Geographic perspectives on urban sustainability: past,current, and future research trajectories

ABSTRACT

The 21st century has been called the “century of the city” and compounded concerns that current development pathways were not sustainable. Calls for scholarship on urban sustainability among geographers cites strengths in the human-environment and urban subfields that positioned the discipline to make unique contributions to critical research needs. This special issue reflects on the contributions that geographers have made to urban sustainability scholarship. We observe that that integration across human-environment and urban subfields reflects broader bifurcations between social theory and spatial science traditions in geography. Piggy-backing on the rise of sustainability science, the emergence of urbanization science compels geographers to reflect upon the ways in which we are positioned to make unique contributions to those fields. We argue that those contributions should embrace systems thinking, empirically connect social constructs to biophysical patterns and processes, and use the city as a laboratory to generate new theories.     

Putting discourse in its place: planning, sustainability and the urban capacity study

This article argues that policy discourses need to be set within the heterogeneous resources that governments routinely use to govern across the state/non-state divide. It employs the governmentality perspective to show how a discursive coalition in the planning for housing sector uses such resources to embed a new rationality of 'planning for sustainability' in a host of differing local arenas. The article extends the governmentality approach by proposing that this 'embedding' process is geographically uneven as the discourse becomes enmeshed in differing economic and environmental circumstances. The analysis thus reveals a geography of governmentality by showing how local actions intrude upon the functioning of governmental networks.     

Intelligent Transportation Systems and Travel Behavior in Connecticut

In the past decade, there has been significant investment in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies that provide information to both en‐route and pre‐trip travelers. However, there is no definitive evidence that en‐route travelers actually use the information and alter their travel patterns. Previous research employed surveys that relied on motorists' written or spoken responses to questions involving travel information and hypothetical roadway scenarios. This research examines travel behavior on freeways equipped with ITS technologies in Connecticut using collected real‐time traffic count data from the diversionary roadways. Results find that more travel is occurring on the diversionary routes during periods of variable message sign (VMS) messages than during equivalent periods having no messages, indicating a motorist travel response to these messages.     

Uneven development of the sustainable city: shifting capital in Portland,Oregon

Portland, Oregon, is renowned as a paradigmatic “sustainable city.” Yet, despite popular conceptions of the city as a progressive ecotopia and the accolades of planners seeking to emulate its innovations, Portland’s sustainability successes are inequitably distributed. Drawing on census data, popular media, newspaper archives, city planning documents, and secondary source histories, we attempt to elucidate the structural origins of Portland’s “uneven development,” exploring how and why the urban core of this paragon of sustainability has become more White and affluent while its outer eastside has become more diverse and poor. We explain how a “sustainability fix”—in this case, green investment in the city’s core—ultimately contributed to the demarcation of racialized poverty along 82nd Avenue, a major north–south arterial marking the boundary of East Portland. Our account of structural processes taking place at multiple scales contributes to a growing body of literature on eco-gentrification and displacement and inner-ring suburban change while empirically demonstrating how Portland’s advances in sustainability have come at the cost of East Portland’s devaluation. Our “30,000 foot” perspective reveals systemic patterns that might then guide more fine-grained analyses of particular political-socio-cultural processes, while providing cautionary insights into current efforts to extend the city’s sustainability initiatives using the same green development model.     

The Singapore River thematic zone: sustainable tourism in an urban context

This paper explores the concept of sustainable tourism and how it applies to urban destinations such as Singapore. As tourism is an important industry in Singapore, in terms of employment, business activity and an income generator, the Singapore Tourism Board is continuously looking at potential avenues to make Singapore a competitive destination. We examine the use of thematic zones in Singapore as a strategy to achieve its ambition of becoming a tourism capital of the world. By focusing on a case study of the Singapore River thematic zone (one of the 11 thematic zones identified by the Singapore Tourism Board), we assess the viability of thematic zones in ensuring sustainable urban tourism. The paper closes with some theoretical reflections and policy implications arising from our key findings.     

