Sustainability 2016, 8(5), 459; doi:10.3390/su8050459
Author
1
Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1799 Jimei Road, Xiamen 361021, China
2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China
3
Key lab of Xiamen City metabolism, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1799 Jimei Road, Xiamen 361021, China
4
Ningbo Urban Environment Observation and Research Station-NUEORS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315800, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Vincenzo Torretta
Received: 6 March 2016 / Revised: 29 April 2016 / Accepted: 3 May 2016 / Published: 10 May 2016
Abstract
Anthropogenic activity interacts with urban form and inner metabolic processes, ultimately impacting urban sustainability. China’s cities have experienced many environmental issues and metabolic disturbances since the nation-wide market-oriented “reform and opening-up” policy was adopted in the 1980s. To analyze urban reform policy impacts and metabolism sustainability at a settlement scale, this study provides an integrated analysis to evaluate settlement metabolism and sustainability using a combination of emergy analysis and sustainability indicators based on scrutiny of two typical settlements (one pre- and one post-reform). The results reveal that housing reform policy stimulated better planning and construction, thereby improving built environmental quality, mixed functional land use, and residential livability. The pre-reform work-unit settlements are comparatively denser in per capita area but have less mixed land use. Housing reform has spatially changed the work–housing balance and increased commuting travel demand. However, short commuting distances in pre-reform settlements will not always decrease overall motor vehicle usage. Integrating non-commuting transport with local mixed land-use functional planning is a necessary foundation for sustainable urban design. Functional planning should provide convenient facilities and infrastructure, green space, and a suitable household density, and allow for short travel distances; these characteristics are all present in the post-reform settlement. View Full-Text
Keywords: urban metabolism; settlement-level planning; emergy; housing reform; sustainability indicators
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