Chinese municipalities have developed a large stock of capital assets during a period of rapid growth and urbanization, but have yet to modernize asset management practices. Cities face challenges such as premature decline of fixed assets and spiking liabilities related to operating and maintaining assets. This paper evaluates the asset management practices in three selected small cities and towns in China, using a benchmarking assessment tool followed by an in-depth field assessment. The paper finds that overall performance is below half the international benchmark for good practice in all three cities. Management practices are considerably more advanced for land than for buildings and infrastructure. Key deficiencies in data availability and reporting, governance, capacity, and financial management indicate increased risks for local government finance and the delivery of public services. For small cities and towns where public revenues are often uncertain and limited, urban public services will be at risk of deterioration unless good asset management practices are put in place. The paper recommends strategic actions for upper and lower levels of government, to advance local asset management practices and facilitate the reform agenda.

The recent development of characteristic towns has encountered a multitude of challenges and chaos. Nevertheless, there have been many instances of information asymmetry due to the absence of an effective management model and an intuitive digital management system. Consequently, this has caused the erosion of public interests and inadequate supervision by public agencies. As society is progressing at a rapid pace, there is a growing apprehension regarding poor management synergy, outdated management practices, and limited use of technology in traditional construction projects. In today's technologically sophisticated society characterized by the “Internet+” and intelligent management, there is an urgent requirement to identify a more efficient collaborative management model, thereby reducing errors caused by information asymmetry. This paper focuses on the integration of building information modeling (BIM) and integrated project delivery (IPD) for collaborative management within characteristic towns in the PPP mode. By analyzing the available literature on the application status, this study investigates the implementation methods and framework construction of collaborative management while exploring the advantages and disadvantages. On this basis, this study highlights the problems that arise and provides recommendations for improvement. Considering this, the application of the BIM-based IPD model to characteristic towns in PPP mode will enhance the effectiveness of collaborative management among all parties involved, thereby fostering an environment that facilitates decision-making and operational management in the promotion of characteristic industries.

Over the past 50 years, urban planning documents have been drawn up in sub-Saharan African cities without any convincing results. The study of secondary towns in Chad shows that these planning documents have been hampered by natural and man-made factors. The aim of this study is to determine the factors hindering the implementation of planning documents in the town of Pala in Chad. To carry out the study, a methodological approach (using quantitative and qualitative data) based on a questionnaire and interview survey was deployed for data collection. With a sample of 300 households surveyed, the main conclusions of the study show that all the factors identified, such as water erosion with a rate of 17.7 T/Ha/year, expose the town to various risks. Demographics, on the other hand, represent a lesser and therefore acceptable challenge. As far as exogenous factors are concerned, the level of education of the head of household is a determining factor in the implementation and acceptance of urban planning documents in Pala. Confirmatory factor analysis and the Chi² test revealed that consideration of stakeholders’ needs and their inclusion in the process of drawing up these documents are factors that significantly influence their implementation. In contrast, age, gender and other variables did not reveal any significant anomalies in our analyses. Consequently, future efforts to implement Pala’s planning documents must be based on community participation and awareness of the acceptance of these documents, which are necessary in a process of decentralization and urban planning.

The scientific discourse on university towns (UT) has progressed for a long time, with a surge of interest in recent years. However, a global overview of the research conducted on this topic have yet to exist. This paper aims to re-examine the relationship between UT and urbanization in literature. Built environment and people are often the most talked aspects in UT literatures. The variety of definitions remains largely uncharted. Policies behind UT development are also rarely studied. This article used an R studio-based bibliometric literature review to synthesize findings from various scientific literature. Keywords related to university towns and urban were used in digital search engines to examine and analyse the literature. Results revealed a significant gap in scientific research on critical theoretical concepts that planners can use as a guide in creating, formulating, and evaluating UT, especially in developing countries. This study promotes simplification of existing literature by examining the impact of UT on the stakeholders involved.

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.