According to Demographia (2020), there are 35 megacities with a population of more than 10 million people in the world. As 51.4% of the world’s population are living in built-up areas, the number of megacities has increased, alongside the dramatic expansion of urbanization and rapidindustrialization. The growth of cities is also driven by national policies thatfoster megacities, reinforcing their global competitiveness.

South Korea’s urban renewal policy emphasizes resident participation and multidimensional activities. This study identifies the determinants of resident satisfaction with five urban renewal projects implemented in South Gyeongsang Province, Changwon, Gimhae (Gaya, Jangyu), Sacheon, and Miryang. Multiple regression analysis was utilized for survey data from these five areas. Results reveal that the resident satisfaction was positively influenced by 1) the level of the resident’s opinions reflected in the project, 2) the expectations for improving the local economy, 3) the level of satisfaction with living environments, 4) the importance of improving neighbourly relations, and 5) the level of satisfaction with public hearings/discussions in the decreasing order of severity. Meanwhile, the 1) the need for urban renewal projects, 2) the importance of tourist visits, 3) the importance of improving living environments, and 4) the level of satisfaction with recreational/sports facilities negatively affected resident satisfaction with urban renewal projects in the decreasing order of severity. The aforementioned factors have significant implications to promote practical resident participation in the establishment of renewal strategies tailored to the regional contexts of South Gyeongsang Province.

Research on happiness determinants began in the 1970s in such fields as psychology and economics. While they tended to focus on individual variables, they have recently expanded to the built environment. Regarding the built environment, transportation systems—as opposed to land use—were mostly studied in relation to the transient happiness of satisfaction from one trip rather than overall happiness based on life satisfaction. By controlling for well-researched happiness determinants (i.e., the individual’s psychological and economic variables), this study sought to explore how the built environment, especially transportation system variables, affect overall happiness. To this aim, we used a partial least squares regression model with a total of 61 research variables and tested it using data from a 2018 Seoul survey (n = 5,515 household heads). Through using the 2018 data, we could evaluate the environment for cyclists and pedestrians, and taxi, subway, and bus users. Based on the analytical results, this study concludes that to promote happiness, the government would do well to implement marketing/branding strategies to heighten the identity of, and attachment for, the city (i.e., to increase the pride its citizens feel in calling it their home), and to improve transportation infrastructure for better mobility and accessibility (of motorized—rather than nonmotorized—transportation, particularly taxis and buses). Between nonmotorized transport methods, the pedestrian environment is more important in urban centers than in residential neighborhoods, and the cycling environment is largely considered less significant. These overall happiness-related findings on transportation systems stand in contrast to those from studies on transient happiness from a single trip.

This paper examined the impact of providing affordable rental housing through inner-city urban renewal projects in Australia. Providing affordable rental housing for lower-income households remains a challenge for planners, builders, policymakers and residents alike. Government intervention for inclusionary zoning in Australia has enhanced affordable housing supply but has also generated negative impacts such as NIMBY-ism, decreasing house price and urban sprawl. This study conducted in-depth interviews with housing and planning experts in affordable housing projects in Australia and evaluated the barriers and opportunities of providing affordable rental housing as stand-alone projects, or as part of urban renewal projects. This study found several existing challenges such as limited longevity of related policies and limited financing sources for renewal projects. The findings inform policymakers that the existing housing affordability issue can be tackled by adopting more innovative approaches such as negative gearing.