Uneven urban metabolisms: toward an integrative (ex)urban political ecology of sustainability in and around the city

ABSTRACT

Expanding cities present a sustainability challenge, as the uneven proliferation of hybrid landscape types becomes a major feature of 21st century urbanization. To fully address this challenge, scholars must consider the broad range of land uses that being produced beyond the urban core and how land use patterns in one location may be tied to patterns in other locations. Diverse threads within political ecology provide useful insights into the dynamics that produce uneven urbanization. Specifically, urban political ecology (UPE) details how economic power influences the development decision-making that proliferate urban forms, patterns of uneven access, and modes of decision-making, frequently viewing resource extraction and development through the urban metabolism lens. The political ecology of exurbia, or, perhaps, an exurban political ecology (ExPE), examines the symbolic role nature and the rural have played in conservation and development efforts that produce social, economic, and environmental conflicts. While UPE approaches tend to privilege macroscale dynamics, ExPE emphasizes the role of landowners, managers, and other actors in struggles over the production of exurban space, including through decision-making institutions and within the context of broader political economic forces. Three case studies illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, demonstrating the benefits for and giving suggestions on how to integrate their insights into urban sustainability research. Integrated political ecology approaches demonstrate how political-economic processes at a variety of scales produce diverse local sustainability responses.     

空间微观模拟方法及在城市研究中的应用

基于活动主体的城市系统微观模拟可能在未来城市研究中发挥重要作用,但其通常受到微观个体数据稀缺的限制。空间微观模拟方法（spatial microsimulation）主要基于家庭、个人等微观分析单元,通过整合不同层面的数据源,如宏观汇总层面的人口普查统计表以及微观层面的家庭活动日志调查等,合成大样本微观个体数据集,可以在精细化空间尺度上对微观个体行为进行模拟研究。该方法在城市系统微观模拟、空间分析以及政策评估等方面具有一定优势,在西方国家城市研究中的应用逐渐增多,但在国内较为缺乏。本文尝试对空间微观模拟方法的起源、三种核心算法,包括条件概率（conditional probability） 、确定性加权（deterministic reweighting）以及模拟退火（simulated annealing）进行介绍,并从国际层面综述该方法在城市研究,如收入与贫困、交通出行、健康等领域中的应用,为我国相关研究的开展提供借鉴。     

城市微环境与盗窃犯罪关系研究进展

城市微观社会环境和微观建成环境（即“城市微环境”）失序是影响盗窃犯罪时空格局和形成机理的两大关键因素,直接影响犯罪的机会、成本和手段,掌握微环境与盗窃的关系是CPTED、犯罪地理学的核心内容。本文聚焦国内外城市微环境与盗窃关系的研究进展,系统梳理了影响盗窃时空分异的城市微环境特征,总结了微环境的测度方式。总体上有4类问题待解决：① 当前利用手机大数据求算的环境人口指标主要为人口数量和流动性,少有从人口属性、社交规律等方面深层刻画微观社会环境。② 缺乏对微观建成、社会环境的系统性整合,易导致伪相关或不相关。③ 西方犯罪学理论的“本土化”实证研究不够充分,理论内涵和概念存在本土操作化困难,中国实证研究产生的“本土”知识对西方理论有补充性和挑战性,但还需“国际概念化”。④ 街景已被用于微观建成环境的虚拟测量,但随机选取测量地点的做法因未顾及微观社会环境的非均衡性而缺乏针对性。未来有4方面研究趋势：① 与公安部门紧密合作,结合敏感数据,刻画微观尺度人口属性、社交规律等特征,拓展“风险人口”的概念外延,准确反映微观社会环境,开展理论和政策导向的实证研究。② 耦合微观社会和建成环境,从社会、环境、行为等多维理论层面辨析两种微观环境的互嵌依据和耦合路径,诉诸“大”数据刻画“微”环境,探索微环境对盗窃的条件交互机制和尺度依赖性。③ 把握犯罪学理论内涵,兼顾中国城市社会情境,开发理论核心概念“本土”操作化新可能。④ 持续发展基于街景的远程化、虚拟化、自动化、智能化建成环境观测手段,注重针对性采样和系统性整合研究。     

