Sustainable Cities

Kako nastaju gradovi? Koji su to elementi koji su presudni u izboru mesta za grad? Kakva je uloga lovca u formiranju grada? Koje zajednice pribegavaju formiranju naseobina? Kakva je uloga reke u formiranju grada? Kakva je uloga odbrane u formiranju grada? Kakva je uloga groblja u formiranju grada? Samo su neka od mnogobrojnih pitanja kada je u pitanju formativno grado-graditeljstvo. O savskom amfiteatru kroz vreme i ideje...

U.S. local governments purchase $1.72 trillion of goods and services annually that contribute to global climate change and other environmental problems. Cities that successfully implement environmental purchasing policies can mitigate these environmental concerns while saving money and demonstrating their environmental leadership. However, cities confront numerous challenges when implementing an environmental purchasing policy. This chapter identifies the facilitators and barriers of implementing an environmental purchasing policy. It draws on the experiences within the City of Phoenix as an example and offers eight recommendations for how the City of Phoenix and similar cities can integrate environmental purchasing more fully into their existing purchasing processes.

Both ecologists and architects need to together embrace the nature-culture continuum and to examine all the ways Nature is imagined, framed, viewed, cultivated, and used by city dwellers, as well as when it refuses to be tamed the way we expect it to. Our own intimate engagement with Nature emerges inside a particular natural-cultural continuum. Various human social groups construct different views of nature and act according to their particular sets of beliefs. This is the basis of the micro-politics of ecology.

Putting climate neutrality on the urban agenda inevitably requires a re-imagination and delineation of the boundaries of the city, both at the geographical level, with regard to its inscription in history and concerning the social groups it is composed of. Such an exercise of (re-)imagination or representation is a profoundly political act. It is on the level of this symbolic representation that the (de)politicised nature of sustainability projects must be assessed. LKN2030, a project which aims to make the city of Leuven (Belgium) carbon neutral by 2030, is a case in point. The way it delineates its spatial boundaries, inscribes itself in time and conceives of the main actors representing the city generates profound forms of depoliticisation. Our contention is that these can explain some of the obstacles the project currently faces, whereas it initially triggered a lot of enthusiasm. Though mechanisms of in-and exclusion and agenda-setting inevitably take place in every sustainability project, in LKN2030 these choices tend to be neutralised behind a technical, managerial and scientific discourse. As a result, the project risks to translate potentially interesting dynamics into a consensual project for urban renewal and city marketing, whereby sustainability goals are reframed into marketing objectives and economic opportunities. Drawing on post-foundational political theory, this paper assesses this evolution, but also explores the potential of forms of repoliticisation that are emerging in its wake. 'Rather than seeing the climate challenge only as a burden, Leuven has all interest in considering it as a unique opportunity.'

The city of Frankfurt, 710,000 inhabitants, represents today a business and financial centre, transportation and logistics hub, research and technology location in a national and international context. As a result, the city is experiencing a constant and for European settings considerable population growth. Such increase implicates a high demand for housing, infrastructure and open space development. Urban extensions would be needed, but within the municipal boundary there are no development areas left. Further growth demands will have to be met within the already built-up city. On the one hand, inner city development, re-use of brownfields and densification can reduce the consumption of green fields and suburbanization. On the other hand, it involves an increasing conflict between the demand for new developments and the preservation of open and green spaces and quality of life within the city, leading to risks for climate and environment.
Suitable policies and adaptive strategies have to be prepared to cope with these changes and their impact. In Frankfurt, these include: the Energy and Climate Protection Concept, containing over 50 actions and guidelines, with a particular focus on the construction of “passive houses”; the Master Plan 100% Climate Protection, with milestones that focus on how the city can achieve 100% renewable energy supply by 2050; the Frankfurt Green City municipal platform, which coordinates information on city policies and programmes regarding urban and environmental development; and the Integrated Urban Development Concept Frankfurt 2030 as a vision for environment, housing, economy, mobility and social coherence until that year.
Recently, Frankfurt has been ranked as “the most sustainable city” worldwide by the ARCADIS Sustainable Cities Index. In both the environmental and the economic aspects, Frankfurt was evaluated first, whereas with regards to social issues, it was rated only 9th. This result makes clear that successful urban management in the environment and economy fields alone cannot solve (and may eventually even increase) social disparities, making this a major issue in all future integrated urban development efforts.

Noise is an inevitable part of daily life and has been identified as a cause of several health deficiencies across the world. It has increasingly become a significant concern on the health and well-being of people. Studies are required to advance knowledge on the sources and impacts of noise in residential neighbourhoods of Lagos State, Nigeria. Therefore, this study assesses the spatial variation of noise levels within a section of the Festac residential area in Lagos in line with noise limits specified by the World Bank Group International Finance Corporation (IFC) Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines and the Nigerian National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Noise Standards and Control guidelines for community noise. Data for this research come from a field study comprising measurements of noise levels from 6 observation stations and questionnaire survey with 200 respondents. The criteria for siting the stations was based on factor...

C'est dans les villes que les dimensions sociales, économiques et environnementales du développement durable convergent de manière plus intense, les rendant nécessaires pour être pensées, gérées et planifiées selon le modèle de développement durable qui vise à répondre aux besoins actuels de la population de la Terre sans compromettre leurs ressources naturelles, les léguer aux générations futures.

บทความนี้เป็นบทความนำเสนอสถานการณ์เมืองในภาคต่างๆของประเทศไทย โดยเรียบเรียงข้อมูลในเชิงปริมาณจากหน่วยงานราชการ และองค์กรต่างๆ ที่เคยทำการสำรวจ เพื่อนำเสนอใน 3 ประเด็นหลัก ได้แก่ 1. ข้อมูลประชากร  2. ข้อมูลมูลค่าผลิตภัณฑ์มวลรวมภาค (Gross Regional Product) และมูลค่าผลิตภัณฑ์มวลรวมจังหวัด (Gross Provincial Product) และ 3. ข้อมูลพฤติกรรมด้านสุขภาพ

Noise is an inevitable part of daily life and has been identified as a cause of several health deficiencies across the world. It has increasingly become a significant concern on the health and well-being of people. Studies are required to advance knowledge on the sources and impacts of noise in residential neighbourhoods of Lagos State, Nigeria. Therefore, this study assesses the spatial variation of noise levels within a section of the Festac residential area in Lagos in line with noise limits specified by the World Bank Group International Finance Corporation (IFC) Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines and the Nigerian National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Noise Standards and Control guidelines for community noise. Data for this research come from a field study comprising measurements of noise levels from 6 observation stations and questionnaire survey with 200 respondents. The criteria for siting the stations was based on factor...

Depuis quelques annees, un interet croissant pour les ecoquartiers se manifeste chez les elites urbaines. A travers l’analyse du projet New Islington a Manchester, cet article cherche a comprendre le role joue par la realisation de ces quartiers dans les demarches de developpement urbain. En replacant ce projet dans le contexte des politiques urbaines conduites au Royaume-Uni, l’article cherche a isoler les logiques a l’œuvre dans les usages repetes de la notion de « ville durable ». Les ecoquartiers, bien que contribuant a l’approfondissement des politiques urbaines d’environnement, apparaissent insuffisants pour repondre a l’« ideal » de la ville durable. En circonscrivant les innovations et ameliorations a des zones reduites de la ville, ils participent a l’accentuation de la differenciation du traitement des espaces urbains.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a subset of targets that can be advanced through standard urban management activities. In particular, routine urban vegetation management comprises a number of activities with potential impact on Goal #4 (quality education), #11 (sustainable cities and communities), #13 (protect the planet), #15 (life on land), and, perhaps less obviously, but equally important, on Goal #8 (good jobs and economic growth). This paper discusses how urban vegetation management can help achieve the SDGs at a local level. Drawing on a case study (Talavera de la Reina, Spain), it is shown that an intelligent approach to urban vegetation management can leverage resources towards the SDGs at little or no cost to municipalities. Minor modifications and conceptual changes in how standard practices are carried out can make a difference. Including this dimension can even result in a positive balance for the municipal budget. Our analyses and proposals are of broad and direct applicability for urban areas worldwide and can help city authorities and officials to align their cities with the SDGs simply by making minor adjustments to how they currently deal with urban vegetation.