Vast populations have spread into cities and contributed to urban sprawl in China. Rural villages have not had enough time to self-renew and become directly involved in the urban fabric. As a result, rural villages have become urbanized. Throughout the shockingly speedy process of urbanization in China over the past four decades, the urban village has played an irreplaceable role in the city by accommodating a vast number of migrants, thus mitigating the problem of the increasing shortage of housing brought about by rapid urbanization. However, the long-standing, controversial question of how to renovate urban villages remains due to their unique characteristics. In recent years, instead of demolition, Shenzhen renew the urban villages by renovating the original village buildings (which are 7–8 stories tall) and converting them into rental apartments, as the planning policy of comprehensive renovation (zonghezhengzhi). Could the comprehensive renovation be applied to urban villages in the north of the country? In this study, we found that the formation mechanism and development of urban villages in the north and south are similar, and the challenges and contradictions in the process of transformation are alike. However, there are differences in spatial form and architectural style. The typical urban village in Beijing shows the form of quadrangular houses two stories tall or less in the north is relatively low in terms of building volume ratio. In addition, the spatial form is related to the commercial form of the urban village and also influences the income consisting of the villagers' collective share and rental income, which is derived from fixed assets (e.g. houses, factory buildings). In turn, spatial and commercial form affects the cost of the mode of transformation (demolition/redevelopment or integrated transformation). Therefore, we believe that regional differences in physical space should not be ignored in policy decisions and that different criteria should be considered and applied under different local policies.

In the smart city planning based on spatiotemporal big data, the mobile phone signaling big data is the most commonly used data source at the moment. This kind of big data has time and space dimensions and also significant human behavior attributes. According to the relevant Chinese law, the data has been anonymized before sharing, i.e. cannot be identified as a specific individual and cannot be restored again, thus is no longer regarded as personal information. In smart city planning, the mobile phone signaling big data is used to construct the basic dynamic analysis framework of "space-time-behavior". Even if the mobile phone signaling big data has been processed anonymously, it will inevitably show some specific location attribute information of mobile phone users. The anonymous track information can be matched to the corresponding geographical space, so as to mark the active location information of the information subject in a specific period of time. It can easily identify the specific location information such as the job and residence of mobile phone user, and even give user portrait. Existing technology shows that the mobile phone signaling big data is easy to be de-anonymized, and Anonymity rule are not applicable to the sharing of mobile phone signaling big data in the smart city planning. Mobile phone signaling big data belongs to personal sensitive information. Once leaked or abused, it is easy to infringe personal privacy of information subject. Therefore, only using current anonymization means to share the mobile phone signaling big data are not enough to protect the security of personal information in smart city planning, and sharing the mobile phone signaling big data should follow the basic principle of explicit informed consent. In special circumstances or scenarios, breaking through the basic principle of the mobile phone signaling big data sharing should have clear legal provisions and comply with legal procedures.

Nowadays, social vitality is one of the most important needs of human communities, as citizens particularly those living in megacities have less opportunity to think about themselves and their needs, and may suffer from depression. As happiness is influenced by numerous structures of urban community, it also can influence development process as well as excellence of citizens and urban society; thus, this subject has been studied more from a psychological and sociological point of view. Accordingly, all the indicators influencing happiness in city should be considered in planning to have a happy city. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate and identify criteria and sub-criteria of a happy city, as well as determining importance of these variables.

In this study, the research method is mixed in terms of data type; fundamental in terms of purpose, and descriptive-analytical in terms of the method of research. Qualitative data were collected using the documentary method and open questionnaire (first round of the Delphi method) and text analysis. Quantitative data were collected using the cross-sectional survey method with experts’ questionnaires (the Delphi technique in three rounds). Sample size included 30 Iranian academic authors; that were selected using purposive sampling method.

Results showed that, among 5 dimensions of happy city planning, economic, managerial-administrative are substantial, respectively. Among indicators, welfare and health were identified as the most significant indicators. Efficient management, social justice, mental-moral health, citizenship rights, income level, quality of life, urban security rate, and having a proper job were considered as the most important variables.

Thepresent study proposes a novel mixed-method approach to ascertain and explorethe socio-economic indicators, which help in assessing the impacts of theconstruction of rural roads. Rural road infrastructure often has direct orindirect socio-economic impacts (SEIs) on the target population. Assessment ofSEIs poses a wide range of challenges due to their multi-dimensional nature ofvarious factors and their qualitative and quantitative evaluation process.Thus, the present study suggests a unique mixed-method approach to integratemultivariate techniques under a multi-criteria fuzzy framework. The applicabilityof this approach is demonstrated by employing a case study of roads constructedunder the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in the Jhunjhunu district ofRajasthan, India. The findings of the study analysed a total of 33 sub-criteriaassociated with five main indicators, impacted by the construction of PMGSYroads. Sub-criteria contributing to education facility and quality ofneighbourhood have been found as the most significant effects. The results ofthe analysis presented in this study would benefit the respective StateGovernments to achieve sustainable rural development.

Violent conflicts in Indonesia that occurredat the end of the 1990s involved different socio-cultural groups. However, peoplegenerally denied that the conflicts had a strong motive in socio-culturalelements, such as ethnicity and religious differences. On the other hand, theeffect of conflict on the built environment told the opposite. The perceptionof conflicts differs from place to place. This paper aims to explore the spatialpattern of perception towards conflicts and the built environment. It employesboth quantitative data and qualitative data. The research distributed more than500 questioners in 3 different areas that experienced severe violent conflictsduring that time. The questionnaire asked what elements have the mostsignificant contribution to the conflicts. Also, a series of field observationidentifies the social-cultural component of the built environment. The findingconfirms that although people denied the difference in socio-economic-culturalelements is the main causal aspects of conflicts, the pattern demonstrates apotential linkage between them. This information would be useful for thepost-conflict intervention at the urban level.

Today’sarchitect and urban designer neglected the networked world's vast flowsdeveloped by other innovators. An urban space may consist of several networksystem series. Urban network capacity to evolve within multiple choicesconcerning connections or adaptive shall be considered ultimately in theplanning direction. As an adaptive principle, the network should be able tomodify its own structure, and it should be adapted to various changes andchanging needs and desire of its users. Adaptive network urbanism considers asa planning approach, which focuses on the dynamic system that can be evolvingdynamically. The application of adaptive planning can be developed throughanticipation and adaptation by preparing “plans” that may respond to the needs.This study applies the adaptive approach at the border area by proposing newnetworks on the existing infrastructure network to watch the “dynamicalinterplay” among areas, especially among Paloh district as a border area andSambas district as the capital city. This study is specifically tried toidentify the new links or expansion configuration by repeatedly proposing newlinks and re-calculations until it finds or gives alternatives for the bestconnection or “a prepared plan”. There are five types of “adaptive"approaches to be considered in developing the strategic areas from the researchfindings. These approaches are (1) network transforms or new link, (2) networkextension, (3) addition (new) node, (4) other supporting networks as asupplement network, and (5) inter-country connection to improve relationshipand cooperation.

Rapid urbanisation has been a factor affectingcities negatively and irreversibly in developing countries like India,adversely leading to depleting natural resources and promoting unbalanced anduneven urbanism. To handle the influx of population into core urban regions andto promote holistic, sustainable development, government and planning agenciesare now looking upon regional development. Developing countries like India haslaid plans for future urban corridor-oriented development. This study aims tounderstand the urban growth of two major developing cities influenced bytransport corridor through a methodological approach using multi-temporalsatellite data and its position in India's network of cities. Land use analysiswas validated with the aid of measures such as overall accuracy and kappastatistics, with good values of more than 85% and 0.75 respectively wereachieved. The hierarchical network analysis indicated five different clustersbased on the urban growth rate. Among these clusters, Bangalore, Ahmedabad andPune cluster was further shortlisted for analysis based on the urban transportcorridor affecting the growth of these cities. Cellular automata-based SLEUTH modelwas adopted in this work to carefully observe sub-division level details of theregion under the influence of the corridor. Exhaustive calibration, with threephases of coarse, fine and final, validation procedure along with statisticalfit measures reveal urban expansion for Ahmedabad region has witnessed anincrease from 497.50 km² (2017) to 826.24 km² (2025)while Pune region has experienced tremendous urban area transformation of 901.11km² in the year 2025 against 497.27 km² in 2017. Resultsof this analysis would help policymakers and planners to inculcate decisionsconcerning future urban trends accommodating safer, healthier, sustainable and liveableurban ecosystem.