Project: Urban Act: Integrated Urban Climate Action for Low-Carbon & Resilient Cities

As the China component of the Urban-Act has officially come to an end, it has compiled a brochure which documents outputs and outcomes of the project. It summarises project’s key activities alongside associated research reports, serving as an overview of the project’s implementation phase in China. The brochure outlines the project’s approach to supporting low-carbon and climate-resilient urban development, highlights achievements in areas such as spatial planning, low-carbon transport and regional knowledge exchange, and includes summaries of relevant policies.

This report adapts the concept of MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) from international climate policy to the field of territorial and spatial planning, extending its original scope. It evaluates the current application of MRV in urban spatial planning, identifies key challenges, and provides actionable recommendations—all through an assessment of selected local spatial plans in China.

The report outlines a strategy to integrate climate change considerations into the city’s territorial spatial planning. Aiming to achieve national “dual carbon” goals (carbon peak by 2030, carbon neutrality by 2060) and enhance urban resilience, the report evaluates Jiaxing’s current greenhouse gas emissions and proposes a multi-level control approach for city-wide and district-level implementation. The core strategy focuses on five key pillars: optimising the energy mix, fostering sustainable industrial development, advancing green transportation systems, promoting low-carbon building technologies, and enhancing ecological carbon sinks.

This report examines resilient transportation planning in Xiamen under the challenges of climate change, focusing on how urban transport systems can better adapt to extreme weather conditions. It analyses existing vulnerabilities in infrastructure and mobility systems and proposes strategies to enhance resilience through improved network connectivity, emergency response capacity, and climate-adaptive spatial planning. The report highlights the importance of integrating resilience into existing planning frameworks and recommends reinforcing monitoring systems, adopting smart technologies, and promoting coordinated governance to ensure transport system stability and rapid recovery.

This study establishes a technical framework for low-carbon and resilient detailed spatial planning in Xi’an. It clarifies the transmission mechanisms of “Dual-Carbon” (carbon peak by 2030, carbon neutrality by 2060) and resilience objectives from master plans to block-level implementation. Using a localised carbon accounting model, the research analyses the baseline emission and sequestration characteristics across industrial, residential, regeneration, and ecological urban units. Based on these findings, it constructs a differentiated regulatory indicator system specifically tailored to the unique attributes of each unit type. Finally, the study formulates mitigation and resilience strategies focusing on spatial layout, sustainable construction, renewable energy, and green mobility. Ultimately, this framework delivers standardised operational guidelines, providing a robust technical foundation to support Xi’an’s sustainable urban development.

This report proposes an integrated urban planning framework for carbon reduction and climate resilience, taking the city of Xi’an as a case study. It uses a unit-based approach, covering industrial, residential, renewal, and ecological units, and develops tailored indicator systems and strategies for each. The framework emphasises low-carbon and resilient spatial layout, green buildings, renewable energy systems, low-carbon transportation, and carbon sinks. It also introduces modular guidance combining carbon-reduction-led and resilience-led pathways, alongside practical case studies to demonstrate implementation. Overall, the report aims to contribute to the translation of national dual-carbon goals into actionable planning tools for sustainable and resilient urban development.

Urban biodiversity forms the foundation of healthy and stable urban ecosystems. This report presents a methodology for integrating urban biodiversity conservation into territorial spatial planning. The approach is organised into a five-step process: integrating data from multiple sources, assessing habitat quality, mapping species distribution, constructing ecological networks and developing implementation strategies. The report applies the methodology in Xiamen. Drawing on the identified habitat network, it proposes measures to improve ecological spatial patterns, strengthen restoration efforts, and incorporate additional biodiversity indicators into performance evaluation systems.