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To begin with, cities are treated as the symbol of civilization and the producer of environmental burdens. The controversy over the views on cities has been a problem for a long time: Are cities a symbol of civilization or a burden on the global environment? Before we start to investigate this, we need to clarify what a city is. However, there are many definitions of a city in different academic fields such as remote sensing science, sociology, and economics. Next, it is also a crucial issue how we should define and capture cities and their spatial boundaries. One of the methods of specifying the boundaries of cities is provided, and 18 megacities in the world are specified. Finally, it is significant to consider that cities cannot become independent of other areas. Cities are essentially unsustainable. Considering the impact of human activities in megacities on the global environment, we need to consider three issues: our tendency to put too much weight on socioeconomic prosperity, lack of long-term vision, and externality and resilience. Relevant holistic views need to be appropriately developed.
Shin Muramatsu; Koichiro Mori. Megacities as a Global Center of Sustainability Issues: Overview of the Book. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus 2021, 1 -13.
AMA StyleShin Muramatsu, Koichiro Mori. Megacities as a Global Center of Sustainability Issues: Overview of the Book. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus. 2021; ():1-13.
Chicago/Turabian StyleShin Muramatsu; Koichiro Mori. 2021. "Megacities as a Global Center of Sustainability Issues: Overview of the Book." The Water-Energy-Food Nexus , no. : 1-13.
We have developed a model of a City Sustainability Index (CSI) based on our original concept of city sustainability in which a sustainable city is defined as one that maximizes socioeconomic benefits while meeting constraint conditions of the environment and socioeconomic equity on a permanent basis. The CSI is based on constraint and maximization indicators. Constraint indicators assess whether a city meets the necessary minimum conditions for city sustainability. Maximization indicators measure the benefits that a city generates in socioeconomic aspects. When used in the policy-making process, the choice of constraint indicators should be implemented using a top-down approach. In contrast, a bottom-up approach is more suitable for defining maximization indicators because this technique involves multiple stakeholders in a transdisciplinary approach.
Koichiro Mori. The City Sustainability Index (CSI): How Should the Sustainability of Megacities Be Assessed? The Water-Energy-Food Nexus 2021, 163 -182.
AMA StyleKoichiro Mori. The City Sustainability Index (CSI): How Should the Sustainability of Megacities Be Assessed? The Water-Energy-Food Nexus. 2021; ():163-182.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKoichiro Mori. 2021. "The City Sustainability Index (CSI): How Should the Sustainability of Megacities Be Assessed?" The Water-Energy-Food Nexus , no. : 163-182.
This chapter argues that the challenges provided by global environmental change are posing various problems of social adjustment and economic transformation. This makes us consider scenarios in which new ideas are needed to develop policy solutions. We have currently been confronted with an apparently unresolved dilemma, economic growth with urbanization versus sustainability focusing on environmental conservation. In this respect, the focal issue is can cities of developing countries avoid imitating the urbanization paths of the developed world? Such paths seem to be little possibility of a solution for that dilemma. This article discusses three ideas that are central to policies for a globally responsible form of urbanization: (1) the centrality of the urbanization process; (2) building adaptable, resilient livable cities and urban regions; and (3) building new institutions of urban political and eco-governance. Following these contexts, I want to argue that this twentieth-century form of urbanization is no longer tenable in the face of environmental challenges. Priority should be given to creating a more sustainable form of urbanization. Sustainability is a new form of growth. In doing so, we need to appropriately understand the relationship between urbanization process and environmental change. Finally, I want to insist on the need to develop new effective institutions and management systems to guide and implement the creation of resilient low-carbon cities and urban regions. The merging of government and governance is crucial in the formation of effective policies that create a common vision for the promotion of economic growth, ecological sustainability, and social inclusion in addition to policies to cope with low-carbon transition.
Terry G. McGee; Koichiro Mori. The Management of Urbanization, Development, and Environmental Change in the Megacities of Asia in the Twenty-First Century. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus 2021, 17 -33.
AMA StyleTerry G. McGee, Koichiro Mori. The Management of Urbanization, Development, and Environmental Change in the Megacities of Asia in the Twenty-First Century. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus. 2021; ():17-33.
