Sustainable Urban Implants

Translation of urban planning models: Planning principles, procedural elements and institutional settings

City brain is a complex system, including online center, server network, and system with given algorithm. The core of the city brain is the intelligent system. After putting the urban brain into the intelligent nerve center, on the basis of not changing its original data structure, combining its own characteristics for design and then integrating into application, it can intelligently change the urban management mode. Urban planning leads the development of smart cities on a certain meaning, and smart city planning must have scientific and rational urban planning. The intelligent model is used to make urban planning form a more modern, convenient, and reasonable urban architectural planning. Some influential books on classical architectural theory are the theoretical basis of intelligent urban planning and even the trend and implementation blueprint of how smart cities will develop in the future. In this paper, four algorithms, ant colony algorithm, particle swarm optimization algorithm, genetic algorithm, and improved ant colony algorithm, are proposed to optimize the characteristics of urban architectural planning and landscape design; especially the security research of architecture and landscape characteristics is very important. The improved ant colony algorithm has the shortcoming of insufficient optimization ability in the face of complex path selection. By improving the influencing factors, a new ant colony algorithm is created. The improved ant colony algorithm achieves the best in security features, so it is advocated to use this algorithm for planning and design. The urban form in smart city aims to create a beautiful and comfortable urban environment, improve the competitiveness of cities in the rapid urbanization process, improve the living standards of the public, and shape the image of this beautiful city.

Towards sustainable urbanism: The arcology and organic compact urban formation as the approach of sustainable urban design- A comparative study

Can rapid urbanization be sustainable? The case of Saudi Arabian cities

The population of East African nations has been shifting toward an urban lifestyle. The fast urbanization that occurred without a solid economic foundation to support it, which led to the development of informal urban settlements on the outskirts of cities, foretells enormous challenges. In order to improve the quality of life and general well-being of city dwellers, urban planning aims to organize the use of land and other physical resources for the benefit of the general public. In Ethiopia, the hardest and most difficult part of creating an urban plan is putting it into action. Waste of time, money, and human resources all crucial for the process of creating plans are among the issues that arise from inadequate urban implementation. In order to investigate urban planning implementation practices for city beautification, this study concentrated on creating AHP models using Super Decisions v3: In order to accomplish the goal, a pairwise comparison questionnaire survey was used to gather the data. This study's data analysis was carried out utilizing the Super Decisions software v3 package. According to the study's findings, the most crucial urban planning practices were flood risk management, maintenance of facilities, access to community resources, green networks and open spaces, urban mobility plans, monumental architecture, and urban transportation utilities. On the other hand, the least significant urban planning practices were found to include solid waste management, tourism, green spaces, education and health, housing policy, and cultural heritage protection.

With the rise of chronic diseases as the number one cause of death and disability among urban populations, it has become increasingly important to design for healthy environments. There is, however, a lack of interdisciplinary approaches and solutions to improve health and well-being through urban planning and design. This case study offers an HCI solution and approach to design for healthy urban structures and dynamics in existing neighborhoods. We discuss the design process and design of ROOT, an interactive lighting system that aims to stimulate walking and running through supportive, collaborative and social interaction. We exemplify how multidisciplinary HCI approaches in a hackathon setting can contribute to real life urban health challenges. This case study concludes that the experimental and collaborative nature of a hackathon facilitates the rapid exchange of perspectives and fosters interdisciplinary research and practice in urban planning and design.

Public participation has been growing in both theory and practice of urban planning, including heritage planning. The reasoning is to facilitate the involvement of a broader group of stakeholders, beyond experts. More specifically, for heritage planning, participation could enable consensus-building on defining the significance of heritage, namely attributes (the resources that should be listed as heritage), and values (the reasons that attributes are important). However, there is not yet a holistic understanding of the influencing factors behind consensus-building in the participatory planning processes for cultural heritage. To evaluate existing research from this angle, a systematic literature review was conducted on peer-reviewed articles using the Scopus database. As most of the studies focuse on urban planning, this research examines the factors influencing consensus-building in the participatory planning process applied to urban and heritage planning and reflects on the applicability of these factors in heritage planning. The main factors were identified inductively and grouped into two categories: 1) public participation: actors, methods, and levels of public participation, and 2) consensus: approaches, and conflicts. The relations between these factors and their frequencies are investigated using statistical analysis methods, namely frequency analysis, independent-samples t-test, and Spearman correlation. The literature confirms that urban planning has applied more diverse methods and tools for public participation compared to studies in the field of heritage planning, and could inspire heritage planning. Conflict is recognized as an intertwined concept with consensus which is considered either as a challenge or as a necessity for an inclusive decision-making. By proposing a framework integrating these factors and sub-factors and illustrating their relationships, this research could also be useful for decision-makers and practitioners to better tailor the public participation process and means to implement it, considering the relevant factors involved.