健康视角下城市建成环境对老年人日常步行活动的影响研究

“健康老龄化”背景下,促进身体活动是提升老年人健康水平的重要方式,也是当前多学科交叉研究的热点。依托南京市居民身体活动调查数据,选择老年人日常生活中最普遍且有益健康的步行活动作为研究主题,探究建成环境的影响,以期为相关理论与实践提供有益探索。研究表明：① 老年人日常步行空间范围可作为步行所涉及建成环境边界,不同类型的主要活动场所则可识别建成环境要素需求差异。② 日常生活所涉及的公共开放空间、商业及公共服务设施的密集性,以及主观建成环境感知对老年人交通性/休闲性步行活动具有显著影响。③ 基于老年人日常步行活动习惯及建成环境对步行活动的影响,可从有效供给日常步行生活空间、积极引导健康生活方式方面提出相应规划策略。     

建成环境对城市居民日常出行碳排放的影响——以开封市248个居住区为例

居住区是居民日常生活最基本的空间单元,其建成环境对出行碳排放的影响是学术界关注的焦点。基于大样本调查数据核算居民各类出行碳排放,通过POI抓取、空间句法、网络分析等方法识别开封市主城区成规模的248个居住区的建成环境特征,借助核密度和GWR等方法剖析居住区尺度居民各类出行碳排放的空间分异规律。结果表明：① 城市内部居民出行碳排放空间差异显著,居住区公共服务供给的公平性问题突出,外圈层快速扩张区域应作为城市碳减排工作的关键区域;② 居住区尺度能较好地揭示建成环境对出行碳排放的影响,路网设计、建筑密度、土地利用混合度等因素对各类出行碳排放的作用机理差异较大,作用强度亦存在不同方向上的空间渐进规律;③ 根据出行碳排放结构及其对应的建成环境指标可识别出外层高密度欠通达低混合型居住区碳排放水平较高,内层低密度高通达高混合型居住区碳排放水平较低。研究结果可为居住区空间重构和城市碳排放的分区规划与治理提供科学依据。     

Cultivating the sustainable city: urban agriculture policies and gardening projects in Minneapolis,Minnesota

In the past 20 years, municipal governments across the United States have increasingly tried to incorporate environmental efforts into city business and policies. Urban sustainability has become the key concept around which such activities are organized. Official sustainability plans are most often implemented through indicators and metrics. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, urban gardening, in a variety of forms, has been the focus of ongoing citizen- and NGO-led environmental efforts, as well as municipal measures of sustainability. Here, debates around the recent adoption of a city urban agriculture policy, as well as a program to encourage the installation of raingardens in neighborhoods across the city, reveal some of the rich variations in gardening practices and spaces. These far exceed the relatively narrow official focus on sustainability indicators. Better understanding how urban sustainability initiatives might work with, but also move beyond, indicators may provide directions toward wider visions of sustainable urban life.     

Building a sustainable urban future: An Auckland experience

Abstract:  The Untouched World Sustainable Cities Youth pilot project was held in Auckland in July 2005. This article outlines the activities that school students were involved in during the week and reflects on the nature of the learning experience. Whilst not specifically targeted at geography students or teachers, the project does support the outcomes of senior high school geography programmes.     

Measuring Urban Sustainability: the potential and pitfalls of city rankings

Measuring the sustainability of a city, and ranking the city against other cities, is increasingly seen as a way to achieve urban sustainability. A number of studies have highlighted how Sydney is unsustainable, with two recent ranking exercises appearing to confirm these findings by placing Sydney below many other Australian cities for urban sustainability. These two exercises are situated within international moves towards ranking cities. The article explores the assumptions and criteria used by Mercer in its Eco-City Index and the Australian Conservation Foundation in its Sustainable Cities Index. The conclusion discusses how Sydney could become more sustainable, and identifies why normative urban sustainability rankings should be recognised for their potential while simultaneously being treated with caution.     

