SUSTAINABLE LAND USE PLANNING BASED ON ECOLOGICAL HEALTH——Case Study of Beiwenquan Town, Chongqing, China

This paper, taking Beiwenquan Town of Beibei, Chongqing as an example, assessed the impacts of land use on ecological health by comprehensive index method, and discussed methodological system of sustainable land use planning based on ecological health. Results indicated that: 1) From 1992 to 2002, land use changes focused on 12 patterns with the total conversion area of 92.11%, which were related to cultivated land, residential and industrial-mining area, and orchard land. Urbanization and economic reconstruction were the leading driving forces. 2) There was obvious difference of the areas of ecotypes driven by land use change in wide valley and mild slope between 1992 and 2002, while there were little or no difference in steep slope and very steep slope. 3) Both of the conditions of ecological health in 1992 and 2002 were sound, and the ecotypes focused on the types of health and sub-health. But, health ecosystem in 1992, with an area of 764.64ha, accounting for 38.51% of the total evaluation area, was better than that in 2002, with an area of 636.10ha, accounting for 34.19% of the total evaluation area. 4) The ecotypes involved into different ranges have already degenerated, due to humankind’s disturbance, while the conditions of ecological health in the same ranges in 1992, regardless of stability and reconstruction, were better than that in 2002. 5) The planning scenario based on ecological health was accorded with the practice condition of Beiwenquan Town: 388.29ha of cultivated land could meet the Beiwenquan demand of food and byproduct; 1045.26ha of forest land area, the Beiwenquan demand of ecological health; and 1004.73ha of the residential and industrial-mining area, the Beiwenquan building demand. 6) Sustainable land use planning based on ecological health had higher useful value, because it not only stood to ecological theory, but also satisfied the developmental demand of society and economy.

T21 China 2050: A Tool for National Sustainable Development Planning

The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)of the United Nations 2030 Agenda are a key focus for implementing the Sustainable Development(SD)concept.But generally speaking,SD goals and targets are continuously evolving,country specific,complex to implement,and are often given relatively short time horizons,such as the 15-year horizon for the SDGs.Many SD issues need a much longer time horizon as the policy interventions to deal with these issues can take decades before their effects become apparent,which is especially true for China.The T21 China 2050 is developed to study the long-term SD challenges and opportunities of the country.In its business-as-usual simulation to 2050,T21 China 2050 reveals some of the sustainability challenges facing China,including 1)aging population and labor force decline,2)huge food imports,3)land degradation and loss of arable land,4)water shortages,5)huge fossil fuel imports,and 6)carbon dioxide emissions.These SD issues are a subset of the SDGs specifically relevant to China over a time horizon well beyond 2030.The model is then used to test possible policy interventions in these six areas under two separate scenarios:Balanced and Narrowly Focused.The major results from these two scenarios are compared with those of the business-as-usual scenario.The simulations show that by adopting certain policy measures,China’s path towards SD can be further improved.It also shows that a variety of policy measures can be selected and tested with the T21 China 2050 model for exploring the future SD prospects of the country.Specific policies recommended include:extension of retirement age,adjustment of the current family planning policy,protection of agriculture land,promotion of agricultural R&D to raise yield,improvement of public transportation to slow private vehicle ownership,increased investment in renewable energy,and water conservation.

Planning and Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans:Parallel Orbits or Incompatible Paths?

The paper that follows analyzes the basic directions of the Larissa’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and aims at developing a first kind of assessment in relation to whether the plan has achieved its main objectives and how it interacts with the existing urban plot.First results show that emphasis is given to“alternative and more environmentally friendly kinds of circulation”and the emergence of the“neighborhood”as the main spatial scale of reference.The plan tries to manage the traffic issue of the city center,unsuccessfully so far.However,it does not take into account the spatial dimension of land uses.The networking of important functions and service providers is not a priority and,as a general conclusion,the plan does not serve the principle of integration neither guarantees the universal access to basic destinations and services.The paper argues that the plan could be improved by introducing a“bottom-up”design process,incorporating elements of the new and emerging agenda of“urban problems”(e.g.resilience targets)and moving away from the unification of“embellishment”and face the main issues of the real city.Those should be the priorities of the so called“combined and integrated design and planning practices”,which are now missing.