Child-friendly cities are places that support opportunities for children’s play and community connection in safe urban environments. A dominant practice in urban planning and design has been to separate people and their activities spatially (i.e., residential zones, learning zones, play zones) and this coincided with the remaking of cities around private vehicular travel which together necessitated carving out safe spaces for children play. This has meant that children’s play has been geared towards permanent equipment in fenced-off playgrounds or more formal educational settings. However, the inclusion of temporary play spaces in cities to support community engagement in the local environment is growing to combine urban design, play and community wellbeing initiatives. This paper documents the experiences of stakeholders of a temporary play space in an inner-city suburb of an Australian city. This work includes key perspectives of the architects and designers and local council members to evaluate how a 12-week activation of a temporary play space came into being and what can be learnt from this collaboration.

In this article, Negar Yazdi – an urban planner recently honoured as the 2022 Australian Capital Territory Young Planner of the Year with over nine years of experience in shaping cities across various countries – provides insights into the close relationship between city art and the research field and practice of Urban Planning and Design. Through the lens of urban planning and design, she explores the role of public art in making better cities, fostering community engagement and creating unique urban experiences. In her view, public art contributes to the identity, liveability and lovability of cities and serves as a landmark that enhances the city landscape and facilitates navigation. This article highlights the importance of integrating art into urban design to create not only functional but also enjoyable, vibrant, inclusive and culturally rich city spaces.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the link between urban planning practices and public health. A triangulated study was conducted to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic. The first phase consisted of semi-structured interviews with health and urban planning experts, which were analyzed with the aid of Artificial Intelligence tools. The second phase involved an on-site investigation in the city of Algiers, including a survey, site visits, and a thorough analysis of the master plan for land use and urban planning. The findings emphasize the critical importance of a comprehensive health-centric approach to city design, improved governance and management practices, community involvement, and political commitment to prioritize health in urban planning. Furthermore, the results proved a strong correlation between prioritizing public health in urban planning practices and residents’ satisfaction with the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, it is necessary to consider public health as a priority in urban planning practices and as a need for all stakeholders to work towards a healthier and more equitable urban environment.

Planning of transit-oriented development is acceptable among urban and transport planners as an urban form strategy to reduce automobile dependency, thus promoting transport sustainability. Apart from the mixed land use, high density and the “smart growth” philosophy behind the transit-oriented development concept which offer potential for a sustainable built environment, the impacts of transit-oriented development on the formation of sustainable communities have not yet been thoroughly studied. This paper aims to assess a rail-based transit-oriented development in Hong Kong for the formation of a sustainable community. A new town highly integrated with the transit-oriented development concept is studied, with a focus on its achievements and challenges in promoting transport and urban sustainability through greener travel, mixed land use development, as well as other daily life experiences altered by the transit-oriented concept, such as liveable streets and fair access to daily opportunities. The...