Chicago/Turabian StyleTerry G. McGee; Koichiro Mori. 2021. "The Management of Urbanization, Development, and Environmental Change in the Megacities of Asia in the Twenty-First Century." The Water-Energy-Food Nexus , no. : 17-33.
The purpose of this study is to identify factors that can change the environmental friendliness of individuals in the context of climate change issues in terms of values, beliefs, controllability, concern, attitude, intention, and behavior through a survey experiment, and to test the hypothesis that providing information about the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions attributable to an individual with its threshold value motivates him/her to reduce that amount using statistical analyses (the Mann–Whitney test) and multivariate regressions (the ordered logit model). It is crucial to change the behavior of individuals as well as organizations to reduce the emissions of CO2 for solving climate change issues, because the aggregate amount of individual CO2 emissions is too large to ignore. We conducted a survey experiment to detect factors affecting the environmental friendliness of individuals. Subjects of the experiment were 102 students at Shiga University in Japan. They were randomly provided with communication opportunities, information about individual or group CO2 emissions, and information about their threshold value. The finding is that provision of information about the amount of individual and group CO2 emissions may be able to improve that person’s environmental friendliness in terms of values, beliefs, concern, attitude, intention, and behavior.
Hideki Yamashita; Shinsuke Kyoi; Koichiro Mori. Does Information about Personal Emissions of Carbon Dioxide Improve Individual Environmental Friendliness? A Survey Experiment. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2284 .
AMA StyleHideki Yamashita, Shinsuke Kyoi, Koichiro Mori. Does Information about Personal Emissions of Carbon Dioxide Improve Individual Environmental Friendliness? A Survey Experiment. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (4):2284.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHideki Yamashita; Shinsuke Kyoi; Koichiro Mori. 2021. "Does Information about Personal Emissions of Carbon Dioxide Improve Individual Environmental Friendliness? A Survey Experiment." Sustainability 13, no. 4: 2284.
This study developed a sustainability education program that incorporated the concept of city sustainability, delivered it to local university students in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (Jabodetabek), Indonesia, and then evaluated its effectiveness using questionnaire surveys. The educational materials consisted of a case story and scenario analysis report relating to city sustainability. The case story was a fictional narrative describing sustainability issues in Jabodetabek, in which the protagonist is the head of the local urban planning bureau. The scenario analysis provided three hypothetical scenarios regarding land-use patterns with predicted values of sustainability indicators in 2050. In January 2016, 46 students from Bogor Agricultural University participated in three workshops. Participants completed questionnaire surveys before and after the workshops. The results from the ordered probit models that were based on participants’ responses to 68 items of sustainability-related attitudes and perspectives showed that their participation in the workshops enhanced participants’ environmental concerns and their intention to take pro-sustainability actions. In addition, the participants tended to have a more balanced view on sustainability issues across economic, social, and environmental dimensions. This suggested that the sustainability education program focusing on city sustainability successfully enhanced the motivation of learners to contribute toward a more sustainable future.
Akito Kinoshita; Koichiro Mori; Ernan Rustiadi; Shin Muramatsu; Hironori Kato. Effectiveness of Incorporating the Concept of City Sustainability into Sustainability Education Programs. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4736 .
AMA StyleAkito Kinoshita, Koichiro Mori, Ernan Rustiadi, Shin Muramatsu, Hironori Kato. Effectiveness of Incorporating the Concept of City Sustainability into Sustainability Education Programs. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (17):4736.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAkito Kinoshita; Koichiro Mori; Ernan Rustiadi; Shin Muramatsu; Hironori Kato. 2019. "Effectiveness of Incorporating the Concept of City Sustainability into Sustainability Education Programs." Sustainability 11, no. 17: 4736.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how different definitions and methods for delineating the spatial boundaries of cities have an impact on the values of city sustainability indicators. It is necessary to distinguish the inside of cities from the outside when calculating the values of sustainability indicators that assess the impacts of human activities within cities on areas beyond their boundaries. For this purpose, spatial boundaries of cities should be practically detected on the basis of a relevant definition of a city. Although no definition of a city is commonly shared among academic fields, three practical methods for identifying urban areas are available in remote sensing science. Those practical methods are based on population density, landcover, and night-time lights. These methods are correlated, but non-negligible differences exist in their determination of urban extents and urban population. Furthermore, critical and statistically significant differences in some urban environmental sustainability indicators result from the three different urban detection methods. For example, the average values of CO emissions per capita and PM concentration in cities with more than 1 million residents are significantly different among the definitions. When analyzing city sustainability indicators and disseminating the implication of the results, the values based on the different definitions should be simultaneously investigated. It is necessary to carefully choose a relevant definition to analyze sustainability indicators for policy making. Otherwise, ineffective and inefficient policies will be developed.
