Urban systems design arises from disparate current planning approaches (urban design, Planning Support Systems, and community engagement), compounded by the reemergence of rational planning methods from new technology (Internet of Things (IoT), metric based analysis, and big data). The proposed methods join social considerations (Human Well-Being), environmental needs (Sustainability), climate change and disaster mitigation (Resilience), and prosperity (Economics) as the four foundational pillars. Urban systems design integrates planning methodologies to systematically tackle urban challenges, using IoT and rational methods, while human beings form the core of all analysis and objectives. Our approach utilizes an iterative three-phase development loop to contextualize, evaluate, plan and design scenarios for the specific needs of communities. An equal emphasis is placed on feedback loops through analysis and design, to achieve the end goal of building smart communities.

In recent years, the rapid growth of e-commerce and on-demand delivery services has placed a significant strain on urban logistics systems. Technological advances such as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based logistics systems have thus emerged as promising solutions in urban environments and are increasingly being piloted worldwide. However, the implementation of UAV logistics risks exacerbating social inequities, particularly in marginalized communities that may disproportionately bear the noise and safety risks. To mitigate these risks, it is crucial to integrate social equity considerations into urban UAV logistics. This study explores social equity factors through a systematic literature review and social media analysis of Xiaohongshu (the Little Red Book), a popular Chinese social media platform known for its extensive user base and active discussions on social issues. This literature review involves a full-text examination, while latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling is used to analyze social media comment datasets. Each method identifies social equity factors and separately assesses their relative importance, resulting in the final identification of 24 key factors that provide a holistic view of public sentiment and academic discourse. The findings reveal a divide between academic concerns around systemic risks and a public focus on immediate needs. By synthesizing these insights, this study provides a social equity landscape for urban UAV logistics and actionable references for policymakers and stakeholders.

Recognizing the critical role of cities in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, many cities are adopting carbon neutrality goals as part of their climate action strategies. The efficacy of these initiatives, however, has been undermined by complexity of systemic problems, ineffectiveness in planning implementation, and lack of stakeholder engagement. Urban and community-level carbon reduction should transcend urban design and systems optimization to incorporate multi-faceted dimensions in urban contexts. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a framework of urban digital twins that includes digital representation, performance modeling, design interventions and interactive platform for decisions over temporal processes. The CANVAS, or Carbon Neutrality Architecting New Visions for Architectural Systems, is a systems architecting approach to modeling the process of urban revitalization for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The developed workflow integrates multidisciplinary approaches for carbon mapping, gap identification, alternative generation, Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM) simulation, evaluation, and decision-making to demonstrates applicability of the proposed framework through a case study of the Nihonbashi district in Tokyo. The approach revealed that Energy Use Intensity (EUI) can be decreased by 99 kWh/m²/y through reconstruction and operational improvements. Emerging photovoltaic technologies can further cut EUI by an average of 42.5 kWh/m²/y, although results vary significantly in respect to building characteristics, particularly geometry and floor area. The incremental, cyclical systems architecting approach revealed that a 97% reduction in carbon emissions could be achieved by the seventh cycle through stakeholder-centric system interventions. This paper contributes to the development of urban digital twin methodologies by integrating systems architecting concepts with UBEM as transformative tools for carbon neutral urban design and development.

To tackle climate challenges, communities need to harvest renewable energy and resources on site locally to close the loops for enhancing the resilience of communities facing unpredictable and uncertain future changes. A decentralization planning of urban renewable energy systems is proposed by treating urban waste streams and producing biomass through applying algal biotechnology. When applying algal technology as a renewable and decentralized energy source in urban systems, the overall performance can vary by levels of urban nutrients, solar and CO₂ resources, and the transportation cost when considering its application to different urban densities, urban form, and the spatial scale of urban settings. This research explores three potential impacts on the algal system’s energy performance: (1) urban density, (2) urban form in different contexts, and (3) spatial scale. The research examines the impacts by testing urban settings given in actual contexts in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Four neighborhoods representing the high-density urban, mid-density urban, mixed suburban, and typical suburban areas are investigated. The density-scale–performance relationships are explored through testing different urban forms of neighborhoods in both hypothetical and actual neighborhood settings. A GIS-based model is developed to estimate the overall energy performance of the decentralized renewable energy system in urban environments. Results show that the energy performance is positive mainly for high-density urban neighborhoods with small-to-medium scales, up to 0.36 MJ per ton of municipal solid wastes for actual settings and 0.37 MJ for hypothetical cases. Neighborhoods with higher density have higher energy performance while up scaling has negative effects on the energy performance with a low degree of significance. Optimal scales are found as a 1-km radius in real test beds and 1.3 km in hypothetical settings, in which the results show trade-offs between scaling effects in the system efficiency gain and the transportation cost increase.