Green growth strategies in a shrinking city: Tackling urban revitalization through environmental justice in Kitakyushu City, Japan

Choi

The Journal of Environment & Development

2021

This comparative case study explores why two cities similar in socio-economic factors diverge in their pathways to environmental improvement. Our research looks at the changing local economies and environmental pollution problems facing Kitakyushu in Japan and Pohang in South Korea. Both cities drove their nations’ rapid economic growth as the main heavy industry hubs but have performed radically differently vis-à-vis public demands for environmental improvement despite sharing much in common. Employing the advocacy coalition framework as a main analytical tool, we examine the unfolding of policy efforts to turn a manufacturing-oriented industrial city into a “greener” city responding to environmental objectives and the respective outcomes. The research reveals that variations in regulatory decentralization, external events and coalition opportunity structures largely explain the observed discrepancy in green transition between the two settings. Our findings contribute to expanding scarce case study literature illustrating the mechanisms that can underpin environmental improvements in cities that have served as the location of heavy industries and offer suggestions for advancing them.

Section: The Acf Accounts Of Environmental Performance In Kitakyushu ...mentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: The Acf Accounts Of Environmental Performance In Kitakyushu ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Green Transition of Iron Cities: A Comparative Case Study of Kitakyushu and Pohang

Choi

The Journal of Environment & Development

2021

“…First, the progressing depopulation of the country and in particular, of rural spaces (Masuda 2014). This problem already affects other countries-and will reach many others in the future-but, if well managed, it might open opportunities for advancing sustainable development (Jarzebski et al 2021 in press;Matanle and Sáez-Pérez 2019;Ortiz-Moya 2020). Second, the CES also reflects a re-evaluation of Japanese society's relationship with nature following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster on 11 March 2011 .…”

Section: The Circulating and Ecological Sphere (Ces)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable transitions towards a resilient and decentralised future: Japan’s Circulating and Ecological Sphere (CES)

et al. 2021

Self Cite

Global environmental change, the depletion of natural resources, and unacceptable levels of pollution, among other anthropogenic impacts on the planet and its ecosystems, demand a radical shift in the way humankind develops. Global agreements like the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" or the "Paris Agreement on Climate Change" seek to promote sustainable development and its integration in policymaking. Against this backdrop, the Government of Japan in its Fifth Basic Environment Plan of 2018 proposed the concept of the Circulating and Ecological Sphere (CES) to guide sustainable transitions in light of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The CES provides a framework for a new paradigm in sustainable development bringing together existing approaches, namely, rural-urban linkages, ecosystem-based solutions, decarbonisation, and resource circulation. Still in an embryonic stage, some regional and local authorities in Japan have started to experiment with ways to apply this concept on the ground. Drawing on a systematic literature review on the different components covered by the CES, along with analysis of a case study in Suzu, Japan, this paper explores how this new concept can contribute to achieve a sustainable future.

“…The urban green/blue infrastructure as integral parts of provisioning, sociocultural and regulatory ES have considerable impacts on human well-being, urban health and quality of life (Gómez et al, 2011;EC-European•Commission, 2013;Lovell & Taylor, 2013;Frazier & Bagchi-Sen, 2015;Mathey et al, 2015). In green-oriented planning, UGI and UBI are expanded and renewed (Ortiz-Moya, 2020). A network of green/blue sites such as urban parks, green roofs and facades, and street trees as the most important outcomes of green-oriented planning, can also lead to a healthy urban planning and design of cities.…”

Section: 4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Green-oriented planning for shrinking cities through an integrated ecosystem services/disservices analysis: A Case of Minoo Island, Iran

Asl

2022

IRSPSD International

The number of shrinking cities is rapidly growing and posing new planning and design challenges worldwide. In this regard, understanding urban decline from an integrated ecosystem services/disservices perspective is limited in the literature and is considered as a critical basis for revitalization programs. Minoo Island as one of the emerging shrinking cases in Middle East has considerable characteristics in terms of both positive and negative aspects of ecosystem in population decline. This paper aims to investigate various ecosystem factors resulting in urban shrinkage in Minoo Island as a consequence of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s. The research method of this study is based on qualitative assessment of ecosystem services/disservices by using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. An integrated ecosystem services/disservice analysis was applied for assessment of ecological functions and assets. The results of this paper show that despite remarkable ecosystem potentials and functionalities in Minoo Island, it suffers from detrimental effects of ecosystem disservices leading to population decline over the past decades. Finally, this paper proposed some green-oriented design and planning strategies such as ecological protection, river restoration and green infrastructures for revitalizing Minoo Island.