Yuta Uchiyama; Koichiro Mori. Methods for specifying spatial boundaries of cities in the world: The impacts of delineation methods on city sustainability indices. Science of The Total Environment 2017, 592, 345 -356.
AMA StyleYuta Uchiyama, Koichiro Mori. Methods for specifying spatial boundaries of cities in the world: The impacts of delineation methods on city sustainability indices. Science of The Total Environment. 2017; 592 ():345-356.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYuta Uchiyama; Koichiro Mori. 2017. "Methods for specifying spatial boundaries of cities in the world: The impacts of delineation methods on city sustainability indices." Science of The Total Environment 592, no. : 345-356.
We have developed a visualized 3-D model of a City Sustainability Index (CSI) based on our original concept of city sustainability in which a sustainable city is defined as one that maximizes socio-economic benefits while meeting constraint conditions of the environment and socio-economic equity on a permanent basis. The CSI is based on constraint and maximization indicators. Constraint indicators assess whether a city meets the necessary minimum conditions for city sustainability. Maximization indicators measure the benefits that a city generates in socio-economic aspects. When used in the policy-making process, the choice of constraint indicators should be implemented using a top-down approach. In contrast, a bottom-up approach is more suitable for defining maximization indicators because this technique involves multiple stakeholders (in a transdisciplinary approach). Using different materials of various colors, shapes, sizes, we designed and constructed the visualized physical model of the CSI to help people evaluate and compare the performance of different cities in terms of sustainability. The visualized model of the CSI can convey complicated information in a simple and straightforward manner to diverse stakeholders so that the sustainability analysis can be understood intuitively by ordinary citizens as well as experts. Thus, the CSI model helps stakeholders to develop critical thinking about city sustainability and enables policymakers to make informed decisions for sustainability through a transdisciplinary approach.
Koichiro Mori; Toyonobu Fujii; Tsuguta Yamashita; Yutaka Mimura; Yuta Uchiyama; Kengo Hayashi. Visualization of a City Sustainability Index (CSI): Towards Transdisciplinary Approaches Involving Multiple Stakeholders. Sustainability 2015, 7, 12402 -12424.
AMA StyleKoichiro Mori, Toyonobu Fujii, Tsuguta Yamashita, Yutaka Mimura, Yuta Uchiyama, Kengo Hayashi. Visualization of a City Sustainability Index (CSI): Towards Transdisciplinary Approaches Involving Multiple Stakeholders. Sustainability. 2015; 7 (9):12402-12424.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKoichiro Mori; Toyonobu Fujii; Tsuguta Yamashita; Yutaka Mimura; Yuta Uchiyama; Kengo Hayashi. 2015. "Visualization of a City Sustainability Index (CSI): Towards Transdisciplinary Approaches Involving Multiple Stakeholders." Sustainability 7, no. 9: 12402-12424.
This paper presents a model of the problem on floodplain development, exploring the conditions that are both necessary and sufficient for development to be optimal. The model is calibrated for a particular catchment, the Ouse catchment in the United Kingdom, and is used both to estimate the expected impact of floodplain development and to explore the impact of alternative policy instruments. We find that the use of price-based instruments that signal the expected flood damage cost of floodplain development has the potential to lead to outcomes close to the social optimum. The finding is robust to two types of uncertainty: model error about the relation between precipitation and flood-risk and measurement error about the benefits of developed floodplains.
Koichiro Mori; Charles Perrings. Optimal management of the flood risks of floodplain development. Science of The Total Environment 2012, 431, 109 -121.
AMA StyleKoichiro Mori, Charles Perrings. Optimal management of the flood risks of floodplain development. Science of The Total Environment. 2012; 431 ():109-121.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKoichiro Mori; Charles Perrings. 2012. "Optimal management of the flood risks of floodplain development." Science of The Total Environment 431, no. : 109-121.