Diachronic Analysis of Urban Regeneration Policies in Shanghai: Instruments, Modes, and Methods

Abstract

With growing concern toward sustainable urban regeneration (UR) and the inability of existing UR policy instrument frequency studies to distinguish the blurring content in policies, a systematic framework quantitatively analyzing the temporal evolution of the content of UR policies is necessary. This paper considers localized modes, incorporates methods from multidimensions of UR, beyond merely the frequency of policy instruments, and proposes the Supply–Environment–Demand–Mode–Method framework. Dynamic topic modeling was utilized to reveal the thematic evolution quantitatively based on 427 UR policy documents in Shanghai. The results reveal that: (1) the municipal governments concentrate on environment-side instruments, especially nonfinancial ones; (2) policies of demolition, conservation, and renovation overlap throughout history rather than separately distributed; (3) quantitative evidence is provided that ecology and culture are less prioritized in UR compared to other dimensions. This paper provides a data-support holistic view of UR evolution in Shanghai for urban planners and other practitioners; three channels to improve UR practice are also proposed. This research highlights more possibilities to study UR from perspectives of policy implementation, policy process, and cross-disciplinary arena in the future.