The Green City concept is a concept usually associated with the safety of the environment and puts the environment as an essential aspect in achieving sustainable development. The concept is delivered through different layers of planning and design, covering the micro, meso and macro scales of the city (Shen & Fitriaty, 2018). In response to the tantalising challenges, scholars and practitioners put every effort into creating possible solutions and strategies for obtaining an ideal Green City to be implemented at different city levels. In an attempt to realise such a city, adapted to the green concept, the five articles in this special issue present challenges and strategies across various scales and components of the city and discuss different points of view.

The Paris Agreement, the principal international treaty governing climate change, requires each country to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which include quantitative targets for greenhouse gas reductions. This study aims to identify the motivating factors behind NDC creation generally and the mitigation targets specifically using a case study approach. Semi structured interviews were conducted with key representatives from Argentina, the Gambia, and some other developing countries. Interview responses are interpreted in context with literature for each country. Results show that NDC creation processes vary, but generally involve holding meetings to educate and involve stakeholders. In most cases, stakeholders are found to be knowledgeable and able to suggest mitigation actions or to contribute data. Least developed countries recruited international help for technical support. International factors are shown to be the most important drivers of increasing the ambition of the mitigation targets. Specifically, this includes the desire to improve a country's national image and to obtain higher levels of international aid. Domestic political factors are also likely to be influential: politicians could use their leverage to change the NDCs to match their own agenda.

Ecosystem service assessment maps are an important form of data, showing the flow and characteristics of ecosystem services. However, there has been a lack of research on the spatial boundaries of synergetic and trade-off relationships among different types of ecosystem services based on the microscopic characteristics of ecosystem maps. Therefore, the boundaries of ecosystems were identified in this study using factor analysis of indicators in ecosystem service maps. Ecosystems were mapped for each indicator in each cell, and then factor analysis was used to combine all indicators into one map. Analysis of Seocheon in central South Korea shows the boundaries of two ecosystem types: a mountainous region with abundant underground water and carbon stocks that lack rice paddies, and flatlands with high crop production and a lack of scenic views. The spatial types of ecosystems in which synergy and trade-offs occur were identified by indicator, and these can be used as evidentiary material for spatial planning in order to maximize the function of each ecosystem service.

Malang is the second largest city in East Java after Surabaya. In general, the problems in Malang are similar to those in other big cities in Indonesia. Although urbanization is especially important for economic growth, it results in the degradation of environmental quality and promotes flooding, congestion, urban infrastructure problems, and slums. The tendency of the built-up area of Malang to increase faster, along with the population growth and development expansion, indicates that the city will surpass the region's holding capacity sooner than it should. Such conditions create an uncomfortable living environment. One way to make the city more comfortable, safe and in harmony with nature is to apply the green city (GC) concept. The purpose of this study is to analyse and evaluate the implementation of the GC concept in Malang. This research employs the gap analysis method, which compares the ideal GC conditions with the actual conditions in Malang. The results indicate that of the eight GC indicators, Malang focuses on three: green planning and design, green open space, and green community. Building construction comprises the lowest score of 0%, while the highest score is green open space indicator with 50%.

Indonesia still has challenges in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly in regard to human settlements. In Indonesian cities there is a type of residential area referred to as kampung kota which is occupied by a large portion of urban dwellers. Despite the efforts to plan the residential area, kampung kota is considered equal to slum and squatter areas. This study seeks to identify the key variables of kampung kota, to later define kampung kota as a type of Indonesian residential area. The analyses are done qualitatively and quantitatively, aiming to generate a more comprehensive definition of kampung kota. It is found that at the kelurahan scale (the lowest level of government administration in Indonesia), economic ability, infrastructure condition, building condition, and social interaction can help to define kampung kota.

The provision of daylighting within a building performs an essential function, not only for health and visual comfort but also for energy efficiency in lighting. In tropical areas, however, excessive sunlight radiation and intensity have become a common problem in providing a sufficient amount of daylight, because they can lead to overheating. Several daylighting strategies are often employed by vernacular houses to provide daylight and to avoid heat radiation and glare. These strategies often use ray-ban glass windows material, as well as external and internal shading devices. This paper aims to investigate daylighting strategies in tropical coastal vernacular buildings and their potential application for improving daylighting performance in modern houses in the same climate. The daylight performance of three houses in a tropical coastal area was investigated via field study. The samples were chosen purposively based on construction, building material, building height and window material. Outdoor and indoor light illuminance were measured simultaneously. Indoor measurement points were placed at a height of 0.7 meter above the floor level, with 1-meter space grids. The daylight factor and illuminance level were used as performance indicators. The results indicate that the sampled houses perform poorly in regard to daylighting. This condition was caused by factors such as small-sized windows, the use of Ray-ban glass combined with the use of curtains that blocked almost 30% of daylight. Better daylighting conditions were observed in rooms with large openings (20%–40%).

