A Future Outlook of Narratives for the Built Environment in Japan

Miho Kamei, Alessio Mastrucci and Bas van Ruijven
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Miho Kamei: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Hayama 240-0115, Japan
Alessio Mastrucci: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: The evolution of long-term sustainable societies is closely connected to the transformation of the physical built environment in which those societies operate. In this paper, we present a comprehensive set of narratives for the built environment in Japan, consistent with the shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) framework, to assess the future evolution of the adaptation and mitigation challenges. We focus on the linkage between sustainability factors and human living environments including urban form, buildings, and basic infrastructures. We introduce a new, sixth narrative to the SSPs, an alternative interpretation of SSP1. Whereas the original SSP1 assumes high societal and environmental sustainability combined with relatively high economic growth, the SSP1 variant does not highly rely on economic growth and is oriented towards a lower and more locally oriented consumption lifestyle. Nature-based solutions are integrated and examined in the new SSP1 narrative, which is aligned with the adaptation to the digital era with freedom of location. Recent global crises such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic may accelerate the transformation of societies. Therefore, this study attempts to imply the benefits and trade-offs of alternative pathways for the built environment.

Keywords: sustainable development strategies; long-term scenario analysis; SSPs; cities; nature-based solutions; well-being; beyond growth; regional circular economy; resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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