Construction of an indicator library for cities’sustainable development

Cities are key to countries’strategies for achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals(SDGs).In China,evaluating cities’sustainable development(CSD)processes and abilities requires establishing an indicator library for cities’sustainable development(ILCSD).Based on the SDG framework,and referring to typical evaluation systems and international standards,this study proposes an ILCSD,aiming to promote new urbanization and high-quality development in China.Using a step-by-step“eliminate-replace-augment”indicator selection method that takes mature indicators from existing standards for city evaluation,we form an ILCSD that responds to the SDGs while meeting China’s specific needs.Using the ILCSD,cities can select a set of indicators to assess and monitor their strengths and weaknesses.Through empirical analysis,we verify the feasibility of using ILCSD to construct a CSD evaluation system for Beijing,China.For the first time,ILCSD has established a mapping relationship between the core indicators from domestic and foreign standards of city development and the SDGs.It provides a tool for cities in different regions,at different stages of development and with different endowment types to select high-quality indicators according to local conditions,effectively solving the“last mile”problem of SDGs implementation at the city level.In the process of implementing indicators,we further suggest that important indicators with incomplete statistical data should nevertheless be included in the scope of cities’statistical monitoring.This study’s findings can facilitate China’s contribution to global sustainable development indicators and to future revisions of international standards.

A robust method for evaluating the potentials of 15-minute cities:Implications for sustainable urban futures

The‘15-minute city’(15minC)concept,which aspires to bring essential services within reach via a 15-minute walk for all residents,represents a pivotal paradigm shift in sustainable urban development.However,the achievability of this concept for different cities varies considerably across diverse population distributions,urban contexts,and development priorities.In this study,we propose a robust method for evaluating a city’s 15minC potential-a city’s capability to achieve widespread 15-minute accessibility while maintaining an optimal balance between resource efficiency and resident accessibility.We employ the Location Set Covering Problem optimization model to analyze the resources required to achieve full coverage of 15-minute accessibility and the knee point detection algorithm to assess a city’s 15minC potential.Across 23 major Chinese cities,our method exhibits a sharp sensitivity to delineate distinct 15minC potentials.It reveals that cities’current 15minC development level doesn’t align with their inherent potential uniformly.Key determinants include how well current facility locations match population centers and the population density in remote areas.Further,reducing facility constructions by twothirds has only a marginal impact on accessibility,emphasizing the need for tailored,data-driven planning in effective and sustainable urban development based on the distinct potentials of cities.Our approach prioritizes resource efficiency,minimizing the inefficient use of facilities that serve only a small portion of residents while maximizing the benefits of the 15minC and therefore has significant implications for a sustainable urban future.

Ensemble Deep Learning Based Air Pollution Prediction for Sustainable Smart Cities

Big data and information and communication technologies can be important to the effectiveness of smart cities.Based on the maximal attention on smart city sustainability,developing data-driven smart cities is newly obtained attention as a vital technology for addressing sustainability problems.Real-time monitoring of pollution allows local authorities to analyze the present traffic condition of cities and make decisions.Relating to air pollution occurs a main environmental problem in smart city environments.The effect of the deep learning(DL)approach quickly increased and penetrated almost every domain,comprising air pollution forecast.Therefore,this article develops a new Coot Optimization Algorithm with an Ensemble Deep Learning based Air Pollution Prediction(COAEDL-APP)system for Sustainable Smart Cities.The projected COAEDL-APP algorithm accurately forecasts the presence of air quality in the sustainable smart city environment.To achieve this,the COAEDL-APP technique initially performs a linear scaling normalization(LSN)approach to pre-process the input data.For air quality prediction,an ensemble of three DL models has been involved,namely autoencoder(AE),long short-term memory(LSTM),and deep belief network(DBN).Furthermore,the COA-based hyperparameter tuning procedure can be designed to adjust the hyperparameter values of the DL models.The simulation outcome of the COAEDL-APP algorithm was tested on the air quality database,and the outcomes stated the improved performance of the COAEDL-APP algorithm over other existing systems with maximum accuracy of 98.34%.