There is a long lineage in neighbourhood research that has underpinned sustained academic and policy interest in the UK centred on understanding how spatial ‘clusters’ of neighbourhood-based deprivation might be destabilised. This has seen the privileging of composite indices in the analysis of deprivation which have been criticised for fostering a common perception that deprived neighbourhoods are homogeneous in terms of their compositions and underlying structures. Such indices have also been criticised for being ineffective at capturing temporal change, providing only static snapshots of deprivation at particular points in time. This paper focuses on patterns of deprived neighbourhood change in the Greater Manchester city-region between 2001 and 2007. It develops a typology of neighbourhood change that is triangulated with three complementary typologies capturing the socioeconomic and demographic compositions of deprived neighbourhoods; the functional roles played by deprived neighbourhoods in redistributing population through migration; and the spatial contexts in which deprived neighbourhoods are located. The analysis reveals that an over reliance on static indices to measure deprivation has long-served to conceal complexities in the way that deprived neighbourhoods change, owing to their variable structures and contexts. It illustrates the danger that lies in treating all deprived neighbourhoods in the same way.

The aim of this thesis is to assess how the tourism-based sustainable development strategies as promoted by UNESCO (in)form, affect, and impede development efforts in the management of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Balancing conservation and tourism development creates a variety of opportunities and challenges for heritage sites and local communities that can either improve or reduce the quality of local livelihoods.
By assessing the strategies, efforts and impacts of the two World Heritage Sites in Cape Town - Robben Island and Table Mountain National Park - from a cultural-economic perspective, utilizing the concept of the 'Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism', I am going to show how and why the (potential) impacts on local livelihoods greatly differ for Robben Island and Table Mountain, although both sites operate within the same legislative, geographic, and infrastructural frameworks.
I will also assess how and why the managers of both World Heritage Sites are presented with different opportunities, as well as with an enormous variety and multiplicity of site-specific challenges for achieving sustainability and improving local livelihoods.
My assessment shows that both WHS are highly aware of their responsibilities and accountability regarding local sustainable development, and that their respective strategies aim at improving sustainability on all spheres. Yet, while Robben Island Museum struggles to fulfill their mandate and legislation, and fail to improve local economies, environments and livelihoods in a sustainable manner, Table Mountain National Park and its affiliates manage to provide a holistic tourism experience while also successfully promoting environmental awareness, socioeconomic development, and inclusive local participation to ensure the long-term improvement of local livelihoods.
The conclusion clearly shows that, although the UNESCO strategy provides a viable framework for developing site-specific strategies that consider the individual aspects of heritage assets, successful implementation depends on a multiplicity of (often intangible and unchangeable) aspects, that require highly individual management approaches and available resources.
This results in the fact, that some sites like Table Mountain National Park have the potential to impact more people with less resources, as compared to sites like Robben Island, who have to invest a lot of resources just to keep operations running.

The fast pace of urbanisation in Southeast Asia has undermined the sustainability of the social, economic and environmental infrastructure of many cities across the region. Urban resilience in Southeast Asian cities is being further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. While cities and national governments across the region have developed policies, strategies and programs to reorient their cities towards more sustainable and resilient development pathways, many cities continue to struggle with the uncontrolled nature of urban development and compounding impacts of crisis events. This article provides an overview of major trends and challenges with urbanisation in Southeast Asia, focusing in particular on Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as the regional, national and sub-national policies and strategies established to address these trends and challenges. Given the current policy implementation gaps and ongoing challenges of urbanisation in Cambodia and Vietnam, the article makes the case for trans-disciplinary research to understand the potential for strengthening urban governance capacities for urban sustainability transformations.

US local governments purchase US$1.72 trillion of goods and services annually that contribute to global climate change and other environmental problems. Cities that successfully implement environmental purchasing policies can mitigate these environmental concerns while saving money and demonstrating their environmental leadership. However, cities confront numerous challenges when implementing an environmental purchasing policy. This chapter identifies the facilitators and barriers of implementing an environmental purchasing policy. It draws on the experiences within the City of Phoenix as an example and offers eight recommendations for how the City of Phoenix and similar cities can integrate environmental purchasing more fully into their existing purchasing processes.