IRP/DSM and Sustainable Development

This paper introduces the energy consumption status in China, elaborate the affects of the unreasonable energy consumption structure on energy environment and sustainable development of economy. Simultaneously, it points out the solution, i.e., to implement integrated resources planning (IRP)/demand side management (DSM), and gives some recommendations on the way of implementing IRP/DSM.

Underground space planning in Helsinki

This paper gives insight into the use of underground space in Helsinki,Finland.The city has an underground master plan(UMP) for its whole municipal area,not only for certain parts of the city.Further,the decision-making history of the UMP is described step-by-step.Some examples of underground space use in other cities are also given.The focus of this paper is on the sustainability issues related to urban underground space use,including its contribution to an environmentally sustainable and aesthetically acceptable landscape,anticipated structural longevity and maintaining the opportunity for urban development by future generations.Underground planning enhances overall safety and economy efficiency.The need for underground space use in city areas has grown rapidly since the 21 st century;at the same time,the necessity to control construction work has also increased.The UMP of Helsinki reserves designated space for public and private utilities in various underground areas of bedrock over the long term.The plan also provides the framework for managing and controlling the city’s underground construction work and allows suitable locations to be allocated for underground facilities.Tampere,the third most populated city in Finland and the biggest inland city in the Nordic countries,is also a good example of a city that is taking steps to utilise underground resources.Oulu,the capital city of northern Finland,has also started to ‘go underground’.An example of the possibility to combine two cities by an 80-km subsea tunnel is also discussed.A new fixed link would generate huge potential for the capital areas of Finland and Estonia to become a real Helsinki-Tallinn twin city.

New Building Typologies for Zero Energy Mass Custom Housing(ZEMCH)in More Sustainable Patterns of Development

Conferences and publications on Smart Cities and self-styled ecological buildings such as“Vertical Forests”,“Biophilic”building complexes and other similar are multiplying.But then,in reality,we continue to design as we have always done for the last ninety years:with the consolidated rules and formal solutions of international post-modern composition,in its various forms.The only attentions are(and not always)to super-insulate the envelopes,arrange photovoltaic panels on the roofs,make the systems smart and cover the facades and roofs with appropriate green washing.Even in the awareness that human settlements and cities are extremely complex phenomena,mostly determined by economic and social factors,rather than by conscious typological-settlement choices,perhaps the time has come to acknowledge that the traditional paradigms of design must be changed.First of all,the types of settlements must be renewed,because it is through their optimization that the greatest savings in terms of energy and sustainability can be achieved.The research presented here is the application of a ten-year study that involved the development of net Zero Energy Mass Custom Housing(ZEMCH)in specific context in southern Italy.The Innovation and Transparency of Tenders Environmental Compatibility(ITACA)Assessment Protocol,derived from the Green Building Challenge’s GBTool,was used as a design guide,which is normally used for the assessment and judgment of sustainability at the building scale and not of the urban design.The result is a settlement model in which network of pedestrian,cycle and public transport is fully integrated with adjacent urban areas;effective landscaping connects public and private green and kitchen-gardens/orchards everywhere;buildings are made with new semi-underground typologies;net ZEMCHs are made with local,recyclable materials with low impact or positive energy balance;wastewater and rainwater are collected,in-loco phyto-purified and reused;renewable energies(sun,earth,wind)satisfy remaining necessities,with a minimum of plant interventions.

The Time Horizon in the Evaluation of Sustainable Development

Current methods of evaluating long term Sustainable Development seldom take into account the time period over which an evaluation is made except through simplistic economic models which heavily discount the future. If sustainable development is to be a serious issue then the impact on the future of decisions made today must be properly assessed and evaluated. This requires a new understanding of time as a key feature of the Sustainability debate and new models of how this new understanding can be brought into the evaluation process. This was at the heart of the Torino declaration signed by the University organisations of the G8, G20 and developing nations in April 2009. Time is a critical part of the sustainability debate and is seldom addressed directly. This paper will provide a possible solution based on a strong theoretical and philosophical framework of how this difficult subject can be approached and applied to sustainable urban planning. The work presented is based on a philosophical model of the cosmos which has both internal and external credibility. It forms the basis ofa PhD study and has been applied to small case studies in Italy and elsewhere. These will be presented to encourage further study into this important area within the evaluation and assessment of sustainable development.

Developing a Sustainable Mobility Plan in Piraeus with Special Emphasis on Cycling

Sustainable mobility planning is an emerging planning concept, largely applied in European and American cities during the last two decades, as a means to achieve more efficient and sustainable cities regarding the ceasing of the major threats to urban environment, namely： climate change, accidents, traffic saturation, air and noise pollution, car dependency and domination in the public space. Municipality of Piraeus is a developing autonomous commercial and business center, characterized by high density housing, narrow street geometric characteristics and the port presence. Aim of this paper is to present its recent sustainable mobility plan by putting special emphasis on the strategic plan for a cycling network. The key principles of its methodological development are demonstrated along with the strategic enhancement of walking and multimodal transport services. The main objective is to integrate cycling in mobility policies applied by the described plan in Piraeus.

Sustainable Development Plan Based on Mathematic Model Analysis

Sustainable development has been a global issue, which focuses on balancing human needs with the earth＇ s health. In this paper, we construct a model to distinguish the sustainability of a country. To evaluate the sustainability of a country, we select eight metrics based on four aspects： Society, Economics, Ecology and Politics. We use BP neural network to obtain the sustainability ranking and use Grey Relational Analysis to calculate the sustainability scores of 187countries. By combining the ranking and the score, we develop a measure to define whether a country is sustainable or not. The critical point is Maldives, which ranks No. 103 and scores 63.65. As one of least developed countries, Uganda ranks No.164 and scores 48.79, according to our measure. Based on Uganda＇ s society, population, natural resources, etc., we draft a 20-year （2013-2033） sustainable development plan that integrates the social, economic, ecological and political components. The overall goal of the plan is to transform Uganda into a sustainable country and make noticeable progress in the ranking. Furthermore, to analyze changes＇ influence on our plan, we take climate change as an example. The weights of Environment and Health will be modified by climate change, causing a reduction in the growth rate of sustainability score.

Artificiality and Naturalness:Semi-underground Houses and Their Role in the Construction of a Sustainable Urban Landscape

The contemporary interest,on one hand for a renewed relationship between city and natural landscape,on the other for settlement typologies intrinsically efficient from an energy standpoint took back the attention on the design of the dug city,or rather,almost completely excavated.This is an emblematic model of the requirement that deals with the factors of its environment,like sun,wind,ground,shadow and flora,forcing some designers to migrate from usual design methodologies,indifferent to these design parameters,and they are careful only to the“laws of form”,in search of criteria and fine calculation tools to optimize the configuration and the structure of buildings,in order to ensure that they can be managed as“passively”as possible.What it means,with the minimum contribution of plants to ensure the best satisfaction of comfort and psychological needs of users:not only lighting,sunbathing,ventilation,thermal comfort in summer and winter,acoustic comfort,but also view characteristics,quality of lighting and sociological aspects.In general dialectic between artifice and nature,the theme of dug architecture today is faced not only as one of the most interesting and rich suggestions,but also as one of those,in which the reflection on objectives,methodologies and tools is longer necessary,to the identification of a new way of urban living and effective solutions against energy consumption.

Medium-term Air Quality Benchmarking for Ecosystem Monitoring and Sustainability Planning: Case Study Dallas County (U.S.A.) 2015 to 2020

Medium-term air quality assessment,benchmarking it to recent past data can usefully complement short-term air quality index data for monitoring purposes.By using daily and monthly averaged data,medium-term air quality benchmarking provides a distinctive perspective with which to monitor air quality for sustainability planning and ecosystem perspectives.By normalizing the data for individual air pollutants to a standard scale they can be more easily integrated to generate a daily combined local area benchmark(CLAB).The objectives of the study are to demonstrate that medium-term air quality benchmarking can be tailored to reflect local conditions by selecting the most relevant pollutants to incorporate in the CLAB indicator.Such a benchmark can provide an overall air quality assessment for areas of interest.A case study is presented for Dallas County(U.S.A.)applying the proposed method by benchmarking 2020 data for air pollutants to their trends established for 2015 to 2019.Six air pollutants considered are:ozone,carbon monoxide,nitrogen dioxide,sulfur dioxide,benzene and particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres.These pollutants are assessed individually and in terms of CLAB,and their 2020 variations for Dallas County compared to daily trends established for years 2015 to 2019.Reductions in benzene and carbon monoxide during much of 2020 are clearly discernible compared to preceding years.The CLAB indicator shows clear seasonal trends for air quality for 2015 to 2019 with high pollution in winter and spring compared to other seasons that is strongly influenced by climatic variations with some anthropogenic inputs.Conducting CLAB analysis on an ongoing basis,using a relevant near-past time interval for benchmarking that covers several years,can reveal useful monthly,seasonal and annual trends in overall air quality.This type of medium-term,benchmarked air quality data analysis is well suited for ecosystem monitoring.