Distribution dynamics,regional differences,and convergence of sustainable development of cities and communities in China

China is one of the most populated and rapidly urbanizing countries worldwide and was among the earliest countries to integrate sustainable development into urban construction.To achieve high-quality development and implement the objectives of“Transforming Our World:The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”,it is crucial to measure and analyze the current level of sustainable development of cities in China.Following the principles of relevance,scientific rigor,universality,reliability,and timeliness,this study constructs an assessment index system for sustainable development,covering seven themes corresponding to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.Through detailed calculations,we obtained sustainable development indices for 139 Chinese cities from 2016 to 2022 and analyzed them in three dimensions:distribution dynamics,regional differences,and convergence.The key findings are as follows.First,the level of sustainable development showed improvement,with the average score of included cities increasing by 11.88%from 2016 to 2022.Second,the level of sustainable development was relatively balanced,maintaining low Gini coefficients between 0.05 and 0.06.Third,a weak overallσconvergence feature existed,with increased differentiation in 2021.From a regional perspective,aσconvergence feature was observed in the northeastern but not in the western region.Fourth,both overall absoluteβ-convergence and conditionalβeffects were significant.Regional absoluteβ-convergence and conditionalβ-convergence were also significant.This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of China’s urban sustainable development,offering policy insights for deepening the implementation of development goals in the future,and providing experiential reference for other developing countries to achieve sustainable development.

Deep sea mineral resources and underground space as well as infrastructure for sustainable and liveable cities

This issue covers the papers on two special themes:(1)Mineral resources from deep sea—Science and Engineering and(2)Planning and development of underground space and infrastructure for sustainable and liveable cities.

Spatial differences of Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)among counties(cities)on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains

The county(city)located on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains is the primary area to solidify and extend the success of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,China in poverty alleviation.Its Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)are intertwined with the concerted economic and social development of Xinjiang and the objective of achieving shared prosperity within the region.This study established a sustainable development evaluation framework by selecting 15 SDGs and 20 secondary indicators from the United Nations’SDGs.The aim of this study is to quantitatively assess the progress of SDGs at the county(city)level on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains.The results indicate that there are substantial variations in the scores of SDGs among the nine counties and one city located on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains.Notable high scores of SDGs are observed in the central and eastern regions,whereas lower scores are prevalent in the western areas.The scores of SDGs,in descending order,are as follows:62.22 for Minfeng County,54.22 for Hotan City,50.21 for Qiemo County,42.54 for Moyu County,41.56 for Ruoqiang County,41.39 for Qira County,39.86 for Lop County,38.25 for Yutian County,38.10 for Pishan County,and 36.87 for Hotan County.The performances of SDGs reveal that Hotan City,Lop County,Minfeng County,and Ruoqiang County have significant sustainable development capacity because they have three or more SDGs ranked as green color.However,Hotan County,Moyu County,Qira County,and Yutian County show the poorest performance,as they lack SDGs with green color.It is important to establish and enhance mechanisms that can ensure sustained income growth among poverty alleviation beneficiaries,sustained improvement in the capacity of rural governance,and the gradual improvement of social security system.These measures will facilitate the effective implementation of SDGs.Finally,this study offers a valuable support for governmental authorities and relevant departments in their decision-making processes.In addition,these results hold significant reference value for assessing SDGs at the county(city)level,particularly in areas characterized by low levels of economic development.

Towards Greener Flying China develops sustainable aviation fuel for environmentally friendly air transport

At the 15th Airshow China,held in Zhuhai,Guangdong Province,from 12 to 17 November 2024,China Southern Airlines,in collaboration with the Global Sustainable Transport Innovation and Knowledge Centre and Airbus,presented a report on the development of sustainable aviation fuel(SAF).

Beauty Restored Xiamen presents a successful case of sustainable development of a bay city

Riding along Xiamen’s Xinglin Bay Marine Bicycle Lane feels like gliding between the sea and sky.This 2.6-km-long pathway,built above the sea,links two sides of the bay.

Vulnerability and Sustainable Development Mode of Coal Cities in Northeast China

In this study, by carrying on the spot investigation to the seven coal cities in Northeast China and interview-ing with the local authority and the residents, the authors definite the vulnerability that is closed to exposure, sensitiv-ity and resilience, and set up vulnerability model of coal cities in Northeast China. At the same time, the authors broadly illustrate how the components of natural-social-economic system act in the coal area, so as to probe the ways to reduce vulnerability more effectively, such as preferential national policy and so on. Furthermore, the article studies the relationship between vulnerability and sustainable development. Vulnerability is a spatio-temporal function of sus-tainable development. The regional sustainable development refrains the spiral ascending of vulnerability. And the re-gional vulnerability and sustainable development appear in turn. Then the article analyzes the natural vulnerability, so-cial vulnerability and economic vulnerability of coal cities in Northeast China. At last, combing vulnerability model and situation of coal cities in Northeast China, the authors put forward regional technology innovation mode, multi-dimension structure transformation mode, attracting investment mode and recycling economy mode to reduce vulnerability.

Towards sustainable mining cities: what policies should be sought and experiences could be learnt for China?

This paper aims to explore interinks between population, resoures, environment anddevelopment of mining cities in China. The authors place emphasis on speeific policy stud of how tostep a sustainable rnining city based on the analysis of six components constituting the integrative andsystendc backdrop to mining city sustainability. The attempts are taken to make a deep comparisonbased on the studies in the five typical cities of Datong, Daqing, Panzhihua, Jinchang and Golmud ofChina, combining some experiences and theorehca thoughts from the Western countries. Therelationship between the resourees endoment, mining (in broader sense) and economic developmentis given based on the analysis of development of mineral resources and formahon of mining cities.Morcover, some changing characteristics and related issues of China's mining cities on environmentand socio-econondc dimensions are considered. The last part of the paper focuses on the discussion ofrestructuring approach to the mining cities in China, some reflections and suggestions are put forward.

Geo-environment in the Sustainable Development of Chinese Cities

Urban geo_environment mainly concerns those regards in and around a city,such as the movement of earth crust and earth surface,conditions of hydrology,geology,geography and meteorology.The relevant studies on geo_disaster reduction and the influences resulted from human activities on the geo_environment are included as well.It is stressed in the paper that geo_environmental protection and management are of significance to the sustainable development for Chinese cities.

Urban environmental problems transition and environmental education towards sustainable cities in China

With the rapid economic development and the speeding up of urbanization, the urban environmental problems in China are experiencing a progressive transition, which is characterized by steady transferring to the living (or consumption) oriented pollution pattern from the production oriented pollution pattern. Regarding this transition, the environmental education recognized as an important measure for approaching the objective of sustainable development, should transfer its focus correspondingly in urban area, which is to transfer to the habit cultivating pattern on the basis of the traditional knowledge inputting environmental education pattern. In practice, the urban environmental education should emphasize more on developing or cultivating the sustainable living mode of the urban residents, especially the students in elementary and primary schools and women. By this transform, the environmental education may be guided further towards sustainable development, and to serve the achievement of sustainable cities better in China.

Sustainable development of coal cities in Heilongjiang province based on AHP method

The sustainable development of coal mining cities in Heilongjiang province has important effect on the economic stability and development of Heilongjiang, Northeast China, and China at large. To further the sustainable development evaluation system of coal mining cities in Heilongjiang province, based on the analytic hierarchy process （AHP） method combined with operational and scientific principles using Saaty＇s 1-9 scale method to construct the judgment matrix from five aspects, such as economic development and environmental quality, this paper establishes the comprehensive evaluation index sys- tem of sustainable development of coal mining cities in Heilongjiang province, including comprehensive index of industrial economic benefits and the contribution rate of science and technology. In addition, using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, a comprehensive evaluation is made on the indices of the four major coal mining cities of Heilongjiang. The result shows that the coal mining cities are not bet- ter than Datong of Shanxi province in many indices. The economic development and environment quality are the most important indices of the targeted layer influencing the sustainable development of coal min- ing cities of HeilonKiiang, and their index weights are 0.4358 and 0.2844, respectively. These two indices including comprehensive index of industrial economic benefit and the ratio of environmental protection investment to GDP are the key elements influencing the two aspects.

World cities in terms of the sustainable development concept

The article considers the issue of the world cities in terms of sustainable development.The population has been increasing in such intensive rates never reached during the middle of the 20th century.The expansion of the cities indicates,on the one hand,the growth of the world’s general socio-economic development,on the other hand,it raises a number of economic,social and environmental problems.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state and prospects of the world cities in terms of the sustainable development concept,to identify opportunities,threats,strengths and weaknesses of the world cities,to determine the role of cities in the con-temporary global world and consider further research of the world’s cities.The authors analyzed the world cities rankings and noted that highly developed cities have more chances to quickly implement the sustainable devel-opment concept compared to medium-sized cities due to larger financial resources.The authors built a SWOT analysis of the world cities transformation in terms of the sustainable development concept,identified strengths,weaknesses,opportunities and threats.According to the results of the SWOT analysis,the authors established that sustainable development of cities requires significant investments,particularly in the social sphere develop-ment,purification,and preservation of urban nature from the anthropogenic impacts.The research result is the systematization of the sustainable development criteria used in compiling the world cities rankings,determining the possibilities of the contemporary cities transition to the sustainable development concept.

