• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2003

This paper focuses on examining environmental implications embedded in recent spatial expansion of the Asian megacities as well as exploring the potentials of planning practices in addressing urban environmental problems. Regardless what underlying forces of recent metropolitan expansion are, nearly all the Asian megacities suffer serious environmental problems as these cities rapidly grow in terms of population and geographical boundaries. Furthermore, the global environmental implication of urban expansion at Asian megacities implies that there must be intense endeavor to develop more innovative policy solution in order to tackle down the worsening urban environmental problems in Asian cities at a metropolitan scale. Given the situation that there has been little attention on environmental consequence of the Asian metropolitan expansion in spatial term, this paper presents the overview on the changing nature of urban environmental problems embedded in the spatial expansion of recent metropolitan area in Asia, along with exploring possible solutions from planning practices guiding sustainable urban development in Asia.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the essential factors contributing to the growth and success of smart cities, providing a comprehensive analysis of key elements that are crucial in fostering the development of smart cities. This study explored the impacts of technology-driven applications, corporate involvement, the role of experts, citizen co-creation, city-led strategy governance, and sustainable urban practices on overall attitudes towards smart cities. Additionally, the study examined the impact of overall attitude on the growth trajectory of the smart cities and satisfaction. Research design, data and methodology: To collect data, this study employed an online survey conducted by a reputable research organization. Data analysis involved the use of factor analysis, ANOVA, and regression analysis. Results: This study unveiled significant impacts of technology-driven applications, corporate involvement, the role of experts, citizen co-creation, city-led strategy governance, and sustainable urban practices on the overall attitudes. Furthermore, it demonstrated that the overall attitude significantly influences the growth trajectory of smart cities. Conclusions: This study identified key driving factors for smart city development, suggesting that the consideration of sustainable urban practices emerges as the most significant factor influencing the growth of the smart cities.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2023

The transit-oriented development (TOD) model can effectively help to solve urban problems and promote sustainable urban development. The United States and Japan are widely considered the earliest two countries to start TOD practices; however, the origins of TOD models in the two countries were different. The TOD practices in the two countries formed distinct characteristics, yet their differences have been underexplored. This study aims to grasp the characteristics of the TOD model in the two countries through a systematic comparative analysis of 10 typical cities in the United States and Japan that have adopted the TOD model. This paper compares the case cities' three key aspects of the TOD model: public transit system, spatial form, and land use, and summarizes the characteristics of TOD models in the two countries from a city-level perspective, to help deepen the global understanding of TOD.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1-17
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• 2012

This study sought to discover new directions for management and operation national urban parks in Korea by analyzing the reality of the national government parks of Japan where these parks are already well established and managed. In the case of a Japanese national government park, its supporting system was established after the park was built. The means of management also shifted their direction from putting more priority to the administrative body to the residents. The management practices are changing process of its character with focus on residents as the main entity of activity from their existing position of participants. In other words, the national government parks of Japan are going beyond the previous practice of providing maintenance activities to providing experience, interpretation functions to these activities. Especially, they were establishing local networks to plan and execute programs in collaboration with the park management and NPOs. However, they fall short of tangible outcomes despite their continuous efforts to expand the community involvement and reduce the cost in maintenance. To facilitate the effective management of the urban parks in Korea in the near future, much thought needs to go into the management practices ensuring conservation of resources in the land of Korea, as well as people's use of recreation, community revitalization, and development and transfer of advanced technology to provide appropriate preparations to create urban parks in Korea.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.387-396
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• 2020

While tall buildings are an essential building type to accommodate an ever-growing urban population, as buildings become taller and taller, many design challenges arise. As floor spaces are repeated vertically, the occupants' natural horizontal circulation-based social interactions are limited. As buildings become ever taller, safe evacuation to the ground level becomes more challenging in emergencies. With respect to safety as well as serviceability, one of the most fundamental design challenges of exceedingly tall buildings is their structural systems that make the physical existence of tall buildings possible. While many different design solutions can be sought to resolve these issues as well as other design challenges of extremely tall buildings, this paper investigates the potential of conjoined towers to create more livable and sustainable vertical environments. Emphasis is placed on the social and structural capabilities of conjoined towers in providing enhanced social interactions and more efficient ultra-tall structures. The related brief history of conjoined towers is presented. To understand their current status, contemporary design practices of conjoined towers are discussed. Lastly, a new concept of superframed conjoined towers developed for exceedingly tall building complexes is introduced through design studies. Though envisioning future tall buildings is challenging, conjoined towers can be among the strong candidates toward more livable and sustainable vertical urbanism.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2016

