Search results for: urban sustainability assessment

Authors: Su Nandar Tin, Wutjanun Muttitanon

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The availability of free global and historical satellite imagery provides a valuable opportunity for mapping and monitoring the year by year for the built-up area, constantly and effectively. Land distribution guidelines and identification of changes are important in preparing and reviewing changes in the ground overview data. This study utilizes Landsat images for thirty years of information to acquire significant, and land spread data that are extremely valuable for urban arranging. This paper is mainly introducing to focus the basic of extracting built-up area for the city development area from the satellite images of LANDSAT 5,7,8 and Sentinel 2A from USGS in every five years. The purpose analyses the changing of the urban built-up area according to the year by year and to get the accuracy of mapping built-up and bare land areas in studying the trend of urban built-up changes the periods from 1990 to 2020. The GIS tools such as raster calculator and built-up area modelling are using in this study and then calculating the indices, which include enhanced built-up and bareness index (EBBI), Normalized difference Built-up index (NDBI), Urban index (UI), Built-up index (BUI) and Normalized difference bareness index (NDBAI) are used to get the high accuracy urban built-up area. Therefore, this study will point out a variable approach to automatically mapping typical enhanced built-up and bare land changes (EBBI) with simple indices and according to the outputs of indexes. Therefore, the percentage of the outputs of enhanced built-up and bareness index (EBBI) of the sentinel-2A can be realized with 48.4% of accuracy than the other index of Landsat images which are 15.6% in 1990 where there is increasing urban expansion area from 43.6% in 1990 to 92.5% in 2020 on the study area for last thirty years.

Keywords: built-up area, EBBI, NDBI, NDBAI, urban index

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Authors: Emmanuel Kamal Aziz Saba, Gihan Abd El-Lateif Younis El-Tantawi, Mohammed Hamdy Zahran, Ibrahim Khalil Ibrahim, Mohammed Abd El-Salam Shehata, Hussein Al-Moghazy Sultan, Medhat Mohamed Anwar

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Examination of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction is essential in initial assessment and assessment of efficacy of rehabilitation of patients with faecal incontinence (FI) and obstructed defecation (OD). The present study was conducted to evaluate the digital assessment of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction by using Modified Oxford Scale (MOS) in comparison to anal manometry squeeze pressure. The present cross-sectional study included 65 patients. There were 40 patients (61.5 %) with FI and 25 patients (38.5 %) with OD. All patients were subjected to history taking, clinical examination including assessment of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction by using MOS and anal manometry (mean squeeze pressure and maximal squeeze pressure). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between MOS and anal manometry squeeze pressures including mean squeeze pressure and maximal squeeze pressure among FI group and OD group. In conclusion, assessment of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction by using MOS is a valid method and can substitute anal manometry assessment.

Keywords: anal manometry, external anal sphincter muscle, Modified Oxford Scale, muscle strength

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Authors: E. Hegazy, S. Anderberg, J. Krook

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The city's wire-based infrastructure systems (WBIS) are responsible for the delivery of electricity, telecommunications, sanitation, drainage, and district heating and are a necessity for sustainable modern urban life. Maintaining the functionality of these structures involves high costs and, brings disturbance to the local community and effects on the environment. One key reason for this is that the cables and pipes are placed under streets, making system parts easily worn and their service lifetime reduced, and all maintenance and renewal rely on recurrent needs for excavation. In Sweden, a significant part of wire-based infrastructure is already outdated and will need to be replaced in the coming decades. The replacement of these systems will entail massive costs as well as important traffic disruption and environmental disturbance. However, this challenge may also open a unique opportunity to introduce new, more sustainable technologies and management practices. The transformation of WBIS management for long-term sustainability and meeting maintenance and renewal needs does not have a comprehensive approach. However, a systemic approach may inform WBIS management. This approach considers both technical and non-technical aspects, as well as time-related factors. Nevertheless, there is limited systemic knowledge of how different factors influence current management practices. The aim of this study is to address this knowledge gap and contribute to the understanding of what factors influence the current practice of WBIS management. A case study approach is used to identify current management practices, the underlying factors that influence them, and their implications for sustainability outcomes. The case study is based on both quantitative data on the local system and data from interviews and workshops with local practitioners and other stakeholders. Linköping was selected as a case since it provided good accessibility to the water administration and relevant data for analyzing water infrastructure management strategies. It is a sufficiently important city in Sweden to be able to identify challenges, which, to some extent, are common to all Swedish cities. By uncovering current practices and what is influencing Linköping, knowledge gaps and uncertainties related to sustainability consequences were highlighted. The findings show that goals, priorities, and policies controlling management are short-termed, and decisions on maintenance and renewal are often restricted to finding solutions to the most urgent issues. Sustainability transformation in the infrastructure area will not be possible through individual efforts without coordinated technical, organizational, business, and regulatory changes.

Keywords: case study, infrastructure, management, practice, Sweden

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Authors: Samira Eskandari

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The image of Tehran has been impacted in recent years due to poor urban management and fragmented governance. There is no cohesive urban beautification framework in Tehran to enforce builders take aesthetic factors seriously when design and construct new buildings. The existing guidelines merely provide people with recommendations, not regulations. Obviously, Tehran needs a more comprehensive and strict urban beautification framework to restore its image. The damaged image has impacted the city’s social, economic and environmental growth. This research aims to find and examine a solution by which the employment of urban beautification regulation would be guaranteed, and city image would be organized. The methodology is based on a qualitative approach associated with analytical methods, in-depth surveys and interviews with Tehran citizens, authorities and experts, and use of academic resources as well as simulation. As a result, one practical solution is to incorporate aesthetic guidelines into a survival-related framework like a seismic guideline. Tehran is a seismic site, and all the buildings in Tehran have to be retrofitted against earthquake during construction. Hence, by integrating seismic regulations and aesthetic disciplines, urban beautification will be somehow guaranteed. Besides, the seismic image can turn into Tehran’s brand and enhances city identity. This research is trying to increase the social, environmental, and economic interconnectedness between urban planning and seismic planning by the usage of landscape architecture methods. As a case study, the potential outcomes are simulated in Tajrish, a suburb located in the north of Tehran. The result is that, by the redefinition of the morphology of seismic retrofitting systems, used in the significant city image elements, and re-function them in accordance with the Iranian culture and traditions, the city image would become more harmonized and legible.

Keywords: earthquake, retrofitting systems, Tehran image, urban beautification

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Authors: Swathi Sampath, V. Kalaichelvi

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The assessment of the risk posed by a borrower to a lender is one of the common problems that financial institutions have to deal with. Consumers vying for a mortgage are generally compared to each other by the use of a number called the Credit Score, which is generated by applying a mathematical algorithm to information in the applicant’s credit report. The higher the credit score, the lower the risk posed by the candidate, and the better he is to be taken on by the lender. The objective of the present work is to use fuzzy logic and linguistic rules to create a model that generates Credit Scores.

Keywords: credit scoring, fuzzy logic, mortgage, risk assessment

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Authors: Jose L. Oliver, Taras Agryzkov, Leandro Tortosa, Jose F. Vicent, Javier Santacruz

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This paper aims to demonstrate how a topological study of an urban street network can be used as a tool to be applied to some heritage conservation areas in a city. In the last decades, we find different kinds of approaches in the discipline of Architecture and Urbanism based in the so-called Sciences of Complexity. In this context, this paper uses mathematics from the Network Theory. Hence, it proposes a methodology based in obtaining information from a graph, which is created from a network of urban streets. Then, it is used an algorithm that establishes a ranking of importance of the nodes of that network, from its topological point of view. The results are applied to a heritage area in a particular city, confronting the data obtained from the mathematical model, with the ones from the field work in the case study. As a result of this process, we may conclude the necessity of implementing some actions in the area, and where those actions would be more effective for the whole heritage site.

Keywords: graphs, heritage cities, spatial analysis, urban networks

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Authors: Ioannis Manikas

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The increased consumer demand for environmentally friendly production and distribution practices and the stricter environmental regulations turned environmental aspects into important criteria in business decision-making. On the other hand, Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) has evolved dramatically during the last decades in theory and practice serving as a reference point for exchanging experiences among all agents involved in programs and projects to fostering policy and strategy development. Global pressures make it more important than ever to gain a better understanding of the contribution that agrifood businesses make to FNS and to examine ways to make them more resilient in an increasingly globalized and uncertain world. This study extends the standard three-dimensional model of sustainability to include two more dimensions: A technological dimension and a policy/political dimension. Apart from the economic, environmental and social dimensions regularly used in sustainability literature, the extended model will accurately represent the measures and policies addressing food and nutrition security.

