Tamas Gyulai (p)

Alexander Pilyasov

The European Commission has already defined that the idea of just transition needs to be an integral part of the sustainable development policy framework. It has “outcomes” dimension and the “process” of how we get there which should be based on a managed transition with meaningful social dialogue. Consequently, Asia’s traditional values and views on the relationship between human and the environment can provide important insights into the various ways that a just transition affects different groups, and how policies can be tailored to reduce the impact of socioeconomic changes on health and livelihoods. Intersections between cities and nature can therefore be analysed, both in terms of how cities and urban activities affect nature, as well as how nature can help solve urban challenges.
The European Union is therefore guiding cities towards a more strategic approach to boost their competitiveness by digital innovation. One of the initiatives was the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), which brought together European cities to achieve smart, socially responsible and sustainable growth through advanced technologies. Cities were also encouraged to develop smart ecosystems and build long-term relationships with other ICC cities and to create clusters for social and ecological innovation. Social innovation is in the centre of the analysis because the good examples that have been developed in Europe can be compared to government sponsored initiatives for smart cities in Japan with the objective to provide conclusions that are relevant to cities and applicable on global scale, as well.
The presentation therefore gives analysis of the Smart Community Project of Kitakyushu town in Japan and compares it to European cities because it is an excellent example where smart city development became a reality with focus on sustainable energy and on the well-being of humans by Society 5.0, as well. As approach with social considerations and linkage to SDGs, the presented research work defines a methodological framework for sustainable development and environmental planning that can be relevant for smart cities worldwide.

Upasya De (p), Lakshmi Sivaramakrishnan, Ranita Karmakar

Tamas Gyulai

Shift in focus of the retail industry in India was seen with the emergence of shopping malls as a one stop destination for shopping, recreation, entertainment, socialisation etc. The City Centre is located in Sector 1 of Salt Lake City or Bidhannagar which was the brainchild of Dr. B.C. Roy. It was built in 2004 in a different way from other shopping mall architectures mostly prevalent i.e. the airconditioned box-type structure, and was a mixture of closed and open spaces with various elements inside it like street pattern, kiosks, open courtyard etc following partially the style of “Indian Bazaar” so that it becomes more than just a shopping space- an inclusive place to socialise for all categories of people. This study aims to analyse perception about the mall, its architectural style and its inclusiveness with a sample size of 100 for users’ survey, 6 for interview of users and 12 for hawkers’ survey. The methodology adopted included a questionnaire survey among the visitors of City Centre to get an insight into their perception about how much the different style of architecture was preferred to them in comparison to other malls, user’s satisfaction with it and their views about the informal residential and commercial pockets in the vicinity of the mall. Photo Elicitation Interview was carried out with people from various age groups and gender to get their views about the features of the mall, its degree of similarity with “Indian Bazaar”, its inclusiveness and their views about it. A part of this analysis was done using NVIVO software. The growth of several types of hawker stalls was identified for the last 20 years from Google Earth in an open space in front of City Centre and were mapped by recording GPS points and using ArcGIS software. Those hawkers were interviewed about the impact of presence of City Centre on their business and also of the Covid Pandemic. It was found that the open structure and multidimensional functions of City Centre was attractive many users but it excluded the hawkers which however most users preferred. However, surprisingly many of the hawkers or informal vendors outside City Centre made their business from the visitors to the mall only. It was found that though City Centre was meant to be inclusive, it actually promotes exclusivity while some inclusive character is brought by the local hawkers outside.

Natalia Enache (p), György Deák, Lucian Laslo, Monica Matei, Madalina Boboc

Upasya De

Densely populated urban areas are vulnerable to climate change, posing a high risk due to the potential to affect the vital sectors of cities. The current study supports the Convention of Mayors adopted at the European level, which involves the local authorities who join voluntarily and undertake to meet the EU targets for adaptation and also for mitigation by 55% reduction in GHG by 2030. The purpose of this paper is to increase the competence of taking optimal measures for mitigation and adaptation to climate change by evaluating the current conditions of two medium-sized cities in Romania, namely Satu Mare and Tulcea. Here, will be covered the context of the interaction of two overlapping major climatic hazards, namely heat waves and drought. In order to evaluate the possible future impact that will be produced by these two hazards, a thorough historical review of local climate hazards was undertaken. Also, to define the priorities for taking adaptation and mitigation measures against the risk of heat waves and drought, the risk-based method was used. The results of the historical climate analysis showed an increase in the maximum annual temperature values in both regions during the period 1901-2021 with a dramatic increase in temperature after 2007. The typology and supporting indicators of climate risk characteristics regarding hazard, exposure, vulnerability and adaptive capacity of cities were analysed according to the RCP scenarios. The results indicate that Tulcea is more prone to heat waves than Satu Mare, but also that this region will be more impacted by the projected change in consecutive dry days. Similar sectors in both cities are exposed to these two hazards, although Tulcea's exposure is higher. From the perspective of adaptation capacity, the important distinctions between the two cities can be observed in the change of urban areas classified as green spaces, where Satu Mare has a smaller percentage than the European average making the city more resilient to the effects of climate change and extreme weather events.