Stretching “smart”: advancing health and well-being through the smart city agenda

ABSTRACT

Contemporary smart cities have largely mirrored the sustainable development agenda by embracing an ecological modernisation approach to urban development. There is a strong focus on stimulating economic activity and environmental protection with little emphasis on social equity and the human experience. The health and well-being agenda has potential to shift the focus of smart cities to centre on social aims. Through the systematic and widespread application of technologies such as wearable health monitors, the creation of open data platforms for health parameters, and the development of virtual communication between patients and health professionals, the smart city can serve as a means to improve the lives of urban residents. In this article, we present a case study of smart health in Kashiwanoha Smart City in Japan. We explore how the pursuit of greater health and well-being has stretched smart city activities beyond technological innovation to directly impact resident lifestyles and become more socially relevant. Smart health strategies examined include a combination of experiments in monitoring and visualisation, education through information provision, and enticement for behavioural change. Findings suggest that smart cities have great potential to be designed and executed to tackle social problems and realise more sustainable, equitable and liveable cities.     

The promise of smart grids

ABSTRACT

It is the promise of smart grids – their anticipated role in meeting economic, social, environmental policy objectives – that is driving action on smart grids worldwide, while the reality is rather more messy. This paper is about the implementation of smart grids in Australia, and examines the degree to which environmental and social promises have materialised (or not) within two large energy smart grid initiatives undertaken in the period 2009–2014: the federal government-sponsored Smart Grid Smart City Program and the State of Victoria’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure Program. The analysis draws on a governmentality approach to examine how the promise of smart grids has not for the most part been delivered, concentrating in particular on how new digital technologies have not “behaved” in the way originally planned. Within a governmentality framework, it is generally assumed that technologies work to support government programmes, to accomplish governance. But growing evidence points to smart grid technologies undermining the promise of smart grids. Such a finding stands at odds with the assumption in governmentality about technologies doing work in consort with rationalities of government.     

生态补偿的价值目标：国际经验及对中国的启示

明晰生态补偿的价值目标,既是健全我国生态补偿政策体系、体现公共政策属性的关键,也是调动各方生态保护积极性、提升自然生态系统稳定性与生态产品供给能力的现实需要。本文首先评述了关于生态补偿价值目标的研究进展,认为国内对该领域的研究比较欠缺,亟须补充;其次对于国际上生态补偿的价值目标选择,从维护和提升生态系统服务功能、农民减贫脱贫、推动城乡生态公正以及提高农民生态参与意识等四个方面进行了介绍。反思国内生态补偿价值目标的问题,本文提出生态补偿机制完善与价值目标导向:①以“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念面向多元价值目标构建生态补偿机制;②通过生态补偿机制建设提升生态系统服务功能;③通过生态补偿机制接续推进全面脱贫与乡村振兴的有效衔接;④通过生态补偿机制建设促进城乡生态公正;⑤加强生态补偿政策宣传激发公民生态意识。     

Urban sharing in smart cities: the cases of Berlin and London

ABSTRACT

Addressing urban sustainability challenges requires changes in the way systems of provision and services are designed, organised and delivered. In this context, two promising phenomena have gained interest from the academia, the public sector and the media: “smart cities” and “urban sharing”. Smart cities rely on the extensive use of information and communications technology (ICT) to increase efficiencies in urban areas, while urban sharing builds on the collaborative use of idling resources enabled by ICT in densely populated cities. The concepts have many similar features and share common goals, yet cities with smart city agendas often fail to take a stance on urban sharing. Thus, its potentials are going largely unnoticed by local governments. This article addresses this issue by exploring cases of London and Berlin – two ICT-dense cities with clearly articulated smart city agendas and an abundance of sharing platforms. Drawing on urban governance literature, we develop a conceptual framework that specifies the roles that cities assume when governing urban sharing: city as regulator, city as provider, city as enabler and city as consumer. We find that both cities indirectly support urban sharing through smart agenda programmes, which aim to facilitate ICT-enabled technical innovation and emergence of start-ups. However, programmes, strategies, support schemes and regulations aimed directly at urban sharing initiatives are few. We also find that Berlin is sceptical towards urban sharing organisations, while London took more of a collaborative approach. Implications for policy-makers are discussed in the end.     

A FRAMEWORK FOR QUANTITATIVE SMART GROWTH IN LAND DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT: Increasing awareness about the problems brought on by urban sprawl has led to proactive measures to guide future development. Such efforts have largely been grouped under the term “Smart Growth.” Although not widely recognized as such, the “smart” in Smart Growth implies an optimization of some quantity or objective while undertaking new forms of urban development. In this study, we define Smart Growth as that development plan that leads to the optimal value of a precisely defined measure identified by a stakeholder or stakeholders. To illustrate a formal, quantitative framework for Smart Growth, this study develops definitions of optimal development from the perspectives of four different types of stakeholders: a government planner, a land developer, a hydrologist, and a conservationist subject to certain development constraints. Four different objective functions are posed that are consistent with each of these stakeholders’perspectives. We illustrate the differences in consequences on future development given these different objective functions in a stylized representation for Montgomery County, Maryland. Solutions to Smart Growth from the individual perspectives vary considerably. Tradeoff tables are presented that illustrate the consequences experienced by each stakeholder depending on the viewpoint that has been optimized. Although couched in the context of an illustrative example, this study emphasizes the need to apply rigorous, quantitative tools in a meaningful framework to address Smart Growth. The result is a tool that a range of parties can use to plan future development in ways that are environmentally and fiscally responsible and economically viable.     

Economic,ecological, and equity dimensions of brownfield redevelopment plans for environmental justice communities in the USA

ABSTRACT

This paper employs qualitative content analysis to assess 28 brownfield redevelopment plans produced as part of a US Environmental Protection Agency programme. The analysis framework followed the economic, ecological, and social equity dimensions of sustainable development. The findings illustrate that, in terms of economic dimensions, most plans discussed financing the overall project, but few mentioned site values or the pivotal cost of remediating brownfield sites or addressed questions related to liability, the transfer of ownership of sites, or the end use of remediated sites. In terms of ecological dimensions, while many plans suggested “green” uses of existing brownfields, few discussed the impacts of the plans on urban ecological issues or offered technical feasibility of remediating the sites. In terms of social equity dimensions, half of the plans described potential local jobs stemming from the proposed redevelopment, but many did not discuss the human impacts of remediating contaminated sites or the costs of doing nothing. Most plans mentioned community engagement methods but not their outcomes, making the degree to which the lessons gleaned from such engagement influenced the plans totally unclear. Despite the programme’s explicit focus on the nexus of environmental justice and local environments, many plans struggled to address the topic in favour of tackling broader economic, environmental, and equity issues. Overall, this paper contributes to the understanding of brownfield redevelopment planning by not only summarising and synthesising the tendencies of existing plans but also suggesting strategies to address areas in which current planning efforts fall short.     

县域打通“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念转化通道的典型模式研究

“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念是习近平生态文明思想的重要组成部分,具有深刻的哲学内涵,本文利用代表“绿水青山”和“金山银山”的生态与经济指标聚类分析了中国1666个县(市、区),筛选出21个典型地区并分析了其“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念转化路径,总结提出5类典型模式。其中,以浙江省衢州市的6县(市、区)为案例,综合设计衢州市各县(市、区)的“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念转化典型模式实践方案,论证县域典型模式设计方法的适用性。对研究与实践中存在的问题,提出开展生态价值核算、出台县级层面的评价标准和规范、开展试点示范、出台经济激励与优惠政策等建议,进一步深化“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念探索实践。     

Thinking critically about smart city experimentation: entrepreneurialism and responsibilization in urban living labs