Keywords: food and nutrition security, sustainability, food safety, resilience

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Authors: Chen Xi, LIU Xuebin, Kuan Sinman, LI Haofeng, Huang Hongming, Zeng Chengyu, Lao Xuerui

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Stray animals are on the rise in mainland China's cities. There are legal reasons for this, namely the lack of protection for domestic pets in mainland China, where only wildlife protection laws exist. At a social level, the ease with which families adopt pets and the lack of a social view of animal nature have led to the frequent abandonment and loss of stray animals. If left unmanaged, conflicts between humans and stray animals can also increase. This project provides an inexpensive and widely applicable management tool for urban management by collecting videos and pictures of stray animals captured by surveillance or transmitted by humans and using artificial intelligence technology (mainly using Yolov5 recognition technology) and recording and managing them in a database.

Keywords: urban planning, urban governance, artificial intelligence, convolutional neural network, machine vision

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Authors: Preeda Sansakorn, Min An

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In order to be capable of dealing with uncertainties, subjectivities, including vagueness arising in building construction projects, the application of fuzzy reasoning technique based on fuzzy set theory is proposed. This study contributes significantly to the development of a fuzzy reasoning safety risk assessment model for building construction projects that could be employed to assess the risk magnitude of each hazardous event identified during construction, and a third parameter of probability of consequence is incorporated in the model. By using the proposed safety risk analysis methodology, more reliable and less ambiguities, which provide the safety risk management project team for decision-making purposes.

Keywords: safety risk assessment, building construction safety, fuzzy reasoning, construction risk assessment model, building construction projects

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Authors: Yang Wenjuan, Xu Yilun

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Based on the comparative analysis of the relevant evaluation methods of walking environment, this paper selects the combined evaluation method of macro urban morphology analysis and micro urban design quality survey, then investigates and analyzes the walking environment of three rail transit station area in Nanjing to explore the influence factor and internal relation of walkability of rail transit station area. Analysis shows that micro urban design factors have greater impact on the walkability of rail transit station area compared with macro urban morphology factors, the convenience is the key factor in the four aspects of convenience, security, identity and comfortability of the urban design factors, the convenience is not only affected by the block network form, but also related to the quality of the street space. The overall evaluation of walkability comes from the overlapping and regrouping of the walking environment at different levels, but some environmental factors play a leading role. The social attributes of pedestrians also partly influence their walking perception and evaluation.

Keywords: rail transit station area, walkability, evaluation, influence factors

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Authors: Kaowen Grace Chang

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Urban green spaces play an important role in promoting wellbeing through the sense of relaxation for urban residents. Among many designing factors, what the principal ones that could effectively influence people’s sense of relaxation? And, what are the relationship between the sense of relaxation and those factors? Regarding those questions, there is still little evidence for sufficient support. Therefore, the purpose of this study, based on individual responses to environmental information, is to investigate the landscape factors that relate to well-being through the sense of relaxation in mixed-use urban environments. We conducted the experimental design and model construction utilizing choice-based conjoint analysis to test the factors of plant arrangement pattern, plant trimming condition, the distance to visible automobile, the number of landmark objects, and the depth of view. Through the operation of balanced fractional orthogonal design, the goal is to know the relationship between the sense of relaxation and different designs. In a result, the three factors of plant trimming condition, the distance to visible automobile, and the depth of view shed are significantly effective to the sense of relaxation. The stronger magnitude of maintenance and trimming, the further distance to visible automobiles, and deeper view shed that allow the users to see further scenes could significantly promote green space users’ sense of relaxation in urban green spaces.