Intercity bus terminals function as transit facilities that tend to be less effective. Intercity bus passengers prefer to transit outside the terminal. The connectivity factor is consideration of the passengers’ needs (Abdullah et al., 2018), one of its indicators is accessibility to or from the transit location. At present, there is no standard for a convenient transit location distance for passengers from the place of origin or to a destination in the city. The criteria are compiled into the passenger transit level of service (LOS), as an effective tool to evaluate the quality of the location based on passengers’ perceptions with the scales LOS A (Very Near), LOS B (Near), LOS C (Rather Close), LOS D (A Little Far), LOS E (Far) and, LOS F (Very Far). The research and case study were conducted in Makassar city. The data were obtained through questionnaires. Law Successive interval scaling and regression were used as the methods of analysis. The results of the research indicate that the transit distances expected by passengers were as follows: LOS A-B is<2 km and LOS C is 2,1-4 km , LOS D is 4,1-12 km, LOS E is 12,1-20 km and, LOS F is >20 km. Moreover, the distances of the transit location from roads were as follows: LOS A-B is < 100m, LOS C is 100- 1000m, LOS D is 1001-2000 m, LOS E is 2001-2400m and LOS F is >2400 m.

“2018 International workshop on urban planning and management, Toyota Japan” was held on 25-26^th May 2018. Though some parts of the workshop such as keynote and special speeches, and oral sessions, etc., attendees widely discussed methods and applications of transportation oriented urban planning for achieving sustainable development.

Interest in and the importance of walkability have begun to grow, and efforts are now being made to support pedestrians and the quality of public spaces. Lack of information on pedestrian space, however, makes it difficult to incorporate walkable space into spatial planning. In this study, the distributional characteristics of pedestrian spaces in central Tokyo were investigated, and how pedestrian space has been created and related to building, public transportation, and urban renewal projects were examined. First, analyses of the pedestrian space distribution suggest that road area accounts for 21.8% on average in central Tokyo; this is composed of 18.8% roadway and 3.0% walkway, that pedestrian spaces are accumulated in central and sub-central areas, which have high building density, and in urban renewal projects areas. Second, walkways in the commercial area have been built with more consideration for building density and the number of passengers that are related to pedestrian traffic flow. On the other hand, walkways in the residential and industrial area have been built by constructions of roadway with less consideration for building density and public transportation compared to commercial areas. There was less priority to walkway than spaces for automobiles in residential areas with medium building density. Third, urban renewal projects did not necessarily give more consideration for pedestrians, all other things being equal. The effect of redevelopment projects on walkway ratio was limited in their scope.

The quality of urban public space in general, and urban plazas in particular, has been a concern and a major challenge for designers in setting rules and principles to its layout and its design; functional and aesthetic. Environmental and behavioural research contributes importantly to the understanding of the interaction between user and space, to well respond to users’ real needs; and to have design grounded in social understanding. In pertinent literature, it is common to argue that the most important measures of the success of an open space is attributed to its location, design, and use. In this matter, space syntax provides theory and method to analyse the correlation between spatial properties and people behaviour; understanding this interaction helps in design, with improved design leading to more functional places. This paper instigates from the assumption that human behaviour in space is highly dependent on visibility generated by the built environment configuration, and it aims to look into the correlation between the use of space and spatial quantitative measures, i.e. the syntactic properties of an urban plaza. It also aims to look into how to integrate space syntax analysis as a tool in the plaza layout design process. This work will be carried out on the analysis and the design proposal of the most frequented public place in Biskra, Algeria, “El-Houria plaza”. The analysis process consists of overlapping space syntax method (Depthmap), behaviour mapping and various qualitative analysis techniques such as questionnaire and mental mapping. The results show that plaza spatial use is highly dependent on visibility and that the accessibility (visual access) and the connectivity to the surrounding are the key parameters to its functioning. The results also indicate that there is a high correlation between the human behaviour and the syntactic properties in selecting places to do definite activities. Furthermore, it is shown how visibility becomes the principal feature in the layout proposal of this plaza.

The major cities of China have experienced massive growth in the number and usage of dockless shared bicycle systems, such as Mobike and Ofo, which have replaced the traditional docked bicycle systems that are heavily regulated by local governments. However, docked bicycle systems are still in operation, especially in small and medium-sized cities that have docked shared bicycle systems run by the local government. This study aims to reveal the user choice behaviours for these two shared bicycle systems from the perspective of user experience and to find win-win strategies for the two systems, based on a case study of the Shunde district in Foshan city. The structural equation model and binary logit model are employed to identify the impact factors of the choice behaviours. It is found that user experience plays a key role in the use intention for two kinds of bicycles, including factors such as convenience, riding experience, and level of service. Age is the most important indicator distinguishing the user groups, as older people prefer docked bicycles while younger people prefer dockless ones. Docked and dockless shared bicycle systems operate together harmoniously in Shunde as they satisfy the demands of different user groups with little overlap. It is suggested that a new shared bicycle system, which combines the advantages of both docked and dockless shared bicycles, would be a better solution for small and mid-size cities.

Bicycles have been useful transportation tools for many years, and have recently become more popular in terms of leisure and health. Increasingly, people choose regular cycling activities as a means of becoming healthier and happier. However, the relationships between why people choose to cycle, what benefits they get from bicycle-based leisure activities, and how their well being is improved have not been fully explored. In this article, the relationship between cycling motivation, leisure benefits, and well-being is examined. Specifically, internal and external factors are considered in the motivation to cycle. Leisure benefits comprise physiological, psychological, and social benefits, while well-being consists of life satisfaction, self-confidence, and self-affirmation. A questionnaire survey is developed, and field data collected in China. A descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis are conducted. The results show that leisure benefits are positively affected by cycling motivation and both cycling motivation and leisure benefits have a positive impact on well-being. The practical implications of the results of the study are also discussed.