Journal: Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism
Overseas Chinese gardens: Localizing “harmony between humans and nature” across four case studies over 40 years (1980s–2020s)
This paper critically reviews the key essence of “human–nature relationships” underlying the adaptation of overseas Chinese gardens based comparative studies of four cases spanning 40 years. The findings reveal that the concept of “harmony” has been redefined with contextual factors and ideas on funding, public engagement and long-term operation. Such a redefinition positions the internationalization of Chinese gardens as a potentially valuable element in urban planning, contributing to sustainability, equity, and quality of life in contemporary society.
Journal: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society
Lock-in, a way to enable regional economic resilience? Insights from Baotou, China
By examining a case study of Baotou, China, this article demonstrates how lock-in performed an enabling role for regional economic resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and the silicon industrial path development. This research contributes to the existing literature by enlarging the understanding of lock-in by exploring its relation to regional economic resilience and identifying its enabling roles.
Journal: Land
Special Issue on Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Urban Planning, Design, and Management
The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted unprecedented disruption upon urban life worldwide. Measures such as lockdowns, social distancing, and restrictions on public spaces have not only altered people’s lifestyles but also placed immense pressure directly upon existing urban systems. This special issue, comprising thirteen papers, aims to explore the pandemic’s far-reaching implications for urban planning, design, and management. Its core themes encompass the following areas: healthy cities, sustainable cities, smart cities, and ecological cities; the sustainable development of urban environments; land, financialisation, and the distribution of spatial resources; pandemic-related spatial inequalities, gentrification, and segregation; housing for vulnerable groups and housing affordability; public spaces in the post-pandemic era; energy transition; large-scale projects; major events and event-driven urban development; and digitalisation.
Journal: urban development studies
Cross-Regional Enclave Cooperation from the Perspective of International Knowledge Transfer- Knowledge Transfer and Iteration of Suzhou Industrial Park from ‘Fly-in’ to ‘Fly-out’
The ‘enclave economy’ has become an important force for coordinated regional development. Although enclaves can be organised in a variety of ways, they are premised on complementary cooperation, and therefore effective and continuous knowledge transfer is the key. Proposing the endogenous link between the connotation of enclave economy and knowledge transfer theory, this paper develops a knowledge transfer framework for enclave economy. Taking Suzhou Industrial Park as a case study, given its unique dual roles of being both fly-in and fly-out, the knowledge transfer that occurred in these two collaborations has been interpreted and compared from four aspects, namely transfer context, entities’ characteristics, knowledge attributes and communication agent. It scrutinises and summarises the main influential factors for its transfer and iteration and paves a way towards efficient and sustainable development of the enclave economy from a few main aspects.
Journal: architectural journal
Synthesis and Evolution: Research on the Learning Space in Chinese Universities – A Case Study of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
This paper aims to explore how learning space can be designed to accommodate learning and teaching activities, to lead to teaching innovation, and even to facilitate education reforms and thereby foster a learning society. This paper analyzes the evolvement of learning spaces in universities and its relationship with higher education reforms. Taking Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University as an example, it also explores the multiple possibilities of learning space design in the new era based on environment-behavior principle. It concludes that the reform of learning space should always be considered from an integrated perspective in line with emerging pedagogies and technologies, and be designed to promote effective learning and cultivate learners’ overall competency.
Journal: water
Assessment on the effectiveness of urban stormwater management
Stormwater management is a key issue in line with global urbanisation and climate change. Effective assessment of stormwater management is crucial to urban resilience to flooding risk. In this study, a method based on a stormwater management model (SWMM) was developed for assessing the control of stormwater runoff volume and the percentage removal of suspended solids by implementing a Sponge City strategy. An interdisciplinary approach was adopted incorporating Low Impact Development (LID) with urban green infrastructure and grey infrastructure paradigms in a typical old residential community in Suzhou, China. Sponge facilities for reducing stormwater runoff included bio-retention cells, permeable pavements, grassed pitches, and stormwater gardens.
Journal: water
Fecal contamination and high nutrient levels pollute the watersheds of Wujiang, China
Freshwaters in China are affected by point and non-point sources of pollution. The Wujiang District (Suzhou City, China) has canals, rivers, and lakes that are currently facing various water quality issues. In this study, four rivers and a lake in Wujiang were assessed to quantify pollution and explore its causes. Seventy-five monthly samples were collected from these water bodies (five locations/samples per area) from August to October 2020 and were compared with nine control samples collected from a water protection area. Fifteen physicochemical, microbiological, and molecular–microbiological parameters were analysed, including nutrients, total and fecal coliforms, and fecal markers. Significant monthly variation was observed for most parameters at all areas.
