IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i5p660-d1392683.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smart Growth and Smart Shrinkage: A Comparative Review for Advancing Urban Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Yang Yang

    (School of International Affairs and Public Administration, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China
    Institute of Marine Development, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China)

  • Zhe Dong

    (School of International Affairs and Public Administration, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China)

  • Bing-Bing Zhou

    (School of International Affairs and Public Administration, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China)

  • Yang Liu

    (School of International Affairs and Public Administration, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China)

Abstract

In the context of ongoing global urbanization, the disparity in urban development, marked by the dual phenomena of urban sprawl and urban shrinkage at the regional level, has become increasingly evident. In this vein, two land-related governance strategies—smart growth (SG) and smart shrinkage (SS)—emerge as potential remedies to these challenges, targeting urban expansion and shrinkage, respectively. This study bridges the gap in the fragmented discourse surrounding SG and SS by conducting a comprehensive comparative review on the respective literatures. Utilizing the Scopus database, our research employs trend analysis, text and topic mining, time node analysis, and regional analysis, augmented by qualitative reviews of seminal papers. The findings reveal a notable shift in research focus, with interest in SS surging around 2010 (the number of SS-related papers published after 2010 accounts for 92.3% of the total number of the entire study period) as attention to SG waned, suggesting an impending paradigm shift in urban sustainability. The analysis indicates that SS research lacks the disciplinary diversity, thematic breadth, and empirical depth of SG studies, underscoring a need for a more robust theoretical foundation to support urban sustainability. Furthermore, while both SG and SS derive from environmental science foundations, SG predominantly addresses the physical and landscape attributes of urban areas, whereas SS focuses more on socio-economic dimensions. Our findings point to an intrinsic link between SG and SS, which could lay the groundwork for their integration into a unified theoretical framework to better advance urban sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang Yang & Zhe Dong & Bing-Bing Zhou & Yang Liu, 2024. "Smart Growth and Smart Shrinkage: A Comparative Review for Advancing Urban Sustainability," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:5:p:660-:d:1392683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/5/660/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/5/660/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Howley, 2010. "‘Sustainability versus Liveability’: An Exploration of Central City Housing Satisfaction," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 173-189.
    2. Gustavo Cattelan Nobre & Elaine Tavares, 2017. "Scientific literature analysis on big data and internet of things applications on circular economy: a bibliometric study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(1), pages 463-492, April.
    3. Raminta Pranckutė, 2021. "Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World," Publications, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-59, March.
    4. Marwan Omar Hassan & Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling & Noradila Rusli & Safizahanin Mokhtar & Walton Wider & Pau Chung Leng, 2023. "Urban Sprawl Patterns, Drivers, and Impacts: The Case of Mogadishu, Somalia Using Geo-Spatial and SEM Analyses," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-25, March.
    5. Justin B. Hollander & Jeremy Németh, 2011. "The bounds of smart decline: a foundational theory for planning shrinking cities," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 349-367, June.
    6. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    7. Nees Jan Eck & Ludo Waltman, 2010. "Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 523-538, August.
    8. Florian Bartholomae & Chang Woon Nam & Alina Schoenberg, 2017. "Urban shrinkage and resurgence in Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(12), pages 2701-2718, September.
    9. Thorsten Wiechmann & Karina M. Pallagst, 2012. "Urban shrinkage in Germany and the USA: A Comparison of Transformation Patterns and Local Strategies," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 261-280, March.
    10. Annegret Haase & Dieter Rink & Katrin Grossmann & Matthias Bernt & Vlad Mykhnenko, 2014. "Conceptualizing Urban Shrinkage," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(7), pages 1519-1534, July.
