Eco-Cities A Planning Guide

As cities undergo vast changes due to industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, environmental considerations assume a growing importance in the urban planning processes of an increasing number of governments around the world. Several cities and regions around the world have already enacted policies that signal the emergence of a paradigm of sustainability in eco-cities planning. Providing an overview of urban ecosystem structure, function, and change, Eco-Cities: A Planning Guide addresses how to successfully accomplish eco-city planning that meets government requirements. It adds a new dimension to the understanding and application of the concept of urban sustainability, based on hypotheses about feedback between social and biogeophysical processes. Emphasizing integration, the first part of the book discusses various aspects of planning theory. It presents three innovative theories for socioeconomic models: a theory on the locational choices made by households and firms, an urban version of the stream continuum concept, and an application of metacommunity theory to the fragmented urban biota. These theories raise new urban planning questions and stimulate integrated modeling. The book also introduces urban planning modeling that uses existing social, vegetation, ecohydrological, and ecosystem service modules but is refined and operated for enhanced cross-disciplinary integration and prediction. The second part of the book consists of several case studies of Chinese eco-cities covering a majority of the urban development patterns that offer in-depth examples of planning practices currently in use. Drawing on experimentation, comparison, long-term measurement, and modeling, this fascinating guide helps readers better understand eco-cities and eco-landscapes as integrated, spatially extensive, complex adaptive systems. It lays a solid foundation for engagement between urban planners, researchers, educators, policy makers, and citizens as they work to adapt to changing environmental, social, and economic conditions.

Theoretical BasesEco-city Planning Theories and ThoughtsMeirong Su, Linyu Xu, Bin Chen, and Zhifeng YangIntegrated Urban Ecosystem AssessmentsZhifeng Yang, Meirong Su, Linyu Xu, Gengyuan Liu, Sergio Ulgiati, Yan Zhang, and Sven Erik JørgensenPlanning of Ecological Spatial SystemGuangjin Tian and Lixiao ZhangPlanning of Industry SystemJiansu MaoPlanning of Sustainable Energy and Air Pollution PreventionGengyuan Liu and Linyu XuUrban Water Environment Quality Improvement PlanYanwei Zhao and Zhifeng YangEco-Habitat and Eco-Cultural System PlanningYan Zhang and Meirong SuUrban Ecological Planning RegulationBin Chen, Lixiao Zhang, and Zhifeng YangCase StudiesEco-City Guangzhou PlanLinyu Xu and Zhifeng YangEco-City Xiamen PlanLinyu Xu, Zhifeng Yang, and Yanwei ZhaoEco-City Baotou PlanYan Zhang, Yanwei Zhao, Meirong Su, Jiansu Mao, Gengyuan Liu, and Zhifeng YangEco-City Wuyishan PlanLixiao Zhang, Linyu Xu, Yan Zhang, Meirong Su, and Zhifeng YangEco-City Wanzhou PlanYanwei Zhao, Linyu Xu, Meirong Su, Gengyuan Liu, and Zhifeng YangEco-City Jingdezhen PlanYan Zhang, Lixiao Zhang, Yanwei Zhao, Meirong Su, Gengyuan Liu, and Zhifeng YangAssessment of Sustainability for a City by Application of a Work Energy Balance and a Carbon Cycling ModelSven Erik Jørgensen and Michela MarchiIndex

Zhifeng Yang is a professor and the dean of the School of Environment at Beijing Normal University. His research areas include urban ecological planning and management. He has authored more than 10 books on urban planning, water resources management, and ecological engineering, and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. Professor Yang is an associate editor of the Journal of Environmental Informatics and the Journal of Environmental Sciences, and a guest editor of Ecological Modelling and Ecological Informatics. He is also an editorial member of the Journal of Hydrodynamics, Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, and Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in China.