A historical analysis of the geopolitics of real estate with settler-colonialism on the one side and the rise of über-wealthy foreign real estate investors on the other. Individual foreign investment in Western nation states is a long-standing geopolitical issue. The expansion of the middle class in BRICS and Asian countries, and their increased activity in Western real estate markets as foreign investors, have introduced new and revived existing cultural and geopolitical sensitivities.In this book, Dallas Rogers develops a new history of foreign real estate investment by mapping the movement of human and financial capital over more than four centuries. The book argues the reconfiguration of Asian geopolitical power has ruptured the conceptual landscape for understanding international land and real estate relations. Drawing on assemblage theories (Latour, Deleuze and Guattari), assemblage analytical tactics (Sassen and Ong) and discursive media theories (Kittler and Foucault) a series of vignettes of land and real estate crisis are presented. The book demonstrates how foreign land claimers and global real estate professionals colonise, subvert and act beyond the governance structures of settler-societies to facilitate new types of capital circulation and accumulation around the world.

In recent years, the world has seen the emergence of a number of urban projects which, under the banner of experimentation, have promoted alternative models of city-making capable, in theory, of creating sustainable built environments. Among these supposedly experimental models, the smart city and the eco-city stand out in terms of geographical diffusion, and are hailed by their advocates as the mark of an innovative urbanism based on a scientific approach to urban development. Through the analysis of Hong Kong and Masdar City, examples of a smart-city agenda and an eco-city project respectively, this paper questions the sustainability of so-called smart cities and eco-cities, by investigating the extent to which they are developed in a controlled and systematic manner as their developers claim. More specifically, the paper counterclaims mainstream understandings of smart and ecological urbanism, arguing that what are promoted as cohesive settlements shaped by a homogeneous vision of the sustainable city, are actually fragmented cities made of disconnected and often incongruous pieces of urban fabric. Theoretically, these claims are discussed through the concept of Frankenstein urbanism which draws upon Mary Shelley's novel as a metaphor for unsuccessful experiments generated by the forced union of different, incompatible elements.

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of Quezon City's climate action planning and implementation processes in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and C40's Climate Action Planning Framework. It consists of nine components: (a) vision & commitment, governance & powers review, (b) goals / targets & policy context review, (c) city context, (d) emissions baseline & trajectories status, (e) climate hazards, risks & impacts baseline status, (f) climate actions baseline, (g) preliminary stakeholder mapping, (h) financial appraisal, and (i) SWOT analysis. The report outlines technical and strategic recommendations for the delivery of the city’s Climate Action Planning programme.

To request for a copy of the report, please send a formal request to <mlagonera@c40.org> or QC EPWMD - Climate Change Team at <epwmd.spu@gmail.com>