    11. Karen A. Danielsen & Robert E. Lang & William Fulton, 1999. "Retracting suburbia: Smart growth and the future of housing," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 513-540, January.
    12. Matthias Bernt, 2009. "Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 754-769, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zezhou Wu & Danting Zhang & Shenghan Li & Jianbo Fei & Changhong Chen & Bin Tian & Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari, 2022. "Visualizing and Understanding Shrinking Cities and Towns (SCT) Research: A Network Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Ruiying Liu, 2022. "Long-Term Development Perspectives in the Slow Crisis of Shrinkage: Strategies of Coping and Exiting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-30, August.
    3. Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, 2021. "Does One Decade of Urban Policy for the Shrinking City Make Visible Progress in Urban Re-Urbanization? A Case Study of Bytom, Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Xinyi Wang & Zihan Li & Zhe Feng, 2022. "Classification of Shrinking Cities in China Based on Self-Organizing Feature Map," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-24, September.
    5. Wenshi Yang & Fan Chen & Qianqian Wei & Zhenwei Peng, 2024. "Relationships between Resident Activities and Physical Space in Shrinking Cities in China—The Case of Chaoyang City," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Zhenshan Yang, 2019. "Sustainability of Urban Development with Population Decline in Different Policy Scenarios: A Case Study of Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Yuanping Wang & Mu Lin & Jingxin Gao & Zhaoyin Zhou, 2021. "Fading Attraction of the Shrinking City: An Empirical Study from an Urban Resource Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Shouzhong Zhang & Limin Wang & Xiangli Wu, 2022. "Population Shrinkage, Public Service Levels, and Heterogeneity in Resource-Based Cities: Case Study of 112 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    9. Wangchongyu Peng & Weijun Gao & Xin Yuan & Rui Wang & Jinming Jiang, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Differences in Determinants of City Shrinkage Based on Semiparametric Geographically Weighted Regression," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Bernt, Matthias, 2017. "„Keine unklugen Leute“. Die Durchsetzung des „Stadtumbau Ost“," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5(1/2), pages 41-60.
    11. Güldem Özatağan & Ayda Eraydin, 2021. "Emerging policy responses in shrinking cities: Shifting policy agendas to align with growth machine politics," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1096-1114, August.
    12. Florian W. Bartholomae & Chang Woon Nam & Alina Schoenberg, 2017. "Urban Resurgence as a Consumer City: A Case Study for Weimar in Eastern Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 6610, CESifo.
    13. Bozhidar Ivanov, 2021. "Narratives of Crisis: How Framing Urban Shrinkage and Depopulation Shapes Policy and Planning Responses in Spain, Germany and The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, October.
    14. Yeonsoo Kim & Jooseok Oh & Seiyong Kim, 2020. "The Transition from Traditional Infrastructure to Living SOC and Its Effectiveness for Community Sustainability: The Case of South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Iwona Kantor-Pietraga & Aleksandra Zdyrko & Jakub Bednarczyk, 2021. "Semi-Natural Areas on Post-Mining Brownfields as an Opportunity to Strengthen the Attractiveness of a Small Town. An Example of Radzionków in Southern Poland," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    16. Lisha Wang & Jian Wang & Xuepeng Qian, 2023. "Does the bullet train exacerbate urban shrinkage? Lessons from Japan," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(1), pages 187-212, February.
    17. Matthias Bernt & Annegret Haase & Katrin Großmann & Matthew Cocks & Chris Couch & Caterina Cortese & Robert Krzysztofik, 2014. "How does(n't) Urban Shrinkage get onto the Agenda? Experiences from Leipzig, Liverpool, Genoa and Bytom," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1749-1766, September.
    18. Tuba Bircan & Almila Alkim Akdag Salah, 2022. "A Bibliometric Analysis of the Use of Artificial Intelligence Technologies for Social Sciences," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(23), pages 1-17, November.
    19. Prener, Chris & Braswell, Taylor & Monti, Daniel J., 2018. "St. Louis's "Urban Prairie": Vacant Land and the Potential for Revitalization," SocArXiv bc7eh, Center for Open Science.
    20. Zaheer Allam & Ayyoob Sharifi & Simon Elias Bibri & Didier Chabaud, 2022. "Emerging Trends and Knowledge Structures of Smart Urban Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-29, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:5:p:660-:d:1392683. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.