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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA (Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China)

Teaser

Summary

Cities are places of social innovation and engines of economic growth. They attract dynamic groups of society, they provide vast opportunities of inter-action, communication and exchange of knowledge, and they thereby lay the foundation for attracting large shares of R&D investment and an innovative service sector. Thus, social integration is directly linked with economic pros-perity of cities. This is true for European and Chinese urban development but especially relevant for China as, promoted by various levels of government, the country is rapidly transitioning from a less urban to a more urbanized society with increasingly intensified land use and higher quality of life. One of the greatest challenges facing Chinese urbanisation is how to best design and turn cities into intelligent, socially integrative and sustainable environments.

TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA will help policy makers, urban authorities, real estate developers, pub-lic service providers and citizens in China to create socially integrative cities in an environmen-tally friendly and financially viable way. Moreover, it will help urban stakeholders in Europe to reflect and eventually reconsider their approaches towards sustainable urbanisation. TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA is developing a systematic knowledge base on transition experiences in Europe and China in a comparative way, and makes key results publicly available as a book addressing practitioners, the scientific community and students. Furthermore, TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA will advance tools and measures to support transition in cooperation with local stakeholders and citizens, and test them in Urban Living Labs with the purpose to derive operational and evi-dence-based knowledge about urban transformative capacity. Thereafter, related recommenda-tions will be elaborated to support transition towards socially integrative cities.

The results and findings from TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA will be discussed with representatives of Reference Cities and a wider stakeholder community, and disseminated through a variety of channels, include a web-based compendium of tested tools and measures adapted to local so-cio-economic, cultural and political specificities. The compendium will comprise policy briefs, guidelines, methods, and good practice examples for the development of socially integrative cities and for strengthening the transformative capacity of local stakeholders.

Work performed

During the first reporting period (01.01.2018-31.12.2018), TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA set up a knowledge base on transition experiences in Europe and China step by step. This included the following three types of activities:

(1) An internal Concept Group was set up in order to further develop and harmonise a joint understanding of the main concepts and terms used in the project, e.g. the socially integra-tive city, transition and transformative capacity.
(2) Preparations for the publication of a book on â€œSustainable urbanisation in Europe and China â€“ facilitating the transitions towards socially integrative citiesâ€, due in mid-2020, started. A list of contents was elaborated and the search for a suitable publisher started.
(3) A number of reports were elaborated and submitted to the European Commission as well as to the Chinese partner institutions. They are stand-alone texts regarding the related topics, and they serve as inputs for the forthcoming book and for further work, e.g., in the Urban Living Labs in Chinese cities. The most relevant reports are related to the following topics:
a. Community building and place-making in neighbourhoods: Research results provide an overview over good practice examples in Europe and China, and a glossary of significant words and places related to urban design approaches that can contribute to creating socially integrative neighbourhoods and cities.
b. Bridging the planning-implementation gap in eco- and smart cities: Research results give insights into good practice and success factors for the development of strategies for sustainable cities, integrative planning and implementation in China and Europe. Special reference is made to transition and transformative capacity.
c. Land use planning and land management: Research contributes to increasing the knowledge about the current framework and situation of urban renewal, urban expan-sion as well as land management and land banking, including land administration, in China and Europe. The socially integrated city and its features as defined by the pro-ject, are especially addressed.
d. Integrated transition pathways towards sustainable urban planning and governance: Among other things, research dealt with how to set up a Big Data analytics framework, including open data, and an online â€œCommunity of Communitiesâ€ which may serve in Urban Living Labs as local social platforms. Moreover, reviews of transition pathways and social cost benefit analyses has been started.
e. Living Labs and the collaboration with reference cities: Results include the preparation of project activities in 2-4 urban living labs in China, the elaboration of a dissemination and exploitation strategy, and steps to motivate cities in Europe and China to partici-pate in the discussion about project results.

The management of the project was smooth. All expected results could be achieved. The inter-nal communication structure facilitates a collaborative working atmosphere and an effective cooperation between the respective partners.

Final results

Based on the established knowledge base on transition experiences in Europe and China, TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA has started to identify tools and measures to support transition in cooperation with local stakeholders, e.g., local administrations and developers and citizens. Further steps regarding how to advance the tools and measures and how to test them in urban living labs, have been discussed and described. Tools and measures will be tested in 2 to 4 Urban Living Labs located in Chinese cities. It is expected that this will facilitate, support and enhance the transition towards socially integrative cities. The project has started to identify 60 Reference Cities in cooperation with the URBAN-EU-CHINA urban sustainability platform project. The pro-ject results have been discussed and disseminated with the involvement of the scientific com-munity, policy makers, developers, civil society, general public, and media at several events, e.g., during a project week in Beijing in September 2018. Conceptual and technical preparations for the dissemination of results are in place, including a project website, a Wechat platform, and an internal â€œCommunity of Communitiesâ€ platform.