"The book investigates urban development and governance in China and introduces China perspectives to the understanding of governing urban development in the 21st century. Building upon a rich and burgeoning literature on China, the book explains major changes in governance, offers a well...

Hyperloop ultra-high-speed transport presents a transformative opportunity for future mobility systems in smart cities. However, assessing its socio-economic impact remains challenging due to Hyperloop's unique technological, modal, and operational characteristics. As a novel, fifth mode of...

The study examines Dar es Salaam's potential as a focal point for structural transformation, highlighting its emergence as a significant economic hub. Through a mixed-methods approach, the research investigates how urban development is shaped by institutional, economic, political, and spatial...

The Smart City concept is essential for urban areas to develop the city through sustainable strategies. This paper assesses how the citizens of Iași, a dynamic city that quickly implemented this concept, perceive the impact of the initiatives on their quality of life, achieved mainly through...

Water scarcity is an important threat to food security in the Euphrates-Tigris river. Water scarcity is a huge worldwide problem that results from the rapid increase in water demand, which exceeds the amount of available water. The most significant problems currently affecting countries are food...

Post-pandemic, cities face new challenges in adapting to global changes, while also addressing the needs, practices, and capabilities of diverse populations. Resilience, as a key factor, enables cities to adapt and transform in response to these challenges. Development driven by resilience is...

Cities and towns in the Pacific region face significant risks from natural hazards. These risks are projected to increase with climate change and increasing urbanization, yet they are not well understood. As a complementary technical report to Livable Pacific Cities and Towns: Urbanization...

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are experiencing a rapid urban transition in the context of intensifying climate and disaster risks. Responding to these challenges requires more than incremental action. The Livable Pacific Cities and Towns report sets out a strategic framework for resilient...

This Technical Note builds directly on the Urban Heat Risk Assessment Technical Note, which focuses on diagnosing heat hazards, exposure, and impacts in urban areas. In many cities, the analytical understanding of extreme heat has advanced rapidly, supported by improved climate data, spatial...

Background: The smart city concept has become a central framework in contemporary urban governance; however, empirical research predominantly focuses on large metropolitan areas, while small municipalities remain comparatively underexplored. This study examines how citizens of Ivanić-Grad...

Recent events including the pandemic have prompted reflection on the future of sustainability in tourism. It necessitated "proximity tourism" - effectively, staying closer to home and discovering the proximate environment, the only tourism allowed for the mass of people. A form of proximate...

This paper examines the effects of public infrastructure spending across Ecuadorian cantons on adequate employment and the multidimensional poverty rate over the period 2008-2022, assessing whether such spending operated as a mechanism of convergence. The analysis is grounded in the hypothesis...

Land-use policies shape the spatial allocation of infrastructure, services, and development and thus have direct implications for welfare. This paper examines the effects of Colombia's municipal territorial plan updates on poverty through the lens of the housing and services channel. Using...

Rapid urbanization in cities worldwide has led to significant environmental, social, and economic challenges. These include heightened exposure to extreme weather and climate events, increased air and water pollution, rising poverty levels, shrinking green spaces, and greater risks to lives,...

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in China's smart city initiatives are widely regarded as having the potential to enhance energy efficiency, yet whether such applications may trigger or exacerbate the energy rebound effect remains an open empirical question. Using panel data for 279...

In order to explore the causal relationship between the level of urban digital construction and urban economic growth, this paper takes 280 cities in China as the research object and constructs a comprehensive indicator evaluation system covering digital infrastructure, overall economic level,...

Using data for 134 locations in New Zealand, we study the effects of crime and agglomeration on urban amenity. We find that crime has significant negative effects on the value of urban amenity, with elasticities of approximately −0.06 for firms and −0.09 for workers. To put this effect in...

This study is a novel attempt to analyze the patterns and trends of urbanization in medium to large cities in Central Asia. It encompasses a broad range of parameters, and employs an evidence-based approach to outlining strategic directions and actions for fostering green and resilient urban...

Governments face the complicated challenge of making policy decisions relating to coastal and marine ecosystems without a well-established body of knowledge about such systems. To complicate matters, the benefits that marine and coastal ecosystems deliver, which include resilience to climate...

The 'Communication, Dissemination and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy' (CDSES) defines the framework to guide dissemination activities within UVAR Box throughout the project. It identifies and describes the target groups for dissemination activities and explains how to reach them. It provides...

One in three cities is at high risk of water stress. The 2030 Water Resources Group (WRG) helps cities prevent, respond to, and recover from water crises. This is done by facilitating partnerships between governments and businesses to manage water more effectively and create resilient and...

This brief presents insights and lessons for the Networks of Practice (NoP) program in urban Ghana, based on formative research conducted in Ayawaso Central, Greater Accra Region and Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal, Ashanti Region. The research used Patient Pathway Analysis (PPA) and Summative...

This note describes Carbon Monitor Cities 2.0, a new approach to near-real-time monitoring of city-level greenhouse gas emissions from various sectors without the need for local data collection. With support from the City Climate Finance Gap Fund, the World Bank piloted this approach for 11...

Our study delves into understanding the bottom-up processes within a public service delivery system by studying the last-mile interactions between frontline workers, citizens, and other stakeholders. Specifically, we focus on these aspects in the context of the Solid Waste Management (SWM)...