Survey of Sustainable Regeneration of Historic and Cultural Cores of Cities

Social Capital in Neighbourhood Renewal: A Holistic and State of the Art Literature Review

In the new era of sustainable urban development, neighbourhood renewal has received increasing attention. Social capital, which can be defined as the value embedded in the relationship between residents, plays a significant role in the process of neighbourhood renewal. However, within the current neighbourhood renewal knowledge domain, there is a lack of clear and systematic understanding of the various components that make up social capital, how they are formed, and how they impact neighbourhood renewal. With the rise in neighbourhood renewal projects worldwide, it has become increasingly important to facilitate better knowledge in this area. To this end, this study focuses on filling this knowledge gap. First, based on the review of 84 journal papers related to social capital in neighbourhood renewal, a research framework is developed for analysing social capital in the context of neighbour renewal. Using this framework as a lens, a critical review of the literature is then conducted. Finally, through an in-depth discussion, this study presents the main concepts of social capital, its formulation and its association with neighbourhood renewal. This review paper can be used as an important reference for researchers globally interested in the topic of social capital in neighbourhood renewal.

Polish Local Government’s Perspective on Revitalisation: A Framework for Future Socially Sustainable Solutions

The principal goal of this paper is to investigate the views of local government officials on revitalisation priorities in Polish municipalities. To accomplish this, the perception of revitalisation objectives by local government representatives (who, according to Polish regulations, are responsible for revitalisation planning and carrying it out) was examined. A catalogue of revitalisation objectives, which were assessed by the respondents, was drawn up on the basis of a review of research on the conceptualisation and measurement of sustainable revitalisation and social sustainability at the local level. Exploratory factor analysis was the method used in the study. In total, the list of the examined revitalisation objectives includes 26 objectives related to the following revitalisation dimensions: infrastructure, community, economy, environment, space, co-governance, and inclusion. A survey of the executive bodies of 573 municipalities in Poland revealed a discrepancy between the sustainable approach to revitalisation advocated by the researchers and the perception of revitalisation objectives by the local decision makers. The study demonstrated that decision makers ranked objectives related to the physical dimension of revitalisation and selected objectives related to the social dimension of revitalisation and oriented at counteracting social exclusion by far the highest. The proactive objectives, related to the engagement, mobilisation and integration of the inhabitants, improvement of human capital, stimulation of the local economy and residential satisfaction, were viewed as definitely less important. The challenges facing revitalisation in Poland still fail to be perceived holistically by decision makers, which may hinder the building of strong and sustainable communities.

Does Environment Matter in Smart Revitalization Strategies? Management towards Sustainable Urban Regeneration Programs in Poland

The article presents the course of the evolution of the concept of urban renewal’s emergence into its current, mature, integrated form of sustainable regeneration (sustainable urban regeneration—SUR). We present how the determination of renewal areas and its goals began to be based on particular indicators, and how the importance of these analyses gradually increased in managing the implementation of urban regeneration programs. Analytical techniques using GIS were used in the analyses of the differentiation of crisis phenomena inside cities before they became popular in smart city tools. Despite the wide use of GIS to analyze the diversity of crisis phenomena within the city, the availability of data means that different spheres are characterized with different accuracy. Starting from the significance of individual spheres, the focus has primarily been on the environment, which is underappreciated in Poland. Municipalities (urban, rural, urban–rural) with regeneration programs do not perceive negative environmental phenomena as significant in assessing a crisis in a degraded area. Nevertheless, municipalities that do analyze environmental issues in regeneration programs also see the need for action and implementation of projects in the environmental sphere. In order to verify the hypothesis, the Statistics Poland (formerly known in English as the Central Statistical Office; Polish: Główny Urząd Statystyczny, abbreviated and known as GUS) data on the regeneration process was analyzed, with reference to the relationships between renewal areas and the natural environment. In order to check these dependencies (or the lack thereof), the Yule φ coefficient and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient were used. As a result, this study showed that analysis of the level and degree of degradation of the environmental sphere is not carried out frequently enough in municipalities. Secondly, the difficulties of municipalities, especially small ones (urban-rural and rural), in their analysis of the environmental sphere are the result of poor data availability. Thirdly, it is noted that there is a relationship between the designation of environmental zones and the type of municipality. This is of particular importance for the enhancement of smart city tools for the regeneration of existing cities, esp. small ones.

Progress in Research on Sustainable Urban Renewal Since 2000: Library and Visual Analyses

Urban renewal is an ideal approach to promoting the value of the urban fabric and improving the sustainability of the urban environment. This study, which shows the continuity of research on sustainable urban renewal, aimed to identify sustainable urban renewal literature based on a library analysis of scientific research since 2000. A total of 3971 scientific papers from the SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded) and SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) databases were reviewed to examine how research concerning “sustainable urban renewal” has emerged and developed in the past 20 years. The h-indices and impact factors of the most relevant journals in urban renewal and sustainable development since 2000 were analyzed. The most frequently cited articles were analyzed using analysis of social networks (VOSviewer). The results revealed potential future focuses of research and guidelines that link urban renewal and sustainability: the engagement of all stakeholders in the decision-making process; the involvement of residents in projects; the development of cooperation between towns and cities; the preservation and reuse of built and industrial heritage while respecting environmental law; and, finally, the search for new financing techniques. These potential future research topics were analyzed in four research areas so that sustainable development can easily be integrated into an urban renewal project.

The Impact of Local Green Spaces of Historically and Culturally Valuable Residential Areas on Place Attachment

Environmental qualities significantly affect the behaviors and place attachment of users, especially in residential areas. In addition to creating environmental comfort, local green spaces can increase users’ place attachment, improve their mood, enhance friendly company and facilitate social interactions. The study sought to investigate the impact of local green spaces in the historically and culturally valuable residential fabric of Hamadan City in Iran on increasing residents’ social attachment. Derived from the literature on the subject, the conceptual model of the study shows the impact of such factors as social, functional, emotional and spatial bonds on place attachment in the residential context. A total number of 410 residents in the old neighborhoods of Hamadan City were selected by random sampling with a balanced proportion of gender and residence duration in the selected area. The designed questionnaire was distributed among the sample population and the collected data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method. Then, the t-test and bootstrapping in Smart PLS software were used for testing the research hypotheses and evaluating the significance of the relationships between the research variables in the structural model. The results indicated that among the four types of bonds examined in relation to place attachment, emotional bonds, functional bonds, social bonds and spatial bonds, respectively, had a direct and significant impact on place attachment from the viewpoint of residents. The stronger the sociocultural bonds in historically and culturally valuable residential areas, the more prominent the role of local green spaces in place attachment based on residence duration becomes.

Social Barriers and the Hiatus from Successful Green Stormwater Infrastructure Implementation across the US

Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), a nature-inspired, engineered stormwater management approach, has been increasingly implemented and studied especially over the last two decades. Though recent studies have elucidated the social benefits of GSI implementation in addition to its environmental and economic benefits, the social factors that influence its implementation remain under-explored thus, there remains a need to understand social barriers on decisions for GSI. This review draws interdisciplinary research attention to the connections between such social barriers and the potentially underlying cognitive biases that can influence rational decision making. Subsequently, this study reviewed the agent-based modeling (ABM) approach in decision support for promoting innovative strategies in water management for long-term resilience at an individual level. It is suggested that a collaborative and simultaneous effort in governance transitioning, public engagement, and adequate considerations of demographic constraints are crucial to successful GSI acceptance and implementation in the US.