Identification of community low-carbon renewal potential types based on the built environment and behavioral intention: A case study of Nanjing’s Central Urban Area.

Against the backdrop of built stock renewal and low-carbon transition, we constructed a two-dimensional evaluation framework covering built environment and behavioral intention to address the dilemmas in community renewal, namely "adequate spatial conditions but insufficient practical actions" and "strong willingness with poor implementation feasibility". Taking 35 communities in the central urban area of Nanjing as research samples, 766 valid questionnaire responses were collected.

We used the entropy weight-TOPSIS method, the Fogg behavior model and GIS spatial analysis  to quantitatively assess and classify the low-carbon renewal potential of target communities. The results revealed a widespread mismatch between community built environment and residents’ low-carbon intention. All communities were categorized into four types with distinct spatial distribution characteristics based on their matching degrees: the collaborative leading type (accounting for 6%), concentrated in the central downtown and riverside zones; the environment-leading type (37%), clustered in the central main urban area; the intention-leading type (46%), mostly located in the peripheral downtown and riverside new towns; and the dual-low constrained type (11%), scattered across outer riverside areas.