Planning and Construction of Low Carbon Cities:The Relevance of Cost-Benefit Analysis

Cities are the major source of carbon dioxide emissions in China,and are the critical locations where emissions should be effectively managed.Adopting a low carbon urban development model is the pathway towards reducing the emissions.A low carbon city development model means achieving efficient and effective urban growth through low energy consumption and low emissions.While many local authorities in China have started to express the intention to construct low carbon cities,it is important to emphasize the need to apply a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to low carbon urban policies and development projects.Since all policies and projects will have their costs and benefits to the society,the effects of the policies and projects on reducing emissions should be measured and assessed objectively.Through the setting up of an analysis framework to assess the costs and benefits,one can provide a scientific basis for decision making,and enhance the overall efficiency in the use of resources for the society as a whole.     

Trefftz直接法和相关的问题

This paper attempts to further extend the so-called Trefftz direct method(TDM), which has been developed and applied to a wide variety of boundary value problems in recent years. In this approach, the complete system of solutions of the partial differential equations is used as weighting functions and a non-singular boundary integral equation is used as the starting formulation. Several relative problems are discussed here. They are the problems of necessary and sufficient conditions for Trefftz-type boundary integral equations: the relationship between the Trefftz method and the variational principle and the infrequently encountered but possible singular problems in the Trefftz method and the treatment in practice. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the computational efficiency of the approach and to demonstrate its advantages.     

Historicity： Preservation or Revitalization Planning Tools？

The historic centres revitalization addresses the challenges related to the preservation of fundamental heritage values. At a time, when everyone looks with concern to our cities＇ future, it is important to reflect on the received heritage, seeking the most appropriate answers to the planning of the historic centres. These fabrics are reference places in the urban space, due to their role of memorial testimony and of generators of cultural and economic dynamics. However, often times, inherited urban fabrics are affected by the limitations of the heritage policies which, for being too general and based on theoretical and abstract frameworks, have difficulty incorporating the characteristics of each area and neglect the formulation of specific criteria and intervention methods. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative reading of the levels of urban renewal allowed by the planning tools. This study chooses two historic centers in Portugal： Oporto and Guimarfies historic centres （World Heritage Sites since 1996 and 2001, respectively, and were the last to get this classification in Portugal）. This reflection is a contribution to peer trends and raise the discussion on the role that the different heritage policies have to the revitalization of the historic centres.     

Redlining in Residential Mortgages in Johannesburg,South Africa

The aim of the research in the paper was to study redlining practice within the greater Johannesburg area. The aim can be summarised by the following objectives： firstly, to investigate the evidence of redlining in the Greater Johannesburg area and to test its existence; secondly, to investigate the reasons why the areas were redlined; thirdly, to understand what the South Africa government and society did to combat the redlining practice. The research methodology was based on a questionnaire and interviews. A pool of respondents from the Greater Johannesburg suburbs that had interest or were affected by the practice of redlining was sought and interviewed. Analysis of the responses was made and conclusions were drawn from the responses. Secondary data was also sought from publications on the redlining practice to support the primary interviews data. From the interview responses and the secondary data, it was established that redlining existed in Greater Johannesburg and that the areas where redlining was practised could be marked on a map.     

“当前现有的全球化”所造成的危害

The ‘really existing globalization‘, which is used to refer to the type of globalization we see today, is viewed by the author to pose great dangers to life in cities by increasing poverty and gap between the rich and the poor,handicapping developing cities through specialization of functions, advocating marketization of housing and privatization of public services which are harmful to the urban poor, prioritizing profit instead of quality in environmental management and magnifying the danger of terrorism to cities. However, this is not the only form of globalization possible.     