Big Data to support sustainable urban energy planning:The EvoEnergy project

Energy sustainability is a complex problem that needs to be tackled holistically by equally addressing other aspects such as socio-economic to meet the strict CO emission targets.This paper builds upon our previous work on the effect of household transition on residential energy consumption where we developed a 3D urban energy prediction system(EvoEnergy)using the old UK panel data survey,namely,the British household panel data survey(BHPS).In particular,the aim of the present study is to examine the validity and reliability of EvoEnergy under the new UK household longitudinal study(UKHLS)launched in 2009.To achieve this aim,the household transition and energy prediction modules of EvoEnergy have been tested under both data sets using various statistical techniques such as Chow test.The analysis of the results advised that EvoEnergy remains a reliable prediction system and had a good prediction accuracy(MAPE;5%)when compared to actual energy performance certificate data.From this premise,we recommend researchers,who are working on data-driven energy consumption forecasting,to consider merging the BHPS and UKHLS data sets.This will,in turn,enable them to capture the bigger picture of different energy phenomena such as fuel poverty;consequently,anticipate problems with policy prior to their occurrence.Finally,the paper concludes by discussing two scenarios of EvoEnergy development in relation to energy policy and decision-making.

THE CAYUGA MEDICAL CENTER A Case Study in Landscape Master Planning and Sustainability

INTRODUCTION Long-term planning is essential for larger institutions to achieve sustainable goals and visions.To be truly sustainable,individual projects must fit within a larger scope of campus planning.Landscape and site systems such as parking,transportation,pedestrian connectivity,storm water treatment,and human health and well-being must be considered and coordinated.

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING ON CAMPUS CASE STUDIES FROM UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-AMHERST

College campuses pride themselves in being leaders in promoting innovation in both technical and theoretical aspects of all fields of study, including sustainability. The drive for sustainability in higher education has become institutionalized in many college campuses in the form of offices of sustainability, as well as membership in the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). In par­allel, but not always in concert, are more grass-roots efforts by students to promote sustainability through recycling programs, urban agriculture, and similar initiatives. Students are often frustrated between the classroom lessons they learn about sustain­ability and the slow adoption of sustainable practices in the “real-world,” including on campus. In order to address this issue, faculty have begun to engage students in the sustainability challenges facing their own campuses. The Journal of Green Building showcases these projects in the New Directions in Teaching and Research section of the journal. As part of this series, this article will highlight a course at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in which students engage in green infrastructure planning projects for the campus.

Sustainable Development,Rational Planning–Annual National Planning Conference 2017 Successfully Held in Dongguan

The Annual National Planning Conference 2017(shortened as the Conference hereinafter)was held in Dongguan from Nov.18to 20.The theme of the Conference was'Sustainable Development,Rational Planning,'which aims to call on planners to better study and act on the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and fundamentally promote reform and innovation of the plan-

Anyang:A Case Study of Foreign University Involvement in Chinese Sustainable New Town Planning

Over the last ten to fifteen years,planning and design professionals in the United States and Europe have increasingly been engaged in consulting work in China.Major Architectural & Engineering firms from the United Kingdom and the United States,for example,have been opening offices in Beijing and Shanghai.Recently,the concern with sustainable urban development and China's policies to alleviate pressures of urbanization has been an engine for commissions for new town plans and city expansion plans across China's provinces.During the 2007-2009 academic years,the School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati prepared a conceptual plan for the expansion of the City of Anyang through a collaborative agreement between the city and it.The experience of the faculty leading this project with field work,the planning process,plan preparation,and the engagement of students has revealed some important issues that need to be addressed by planning schools and planning professionals engaged in planning in provincial China.Thus,this paper is a case study of foreign university involvement in Chinese sustainable new town planning,and the following sections discuss the Anyang Eastern New Town Conceptual Plan,identify the key issues regarding preparing the plan,contracting and payment,data availability,data sharing and field investigation,and finally discuss the lessons learned regarding the planning process,project program and expectations.

