Dreaming the wrong dream: An exploratory case study of a policy change toward sustainable urban development in a medium-sized Chinese city

Sustainable urban transformation has become a mantra for Chinese cities. While most studies focus on sustainable urbanization in megacities, the far larger number of medium-sized cities is understudied, although the latter face more severe urban problems. This article develops a framework for examining policy change in sustainable urban...

Collaborative spatial planning in the face of flood risk in delta cities: A policy framing perspective

Integration of flood risk in spatial planning is increasingly seen as a way to enhance cities’ resilience to the growing flood hazards, albeit its operationalisation remains challenging. This study aims to explain the reasons for this difficulty through the case study of Guangzhou, a Chinese delta city that is highly vulnerable to coastal,...

Past, Present and Future of Transit-Oriented Development in three European Capital City-Regions

The concept of Transit-Oriented Development—development near, and/or oriented to, mass transit facilities—has generated much interest in Europe over the last decade. Coined in the United States in the 1990s, the term “TOD” is frequently assumed to be a recent American import and a reaction to the consequences of mass motorization and sprawl....

Spatial Planning for Climate Adaptation and Flood Risk: Development of the Sponge City Program in Guangzhou

Many Chinese cities are increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change, particularly to flooding. The National Sponge City Program was set up to address this challenge. This chapter examines how municipal interventions in spatial planning have been formulated in response to this national program. The case of Guangzhou is examined, a mega...

Sustainable Urban Transport in the Developing World: Beyond Megacities

Megacities have frequently received a disproportionate amount of attention over other sizes of cities in recent discourse on urban sustainability. In this article, the authors argue that a focus on smaller and medium-sized cities is crucial to achieving substantial progress towards more sustainable urban development, not only because they are...