Il presente lavoro intende affrontare una tematica molto attuale, delicata e, per certi versi, ancora largamente sconosciuta, ma cruciale per tutelare e promuovere la competitività e lo sviluppo del sistema culturale e turistico italiano, caratterizzato dalla presenza di un ricco e articolato patrimonio ambientale, culturale e storico in cui si distinguono eccellenze di riconosciuta fama mondiale. Tuttavia, la particolarità del nostro patrimonio culturale consiste nella convivenza di beni ed evidenze altamente rinomate a cui si affiancano elementi meno noti o addirittura sconosciuti che, nonostante le loro peculiarità e le loro caratteristiche originali e uniche, soffrono il confronto e la “concorrenza” con le altre testimonianze più blasonate. Tale fenomeno risulta spesso aggravato dalla concomitanza di altre condizioni, quali in primo luogo il posizionamento geografico, che li rende difficili da raggiungere, e talvolta la loro dispersione o esclusione rispetto alle destinazioni, alle mete e ai circuiti culturali e turistici già affermati e consolidati.La presente ricerca intende dimostrare consiste nella presentazione delle possibilità di riscatto e delle possibili azioni per una nuova competitività territoriale offerta da quelle innovative e alternative strategie che mirano a fare del patrimonio culturale, e nello specifico di quello minore, una nuova leva sostenibile e soprattutto inimitabile di sviluppo alla scala locale, con particolare attenzione per quelle realtà territoriali affette da degrado e marginalità. Questa nuova impostazione e visione di sviluppo territoriale adotta un approccio definito culture-driven (Valentino, 2001; Sacco e Pedrini, 2003; Santagata, 2005; Francesconi e Cioccarelli, 2013), in cui la cultura e, in generale, il patrimonio culturale, può divenire un fattore strategico e trasversale in grado di favorire e di promuovere i processi creativi e innovativi nelle diverse filiere produttive che caratterizzano l’economia e il tessuto sociale di un territorio, divenendo, dunque, un volano inimitabile e insostituibile capace di stimolare un atteggiamento di competitività e di sviluppo che sappia creare valore condiviso, diffuso e sostenibile in quanto basato sul sapiente sfruttamento e valorizzazione delle risorse, tangibili e intangibili, caratterizzanti il singolo contesto territoriale.
L’idea alla base del presente lavoro di ricerca è che il processo di riscatto e di valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale minore non sia di esclusiva competenza delle realtà territoriali rurali e dei centri urbani di medio-piccola dimensione, esclusi dai principali flussi culturali e turistici, ma, al contrario, possa riguardare e interessare anche alcune aree periferiche e periurbane appartenenti a realtà metropolitane e urbane di grandi dimensioni e che sono conosciute come importanti destinazioni e mete culturali e turistiche, spesso di fama internazionale. Anche in queste realtà si possono riscontrare dei fenomeni accentuati di polarizzazione dell’offerta culturale e turistica verso quelle aree del territorio urbano, tendenzialmente coincidenti con le zone costituenti il nucleo storico, in cui si condensano le principali evidenze e testimonianze che costituiscono il patrimonio culturale urbano di riferimento e da cui deriva l’immagine e il posizionamento distintivo dell’offerta patrimoniale urbana.questa tendenza si riscontra in diverse realtà urbane che sono rinomate, anche a livello mondiale, per la loro ricca qualità e quantità di offerta culturale. Questo è il caso che riguarda, ad esempio, la città di Roma, in cui la maggior parte dell’offerta culturale e dei flussi turistici risultano essenzialmente polarizzati entro i confini della città storica e che, dunque, faticano a spostarsi verso gli altri quadranti del territorio urbano, sebbene anche questi ultimi posseggano numerose evidenze ambientali, culturali e storiche, talvolta di notevole pregio e classificabili come vere e proprie testimonianze rare ed eccezionali. Tale situazione risulta aggravata, inoltre, dall’assenza o dalla scarsità di adeguate infrastrutture urbane e di servizi turistici oltre i confini della città storica, che contribuiscono ad ostacolare l’accessibilità e la corretta fruizione dei beni localizzati esternamente alle aree e ai circuiti culturali e turistici consolidati. Ciò determina una diminuzione dell’offerta reale non solo verso i potenziali visitatori esterni, ma soprattutto verso gli stessi residenti che finiscono per ignorare l’effettiva consistenza e valore del patrimonio ambientale e culturale presente nei loro confini urbani e negli spazi della quotidianità urbana.
Il caso studio che si è voluto riportare si focalizza sull’indagine di una particolare area del quadrante nord-ovest della città di Roma, quella in cui sorge il territorio posto sotto l’amministrazione del Municipio XIV. Tale area risulta caratterizzata dalla presenza di importanti testimonianze culturali, naturali e storiche che, tuttavia, risultano sparse lungo l’intero perimetro dei confini del Municipio e, in particolare, lungo l’asse descritto da un importante itinerario storico-culturale passante in quel territorio e di crescente attrazione e notorietà a livello nazionale e internazionale, ovvero la Via Francigena. Questo itinerario, la cui percorrenza sta richiamando un numero sempre crescente di visitatori “alternativi” rispetto ai canoni del turismo culturale di massa, se adeguatamente valorizzato, organizzato e strutturato da parte delle autorità locali competenti e con il contributo della comunità locale e degli operatori turistici interessati, potrebbe configurarsi come un nuovo strumento strategico in grado di sovvertire la condizione di marginalità del patrimonio culturale presente in quel territorio e, di riflesso, in quel quadrante urbano e potrebbe avviare un nuovo processo di inclusione e di integrazione compatibile e complementare con il resto dell’offerta culturale e turistica che caratterizza la città di Roma. Ciò contribuirebbe a protendere il mercato turistico romano verso la capacità e la tempestività di risposta e soprattutto verso l’intercettazione di quelle nuove direttrici e tendenze alternative, spesso definite nicchie, che caratterizzano sempre più la domanda e il mercato turistico nazionale e mondiale.

