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With the rapid development of urbanization, China is facing many challenges on environmental problems, such as air pollution, water deterioration and urban heat island effect. To cope with the urban ecological crisis, China has paid more attention to eco-city construction. This chapter traces the origin of eco-city concept at the first part, and then reviews the development of eco-cities in China, in which several typical eco-cities have been taken as case studies to illustrate the practices of eco-city construction. The results showed that there are three periods of eco-city practice development in China: eco-cities (1990s), low-carbon cities (2000s) and smart-eco cities (2010s). In the period of eco-cities, the focus was paid on ecological and environmental issues, and the concept of “harmony between humans and nature” was widely applied to guide eco-city construction. In the period of low-carbon cities, attention was paid to cutting greenhouse gas emissions amid the severe domestic environmental situation and international societal pressure. In the new trend of smart-eco city construction, great importance has been attached to the city with green and ecological concepts, Chinese trying to combine the eco-cities with smart technologies. It is worth noting that the eco-city construction in China has always led by the central government and acted as a top-down approach, which also caused some problems among the practices.
Zhi Cai; Yan Tang. Toward a Sustainable City: A Scoping Review of Eco-Cities Development and Practices in China. Developing Sustainability Competences Through Pedagogical Approaches 2021, 179 -199.
AMA StyleZhi Cai, Yan Tang. Toward a Sustainable City: A Scoping Review of Eco-Cities Development and Practices in China. Developing Sustainability Competences Through Pedagogical Approaches. 2021; ():179-199.
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhi Cai; Yan Tang. 2021. "Toward a Sustainable City: A Scoping Review of Eco-Cities Development and Practices in China." Developing Sustainability Competences Through Pedagogical Approaches , no. : 179-199.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in early 2020 reduced human outdoor activities and changed the spatial-temporal distribution of the population. To find its changes on the impact of urban thermal environment, we applied Pearson correlation analysis and OLS linear regression model from the perspective of urban land use and the local climate zone (LCZ) scheme, and selected Wuhan City in China as a case study. The results showed that the population size decreased in most urban land use and LCZ classes due to the Spring Festival and epidemic effects, which caused residents to leave Wuhan City. As a result, the normalized surface urban heat island changes (SUHInc) decreased by 9.41% at the city level, and a larger SUHInc occurred in commercial and industrial land. Among the LCZ classes, the built-up classes also tended to have a larger SUHInc than the natural land cover classes. However, the population size and human outdoor activity changes did not modify the spatial distribution of the urban thermal environment, because the same trends were observed for various urban land use and LCZ classes, which illustrated that the contribution of anthropogenic heat discharge on the urban thermal environment is relatively weaker. The above findings imply that it is necessary to apply different methods for various urban land uses and alleviate urban heat island.
Zhi Cai; Yan Tang; Qingming Zhan. A cooled city? Comparing human activity changes on the impact of urban thermal environment before and after city-wide lockdown. Building and Environment 2021, 195, 107729 .
AMA StyleZhi Cai, Yan Tang, Qingming Zhan. A cooled city? Comparing human activity changes on the impact of urban thermal environment before and after city-wide lockdown. Building and Environment. 2021; 195 ():107729.
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhi Cai; Yan Tang; Qingming Zhan. 2021. "A cooled city? Comparing human activity changes on the impact of urban thermal environment before and after city-wide lockdown." Building and Environment 195, no. : 107729.
Frequent and extreme heat waves have strongly influenced the sustainable development of cities and resulted in a higher level of mortality in residents. Using the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification scheme, combined with the factors of land surface temperature (LST), building age (BA), and housing price (HP), and the normalized values of which represent heat exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability, respectively, this paper investigates a practical method for assessing the heat vulnerability of different LCZ classes in the old areas of a Chinese megacity, taking the Yuzhong district of Chongqing city as a case study. The results reveal that the distribution of LCZ classes in this study area exhibits a typical circle-layer distribution pattern from the city center to the suburbs. Heavy industry areas are the most vulnerable, with the highest exposure to heat waves, the oldest building age and the lowest housing price. Compact class areas (compact high-rise, compact mid-rise and compact low-rise) are usually more vulnerable than open class areas (open high-rise, open mid-rise, and open low-rise) and low-rise buildings are always more susceptible to heat waves than mid-rise and high-rise buildings. The methods and findings can help us to better understand the comprehensive and space–time action rules of heat vulnerability, thereby inspiring scientific and rational urban planning strategies to mitigate or adapt to urban heat weaves towards the sustainable development of cities and society.
Zhi Cai; Yan Tang; Kai Chen; Guifeng Han. Assessing the Heat Vulnerability of Different Local Climate Zones in the Old Areas of a Chinese Megacity. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2032 .
AMA StyleZhi Cai, Yan Tang, Kai Chen, Guifeng Han. Assessing the Heat Vulnerability of Different Local Climate Zones in the Old Areas of a Chinese Megacity. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (7):2032.
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhi Cai; Yan Tang; Kai Chen; Guifeng Han. 2019. "Assessing the Heat Vulnerability of Different Local Climate Zones in the Old Areas of a Chinese Megacity." Sustainability 11, no. 7: 2032.
Urban design has the potential of bridging the gap between large-scale spatial planning and site planning for developments, and is much needed in constructing China's new public realm. Tsinghua University established an innovative urban design studio in 2009 that has tackled large-scale urbanisation opportunities, and served as a window for exploring new approaches to urban design education. It has responded not only to the vast socio-economic transformation of China, the massive expansion of city regions, but also to the more recent slowing down of the economy and the resulting deceleration of urbanisation. The studio has been led jointly by Tsinghua faculty and visiting faculty from other countries. This paper chronicles the 7 years of innovation in Tsinghua's studio that embraces eight city regions. Mirroring the urbanisation trends, the design projects have evolved from large-scale city structuring exercises to smaller-scale surgical insertions of development into the framework of older city districts. Examples of the results are shown. The paper also reflects on the efforts to bridge the diverging educational paths of architectural design and urban planning, and the possibilities for collaboration. It concludes that three-dimensional structure planning of the critical framework for urban development and change offers a focus for combining the skills of both sets of professionals.
Yan Tang; Gary Hack. Transforming urban design education at Tsinghua University. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning 2017, 170, 107 -120.
AMA StyleYan Tang, Gary Hack. Transforming urban design education at Tsinghua University. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning. 2017; 170 (3):107-120.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYan Tang; Gary Hack. 2017. "Transforming urban design education at Tsinghua University." Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning 170, no. 3: 107-120.