aims to develop a better understanding of how transaction-cost theory is used in planning literature. The review shows that while potential contributions and implications of transaction costs have been conceptually discussed in planning literature, the empirical studies have remained limited, particularly concerning the magnitude of such costs in planning systems.

The Relationship Between Urban Renewal and the Built Environment: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Urban renewal and the built environment have become two of the hottest topics in urban planning studies. Although existing literature has started to examine both of them from different perspectives, a comprehensive review with a bibliometric analysis is necessary to fully reveal the association between them. To overcome these gaps, this paper critically reviews the literature on urban renewal and the built environment and proposes a novel research framework to systematically understand the relationship between them. Based on 155 articles which were published between 2001 and 2020 collected from the Web of Science Core Collection Database, a bibliometric analysis offers the overall development and trajectory of the existing research, and a critical review fully analyzes the relationship between the two topics from three perspectives: main categories of urban renewal, multiple stakeholders, and economic, social and environmental development needs. To better clarify the interaction mechanism between urban renewal and the built environment and guide further research in this area, a future research agenda is also provided.

Measurement and Meaning: Critical Reflection on the Maturation and Potential of National Urban Land Studies in the United States

Precise measurement of urban land (UL) is an essential tool for planning in a world of accelerating change and increasing risk, but analysis has traditionally faced methodological and conceptual challenges. This review traces the evolution of UL measurement in the United States (US) from early attempts at quantification through current innovative approaches that analyze the qualities of UL. Researchers now have tools better suited to multi-scalar and complex conceptualization of urban systems. Given this maturation, critical reflection on research design has become essential to UL research, in particular the alignment of measurement tools with desired outcomes and planning goals.

China's new Towns in Controversy: A Literature Review

In the past forty years, more than 3,800 new towns emerged and accommodated over 150 million urban inhabitants in China, which drew much attention since they were reported as “ghost cities” by media in the late 2000s. This literature review examines existing research and synthesizes current discussions through a meta-analysis. It concludes that existing literature, led by environmental scientists and designers, exhibits two polarized debates around the new towns’ uniqueness and the future of ghost cities. Gaps exist in national-scale surveys, criticism of planning methodology, and theories that can explain the current disputes.