High-rise as a building typology is gaining popularity in Asian mega-cities, due to its advantages in increasing volumetric density with limited land resources. Numerous factors contribute to the formation of high-rise urban form, from economical and institutional, environmental to socio-political. Environmental concerns over the impact of rapid urbanization in developing economies demand new thought on the link between urban environment and urban form. Outdoor and indoor climate, pedestrian comfort, and building energy consumption are all related to and impacted by urban form and building morphology. There are many studies and practices on designing individual "green" high-rise buildings, but far fewer studies on designing high-rise building clusters from the perspective of environmental performance optimization.. This paper focuses on the environmental perspective, and its correlation with the evolution of the high-rise urban form. Previous studies on urban morphology in terms of environmental and energy performance are reviewed. Studies on "parameterizing" urban morphology to estimate its environmental performance are reviewed, and the possible urban design implications of the study are demonstrated in by the author, by way of a microclimate map of the iconic Shanghai Xiao Lujiazui CBD. The study formulates the best-practice design guidelines for creating walkable and comfortable outdoor space in a high-rise urban setting, including proper sizing of street blocks and building footprint, provision of shading, and facilitating urban ventilation.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.572-576
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• 2016

Soil quality assessment is an important tool for environmental management in an agricultural field. It can be used to evaluate the health of the soils and to establish the basis for sustainable urban agriculture and soil management. For this study, the chemical properties of the soils used for urban agriculture were examined. Results of the soil analysis for chemical properties were applied to soil quality assessment system, which is composed of principal component analysis, application to scoring function and derivation of soil quality index (SQI). Soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (T-N) were determined for minimum data set (MDS) according to principal component analysis. Based on the results of scoring for four indicators (pH, EC, OM, T-N), soil pH was the indicator that needs the most urgent management. Results of SQI derivation showed that many of the urban farms appeared to be insufficient score in comprehensive soil quality assessment. In conclusion, soil management practices based on scores derived from soil chemical indicators need to be carried out to maintain sustainable urban agricultural soil environment and to provide easy-to-understand information to urban farmers.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 1999

Applicability of LCA in establishing the integrated solid waste management were examined. Data were collected from current waste management system. LCA method was then applied to find environmentally sustainable waste management. The process comprises five steps : (1) collecting data, comparing the data with comprehensive urban planning as well, (2) analyzing the current waste treatment procedure leading to the database establishment, (3) LCA for the waste management system, (4) finding alternative scenarios based on the former steps, (5) establishing the optimum method in Ecopolis, best fitted to the local situation. The results and suggestions in this study are expected to yield comprehensive analysis as to current practices in waste management. More importantly it will be a valuable data in minimizing environmental burdens in connecting with living environments of Ecopolis. Information regarding the urban system and total environmental quality are expected from this study.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2013

The movement towards sustainable building design can result in unique fire protection challenges and concerns, especially with super tall buildings in relationship to traditional prescriptive code compliance. Different countries haves different code requirements as well as local best practices and may cause conflict with the design features when designing green buildings. These include, but not limited to green roofs, sprinkler water quality and testing, fire department access and areas of refuge with direct or indirect impact by the perspective code compliance. The solutions to these prescriptive code challenges and fire safety concerns can range from simple alternatives to more detailed engineering performance-based design analyses with good solid practice.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.301-306
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• 2017

The design and construction of supertall buildings has grown dramatically in recent years. This area of practice has traditionally fallen within the purview of a very small group of architects and engineers, but this is rapidly changing, as unprecedented growth and densification has spread to markets not traditionally known for high rise construction. The design community has been increasingly committed to the adoption of green and sustainable design, and the integration of smarter, cleaner technologies across the building spectrum. This paper examines current supertall design trends, and suggests that recently completed and planned projects are trending towards more sustainable solutions, and that a unique set of best practices are emerging specific to Supertalls.