Achieving the dual development of rural revitalization and urbanization is an important strategic goal of China’s current modernization. Rural population and settlements are the main components of the countryside in traditional agricultural areas, and play an important role in the development of the countryside itself in terms of urban and rural land use and in the formation of urban and rural development patterns. This study analyzes the spatial and temporal changes in rural populations and settlements at the township level, as well as the degree and type of coupled development. A framework for urban–rural development relationships based on different types of coupled development is proposed, and a model of urban–rural forces is constructed to derive the spatial pattern of urban–rural development at the township level that may be formed in the future. Our study shows that the rural population and settlements in the study area are characterized by significant spatial and temporal dynamics, indicating that traditional rural areas are in a process of rapid development and change. The results of the township-level coupling measurements present four types of development in terms of the spatial pattern of urban–rural development: A-type is most likely to produce new cities or satellite towns in the Jixi–Harbin–Qiqihar area in the future; B-type is the fastest dying area in the future, located in the Harbin and Qitaihe clusters, with a tendency to merge into Harbin; C-type is the area to be focused on in the future to attract population and strictly control the growth of the rural settlement area to avoid it turning into B-type; D-type may develop regional township centers in the future in the combined area of Jiamusi City, Suihua City and Mudanjiang City. The results of the study provide experience in realizing rural revitalization according to local conditions. The new spatial pattern of urban–rural development provides an important reference for formulating land use policies, optimizing urban–rural land allocation and realizing integrated urban–rural development strategies.

The administration and management of urban transport has become an urgent need, in the context of the increasing congestion problems and the environmental and economic damage, resulting from rapid urban expansion witnessed by the Algerian cities in recent times, in order to achieve prosperity and quality of urban life. It became necessary to use the tools of modern technology, which administrative and technical departments are seeking to use primarily to support ways of decision-making and actions required. Boosted by high capabilities in the statistical data and other information is stored, and coordination and tabulation, with the possibility of installation and analysis by operations. Especially against the inability of traditional methods, which have become less able to cope with the changes that led to the urban dynamic currently experienced by urban communities in our country. This research aims to employ geographic information systems in the administration and management of the urban transport network, facing both the population and the local administration of the city of Batna. Which was chosen as a model for major Algerian cities, which is suffering more than ever of transportation bottlenecks, as well as the unintended damage for these networks and other networks. Hence the importance of the subject of our research, which aims to use GIS MapInfo systems as a means to snipe (Data Capture) and storage (Data Storage) and address (Data Processing) and directed by spatial information (Spatial Data) and link them to the descriptive information (Attribute Data). To develop a modern digital data and charts the base of each of these elements of the urban service lines equipment and mechanisms, ... etc. As a tool available to those creating and carrying out urban spaces, as well as decision-makers. It was concluded that the possibilities offered by this system would facilitate the processes of monitoring and management in order to ensure the quality of the service.

Urban rivers and waterfronts play a vital role in the ecological, social, and economic fabric of cities, providing not only aesthetic value but also serving as important ecosystems that contribute to the overall well-being of urban environments. However, many urban rivers, including the Beirut River in Lebanon, face challenges such as pollution, neglect, and the loss of recreational and ecological value due to urbanization and industrialization. According to the Lebanese MOE (Ministry of Environment), almost 70% of Lebanese rivers are polluted due to untreated waste management systems and which leads to undrinkable water and possible flooding disasters if not treated. This study addresses the problem of abandoned and degraded spaces along the Beirut River riverside through the application of urban acupuncture, a strategic approach that targets specific points in the urban environment to stimulate positive change and regeneration. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of implementing small-scale ‘sensitive urban points’ known as urban acupuncture as the method for regenerating the Beirut River riverside, with the hypothesis that targeted interventions through Blue Urban Acupuncture or Aqua-puncture- can lead to significant improvements in the ecological, social, and economic aspects of the area that re-connect the people of Beirut with its river. The methodology involves a multidisciplinary approach that integrates urban design, and community engagement, and analysing similar examples of different approaches through creating a comparative table. Data collection includes environmental assessments of water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem health, as well as social surveys to understand community needs and perceptions. By applying urban acupuncture principles to the Beirut River riverside, this study seeks to demonstrate how strategic interventions can lead to the regeneration of abandoned spaces, improve the overall quality of the urban environment, and create sustainable and inclusive riverside landscapes that benefit both the environment and the community.

Infrastructure and urban network operators, city users and industrialists are faced with complex issues to ensure the sustainability of the service, maintain, operate and develop their urban sys-tems, while integrating environmental, economic and societal impacts and being resilient to un-expected geopolitical and climatic upheavals. Urban Digital Twins (UDTs), i.e., digital twins for smart cities and territories are considered as promising tools that can enable all stakeholders to collaborate across disciplinary silos and foster digital transformation in urban and territorial pro-jects to ensure sustainability, resilience and increased inventiveness. However, a widely acknowledged challenge to address in the application of UDTs is the lack of interoperability. One significant barrier is the difficulty that stakeholders have in understanding the level of complexity hidden behind this challenge, and thus the adoption of an adequate interoperability technique. This paper proposes a conceptual framework, which is unique for understanding the various lev-els of interoperability required in deploying and using the full potentials of UDTs. We show how such a high-level modeling approach supports the symbolic manipulation of UDTs interoperabil-ity notions and requirements, and thus eases the design of appropriate solutions for large-scale in-teroperable UDTs.

Rational delineation of urban–rural boundaries is a foundational prerequisite for holistic urban and rural development planning and rational resource allocation. However, the results of division of urban–rural boundaries extracted using a single data source are non-comprehensive. To address this problem, the present study proposes a method for using multiple sources such as population data, nighttime light data, land use, and points of interest (POI) data to extract urban–rural boundaries. Considering Guizhou Province for a case study, we here present a two-step method for identifying urban–rural boundaries. First, the random forest model was combined with the dasymetric mapping method to obtain the population spatialization data with a 30-m resolution in the studied province. Second, using the breaking point method, we extracted the urban–rural boundary for Guizhou Province in 2020 based on the spatialized population. This method fully integrated the benefits of various data and judiciously extracted the boundaries of the main urban areas and small- and medium-sized towns of each city in the study province at the same spatial scale. The stratified random sampling method revealed that the average overall accuracy was 88.05%. The method proposed has certain universality and application value and allows identifying the urban–rural boundaries more accurately and practically.

This research delves into the integration of green roofs with Building Information Modeling (BIM), a pivotal advancement in sustainable urban construction. Aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 11, the study explores how this integration can address global challenges like climate change and resource depletion. Using the Dynamo Visual Programming Language within Autodesk Revit, the research develops a computational modeling approach for green roofs, focusing on their thermal and structural characteristics under varied environmental conditions. Key findings demonstrate the significant influence of substrate and drainage material combinations on green roofs’ thermal performance, highlighting the need for tailored designs based on climatic conditions. The study also emphasizes the importance of considering structural performance in both dry and saturated conditions for overall building integrity. The research identifies gaps in current practices, such as limited focus on specific green roof materials and reliance on certain software tools, suggesting the need for broader material selection and software adaptability. Future research directions include expanding material selections, exploring diverse environmental conditions, and integrating green roofs with various BIM software platforms. The study's implications extend to stakeholders in the construction industry, offering a framework for architects, urban planners, and policymakers to design and implement green roofs aligned with environmental goals. This work contributes to the field by proposing a novel approach to sustainable construction, integrating ecological design with digital technology, and setting a new benchmark in the integration of green roofs with BIM. By addressing these aspects, the research paves the way for future developments in sustainable urban construction, enhancing the efficiency, sustainability, and resilience of urban communities in line with global sustainability objectives.

In the present work, a study has been carried out on the contamination of heavy metals in urban dust deposited on the roads of the city of Cartagena (Spain), in order to know the content of metals such as Ni, Zn, Pb, Cd, Cr and Cu. Likewise, the possible relationship of the concentration of heavy metals with the color of the sample, level of magnetism and traffic density was studied. Contamination was evaluated using several indices such as contamination factor (CF), enrichment factor (EF), geoacumulation index (Igeo), pollutant load index (PLI) and ecological risk index (RI). A total of 88 samples were taken in the urban area of Cartagena, and the metals were determined by acid digestion and measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The concentration of heavy metals in urban dust from Cartagena was Zn (672 mg/kg) > Cu (248.9 mg/kg) > Pb (227 mg/kg) > Cr (82.7 mg/kg) > Ni (47.7 mg/kg) > Cd (4.1 mg/kg). Contamination levels were high in Pb, Zn, Cd and Cu, according to environmental indices. A correlation was found between magnetism and metal concentration, which was repeated for all metals except Cd. Dark-colored samples contained higher metal concentrations than light-colored samples. Meanwhile, streets with medium and low traffic intensity were found to have higher concentrations of heavy metals. This study's objective was to identify pollution hotspots caused by heavy metals in dust in the urban ecosystem of Cartagena city.

Since China’s economic reform launched in the late 1970s, rural industrial parks (RIPs) have played a crucial role in the rise of the manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), transforming the former agricultural land into a location of world-famous factories. However, as China has put forward higher requirements for economic development and stricter control measures for environmental pollution, RIPs with low-end industries and low efficiency present an urgent need for renovation and upgrade. By analyzing the spatial and socioeconomic cross-sectional dataset of rural industrial parks in Nanhai District of Foshan City, this paper attempts to classify the existing industrial parks into groups and propose corresponding redevelopment strategies. The results of the spatial analysis show that the spatial distribution of rural industrial parks is closely related to their location and transportation conditions. Failure of the market has resulted in large tracts of advantageous land being taken up by inefficient industrial parks. Cluster analysis and overlay analysis are used evaluate the difficulty of redevelopment and divide the industrial parks into three clusters: retained RIPs, medium-term-removed RIPs, and near-term-removed RIPs. It is shown that some of the industrial parks are still in good form while the majority need substantial reconstruction. Taking economic and institutional factors into consideration, the authors put forward that different strategies should be adopted for the future renovation of medium-term-removed and near-term-removed RIPs.

Urban vitality is an important reflection of a city's development potential and urban quality. This study uses exploratory spatio-temporal big data such as social media check-ins to portray the spatio-temporal evolution of urban vitality at the subdistrict scale in Changsha, a city in central China, from 2013-2021, and finds that urban vitality in Changsha exhibits central agglomeration and outward circling expansion over time; and then use Geodetector and spatial regression analyses are used to explain the interactive effects and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the spa-tial elements of subdistrict form, subdistrict function and subdistrict economy on urban vi-tality. The results show the following: (1) The subdistrict form and subdistrict function dimen-sions have a significant effect on urban vitality, and the effect of the economic dimension of the subdistrict is not significant. (2) The interaction effect of the density of entertainment and leisure facilities and the density of business office facilities in subdistrict function is the dominant factor in the change of urban vitality. (3) Under the spatio-temporal effect, land use diversity and park facility density have the strongest positive effect on urban vitality; road density and shopping facility density have the weakest effect. The study aims to provide a reference for the optimization and allocation of spatial elements of subdistricts in sustainable urban development and urban renewal, to achieve the purpose of urban vitality creation and enhancement.

Climate change represents a prevalent challenge confronted by humanity, and with cities being one of the regions most heavily impacted by such change, enhancing their climate resilience is paramount in adapting to and mitigating the associated risks and losses. This article evaluates the climate resilience of 270 major cities in China by creating an urban climate resilience indicator system centered on exposure, vulnerability, and resilience. The article analyses the spatial and temporal evolution trend of climate resilience in Chinese cities, as well as the source of regional differences using Kernel density analysis and the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition. The article then explores the influence of financial investments on urban climate resilience, considering the moderating effect of urbanization rate.

This study investigates the intricate relationship between Venezuelan migration and urban growth in Colombia from 2018 to 2021. The study employs remote sensing data and social network metrics to uncover migration patterns and their impact on urban expansion. The methodology consists of three stages. Firstly, nighttime satellite imagery is used to analyze year-over-year urban growth in Colombia. Secondly, social network data estimates Venezuelan migration, overcoming challenges of underreporting and informal border crossings. Lastly, an econometric analysis explores the quantitative link between Venezuelan migration and urban growth, integrating socioeconomic variables to address endogeneity. The findings reveal the complex interplay of Venezuelan migration, socioeconomic factors, and urban growth. The study outlines remote sensing analysis, introducing the Anthropogenic Footprint Expansion Index (AFEI) to quantify urban growth. Facebook API data estimates migration trends and explores socioeconomic impacts on urban expansion. The analysis uncovers migration, poverty, aging, and urban population proportion as key factors affecting Colombia's urban landscape. Furthermore, the research underscores how Venezuelan migration affected short-term urban expansion pre- and post-COVID-19. Migration had a notable effect before the pandemic, but this influence waned afterward. The study highlights migration's short-term nature and emphasizes age demographics' role in medium-term dynamics.

Examining the clustering characteristics and fluctuations within urban areas during peak hours through the lens of bike-sharing is of utmost importance in the optimization of bike-sharing systems and urban transportation planning. This investigation adopts the principles of urban spatial interaction network construction and employs streets as the fundamental units of analysis to model bike-sharing activities during morning and evening peak hours within Beijing's six central districts. Subsequent to this, a comprehensive analysis of the network's structural attributes was carried out. A walktrap method rooted in modularity analysis was introduced to discern and scrutinize the clustering patterns and characteristics of communities within the network across different temporal intervals. Empirical findings reveal a predominant usage pattern of shared bicycles for short-distance travel during both morning and evening peak hours. Notably, distinctive community structures manifest during these periods, characterized by two large communities and multiple smaller ones during the morning peak, while the evening peak showcases a single large community alongside several medium-sized and smaller ones. Moreover, the extended interaction radius points to an expanded geographic range of interactions among streets. These findings bear significant implications for the management of urban transportation, bike-sharing enterprises, and urban residents, proffering valuable insights for the optimization of bike-sharing schemes and transportation strategies.

This research focuses on monitoring the spatiotemporal changes of urban surface water in Dhaka City from 1990 to 2021, utilizing satellite imagery and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Surface water is essential for urban, environmental, and agricultural ecosystems, and its dynamics have significant implications for water resource planning and environmental management. The main objectives of this study are to assess the extent of urban surface water coverage over the last three decades and identify trends of water loss or gain in the study area. The study employs Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS imagery, integrating GEE with machine learning coding and WRI techniques to extract and analyze surface water data efficiently. Traditional remote sensing methods for dynamic monitoring are time-consuming and cumbersome, but GEE offers a user-friendly and accurate approach, providing easy access to satellite data and cloud-based processing. The results reveal a concerning trend in urban surface water coverage, indicating a significant reduction from 36.23 km² in 1990 to 5.83 km² in 2021, representing a loss of approximately 20 square kilometers or 45 percent of surface water over the last three decades. The decline is attributed to factors such as unplanned urban expansion, rapid real estate development, and increased industrial and economic activities in the study area. The developed algorithms utilizing GEE offer valuable insights into the maximum and minimum extent of surface water, enabling effective surface water planning and management. These findings contribute to sustainable water resource management and environmental preservation in Dhaka City.

Exotic plants are usually problematic for the native species where they coexist. This study evaluated the effect of naturalised alien Cenchrus echinatus L. on native plants in the urban vegetation. A field trial was conducted to assess the effect of this species on cover and diversity of the native vegetation. The allelopathic potential of such species was examined. Plots comprising C. echinatus had lower cover of some native species. Lower floristic diversity was observed at more dense cover of this plant. The soil under Cenchrus attained lower N, P and K contents. This soil had no effect on germination and growth of the native species. It also comprised germinable seeds of some species which were absent from the standing vegetation. Exotic C. echinatus may exert a negative effect on the native vegetation of the urban plant communities. Dense cover of Cenchrus may inhibit germination of native species, leading to reduction in their cover. The reduction in cover and diversity of native species was not attributed to allelopathy. These results suggest that naturalised C. echinatus may be more competitor than the native ones, particularly at higher densities. Furthermore, it may represent a threat for the native plants in the urban vegetation.

Based on multi-source remote sensing data, scenario analysis, and model simulation, the Pareto optimal solutions for water supply, water purification (N retention), and carbon storage and sequestration services under different scenarios were sought by adjusting its land use structure. The results showed that. In Scenario 1(S1), the water supply service needs to increase by 86.820 to 11.211 billion cubic metres, the water purification (N retention) service needs to decrease by 11,400 to 11,700 tons, and the carbon storage and sequestration service need to decrease by 2.070 to 2.487 billion tons. In Scenario 2(S2), the water supply service needs to increase by 8.243–10.666 billion cubic metres, the water purification (N retention) service needs to decrease by 11,300–1.10 million tons, and the carbon storage and sequestration service needs to decrease by 2.033 to 2.466 billion tons. In Scenario 3 (S3), the water supply service needs to increase by 7.832–11.437 billion cubic metres, the water purification (N retention) service needs to decrease by 1.16–10,800 tons, and the carbon storage and sequestration service needs to decrease by 19.220 to 2.380 billion tons. After land use optimisation and adjustment, the S3 ecological land structure is complete and consistent with the vision of ecological protection and urban development in the study area, which is the optimal scenario. After optimising the S3 ecosystem service supply pattern, the water supply, water purification (N retention), and carbon storage and sequestration services could connect the western and eastern ecosystem service supply areas, balance the overall ecosystem service supply pattern of the study area and meet the demand for ecosystem services. The results can guide regional land planning and ecosystem service management optimisation.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of urban garden activities on participants' Perceived restorativeness, resilience, sense of community, and stress reduction. Ninety individuals who agreed to participate to the experiment were divided into experimental and control groups. To collect data 16 sessions of urban garden activities were conducted every two weeks from May to November of 2022. Perceived Restorativeness Scale, Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale, Sense of Community Index, and Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument were employed to measure participants’ psychological effects. To evaluate physiological effect salivary cortisol tests were performed. The results of the study revealed that urban gardening activities influenced on participants' physiological and psychological reactions in positive ways.

The report [1] shows that in many European cities the sewer system is older than 40 years, potentially reducing their ability to cope with more intense pluvial flooding [2] addition to climate change, urbanization is an important factor increasing the flooding risk, as it increases of impervious surfaces. Flash floods are particularly troublesome, causing not only the overloading of drainage systems [3], but also urban transport disruption, affecting human health, and contributing to pollution due to untreated sewage discharges [4]. Pluvial floods in urban areas are caused by short-duration precipitation, high intensity and on small scale. Such rainfall is difficult to predict and does not always apply to catchment areas. In Poland, heavy rainfall lasts relatively short, from a few minutes to a few, at most, several hours [5]. The method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to rank the importance of criteria characterizing exposure in urban areas. The ranking is based on expert judgements. The article focuses on exposure which is one of the components of risk. Geographical Information System (GIS) is integrated with Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to evaluate exposure of urban area on pluvial floods.

Residents’ perceptions on ecosystem services (ESs) provided by urban green spaces (UGSs) are vital for developing sustainable cities. However, there has been limited research on this issue in Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to assess Malaysians’ perceptions on ESs provided UGSs and how their perceptions are influenced by different socio-demographic factors. We used a structured online questionnaire and obtained 645 responses on 16 ESs from regulatory, cultural, and supporting ES categories. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regressions were used for data analysis. In general, city dwellers have high positive perceptions on ESs provided by UGSs. Their perceptions for global climate regulation, noise buffering, pest regulation, spiritual, and research and education services would likely to significantly increase as they grow older. Households with moderate income have significantly greater perceptions of microclimate regulation, air filtration and aesthetic services. Having non-tertiary level education would significantly lower their perceptions of global climate and microclimate regulation, spiritual, aesthetics, and recreational services. Tertiary educated residents with non-environmental degrees also showed similar associations. Infrequent visits to UGSs would likely to significantly reduce the perception of global climate regulation, noise buffering, runoff reduction, erosion control, spiritual, and aesthetics services. People living far (>5km) from the UGSs also have significantly lower perceptions of microclimate regulation, air filtration services. Suggestions are made to incorporate ESs related content in pre-university curriculum and establishing small parks in neighborhoods to improve knowledge and uses of UGSs. These findings would assist urban planners designing environmentally sound urban policies and thereby improving human wellbeing in the cities.

The size of the home is considered the most critical issue affecting the quality of life. This can be measured by the quality of the house and its environment. This paper highlights the housing quality index at the urban axis level in Bistrita-Nasaud county and the impact of socioeconomic activities on the index. The Household Quality of Life Index (HQLI) was calculated based on 11 variables. Household quality of life comprises two distinctive indices: the Housing Conditions Index (HCI) and the Asset Possession Index (API). The study found a variation in the housing condition variables across the urban focus areas. The impact of the socioeconomic environments is disproportionately dependent on the social-economic profile of the urban environments that make up the Urban Axis and the related economic activities that take place in the area of influence in the administrative-territorial units and the variability of the Housing Conditions Index This can be measured by the quality of the house and its environment. This paper highlights the housing quality index at the urban axis level in Bistrita-Nasaud county and the impact of socioeconomic activities on this index. The study area comprises territories in the municipality of Bistrita. The socio-economic context of the area has been the basis for understanding the patterns of evolution identified in the urban landscape, and being a driver in ongoing urban transformations and processes. The impact of the socio-economic is disproportionate to the socioeconomic profile of the urban environments that make up the Urban Axis and the economic activities related to the economic activities taking place in the catchment area in the administrative-territorial units, hence the variability of the Housing Conditions Index which is a system Housing Quality Indicator (HQI) is a tool for measuring and evaluating housing systems based on quality and not just cost.

Towns emerged as dynamic economic and political centers during the Middle Ages, giving rise to the emergence of new social classes. As a result of these functions, a new relationship began to be forged with the rural world, which supplied towns with foodstuffs that satisfied new social demands. Archaeobotanical analysis (carpology) allows us to understand the flow of cash crops by tracing seeds and fruits produced in the countryside that were consumed in and redistributed from the towns. The study of waterlogged contexts from medieval archaeological sites in the Kingdom of Galicia (Santiago de Compostela, Padrón, and Pontevedra) has provided a set of species that played a crucial role in the economy of the urban dwellers and that possibly were related to differential access or food preferences. Evidence for fruits (grapes, chestnuts, figs, apples, and cherries, among others), garden crops (melon), and cereals (foxtail millet, rye, naked wheat, and oat) has been documented. Broomcorn millet is particularly abundant, demonstrating that it was important for subsistence. Some of the species found (medlar and turnip/grelo) are novel in the archaeobotanical literature of the medieval period in the Iberian Peninsula.

Field observations of external wounds associated with two common tree injection methods compared open (plug-less) and sealed (plug) systems in green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marshall) trees . A wound from any cause within 1.37 meters above the ground was common with 28.8% of all trees. The open system had statistically fewer (p<0.001) trees with at least one wound (11.6% of trees) than the sealed system (47.4% of trees). The open system had fewer (P<0.001) wounds (0.17, 0.04 SE) per tree and a smaller (P<0.001) total wound area (25.5 cm2, 8.7 SE) per tree, compared to the sealed system wounds (1.14, 0.13 SE) per tree and the total wound area (99.7 cm2, 16.2 SE) per tree. The incidence of a tree with a wound(s) within 1.37 m above the ground was 7.2 times more likely with trees treated though the sealed system. Wounds in the sealed system were observed to appear to have a high rate of improper application of plugs, which was associated in 77% of the cases to explain the wounds. Implications of study results are further provided to best protect ash trees, while at the same time reducing the incidence external wounding on ash trees.

The urban heat island (UHI) is mostly due to urbanization. This phenomenon in concert with the high temperatures caused by global climate change may profoundly affect human thermal comfort, which can influence human productivity and morbidity especially in spring/summer period. The main objective of this investigation was to determine changes in degree of thermal comfort of Mexico City’s inhabitants and compare it with the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) to evaluate whether PET and its categorization are adequate to be applied in Mexico City. A series of microclimatological measurements to estimate PET were made in four sites including the city´s center. Concomitantly, a series of surveys of thermal perception were applied to 1300 passersby. The results show that PET has increased from 1990 to 2020 from 0.1208 °C/year to 0.1498 °C/year in the study sites, besides overestimating the degree of thermal comfort of people according to the stablished categories or classes. It is concluded that it is necessary to adjust thermal stress categories. Knowing the percentage of people without thermal comfort will lead us to determine different ranges in environmental parameters to define an acceptable environment for most people.

Optimal use of Hierarchical Bayesian Model (HBM) assembled aerosol optical depth (AOD)-PM2.5 fused surfaces in epidemiologic studies requires homogeneous temporal and spatial fused surfaces. No analytical method is available to evaluate spatial heterogeneity. The temporal case-crossover design was modified to assess the spatial association between four experimental AOD-PM2.5 fused surfaces and four respiratory-cardiovascular hospital events in 12 km2 grids. The maximum number of adjacent lag grids with significant odds ratios (ORs) identified homogeneous spatial areas (HOSAs). The largest HOSA included 5 grids (lag grids 04; 720 km2) and the smallest HOSA contained 2 grids (lag grids 01; 288 km2). Emergency department asthma and inpatient asthma, myocardial infarction, and heart failure ORs were significantly higher in rural grids without air monitors than in urban grids with air monitors at lag grids 0, 1, and 01. Rural grids had higher AOD-PM2.5 concentration levels, population density, and poverty percent than urban grids. Warm season ORs were significantly higher than cold season ORs for all health outcomes at lag grids 0, 1, 01, and 04. The possibility of elevated fine and ultrafine PM and other demographic and environmental risk factors synergistically contributing to elevated respiratory-cardiovascular chronic diseases in persons residing in rural areas was discussed

Main purposes and research question: Wheat is the second largest grain crop by tonnage in the world and the largest in Denmark. Given the observed, adverse impacts on wheat yields of climate change and the importance of wheat in the human diet, the purpose of this study was to use life cycle assessment to compare conventional wheat farming with indoor vertical farming using hydroponics. Methods: Life Cycle Assessment was used to assess the base case systems up to the “farm gate” for 1 tonne of wheat grain. The processes contributing most of the impacts were identified, and scenarios were assessed to determine how much the impacts could be reduced. Results: The conventional system outperformed the base case vertical system in every impact category, due to the electricity consumption in the lighting system. The scenarios included increasing the efficiency of the LED lighting and using 100% wind energy, but the conventional system still outperformed the vertical system by significant margins in all impact categories. This was due to the low photosynthetic conversion efficiency and the high energy density of wheat. Conclusions: Until significant improvements are made to lighting efficiency, the photosynthesis conversion efficiency of wheat, new wheat variants designed for vertical gardens and the sustainability of electricity supply, conventional wheat production will be environmentally preferable and vertical gardens would be advised to focus on food products with low energy densities.

Condition-specific competition, when environmental conditions alter the outcome of competition, can foster the persistence of resident species after the invasion of a competitively superior invader. We test whether condition-specific competition can facilitate the areawide persistence of the resident and principal West Nile virus vector mosquito Culex pipiens with the competitively superior invasive, Aedes albopictus, in water from different urban container habitats. (2) Methods: We tested the effects of manipulated numbers of A. albopictus on C. pipiens survival and development in water collected from common functional and discarded containers in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The experiment was conducted with typical numbers of larvae found in field surveys of C. pipiens and A. albopictus and container water quality. (3) Results: We found increased densities of A. albopictus negatively affected the survivorship and development of C. pipiens in water from discarded containers but had little effect in water from functional containers. This finding was driven by water from trash cans, which allowed consistently higher C. pipiens survival and development and had greater mean ammonia and nitrate concentrations that can promote microbial food than other container types. (4) Conclusions: These results suggest that the contents of different urban containers alter the effects of invasive A. albopictus competition on resident C. pipiens, that trash cans, in particular, facilitate the persistence of C. pipiens, and that there could be implications for West Nile virus risk as a result.

Urban areas have very complex spatial structures. These spatial structures are primarily composed of a complex network of built environments, which evolve rapidly as the cities expand to meet the growing population’s demand and economic development. Therefore, studying the impact of spatial structures on urban heat patterns is extremely important for sustainable urban planning and growth. We investigated the relationship between surface temperature obtained by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER, at 90 m spatial resolution) on the current EOS-Terra platform and different urban components based on the classification of high-resolution QuickBird imagery. We further investigated the relationships between surface temperature and building footprint and land use information acquired from the New York City (NYC) Department of City Planning. The ASTER image reveals fine-scale urban heat patterns in the NYC metropolitan region. The dark and medium-dark impervious surfaces, along with bright surfaces, generate higher surface temperatures. Even with highly reflective urban materials, the presence of impervious materials leads to an increased surface temperature. At the same time, trees and shadows are effective in reducing urban heat. The data aggregated to the census tract reveals high-temperature clusters in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx region of NYC. These clusters are associated with industrial and manufacturing areas and multi-family walk-up buildings as dominant land use. The census tracts with more trees and higher building height variability generate lower surface temperatures, consistent with shadow cast by high-rise buildings and trees. The results of this study can be valuable for urban heat island modeling on the effects of building heights variability and tree shadows on small-scale surface temperature patterns. It can also help identify the risk areas during extreme heat events to protect public health.

The rapid increase in population along with the economic activities led to rapid depletion of natural resources. Land use studies help us analyze the impacts of urban development on environment. Given the political upheavals in Afghanistan, this study aims to analyze how urban development evolved from 1978 to 2018 in six major cities- Kabul, Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif and Jalalabad- in Afghanistan using Landsat Satellite Images. This study is based on quantitative approach. ArcGIS 9.4 software was used to synchronize the Landsat Satellite Images within the area of study. The results of the study show that the Annual rate of urban land expansion in Afghanistan was the lowest (average 1.07 square kilometers per year) during the military presence of Soviet Union in Afghanistan while it was the highest (3.35 square kilometers per year) from 2001 to 2018 due to the military presence of US-led NATO forces, relative security and rapid economic activities in Afghanistan. The authors believe that this study could be further explored if other inter-connected factors, e.g., the role of culture, literacy, immigration etc., are incorporated into the study of urban development processes in Afghanistan.

Climate change has emerged as one of the defining issues of the early 21st century. It is now more certain than ever and poses a serious threat to sustainable urban development. Climate change has many destructive effects on cities. Land subsidence, rising air pollutants, severe storms, dust and water scarcity are just some effects of this phenomenon in the urban area of ​​Tehran. Urban management must be prepared to deal with these effects and adopt policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. One of these tools in urban planning is urban development plans. The plans can have a great impact on controlling and counteracting with the effects of climate change. In this research, using content analysis method, 6 dimensions and 31 indicators have been used to evaluate 8 city and region development plans of Tehran from the view of reflecting the effects of climate change. Indicators were scored after studying the content of the plans. Findings indicate that among the reviewed plans, the second and third five-year development plans of Tehran with 61.9% and 61.3% as the highest rate and plan to reduce air pollution in Tehran and the transportation master plan with 20.6% and 23.2%, respectively have the least attention to the effects of climate change. Also, among the indicators, the urban transportation sector with 54.3% as the highest and the energy sector with 20.5% have the least attention to mitigation and adaptation policies.

Mexico is currently facing important water management challenges. Cities in the country are facing water scarcity and at the same time, they struggle with floods during the raining season. The water sensitive urban design (WSUD) approach has proved to be helpful in tackling urban water challenges such as floods and water scarcity and it is being implemented in cities around the world. The WSUD approach highlights the role of both the water cycle and the water utilities systems, when transitioning towards a water sensitive stage. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyse the current situation of the water cycle and the water utility (SIAPA). To do so, we have selected the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (MAG) and proposes a case study approach. Within our case of study, we answer two questions: 1) What are the causes of water scarcity and flooding in the MAG? and 2) What are the proposals to solve these problems under a WSUD approach? By answering these questions, we identified that the water management in the MAG corresponds to a single purpose infrastructure. This type of management does not contribute to solve the problems of water scarcity and floods. The water supply policy is based only on the construction of large dams disregarding the storage and use of rainwater, and reuse of greywater, and water-conservation devices. In order to transition towards a water sensitive stage, a WSUD approach that includes multi-purpose infrastructure should be considered. Such as green roofs, swales, rainwater gardens, infiltration trenches, etc.

The CARA program has been developed since 2008 by the French reference laboratory for air quality monitoring (LCSQA) and the regional monitoring networks to gain a better knowledge at the national level on the particulate matter (PM) chemistry and its diverse origins in urban environments. It results of strong collaborations with international-level academic partners, allowing to bring state-of-the-art, straightforward and robust results and methodologies within operational air quality stakeholders (and subsequently, decision makers). Here, we illustrate some of the main outputs obtained over the last decade thanks to this program, regarding methodological aspects (both in terms of measurement techniques and data treatment procedures) as well as acquired knowledge on the predominant PM sources. Offline and online methods are used following well-suited quality assurance and quality control procedures, notably including inter-laboratory comparison exercises. Source apportionment studies are conducted using various receptor modeling approaches. Overall, the results presented herewith underline the major influences of residential wood burning (during the cold period) and road transport emissions (exhaust and non-exhaust ones, all along the year), as well as substantial contributions of mineral dust and primary biogenic particles (mostly during the warm period). Long-range transport phenomena, e.g., advection of secondary inorganic aerosols from the European continental sector and of Saharan dust into the French West Indies, are also discussed in this paper. Finally, we briefly address the use of stable isotope measurements (δ15N) and of various organic molecular markers for a better understanding of the origins of ammonium and of the different organic aerosol fractions, respectively.

During the last 20 years, with the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), an emerging interest has appeared in Digital Community Engagement (DCE) in the process of cultural heritage management. Due to a growing need to involve a broader community in the Historic Urban Landscape approach, social media are considered one of the most important platforms to promote the public participation process of urban heritage conservation in the context of rapid urbanization. Despite the growing literature on DCE, which has delivered a general overview of different digital technologies and platforms to enhance heritage conservation, little research has been done on taking stock of the utilization of social media in this process. This study aims to fill the research gap by providing a more comprehensive picture of the functionalities of social media platforms and impacts on sustainable urban development through a systematic literature review. As a result, 19 out of 248 DCE relevant articles are selected as objects to illustrate the contribution of social media. The study identified the characteristics of these applied social media tools, explores their roles and influences in cases. The article concludes with directions for further research.

Urban cities are the major drivers of economic growth and development. Economic growth and development however results in considerable land cover land use dynamics. This study assessed the dynamics in land cover land use that have occurred in New Braunfels, Texas in the last 7 years (2013 - 2020) to observe areas in the city that had experienced considerable shifts in land cover and land use. A 30-meter resolution Landsat images were used to examine possible changes in land cover land use. New Braunfels was observed to have experienced significant changes in land use especially in developed areas. This change can be attributed to the influx of people into the city, contributing to the need for increased urban development. Analysis of this study shows that about 16% (about 553 hectares) of forest land cover class and 28% (about 1,139 hectares) of grassland class in time 1 (August 31, 2013) changed to built-up land use class in time 2 (November 5, 2020). A limitation to this study was that of the spatial resolution of images used. Higher spatial resolution images could impact the producers, users, and overall accuracy assessment. Results from this study can aid in supporting better decision-making for sustainable urban development and climate change mitigation.

Urban settings are increasingly faced with challenges across natural and engineered environmental systems, threatening the sustainability of urban centers where >50% of the world's population resides. The pressures of aging infrastructure, water and air pollution, and environmental justice exemplify the growing need for urban professionals to employ complex scientific reasoning across disciplines where they can effectively address the multi-faceted issues of urban sustainability. Here we present an innovative model for preparing the next generation of public, private, and academic leaders to address complex problems in urban sustainability. Specifically, we outline the design and implementation of an integrated, adaptable graduate training program, with the goals of science leadership, curriculum relevancy, community impact, broader applicability, recruitment into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs and careers, and program sustainability. This program addresses human-ecosystem challenges using a transdisciplinary approach to produce scientific products in partnership with local communities, businesses, industries, scientists, and policy makers, while providing a mechanism to understand and overcome contemporary societal challenges. Students receive rigorous training in their home disciplines, coupled with training across disciplinary lines and developmental experiences, to prepare them to communicate, collaborate, and innovate in a variety of contexts. Training success is evaluated across measurable competency domains including problem definition, research methods, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. After three years the program expanded relationships across fields and professions, successfully established 18 internship opportunities with community partners, created a new dual-title PhD program open to students in 5 academic departments, and facilitated the co-production of knowledge with external partners. This model bridges the gaps between research, education, and application, providing an integrated, rigorous graduate training program that fosters collaborative problem-solving between STEM graduate students and the broader community of professionals conducting sustainability work in a post-industrial urban setting.

’Lockdown’ periods in response to COVID-19 have provided a unique opportunity to study the impacts of economic activity on environmental pollution (e.g. NO2, aerosols, noise, light). The effects on NO2 and aerosols have been very noticeable and readily demonstrated, but that on light pollution has proven challenging to determine. The main reason for this difficulty is that the primary source of nighttime satellite imagery of the earth is the SNPP-VIIRS/DNB instrument, which acquires data late at night after most human nocturnal activity has already occurred and much associated lighting has been turned off. Here, to analyze the effect of lockdown on urban light emissions, we use ground and satellite data for Granada, Spain, during the COVID-19 induced confinement of the city’s population from March 14 until May 31, 2020. We find a clear decrease in light pollution due both to a decrease in light emissions from the city and to a decrease in anthropogenic aerosol content in the atmosphere which resulted in less light being scattered. A clear correlation between the abundance of PM10 particles and sky brightness is observed, such that the more polluted the atmosphere the brighter the urban night sky. An empirical expression is determined that relates PM10 particle abundance and sky brightness at three different wavelength bands.

The assessment of the number of people exposed to natural hazards, especially in countries with strong urban growth, is difficult to be updated at the same rate as land use develops. This paper presents a remote sensing based procedure for quick updating the assessment of the population exposed to natural hazards. A relationship between satellite nightlights intensity and urbanization density from global available cartography is first assessed when all data are available. This can be used to extrapolate urbanization data at different time steps, updating exposure each time new nightlights intensity maps are available. As reliability test for the proposed methodology, the number of people exposed to riverine flood in Italy is assessed, deriving a probabilistic relationship between DMSP nightlights intensity and urbanization density from GUF database for the year 2011. People exposed to riverine flood are assessed crossing the population distributed on the derived urbanization density with flood hazard zones provided by ISPRA. The validation on reliable exposures derived from ISTAT data shows good agreement. The possibility to update exposure maps with higher refresh rate makes this approach particularly suitable for applications in developing countries, where exposure may change at sub-yearly scale.

Green Infrastructures (GI) are considered key to reconcile ecological and social benefits by providing multiple functions. The concept is increasingly promoted and guidelines for its implementation have been developed in many countries and regions of the Western Hemisphere. However, for other parts of the world, especially for countries with less developed infrastructures, promotion, guidance for decision-making and manuals for GI are often lacking. But the state of infrastructure development and often unplanned character of settlements in the Global South differ and result in specific constraints as well as demands to GI that need to be addressed explicitly. This study presents a methodological approach to explicitly address the specific conditions and physical limitations to GI development in urban areas of the Global South. A four step methodology was developed to assess the implementation potential for retrofitted and multifunctional urban green infrastructure in public areas. An initial site analysis (1) and the definition of design criteria as well as general strategies (2) to achieve the different dimensions of multi-functionality are the basis to derive spatial typologies (3) for GI elements and finally the spatial suitability assessment for potential placements (4). An application of the methodology to a study area in the metropolitan region of San José, Costa Rica, shows exemplarily that the potential to improve the hydrological conditions (up to 34% of surface runoff reduction), ecological conditions (increase of green space by 2,2 %, creation of 1500 m length of roadside greenery and two new habitat types), and social conditions (2.200 m of road type upgrading) of multi-functionality of the site through Green Infrastructures. These assessment results of different multi-functionality dimension can serve as a guidance for GI promotion and implementation in urban areas of the Global South.

This paper discusses the potential and limitations of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in environmental justice, health and inequality studies in urban areas. Very often the NDVI is correlated with socioeconomic and/or sociodemographic data to demonstrate the inequality in environmental settings that themselves influence individual health and questions of environmental justice. This paper addresses the limits of the NDVI for such applications and as well its potential, if applied properly. The overall goal is to make people of disciplines other than those that are geo-related aware of the characteristics, limits and potentials of satellite image-based information layers such as NDVI.

Infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a public health problem in many parts of the world, due to its frequency, complications and socio-economic consequences. This study aimed to assess the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in rural areas and in urban areas. This cross-sectional study assessed the prevalence of HBV infection from 2015-2018 at CHR-Sokodé and USP of Ogaro. Biological data of 3000 participants (500 per year in each zone) enrolled and results of HBsAg were assessed during the study period. Female are represented 60% with average age comprised between [20, 29] years old. The high rate of participants enrolled (45.10%) are come for the monitoring of pregnancy. The prevalence of VHB during the study are 20.33% (610/3000), high prevalence (6.27%) and the means of VHB prevalence are shown in the age range between [30; 39] with 12.17% (365/3000) of female and 8.17% (235/3000) of male are positive after diagnostic detection of HBsAg (antigen of Hepatitis B virus). The prevalence of HBV in rural zone (Ogaro) are 5.23% and 15.07% in urban zone (Sokodé) and the high prevalence (17.50%) are shown in urban zone. The high prevalence of young suggests that some effort will be due to sensibilized young for HBV sexual transmission and the way of prevention. In addition, some research would be done in research of alternative therapy against this infection.

After globalization, South Korea’s retail landscape has been saturated with large-scale, corporate type retails. However, recently new commercial districts composed of small retail units are returning and bringing about a change. This study sought to take note of this phenomenon and identify its features and meanings from the perspective of urban ecology. A density-distribution analysis was conducted to investigate how they were forms, and an analysis of traces on the Internet and an analysis on the types of businesses were done to identify sociocultural characteristics. Results showed that they had similar type of locations and growth patterns, that they harmoniously congregated in a form of smaller-individual stores, and that their use of similar names for their stores had an impact of branding their entire districts. It was also noted that a shared culture through social networking services served as a growth boost for their unfavorable location. The spontaneous formation of such commercial districts can be an outcome of an urban ecological process geared toward blank niches burgeoning in the current retail structure of Korea. The causes and conditions found in the cases reveal meaningful policy implications for cities facing the same urban crisis diversity.

Rapid technological advancements in information communication technologies have enabled water resource data collection at greater spatial and temporal scale. However, this water data is often limited to the purposes of its primary collection, and limits decisions made by stakeholders towards sustainable urban water management. This empirically focused research paper examines how water practitioners involved in strategic planning can capture additional values from integrating different water data. Furthermore, the perception of 22 urban water practitioners across Australia are presented, regarding the importance of and difficulty in using water data for strategic planning, and the necessary steps for achieving integrated water management practices. Interviewees perception revealed gaps in available water resource data (i.e. water quality, ground water, stormwater, and urban water use), and limitations of industry guidelines for operating within existing governance frameworks. Overall, the research highlights the Australian urban water sector’s perception of water data’s crucial role in representing stakeholders interest; however, changes made in water data’s collection are required for an integrated water management approach. Implications for future open water data standard are discussed.

The detection of temporary color steel buildings and the analysis of their spatiotemporal patterns and characteristics are of great importance in many developing cities, because areas densely distributed with color steel buildings are usually problematic regions with high population density, sustainable development and risk level, which are challenging for local governments. Using the high-resolution satellite images of the Anning District, Lanzhou City, China as the case study, this paper first extracts the information of the color steel buildings for two different periods. Then the spatiotemporal distributional characteristics of the color steel buildings are analyzed, both at small scale (temporary buildings) and large scale (planthouses, warehouses, etc.). Finally, this paper utilizes kernel density estimation, Delaunay triangulation and Voronoi diagrams to examine the spatial distribution, aggregation and proximity characteristics of the color steel buildings. Our experiments show that the temporal and spatial differences of urban development, the phased characteristics and urban space are represented by various types of color steel buildings. Thus, there are some robust coupling relationship between color steel buildings, urban spatial form and urban development.

Logistics in urban areas are currently suffering a radical transformation due to increasingly population concentration and the massive use of cars as the preferred transport mode. These issues have resulted in higher pollution levels in urban environments and traffic congestion impacting the world globally. Facilitating the use of sustainable transport modes is widely regarded as a necessity to cope with these adverse effects on citizens’ life quality. Hence, some regions, as the European Union, are encouraging bus transport firms to make their business models more environmentally and socially sustainable. The aim of this research is thus to explore how practices adopted by urban bus companies can improve cities’ sustainability. With this in mind, a combined Importance Performance Analysis (IPA)-Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied. In this way, both environmental and social sustainability effects of developed practices were represented through hierarchical structures separately. Subsequently, importance and performance ratings of practices in each sustainability dimension were estimated, and thus two IPA grids were generated. These grids support managers in the establishment of more effective action plans to improve logistics sustainability in cities. Findings also provide guidance to governments on the practices that should be promoted in future urban mobility plans.

Urban tree planting initiatives can experience high levels of mortality during establishment years. Mortality tied to the stresses of transplanting can be partially negated or exacerbated depending on the species selected, nursery materials used, site conditions present, and management practices employed. Past research has quantified post-planting survival, health, and growth. However, varying climates, species, land use types, and management practices warrant additional region-specific research. The purpose of this study is to assess the success of plantings along Florida highways and identify species, site, and management factors related to tree and palm health and establishment. Results show high annual establishment survival (98.5%) across 21 planting projects ranging from 9 to 58 months after installation, (n = 2711). For transplanted palms, the presence of on-site irrigation significantly improved establishment from 96.2% to 99.4%. No establishment differences were detected with regard to irrigation treatment for small-stature trees, shade trees, and conifers. Additionally, there were significant differences in tree health response among tree groups given species, management, and site factors.

Mechanism of traffic congestion generation is more than complicated, due to complex geometric road design and complicated driving behavior at urban expressway in China. We employ Cell transmission model (CTM) to simulate traffic flow spatiotemporal evolution process along the expressway, and reveal the characteristics of traffic congestion occurrence and propagation. Here we apply the variable-length-cell CTM to adapt the complicated road geometry and configuration, and propose the merge section CTM considering drivers' mandatory lane-changing and other unreasonable behavior at on-ramp merge section, and propose the diverge section CTM considering queue length end extending expressway mainline to generate dynamic bottleneck at diverge section. In the new improved CTM model, we introduce merge ratio and diverge ratio to describe the effect of driver behavior at merge and diverge section. We conduct simulation on the real urban expressway in China, results show that merge section and diverge section are the original location of expressway traffic congestion generation, on/off-ramp traffic flow has great effect on expressway mainline operation. When on-ramp traffic volume increases by 40%, merge section delay increases by 35%. And when off-ramp capacity increases by 100 veh/hr, diverge section delay decreases about by 10%, which proves the strong interaction between expressway and adjacent road networks . Our results provide the underlying insights of traffic congestion mechanism in urban expressway in China, which can be used to better understand and manage this issue.

Flavours of Glenroy (2013-4) was a socially engaged art research project focused on developing strategies to connect the diverse, mobile and transforming community of Glenroy through the theme of growing and distributing edible plants. The project was action research based, where artist researchers used creatively imagined mobile edible gardens to connect and engage with locals through project presentation and execution. The process of producing, presenting and conversing about edible gardening revealed Glenroy to be a transnational Australian dream suburb, reflecting the fluid globalising conditions of our cities. The project emphasized how social relations encouraged through art, has the capacity to transform social spaces, providing a platform to introduce new voices and narratives of a community and encourage inclusive participation in sustainable citizenship.

With growing urbanisation the sustainability of cities has become increasingly important. Although cities have been using indicators for a long time it is only in the last decades that attempts have been made to collate indicators into indicator sets with the aim of reflecting the many different aspects that need to be covered to assess the sustainability of a city. The aim of this paper is to review how indicators for monitoring sustainable urban development have evolved over time and compare them to the indicators suggested by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The review reveals that previous indicator sets emphasised environmental sustainability, health and economic growth. It is also shown that indicator sets that pre-date the SDGs lacked dimensions such as gender equality and reduced inequalities. In all, the SDG indicators provide the possibility of a more balanced and integrated approach to urban sustainability monitoring. At the same time, a methodology is needed to facilitate the adaptation process of localising the SDGS, targets and indicators. Challenges of local application include their large number, their generic characteristics and the need to complement them with specific indicators that are more relevant at the city level.

Free-range sloths living in an urban environment is rare. In this study, human opinions, attitudes and interactions with a population of Bradypus variegatus in a public square were investigated. A questionnaire was applied to people in the square where the sloths reside, and informal, opportunistic observations of human-sloth interactions were made. 95% of respondents knew of the sloths’ existence in the square and 87.8% likes their presence. Opinions about population size differed greatly and younger people were concerned if the square was appropriate place for them. Some human-sloth interactions showed the consequence of lack of biological knowledge. People initiated all sloth-human interactions. The fact that sloths are strictly folivorous has limited their interactions with humans and consequently minimised negative impact of the human-animal interaction on their wellbeing. These results demonstrate that while there is a harmonious relationship between people and sloths, actions in environmental education of the square’s public could be beneficial for the sloths.

Drainage systems are usually dimensioned for design storms based on intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves of extreme precipitation. For each location, different IDF curves are established based on local hydrological conditions. Recent research shows that these curves also vary with time, and should be updated with recent data. The purpose of this study is to evaluate IDF curves obtained from precipitation simulations from the Eta RCM, comparing them with IDF curves obtained from data of a rainfall station. Climate models can be a useful tool for assessing the impacts of climate changes on drainage systems, referring precipitation forecasts. In this study, the Eta RCM was forced by two global climate models: HadGEM2-ES and MIROC5. The bias of the precipitation data, generated by RCM models, was corrected using a Gamma distribution. The Juqueriquerê River Basin, in the cities of Caraguatatuba and São Sebastião, São Paulo State, Brazil, was chosen as a case study. The results show a good correlation between the IDF curves of simulated and observed rainfall for the control period (1960-2005), indicating the strong possibility of using the Eta RCM precipitation forecasts for 2007 - 2099 to establish future IDFs thereby, taking into account climate changes in urban drainage design.

This paper presents a research carried out in the city of Chillan, a medium size city located on the southern limit of the Chilean Mediterranean domain, at 36º 36`s south latitude. Chillán provides a good representative example of warm summers in central and southern Chilean cities. Five public spaces were selected, representing different typologies and relating to different urban background conditions. Users in these public spaces were observed, counted and photographed five times a day (12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 hours, local time) during a heat wave event in the summer of 2016, while meteorological parameters were established at different points within the public space. The variables evaluated were impervious surfaces, Skyview factor, H/W, azimuth, shadow and radiation. Local public environmental management should pay attention to the complex relations between urban climate, public spaces and thermal comfort since they affect the quality of life of the most vulnerable sectors of the population. This is particularly important given the increasing episodes of high temperatures and intense heat waves occurred in the city of Chillán in recent summers, which are related to urban heat islands and climate change.

The study investigates the influence of road intersections on pedestrian accessibility in urban-rural fringe areas. An evaluation method to support planners and decision makers in the classification of crossing areas according to their effect on walking and in the prioritization of improvement interventions is proposed. In these peripheral parts of towns, pedestrians are almost ignored and people depend on car use for any necessity. Initiatives to improve livability can include the design of walkable friendly environments aiming at offering potential users good levels of security, comfort and convenience when walking to destinations. These spatial requirements have to be provided along road segments and even more on crossing areas which represent sensitive points of the entire connection system with a hindering influence on people’s propensity to walk. Starting with spatial basic interventions aiming at enhancing the continuity, safety and quality of pedestrian paths it is possible to reduce the physical and perceptual distance which separates fringe contexts from the rest of the city leading to a progressive integration of urban functions.

Rapid growth and domestic migration to capital city, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Nepal have amplified land-use transition to unmanaged and unplanned urbanization have exacerbated problems of Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effect. Increasing built up surfaces, means of transport and industrial activities are major results for increasing temperature in the city area as compared to other areas. This study focuses on forecasting Land Surface Temperature (LST) using both univariate and multivariate time series models. The primary goal is to predict the impact of climatic factors on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, utilizing data from 1981 to 2019. We analyzed key factors including - (i) relative humidity, (ii) surface pressure, (iii) specific humidity, and (iv) wind speed sourced from the MEERA-2 dataset. A univariate model using exponential smoothing achieved a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 3.17°C and an R² score of 0.94, highlighting strong predictive accuracy. Additionally, the multivariate Prophet model, which incorporates trend and seasonal components, further refined the forecasting by integrating multiple climatic factors. This study aims provides valuable information via prediction for sustainable urban planning and landscape design in KMC and other 61 districts.

In many conurbations, the pressure on the quality of living increases and affects the most vulnerable, human, and non-human populations the most. In this article we describe a mapping and designing investigation how a green metropolis can be developed. The approach used is to make a distinction between the landscape pain, the ways of healing and the opportunities to create environments that people can love. We found that this approach reveals concrete and widespread pain in the metropolis, such as interventions in natural landscapes (rivers and mountains), air pollution, ecological degradation, and hydrological disconnections. The strategy to heal this pain is to uncover the currently hidden and invisible creeks and rivers, then create an abundant zone of ecological space around it before integrating human activities and urban uses. In addition to this, specific design principles have been developed for hydro-ecological corridors, water retention, green islands, and greenways. These places can be replicated to support the healing strategy. These places create an environment that the urban residents love. The analysis of landscape pain, the healing strategies, and the local places to love, can be applied to enhance the quality of life for many urban residents and non-human ecologies in metropolitan areas around the globe.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) have had a negative impact on the financial well-being of low-income families in urban areas. The study involved respondents living in the Public Housing Project (PPR) residential areas in Kuala Lumpur – the capital of Malaysia. The key finding is the financial well-being of low-income urban families was negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the MCO implementation. Furthermore, the impact on the financial well-being of low-income urban families is significantly difference in terms of types of family, type & sectoral employment, type of home ownership, household monthly income and education level. Reforms to the financial assistance system and community empowerment of low-income urban families are necessary to increase the community's preparedness and resilience in the face of new shocks in the future.

Biomimicry, though still emerging within the social sciences, offers promising insights for improving food security by drawing analogies from natural ecosystems and re-exploring traditional ecological knowledge. This paper argues that adopting nature-inspired strategies in urban agriculture can significantly enhance resilience against geoeconomic pressures, logistical disruptions, and disasters. As geopolitical tensions intensify, exacerbated by climate change, pandemics, and urbanization, the strategic use of food power is likely to become increasingly relevant, particularly impacting urban areas due to their high dependence on external food supplies. Urban agroecology, which inherently embodies biomimetic principles, is presented as a viable pillar for building more resilient and self-sustaining food systems. The paper explores how an urban agriculture approach grounded in biomimicry can serve as a critical mechanism for food security, especially in urbanized regions vulnerable to potential food power dynamics. Additionally, it examines current methods by which states and cities prepare for food supply challenges and highlights the untapped potential of urban food production as a strategic response to these vulnerabilities.

The spatial expansion of urban agglomerations is a direct manifestation of regional urbanization, reflecting the changes in scale and morphological characteristics of urban in temporal and spatial dimensions, which affects the efficiency of regional urbanization. This study employed a range of analytical techniques, including the urban spatial intensity index, center-of-gravity model, synergy index, inverse distance weighting interpolation method, and Geodetector, to examine the spatiotemporal evolution pattern and driving factors of the Beibu Gulf Urban Agglomeration in Guangxi, China between 2012 and 2022. The findings indicate that: (1) The Beibu Gulf Urban Agglomeration in Guangxi has been in a stable expansion trend over the past decade. However, the polarization effect of the central city space has gradually weakened, and the spatial expansion differences between cities have gradually narrowed, indicating an extensional development mode. (2) The economic and social gravity centers show a tendency of "eastward and southward" migration, which is opposite to the direction of the urban gravity center's displacement. The displacement directions of population and ecological gravity centers are roughly consistent with that of urban center. The distribution of economic and social resources are not aligned with the configuration of urban development, and the trajectory of the center of gravity of various development dimensions has shifted. (3) Economic and social expansion is significantly faster than population and ecology, but slower than urban expansion. The intensity of urban expansion is inconsistent with the distribution of synergies. The spatial differences in synergies between cities are gradually narrowing. The central city's radiation-driven role is insufficient. The development of nodal cities is less than expected. However, the benefits of urbanization in coastal cities are constantly being strengthened. (4) The disposable income of urban residents and per capita arable land area are the primary driving forces of urban expansion, while population density and urban green space area are significant contributors to urban expansion. Based on the above findings, it is recommended that the Beibu Gulf Urban Agglomeration of Guangxi should continue to enhance the scale efficiency of population agglomeration, optimize economic development and industrial resource allocation, promote urban-rural integration, strengthen inter-city connections, optimize spatial layout, and improve the overall production and living efficiency of regional cities and towns.

As urbanization continues to increase, key conservation areas like World Heritage sites are being altered. This transformation is a cause for concern as it threatens the Outstanding Universal Value of these sites. To address this issue, a research question was formulated: How urban is World Heritage? The research focused on identifying and monitoring urbanization in heritage core zones listed on the World Heritage by tracking changes in built-up areas from 1985 to 2015. The findings revealed that urban developments, including housing, transport infrastructure construction, visitor accommodation facilities, and land conversions, have significantly impacted heritage properties. More than a third (37\%, 426) of the cultural heritage properties reported urban development, with the highest occurrences in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Pacific. Furthermore, these regions also displayed the highest rate of change per year between 1985 and 2015. This indicates the urgent need to identify and monitor the urbanization of World Heritage to preserve their OUV amidst increasing urban development.

Changes in hydrology from aridification in the U.S. Southwest have led to tension at the urban-rural divide about conservation and land management strategy. Strain on multi-generational agricultural livelihoods and a nearly 150-year-old Colorado River water adjudication system presents an opportunity for multidisciplinary solutions and symbiotic partnerships. In this study, producers in a small San Juan River headwater community in southwestern Colorado participated in a convergence research study developed collaboratively with community partners, prioritizing local objectives and policy needs. Acknowledging the historic and sometimes perceived role of academic institutions as representing urban interests, our goal was to highlight how research could support rural governance and identify rural interests. Respondents identified water availability and climate changes as the factor that most negatively affects operations. Respondents had interest in nature-based agroforestry methods like windbreak trees and drought-resistant crop species. Community members identified cost as the leading perceived barrier to implementing nature-based agricultural solutions, with over half of respondents indicating that programs to subsidize or eliminate cost would improve willingness to try nature-based methods. Analyses identified that satisfaction with community resources was positively correlated with scale of production, satisfaction with irrigation equipment, and familiarity with water rights. Further, our results outline barriers to perceptions about nature-based solutions on rural landscapes. We hope to contribute this model for wider applications in other regions to uncover place-based solutions to resource challenges and contribute to addressing stress at the urban-rural divide.

The increasing frequency of urban flooding, driven by global climate change, poses significant threats to the safety and resilience of urban rail transit systems. This study systematically examines the cascading failure processes and resilience of these networks under flood conditions, with a specific focus on the Shanghai Metro. A comprehensive resilience evaluation model was developed by integrating geographic information, static network characteristics, and dynamic passenger flow indicators. This study employs an improved Coupled Map Lattice (CML) model to simulate cascading failures, considering the coupling effects of station centrality, geographic elevation, and passenger flow dynamics. Results indicate that stations with higher degree centrality are more likely to trigger rapid cascading failures across the network. However, incorporating dynamic passenger flow and geographic elevation data helps mitigate these effects, emphasizing the need for multi-dimensional resilience strategies. The findings provide valuable insights for urban transit management, offering a scientific foundation for developing targeted disaster response strategies to enhance network resilience against floods. This study advances the understanding of the vulnerability of urban rail transit systems and offers practical guidance for improving disaster preparedness in urban transportation infrastructure.

Safety and the apprehension of crime persist as significant concerns in both urban and rural locales. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) guidelines, an architectural approach to crime deterrence, mitigate the likelihood of criminal activity by implementing strategic defensive design plans, particularly through effective lighting schemes within urban settings, thereby alleviating fear of crime. This comprehensive set of principles serves to enhance overall quality of life. Additionally, within the realm of environmental crime prevention, enhanced street lighting has been identified as a crucial factor in diminishing both actual crime rates and the perceived risk of criminal activity in built environments. While current recommendations advocate for the installation of lighting in poorly lit areas for safety reasons, evaluating visibility solely based on the presence of existing streetlights proves insufficient for analyzing road surface luminance comprehensively. Thus, this study proposes establishing standardized illumination levels specifically tailored for facial recognition of potential criminal offenders. Furthermore, we advocate for defining specific thresholds for color temperature and colorimetric criteria to aid in distinguishing characteristics of individuals' attire. To analyze photometric safety and crime frequency in Seoul, Korea, new primary evaluation indicators were developed, including the Brightness index, Informatization index, and Safety index. By incorporating quantitative data into lighting design strategies, particularly within the framework of CPTED, there exists the potential to mitigate fear of crime during nighttime hours. These strategies facilitate the creation of well-lit environments conducive to the swift recognition and identification of potential perpetrators, thereby presenting a proactive approach to crime prevention. Consequently, this study introduces quantitative lighting standards to augment the efficacy of CPTED guidelines, ultimately contributing to the reduction of crime incidence.

Air pollution knows no boundaries, which means for a city or a region to attain clean air standards, must not only look at the emission sources within its own administrative boundary, but also at sources in the immediate vicinity and those originating from long-range transport. And there is a limit to how much area can be explored to evaluate, govern, and manage as designated airsheds for cities and larger regions. This paper discusses the need from an official airshed framework for India’s air quality management, urban airsheds designated for India’s 131 non-attainment cities under the national clean air programme, and proposes climatically and geographically appropriate regional airsheds to support long-term planning. Between 28 states, eight union territories, 36 meteorological sub-regional divisions, and six regional meteorological departments, establishing the proposed 15 regional airsheds for integrated and collaborative air quality management across India is a unique opportunity.

This study employs Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to evaluate the walkability of Onaizah City, which serves as a representative model for a Saudi city situated in the Qassim region, north of the capital city, Riyadh. The goal is to evaluate how easily pedestrians can navigate the street network and identify areas that excel or need improvement in terms of walkability. The results offer insights for planning and development supporting sustainable initiatives. Approach; The study involves integrating GIS data, such as street layouts, land use patterns, and demographic information. By analyzing factors like integration values and choice values within the street network the study gauges’ walkability aspects. Furthermore, correlation analysis explores how spatial arrangements, influence walkability. By studying the case of a medium-sized Saudi city, which can then be applied to several Saudi cities. Cost distance analysis and cost-back correlation calculations are employed to determine pedestrian routes. Findings and Discussion; Through GIS techniques the study effectively assesses the walkability of Onaizah City by identifying three walking paths with lengths of (1401m, 1283m, and 1507m). The study reveals pedestrians' actual city distance. Weighted criteria assign 40% to heritage sites, 30% to green spaces, and 15% each to mosques/commercial sites. Preserving access to heritage sites and incorporating areas enhance walkability. Conclusion: Study enhances walkability understanding, offering data-driven planning suggestions. Urban planners prioritize pedestrian connectivity, considering GIS effectiveness and physical environment importance. Findings support walkability research and sustainable urban development.

Urban sprawl is recognized as one of the most critical drivers disrupting the functional integrity of rural and natural landscapes. A systematic multiscale study has yet to be conducted to measure the Megalopolis of Mexico City's regional extent, comprising ca. 23 million inhabitants. This paper investigates land cover, land use, vegetation and soil changes at macro-regional, regional, local and site scales. Land cover/use data from the 1970s and 2018 were used as the primary input to analyze changes using remote sensing and geographical information systems. At the local scale, fieldwork data from the 1970s, 1990s, and 2020 served as the primary input and were subjected to multivariate analyses. At site scale, soils profiles and hydrological balance analyses at micro-basin level were conducted. Furthermore, social perception of changes was investigated among local residents/stakeholders using semi-structured interviews with four communities. Outcomes were validated to reach 85 percent accuracy in cartographic and 95 % statistical outputs. At the regional scale, land-use changes, especially human settlements, increased from about four to almost 40 % between 1970 and 2018 , with significant incursion into rural landscapes. At the local scale, analyses revealed significant decline in predominantly cold-humid vegetation types and conversion of agricultural fields into peri-urban landscapes. Site scale revealed the predominant importance of soils as the core landscape component for water infiltration and carbon sequestration. Nested multi-scale analyses revealed different disrupting processes which are hidden at one scale and evident at another. Poorly implemented, disconnected urban and environmental policies prevail as the main driving force, with implications for the weak local governance of rural communities. Regional integrated analyses are discussed in light of the relevance of urban resilience theory.

In Yaoundé, Cameroon, excessive and inappropriate speeding remains a major public health concern. Part of the problem are the unsafe speed limits, lack of evidence, and effective evaluation of speeding safety performance indicators (SSPIs), and the absence of speed management, hindering the city's ability to mitigate the risks associated with speeding. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap by assessing SSPIs using a well-defined methodology and suggesting speed management strategies. Data on speed, traffic volumes and road attributes were collected from a random selection of 16 representative road sections in Yaoundé. Seven SSPIs were calculated, and weights were assigned to evaluate city-level SSPIs. The findings showed that 66.8% of drivers drive within the speed limit, generally operating at speeds of 54 km/h with a speed variation of 26 km/h. Based on the speed analysis, evidence-based strategies are proposed, and implementing these strategies could potentially reduce fatalities and serious injuries by 16% to 84% across study locations, as indicated by Elvik's model. These findings have significant policy implications for reducing speeding in Yaoundé, and the methodological approach can be replicated in other urban settings. Future research should extend SSPI evaluation to the national level and test the effectiveness of the recommended strategies.

This article addresses the urbanization model in valley bottom areas in the city of São Paulo, an-alyzed in its urban planning and socio-environmental aspects, and examines the hydrological impacts triggered by its implementation. It argues that sustainable occupation of urbanized hy-drographic basins should be based on environmental criteria in order to attain a sustainable water management regime that can ensure urban and environmental resilience. In the “Introduction,” the article emphasizes that urbanization in São Paulo has neglected the natural features of river basins, promoting the channeling of watercourses, which resulted in floods and inundations. “Theoretical Basics” brings in key concepts related to the environmental approach of drainage infrastructure with gray and green-blue systems. “Methods” details our qualitative research, bibliographical analyzes, referential case studies, and cartographical analyzes (geoprocessing), focusing on a case study in the Jaguaré creek basin. “Results” includes guidelines and recom-mendations for an urbanization model adjusted to valley bottom areas, applicable to new patterns of urban occupation or to the adjustment of existing patterns. “Discussion” explores the concept of “local sustainable self-development,” and “Conclusions” highlights the importance of an inte-grated, multisectoral, and sustainable planning, adjusted to the characteristics of river basins in valley bottom areas, promoting a socially responsible urban occupation, especially in the face of climate change.

Intense climate change and rapid urbanization have increased the risk of urban flooding, seriously affecting urban economic and social stability. Enhancing the urban flood resilience (UFR) has required a new solution to cope with urban flood disasters. In this study, taking Yingtan city as an example, a system of indicators for evaluating UFR was constructed, with 17 representative indicators, comprising three subsystems: socio-economic, ecological and infrastructural. A hybrid (FAHP-EWM)-TOPSIS model was applied, to develop an index-based measurement to compare and evaluate UFR, and Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) was used to discover the main factors affecting UFR. In addition, the natural discontinuous method was innovatively used to divide the UFR grade interval into levels, and the grade change was evaluated based on the TOPSIS method. The results showed that (1) from 2010 to 2022, the UFR in Yingtan City increased by 80.69%, and the factors affecting UFR are highly correlated with urban infrastructure development. However, the ecological resilience in the subsystem showed a fluctuating downward trend, because of the influence of the surface area of lakes and rivers. (2) The grades of UFR for Yingtan City increased from Level III (2010 and 2016) to Level IV (2022), with local financial expenditures and the age structure of the population being the main factors currently limiting the development of UFR. The study provides a theoretical basis for the construction of an indicator system for assessing the UFR of Yingtan and proposes practical improvement directions for UFR.

The coordination of policy, makers and materials is critical to the success of circular city development. The network of maker activities in the city of Leuven is a flagship initiative that illustrates the mechanisms that support integrated circular urban production. This paper draws on the Pop-Machina project, funded by EC Horizon 2020, which identifies the links between the maker movement and the circular economy in seven European cities. The case study project in Leuven, confirmed as the most impactful amongst those studied in the Pop-Machina project, is examined to assess how local knowledge and policy measures, can provide a means of activating a circular maker ecology. Through desk research, spatial urban analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, this paper provides a critical narrative of the development, success factors and hurdles related to circular making processes in the city. It demonstrates how hybrid makers are supported by local, national, and international policy on the one hand, and by integration with the city’s community, educational and business groups on the other. It is this constellation of social, political, and spatial conditions that lies at the success of the project.

Food and nutrition insecurity, affecting 30% of the global population in 2020, poses a significant challenge to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 - Zero Hunger. Urbanization, particularly in sub-Saharan African cities e.g. Lagos, Nigeria, exacerbates these issues, impacting resources and contributing to informal settlements. There is emphasis on innovative solutions in urban farming, with Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) emerging as one of the promising approach due to its efficiency in space and capital utilization. However, maintaining optimal conditions in RAS, crucial for SDG 2 and 11, requires robust water quality monitoring. This study explores the availability of digital tools for water quality monitoring in small-scale urban RAS, evaluating handheld devices and IoT sensors' reliability through t-test statistical method. The results aim to guide practitioners in selecting effective monitoring tools, contributing valuable insights for sustainable aquaculture in urban areas, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to affordable digital solutions is pivotal for success and can attract youth to agri-food technologies.

Enhancing traffic safety is one of the fundamental objectives of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and it aligns closely with the principles of sustainable transport. Due to specific differences in infrastructure, vehicles, and users’ behaviour, places where different modes of traffic intersect are recognized as critical points of the traffic system, making them crucial aspects of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) implementation. The SUMPs aim to create urban mobility that is not only environmentally friendly and efficient but also safe for all users. The continuous development and widespread adoption of innovative ITS technologies have paved the way for a system that could provide drivers with real-time information about both immediate and potential dangers at these critical points. This paper provides an overview of previous research in the field, investigating the impact of information systems on drivers’ behaviour, various detection and communication solutions that can be effectively integrated into such a system, as well as a brief overview of models and solutions that have been developed to warn drivers in a similar context. The reviewed literature offered valuable insights on which a novel driver information system architecture framework is proposed. This framework can contribute to the ongoing safety improvement in multimodal transport networks within the context of sustainable transport.

This paper aims to establish lighting as a key facilitator in the placemaking processes for World Heritage Sites. Placemaking is a process of designing, managing, planning and programming the development of shared public spaces within the urban fabric. Research methods inspired from ethnography such as interviews, observations and questionnaires are used to gather data from three main groups of people related to the lighting of World Heritage Sites namely: heritage experts, lighting designers, and locals and visitors. Two UNESCO designated World Heritage Sites are investigated as case studies: Saint-Avit-Sénieur in Dordogne, France and Naghshe-Jahan-Square in Isfahan, Iran. Thematic analysis of the data collected from these investigations reveal key lighting characteristics and lighting design considerations that can facilitate the placemaking process for World Heritage Sites. The lighting characteristics include: avoiding over-lighting, overly theatrical lighting and homogeneous lighting; balancing floodlighting; preventing glare; providing flexible and harmonious lighting. The lighting design considerations include: accounting meanings and values; amplifying narratives; balancing genders; building attraction and excitement; creating layers; enhancing atmospheres; ensuring safety; improving functionality; offering interpretations; and supporting activities.

The rapid growth of urban areas is a major challenge facing cities around the world. This growth can have a significant impact on the local climate, leading to higher temperatures and other changes. In desert climates, the effects of urban expansion can be particularly pronounced. This study investigated the impact of urban expansion on land surface temperature (LST) in Baghdad, Iraq. Notably, this study employs a sophisticated artificial intelligence method known as Random Forest for Land Use Land Cover (LULC) classification, utilizing three Landsat images spanning the temporal spectrum from 1985 to 2021 to meticulously monitor land use transformations and associated LST variations. The results showed that vegetated areas declined by 46.8% during the study period, while built-up areas increased by 124.7%. This decline in vegetation was accompanied by an increase in LST, with bare soil recording the highest temperatures. The study also found that LST has a strong inverse relationship with vegetation and moisture. This means that areas with more vegetation and moisture tend to have lower LSTs. These findings suggest that urban expansion can lead to higher LSTs in desert climates, which can have implications for the health and wellbeing of residents. The study has important implications for urban planners and policymakers in Baghdad and other cities in desert climates. By identifying the main factors that control LST, the study provides insights into strategies for mitigating the effects of urban expansion on temperature.

The study was performed to get the first insight of distribution of the low field volume magnetic susceptibility (MS) throughout the Zagreb city area, based on in-situ field measurements. Most interesting locations were selected for soil sampling and geochemical content was determined using ICP-OES. A geostatistical approach was applied on MS and geochemical results. Median value of 0.245 x 10-3 SI units is proposed to be used as relevant average MS value in Zagreb area. Mean concentrations of heavy metals in Zagreb soils (in µg/g) are: Pb (36.82), Zn (87.77), Cu (30.84), Cd (0.66), Cr (29.04), Co (11.89) and Ni (28.40), being relatively low in comparison with Croatian legislation and with European and world average. Boxplot analyses showed that 45% of studied elements do not show any anomaly, while the rest of elements mostly show only one weak anomaly and they are located at the same sites as MS anomalies. Statistical analysis found significant correlations between MS and following elements: Cd, Co, Fe, Mn, Na, Pb, Sb and Zn. In-situ MS measurements proved to be an efficient tool for initial screening of large areas in terms of elevated heavy elements concentrations, enabling cheap and fast assessment of state of environment.

The article attempts to place the research within the broader context of urban living labs (ULLs) and highlights the significance of understanding success criteria by gathering data from key stakeholders associated with Basaksehir Living Lab, Bodrum Living Lab and Mezopotamya Living Lab via the in-depth interview method. However, there is a literature gap in terms of a comprehensive understanding of the success criteria specific to ULLs, which hinders the effective utilization of ULLs as platforms for addressing urban challenges. The conclusions drawn from the article emphasize the need for further examination of these labs' openness, user empowerment, and transferability criteria. Nevertheless, the article contributes to understanding the success criteria of ULLs and provides insights for future research and practice.

Stray currents can cause very rapid degradation and material loss at the points where the current leaves the metal and enters the electrolyte. Nowadays, many resources are invested in the protection of jeopardized structures, such as buried pipelines, from stray current corrosion. This paper describes the measures that need to be considered in the design and construction of track structures to ensure high rail-to-ground resistance and consequently reduce stray currents. The main conclusions from existing guidelines and standards for reducing and controlling stray currents that are applied by various track operators are presented in the paper. Rail-to-ground resistance in different types of tracks structures and rail fastening systems is analysed and optimal type of the track and type of the fastening system is defined. The grounding schemes used on the tracks and their influence on stray current values are described, as well as the influence of traction power substation and rail cross bonding on stray current. Since it is not necessary to apply all the measures described to the same track structure, the paper gives recommendations on which measures to apply when building tracks with continuously fastened rails and which to apply when building tracks with discretely supported and fastened rails.

The concept of "Eco-authoritarianism", although appeared in the 1970s, through the writings of Robert Heilbroner, William Ophuls etc., but Eco-authoritarianism as a theory has emerged very recently [1]. In this era of global environmental degradation and rampant defacement of green space in the rapidly expanding cities of developing countries especially in India, historical sites of green belts, or eco-space developed by royal dynasties or colonial rulers are still preserved by eco-authoritarianism and cultural praxis. A lot of such heritage sites and built-up eco-spaces have faded out over time but at the same time, huge numbers are still present due to the imposition of restrictions by the state or national government or statutory organizations. Built up eco-space under Burdwan Raj Dynasty during the 18th and 19th centuries is still preserved almost in its original form due to the eco-authoritarianism outlook of the present stakeholder (The University authority mainly and the Forest Department). People of this urban unit not only feel proud of such built up eco-space; they also give credit to the university authority for maintaining the legacy of the Raj Dynasty. This investigation attempts to capture not only the role of authoritarian legacy for the preservation and conservation of eco-space in the urban context but also clarify the benefits of this eco-space regarding the cultural ecosystem services and outlook of urbanites towards nature. To portray this, both the qualitative and quantitative methods have been applied to glean the whole perspective.

In the recent past, China has experienced rapid urbanization as a result of diverse growth factors. In such a context, it is crucial to evaluate the expansion of urban entities in order to implement sustainable urban planning strategies in China. Since, urban entities are the spatial reflection of the concentration of human activities, the delineation of urban areas upon the boundaries of built-up surfaces has resulted from inconsistent understanding and identification of urban areas. The study has attempted to extract and evaluate the growth of urban entities in 336 prefecture cities in China mainland (2000-2020) upon a novel approach using consistent night light images. The urban entities were extracted using the light intensities of the SNPP-VIIRS-like data. After extracting urban entities, a rationality assessment was carried out comparing derived urban entities with the LandScan population product, Landsat, and road networks. Also, the results were compared with other physical extents products such as MODIS and the HE. According to the findings, urban entities are basically consistent with the LandScan, road networks, and those with the HE and MODIS. But, urban entities accurately reflect the concentration of human activities than impervious extents of MODIS and the HE. At the prefecture levels, urban entities elevated from 8082 km2 to 74,417 km2 between 2000 and 2020 showing a 10.8% growth rate. By providing a supplementary resource and guide for trustworthy urban mapping, the research will expand new research directions that address the issues of variations of NTL data brightness thresholds dynamics on regional, and global scales.

In this study, the gravimetric characterization and analysis of the solubilized extract of the organic fraction of Urban Household Solid Waste (RSDU) from the municipality of Belém do Pará was carried out in order to obtain the composition of the collected materials and the characteristics of the liquid resulting from the solubilization of these materials . The waste used to carry out this research was collected door-to-door, in which the points and neighborhoods served were determined through the sectorization of these locations and representative statistical sampling. For the sectorization of neighborhoods, family income values ​​were considered as the main parameter. After collecting the solid waste, the material was sent to the facilities of the Federal University of Pará (FUPa), where the waste was classified into paper, cardboard, tetrapak, rigid plastic, soft plastic, metals, glass, organic matter, waste toilets, fabrics and others. The organic fraction of solid waste was separated and sent to the drying, crushing and packaging processes. Subsequently, the solubilized extract of the organic fraction of solid waste was obtained, following the methodology recommended by NBR standard nº 10.006/2004, of the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards and the values ​​obtained were compared with Ordinance GM/MS nº 888/2021 and CONAMA Resolution nº 357/2005, in addition to results obtained by other authors. After carrying out the gravimetric characterization, it was possible to obtain the average proportions of 5.09% paper, 3.20% cardboard, 0.94% tetrapak, 3.58% rigid plastic, 9.97% soft plastic, 2.00% metals, 55.57% organic matter, 1.86% glass, 14.26% sanitary waste, 3.23% fabrics and 3.00% other waste. High values ​​of organic residues were found in the gravimetric composition, which can be explained by the collection method used and the high humidity of the organic solid residues. In the analyzes of the solubilized extract, values ​​of Hp (3.69 to 4.92), Turbidity (791 to 1,733 uT), Apparent Color (8,500 to 12,500 uC), True Color (6,000 to 14,000 uC), Total Dissolved Solids (5,330 to 8,040 mg/L), Total Nitrogen (201.80 to 359.90 mg/L), Ammoniacal Nitrogen (161 to 289 mg/L), Nitrate (10 to 40 mg/L), Total Phosphorus (52.30 to 166.80 mg/L) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (28,701 mg/L to 38,608 mg/L), in addition to other measured parameters, in which such information makes it possible to check the similarities of the waste solubilization conditions to that of leachates from landfills, in addition to not being in compliance with environmental and health legislation, demonstrating risks to the local environment and public health.

Extreme heat is a climate, public health, and environmental justice issue. This case study examined public transit exposure and vulnerability to extreme heat by investigating the microenvironment, land cover characteristics, and social vulnerability of heat-vulnerable bus stops in Knoxville, Tennessee. The community’s temperature and Heat Index information, bus stop point data, land cover characteristics data, and the microenvironment of bus stops (i.e., trees and shelters) were processed and mapped with ArcGIS Pro. The pictures of the microenvironment of the bus stop were collected from Google Maps, and the social vulnerability of the area where the bus stops are located was investigated by analyzing the Center for Disease and Prevention's Social Vulnerability Index. Results found that the most heat-vulnerable bus stops were concentrated in West Knoxville, South, North, Northeast, and Northwest Knoxville. In addition, the most heat-vulnerable bus stops were concentrated in commercial complexes and areas a large number of systematically marginalized populations reside.

Vegetation identification using remote sensing is essential for understanding terrestrial ecosystems and monitoring climate change. This technology by providing high-resolution images of the Earth's surface from satellites, aircraft, and drones has revolutionized the way scientists study and un-derstand vegetation patterns, providing information on the distribution, structure, and health of plant communities in different regions and biomes. However, identifying vegetation in multi and hyperspectral images remains a difficult, time-consuming, and costly process. Traditional methods for vegetation mapping involve the in-terpretation of spectral indices such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), alt-hough they often suffer from limitations such as manual interpretation and limited spatial resolution of satellite images. Furthermore, machine learning techniques, artificial neural networks, decision trees, support vector machines, and random forests have shown promising results in identifying and classifying vegetation cover from hyperspectral images. However, due to the need for per-son-nel with specialized expertise, their application on a large scale is still challenging. On the other hand, correlation methods between curves have emerged as powerful and simplified tool for comparing spectral signatures of hyperspectral image pixels and efficiently classifying vegetation in a study area. Pearson's correlation coefficient and spectral angle mapper are among the most common correlation methods used in vegetation mapping. These correlation methods, among many others available, offer an easily implemented and computationally efficient approach, making them particularly useful for applications in developing countries or regions with limited resources. In this article, a comparative study of correlation/distance metrics was conducted for the detection of vegetation pixels in hyperspectral images. The study allowed for the comparison of five distance and/or correlation metrics: direct correlation, cosine similarity, normalized Euclidean distance, Bray-Curtis’s distance, and Pearson correlation. The two metrics that yielded the best accuracy results in vegetation pixel detection were direct correlation and Pearson correlation. Based on the selected methods, a vegetation detection algorithm was implemented and validated on a hyper-spectral image of the Manga neighborhood in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The spectral library was utilized for image processing, while the numpy and scipy libraries in the Python programming language were used for the mathematical calculation of correlations. Both the study's approach and the implemented algorithm aim to serve as a reference for conducting detection studies of various material types in hyperspectral images using open-access programming platforms.

There is an overall scientific consensus that public space and, mainly, space with a high ecological index – most notably experienced in green areas – positively affects individual and collective well-being and urban dwellers’ physical and mental health. However, the ‘reality check’ indicates difficulties in translating the assumed benefits of green space into implementable interventions in urban environments. To examine such an ‘implementation gap’ on the case of Zurich seems valid, given that the ‘green urban agenda’ debate has been embedded in numerous Swiss policies (from the federal to the municipal levels). In narrow terms, the research first focuses on Zurich’s district 9 consisting of two neighborhoods (Altstetten and Albisrieden) – the area under ongoing densification yet with a variety of green spaces, to then elucidate four green space clusters and their 400-meter catchment areas in the mentioned district. The mixed-method approach has been applied at three analytical levels: 1) documentary analysis of multi-scale national policy toolkits, to identify the critical tenets associated with the ‘green urban agenda’, 2) assessment of green spaces in Zurich’s district 9 based on online available quantitative data and on-site observation, to determine their provision, types, size and mutual connectivity, and 3) analysis of four green space clusters within the mentioned district through on-site observation, to identify green space attributes and main activities. Through critical mutual examination of the identified ‘green urban agenda’ principles in the national policies, on the one hand, and green space attributes, on the other, the research findings reveal the extent of the convergence and/or divergence between the ‘green urban agenda’ policy trends and their implementation in practice.

This study aims to optimize the subway platform passenger flow guidance method using Anylogic simulation software. The objective of the study is to minimize overcrowding within subway carriages, enhance transportation capacity, and augment service levels by guiding passengers on the platform to board trains in a distributed manner. The study achieves a balanced flow of passengers in each carriage by taking into consideration the number of passengers in each carriage, the number of passengers at the station, and the expected number of passengers disembarking from the trains. The standard deviation of balance is used to optimize the subway platform passenger flow guidance method. We simulated Guangzhou Metro Zhujiang New Town Line 5 platform to compare different guidance methods and evaluate their effects on the uneven distribution of passengers with passenger flows ranging from 120K to 600K people per day. Our results show that guidance method 2, relative to manual guidance, improves by 38.5% under a daily passenger flow of 240K people on Zhujiang New Town Line 5. Guidance method 3 improves by 25.7% relative to guidance method 2 and by 54.4% relative to manual guidance.

There has been an increase in the inefficiencies of urban infrastructure services in Indian cities as a result of rapid and unplanned urbanization (UNDP, 2017). Indian cities have grown multidimensional as a result of massive industrializa-tion and technological spread backed by globalization impacting the early 2000. It has transformed the city fabric and the associated challenges. Therefore, an Urban Climate Vulnerability Assessment (UCVA) is needed to identify, target and recognize climate vulnerable urban cities, sectors, or populations. The UCVA framework consists of seven broad thematic indicators — physical, hazard, social, demographic, financial provisioning, infrastructure and admin-istration vulnerabilities, and their sub indicators to represent the climate vul-nerability of Indian cities. This assessment is for seven Indian cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Shillong, and Ahmedabad which were selected based on their geographical location, population, ecosystem types and hazards/ hazard trends to understand and assess the respective vul-nerabilities. The Assessment is done through a comprehensive approach using a robust and predictive qualitative framework. It helps in determining respec-tive risks and in improving community resilience to the climate hazards by in-tegrated planning and improved preparedness. UCVA can support as a deci-sion support mechanism for devising suitable mitigation and adaptation strategies for building urban climate resilience.

In response to long-lasting high levels of Metallic Trace Elements (MTEs) in urban soils, we expect soil invertebrates inhabiting urban environments to have evolved detection and avoidance and/or tolerance mechanisms to MTE pollution. In this study, I used artificial soils with concentrations of lead, zinc, copper, chromium and nickel that reflect pollution levels in soils of Parisian parks. Using choice experiments, I compared habitat preference (i.e. the occurrence of individuals in the polluted vs. unpolluted soil) and health status (i.e. body mass maintenance, mobility, mortality) between three species of endogeic earthworms – Apporectodea caliginosa, Apporectodea icterica and Allolobophora chlorotica – originating either from urban or rural grasslands. This study highlights a clear avoidance of MTE polluted soils in all three species, as well as MTE-induced health impairments, especially in A. chlorotica. Interestingly, earthworm response to MTE exposure only slightly differed between earthworms from urban and rural origin, suggesting the absence of widespread acclimatization or adaptation mechanisms to MTE pollution in cities. As a consequence, MTE pollution is expected to significantly shape earthworm spatial distribution in both urban and rural environments and, as a consequence, affect ecosystem functioning.

Choosing new energy vehicles for travel, especially electric vehicles, is an important component of building a low-carbon urban transportation system. However, the charging need of electric vehicle users is still constrained by the unreasonable layout and insufficient supply of public charging piles in the city. Private charging pile sharing as an alternative policy tool can play a very good role in solving this problem. But it needs decision-makers in urban transportation to take corresponding measures to promote. This paper constructs an evolutionary game model to study the decision behavior of participants in private piles sharing platform. Through numerical simulation analysis, it is found that under most parameter conditions, the government tends to establish a shared charging pile platform based on public interests. Private charging pile owners are influenced by the relationship between the cost of supply modification and revenue, and they tend to join the shared platform when they expect to recover the modification cost. The research conclusions of this paper will provide support for exploring how participants make decisions to maximize overall benefits in the development of low-carbon urban transportation.

This study used a two-stage network data envelopment analysis model to measure the water use efficiency of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the initial water use and wastewater treatment phases from 2009 to 2019. We used the Dagum Gini coefficient to decompose the urban water use efficiency of six major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. We also used σ convergence and β convergence types to test the convergence characteristics of urban water use efficiency of six major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This study found that the overall low level of water use efficiency in cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone mainly stems from the low level of water use efficiency in the wastewater treatment stage. The 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone are divided into four types based on the average values of water use efficiency in the initial use and wastewater treatment phases; the highest number of cities are in the double-low category, with low average values of water use efficiency in the initial use and wastewater treatment phases. During the study period, spatial differences in urban water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Zone narrowed, with the differences stemming mainly from hyperdensity, followed by intra- and inter-regional differences. Meanwhile, there is convergence in urban water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt; significant β convergence in the urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Delta, Jianghuai, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu–Chongqing, and Central Yunnan; and insignificant β convergence in the Central Qian urban agglomeration. After considering control factors, such as industrial structure, financial development level, environmental regulation, economic development level, and science and education development level, the water use efficiency of the six major urban clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt converges faster, but the influence of these control factors on the water use efficiency of each urban cluster is heterogeneous. Research results have reference value for the development of improvement strategies on differentiated urban water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

In Africa, vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are still a major public health issue especially in cities that gather an increasing human population. Market gardening practices, for example, can favor the transmission of urban malaria, while insufficient water supply and waste management favor the circulation of arboviroses related to Aedes mosquitoes. Urban planning is a major challenge to mitigate vector risks. As a planning strategy, greening is a concept that is increasingly considered as a major element impacting the well-being of inhabitants, but also for the restoration of biodiversity in cities. Nevertheless, the impact of urban green spaces on vector risk remains poorly investigated, as they may serve as refuge for vectors. This is why the diversity of mosquitoes in terms of species and larval habitat, through larval prospections in environmental water collections and human landing catches, is studied here at an intra-urban interface area between a forest and an urban ecosystem in order to assess the vector risk generated by preserving a forest patch in the heart of Libreville, capital of Gabon, central Africa. Out of 104 water containers explored, 94 (90.4%) were artificial, mainly comprising gutters, used tires, and plastic bottles, while 10 (9.6%) were natural, comprising a puddle, streams, and tree holes. The majority of the water collections recovered (73.1%) were found outside of the forested area, natural and artificial ones considered together. A total of 770 mosquitoes belonging to 14 species were collected from water collections. The mosquito community was largely dominated by anthropophilic species like Aedes albopictus (33.5%), Culex quinquefasciatus (30.4%), and Lutzia tigripes (16.5%). The Shannon index of diversity showed that mosquitoes were almost twice less diversified inside the forest (0.7) than outside (1.3). However, both communities were quite similar in terms of common species and relative abundance (Morisita-Horn index = 0.7). Regarding Human landing catches, Aedes albopictus (86.1%) was the most aggressive species, putting people at risk of Aedes-borne viruses. This study uncovered the importance of considering urban forested ecosystems as potential drivers of disease emergence and spread in urban areas, as they might locally boost urban mosquito densities due to poor environmental practices, mainly maintained by humans through poor environmental practices. In Gabon, this study should contribute to guide targeted vector control strategies, especially regarding the implementation of policies for a better environmental management and vector surveillance in urbanized areas.

The analogy between the theory of phase transitions in simple fluids and vehicular traffic flow has long been suspected, promising a new level of understanding of urban congestion by standing on one of the firmer foundations in physics. The obstacle has been the interpretation of the thermal energy of the gas-particle system, which remains unknown. This paper proposes the flow of cars through the network as a viable interpretation, where the fundamental diagram for traffic flow would be analogous to the coexistence curve in gas-liquid phase transitions. Thanks to the power-law form of the coexistence curve, it was possible to formalize that the resulting network traffic model belongs to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. The scaling relationships arising in this universality class are found to be consistent with West's scaling theory for cities. It is shown that congestion costs (delays + fuel consumption) scale superlinearly with city population, possibly and worryingly more so than predicted by West's theory. Implications for sustainability and resiliency are discussed.

The urban population in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, is rapidly increas-ing. As towns and cities grow, so does the demand for fish protein. While flow-through aqua-culture can provide fresh, healthy and nutritious fish protein, it is plagued by extensive land re-quirement as well as effluent discharge, thus, unsuitable for city regions. Alternatively, small-scale Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) could improve food and nutritional security (FNS), livelihoods as well as reduce environmental degradation in urban areas despite land and water constraints. The question however remains - what are the key technical, business and managerial issues, surrounding small-scale RAS in urban farming? This study reviews the RAS prototype of the Sustainable Aquaponics for Nutritional and Food Security in Urban Sub-Saharan Africa (SANFU) II project based on mass balance and stock density, relevant for fish survival and/or availability as well as net cash-flow analyses. The results suggest that small-scale RAS are technically and financially viable only with family labor having proper aquaculture monitoring and management skills. Furthermore, access to adequate equipment and inputs as well as electricity for the recirculating system are crucial. Urban innovation actors will adopt RAS if operations are profitable given that family labor is employed.

An important step towards COVID-19 pandemic control is adequate knowledge and adherence to mitigation measures, including vaccination. We assessed the level of COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices among residents from an urban informal settlement in the City of Nairobi (Kibera), and a rural community in western Kenya (Asembo). A cross-sectional survey was implemented from April to May 2021 among randomly selected adult residents from a population-based infectious diseases surveillance (PBIDS) cohort in Nairobi and Siaya Counties. Factors associated with the level of COVID-19 KAP, were assessed using multivariable regression methods. COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was 83.6% for the participants from Asembo and 59.8% in Kibera. The reasons cited for vaccine hesitancy in Kibera were safety concerns (34.0%), insufficient information available to decide (18.0%), and a lack of belief in the vaccine (21.0%), while the reasons in Asembo were safety concerns (55.0%), insufficient information to decide (26.0%) and lack of belief in the vaccine (11%). Our study findings suggest the need for continued public education to enhance COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices to ensure adherence to mitigation measures. Urban informal settlements require targeted messaging to improve vaccine awareness, acceptability, and uptake.

Electric vehicles offer a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in passenger transport. The availability of reliable charging infrastructure is crucial for the successful uptake of electric vehicles in dense urban areas. In a pilot project in the city of Hamburg, Germany, public charging infrastructure is equipped with a reservation option providing exclusive access for local residents and businesses. The present paper combines quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the effects of the newly introduced neighborhood charging concept. We use a methodology combining a quantitative questionnaire survey and qualitative focus group discussions as well as the analyses of charging infrastructure utilization data. Results show that inner-city charging and parking options are of key importance for (potential) users of electric vehicles. Hence, the neighborhood concept is rated very positively. Providing guaranteed charging and parking facilities are therefore likely to increase the stock of EVs. On the other hand, these could to a large extent be additional cars with consequential disadvantages. The study shows that openly accessible infrastructure is presently utilized much more intense than the exclusive option. Consequentially, the concept evaluated should be part of an integrated approach managing parking and supporting efficient concepts like car sharing.

Impervious surface area (ISA) is a crucial indicator for quantitative urban studies. It is also important for land use land cover classification, groundwater recharge, sustainable development, urban heat island effects, and more. Spectral ISA mapping suffers from mixed pixel problems, especially with bare soil. This study aims to develop an ISA index for spatiotemporal urban mapping from common multispectral bands by reducing soil signature better than in previous studies. This study proposed a global impervious surface area index (GISAI) enhancing ISA mapping accuracy using a temporal parameter of the remote sensing (RS) dataset. Bare soil spectral reflectance shows more fluctuation than urban ISA. Therefore, the study uses minimum composites of earlier urban indices to compile minimum soil signature. It is later improved by removing water, increasing the contrast between bare soil and urban ISA and reducing bright bare soil area. This study maps the ISA of all 12 megacities using the annual RS image collection from 2021. GISAI reduced the bare soil signature and achieved an overall accuracy of 87.29%, F1-score of 0.84, and Kappa coefficient of 0.75. However, it has some limitations with grey bare soil and barren hilly areas. By limiting bare soil signature, GISAI broadens the scope of inter-urban studies globally and lengthens potential urban time-series analysis using common multispectral bands.

Bus services play a significant role as the main public transportation, especially in urban areas throughout the years. Since bus services compete greatly with other types of public transportation, such as e-hailing service and private vehicles, they have recently attracted scholars to conduct many relevant studies. However, most past research studies in the Asian region were not focused on engineering, social science, and Internet of Things (IOT). This present study concentrated on the service quality of bus services in Asia by using systematic literature review of articles. This study conducted a review based on previous studies, specifically on the service quality of performance. Several previous studies were selected by using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRIMSA) approach. SCOPUS and Science Direct were chosen as the main journal database. By using this method, 41 articles were selected for further analysis. This study was merely focused on three primary themes, such as study approach, stakeholder, and service quality attributes. Advanced analysis on these primary themes was used to formulate another 18 sub-themes. All themes and sub-themes which reflected the significant impacts of service quality towards bus services were discussed in detail. This study had addressed several qualities of bus services of bus performance towards improvement of urban transportation polices. Lastly, several recommendations that could provide necessary knowledge and information for future research were presented.

Smart Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) will contribute to vehicle decision-making in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). Multi-Vehicle Pursuit games (MVP), a multi-vehicle cooperative ability to capture mobile targets, is becoming a hot research topic gradually. Although there are some achievements in the field of MVP in the open space environment, the urban area brings complicated road structures and restricted moving spaces as challenges to the resolution of MVP games. We define an Observation-constrained MVP (OMVP) problem in this paper and propose a Transformer-based Time and Team Reinforcement Learning scheme (T3OMVP) to address the problem. First, a new multi-vehicle pursuit model is constructed based on decentralized partially observed Markov decision processes (Dec-POMDP) to instantiate this problem. Second, by introducing and modifying the transformer-based observation sequence, QMIX is redefined to adapt to the complicated road structure, restricted moving spaces and constrained observations, so as to control vehicles to pursue the target combining the vehicle’s observations. Third, a multi-intersection urban environment is built to verify the proposed scheme. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed T3OMVP scheme achieves significant improvements relative to state-of-the-art QMIX approaches by 9.66%~106.25%. Code is available at https://github.com/pipihaiziguai/T3OMVP.

The capabilities of a quadcopter in the hover mode for low-altitude sensing of atmospheric turbulence with high spatial resolution in urban areas characterized by complex orography are investigated. The studies were carried out in different seasons (winter, spring, summer, and fall), and the quadcopter hovered in the immediate vicinity of ultrasonic weather stations. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro quadcopter and AMK-03 ultrasonic weather stations installed in different places of the studied territory were used in the experiment. The smoothing procedure was used to main regularities in the behavior of the longitudinal and lateral spectra of turbulence in the inertial and energy production ranges. The longitudinal and lateral turbulence scales were estimated by the least-square fit method with the von Karman model as a regression curve. It is shown that the turbulence spectra obtained with DJI Phantom 4 Pro and AMK-03 generally coincide with minor differences observed in the high-frequency region of the spectrum. In the inertial range, the behavior of the turbulence spectra shows that they obey the Kolmogorov-Obukhov “5/3” law. In the energy production range, the longitudinal and lateral turbulence scales and their ratio measured by DJI Phantom 4 Pro and AMK-03 agree to a good accuracy. Discrepancies in the data obtained with the quadcopter and the ultrasonic weather stations at the territory with complex orography are explained by the partial correlation of the wind velocity series at different measurement points and the influence of the inhomogeneous surface.

Public green and open spaces fulfil various social, ecological, economic, and aesthetic roles, which complement each another, but can also compete with one another. COVID-19 pandemic catalysed multiple societal changes, including citizens’ perception, needs and expectations posed towards urban green spaces. This article discusses the extent to which the temporally and geographically changed patterns of experiencing these natural spaces also influenced users’ perception and behaviour as well as their appreciation of the conservation areas. The study is based upon two surveys carried out in the greater metropolitan region of Vienna, the capital city of Austria. A quantitative survey (representative online panel) among Viennese population (n=1012), as well as qualitive interviews with experts responsible for conservation areas, administrators of federal parks, along with NGOs representatives were carried out in spring and summer 2021. Our study shows the changed use of urban and suburban large green spaces and conservation areas: first, from the perspective of those responsible for the areas as well as the visitors. Both perspectives supplement one another. They highlight also changed perception of urban citizens towards green spaces during COVID-19 pandemic. An increased importance of time spent in nature (68%) and possibility to visit large green areas (67%) was reported by Viennese citizens. Also, higher recognition of green spaces located close to home was observed among 69% of the respondents. Thus, the presented study contributes to the ongoing international discussion on the transition of societal needs and its effects on urban green spaces induced by the pandemic. Presented results deliver solid arguments highlighting the need of urgent transformation towards a more sustainable, resilient and healthy urban space.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation level of urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Republic of Korea and to measure the extent of internal and external impacts on the implementation level. An evaluation framework was established based on relative efficiency theory, and the implementation level of urban SDGs at the local government unit in the Republic of Korea was examined by performing an analysis of each stage. First, in reference to the 2018 cross-section, the implementation level of target 11.2 (public transportation) was assessed as excellent across the country, compared with the implementation level of targets 11.5 (disaster safety), 11.6 (environment), and 11.7 (public space), which were assessed as needing improvement. Second, the factors positively impacting the implementation level of target 11.2 were urban population, GRDP, financial independence, urbanization area, and bus-only lanes, whereas the factors positively impacting the implementation level of target 11.5 were population density and GRDP. The positive factors influencing the implementation level of target 11.6 (air quality sector) were found to be GRDP, financial independence, administrative area, and renewable energy generation, whereas the effective factors of the implementation level of target 11.6 (waste management sector) were analyzed as GRDP, financial independence, and the population density of households in the waste management area. The positive factors influencing the implementation level of target 11.7 were GRDP, financial independence, administrative area, and green area.

Intelligent cities or smart cities evolve bottom-up along with the digitisation and the creation of digital entities linked to human activities, physical space, and institutional settings of cities; but also, they progress top-down through smart city strategies and projects designed and implemented by public authorities. Yet, thirty-five years since the first use of the term “smart city” or “intelligent city” in the second half of the 1980s, and more than ten years of intense publications in this field, since 2009, there is still a great deal of fuzziness about the projects that make cities intelligent or smart. There is low awareness about the big differences between large, complex urban projects, such as ‘Zero Energy Districts’ or “Mobility-as-a-Service” and projects for automation of city infrastructures, such as smart city lighting, smart metering or finding a parking place. There is a widespread misconception that city intelligence or smartness, the core attribute of smart cities, can be achieved through automation of the city infrastructure. This paper focuses on projects that make cities intelligent or smart. Our intention is to show the complexity and effort needed to achieve this objective. It is an inquiry on projects and data from a large number of smart cities around the world. We analyse core properties of smart city projects, such as (a) interventions on the physical, social, and digital space of cities, (b) the relation to city sectors and ecosystems, (c) engagement of users and stakeholders in decision-making, and (c) impact through optimisation and innovation of city processes and routines. We discuss also projects we have designed and implemented in the framework of URENIO Research and ITI-CERTH. Our conclusions are two-fold. First, we propose a typology of smart city projects along 3 axes and 9 properties. Second, we argue that success and failure to achieve city smartness are mainly institutional. Most barriers to implementation are organisational, legal, and institutional. This can be explained by the social and institutional inertia of the urban system against new solutions, especially when innovation and radical change of existing routines take place. Change management should be a permanent companion of smart city projects implementation, and the modification of routines should be clearly defined and considered already at the design phase of projects.

Pollinators are being threatened globally by urbanisation and agricultural intensification, driv-en by a growing human population. Understanding these impacts on landscapes and pollinators is critical to ensuring a robust pollination system. Remote sensing data on land use attributes have previously linked honeybee nutrition to land use in the Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). Here, we instead focus on the less commonly studied Apis cerana japonica – the Japanese Honeybee. Our study presents preliminary data comparing forage (honey and pollen) with land use across a rural-urban gradient from 22 sites in Kyushu, southern Japan. Honey samples were collected from hives between June 2018 and August 2019. Pollen were collected and biotyped from hives in urban and rural locations (n = 4). Previous studies of honey show substantial vari-ation in monosaccharide content. Our analysis of A. cerana japonica honey found very little varia-tion in glucose and fructose (which accounted for 97% of monosaccharides), despite substantial differences in surrounding forage composition. As expected, we observed temporal variation in pollen foraged by A. cerana japonica, likely dependent on flowering phenology. These prelimi-nary results suggest that the forage and nutrition of A. cerana japonica may not be negatively af-fected by urban land use. This highlights the need for further comparative studies between A. cerana japonica and A. mellifera as it could suggest a resilience in pollinators foraging in their na-tive range.

In recent years, land supply in Hong Kong has fallen sharply and fails to keep pace with the growth of population and number of households. Land shortage becomes urgent and dire. With the inadequate provision of residential land, housing supply is also adversely affected.Insufficient housing supply leads to surging property and rental price in the private market. According to the Rating and Valuation Department (RVD), the overall private domestic price index peaked in June 2017 at 336.1. Keen housing demand is also observed in the private rental market. RVD statistics showed that the domestic rental index also reached the peak at 183.6 in June 2017 and the vacancy rate of about 3.8% as at the end-2016, which is much lower than the average vacancy rate of 5% from 1996 to 2015 (Development Bureau, 2017).In addition, there is soaring housing demand in public housing. As at the end-December 2021, the average waiting time for general applicants was 5.7 years, which is nearly double of the Housing Authority’s target for providing the first flat offer to general applicants at around three years on average (Housing Authority, 2021). Identifying and securing sufficient land to meet both current and anticipated pressing housing demand becomes a key challenge of the government. In the light of this, the government has established a dedicated task force (Task Force on Land Supply) in September 2017 and appointed 30 professionals from different disciplines, such as planning, engineering, academia and think tank, to take a Marco-review on the land supply sources, look for feasible options as well as consider the pros and cons of various options. 18 land supply options were worked out for the public to make choices in the public engagement exercise. Among the 18 choices, the development area on the Periphery of Country Parks was regarded as one of the land supplies sources. This option does not only include the Hong Kong Housing Society’s studies on developing Two Pilot Areas on the Periphery of Tai Lam and Man On Shan Country Parks, but also include developing more areas on the periphery of Country Parks. The proposed option received overwhelming attention from the public and aroused debates in various perspectives. Its ecological value, recreational value, financial viability and even legitimacy were discussed. However, spatial analysis on the suitability of having residential development in Country Parks has not been conducted. Therefore, in this study, multi criteria GIS analysis is conducted to evaluate the geographic suitability of Hong Kong Country Parks for residential purpose with the consideration of various criteria.

Sustainable urban design or planning is not a LEGO-like assembly of prefabricated elements, but an embryo-like growth with persistent differentiation and adaptation towards a coherent whole. The coherent whole has a striking character – called living structure – that consists of far more small substructures than large ones. To detect the living structure, natural streets or axial lines have been previously adopted to be topologically represent an urban environment as a coherent whole. This paper develops a new approach to detecting the underlying living structure of urban environments. The approach takes an urban environment as a whole and recursively decomposes it into meaningful subwholes at different levels of hierarchy or scale ranging from the largest to the smallest. We compared the new approach to natural street and axial line approaches and demonstrated, through four case studies, that the new approach is better and more powerful. Based on the study, we further discuss how the new approach can be used not only for understanding, but also for effectively designing or planning the living structure of an urban environment to be more living or more livable.

City Marketing has a strong tradition in Berlin, with two organisations, Berlin Partner and Visit Berlin, responsible for designing and implementing relevant strategies. Sustainability has been on and off the city marketing agenda, almost exclusively in its environmental dimension. In this article we examine the current representations of Berlin as a “sustainable city” in the official City Marketing strategies. We look at how sustainability is used and instrumentalized to create a specific city profile, and also to attract particular target groups in tourism. We propose an analysis of sustainable planning in Berlin since reunification, to show how it has moved into different directions over time and how this has (or has not) been followed by City Marketing. In this endeavour we move between the existing, and as we argue deeper and more sophisticated, environmental planning of the city on the one hand, and the reductions and simplifications of City Marketing representations on the other. Finally, we argue that there are inherent contradictions in marketing a sustainable city, where both in terms of tourism and economic development, the concept of growth seems to be reaching environmental limits.