Urban informal settlements in the Global South, home to over a billion people, face significant challenges due to limited space and inadequate Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Solid Waste Management (SWM) infrastructure. These deficiencies significantly impact women's 'triple care role'...

Several indicator and index frameworks have been reported to assess management efficiency and promote transparency, facilitating decision-making and innovation. However, they cannot be applied in cities with limited information, making them impractical. This study proposes a Sustainable Urban...

Previous studies suggest that market forces and the strategic behavior of local governments regarding land development jointly contribute to rapid urban expansion in China. In underdeveloped small cities in Western China, the market is weak, and local governments lack the conditions required to...

Effectively assisting urban designers in developing resilient urban areas requires innovative approaches. Moreover, using spatial analysis is necessary to assess the effectiveness of the conceptual design depending on different specifications. Even though these concepts are closely related, they...

Urban regeneration is a challenging intervention, considering the multidimensional issues involved and the complexities of stakeholder collaborations. While prior research indicates the potential of digital technology in addressing these challenges and introducing novel approaches to urban...

Urban planning, through design and land use allocation, affects urban climate dynamics and patterns at different atmospheric layers and spatial scales. Climate sensitive planning and design draws attention to the consideration of climate parameters for decision making. Seeking to contribute to...

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is increasingly recognized as an effective urban planning strategy, aiming for the harmonious development of urban spatial structures and rail transit systems, thus fostering sustainability. This study addresses the limitations of existing research 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 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...

This paper examines how African cities can reconcile rapid urbanization and development imperatives with urgent decarbonization goals through structural transformation. It begins by mapping key sources of urban carbon - energy poverty, inefficient buildings, poor planning, transport systems,...

This report synthesizes lessons learned from the studies and interventions commissioned by the World Bank in Ethiopia from 2022-2024 to support integrated urban land management - highlighting the potential contribution integrated urban land approaches can play in achieving the long-term climate...

Cities around the world are responsible for ever-growing shares of people, assets, and economic activities vulnerable to climate disasters. They are also responsible for the majority of the world's carbon emissions. Cities in low- and middle-income countries still have a window of opportunity to...

This report is following a Living Spaces peer-learning visit in Malmö that took place between 9 and 11 October 2024, hosted by the City Architect and City Planning Department in Malmö. Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, has undergone significant transformation since the industrial decline of...

This report is following a Living Spaces peer-learning visit in Malmö that took place between 9 and 11 October 2024, hosted by the City Architect and City Planning Department in Malmö. Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, has undergone significant transformation since the industrial decline of...

Within the frame of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) work on transformative innovation for climate resilience, in collaboration with DG CLIMA as orchestrator of the European Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change and DG Research and Innovation, JRC's Unit B7 "Innovation...

Urban areas as major population centres are inherently exposed to high and compound climate risks, impacting across a socioeconomic, ecological, financial, and political nexus. The EU policy landscape recognises the critical importance of urban climate adaptation, as encompassed by the European...

Urban areas as major population centres are inherently exposed to high and compound climate risks, impacting across a socioeconomic, ecological, financial, and political nexus. The EU policy landscape recognises the critical importance of urban climate adaptation, as encompassed by the European...

Energy is vital for economic development because it is an input in almost every sector of the economy. For households, it is considered a basic necessity. Given the significance of energy in driving the economies, the issue of energy poverty is a serious concern for policymakers worldwide....

In recent years, China has made significant progress in building smart cities and promoting renewable energy. This study examines the impact of smart city construction on renewable energy use, using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2022 and employing a panel quantile...

EU Missions are large-scale initiatives under Horizon Europe designed to tackle major global challenges, such as climate change, cancer, soil health, ocean restoration, and the development of climate-neutral and smart cities. They set clear, time-bound goals and bring together research, policy,...

This study contributes to the improvement of the knowledge about quality of life (QoL) in cities, deepening not only in its antecedents, but also in its outcomes, under the theoretical approach of the resource-based view. On the one hand, we hypothesize that QoL in a city can be driven by...

In recent decades, developed economies have experienced a strong concentration of economic activity around their main metropolises, generating economic and social fractures between these prosperous areas and the rest of the country. Several contributions in the literature on the 'geography of...

How sustainable are Ghana's cities? This Strategy measures sustainability along three dimensions-the enabling Urban System, People & Economy, and Environment-each of which has four building blocks. This approach is premised on the idea that city systems (infrastructure, governance, institutions,...

This report makes the case for increased and urgent investment in climate-resilient cities in India. With a doubling of the urban population expected by 2050, from 480 million in 2020 to 951 million, more than half of urban growth, in terms of new infrastructure, buildings, and urban services,...

Today, population growth in metropolitan areas along with numerous economic and social problems that stem from it, have greatly challenged the urban management system. Hence, new policies have emerged in the urban sustainability literature; one of which is the development of the entrepreneurial...

This paper investigates the optimal locations of health service facilities during the Hajj, a major temporary city event in Mina, Saudi Arabia, attended by millions of pilgrims. Given the logistical challenges and historical accident risks during this dense gathering, effective placement of...

Efficient identification of critical links in urban road networks is essential for optimizing traffic management, infrastructure planning, and resource allocation. Existing methods, such as simulation-based approaches, are computationally expensive and often impractical for large-scale networks....

Urban eco-environmental management is a key focus in the modernization of national governance systems and governance capacity. Advanced information technology should be used to identify ecological problems in urban areas accurately while enhancing the environmental management capacity to promote...

This study focused on realizing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 for inclusive clean water and sanitation; in particular Target 6.3, which aims to reduce untreated wastewater by 2030 while promoting circular wastewater reuse and recycling globally. The main objective was to assess the...

This study examines the impact of China's special economic zones (SEZs) on land misallocation, primarily using city-level data for China from 2003 to 2018. The findings indicate that establishing SEZs exacerbates land misallocation by over-allocating land to cities, resulting in an average...

This paper explores structural transformation in Harare, a city characterized by vertically divided authority. Harare's unique governance structure can offer invaluable insights into the role of political determinants in structural change in African cities. We aim to demonstrate how political...