Lectori Salutem – Towards Sustainable Urban Futures Through Inner City Restructuring
Editie: 32 - Inner City Restructuring
Published on: 23 mei 2025
Urbanization has surged globally, with over half of the global population now living in urban areas, this figure is expected to rise to over two-thirds by 2050 (Ritchie et al., 2024; UNFPA, n.d.). Cities are engines of economic growth, people move to urban areas in pursuit of better opportunities and a higher standard of living (O’Sullivan, 2019).
Yet, this progress brings complex challenges. Urban areas are under immense pressure to accommodate expanding populations while addressing environmental and social issues. Urban areas account for 70% of global CO₂ emissions, largely due to energy use in buildings, car-dependent transport systems, and industrial activities (UNEP, n.d.). Simultaneously, cities face growing spatial and social inequality, where affluent neighborhoods benefit from high-quality public services and infrastructure, while vulnerable communities face poor housing, limited services, and weak connectivity (Van Ham et al., 2021).
As urbanization continues, these issues will only worsen unless we act proactively. We face a critical question: How can we reshape inner cities to be more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable? In line with Sustainable Development Goal 11, inner-city restructuring offers an opportunity to regenerate our urban environments thoughtfully and equitably.
This requires a cohesive, multi-dimensional approach. Several strategies stand out:
- Densification. Urban densification increases population and building density within existing city boundaries. It supports more efficient land use, boosts public transport viability, and strengthens local economies. A compact city model is widely used to foster mixed-use neighborhoods with better access to functions, services, and jobs.
- Adaptive reuse. It involves repurposing existing buildings such as old factories, offices, or religious heritage while preserving their historical features. Adaptive reuse can significantly prolong the life cycles of existing structures, minimize demolition waste, and support circular construction practices.
- Urban greening. It introduces green spaces such as parks, green roofs, community gardens, and urban forests into dense urban areas. This strategy helps cities combat urban heat island effects, improve air quality, and enhance biodiversity (Wolch et al., 2014). Beyond this, urban green spaces provide residents with access to nature, promoting social cohesion and well-being. In this way, the urban greening approach can create more sustainable and livable urban environments.
- Digital co-creation tools. Digital tools play a pivotal role in facilitating the co-creation of urban spaces by bridging the gap between planners, policymakers, developers, and citizens. Interactive platforms, like digital twins and virtual reality (VR), allow multiple stakeholders to visualize development scenarios and collaboratively shape their built environments (Mačiulienė & Skaržauskienė, 2020). These tools make the planning process more inclusive, empowering citizens, particularly marginalized groups, to voice their preferences early in the design phase.
Importantly, these strategies are most effective when implemented in combination. A compelling example is the KnoopXL project in the Eindhoven station area. This ambitious initiative integrates densification, urban greening, circular construction, improved mobility, and public-private partnership to transform the area into a sustainable and inclusive district. KnoopXL illustrates how inner city restructuring can integrate multiple strategies in one single large-scale development.
To sum up, sustainable inner-city restructuring calls for creative, inclusive, and future-oriented thinking. By weaving together heritage, housing, mobility, ecology, and civic participation, we can make cities more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive.
On the author: Caixia Liu
| I am an Assistant Professor within the Real Estate and Urban Development group, where I began my tenure in September, 2024. I hold a PhD degree in the field of Regional and Urban Economics. My research interests focuses on sustainable urban (re)development, housing, and migration. |  |
References
Mačiulienė, M., & Skaržauskienė, A. (2020). Sustainable urban innovations: digital co-creation in European living labs. Kybernetes, 49(7), 1969-1986.
O’Sullivan, A. (2019). Urban economics. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Ritchie, H., Samborska, V., & Roser, M. (2024). Urbanization. Our world in data.
UNFPA. (n.d.) Urbanization. Retrieved March 23, 2025, from https://www.unfpa.org/urbanization.
UNEP. (n.d.). Cities and climate change. Retrieved March 23, 2025, from https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/resource-efficiency/what-we-do/cities-and-climate-change.
Van Ham, M., Tammaru, T., Ubarevičienė, R., & Janssen, H. (2021). Urban socio-economic segregation and income inequality: A global perspective (p. 523). Springer Nature.
Wolch, J. R., Byrne, J., & Newell, J. P. (2014). Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’. Landscape and urban planning, 125, 234-244.
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