Because of a projected surge of several billion urban inhabitants by mid-century, a rising urgency exists to advance local and strategically deployed measures intended to ameliorate negative consequences on urban climate (e.g., heat stress, poor air quality, energy/water availability). Here we highlight the importance of incorporating scale-dependent built environment induced solutions within the broader umbrella of urban sustainability outcomes, thereby accounting for fundamental physical principles. Contemporary and future design of settlements demands cooperative participation between planners, architects, and relevant stakeholders, with the urban and global climate community, which recognizes the complexity of the physical systems involved and is ideally fit to quantitatively examine the viability of proposed solutions. Such participatory efforts can aid the development of locally sensible approaches by integrating across the socioeconomic and climatic continuum, therefore providing opportunities facilitating comprehensive solutions that maximize benefits and limit unintended consequences.
School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 117570;School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 117570;School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Recommended Citation:
M Georgescu,W T L Chow,Z H Wang,et al. Prioritizing urban sustainability solutions: coordinated approaches must incorporate scale-dependent built environment induced effects[J]. Environmental Research Letters,2015-01-01,10(6)