Keywords: urban green space, landscape planning and design, sense of relaxation, choice model

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Authors: Heide Imai

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Contemporary cities, especially in Japan, have reached an indescribable complexity and excessive, global investments blur formal, rooted structures. Modern urban agglomerations blindly trust a macro understanding, whereas everyday activities which portray the human degree of living space are being suppressed and erased. The paper will draw upon the approach ‘Micro-Urbanism’ which focus on the sensitive and indigenous side of contemporary cities, which in fact can hold the authentic qualities of a city. Related to this approach is the term ‘Micro-Culture’ which is used to clarify the inner realities of the everyday living space on the example of the Japanese urban backstreet. The paper identifies an example of a ‘micro-zone’ in terms of ‘street space’, originally embedded in the landscape of the Japanese city. And although the approach ‘Micro-Urbanism’ is more complex, the understanding of the term can be tackled by a social analysis of the street, as shown on the backstreet called roji and closely linked examples of ‘situated’ urban rituals like (1) urban festivities, (2) local markets/ street vendors and (3) artistic, intellectual tactics. Likewise, the paper offers insights in a ‘community of streets’ which boundaries are specially shaped by cultural activity and social networks.

Keywords: urban rituals, community, streets as micro-zone, everyday space

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Authors: Mateusz Wielopolski, Asia Guerreschi

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Circular Economy, as the counterargument to the ‘make-take-dispose’ linear model, is an approach that includes a variety of schools of thought looking at environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This, in turn, leads to a variety of strategies and often confusion when it comes to choosing the right one to make a circular transition as effective as possible. Due to the close interplay of circular product design, business model and social responsibility, companies often struggle to develop strategies that comply with all three triple-bottom-line criteria. Hence, to transition to circularity effectively, product design approaches must become more inclusive. In a case study conducted with the University of Bayreuth and the ISPO, we correlated aspects of material choice in product design, labeling and technological innovation with customer preferences and education about specific material and technology features. The study revealed those attributes of the consumers’ environmental awareness that directly translate into an increase of purchase power - primarily connected with individual preferences regarding sports activity and technical knowledge. Based on this outcome, we constituted a product development approach that incorporates the consumers’ individual preferences towards sustainable product features as well as their awareness about materials and technology. It allows deploying targeted customer education campaigns to raise the willingness to pay for sustainability. Next, we implemented the customer preference and education analysis into a circularity assessment tool that takes into account inherent company assets as well as subjective parameters like customer awareness. The outcome is a detailed but not cumbersome scoring system, which provides guidance for material and technology choices for circular product design while considering business model and communication strategy to the attentive customers. By including customer knowledge and complying with corresponding labels, companies develop more effective circular design strategies, while simultaneously increasing customers’ trust and loyalty.

Keywords: circularity, sustainability, product design, material choice, education, awareness, willingness to pay

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Authors: Aisha Alshdefat, Lina Shakman

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Objective: With environmental sustainability (ES) emerging as a critical concern due to its global impact, higher education institutions play a vital role in promoting ES through curricula and campus operations. This study examines the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors related to ES among students at Sultan Qaboos University, aiming to identify areas for improved integration of sustainability practices in higher education. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted via an online questionnaire, examines perceptions and attitudes toward environmental sustainability among students at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. The survey instrument employs a 5-point Likert scale to assess six key areas: awareness, concern, attitude, willingness to participate, current behaviors, and recommendations for enhancing campus sustainability initiatives. A convenience sample of 200 students was initially targeted, with 157 students ultimately responding between September and November 2024. Eligible participants included Undergraduate and graduate students who consented after being fully informed of the study objectives and design were included, while those who withdrew or refused participation were excluded. Following ethical approval, data collection was carried out through Google Forms. SPSS Version 23 was used for descriptive and inferential analyses, including Pearson’s correlation, chi-square, and Fisher's exact test, to explore associations among key variables. Findings: Preliminary analysis indicates that 68% of participants are familiar with core environmental sustainability (ES) concepts, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and express high concern regarding environmental issues. However, only 47% report active involvement in campus-led ES initiatives, underscoring an engagement gap. Over 70% of respondents believe that sustainability should be prioritized as a university policy, and 62% expressed willingness to participate in additional ES-related programs. Despite this interest, 58% advocated for more sustainability-focused courses in their curriculum, suggesting current offerings are insufficient. Statistical analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between ES awareness and willingness to engage in sustainable practices (p < 0.05). These findings highlight the need for expanded institutional efforts, including targeted programs and curriculum integration, to cultivate a more sustainability-centered culture among students. Conclusion: The results emphasize that while students demonstrate a strong foundational awareness of ES, greater institutional support is essential to transform this awareness into active engagement. More comprehensive integration of sustainability within academic programs and campus life could substantially enhance students’ involvement and commitment to environmental stewardship.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, higher education, students, perceptions, Sultan Qaboos University.

