The rapid increase in the aging population has raised significant concerns about the living conditions and well-being of elderly residents in old communities. This study addresses these concerns by proposing a Sustainable Urban Renovation Assessment Model (SURAM) specifically designed to enhance elderly-friendly environments in Chongqing City. The model encompasses multiple dimensions, including the comfort of public facilities, service safety and convenience, medical travel services, infrastructure security, life service convenience, neighbor relations, ambulance aid accessibility, commercial service facilities, privacy protection, elderly care facilities and service supply, and medical and health facilities. By employing factor analysis, the study reduces the dimensionality of the 49 indicator factors, allowing for a more focused and comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of aging-friendly renovation efforts. The main factors identified in the proposed model include community infrastructure security, elderly comfort of community public facilities, completeness and convenience of surrounding living services, and security and convenience of elderly care services. The results reveal that the age-appropriate comfort of public facilities plays a significant role in achieving successful aging-appropriate renovation outcomes. The findings demonstrate that by addressing specific needs such as safety, accessibility, and convenience, communities can significantly improve the quality of life for elderly residents. Moreover, the application of SURAM provides actionable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and community stakeholders, guiding them in implementing targeted initiatives for sustainable and inclusive urban development.

The holding of soccer events has an important impact on modern urban activities, which is conducive to the economic development, social harmony, cultural integration and regional integration of cities. However, massive energy is consumed during the event preparation and infrastructure construction, resulting in an increase in the city’s carbon emissions. For the sustainable development of cities, it is important to explore the theoretical mechanism and practical effectiveness of the relationship between soccer events and urban carbon emissions, and to adopt appropriate policy management measures to control carbon emissions of soccer events. With the development of green technology, digitalization, and public transportation, the preparation and management methods of soccer events are diversified, and the possibility of carbon reduction of the event is further increased. This paper selects 17 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 and explores the complex impact of soccer events on urban carbon emissions by using green technology innovation, digitalization level and public transportation as threshold variables. The results show that: (1) Hosting soccer events increases carbon emissions with an impact coefficient of 0.021; (2) There is a negative single-threshold effect of green innovation technology, digitalization level and public transportation on the impact of soccer events on carbon emissions, with the impact coefficients of soccer events decreasing by 0.008, 0.01 and 0.06, respectively, when the threshold variable crosses the threshold. These findings will enhance the attention of city managers to the management of carbon emissions from soccer events and provide guidance for reducing carbon emissions from soccer events through green technology innovation, digital means and optimization of public transportation.

Introduction: Food well-being of the population is one of the priorities of the Togolese government, which relies on the agricultural investment and food security Programme to increase national food production. In addition, the country relies on food imports to make up the shortfall. At the same time undernourishment and malnutrition remain high among the country’s population. This research analyzes food supply and its implications for household consumption in Grand Lomé, Togo. [Methods] The methodology used documents, a survey of 963 heads of household randomly sampled households and semi-structured interviews with 10 households and with Togolese food safety agency (ANSAT). Quantitative data were processed and analyzed using Excel spreadsheets R and R-Studio, while content analysis was applied to the verbal applied to the verbal statements collected. Results: Firstly, the results show that domestic agricultural production contributed an average of 91% of food supply between 2014–2017. The deficit is made up by food imports, which rose from 13.5% in 2014 to 15.4% in 2017. This translated into an acceptable food energy consumption of 2337 Kcal/head/day in 2017. Secondly, 81% of respondents recognize a strong food presence at consumer markets, except that the chi-square test applied to the data at the 5% threshold shows (p-value < 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶), indicates that this satisfaction is a function of place of residence. Despite this, persistent shortages affect more staple crops, livestock and dairy products, leading households to deprive themselves and buy food at affordable prices. Finally, we observe non-diversified diets marked by regular consumption of “cereals/legumes”, vegetables and beverages to the detriment of “tubers/roots”, “meat/fish”, “fruit” and “dairy products”. Conclusion: This research shows that food supply, although adequate, is not sufficient to ensure balanced, nutritious and culturally appropriate food consumption by urban households. Recommendations: To meet these challenges, the central government, in collaboration with urban communes and consumer advocates, must mobilize resources to create urban agricultural farms, strengthen food protection systems, distribute staple products directly to households and limit the importation of food that is hazardous to health.