This article maps urban reform movements onto 'long waves:' consistently patterned technological and economic cycles that repeat over time. Using the example of the United States, we argue that periodizing urban reform movements in this way reveals surprising similarities in different historical contexts. Across cycles, two tropes repeatedly appear: discourses of efficiency, that propose technological solutions to urban problems, and those of beauty, that turn to nature to improve social arrangements through design. Within cycles, reform discourses follow a similar pattern in each case: they roll out amidst the excitement of an emergent socio-technical paradigm, but, used as guidelines for its institutionalization, create new social problems even as they aim to remedy the old. In each wave planners and decision-makers try to out-engineer and out-design inequality (and other social problems), and each time they fail. We use this analytic to historicize the contemporary 'smart' and 'sustainable' city, arguing that it is only the latest in a series of beauty and efficiency solutions to urban problems, and its promises should be taken with more than a grain of salt.

A partir da concepção de cidades como sistemas socioambientais complexos, discutimos aspectos considerados menores ou secundários no tratamento corrente das questões urbanas no contexto do desenvolvimento sustentável. Este trabalho foi estruturado sob três eixos abordados cada qual em um artigo independente: (1) relações de risco nos sistemas urbanos; (2) modelos de desenvolvimento urbano sustentável; (3) insustentabilidades na cidade de Fortaleza.

Głównym celem współczesnych rozwiązań w zakresie zarządzania miastami jest podnoszenie jakości życia społeczności lokalnej. Coraz większą uwagę zwraca się na aspekty związane ze zrównoważonym rozwojem miejskim, polegającym na zastosowaniu innowacyjnych rozwiązań proekologicznych, których celem jest zmniejszenie negatywnego oddziaływania ośrodków miejskich na środowisko naturalne. Przykładem miasta, które w pełni realizuje strategię zrównoważonego rozwoju, jest stolica Austrii - Wiedeń. Rozwiązania zawarte w dokumentach strategicznych miasta mogą stanowić inspirację dla innych metropolii, w szczególności miast partnerskich, między innymi Krakowa oraz Warszawy. Celem artykułu jest wyłonienie cech charakterystycznych na przykładzie Wiednia oraz analiza możliwości implementacji dobrych praktyk wypracowanych w Wiedniu przez miasta partnerskie Wiednia w Polsce.

Considering ‘Cities Beyond the Plan’ helps us substantiate territory beyond being just a passive setting contingent to meta-forces. To do so, requires us look at logics and conceptual frame drawing from legal pluralism, that of space and territory, and Power. I explore this argument via the case of ‘Mayestripalya Kere’ a ‘wetland’ in one of Bangalore most elite neighborhoods. Here its wealthy residents co-join cartographic frames and singular perspectives of ‘the’ law to rationalize exclusive regimes. The chapter concludes with a wider question of substantiating territory and move beyond a perspective of the sacred as ‘minor’ religiosities as ‘local or tradition’ and see them as political spaces practiced that constitute the ‘urban’.

This chapter reviews some of the key parallels between the concepts of smart cities and smart tourism destinations. Evidence of new trends in the smart concept as well as the widening of the smart tourism destination concept to neighbouring regions of established smart tourism cities are discussed with reference to examples from practice in Europe and China. A new typology is proposed for smart tourism destinations that encompasses tourism cities as well as their wider region.

The article presents urban agriculture as a practice that is gaining attention in many cities worldwide, and focuses in particular on the experiences in Mexico City. It first gives a general description of urban agriculture, introduces some conceptual dimensions and presents a policy framework to stimulate agriculture in cities worldwide. It then discusses current practices in the periurban, suburban and interurban parts of Mexico City, and analyses them in terms of their economic, ecological,
social and symbolic dimension.

This article uses the narrative tool of a walk through Tianjin Eco-City, China, as an entry point in raising and discussing key questions in contemporary eco-city research. Eco-city projects are becoming increasingly prevalent in policy and political-economic discourses in a variety of locations as new urban spaces where blueprints for low carbon economies can be trialled. In light of this, the article highlights the key necessity of, firstly, considering scale when analyzing eco-city ‘futures’. Secondly, the article argues for the need to interrogate eco-cities’ definitions, as well as evaluation, performance and monitoring frameworks, as this will aid in critical analyses of the marketing, presentation and actually built urban environments in eco-city projects. Thirdly, the question of internal social resilience and the emergence of communities within newly-built eco-cities needs to be assessed: this is of crucial importance in light of the exclusive, gated nature of several flagship eco-city projects under construction at the time of writing. Lastly, the article argues that research on eco-city projects needs to consider not only the high-tech, new urban environments materialized as eco-cities, but also the production and reproduction of large, often transient populations of low-paid workers who build eco-cities and who form what the article calls the ‘new urban poor’, forming ‘workers’ cities’ on the edges of flagship ‘sustainable’ urban projects worldwide.