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Authors: Feng Zisu

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Community is the basic unit of the city, community pedestrian space is also an important part of the urban public space, and its quality improvement is also closely related to the residents' happiness and sense of belonging. Domestic and international research perspectives on community pedestrian space have gradually changed to inclusive design for the whole population, paying more attention to the equitable accessibility of urban space and the multiple composite enhancement of spatial connotation. In order to realize the inclusive and sustainable development of pedestrian space in old communities, this article selects Cao Yang New Village in Shanghai as a practice case, and based on the connotation of inclusiveness, the four dimensions of space, traffic, function and emotion are selected as the layers of inclusive connotation of pedestrian space in old communities. This article identifies the objective social needs, dynamic activity characteristics and subjective feelings of multiple subjects, and reconstructs the structural hierarchy of “spatial perception - behavioral characteristics - subjective feelings” of walking. It also proposes a governance strategy of “reconfiguring the pedestrian network, optimizing street quality, integrating ecological space and reshaping the community scene” from the aspects of quality of physical environment and quality of behavioral perception, aiming to provide new ideas for promoting the inclusive and sustainable development of pedestrian space in old communities.

Keywords: inclusivity, old community, pedestrian space, spatial quality, sustainable renovation

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Authors: Silvija Šiljeg, Ivan Marić, Ante Šiljeg

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The accessibility of urban green spaces (UGS) is an integral element in the quality of life. Due to rapid urbanization, UGS studies have become a key element in urban planning. The potential benefits of space for its inhabitants are frequently analysed. A functional transport network system and the optimal spatial distribution of urban green surfaces are the prerequisites for maintaining the environmental equilibrium of the urban landscape. An accessibility analysis was conducted as part of the Urban Green Belts Project (UGB). The development of a GIS database for Zadar was the first step in generating the UGS accessibility indicator. Data were collected using the supervised classification method of multispectral LANDSAT images and manual vectorization of digital orthophoto images (DOF). An analysis of UGS accessibility according to the ANGst standard was conducted in the first phase of research. The accessibility indicator was generated on the basis of seven objective measurements, which included average UGS surface per capita and accessibility according to six functional levels of green surfaces. The generated indicator was compared with subjective measurements obtained by conducting a survey (718 respondents) within statistical units. The collected data reflected individual assessments and subjective evaluations of UGS accessibility. This study highlighted the importance of using objective and subjective measures in the process of understanding the accessibility of urban green surfaces. It may be concluded that when evaluating UGS accessibility, residents emphasize the immediate residential environment, ignoring higher UGS functional levels. It was also concluded that large areas of UGS within a city do not necessarily generate similar satisfaction with accessibility. The heterogeneity of output results may serve as guidelines for the further development of a functional UGS city network.

Keywords: urban green spaces (UGS), accessibility indicator, subjective and objective measurements, Zadar

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Authors: Van Thien NGO

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The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of student response systems in computer-based formative assessment on learning outcomes. The backward design course is a tool to be applied for collecting necessary assessment evidence. The quasi-experimental research design involves collecting pre and posttest data on students assigned to the control group and the experimental group. The sample group consists of 150 college students randomly selected from two of the eight classes of electrical and electronics students at Cao Thang Technical College in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Findings from this research revealed that the experimental group, in which student response systems were applied, got better results than the controlled group, who did not apply them. Results show that using student response systems for technology-based formative assessment is vital and meaningful not only for teachers but also for students in the teaching and learning process.

Keywords: student response system, computer-based formative assessment, learning outcome, backward design course

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Authors: Sudikshya Bhandari, Jonathan K. London

