TITLE:
Bridging the Implementation Gap: A Holistic Approach to Urban Climate Governance
AUTHORS:
Benito De Ruschi, Wenjun Ma, Yuxi Li
KEYWORDS:
Urban Heat Island, Climate Maps, Urban Governance, Urban Planning, Shanghai
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.12 No.1,
March
21,
2024
ABSTRACT: As urbanization continues to
grow, urban climate issues such as urban heat island effect have emerged. The
“implementation gap” refers to the significant difference between the number of
effective methods available to tackle these problems and the few cities where
they have been implemented to some extent. Contrary to most literature, our
hypothesis is that this gap is due to the research not being structured in a
way that enables effective decision-making. Therefore, we propose an expanded
concept of urban climate maps that includes all scales of the city and stages
of urban development as a solution. Four case studies at different scales are
briefly analyzed to reinforce this point and provide a clearer idea of the
immense opportunity for cities to develop these climate maps.