Characterisation of Municipal Solid Waste Compost (MSWC) from Selected Indian Cities—A Case Study for Its Sustainable Utilisation

Utilisation of Municipal Solid Waste is important to curb the ever rising demand of scarce land for its disposal. Changing life style patterns, particularly in urban areas, has led to increase in generation of MSW. Municipal solid waste from Indian cities estimated to have 40% - 60% organic matter, which could be recycled as compost. The most suitable way to recycle it with low investment is aerobic composting using windrow method. With the compliance of Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000, many cities in India are making compost with organic portion of MSW. Before applying MSWC for agricultural uses, it is important to inventories heavy metals in compost to assess its toxicity. In the present study the compost samples were quantified for its toxicity from three highly populated cities of India, i.e., Delhi (Capital of India), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Bangalore (Karnataka). The MSWC samples were analysed for total heavy metals and in extractable fractions. Few samples were found with higher concentration of metals then the prescribed limits for its application as compost in Indian MSW rules, whereas, samples have not showed significant heavy metals concentration in extractable fractions. Therefore, studied MSW compost samples had demonstrated its suitability to use as green compost.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SERIOUSLY POLLUTED CITIES IN CHINA——Taking Benxi City as an Example

The environmental problems in the seriously polluted cities in China have been paid attention to by policy makers and foreign and domestic scholars. However, it is very difficult to improve the environmental quality fundamentally due to its complexity, for example the formation of the seriously deteriorated environment. It is considered that the terminal harnessing is an important way,but the spread of high level terminal treatment is restricted by the limit of funds and technological level. Therefore, the way for a sustainable development of the seriously polluted cities should be multiple sided, which is to correlate the operation of environmental protection with the operation of city construction. To achieve an identity of these opposites, measures should be taken during economic development and environmental protection in every developing stage. In this paper, the authors take Benxi City as a case study.

Cooperative Game Among Cities in Urban Agglomerations and Economical Sustainable Development

This paper analyses redounded profits of cooperation and non-cooperation among cities in urban agglomerations based on game theory. It discusses the problems of economical development among cities with feeble cooperation, and deduces the conclusion that only cooperation of cities produces the maximum profits and realizes Pareto efficiency for cities and urban agglomerations. The paper states that cooperation is the cornerstone of economic sustainable development in urban agglomerations in profits produced by cooperation among cities. Some suggestions to accelerate cooperation among cities are proposed.

A Research on Problems for Sustainable Development of Mining Cities in China

As a significant issue, mining cities, especially the resource-exhausted mining cities have already been given intensive attention by academia and government. This article discusses the intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for problems of the mining cities from the perspective of sustainable development, quantitatively analyzes the economic benefit of the mining cities with statistical data, and presents the strategies and measures for sustainable development of the mining cities based on the theoretical discus- sion and empirical study of different types of mining cities. The research shows that: (1) the conflict between the mining cities and the mining enterprises which has been incorrectly dealt with for a long time is the primary reason for the problems of the mining cities. More seriously, the development gap between mining cities and non-mining cities is becoming larger than ever before, due to the domestic and international competition. (2) As a whole, the economic development level of the mining cities is lower than the average level of countrywide cities. The economic benefit of the mining cities is increasing owing to the economic scale, and the economic situations of oil-mining cites and iron-mining cites are relatively better than those of other types of mining cities. (3) The prerequisite of sustainable development of the mining cities is the realization of the transformation of capital superiority so as to promote non-mining economy and substitute the mining economy step by step.

Landscapes of Andenes and Sustainable Infrastructure in Andean Cities

This article aims to analyze cities located in the high mountain ecosystems formed by the landscape of Andenes or sustainable infrastructure of terraces located in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andean highlands of central South America. The selected case studies have in common the use of land for settlement purposes, and the fact that they pursue both urban and rural infrastructure sustainability approaches. Theoretical and empirical methods were used such as the historical-logical method, the inductive-deductive method, observation in situ and reviews of documents and maps. It is concluded that the anthropic interventions and the management and monitoring plans of each site allow for the conservation of their natural resources and of the landscape of Andenes, the improvement of the population’s quality of life, the control of structural risk to prevent erosion of the mountains where they are constructed as well as the preservation of the site’s globally significant cultural heritage (as recognised by UNESCO). Current trends in the sustainable use of cultural and natural resources of the heritage involve the conservation of terraced landscapes. Without their preservation, management or exploitation as a tourist resource cannot be carried out.

Management Strategies for Ecocities of Sustainable Development

Building ecocities becomes an objective requirement for sustainable development. This article discusses the relationship between sustainable development and sustainable urban development. On the basis of discussing the sigificance of sustainable urban development and that of an eco-city from different perspectives, it suggests several management strategies for developing an eco-city, a desirable sustainable urban model.