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of smart technologies, big data, and analytics is being increasingly used to address urban socio-environmental problems such as climate change mitigation and carbon control. Electricity systems in particular are being reconfigured with smart technologies to help integrate renewable generation, enhance energy efficiency, implement new forms of pricing, increase control and automation, and improve reliability. Many of these interventions are experimental, requiring real-world testing before wider diffusion. This testing often takes place in “urban living labs,” integrating urban residents as key actors in experimentation with goals for broader sustainability transitions. In this paper, I investigate one such urban living lab focused on smart grid research and demonstration in a residential neighbourhood in Austin, Texas. I develop a framework based in governmentality studies to critically interrogate urban experimentation. Findings suggest that the focus of experimentation devolves urban imperatives into individual responsibilities for socio-environmental change. Managing carbon emissions through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and conservation is promoted as a form of self-management, wherein households reconfigure everyday activities and/or adopt new technologies. At the same, sociotechnical interventions are shaped by technology companies, researchers, and policy-makers marking a central feature of contemporary urban entrepreneurialism. This skews the potential of active co-production, and instead relies on the delegation of responsibility for action to a constrained assemblage of smart technologies and smart users.     

生态空间完整性建设与保护研究—基于同江市“多规合一”的实践

本文旨在探讨如何使较大生态空间斑块形成闭合区域,在空间属性上保持相对的完整性和单一性,并加以有效保护,使生态空间真正成为城市发展的绿色屏障。从现有文献和同江市"多规合一"实践看,由于历史遗留、追逐利益和监管不力等诸多因素,生态空间甚至核心区域内有耕地和较大面积的生活聚居区挤占生态空间,导致环境质量下降。可通过退耕还林还草工程、迁出生态空间居民工程和加强生物多样性保护工程等路径实现生态空间完整性。与此同时,采取加大对生态空间的保护力度、提高公众对生态空间完整性的认识、建立科学的生态补偿机制及加强中俄生态保护合作等措施加以保护。     

The importance of the “not-so-cool” sectors: creative solutions to reconcile environmental and economic sustainability within a floodplain

Creative cities are generally considered as “cool” spaces which attract a particular “creative class” whose ability to innovate and transform – particularly in the media and cultural sectors – offers urban economies a competitive edge. This paper argues that, in the face of dangerous climate change, the creativity of the “not-so-cool” sectors needs to be acknowledged and valued. A case study of Salford in the north-west of England shows how political, technological and economic creativity has secured sustainable regeneration within a floodplain. It is argued that the concept of “creativity” in urban economic discourse needs to be widened to acknowledge the importance of the creativity of planners, civil engineers and builders in securing environmentally sustainable cities. Environmental sustainability, it suggests, not only underpins economic sustainability. Faced with dangerous climate change and society's need to respond, the skills and expertise can in themselves contribute to a city's competitiveness.     

Urban sustainable energy development: A case study of the city of Philadelphia

Cities throughout the world are key sites for energy sustainability activities. However, analysis of such efforts to date has focused on a sub-set of atypical cities: early adopters and/or world cities. This article undertakes a case-study analysis for an ordinary city, Philadelphia, PA in order to assess the extent to which prior research provides adequate policy explanation for ordinary cities and to gain empirical insight on two under-researched aspects: policy actors, and the policy-making and implementation sites (action sites) for urban energy sustainability. Overall, the types of policy drivers, modes of governance, and enabling factors and barriers in the Philadelphia case fit with prior studies. Focusing on actors and action sites, however, offers insight on the city’s relative policy-making approach based on “non-controversy”, the key role of third-sector actors in both policy-making and implementation, and the diversification of action sites through external-level policy-making operationalised locally nevertheless at the expense of reduced control by urban actors. These findings lead to recommendations for urban energy sustainability research and practice.     