Response of Urban Planning to Climate Change in Rapidly Urbanizing Area: A Case Study of Nanjing

Global climate change is the greatest challenge for the survival of civilization in human history, to which a lot of countries all over the world have taken measures including the administrative and technical approaches in the field of urban planning. However, those approaches are mainly in line with the traditional urban planning principles and methodologies, with weak guidance to practice. Especially for the areas which are undergoing rapid urbanization, it is urgent to work on the critical problem of how to draw up city and regional plans to deal with the challenge of climate change by innovating the existing urban planning principles and methodologies. Taking Nanjing as example, this paper firstly puts forward the strategic principles to deal with the climate change in city master planning, including controlling urbanization speed and restricting disordered urban sprawl, balancing ecological system, protecting green spaces and ecologically fragile areas, enhancing the resilient ability to natural disasters and protecting urban security, and promoting sustainable development, etc., then presents the sustainable and flexible urban planning methods including adaptability assessment on spatial development, identification and delimitation of important ecological protection zones, risk assessment and early warning of disasters, clean pro- duction and energy-saving approaches, etc. It further explores some measures to addressing the issue of climate change that are applied in the new City Master Plan of Nanjing, including ① controlling the sprawl of construction land and protecting the ecological carbon sink spaces in order to weaken the impacts of climate change; ② guaranteeing the safety of ecological pattern and maintaining the balance of the urban eco-system in order to ensure the stability of local micro-climate and livable environment; ③ strengthening the regional flood-prevention in order to weaken the threat of natural disasters caused by climate change; ④ giving priority to public transportation and reducing carbon emissions in order to reduce the impacts of urban activities on the atmosphere.     

有利于城市贫民的城市发展和住房战略

The purpose of the present theme paper is to consider how approaches to urban development have evolved over time, and most recently with the advent of the above-mentioned international concern for urban poverty reduction.Specifically, how local actors, including governments at all levels, non-governmental organizations, professionals and people living and working in slums, have attempted to improve cities and urban centres in ways that are favourable to the urban poor. For ease of analysis, the paper considers two elements of urban development-urban management and shelter strategies. Chapter one begins with a review of the evolution of urban planning and management approaches, from master plans to pro-poor urban governance. Chapter two examines the evolution of shelter strategies, from direct government supply to an emphasis on security of tenure for the poor.Some of the key lessons learned from both approaches are summarized in chapter three. Examples of current innovations in approaches to urban poverty reduction are described in chapter four, looking at contributions at the local, national and international levels.     

Challenges of Structure in Today＇s Architectural,Economic and Social Context

The recent establishment of a digital culture and society, together with current financial crisis and urgent energetic and climatic needs, has radically changed the architectural scene from the optimism of some years ago to a situation of uncertainty and huge social demands and challenges. In this context, it is suggested to rethink the role of structure in architecture, such as an enabler, a guide and a catalyst. The purpose of this paper is to present the economic, cultural and social context in which architecture develops nowadays. The method, to suggest a discussion on which role the structure may adopt in the architecture to come. The achievement, to highlight its potential to face current requirements and challenges.     

Geo-technical Instrumentation And Monitoring For Tuen Mun Station,West Railway,Hong Kong

Geo-technical instrumentation and monitoring is very important for the construction of civil works in urban area, by which the affect or even damage to the existing building and underground utilities in the working site or vicinity caused by construction activities can be predicted. During the construction of Tuen Mun station, West Railway, Hong Kong, series of Geo-technical instruments were installed and monitored in time, and the monitoring datawere transferred to the Geo-technical Monitoring System in the headquarter of the Employer promptly. Meanwhile, the alarming data were responded immediately and the modified construction methods have been adopted to avoid the damage to the building and underground utility in working site to ensure the smooth construction of the station.     

A Brief Introduction to the Information System for the City Planning and Construction Management of Suzhou

This article—“The Research and Development of the Information System for City Planning and ConstructionManagement of Suzhou City”was written to expand the scope of research and to strengthen management and controlso as to provide a basis for policy-making,to bring both in-denth analysis and to combine qualitative and quantita-tive determination.The article introduces the basic structure and functions of the information system,including theinformation flow,division of sub-systems,hardware-model selection,the content of data base and their classifica-tion and coding,etc.The article also introduces the functions of treatment of graphic information,word numericalvalue information and its uniqueness in combining graphical and non-graphical information.This information sys-tem is comparatively low cost simple in operation,and there is a basic guarantee of source of information.A pre-limirary use of the system has proved its practivability,which forms the basic condition for the extended applicationof the system.