Journal: sustainability
Investigating the relationship between public satisfaction and public environmental participation during government treatment of urban malodorous black river in China
During China’s rapid economic development and urbanisation, numerous cases of urban malodorous black river (MBR) have occurred. MBR refers to a polluted urban river that smells bad, almost black in colour, with no aquatic plants or animals, causing many social and environmental problems. The Chinese government has sought public participation during the MBR treatment as part of a comprehensive plan to improve residents’ environmental satisfaction. To investigate the influencing factors of public participation and satisfaction, a questionnaire was conducted among residential communities close to an MBR. SPSS 22.0 was employed to analyse the collected data, using factor analysis, correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis.
Journal
Journal: Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism
Overseas Chinese gardens: Localizing “harmony between humans and nature” across four case studies over 40 years (1980s–2020s)
Journal: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society
Lock-in, a way to enable regional economic resilience? Insights from Baotou, China
Journal: Land
Special Issue on Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Urban Planning, Design, and Management
Journal: urban development studies
Cross-Regional Enclave Cooperation from the Perspective of International Knowledge Transfer- Knowledge Transfer and Iteration of Suzhou Industrial Park from ‘Fly-in’ to ‘Fly-out’
The ‘enclave economy’ has become an important force for coordinated regional development. Although enclaves can be organised in a variety of ways, they are premised on complementary cooperation, and therefore effective and continuous knowledge transfer is the key. Proposing the endogenous link between the connotation of enclave economy and knowledge transfer theory, this paper develops a knowledge transfer framework for enclave economy. Taking Suzhou Industrial Park as a case study, given its unique dual roles of being both fly-in and fly-out, the knowledge transfer that occurred in these two collaborations has been interpreted and compared from four aspects, namely transfer context, entities’ characteristics, knowledge attributes and communication agent. It scrutinises and summarises the main influential factors for its transfer and iteration and paves a way towards efficient and sustainable development of the enclave economy from a few main aspects.
Journal: architectural journal
Synthesis and Evolution: Research on the Learning Space in Chinese Universities – A Case Study of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
This paper aims to explore how learning space can be designed to accommodate learning and teaching activities, to lead to teaching innovation, and even to facilitate education reforms and thereby foster a learning society. This paper analyzes the evolvement of learning spaces in universities and its relationship with higher education reforms. Taking Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University as an example, it also explores the multiple possibilities of learning space design in the new era based on environment-behavior principle. It concludes that the reform of learning space should always be considered from an integrated perspective in line with emerging pedagogies and technologies, and be designed to promote effective learning and cultivate learners’ overall competency.
Journal: water
Assessment on the effectiveness of urban stormwater management
Stormwater management is a key issue in line with global urbanisation and climate change. Effective assessment of stormwater management is crucial to urban resilience to flooding risk. In this study, a method based on a stormwater management model (SWMM) was developed for assessing the control of stormwater runoff volume and the percentage removal of suspended solids by implementing a Sponge City strategy. An interdisciplinary approach was adopted incorporating Low Impact Development (LID) with urban green infrastructure and grey infrastructure paradigms in a typical old residential community in Suzhou, China. Sponge facilities for reducing stormwater runoff included bio-retention cells, permeable pavements, grassed pitches, and stormwater gardens.
Journal: water
Fecal contamination and high nutrient levels pollute the watersheds of Wujiang, China
Freshwaters in China are affected by point and non-point sources of pollution. The Wujiang District (Suzhou City, China) has canals, rivers, and lakes that are currently facing various water quality issues. In this study, four rivers and a lake in Wujiang were assessed to quantify pollution and explore its causes. Seventy-five monthly samples were collected from these water bodies (five locations/samples per area) from August to October 2020 and were compared with nine control samples collected from a water protection area. Fifteen physicochemical, microbiological, and molecular–microbiological parameters were analysed, including nutrients, total and fecal coliforms, and fecal markers. Significant monthly variation was observed for most parameters at all areas.
Journal: sustainability
Investigating the relationship between public satisfaction and public environmental participation during government treatment of urban malodorous black river in China
During China’s rapid economic development and urbanisation, numerous cases of urban malodorous black river (MBR) have occurred. MBR refers to a polluted urban river that smells bad, almost black in colour, with no aquatic plants or animals, causing many social and environmental problems. The Chinese government has sought public participation during the MBR treatment as part of a comprehensive plan to improve residents’ environmental satisfaction. To investigate the influencing factors of public participation and satisfaction, a questionnaire was conducted among residential communities close to an MBR. SPSS 22.0 was employed to analyse the collected data, using factor analysis, correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis.