Search results for: urban setting

Authors: Yajing Jiang, Jing Wu

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Residential area construction links many problems such as population resources, ecology, social values, public services and transportation in the city. After Chinese housing reform, a large number of residential area development accompanied by the loss of agricultural and ecological land. To explore the future of Chinese urban residential area, this article concentrates on how the 'Compact Settlement' behaves in improving the living environment and saving the resources. Through the research of residential area in Hangzhou, there are some determines that increasing the development intensity of the area can indeed bring some improvement in the overall environment. In conclusion, possible design alternatives are discussed for leading Chinese urban development towards a more sustainable path.

Keywords: compact city development, environmental sustainability, residential area, Hangzhou

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Authors: Zhiqiang Yan, Chen Fan, Beicheng Xia

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Urban lakes play an invaluable role in urban water systems such as flood control, landscape, entertainment, and energy utilization, and have suffered from severe eutrophication over the past few years. To investigate the ecological response of main aquatic species and system stability to chlorine interference in shallow urban lakes, a mini system dynamic model, based on the competition and predation of main aquatic species and TP circulation, was developed. The main species of submerged macrophyte, phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos and TP in water and sediment were simulated as variables in the model with the interference of chlorine which effect function was attenuation equation. The model was validated by the data which was investigated in the Lotus Lake in Guangzhou from October 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016. Furthermore, the eco-exergy was used to analyze the change in complexity of the shallow urban lake. The results showed the correlation coefficient between observed and simulated values of all components presented significant. Chlorine showed a significant inhibitory effect on Microcystis aeruginosa，Rachionus plicatilis, Diaphanosoma brachyurum Liévin and Mesocyclops leuckarti (Claus).The outbreak of Spiroggra spp. inhibited the growth of Vallisneria natans (Lour.) Hara, caused a gradual decrease of eco-exergy, reflecting the breakdown of ecosystem internal equilibria. It was concluded that the study gives important insight into using chlorine to achieve eutrophication control and understand mechanism process.

Keywords: system dynamic model, urban lake, chlorine, eco-exergy

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Authors: A. Zahedi Yeganeh, A. Khademolhosseini, R. Mokhtari Malekabadi

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Undoubtedly one of the most far-reaching and controversial topics considered in the past few decades, has been globalization. Globalization lies in the essence of the modern culture. It is a complex and rapidly expanding network of links and mutual interdependence that is an aspect of modern life; though some argue that this link existed since the beginning of human history. If we consider globalization as a dynamic social process in which the geographical constraints governing the political, economic, social and cultural relationships have been undermined, it might not be possible to simply describe its impact on the urban fabric. But since in this phenomenon the increase in communications of societies (while preserving the main cultural - regional characteristics) with one another and the increase in the possibility of influencing other societies are discussed, the need for more studies will be felt. The main objective of this study is to grade based on some globalization factors on urban fabric applying the TOPSIS model. The research method is descriptive - analytical and survey. For data analysis, the TOPSIS model and SPSS software were used and the results of GIS software with fourteen cities are shown on the map. The results show that the process of being influenced by the globalization of the urban fabric of fourteen zones of Isfahan was not similar and there have been large differences in this respect between city zones; the most affected areas are zones 5, 6 and 9 of the municipality and the least impact has been on the zones 4 and 3 and 2.

Keywords: grading, globalization, urban fabric, 14 zones of Isfahan, TOPSIS model

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Authors: Arpita Banerjee

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We now live in a world where half of the human population is city dwellers. The migration of people from rural to urban areas is rising continuously. But, the promise of a greater wage and better quality of life cannot keep up with the pace of migration. The rate of urbanization is much higher in developing countries. The UN predicts that 95 percent of this urban expansion will take place in the developing world in the next few decades. The population in the urban settlements of the developing nations is soaring, and megacities like Mumbai, Dhaka, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, and Kinshasa are crammed with people, a majority of whom are migrants. Rural-urban migration has taken a new shape with the rising number of smaller cities. Apart from the increase in non-agricultural economic activities, growing demand for resources and energy, an increase in wastes and pollution, and a greater ecological footprint, there is another significant characteristic of the current wave of urbanization. This paper analyses that important marker of urbanization. It is the invisibility of production sites. The growing urban space ensures that the producers, the production sites, or the process stay beyond urban visibility. In cities and towns, living is majorly about earning money in either the informal service and small scale manufacturing sectors (a major part of which is food preparation), or the formal service sector. In the cases of both the informal service and small scale manufacturing or the formal service sector, commodity creation cannot be seen. The urban space happens to be the marketplace, where nature and its services, along with the non-urban labour, cannot be seen unless it is sold in the market. Hence, the consumers are now increasingly becoming disengaged from the producers. This paper compares the rate of increase in the size of and employment in the informal sector and/or that of the formal sector of some selected urban areas of India. Also, a comparison over the years of the aforementioned characteristics is presented in this paper, in order to find out how the anonymity of the producers to the urban consumers have grown as urbanization has risen. This paper also analyses the change in the transport cost of goods into the cities and towns of India and supports that claim made here that the invisibility of production is a crucial marker of modern-day urban-centric economic development. Such urbanization has an important ecological impact. The invisibility of the production site saves the urban consumer society from dealing with the ethical and ecological aspects of the production process. Once the real sector production is driven out of the cities and towns, the invisible ethical and ecological impacts of the growing urban consumption frees the consumers from associating themselves with any responsibility towards those impacts.

Keywords: ecological impact of urbanization, informal sector, invisibility of production, urbanization

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Authors: Alexandra P. Alexandropoulou, Andreas Fousteris, Eleni Didaskalou, Dimitrios A. Georgakellos

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As urbanization is becoming a major stress factor not only for the urban environment but also for the wellbeing of city dwellers, incorporating the issues of urban health in strategic city planning and policy-making has never been more relevant. The impact of urbanization can vary from low to severe and relates to all non-communicable diseases caused by the different functions of cities. Air pollution, noise pollution, water and soil pollution, availability of open green spaces, and urban heat island are the major factors that can compromise citizens' health. Urban health describes the effects of the social environment, the physical environment, and the availability and accessibility to health and social services. To assess the quality of urban wellbeing, all urban characteristics that might have an effect on citizens' health must be considered, evaluated, and introduced in integrated local planning. A series of indices and indicators can be used to better describe these effects and set the target values in policy making. Local strategic planning is one of the most valuable development tools a local city administration can possess; thus, it has become mandatory under Greek law for all municipalities. It involves a two-stage procedure; the first aims to collect, analyse and evaluate data on the current situation of the city (administrative data, population data, environmental data, social data, swot analysis), while the second aims to introduce a policy vision described and supported by distinct (nevertheless integrated) actions, plans and measures to be implemented with the aim of city development and citizen wellbeing. In this procedure, the element of health is often neglected or under-evaluated. A relative survey was conducted among all Greek local authorities in order to shed light on the current situation. Evidence shows that the rate of incorporation of health in strategic planning is lacking behind. The survey also highlights key hindrances and concerns raised by local officials and suggests a path for the way forward.

Keywords: urban health, strategic planning, local authorities, integrated development

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Authors: L. Calcagni, A. Battisti, M. Hensel, D. S. Hensel

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Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have seen a dynamic growth of water-based (WB) architecture, mainly due to the increasing threat of floods caused by sea level rise and heavy rains, all correlated with climate change. At the same time, the shortage of land available for urban development also led architects, engineers, and policymakers to reclaim the seabed or to build floating structures. Furthermore, the drive to produce energy from renewable resources has expanded the sector of offshore research, mining, and energy industry which seeks new types of WB structures. In light of these considerations, the time is ripe to consider floating architecture as a full-fledged building typology. Currently, there is no universally recognized academic definition of a floating building. Research on floating architecture lacks a proper, commonly shared vocabulary and typology distinction. Moreover, there is no global international legal framework for urban development on water, and there is no structured performance based building design (PBBD) approach for floating architecture in most countries, let alone national regulatory systems. Thus, first of all, the research intends to overcome the semantic and typological issues through the conceptualization of floating architecture, laying the proto-ontological conditions for floating development, and secondly to identify the parameters to be considered in the definition of a specific PBBD framework, setting the scene for national planning strategies. The theoretical overview and re-semanticization process involve the attribution of a new meaning to the term floating architecture. This terminological work of semantic redetermination is carried out through a systematic literature review and involves quantitative and historical research as well as logical argumentation methods. As it is expected that floating urban development is most likely to take place as an extension of coastal areas, the needs and design criteria are definitely more similar to those of the urban environment than to those of the offshore industry. Therefore, the identification and categorization of parameters –looking towards the potential formation of a PBBD framework for floating development– takes the urban and architectural guidelines and regulations as the starting point, taking the missing aspects, such as hydrodynamics (i.e. stability and buoyancy) from the offshore and shipping regulatory frameworks. This study is carried out through an evidence-based assessment of regulatory systems that are effective in different countries around the world, addressing on-land and on-water architecture as well as offshore and shipping industries. It involves evidence-based research and logical argumentation methods. Overall, inhabiting water is proposed not only as a viable response to the problem of rising sea levels, thus as a resilient frontier for urban development, but also as a response to energy insecurity, clean water, and food shortages, environmental concerns, and urbanization, in line with Blue Economy principles and the Agenda 2030. This review shows how floating architecture is to all intents and purposes, an urban adaptation measure and a solution towards self-sufficiency and energy-saving objectives. Moreover, the adopted methodology is, to all extents, open to further improvements and integrations, thus not rigid and already completely determined. Along with new designs and functions that will come into play in the practice field, eventually, life on water will seem no more unusual than life on land, especially by virtue of the multiple advantages it provides not only to users but also to the environment.

Keywords: adaptation measures, building typology, floating architecture, performance based building design, rising sea levels

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Authors: Samuel Onyije Igbedion

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The Nigerian film industry, commonly known as Nollywood, has grown to become the second largest in the world in terms of the volumes of films produced. Many scholars have argued that the themes in most Nollywood films do not let themselves to the issue of film-induced tourism, which can be used to improve tourism in Nigeria and the economy at large. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the validity of this statement in the context of one film that attempts to address the issue. This paper examines the features of tourism-induced films to determine if tourism-inducing themes were used in the film and how they were used in order to confirm or refute the thesis statement. The agenda-setting theory of the media underpinned the study. A qualitative research approach was adopted and content analysis was used to review literature from relevant secondary sources that determined the content criteria, which was then used to analyze the film. The findings reveal that the filmmakers of Up North (2018) did feature themes and scenes that promoted tourism through the use and filming of exotic scenery. It also revealed that the film introduced these tourism-inducing features of the north through the setting, the storyline, the choice of locations and chosen shot types. The study concludes that the prominent and intentional featuring all of these beautiful scenery, history, culture, adventure activities and personalities point to a deliberate attempt at convincing the audiences of the tourist potential of Nigeria. Thus, the validity of the statement does not apply to the film Up North (2018).

Keywords: film-tourism, nollywood, agenda-setting theory, filmmaking, culture

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Authors: Tahereh Habibi

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The Oligocene carbonates are widespread along Fars Province, Zagros Basin, SW Iran. Distribution of planktonic and larger benthic foraminfera, stratal patterns and facies architecture are used as a tool to define microfacies and foraminiferal associations of these strata at Kavar Section. The presence of Nummulites spp. indicated the age of the sequence as Rupelian-Chattian (Nummulites vascus-Nummulites fichteli and Archaias asmaricus/hensoni-Miogypsinoides complanatus assemblage zones). The paleoenvironmental setting is interpreted as a homoclinal ramp environment according to the recognition of eight microfacies types. Four foraminiferal associations are recognized in the investigated ramp setting. They represent a salinity of 34-40 to 50 psu and higher than 50 psu in more restricted conditions. The depth ranges from 200 m as evidenced by the presence of planktonic foraminifera and to less than 30m in the more restricted inner ramp environment. Warm tropical and subtropical water with temperature of 18-25° C is proposed.

Keywords: foraminiferal associations, microfacies, oligocene, paleoecology

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Authors: Rati Sandeep Choudhari

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Mobility flows are considered one of the most important elements of urbanisation, with transport infrastructure serving as a backbone of urban fabrics. Although rapid urbanisation and changing land use patterns have led to an increase in urban mobility levels around the globe, mobility, in general, has become an unpleasant experience for city dwellers, making locations around the city inconvenient to access. With public transport featured in almost every sustainable mobility plan in developing countries, the intermodality and integration with appropriate non–motorised transport infrastructure is often neglected. As a result, people choose to use private cars and two-wheelers to travel, rendering public transit systems underutilised, and encroaching onto pedestrian space on streets, thus making urban mobility unsafe and inconvenient for a major section of society. On the other hand, cities in the West, especially in Europe, depend heavily on inter–modal transit systems, allowing people to shift between metros, buses, trams, walking, and cycling to access even the remote locations of the city. Keeping accessibility as the focal point while designing urban mobility plans and policies, these cities have appropriately refined their urban form, optimised urban densities, developed a multimodal transit system, and adopted place-making strategies to foster a sense of place, thus, improving the quality of urban mobility experience in cities. Using a qualitative research approach, the research looks in detail into the existing literature on what kind of strategies can be applied to improve the urban mobility experience for city dwellers. It further studies and draws out a comparative analysis of cities in both developed and developing parts of the world where these strategies have been used to create people-centric mobility systems, fostering a sense of place with respect to urban mobility and how these strategies affected their social, economic, and environmental dynamics. The examples reflect on how different strategies like redefining land use patterns to form close knit neighbourhoods, development of non – motorise transit systems, and their integration with public transport infrastructure and place-making approach has helped in enhancing the quality and experience of mobility infrastructure in cities. The research finally concludes by laying out strategies that can be adopted by cities of the Global South to develop future mobility systems in a people-centric and sustainable way.

Keywords: urban mobility, sustainable transport, strategic planning, people-centric approach

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Authors: Nadine Osbild

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Recent urban development projects often try to cater to both high-tech innovation/start-up culture and local culture/sustainable living. In the process, the so-called “creative class” (Florida 2002) has become a focal point for innovative answers to increasing urban pressures. Our paper explores local subculture and art scenes as a place where current innovation policies and alternative approaches to urban future-making collide. We explore the (re-)making of prevalent understanding of creativity in the context of Munich – an economically successful and over-saturated city with a relatively conservative approach to innovation and disruption and no apparent need for the “creative class” remedy. In particular, we investigate the opportunities and manifestations of subculture in three urban development projects that are envisioned as collaborations between innovators and (sub)culturally oriented creativity. Following a co-production STS approach, we observe that these development projects serve as sites where understandings of innovation and creativity are configured and stabilized in keeping with broader socio-political and economic rationalities. What is more, the projects materialize a de-facto split between the two understandings of a “creative scene,” whereby alternative and potentially disruptive forms of creativity become sidelined or even prevented in Munich’s imagination of urban development in the name of innovation and economic growth. Thus taming the unruliness of creativity, Munich also manages to tame the disruptive threats of innovation, ensuring that the innovation-centered modes of future-making still leave socio-economic hierarchies intact while displacing (counter-)visions rooted in the subculture.

Keywords: creative districts, science and technology studies, public engagement, innovation studies

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Authors: Dai Yizheng, Chen-Yang Zhang

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As station-city integration has been widely accepted as a strategy for mixed-use development, a quantitative analysis of the functional characteristics of urban complexes based on station-city integration is urgently needed. Taking 15 railway stations in European, North American, and East Asian cities as the research objects, this study analyzes their functional proportion, functional positioning, and functional correlation with respect to four categories of functional facilities for both railway passenger flow and subway passenger flow. We found that (1) the functional proportion of urban complexes was mainly concentrated in three models: complementary, dominant, and equilibrium. (2) The mathematical model affected by the functional proportion was created to evaluate the functional positioning of an urban complex at three scales: station area, city, and region. (3) The strength of the correlation between the functional area and passenger flow was revealed via data analysis using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Finally, the findings of this study provide a valuable reference for research on similar topics in other countries that are developing station-city integration.

Keywords: urban complex, station-city integration, mixed-use, function, quantitative analysis

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Authors: Deepti Kumari, Upamanyu Hore

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Cities are an example of a human-modified environment with few fragments of urban green spaces, which are widely considered for urban biodiversity. The study aims to address the avifaunal diversity in urban parks based on the park size and their urbanization intensity. Also, understanding the key factors affecting species composition and structure as birds are a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem, and they are sensitive to changes in the environment. A 50 m-long line-transect method is used to survey birds in 39 urban parks in Delhi, India. Habitat variables, including vegetation (percentage of non-native trees, percentage of native trees, top canopy cover, sub-canopy cover, diameter at breast height, ground vegetation cover, shrub height) were measured using the quadrat method along the transect, and disturbance variables (distance from water, distance from road, distance from settlement, park area, visitor rate, and urbanization intensity) were measured using ArcGIS and google earth. We analyzed species data for diversity and richness. We explored the relation of species diversity and richness to habitat variables using the multi-model inference approach. Diversity and richness are found significant in different park sizes and their urbanization intensity. Medium size park supports more diversity, whereas large size park has more richness. However, diversity and richness both declined with increasing urbanization intensity. The result of CCA revealed that species composition in urban parks was positively associated with tree diameter at breast height and distance from the settlement. On the model selection approach, disturbance variables, especially distance from road, urbanization intensity, and visitors are the best predictors for the species richness of birds in urban parks. In comparison, multiple regression analysis between habitat variables and bird diversity suggested that native tree species in the park may explain the diversity pattern of birds in urban parks. Feeding guilds such as insectivores, omnivores, carnivores, granivores, and frugivores showed a significant relation with vegetation variables, while carnivores and scavenger bird species mainly responded with disturbance variables. The study highlights the importance of park size in urban areas and their urbanization intensity. It also indicates that distance from the settlement, distance from the road, urbanization intensity, visitors, diameter at breast height, and native tree species can be important determining factors for bird richness and diversity in urban parks. The study also concludes that the response of feeding guilds to vegetation and disturbance in urban parks varies. Therefore, we recommend that park size and surrounding urban matrix should be considered in order to increase bird diversity and richness in urban areas for designing and planning.

Keywords: diversity, feeding guild, urban park, urbanization intensity

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Authors: Hayati Sari Hasibuan, Tresna P. Soemardi, Raldi H. Koestoer, Setyo S. Moersidik

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Facing the severe transportation system in daily basis, the government of Indonesia were searching an alternative solution to combat the acute traffic jam and the socio-economic negative effects and pollutions resulted. Transit-oriented development as a strategy in reformulating and restructuring of the urban land uses as well as the transport system will be implemented in many urban areas in Indonesia, especially in Jabodetabek. Jabodetabek is the greatest metropolitan area in Indonesia with 27.9 million inhabitants. The Jabodetabek is also the center of economic activity with gross domestic product around 22 percent of gross national product. This study aims to assess the potential of economic development and community change effects with implementing the transit oriented development. This study found that using transit oriented development as an alternative approach in reconstructing of urban land uses in metropolitan region will effect to the behaviour of urban mobilities, the housing choices, and the cost of transportation. The sustainable of socio-economic aspects resulting from the transit oriented development is the main focus of this paper. The challenge here is to explore the characteristics of transit oriented development that suitable for metropolitan region in developing country,which considering the uniqueness of nature and socio-cultural that shapes this urban.

Keywords: economic development, community change, restructuring, land use, transportation, environment

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Authors: M. Taghavi Zavareh, H. Saremi

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Railway transportation is one of the types of transportation systems which, due to the advantages such as the ability to transport a large number of passengers, environmental protection, low energy consumption, and contribution to tourism, has importance. The existence of suitable and accessible stations is one of the requirements that leads to better performance and plays a significant role in the economic, social, political, and cultural development of urban areas. This paper aims to propose a framework for locating railway passenger stations. This research used descriptive-analytical methods and library tools to answer which definitions and theoretical approaches are suitable for the location of railway passenger stations. The results showed that theoretical approaches such as Transit-Oriented Development and Urban Regeneration are of the utmost importance theoretical bases in the field of research. Moreover, we studied three stations in Iran to find out about real trends and criteria in this research. This study also proposed four major criteria including accessibility, development, rail related and economics, and environmental harmony. Ultimately with an emphasis on the proposed criteria, the study concludes that the combination of Transit-Oriented Development and Urban Regeneration is the most suitable framework to locate railway passenger stations.

Keywords: railway passenger station, railway station, site selection, transit-oriented development, urban regeneration

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Authors: Lei Liu

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This paper concerns on a special phenomenon of rocketing of bride’s price in rural China after the rural-urban labor migration nowadays. It provides a brief overview of three major prospective on marriage exchange, especially impose the local marriage market due to the post-migration economic environments. Then the author highlights on several factors that influence the rocketing raise of rural marriage gifts using both the primary data from census 2010 and the interviews from the field study, such as one-child policy and the unbalanced sex ratio with the familiar context parents used different strategies in raising their sons and daughters so as to best hold their own interests, causing inequality between females and males. Then this was broken by the independence of rural women and the phenomenon of cross-regional marriage after the free mobility of labor resource between rural areas and urban areas which gives women equal rights to choose their spouses together with some publicly policies that accelerate the decline of patriarchy. In the end, the author spells out a framework of migration influence on rural marriage for some theoretical and policy implications of the findings.

Keywords: rural-urban migration, gender stratification, rural China, bride price, marriage

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Authors: Ali Abdi Kordani, Hamid Bigdelirad, Sid Mohammad Boroomandrad

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Operating Urban Bus Transit System is a phenomenon that has a major role in transporting passengers in cities. There are many factors involved in planning and operating an Urban Bus Transit System, one of which is selecting optimized number of stops and scheduling of bus fleet departure. In this paper, we tried to introduce desirable methodology to select number of stops and schedule properly. Selecting the right number of stops causes convenience in accessibility and reduction in travel time and finally increase in public preference of this transportation mode. The achieved results revealed that number of stops must reduce from 33 to 25. Also according to scheduling and conducted economic analysis, the number of buses must decrease from 17 to 11 to have the most appropriate status for the Bus Organization.

Keywords: number of optimized stops, organizing bus system, scheduling, urban transit

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Authors: Chung-Chih Lin, Wen-Teng Wang, Chin-Chiuan Kuo, Chieh-Liang Wu

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The state of melt viscosity in injection process is significantly influenced by the setting parameters due to that the shear rate of injection process is higher than other processes. How to determine plastic melt viscosity during injection process is important to understand the influence of setting parameters on the melt viscosity. An apparatus named as pressure sensor bushing (PSB) module that is used to evaluate the melt viscosity during injection process is developed in this work. The formulations to coupling melt viscosity with fill time and injection pressure are derived and then the melt viscosity is determined. A test mold is prepared to evaluate the accuracy on viscosity calculations between the PSB module and the conventional approaches. The influence of melt viscosity on the tensile strength of molded part is proposed to study the consistency of injection quality.

Keywords: injection molding, melt viscosity, tensile test, pressure sensor bushing (PSB)

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Authors: Hee Sun (Sunny) Choi, Gerhard Bruyns, Wang Zhang, Sky Cheng, Saijal Sharma

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This research addresses the need for a comprehensive framework that can guide the design and assessment of multi-level public spaces and public realms and their impact on the built environment. The study aims to understand and measure the neural mechanisms involved in this process. By doing so, it can lay the foundation for vertical and volumetric urbanism and ensure consistency and excellence in the field while also supporting scientific research methods for urban design with cognitive neuroscientists. To investigate these aspects, the paper focuses on the neighborhood scale in Hong Kong, specifically examining multi-level public spaces and quasi-public spaces within both commercial and residential complexes. The researchers use predictive Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a methodology to assess and comprehend the applicability of the urban design framework for vertical and volumetric urbanism. The findings aim to identify the factors that contribute to successful public spaces within a vertical living environment, thus introducing a new typology of public spaces.

Keywords: vertical urbanism, scientific research methods, spatial cognition, urban design guideline

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Authors: Eric Mensah

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The effects of rapid urbanisation of tropical sub-Saharan developing cities on local and global climate are of great concern due to the negative impacts of Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects. The importance of urban parks, vegetative cover and forest reserves in these tropical cities have been undervalued with a rapid degradation and loss of these vegetative covers to urban developments which continue to cause an increase in daily mean temperatures and changes to local climatic conditions. Using Landsat data of the same months and period intervals, the spatial variations of land cover changes, temperature, and vegetation were examined to determine how vegetation improves local temperature and the effects of urbanisation on daily mean temperatures over the past 12 years. The remote sensing techniques of maximum likelihood supervised classification, land surface temperature retrieval technique, and normalised differential vegetation index techniques were used to analyse and create the land use land cover (LULC), land surface temperature (LST), and vegetation and non-vegetation cover maps respectively. Results from the study showed an increase in daily mean temperature by 0.80 °C as a result of rapid increase in urban area by 46.13 sq. km and loss of vegetative cover by 46.24 sq. km between 2005 and 2017. The LST map also shows the existence of UHI within the urban areas of Accra, the potential mitigating effects offered by the existence of forest and vegetative cover as demonstrated by the existence of cool islands around the Achimota ecological forest and University of Ghana botanical gardens areas.

Keywords: land surface temperature, climate, remote sensing, urbanisation

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Authors: Yasuyo Makido, Vivek Shandas, David J. Sailor, M. Salim Ferwati

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Mitigating extreme urban heat is challenging in a desert climate such as Doha, Qatar, since outdoor daytime temperature area often too high for the human body to tolerate. Recent studies demonstrate that cities in arid and semiarid areas can exhibit ‘urban cool islands’ - urban areas that are cooler than the surrounding desert. However, the variation of temperatures as a result of the time of day and factors leading to temperature change remain at the question. To address these questions, we examined the spatial and temporal variation of air temperature in Doha, Qatar by conducting multiple vehicle-base local temperature observations. We also employed three statistical approaches to model surface temperatures using relevant predictors: (1) Ordinary Least Squares, (2) Regression Tree Analysis and (3) Random Forest for three time periods. Although the most important determinant factors varied by day and time, distance to the coast was the significant determinant at midday. A 70%/30% holdout method was used to create a testing dataset to validate the results through Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The Pearson’s analysis suggests that the Random Forest model more accurately predicts the surface temperatures than the other methods. We conclude with recommendations about the types of development patterns that show the greatest potential for reducing extreme heat in air climates.

Keywords: desert cities, tree-structure regression model, urban cool Island, vehicle temperature traverse

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Authors: M. Sohrabi Narciss

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Urban spaces of Tehran, the capital of Iran, have witnessed many revolts, movements, and protests during the past few decades. After the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, the 1979 Revolution has had a profound impact on Tehran’s urban space. In 1979, the world watched as Iranians demonstrated en masse against the Pahlavi dynastdy which eventually led to its overthrow. Tehran’s public space is replete with images and artwork that depict the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime and the establishment of an Islamic government in Iran. The public artworks related to the 1979 Islamic Revolution reflect the riots, protests, and strikes that the Iranians underwent during the revolution. Many of these artworks try to revitalize the events that occurred in the 1970s by means of collective memory. Almost 4 decades have passed since the revolution and ever since the public artwork has been affected either directly or indirectly by the Iran-Iraq War, the Green Movement, and the rise and fall of various political forces. The present study is an attempt to investigate Tehran’s urban artwork such as urban sculptures and mural paintings organized and supervised by the government and the graffiti drawn by the critics or the opposition groups. To this end, in addition to the available documents, field research and questionnaires were used to qulaitatively analyze the data. This paper tries to address the following questions: 1) what changes have occurred in Tehran’s urban art? 2) Does the public, revolution-related artwork have an effect on people’s vitality? 3) do Iranians find these artworks appealing or not?

Keywords: public space, Tehran, public art, movement, Islamic revolution

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Authors: Kahina Amal Djiar, Mouna Gharbi, Maha Messaoudene, Oumelkheir Chareb

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Over the last decade, Algerian authorities have implemented an ambitious program of urban renewal, which includes important relocation operations. The objectives behind such strategic interventions are on the one hand, to carry out an incremental approach aiming at eradicating precarious housing and on the other hand, to diversify alternative housing options for families requiring better living spaces. It is precisely for these same purposes that the Djenan el-Hassan and Carrières Jaubert estates, which are both located in Algiers, have undergone major urban transformations. These dwelling sites were built as part of the famous "Battle of Housing", which was launched by French colonial administration in the 1950s just before the independence of Algeria in 1962. Today, the Djenan el-Hassan estate is almost entirely demolished following the relocation of 171 families. The Carrières Jaubert estate, for its part, has seen two kinds of operations. The first has been shaped by a process of urban requalification and redevelopment, which allowed some of the residents to stay on site after the transformation of most housing cells into larger apartments. The second operation has required the relocation of over 300 families to entirely newly built dwellings. Such projects of urban renewal are supposed to create new opportunities, not only in terms of local urban development, but also in terms of social perspectives for those families who are involved, either directly or indirectly, in the process of relocation. In fact, the percentage of urban violence in Algiers has increased instead. Recent events in the newly built estates show that residents are repeatedly experiencing and even instigating episodes of brutality, hostility and aggression. The objective of this paper is to examine the causes that have engendered such rise in urban violence in newly built housing estates in Algiers. This paper aims to present the findings of a recent qualitative research and highlight the way that poorly designed neighbourhood, combined with a relocation process that leaves little room for community participation, create inevitably severe social tensions.

Keywords: relocation, social housing, violence, Algiers

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Authors: Aida Mammadova, Juan Pastor Ivars

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Japanese gardens can be considered as the unique hubs to preserve urban biodiversity, as they provide the habitat for the diverse network of living organisms, facilitating to the movement of the rare species around the urban landscape, became the refuge for the moss and many endangered species. For the centuries, Japanese gardens were considered as ecologically sustainable and well-organized ecosystems, due to the skilled maintenances and management. However, unfortunately, due to the depopulations and ageing in Japanese societies, gardens are becoming more abandoned, and there is an urgent need to increase the awareness about the importance of the Japanese gardens to preserve the urban biodiversity. In this study, we have conducted the participatory educational field trips for 12 students into the to the five gardens protected by Kanazawa City and learned about the preservation activities conducted at the governmental, municipal, and local levels. After the courses, students have found a strong linkage between the gardens with the traditional culture. Kanazawa City, for more than 400 years is famous with traditional craft makings and tea ceremonies, and it was noticed that the cultural diversity of the city was strongly supported by the biodiversity of the gardens, and loss of the gardens would bring to the loss of the traditional culture. Using the experiential approach during the fieldworks, it was observed by the students that the linkage between the bio-cultural diversity strongly depends on humans’ activities. The continuous management and maintenance of the gardens are the contributing factor for the preservation of urban diversity. However, garden management is very time and capital consuming process, and it was also noticed that there is a big need to attract all levels of the society to preserve the urban biodiversity through the participatory urbanism.

Keywords: biodiversity, conservation, educational fieldwork, Japanese gardens

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Authors: Chitsanzo Isaac

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Across the world, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has challenged urban systems and policy frameworks, highlighting societal vulnerabilities and systemic inequities among many communities. Measures of confinement and social distancing to contain the Covid-19 virus have fragmented the physical and social fabric of cities. This has caused urban dwellers to reassess how they engage with their urban surroundings and maintain social ties. Urbanists have presented strategies that would allow communities to survive and even thrive, in extraordinary times of crisis like the pandemic. Tactical Urbanism, particularly the 15-Minute City, has gained popularity. It is considered a resilient approach in the global north, however, it’s transferability to the global south has been called into question. To this end, this paper poses the question: to what extent is the 15-Minute City framework integral sustainable design, and are there processes that make it adoptable by cities in the global south? This paper explores four issues using secondary quantitative data analysis and convergence analysis in the Paris and Blantyre urban regions. First, it questions how the 15-Minute City has been defined and measured, and how it impacts urban dwellers. Second, it examines the extent to which the 15-minute city performs under the lens of frameworks such as Wilber’s integral theory and Fleming’s integral sustainable design theory. Thirdly this work examines the processes that can be transferred to developing cities which foster community resilience through the perspectives of experience, behaviors, cultures, and systems. Finally, it reviews the principal ways in which a multi-perspective reality can be the basis for resilient community design and sustainable urban development. This work will shed a light on the importance of a multi-perspective reality as a means of achieving sustainable urban design goals in developing urban areas.

Keywords: 15-minute city, developing cities, global south, community resilience, integral sustainable design, systems thinking, complexity, tactical urbanism

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Authors: Alemaw Kefale, Aramde Fetene, Hayal Desta

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This study analyzed the users' and experts' views on the green space quality and planning models in Debre Berhan (DB) and Debre Markos (DM) cities in Ethiopia. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 350 park users (148 from DB and 202 from DM) to rate the accessibility, size, shape, vegetation cover, social and cultural context, conservation and heritage, community participation, attractiveness, comfort, safety, inclusiveness, and maintenance of green spaces using a Likert scale. A key informant interview was held with 13 experts in DB and 12 in DM. Descriptive statistics and tests of independence of variables using the chi-square test were done. A statistically significant association existed between the perception of green space quality attributes and users' occupation (χ² (160, N = 350) = 224.463, p < 0.001), age (χ² (128, N = 350) = 212.812, p < 0.001), gender (χ² (32, N = 350) = 68.443, p < 0.001), and education level (χ² (192, N = 350) = 293.396, p < 0.001). 61.7 % of park users were unsatisfied with the quality of urban green spaces. The users perceived dense vegetation cover as "good," with a mean value of 3.41, while the remaining were perceived as "medium with a mean value of 2.62 – 3.32". Only quantitative space standards are practiced as a green space planning model, while other models are unfamiliar and never used in either city. Therefore, experts need to be aware of and practice urban green models during urban planning to ensure that new developments include green spaces to accommodate the community's and the environment's needs.

Keywords: urban green space, quality, users and experts, green space planning models, Ethiopia

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Authors: Amira Mabrouk

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This paper deals with the acceptability of urban toll in Tunisia. The price-based regulation, i.e. urban toll, is the outcome of a political process hampered by three-fold objectives: effectiveness, equity and social acceptability. This produces both economic interest groups and functions that are of incongruent preferences. The plausibility of this speculation goes hand in hand with the fact that these economic interest groups are also taxpayers who undeniably perceive urban toll as an additional charge. This wariness is coupled with an inquiry about the conditions of usage, the redistribution of the collected tax revenue and the idea of the leviathan state completes the picture. In a nutshell, if researches related to road congestion proliferate, no de facto legitimacy can be pleaded. Nonetheless, the theory on urban tolls engenders economists’ questioning of ways to reduce negative external effects linked to it. Only then does the urban toll appear to bear an answer to these issues. Undeniably, the urban toll suggests inherent conflicts due to the apparent no-payment principal of a public asset as well as to the social perception of the new measure as a mere additional charge. However, when the main concern is effectiveness is its broad sense and the social well-being, the main factors that determine the acceptability of such a tariff measure along with the type of incentives should be the object of a thorough, in-depth analysis. Before adopting this economic role, one has to recognize the factors that intervene in the acceptability of a congestion toll which brought about a copious number of articles and reports that lacked mostly solid theoretical content. It is noticeable that nowadays uncertainties float over the exact nature of the acceptability process. Accepting a congestion tariff could differ from one era to another, from one region to another and from one population to another, etc. Notably, this article, within a convenient time frame, attempts at bringing into focus a link between the social acceptability of the urban congestion toll and the value of time through a survey method barely employed in Tunisia, that of stated preference method. How can the urban toll, as a tax, be defined, justified and made acceptable? How can an equitable and effective tariff of congestion toll be reached? How can the costs of this urban toll be covered? In what way can we make the redistribution of the urban toll revenue visible and economically equitable? How can the redistribution of the revenue of urban toll compensate the disadvantaged while introducing such a tariff measure? This paper will offer answers to these research questions and it follows the line of contribution of JULES DUPUIT in 1844.

Keywords: congestion charge, social perception, acceptability, stated preferences

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Authors: Dahunsi Michael Oluseyi

