Assessment Tools have become the de facto method to address sustainability issues within the built environment. They provide a measurable third-party approach to ensuring sustainability design and directives are met through the use of indictors, criteria’s and credit system. A key challenge is that the existing tools such as BREEAM Communities and LEED Neighbourhood Development address a wider community but cannot efficiently address the more nuanced and context specific sustainability requirements of campuses. However, the approach of utilizing credits, indicator and criteria systems is a tactic that campus planners have slowly began to imbibe. This is even more critical to sustainable development cities due to the huge amounts of land and human resources consumed on campuses; However, gaps exist within the currently existing Campus Sustainability Assessment Tools (CSAT) that have been developed. Generally. Though studies have identified trends and gaps in neighbourhood and building assessment tools, no comprehensive study has investigated the potential gaps from the newly emerging CSATs. Using bibliometric analysis, this study reviews over 1000 articles on campus sustainability and assessment tools with the aim of determining the gaps, trends and focus area of campus sustainability via CSAT. The result draw out 15 dimensions that govern the design of sustainable campuses, and the most predominant dimensions were environmental, educational and governance dimension. The results also highlight the importance of context in implementing and developing CSATs and showed numerous overlooked campus sustainability issues, which have considerable impact on the determining the claims that makes campuses sustainable. Finally, results demonstrated a need to enhance inclusivity in decision making on campus via different survey techniques in both education and implementation of campus sustainability initiatives. In sum this study enhances the development of new CSAT and campus sustainability initiative and the modification existing initiatives to effectively meet the required sustainability standards within the built environment.

The current global food system is under threat due to significant global changes such as rapid urbanization, climate change, COVID-19 outbreak, etc. The importance of food system sustainability as a key element of sustainable cities has been gradually recognized in recent years; however, the tools for estimating food system sustainability in cities (i.e., urban food system sustainability) holistically are still scarce. Thus, this study represents a comprehensive investigation into food system studies and their impacts on achieving a sustainable community or city. This study is a subset of larger studies that aim to develop an urban food system framework, which utilizes modern approaches in framework development such as sustainability food indicators and a participatory approach. However, to achieve this, trends, gaps, and challenges of the current approach to food system studies need to be reviewed and discussed. A systematic analysis utilizing the protocol of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach was conducted, and network analysis of publications was performed via VOS viewer. The results suggest applying circular principles and merging smartness and resilience thinking in developing strategies for food system sustainability. This study finds that key drivers to mitigate food crisis among countries vary. Furthermore, a context-specific framework with a more comprehensive definition of urban food systems covering the institutional processes, and food governance are also needed to achieve urban food system sustainability.

Climate change presents one of the most significant challenges facing the world in the 21st century. In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to pass laws to end its contribution to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; parliament passed legislation requiring the UK government to achieve its carbon neutrality commitment by 2050. This will require all industries, including the housing sector, which currently contributes around 14% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, to reduce their carbon emission contribution. One of the ways in which the housing sector plans to accomplish this is through delivering new zero carbon ready homes by 2050, at the latest. This study makes an innovative contribution to advancing the field of carbon neutral construction through its identification of the barriers to the UK in regards to their ability to deliver zero carbon homes (ZCH) and the provision of potential recommendations to overcome these barriers. To achieve this, a mixed-review method is used, combining a qualitative systematic analysis and a quantitative bibliometric approach. Several key barriers were identified and assigned to following key themes: legislative, socio-cultural, economic, financial, skills and knowledge, technical, industrial, environmental, and procurement factors. Legislative obstacles were found to be a primary barrier due to a lack of certainty, clarity, and clear definitions, as well as the removal and excess of government policies. Significantly, the findings reveal the under-researched impact of recent disruptive events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and economic factors in the UK, opening up novel avenues for exploring their implications. Overall, this study advances industry understanding and highlights innovative directions necessary to propel the sector towards realizing the UK’s legally-binding 2050 net zero target through the development of zero carbon ready homes.

This chapter provides an overview of neighborhood sustainability assessment tools (NSATs). NSATs evolved from environmental building assessment tools. These tools were established on the environmental motivations highlighted in the Brundtland Report. They were initially focused on buildings with tools such as the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method and New Construction and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. In general, NSATs focus on the sustainable urban development of districts, communities, and neighborhoods. NSATs have been one of the most important tools for gauging and assessing sustainability practices on the urban scale. The operating mechanism of NSATs hinges on sustainability indicators (SIs). Utilizing SIs leads to more accurate decisions and more effective actions by simplifying, clarifying, and making aggregated information available to stakeholders and local authorities. The chapter focuses on a case study which utilizes eight NSATs with a specific emphasis on or selection of Asian-based NSATs and their associated headline sustainability indicator.

A smart city collects data utilizing various electronic methods and sensors to create an urban area that would fundamentally alter the way people live, work, and relate to one another. Smart city operations are optimized by the integration of multiple technologies, thus encouraging information and communication sharing across the smart city government. The rapid popularization of the concept of “Smart City” in recent years has a close relationship with China’s advancement of urbanization. A smart city is constructed in four layers: the sensor layer, network layer, platform layer, and application layer. The development of smart cities helps promote the coordinated and sustainable development of urban economy, society and environment, and resources. It also improves the quality of urbanization. Smart cities are also centered on a green output, a low-carbon emission, and integration with the circular economy that encourages reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials.

This chapter points out the need for a plan on biodiversity and ecological habitat to maintain forest cities. Generally, a forest city is an urban complex ecosystem dominated by forest vegetation, which enables the forests to be used for their multi-functions and multi-effectiveness. As of 2004, there were three forest cities in China: Changchun in Jilin Province, Fuxin in Liaoning Province, and Loudi in Hunan Province. The first demonstration of forest city construction was at Changchun, and it began in 1988. By late 2019, China had thus far approved 192 national forest cities, distributed among 26 provinces. The mode of operation of forest cities as relates to sustainability is in the form of green infrastructure and green spaces. An efficient way to view the significance and benefits of forest cities is through the lens of green infrastructure. In 1990, the Japanese government proposed the concept of the “forest city”.