Low-carbon urban experiments from vision to reality: a systematic review of the literature from 2005 to 2020

Figures & data

Figure 1. Data collection process of low-carbon urban experiment research using the PRISMA method.

Figure 2. Number of articles related to low-carbon urban experiments from 2005 to 2020. (Academic attention on low-carbon urban experiments has increased greatly in the most recent decade.).

Figure 3. Review content of the low-carbon urban experiment research.

Figure 4. A timeline of low-carbon indicator development.

Figure 5. Categories of low-carbon urban experiment practices (a) from 2005 to 2015; (b) from 2005 to 2020 (top two practices in planning, energy and policy categories are shown).

Table 1. Number of articles citing cities and aggregated article citation numbers.

	Prescriptive visions	Top low-carbon practice categories	Evaluation	Citation index (aggregated article citation numbers)^a	Citations per article per year
Beijing	To become carbon neutral by 2050	Energy and transport	Its liveability does not rank at the top level	195.35	6.3
Shanghai	To play an exemplary role in low-carbon development for other cities	Energy and planning	The most common example in comparative studies of low-carbon cities	149.8	6.24
Shenzhen	To build a low-carbon pilot in China	Economy and Policy	Performed well in low-carbon development	92.98	5.17
Tianjin	To become a low-carbon and ecologically liveable city	Policy	Performing well in CO2 emission intensity, air and water quality and low-carbon lifestyles	82	7.45

Note: ^aDetermined by the number of articles multiplied by the articles’ average yearly citation numbers.

Figure 6. Keyword timeline of low-carbon urban experiment research from 2005 to 2020.

Figure 7. Research clusters of low-carbon urban experiment research from (a) 2005 to 2015 and (b) 2005 to 2020. (The colours in this figure mean different research clusters.).

Figure 8. The relationships among prescriptive visions, practical responses and evaluation methods in low-carbon urban experiment research.

Table A1. Classification of low-carbon practices in each category.

Category	Content	Example references
Planning	Low-carbon city experiments, low-carbon community, planning and design, planning and management, built environment, city construction planning, compact city, development strategy, environmental planning strategy, infrastructure, etc.	(Lehmann, 2013, 2012; Middlemiss & Parrish, 2010)
Energy	Energy consumption, cooling system, distributed energy resources, distributed energy systems, district heating, electricity demand, electricity utilities and residential consumers, energy circulation systems, energy feedback, energy management, and etc.	(Bin et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2016)
Policy	Institutional arrangement, policy innovation, action plans, behavior of local government leaders/policy innovation, circular economy promotions, Climate Challenge Fund, etc.	(de Jong, Wang et al., 2013; De Jong, Yu et al., 2013)
Economy	Industrial ecosystem, industrial structure upgrading, low-carbon tourism, tourism, urban-industrial symbiosis, affordable, business strategies, carbon trading, circular economy promotions, cleantech firms, etc.	(Song et al., 2020; Zeng et al., 2019)
Transport	Urban travel, transportation, daily travel, GHG accounting for public transport, travel behaviours, motorised travel, public bicycle systems, shared mobility, sustainable mobility, transport mode, transport system, transportation carbon emission, transportation mode, transportation policies, transportation sector, urban transport, etc.	(Gao et al., 2013; Qin & Han, 2013; Zhao & Lu, 2011)
Building	Building sector, built environment, construction industry, green building, green roof, green space construction, mass-retrofitting, nearby buildings, residential area, residential buildings, retrofit actions, reuse of heritage buildings, rooftop greenhouses, etc.	(Chen & Chen, 2019)
Society	Engagement initiative, grassroots action, green behavior adoption, human health individual behaviour, individual environmental behavior, individual’s behaviour, lifestyle, public awareness and acceptance, scholars and the public, social learning, etc.	(Cai et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2017)
Waste	Waste flow, solid-waste management system, waste-related greenhouse gas, waste-to-energy, etc.	(Sun et al., 2018)

Table A2. The major assessment aspects and corresponding indicators of low-carbon urban experiment development.

Major aspects	Core indicators	Example references
Economic aspects (E)	Per capita GDP; ratio of commercial final energy to tertiary sector employees; ratio of environmental protection spending to GDP; tertiary industry/GDP ratio; carbon productivity, etc.	(Tan et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2015)
Energy	Carbon emission per power produced; proportion of renewable energy; rate of energy-efficient appliance usage; proportion of renewable electricity; energy consumption per capita; energy consumption per unit of GDP, etc.	(Rodriguez et al., 2020)
Society	Percentage of affordable housing; noise level compliance area coverage; health care practitioners per 1000 persons; urban disaster prevention and reduction; urbanization rate; Gini coefficient, etc.	(Cai et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2017)
Urban mobility (UM)	Buses per capita; cars per capita; average distance between public transportation and residential building; percentage of built area within 500 m of public transit, etc.	(Tam et al., 2018)
Planning	Green urban land per capita; agricultural cultivation area per capita; urban land use per capita; forest coverage, etc.	(Dovey et al., 2017)
Waste	Solid waste per capita; proportion of waste collected and disposed; proportion of waste to energy; solid waste landfill rate, Noise level compliance area coverage; etc.	(Sun et al., 2018)
Water use	Recycling of water usage; Water consumption per capita per day; Per capita waste water generation; Drinking water quality, etc.	(Deakin et al., 2012)

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