Building Low-Carbon Cities: Assessing The Fast Growing U.S. Cities' Land Use Comprehensive Plans

Cities affect and are affected by climate change. Local land use comprehensive plans have an essential role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction. The study addresses two critical research questions: 1) How well do the fastest growing cities in the U.S. implement the low-carbon principles in their local comprehensive land use plans? and 2) How can local comprehensive land use plans be improved to promote low-carbon development? An evaluation protocol with five plan components and thirty-five indicators was developed to measure local land use planning capacity in building low-carbon cities. Results show that the majority of these cities have already established their comprehensive low-carbon city framework; however, they fail to fully incorporate specific low-carbon planning strategies into their plans. These cities can improve their local plan quality by enhancing the scientific basis of the plans, adopting more specific goals and policies, and expanding the planners' toolbox to achieve low-carbon city planning.