Despite the apparent agreement today on the concept of sustainability, the means to achieve it holistically are still controversial. “Just sustainability” concept has recently gained traction, casting doubt on whether sustainability can be attained under capitalism. On the social level, many recent urban studies have been concerned with the concept of social justice and the distribution of resources and wealth as a means to achieving socially equitable sustainability. In this regard, a few questions are brought up: can social sustainability be achieved under capitalism? Are Islamic built environments a viable alternative? Many contemporary studies have described Islamic built environments as sustainable and strived for defining their sustainability criteria. However, they mostly focused on the built environment’s physical environmental aspects without relating them to the socio-economic spheres. Using the concepts of power and rights as key analytical tools, the paper examines a few capitalist utopian reform approaches and compares them in terms of their ability to achieve just sustainability with Islamic built environments. Several examples from primary Islamic history books will be used to examine Islamic built environments. It is concluded that Islamic built environments have attained the just sustainability that contemporary reform approaches sought to accomplish.

This study analyzes the role of innovation in the development of smart cities in Latin America. It focuses on how emerging technologies and sustainable strategies are being integrated into urban planning and urban development. In this sense, this study seeks to contribute to the smart city literature by answering the following research questions: (i) To what extent smart city innovative initiatives have been addressed in Latin America? and (ii) To what extent scholars have addressed sustainable innovation strategies in the smart city literature? To this end, this is the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of smart city research in Latin America, with a structured and systematized review of the available literature. This methodological approach allows cluster visualization and detailed analysis of inter-node relationships using the VOSViewer software. The research comprises 4 stages: (a) search criteria; (b) selection of documents; (c) software and data extraction; and (d) analysis of results and trends. Results indicate that studies on the Latin America region began to develop in 2012, with Brazil as a leader in this field and the tourism sector as the most relevant. Nevertheless, strong international collaboration was identified in co-authoring studies, underscoring a cooperative approach to solving common urban problems. The most active research area is technological innovation and sustainability, with focus on solutions for urban mobility, quality of life and smart governance. Finally, this work underlines the need to continue exploring the integration of technology in urban development, suggesting an agenda to guide future research to evaluate the sustainability and long-term impacts of smart city initiatives in Latin America. From the policy perspective, smart city initiatives need to be human-centered to boost smart solutions adoption and to guarantee long term local impacts.

The reference urban plan is an urban planning tool often used to orient the development of Chadian cities. However, expanding Chadian urban centers, such as Sarh, face challenges in implementing urban planning orientations of their urban plans within the set deadlines. The objective of this study is to identify the factors impeding the effective implementation of the reference urban plan for Sarh town. The methodology employed encompasses a literature review, individual interviews with urban planning experts, geographic information system (GIS) data, household surveys and statistical analysis. The results revealed that less than a quarter (19.72%) of the households surveyed were aware of the reference urban plan. The applied logistic regression model identified age, occupation and level of education as the main factors influencing public participation in the preparation of the reference urban plan. On average, 33.33% of the urban planning guidelines and 21.74% of the projected urban projects were implemented, with a difference of 1631.28 hectares (ha) between the projected plan and the actual plan for the town. Five factors were identified as contributing to the failure to implement the reference urban plan for Sarh town, including low funding, inadequate land management, a lack of political will, weak governance and poor communication. Consequently, participatory and inclusive planning approaches, effective financial mobilisation, strong governance, and the use of modern technologies such as GIS tools are recommended to enhance the implementation of urban planning tools.