Simulating the Impact of the Economic Sustainability Plan on the Performance of the Nigerian Economy in the Post COVID-19 Era

This study examines the impact of Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) on the performance of the Nigerian economy as a national economic resilient policy in the post COVID-19 era within the framework of a macro-econometric model. The study is hinged on the Keynesian general theory of employment, income and interest. Annual time series data spanning from 1970 to 2019 for within sample forecast, and a six-year out-of-sample forecast spanning from 2020 to 2025 were used. The policy scenario of 21.3 percent increase in government expenditure under the ESP as a stimulus package was simulated and the findings showed that increase in government expenditure under the ESP in critical areas would bring about significant impact on the macroeconomic performance of the Nigerian economy, especially on employment, inflation, economic growth and balance of payment in the post COVID-19 era. Emergent from these findings, the study recommended among others that the government should mobilize resources to finance the ESP in order to stimulate the economy in the post COVID-19 era by ensuring prudential fiscal management of resources;and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should ensure that financial institutions saddled with the responsibility of disbursement of intervention funds reduce interest rate from 9 percent to 5 percent as reflected in the ESP.

Ranking parameters in urban energy models for various building forms and climates using sensitivity analysis

Urban Building Energy Modelling(UBEM)allows us to simulate buildings’energy performances at a larger scale.However,creating a reliable urban-scale energy model of new or existing urban areas can be difficult since the model requires overly detailed input data,which is not necessarily publicly unavailable.Model calibration is a necessary step to reduce the uncertainties and simulation results in order to develop a reliable and accurate UBEM.Due to the concerns over computational resources and the time needed for calibration,a sensitivity analysis is often required to identify the key parameters with the most substantial impact before the calibration is deployed in UBEM.Here,we study the sensitivity of uncertain input parameters that affect the annual heating and cooling energy demand by employing an urban-scale energy model,CitySim.Our goal is to determine the relative influence of each set of input parameters and their interactions on heating and cooling loads for various building forms under different climates.First,we conduct a global sensitivity analysis for annual cooling and heating consumption under different climate conditions.Building upon this,we investigate the changes in input sensitivity to different building forms,focusing on the indices with the largest Total-order sensitivity.Finally,we determine First-order indices and Total-order effects of each input parameter included in the urban building energy model.We also provide tables,showing the important parameters on the annual cooling and heating demand for each climate and each building form.We find that if the desired calibration process require to decrease the number of the inputs to save the computational time and cost,calibrating 5 parameters;temperature set-point,infiltration rate,floor U-value,avg.walls U-value and roof U-value would impact the results over 55%for any climate and any building form.

Landfill site selection using multi cr iter ia decision making: Influential factors for comparing locations

Although a lot of research has focused on energy recovery and recycling of valuable materials from wastes to reduce loads on landfills,landfilling is still an inseparable part of solid waste management.Since landfills potentially pose a risk to human health and the surrounding environment,landfill site selection is an important endeavor that has to be carried out with great care.Choosing a suitable location for landfills depends on several factors and is a complicated procedure.In this paper,a comprehensive review of landfill site selection methods,with an emphasis on multi criteria decision making(multiple criteria decision analysis)has been presented.Assessments indicate that the most frequently used methods are weighted linear combination(WLC),ordered weighted averaging(OWA),analytic hierarchy process(AHP),fuzzy analytic hierarchy process(F-AHP),TODIM,fuzzy TODIM,analytic network process(ANP),fuzzy-analytic network process(F-ANP),and grey systems theory,each of which is discussed.The most widely used factors for selecting a landfill site are groundwater depth,surface water vicinity,elevation,land slope,soil permeability,soil stability,flooding susceptibility,lithology and stratification,faults,land use type,nearby settlements and urbanization,cultural and protected site vicinity,wind direction,roads,railways,proximity to building materials,pipelines and powerlines,and proximity to airports.