Of parks and politics: the production of socio-nature in a Gujarati town

Urban parks in India are often discussed as positive environmental projects, and their creation appears as unproblematic in public discourse. This paper presents the creation of a municipal park in a small city in Gujarat, India. Using insights from history and architecture, we stress the importance of reading parks as political and to some extent ideological projects in the larger context of city-making. The political ecology and history of the particular park studied here allow us to problematise the socio-ecological project of urban “beautification” via park creation. The municipal park, established in the centre of a small urban agglomeration after displacing a slum settlement from the site, is – as we argue – an integral part of a local geography of power. As such it expresses several registers of values upheld by local elites and brings into focus highly conflictive social relations. The case study contributes to further developing a situated urban political ecological approach that starts theorising cities from the South. It moreover offers a critical perspective on the understudied urban nature of small towns.     

Smart meter data and equitable energy transitions – can cities play a role?

ABSTRACT

The ability of smart cities to address multiple priorities is currently receiving a great deal of attention from governments, industry and academia; however, there are relatively few explorations of how smart cities will be enacted and the equity implications of various elements of the agenda. This paper aims to begin to address this by considering the case of smart meter data in Great Britain and reviewing the potential for public interest benefits to be realised at both a national and city-scale. In order to interrogate how societal benefits of smart metering might be enabled or constrained at different scales, both transition management approaches to understanding the intricacies of transforming socio-technical systems, and urban governance literatures which explore the problems in aligning “smart” and “sustainable” agendas, are engaged with. The case suggests that there is great potential for smart meter data to deliver public interest benefits and in doing so contribute to equity in energy transitions through promoting the accrual of benefits to collective rather than solely individual or commercial interests. Despite this, under the current smart metering framework city-scale actors are largely excluded from utilising smart metering data unless they partner with a large incumbent company. This suggests that the configuration of national smart metering arrangements could be further embedding a marketised approach to smart cities and demonstrates the complex interlinking of socio-political processes operating across multiple scales in energy transitions.     

可持续雨水管理与海绵城市构建的美国经验

随着中国经济的快速发展,越来越多的水环境问题开始涌现。海绵城市的提出正是立足于当下中国城市内涝及相关环境问题。基于此,本文简要分析了中国城市内涝的原因及海绵城市相关构建思路,重点阐述了美国可持续雨水管理经验与守护水资源上的实际做法,并给出了美国雨水管理实例,以期为中国海绵城市建设提供参考。     

Forecast of the demand and supply plan of China’s uranium resources till 2030

This paper’s purpose is to predict China’s uranium resources demand from 2016 to 2030 based on experimental modeling. In addition, we discuss the future supply structure of China’s uranium resources by analyzing the domestic and foreign supply capacity of China’s uranium resources. According the forecast results, Chinese uranium resource demand will reach 21385 tU in 2030 under a medium scenario. Due to the poor endowment of uranium resources, China’s domestic uranium production will increase slowly. It can be calculated that the total demand of uranium resources in China during 2016–2030 will be 216581 tU, the cumulative production of domestic production will be 37900 tU, the overseas production will be 41950 tU, and the international market purchases will be 130574 tU. Hence, the cumulative degree of dependence on foreign resources is approximately 80%. China’s foreign dependence on uranium will be greater than for oil, and the situation will become extremely serious. Therefore, we put forward several suggestions to ensure the supply of China’s uranium resources: (1) strengthening mineral exploration and increasing domestic production, (2) actively operating the “going out” strategy, (3) enhancing the enterprise competition ability, and (4) establishing uranium resource reserves. By these means, China could efficiently guarantee the domestic uranium resource security and respond to the competition of India’s uranium resources demand increased.     

Vulnerability and resilience to climate change in Sorsogon City,the Philippines: learning from an ordinary city?