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This paper aims to extensively examine eco-city planning and urban design in Lagos, Nigeria. It will delve into the city's developments, challenges, and potential solutions to offer insights for sustainable urban growth within the rapidly expanding urban landscape. The research will scrutinize recent innovations, emerging trends, and practical remedies to promote ecological sustainability within an urban framework. It will encompass a more in-depth review of current literature, case studies, and qualitative analyses, thereby augmenting the depth and breadth of the research. The objectives are to assess the current eco-city planning initiatives and urban design trends in Lagos, Nigeria, considering the city's unique characteristics and challenges. To identify and analyze the challenges encountered during the implementation of eco-friendly urban developments in Lagos, to explore and evaluate the innovative and practical solutions that are implemented to promote sustainability within the city, to provide comprehensive insights and actionable recommendations for policymakers, urban planners, and other stakeholders involved in sustainable urban development in Lagos, the rapid urbanization of Lagos has brought forth a myriad of challenges, including a burgeoning population, inadequate infrastructure, waste management issues, and environmental pollution. Eco-city planning has emerged as a promising approach to addressing these obstacles, striving to create urban spaces that are more habitable, resource-efficient, and environmentally friendly. This research holds substantial importance in exploring the application of eco-city planning principles within a megacity like Lagos. Analyzing recent innovations, trends, concerns, challenges, and solutions provides invaluable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and stakeholders dedicated to fostering sustainable urban development. The methodologies employed in this research are structured to embrace a multifaceted and intricate approach, aiming to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the complexities inherent in eco-city planning and urban design in Lagos, Nigeria. This methodological framework is designed to encompass various diverse strategies and analytical tools to effectively capture the multidimensional aspects of sustainable urban development. It involves an in-depth analysis of academic publications, governmental reports, and urban planning documents to highlight global eco-city planning trends and gather Lagos-specific insights through a detailed exploration of eco-friendly initiatives and projects in Lagos to evaluate successes, challenges, and strategies for addressing environmental concerns by engaging key stakeholders, including urban planners, policymakers, environmental experts, and residents, to collect firsthand perspectives, concerns, and insights. Also, a thorough analysis will be carried out on data collected from literature reviews, case studies, interviews, and surveys used to extract prevalent patterns, challenges, and innovative solutions from diverse sources. This study aims to contribute to the discourse on sustainable urban development by offering a comprehensive analysis of eco-city planning in Lagos and providing practical recommendations for a more sustainable urban future.

Keywords: eco-friendly, innovation, sustainability, stakeholders

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Authors: Sheheryar Khan, Weidong Li, Fanqian Meng

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The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is one of the foremost problems out of other ecological and socioeconomic issues in urbanization. Due to this phenomenon that human-made urban areas have replaced the rural landscape with the surface that increases thermal conductivity and urban warmth; as a result, the temperature in the city is higher than in the surrounding rural areas. To affect the evidence of this phenomenon in the Zhengzhou city area, an observation of the temperature variations in the urban area is done through a scientific method that has been followed. Landsat 8 satellite images were taken from 2013 to 2015 to calculate the effect of Urban Heat Island (UHI) along with the NPP-VRRIS night-time remote sensing data to analyze the result for a better understanding of the center of the built-up area. To further support the evidence, the correlation between land surface temperatures and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated using the Red band 4 and Near-infrared band 5 of the Landsat 8 data. Mono-window algorithm was applied to retrieve the land surface temperature (LST) distribution from the Landsat 8 data using Band 10 and 11 accordingly to convert the top-of-atmosphere radiance (TOA) and to convert the satellite brightness temperature. Along with Landsat 8 data, NPP-VIIRS night-light data is preprocessed to get the research area data. The analysis between Landsat 8 data and NPP night-light data was taken to compare the output center of the Built-up area of Zhengzhou city.

Keywords: built-up area, land surface temperature, mono-window algorithm, NDVI, remote sensing, threshold method, Zhengzhou

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Authors: Meiyun Meng

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Urban China is now undergoing social transformation based on its rapid economic growth, developing its individualism and feminism. This paper approaches emergent relationships between female individuals’ everyday lives and urban China through internal migration, home-making practices and life-course perspectives. Focusing on Shenzhen, it explores how ten highly educated female migrants pursue aspirations of accommodating ‘non-majority’ identities, such as lesbians, divorced, or childless women, in urban China. Based on life stories and home video tours, this paper finds how these women develop non-majority lifestyles to negotiate their aspirations. On the one hand, they ‘sail’ away from past/present situations where collectivist and hetero-patriarchal norms marginalised their non-majority identities. On the other hand, they ‘anchor’ in places where ‘new’ socio-cultural contexts allow female individuals to pursue alternative opportunities and preferential lifestyles. This paper provides fresh insights to interpret the social transformation in urban China, under the collectivist culture and hetero-patriarchal norms, through the lens of individual everyday home-making practices.

Keywords: home-making practices, internal migration, highly educated women, shenzhen, transforming urban China

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Authors: J. M. Mayoral, M. Anaya

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The urban and economic development of cities demands the construction of water use and flood control infrastructure. Likewise, it is necessary to determine the safety level of the structures built with the current standards and if it is necessary to define the reinforcement actions. The foregoing is even more important in structures of great importance, such as dams, since they imply a greater risk for the population in case of failure or undesirable operating conditions (e.g., seepage, cracks, subsidence). This article presents a methodology for determining the seismic integrity of dams in urban areas. From direct measurements of the dynamic properties using geophysical exploration and ambient seismic noise measurements, the seismic integrity of the concrete-faced rockfill dam selected as a case of study is evaluated. To validate the results, two accelerometer stations were installed (e.g., free field and crest of the dam). Once the dynamic properties were determined, three-dimensional finite difference models were developed to evaluate the dam seismic performance for different intensities of movement, considering the site response and soil-structure interaction effects. The seismic environment was determined from the uniform hazard spectra for several return periods. Based on the results obtained, the safety level of the dam against different seismic actions was determined, and the effectiveness of ambient seismic noise measurements in dynamic characterization and subsequent evaluation of the seismic integrity of urban dams was evaluated.

Keywords: risk, seismic, soil-structure interaction, urban dams

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