Urban Planning in the AI Era: Foundations, Tools, and Future Perspectives is a forward-looking and accessible textbook designed specifically for people seeking to understand how emerging technologies are transforming the way we design, manage, and live in urban environments. This book equips individuals with the foundational knowledge of both urban planning principles and the technical underpinnings of AI, making it an ideal resource for courses in urban studies, geography, smart city development, and public policy. Through engaging explanations, real-world examples, and case studies drawn from global cities, people will learn how AI tools—such as machine learning, predictive analytics, remote sensing, and natural language processing—are being applied to improve everything from land use and traffic flow to disaster resilience and citizen engagement. The text is structured to guide people through three key dimensions: first, the theoretical and historical roots of urban planning and its current challenges; second, the practical applications and ethical implications of AI technologies in urban governance; and third, future scenarios that explore the evolving role of planners in a data-rich, technology-driven era. Whether used in the classroom or as a reference for early-career professionals, Urban Planning in the AI Era empowers readers to think critically about the future of our cities and their own roles within them. By blending urban theory with cutting-edge technology, this book prepares the next generation of planners to navigate the increasingly complex landscapes of 21st-century urban life.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intend to encourage liveable urban environments by 2030 with a main focus on strategies to achieve environmental and human well-being. In the same way, the multifunctionality principle of green infrastructure planning aims to develop and protect urban green spaces to provide several ecosystem services to increase human well-being whilst protecting the environment. With this in mind, this paper seeks to gather evidence on the nexus between multifunctionality and green infrastructure planning to achieve the SDGs within a South African context. The implementation of green infrastructure to this effect depends on creating awareness of different typologies of green infrastructure elements and the ecosystem services they provide to strengthen the implementation of the green infrastructure concept in urban planning practice. Within the aim of context-specific considerations to green infrastructure planning, green infrastructure typologies possible for implementation within a South Africa urban planning practice context are considerably more limited. A qualitative research approach is employed using case studies identifying specific examples to explore South African green infrastructure typologies and their multifunctionality. Different multifunctionality concepts are recognized by urban planners in South Africa. The research findings highlighted that multifunctionality achieved through green infrastructure planning should inform urban planning practice to promote the integration of ecological considerations. The paper ultimately provides a deeper insight into the expanding field of green infrastructure research in a South African context by underlining context-based multifunctional green infrastructure typologies and accordingly emphasizes, mainstreaming the ecosystem services concept as part of urban planning practice to address the SDGs locally.

Since the industrial revolution, the relationship between human and nature has not improved in line with technological and social innovations. In this paper, we chose the Chengdu plains, known as the Land of Abundance, as our study subject. We adopt methods of comparing settlements in different eras. The results indicate that natural processes played a crucial role in determining human settlements in the Land of Abundance. Relationship between human and nature in these four phases reflects the transition from submission to nature, respect for nature, reconstruction of nature, and finally to the conquest of nature, respectively, in the pre-construction period, original construction period, development period, and modern period. We have revealed the deep wisdom of the harmonious coexistence between social and natural systems from the five aspects of the holistic view of daoshengwanwu, the practice view of daofaziran, the social view of sharing benefits across, the ethical view of Tao controls technology, and the good governance view of spontaneous order. Lastly, this paper points out several principles of landscape and urban planning in the presence of deep urban sustainability challenges: coevolution of natural and social systems would help promote sustainability of human settlements; nature-guided human settlement practice can maintain various healthy life-support systems; planning practice should be emphasized to maintain or reconstruct healthy natural process; modular units should be constructed through integrating environmental management units with planned unit development; self-governance organizations could be fostered likely based on modular units; and finally but not lastly, technology applications should be subject to restriction of environmental ethics.

Green certification rating systems have been developed for building construction and renovation of an existing building from 1990s by international building assessment tools such as LEED, BREEAM and DGNB. Green certification rating systems for buildings have been upgraded and recently adapted to the urban design and planning. LEED Neighborhood Development, BREEAM Communities, and DGNB Urban Districts are examples of green certification rating system implemented respectively in USA, UK and Germany. As the notion of green urban design gains more significance, city governments have started to set its own green standards in urban design guidelines, based upon studies of green certification rating systems. Recently various issues on materials and resources such as material selection, material recycling, and resource protection are recognized in urban design principles as well as building designs, with a strong relation to other environmental problems. This paper focuses on comparative analysis of how material criteria are embedded for sustainable urban design in LEED ND, BREEAM Communities and DGNB-UD with urban design guidelines recently developed and issued for multiple cities worldwide including cities in Korea. The paper examines differences of material assessment criteria, evaluation parameters and methods, descriptions in green certification rating systems and urban design guidelines. In the analysis, materials are categorized into: (1) building materials (2) infrastructure materials (3) landscape materials, and management of different categories is assessed in existing urban planning and design procedures and practices. In conclusion, overview of material criteria is discussed to discover limits and possibilities of material assessment in sustainable neighborhood development.