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Urban Environment and Low-Carbon Cities
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Urban Environment and Low-Carbon Cities

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2023) | Viewed by 4441

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Yupeng Fan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: urban environmental system simulation; low carbon development; sustainable urban development; environmental management; coordinated development of social and ecological systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the most concentrated area of human activities, urban operation needs to consume a lot of natural resources and discharge a lot of waste and GHG, which has a huge impact on the ecological environment. According to statistics, cities, which cover less than 3% of the earth's surface, consume 75% of the world's energy, 60% of its water, and 76% of its wood, and produce 80% of the global greenhouse gases. Most ecological and environmental problems, such as environmental pollution, global climate change, and biodiversity loss, are related to cities. In order to cope with global climate change and environmental problems, many cities around the world and many international organizations are actively fighting against pollution and promoting the construction of low-carbon cities. This Special Issue aims to provide a premier international platform for authors from academia, industry, and government to present their latest findings from across this domain,  sort out the practice of low-carbon cities and their development characteristics, analyze the principles and characteristics of low-carbon city construction, excavate the characteristics that environmental pollutants and carbon emissions are highly rooted and homologous, explore the inner mechanism of pollution decrease and carbon reduction, survey the governance model and systems approach necessary for the construction of low-carbon cities, and explore the social-ecological interaction based on the urban environment and socio-economic system.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • low-carbon city evaluation method and framework
  • exploring mechanisms to promote pollution and carbon reduction in different types of cities
  • evaluating the synergy degree of pollution and carbon reduction
  • price, fiscal, tax, and financial policies conducive to the green and low-carbon development of enterprises
  • explore the mechanisms and methods of intensive, economical, and efficient recycling of resources and energy
  • urban decarbonization policy assessment
  • impact of urban greening on low-carbon development
  • resilience of cities to climate change
  • carbon metabolism in the urban system

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Yupeng Fan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pollution and carbon synergistic reduction
  • synergy effect
  • complex system
  • low-carbon urban transition
  • resilience
  • urban carbon governance

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 2445 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Effects of Socioeconomic Factors and Urban Forms on CO2 Emissions in Shrinking and Growing Cities
by Xiaolei Huang, Jinpei Ou, Yingjian Huang and Shun Gao
Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010085 - 21 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 800
Abstract
Exploring the mechanisms influencing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is crucial to seeking low-carbon development paths. Previous studies have analyzed the effects of socioeconomic factors and urban forms on CO2 emissions. However, little attention has been paid to the heterogeneity of [...] Read more.
Exploring the mechanisms influencing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is crucial to seeking low-carbon development paths. Previous studies have analyzed the effects of socioeconomic factors and urban forms on CO2 emissions. However, little attention has been paid to the heterogeneity of their interactions in differing urban development patterns, such as growth and shrinkage. This study focused on how socioeconomic factors and urban forms work together to comprehensively affect CO2 emissions within the context of urban shrinkage and growth. A selection of 285 prefecture-level cities in China were divided into four groups of shrinking and growing cities based on a comprehensive index system. After assessing variables involving socioeconomic factors and urban forms, a panel data model was used to verify their mutual mechanisms influencing CO2 emissions. The results show that CO2 emissions in shrinking cities continue to rise due to the driving force of secondary industry and the coexistence of population loss and space expansion. For growing cities, in addition to economic development and population growth, urban forms with excessive compactness and polycentricity significantly accelerate CO2 emissions. Consequently, disorderly urban expansion should be avoided, and industrial upgrading should be promoted for shrinking cities. Meanwhile, growing cities are advised to develop modern service industries. Moreover, it is recommended that urban spatial planning follows urban functions and their development stages to avoid excessive agglomeration and polycentricity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Environment and Low-Carbon Cities)
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21 pages, 8704 KiB  
Article
A Scientometric Analysis of Payments for Ecosystem Services Research: Mapping Global Trends and Directions
by Changsu Song, Yuqing Liu, Longqing Liu, Chaofan Xian and Xuan Wang
Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15649; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115649 - 6 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1326
Abstract
Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is an innovative economic intervention to mitigate the decline of ecosystem services and biodiversity; it plays a key role in harmonizing protection and development. Based on numerous PES practices worldwide, PES has emerged as a research hotspot in [...] Read more.
Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is an innovative economic intervention to mitigate the decline of ecosystem services and biodiversity; it plays a key role in harmonizing protection and development. Based on numerous PES practices worldwide, PES has emerged as a research hotspot in the field of sustainability. This paper presents a comprehensive scientometric analysis of PES academic publications between 1987 and 2022. The study aims to characterize the intellectual landscape of PES by identifying and visualizing the evolution of the collaboration network, the co-citation network, and emerging research trends. The findings reveal a rapid increase in publications of this field, indicating its growing importance as an interdisciplinary research subject. In particular, PES has gained significant attention from numerous researchers since 2007. Environmental sciences and ecology (50.77%) have been the core subjects, followed by business economics (11.04%) and biodiversity conservation (9.58%). Engineering (3.52%) and water resources (3.40%) have emerged as new fields in recent years. Notably, productive authors and institutions in this domain are primarily located in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. However, fewer stable collaborations were found between China and European countries. Regarding the keywords, the most popular keywords of this topic were “ecosystem service” (1423), “conservation” (1324), and “biodiversity” (1029). By synthesizing the literature, this paper identifies pressing topics related to the effectiveness of PES, including the evaluation of effectiveness, efficiency assessment, and equity. Through an in-depth analysis, this paper elucidates global trends and directions in PES research. It is important to create a fair and efficient market that boosts the motivation and initiative of society to engage in PES initiatives, to increase investment in comprehensive PES projects, which helps improve the efficiency of fund utilization, especially concerning climate change mitigation. It is proposed to integrate natural sciences and social sciences to comprehensively assess the effectiveness of climate-friendly PES, which contributes to the sustainable development of PES research and application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Environment and Low-Carbon Cities)
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Review

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28 pages, 8192 KiB  
Review
The Correlation between Urban Form and Carbon Emissions: A Bibliometric and Literature Review
by Yanyi Zhu and Youpei Hu
Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13439; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813439 - 7 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1772
Abstract
Urban carbon emissions contribute significantly to global warming, but various factors impact these emissions. This study focuses on the correlation between urban form and carbon emissions. Urban form is an entity that can be directly manipulated and optimized by disciplines such as architecture, [...] Read more.
Urban carbon emissions contribute significantly to global warming, but various factors impact these emissions. This study focuses on the correlation between urban form and carbon emissions. Urban form is an entity that can be directly manipulated and optimized by disciplines such as architecture, urban design, and urban planning. The improvement of urban form, particularly at the meso–micro scale, is relatively rapid and affordable compared to other carbon-related factors, such as macro-industry or energy structure. Therefore, conducting a study on the correlation between urban form and carbon emissions is crucial, and the findings will provide direct scientific support for low-carbon city planning. The paper combines bibliometric analysis with a literature review. First, we explore research hotspots and trends using bibliometric analysis. Second, we organize the literature review based on the main research components, methods, and findings in this field. Finally, we propose a framework and direction for future research. It was found that (1) numerous study methodologies are currently being used to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of urban form on carbon emissions, with Chinese scholars’ research progressing rapidly; (2) the primary focus of the study is on the carbon emissions related to residents’ consumption, and there are still issues with inconsistent measurement approaches; (3) there is more research conducted on the macro-scale of cities but not enough on the meso–micro scale. Future research must focus more on meso–microscale analysis, quantifying the key influences and pathways of urban form on carbon emissions. Additionally, it is crucial to establish a comprehensive research framework that can serve as a guide for more effective urban development aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Environment and Low-Carbon Cities)
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