Sorsogon City is a rapidly urbanising coastal area in the Philippines. Its location, combined with a rapidly changing and growing urban fabric, leaves it vulnerable to both incremental climate change and associated extreme weather events. In this paper, UN-HABITAT data are used to draw out the climate change vulnerabilities and policy responses in Sorsogon City. Vulnerability “hotspots” highlight the spatial intersection of socio-economic justice concerns, particularly in terms of vulnerability to increased cyclone activity. We discuss vulnerabilities of Sorsogon City and its citizens to climate change and measures undertaken through various social, environmental and technical systems and interventions to increase resilience. The paper also attempts to unpick the relationship between the neat, concise reported city and the complexities of urban life using the Sorsogon experiment to consider the limitations of such approaches to governing climate change. We group these under four headings: social simplification in the absence of data; over-governance (and under-representation); quick wins versus strategic investment; and stretching the ecological and vulnerability footprints of the city. The experience of Sorsogon City is then extended to reflect on issues of governance and planning in other Asian coastal cities.     

中部四大城市群（圈）外商直接投资的时空演化与竞争格局

采用熵指数与偏移一分享分析方法，对中部四大城市群近10年来外商直接投资（FDI）的时空演化与竞争格局进行了定量分析。结果表明，中部城市群FDI在不断增长过程中有分散化的总趋势，但城市群之间差异显著，具有阶段性特征；中部城市群FDI偏移增长量逐年增加，城市群之间的偏移增长量远大于城市群内部；高正偏增长城市前期主要集中在武汉城市圈、长株潭城市群，近期转向皖江城市带、东部沿江地带和中原城市群内沿京广、陇海线交汇一带。     

Putting Young Old Ideas into Action: The relevance of Growing Up in Cities to Local Agenda 21

Agenda 21, the Habitat Agenda and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child have brought new relevance to Growing Up in Cities, a project of participatory action-research for urban children and youth. The origins of the project in the 1970s under the leadership of the urban planner Kevin Lynch are described, along with a brief history of the project's revival. The results of the project's recent implementation in eight countries are summarised with an emphasis on children's perspectives on environmental quality, as well as lessons learned regarding how children can be most effectively integrated into LA21 processes.     

基于 SEEA 的自然资源资产核算指标的国际比较

本文从实物型、价值型自然资源资产账户及自然资源资产流量账户三方面对参照环境经济综合核算体系(SEEA)开展自然资源和环境经济核算的海外典型国家的核算指标进行比较分析,为编制我国自然资源资产核算框架提供参考借鉴。从五个典型国家的实践上看,各国的自然资源资产核算体系趋向与国民经济核算相对接;核算资源类别注重资源对社会经济的贡献度、资源数据可获得性以及资源核算的难易程度;核算账户及指标设置突出统计的实现,缺乏核算分析。基于此,本文提出,我国在开展自然资源资产核算时可借鉴国民经济核算的做法及已出台的各类资源分类标准,编制分类与综合资源核算账户、全国与地区专项资源核算账户;突出设置资源变化类指标,注重核算资源的流;探索编制自然资源资产生态账户,考虑实现资源核算指标与负债表指标的衔接,为自然资源资产负债表编制提供信息。     

Residential Preferences for River Network Improvement: An Exploration of Choice Experiments in Zhujiajiao,Shanghai, China

River networks have both ecological and social benefits for urban development. However, river networks have suffered extensive destruction as a result of urbanization and industrialization, especially in China. River restoration is a growth business but suffers poor efficiency due to a lack of social understanding. Assessing the benefits of river system restoration and recognizing public preferences are critical for effective river ecosystem restoration and sustainable river management. This study used a choice experiment with a multinomial logit model and a random parameter logit model to assess respondents’ cognitive preferences regarding attributes of river networks, and their possible sources of heterogeneity. Results showed that riverfront condition was the attribute most preferred by respondents, while stream morphology was the least preferred. Results also illustrated that the current status of each of three river network attributes was not desirable, and respondents would prefer a river network with a “branch pattern,” that is “limpid with no odor,” and “accessible with vegetation.” Estimated willingness to pay was mainly affected by household monthly income, residential location, and whether respondents had household members engaged in a water protection career. The assessment results can provide guidance and a reference for managers, sponsors, and researchers.