A review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal

doi:10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.08.006

Habitat International

Volume 41, January 2014, Pages 272-279

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.08.006 Get rights and content

Highlights

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The paper reviews literature on sustainable urban renewal.
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Relevant papers were analyzed statistically.
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The article specified two sub-systems (planning and social) in urban renewal.
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The paper provides a road map for research in sustainable urban renewal.
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Research gaps and new trends are highlighted.

Abstract

Urban renewal and sustainable development are two popular issues in both policy agenda and academia. Although their importance has been increasingly recognized, an integrated review covering sustainability, planning, and urban renewal has yet to be produced. Based on 81 journal papers, this paper presents a critical review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal over the period 1990–2012. The review focuses on the planning sub-system and the social sub-system of urban renewal in terms of the evaluation of sustainability. The complexity of achieving sustainable urban renewal is emphasized and discussed. To better clarify the mechanism behind the urban renewal process and improve urban sustainability, recommendations of future research directions are also provided.

Introduction

Urban renewal has been regarded as a sound approach to promoting land values and improving environmental quality (Adams & Hastings, 2001); rectifying the urban decay problem and meeting various socioeconomic objectives (Lee & Chan, 2008a); and enhancing existing social networks, improving inclusion of vulnerable groups, and changing adverse impacts on the living environment (Chan & Yung, 2004). In order to help tackle these issues, many studies have been conducted in this field. As sustainable development corresponds to urban renewal in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability, it has been recognized that urban renewal and sustainability should be combined together. The urban renewal process involves various planning issues and different stakeholders, the relationship between which complicates the process. In order to achieve effective and efficient sustainable urban renewal practice, it is first necessary to understand the mechanism behind it. Discussions by other researchers on these issues are scattered in different areas with an integrated review covering sustainability, planning, and urban renewal yet to be produced.

This paper therefore presents a critical review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal. It starts with the background of sustainable urban renewal, followed by the research methodology and an overall picture of the research progress. Selected papers are then discussed from three aspects, namely planning sub-system in sustainable urban renewal, stakeholders and their engagement, and evaluation of sustainable urban renewal. Finally, the discussion section includes a summary of the findings from this study and recommendations for future related research.

Section snippets

Background of sustainable urban renewal

Urban renewal has become a major element of urban policy in many countries and regions. Couch (1990) gave two reasons for its growing importance. Firstly, people increasingly moving to and living in urban areas, in particular old urban areas, give rise to the need for renewal of the urban fabric. Secondly, urban renewal responds to the concern of urban sprawl and large quantities of abandoned urban areas. Nowadays, it is closely involved with sustainable development.

Paper retrieval

Urban renewal, urban regeneration, urban redevelopment, and urban rehabilitation share similar meanings, but are used in different countries or regions. Therefore, the key words used in the literature search were urban renewal, urban regeneration, urban redevelopment, urban rehabilitation, sustainable development and sustainability. The search rule used was (“urban renewal” OR “urban regeneration” OR “urban redevelopment” OR “urban rehabilitation”) AND (“sustainable development” OR “

Review of studies on sustainable urban renewal

“Considering the city a spatial-constructional and social system, we may outline two large sub-systems: town planning and social sub-system. While the town-planning sub-system includes all material elements of a city, including environmental factors that form the territorial structure, the social sub-system consists of the number of inhabitants as beneficiaries of the whole system.” (Ristea, Ioan-Franc, Stegaroiu, & Croitoru, 2010: 103). The above statement shows that in order to achieve

Discussion

The above review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal provides insights into the complexity of urban renewal. Fig. 4 shows this complexity along with the path for realizing sustainable urban renewal. There are planning sub-system and social sub-system involved in the urban renewal process. These planning issues and relating stakeholders closely interact with each other. Only by scrutinizing the complexity of this interaction, as well as evaluating the past, present and future

Conclusions

This paper reviews popular research issues in relation to sustainable urban renewal. The 81 selected papers were discussed from the aspects of the planning sub-system in sustainable urban renewal, the social sub-system in urban renewal, and evaluation of sustainable urban renewal in terms of the two sub-systems. Although a growing body of research covers the areas mentioned above, the mechanism for achieving sustainable urban renewal has yet to be clarified. The discussion part of the paper

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to the Department of Building and Real Estate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for the funding support to the research projects on which this paper is based, and to Dr. Martyn James Hills and Dr. Paul Fox for their kind help in proofreading the early version of this manuscript.

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View full text

A review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Background of sustainable urban renewal

Paper retrieval

Review of studies on sustainable urban renewal

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgment

Habitat International

Land Use Policy

Cities

Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions

Habitat International

Cities

Progress in Planning

Energy Policy

Cities

Habitat International

Progress in Planning

Landscape and Urban Planning

Journal of Environmental Management

Brownfield residential development: what happens to the most deprived neighbourhoods in England?

Urban Studies

Leadership challenges in the inner city: planning for sustainable regeneration in Birmingham and Barcelona

Policy Studies

Is the ‘new deal for communities’ a new deal for equality? Getting women on board in neighbourhood governance

Urban Studies

Micro-comprehensive planning in Baltic sea urban local areas

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability

Government-nonprofit partnership: a defining framework

Public Administration and Development

City centre regeneration through residential development: contributing to sustainability

Urban Studies

Social infrastructure and sustainable urban communities

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability

Governance and ‘integrated’ planning: the case of sustainable communities in the Thames Gateway, England

Urban Studies

Balancing product and process sustainability against business profitability: sustainability as a competitive strategy in the property development process

Business Strategy and the Environment

Identifying stakeholders' views on sustainable urban transition: desirability, utility and probability assessments of scenarios

European Planning Studies

Green hubs, social inclusion and community engagement

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Municipal Engineer

Securing land for urban transformation through sustainable brownfield regeneration – the case of Eskisehir, Turkey

Environment and Urbanization

Testing energy efficiency in urban regeneration

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering Sustainability

Contribution of urban design to economic sustainability of urban renewal projects in Hong Kong

Sustainable Development

Critical factors for improving social sustainability of urban renewal projects

Social Indicators Research

Regeneration model of Taiwan old urban centers – a research framework of a performance evaluation system for a livable urban district

Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering

How to reach the ‘hard-to-reach’: the development of participatory geographic information systems (P-GIS) for inclusive urban design in UK cities

Area

The role of micro-climates in urban regeneration planning

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Municipal Engineer