南京市城市老年人出行行为的影响因素

老年人在人口比例和绝对数量上的快速增长将对整个社会产生一系列影响,其中交通出行是非常重要的一个方面。本文基于2012年南京居民出行调查数据,发现相对于年轻人,老年人的日出行次数增加,但日出行时间和日出行距离都减少,说明老年人单次出行距离较短,且主要围绕“家”形成圆形的活动空间;从出行方式构成来看,老年人以步行和公交车为主,出行目的以娱乐、休闲和购物为主。运用次序Logit及线性回归模型,在确定老年人及其家庭的基本社会经济属性之后,发现城市建成环境对老年人的出行有显著影响。其中,城市人口密度会显著增加老年人的日出行次数,但其日出行距离反而有所减少;居住在原单位小区的老人日出行次数比居住于商品房的老人多,且出行距离也较短;说明混合用地以及紧凑的发展模式有利于促进老年人的出行。距离交通基础设施越近,老年人的出行越活跃。大型购物中心对老年人的购物出行没有显著影响,老年人更倾向于在街头小店购买物品。而小区周边体育馆、博物馆等设施对老年人的吸引力则不如棋牌室和公园广场。研究结果对老年人健康生活和科学合理布局城市设施具有一定的指导意义。     

轨道站点周边建成环境对残疾人出行行为的影响研究——以武汉市189个轨道站点为例

残疾人流动性是衡量社会公平发展的重要方面。由于特殊的身体和社会经济状况,残疾人出行行为具有更为独特的特征,也更易受建成环境影响。论文基于武汉市轨道交通智能刷卡数据,整合多源空间大数据,探索武汉市残疾人轨道交通出行时空特征,并利用地理加权回归(GWR)模型进一步探究轨道交通站点周边建成环境对轨道交通残疾人客流量影响的空间异质性。研究发现：① 地铁出行的残疾人中有29.7%具有通勤出行的特征,出行频率工作日高于休息日,且均呈现早晚错峰出行的趋势;② 15~30 min即大约5~10 km的中短距离出行最多,活动范围集中于三环线以内的主城区,且以同区出行活动最为频繁,跨江出行较少;③ 在大部分的研究范围内,公交站点密度、路网密度、大型公园密度和站点开通时间对站点残疾人客流量均具有正向影响;④ 换乘站的日均残疾人客流量明显高于非换乘站;⑤ 与以往研究结论不同的是,土地利用混合度、站点无障碍设施对站点残疾人客流量的影响并不显著。研究可为“残疾人友好型”的轨道交通站点建成环境优化和新站点土地利用布局提供数据支撑,增强城市公共服务人本化。     

Urban agriculture and the sustainability fix in Vancouver and Detroit

Both Vancouver, British Columbia, and Detroit, Michigan, have significant and growing urban agriculture movements. In this article, I follow recent work investigating the connection between urban agriculture and neoliberalization to determine how these local governments have used urban agriculture in narratives of economic development to selectively pursue a sustainability fix. I analyze how different regimes of local governance have influenced the urban agriculture movements, leading to local, hybridized fixes that adapt to different material and discursive contexts in each place. I argue that in both cities, urban agriculture has radical potential as a grassroots response to economic and environmental injustice, but has also been enrolled as a device by the local state in which the primary goal of sustainability planning becomes enhanced economic competitiveness. Pursuing an agenda of food justice requires examining the larger context and effects of municipal involvement with food movements.     

