- The Integrated Urban Eco-system and Urban Sustainability    573 kb by    Huang, Luxin & Du, Shu | dosure@hotmail.co.uk    Short Outline The model of an integrated urban eco-system is an effective instrument for guiding urban development and ensuring urban sustainability. Abstract To date, the development mode of the human society is unprecedentedly challenged by aggravated resource depletion and environmental pollution. Informationalism and globalization have also expedited the pace of information flow and capital exploitation around the world. These phenomena are more evitable in the emerging economies of a number of developing countries. There is inevitably a need to re-understand and remodel the cities for their future transformation. A number of responding strategies have been put forward in the urban planning field. Some of them target at mechanisms between the cities and the nature, such as those of resource consumption vs. resource saving and those of environmental destruction vs. environmental conservation; Some target at mechanisms among cities themselves, such as those of regional competition vs. regional collaboration; Some others also target at the internal mechanisms of cities, such as the role of the civil society, etc. Urban issues have become too complex for urban planners to apprehend. To allow easier comprehension of these complex mechanisms, this study puts forward a theoretical model of an integrated urban eco-system including a brief introduction of its structure and subsystems and their dynamic relationships, as well as some urban case studies for application of the model. A set of indicators relevant to the subsystems of the model will also be examined for building an index system of urban sustainability. Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2010: Sustainable City - Developing World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper