The Theoretical, Practical, and Technological Foundations of the 15-Minute City Model: Proximity and Its Environmental, Social and Economic Benefits for Sustainability

Abstract

Conventional and emerging paradigms of urbanism require new responses under the current circumstances, especially in relation to the integration of sustainability dimensions and technology advances. The escalating rate of urbanization, coupled with the climate emergency, fundamentally indeed disrupt the challenges that urbanism research and practice deal with, calling for adopting more innovative approaches to urban planning and design. With cities contributing around 65% of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and experiencing an unprecedented growth of population, contemporary urban policy needs to be redefined and re-assessed accordingly. While numerous urban models, such as the Compact City, the Eco-City, the Sustainable City, and the Smart City, have emerged in response to the challenges of sustainability and urbanization, the 15-Minute City has recently gained a steep popularity. This paper explores the theoretical, practical, and technological foundations of the 15-Minute City, with a particular focus on the proximity dimension of mixed land-use and its environmental, social, and economic benefits of sustainability as supported by smart technologies. We argue that this evolving model of urbanism has the potential to gain more expansion and success in regard to building more sustainable, efficient, resilient, equitable, and inclusive cities in line with the global agendas of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, as it adds a strategic value to the amalgam of the prevailing and emerging paradigms of urbanism and their synergies with respect to increasing the benefits of sustainability while emphasizing its environmental dimension.

Green Tunnel Solutions: An Overview of Sustainability Trends in the Last Decade (2013–2022)

“…This will be realised with technologies such as artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of Things and digital twins that advance computational understandings of human behaviour and emergency planning. The goal is to redefine tunnel design and service provision by reducing cost and increasing efficiency and resilience [81].…”

The Metaverse as a Virtual Model of Platform Urbanism: Its Converging AIoT, XReality, Neurotech, and Nanobiotech and Their Applications, Challenges, and Risks

“…and cemented and normalized a number of unethical practices (e.g., [52,65,[182][183][184][185]). Further, it is increasingly impacting the ways in which people experience, perceive, and interact with urban spaces, spatial forms, and workplaces [4], as well as how cities are being redesigned, restructured, and digitalized [186] in response to the so-called pandemic outbreaks. COVID-19 has forced new ways of living digitally in urban society, drastically changing urban landscape in terms of the evolving spatial patterns and the shifting nature of urban life, which seems to be in tandem with the envisioning process of the Metaverse in terms of its goal to datafy, algorithmize, platformize, and ultimately virtualize urban ways of living [4].…”

Environmental wellbeing in the context of sustainable development: Evidence from post-communist economies

“…As they do not appear on the short run, they become more dangerous globally. For example, the multidimensional and interconnected effects generated by climate change have the capacity to increase susceptibility to damage and crises (Chen et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2021;Allam et al, 2022). Apart from this, the issues of energy poverty (Goyens, 2020) and energy bill increases (Graff and Carley, 2020) are more urgent than ever (Jiang et al, 2021, p.5), especially during the period of COVID-19 and the Ukrainian war and its effects, with Russian restrictions being a consequence of the international response to it.…”

“…However, considering the society-wide rebound effects, solutions are even more complex than they appear at first sight. In addition, among other different political recommendations for increasing sustainability (for example, Khan et al, 2022, Khan et al, 2021aAllam et al, 2022;Zhao et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2022), some of the most appropriate points in this discussion might be the following: 1) changing the productive matrix, with technological improvements that enable us to achieve clean and sustainable production processes; 2) defining mechanisms and policies to promote green economic growth; 3) encouraging the adoption of digital technologies; 4) improving social and environmental awareness and providing education to people; 5) increasing population control strategies for tackling the environmental, economic, and societal challenges; and 6) redefining and reassessing contemporary urban policy based on urban models, such as the compact city, the eco-city, the sustainable city, the smart city, or the 15-minute city. Accordingly, as also assumed by Bourcet (2020, p. 1), to address environmental crises with a substantial impact on societies, it is essential to understand the empirical determinants of these environmental issues (including those related to greenhouse gases, energy use and savings, and renewable energy) for public policy guidance and to foster future research.…”