街景图片识别城市贫困的适用性——基于广州市中心城区的验证

以广州市为例,选取中心4个区6 670个采样点（涵盖121个社区）的百度街景图片,从城市建成环境特征探讨了城市贫困识别的可能。首先,训练基于深度神经网络的街景图片分类模型后,对街景要素进行语义分割,并通过缓冲区分析统计社区尺度的街景指标;其次,经主成分分析法提取出建筑围合感、植被围合感、天空开阔感和道路开阔感4个街景主因子,并验证其与多重贫困指数（IMD）的相关性;最后,通过采用简单随机抽样法选取61个社区,构建街景预测的多元线性回归模型,对剩余60个社区进行贫困预测,验证街景指标测度城市贫困的度量精度。结果发现,案例社区的多重贫困指数（IMD）与建筑围合感呈正相关,与植被围合感、天空开阔感、道路开阔感呈负相关;从整体看来,街景预测结果与传统城市贫困测度的空间规律基本相符,而且结果通常比传统测度的城市贫困程度高。这是因为受测度内容、社区类型、街道属性等方面的影响,街景识别方式比较适用于判断建成环境较差的贫困社区。街景图片预测有利于刻画城市贫困人群真实的生活环境,便于对城市建成区进行及时监测,在一定程度上可以与传统城市贫困测度相互校正、弥补不足。     

建成环境对北京市郊区居民工作日汽车出行的影响

郊区化导致的汽车出行增加及相关的城市环境与社会问题日益成为城市研究关注的焦点,但目前国内对建成环境与汽车出行行为的研究刚刚起步。基于GPS与活动日志相结合的居民一周活动与出行数据,利用GIS空间分析分别以居住地、工作地和活动空间作为地理背景,分析建成环境对于郊区居民汽车出行距离的影响因素。研究发现,建成环境对工作日汽车出行的影响因地理背景的选择而有不同。整日出行受到工作地和活动空间的影响,工作地与活动空间建设密度增高汽车出行减少,但是居住空间的影响不显著;通勤出行受到居住地、工作地和活动空间的影响,居住地商业密度提高和建设密度降低、工作地和活动空间建设密度提高,汽车出行减少;非工作活动出行也受到居住地、工作地和活动空间的影响,居住地、工作地和活动空间的公交密度低、工作地和活动空间建设密度高,汽车出行少。基于研究结果,本文对地理背景不确定性问题进行了探讨,提出出行行为的研究需要考虑居住地以外其他地理背景的影响,并对控制汽车使用的公共政策提出了建议。     

交通廊道对城市社会空间的侵入作用——以北京市德外大街改造工程为例

城市社会空间是城市规划和城市地理学的重要研究内容。城市实体结构是城市社会空间的重要影响因子,而城市交通廊道又是最活跃的一种城市实体要素。交通廊道对城市社会空间的作用有侵入、隔离、接替等。本文以北京市德外大街改造工程为例,分析交通廊道对所经过的社会空间的影响。就其理论意义而言,从一个侧面挖掘了美国地理学家莫迪“城市社会空间结构模型”中城市实体层面对社会空间层面的作用机制,即交通廊道是通过切断社会空间关联来影响所经社会空间的。就其实践意义而言,提出在城市大型交通廊道建设中,应该注意保持城市居民生活基本空间单元的完整性。同时指出城市社会空间是一个有机体,不同类型的城市社会空间单元在适应实体空间变化上存在差异性。帕森斯的AGIL理论可以解释德外社区为什么可以积极地适应交通廊道的侵入。     

Visionary Politics: Technologies of Government in the Capital of Innovation

ABSTRACT

Taking up experiments in “civic innovation” as windows into the making of new urban worlds, I attempt in this essay to map out the parameters of a novel framework for municipal rule and account for the conditions underlying its ascendance in San Francisco, CA. I explore how productions of urban space and nature today serve as the means and objects of an emerging mode of government premised on yoking all forms of urban activity to the dictates of innovation. When proponents of civic innovation pursue particular forms of intervention in the built environment to constitute urban subjects as human capital, they imbibe, reproduce, and enact normative notions about the nature of the city as a problem to manage. Though the project of civic innovation is neither complete nor inevitable, the political vision animating it entails the subsumption of urban life as such within a rubric of decision making modeled on the market.