Istanbul has always been the core of different civilizations in history. As the capital city of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul’s modern place within the world economy began in the late eighteenth century with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the growth of modern European capitalism. Istanbul Metropolitan Areas has been experiencing a massive pressure to transform itself into a “World City” with the help of emerging neo-liberal urban policies after the 1990s. Radical changes in the world politics after 9/11 and increasing energy demand have made Istanbul a candidate for a regional hub to financial flows and energy corridors. International capital sees Istanbul as likely to be the command and control centre for the Balkans, the Middle East, the Black Sea Region, and some of the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union. From this point of view, it has a strategic geographical location which promotes competitive economy at EU level. This paper initially contains an analytical perspective. This perspective informs the analyses of the evolution of urban regeneration legislations in Turkey. Also, a literature review was made about the transition in Istanbul under the process of globalization. The results of dynamics of urbanization have come up for discussion. In this paper the relationships between the Central Business District in decentralization process and the vision of the Istanbul Metropolitan Plan for 2023 are discussed. The focus of the research case is the Zincirlikuyu-Maslak Axis; a new enterprise site in the Istanbul Metropolitan area. These kinds of urban projects in the Zincirlikuyu-Maslak area should be seen as a means not only to convert the areas into more attractive spaces but also to regenerate the economy of both the city and the local region.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index (2021), Pakistan is the eighth
most vulnerable country in the world, and its southern province of Sindh is one of South Asia’s ‘hotspots’ for climate change (Mani, 2018). The 2015 heatwave in Karachi – Pakistan’s largest city – was a trigger for local action, with heatwaves becoming an object of climate governance for planners, policy makers and a large number of NGOs engaged in on-ground relief work. The resulting actions on overheating undertaken by urban governors and policy makers, remain top-down and challenged by unexamined assumptions about the vulnerabilities of poor groups. Such one-dimensional approaches to discrete climatic events led us to question whether current heat management strategies in cities like Karachi are, in fact, designed to fail in the protection of life.this scoping study underscores that the experiences
of heat must be understood as a slow onset disaster, particularly in terms of
the effects of chronic heat exposure on daily life, worker productivity, health,
and wellbeing, amongst other indicators. In doing so, this Scoping Study proposes a way forward to think about Karachi’s changing weather and the onset of chronic heat exposure in terms of ‘zones of vulnerability’.

The entry begins with a definition of geography and with a description of what the discipline shares with the other social sciences and what makes it distinctive among them. Terminological clarifications are provided with regard to the relationship between human geography and physical geography, and between human geography and urban geography. After a brief history and overview of human geography’s engagement with social theory, the entry offers a discussion of the politicization of contemporary human geography and of how this phenomenon is reflected in theory building and concept development.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0464

The development of projects for new eco-cities is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. Alleged eco-cities are being built across a variety of spaces via processes of urbanisation triggering substantial environmental, social and economic impacts. This article investigates how new eco-city projects interpret and practice urban sustainability by focusing on the policy context that underpins their development. The article argues that projects for new eco-cities are shaped in loci by policy agendas tailored around specific economic and political targets. In these terms, the ideas and strategies of urban sustainability adopted by eco-city developers are understood as reflections of broader policy priorities. The case study employed in this article, Masdar City, reveals how the Emirati eco-city initiative is the product of local agendas seeking economic growth via urbanisation to preserve the political institutions of Abu Dhabi. Following the economic imperatives set by the ruling class, the Masdar City project interprets sustainability as ecological modernisation and practices urban environmentalism almost exclusively in economic terms. The article shows how the developers of Masdar City capitalise on sustainability by building an urban platform to develop and commercialise clean-tech products, and concludes that the Emirati alleged eco-city is an example of urban eco-modernisation: a high-tech urban development informed by market analysis rather than ecological studies.