This paper therefore presents a critical review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal.It starts with the background of sustainable urban renewal, followed by the research methodology and an overall picture of the research progress.Selected papers are then discussed from three aspects,namely planning sub-system in sustainable urban renewal,stakeholders and their engagement,and evaluation of sustainable urban renewal.Finally,the discussion section includes a summary the findings from this study and recommendations for future related research. 2.BACKGROUND OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN RENEWAL Urban renewal has become a major element of urban policy in many countries and regions.Couch(1990)gave two reasons for its growing importance.Firstly, people increasingly moving to and living in urban areas,in particular old urban areas,give rise to the need for renewal of the urban fabric.Secondly,urban renewal responds to the concern of urban sprawl and large quantities of abandoned urban areas.Nowadays,it is closely involved with sustainable development. Definition of Urban Renewal Urban renewal,urban regeneration,urban redevelopment,and urban rehabilitation share similar meanings in the town planning field but are significantly different in terms of scale.Urban renewal and urban regeneration have very similar meanings and both involve work of a relatively large scale: urban renewal is defined as the process of slum clearance and physical redevelopment that takes account of other elements such as heritage preservation(Couch,Sykes,Boerstinghaus,2011);while urban regeneration is a comprehensive integration of vision and action aimed at resolving the multi-faceted problems of deprived urban areas to improve their economic, physical,social,and environmental conditions (Ercan,2011).By comparison, urban redevelopment is more specific and on a smaller scale,being any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses,such as the redevelopment of a block of townhouses into a large apartment building(De Sousa,2008),and urban rehabilitation is restoring a building to good condition,operation,or capacity (Zuckerman,1991).In summary,urban renewal(used interchangeably with urban regeneration throughout this paper),aims at improving the physical, social-economic and ecological aspects of urban areas through various actions including redevelopment,rehabilitation,and heritage preservation.This paper therefore presents a critical review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal. It starts with the background of sustainable urban renewal, followed by the research methodology and an overall picture of the research progress. Selected papers are then discussed from three aspects, namely planning sub-system in sustainable urban renewal, stakeholders and their engagement, and evaluation of sustainable urban renewal. Finally, the discussion section includes a summary the findings from this study and recommendations for future related research. 2. BACKGROUND OF SUSTAINABLE URBAN RENEWAL Urban renewal has become a major element of urban policy in many countries and regions. Couch (1990) gave two reasons for its growing importance. Firstly, people increasingly moving to and living in urban areas, in particular old urban areas, give rise to the need for renewal of the urban fabric. Secondly, urban renewal responds to the concern of urban sprawl and large quantities of abandoned urban areas. Nowadays, it is closely involved with sustainable development. Definition of Urban Renewal Urban renewal, urban regeneration, urban redevelopment, and urban rehabilitation share similar meanings in the town planning field but are significantly different in terms of scale. Urban renewal and urban regeneration have very similar meanings and both involve work of a relatively large scale: urban renewal is defined as the process of slum clearance and physical redevelopment that takes account of other elements such as heritage preservation (Couch, Sykes, & Boerstinghaus, 2011); while urban regeneration is a comprehensive integration of vision and action aimed at resolving the multi-faceted problems of deprived urban areas to improve their economic, physical, social, and environmental conditions (Ercan, 2011). By comparison, urban redevelopment is more specific and on a smaller scale, being any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses, such as the redevelopment of a block of townhouses into a large apartment building (De Sousa, 2008), and urban rehabilitation is restoring a building to good condition, operation, or capacity (Zuckerman, 1991). In summary, urban renewal (used interchangeably with urban regeneration throughout this paper), aims at improving the physical, social-economic and ecological aspects of urban areas through various actions including redevelopment, rehabilitation, and heritage preservation