Digital Analysis of Urban Structure and Its Environment Implication (Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements)

This book provides new information to understand the relationship between urban development and environmental change to the reader. How to create a sustainable and livable urban environment and realize the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) is one of the biggest challenges in this century, even in the next centuries. The covered subject areas of this book aim at finding a way to push SDGs forward by collecting the related knowledge between urban development and its environmental implication. Specifically, the book focuses on UN SDGs 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and 13 (climate action). Regarding the SDGs 9, this book assesses urban population mobility, urban ecosystem services, and green infrastructure to address climate change in cities. Regarding the SDGs 11, this book explores the sustainability of urban landscape change associated with urbanization based on a multi-scale perspective. Regardingthe SDGs 13, this book explores the issues affecting the development of healthy cities in the context of climate change and possible ways to address them.

This book focuses on newer fields related to various forms of urbanization and urban climate. Under different urbanization and development scenarios, the city and built environment are facing new challenges and become a major concern. Better understandings of related physical laws and sustainable technologies are badly needed. This book is a good reference to urban planners, city officials, citizens who are concerned about the city environment, and policymakers, as well as students studying urban structure and environment.

Dr. Weijun Gao is a tenured professor at the University of Kitakyushu, Japan, and an Academia Professor at the Qingdao University of Technology, China. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1982 from Tongji University, master’s degree in building engineering in 1987 from Zhejiang University, and Ph.D. degree in urban environmental planning in 1996 from Waseda University. He has been a visiting professor at many universities in China and the USA, such as Xi'an Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA. Professor Gao's research interests include the science, engineering, management, and dissemination of city environment planning, distributed energy system, building material recycling, health and environmental impacts of energy generation and use, geographic information systems, climate change, especially in the urban area, and energy forecasting.