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Barpak in northern Nepal represents a unique identity expressed through the local rituals, values, lifeways and the styles of vernacular architecture. The traditional residential buildings and construction practices adopted by the dominant ethnic groups: Ghales and Gurungs, reflect environmental, social, cultural and economic concerns. However, most of these buildings did not survive the Gorkha earthquake in 2015 that made many residents skeptical about their strength to resist future disasters. This led Barpak residents to prefer modern housing designs primarily for the strength but additionally for convenience and access to earthquake relief funds. Post-earthquake reconstruction has transformed the cohesive community, developed over hundreds of years into a haphazard settlement with the imposition of externally-driven building models. Housing guidelines provided for the community reconstruction and earthquake resilience have been used as a singular template, similar to other communities on different geographical locations. The design and construction of these buildings do not take into account the local, historical, environmental, social, cultural and economic context of Barpak. In addition to the physical transformation of houses and the settlement, the consequences continue to develop challenges to sustainability. This paper identifies the major challenges for environmental sustainability with the construction of new houses in post-earthquake Barpak. Mixed methods such as interviews, focus groups, site observation, and documentation, and analysis of housing and neighborhood design have been used for data collection. The discernible changing situation of this settlement due to the new housing has included reduced climatic adaptation and thermal comfort, increased consumption of agricultural land and water, minimized use of local building materials, and an increase in energy demand. The research has identified that reconstruction housing practices happening in Barpak, while responding to crucial needs for disaster recovery and resilience, are also leading this community towards an unsustainable future. This study has also integrated environmental, social, cultural and economic parameters into an assessment framework that could be used to develop place-based design guidelines in the context of other post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. This framework seeks to minimize the unintended repercussions of unsustainable reconstruction interventions, support the vitality of vernacular architecture and traditional lifeways and respond to context-based needs in coordination with residents.

Keywords: earthquake, environment, reconstruction, sustainability

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Authors: Li-Ching Hung

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The lack of empirical research on portfolio assessment in aboriginal EFL English classes of junior high schools in Taiwan may inhibit EFL teachers from appreciating the utility of this alternative assessment approach. This study addressed the following research questions: 1) understand how aboriginal EFL students and instructors of junior high schools in Taiwan perceive portfolio assessment, and 2) how portfolio assessment affects Taiwanese aboriginal EFL students’ learning outcomes. Ten classes of five junior high schools in Taiwan (from different regions of Taiwan) participated in this study. Two classes from each school joined the study, and each class was randomly assigned as a control group, and one was the experimental group. These five junior high schools consisted of at least 50% of aboriginal students. A mixed research design was utilized. The instructor of each class implemented a portfolio assessment for 15 weeks of the 2015 Fall Semester. At the beginning of the semester, all participants took a GEPT test (pretest), and in the 15th week, all participants took the same level of GEPT test (post-test). Scores of students’ GEPT tests were checked by the researcher as supplemental data in order to understand each student’s performance. In addition, each instructor was interviewed to provide qualitative data concerning students’ general learning performance and their perception of implementing portfolio assessments in their English classes. The results of this study were used to provide suggestions for EFL instructors while modifying their lesson plans regarding assessment. In addition, the empirical data were used as references for EFL instructors implementing portfolio assessments in their classes effectively.

Keywords: assessment, portfolio assessment, qualitative design, aboriginal ESL students

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Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

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The government and community have raised their awareness of the benefits of water reuse. Deforestation has a significant effect to climate change as it causes the drying out of the tropical rainforest and hence increases the chance of natural hazards. The loss of forests due to natural fire or human factors would be threatening the storage and supply of clean water. In this paper, we will focus on the discussion of the relationship of the natural water collection system, afforestation and country parks towards environmental sustainability and circular economy with a case study of water conservation policy and strategy in Hong Kong and Singapore for further research. The UN General Assembly launched the Water Action Decade in 2018 to mobilize action that will help to tackle the growing challenge of water scarcity through water conservation and protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.

Keywords: afforestation, environmental sustainability, water conservation, circular economy, climate change, sustainable development goal

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Authors: Luis Guilherme Resende Santos, Ido Nevat, Leslie Norford

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The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is characterized by increased air temperatures in urban areas compared to undeveloped rural surrounding environments. With urbanization and densification, the intensity of UHI increases, bringing negative impacts on livability, health and economy. In order to reduce those effects, it is required to take into consideration design factors when planning future developments. Given design constraints such as population size and availability of area for development, non-trivial decisions regarding the buildings’ dimensions and their spatial distribution are required. We develop a framework for optimization of urban design in order to jointly minimize UHI intensity and buildings’ energy consumption. First, the design constraints are defined according to spatial and population limits in order to establish realistic boundaries that would be applicable in real life decisions. Second, the tools Urban Weather Generator (UWG) and EnergyPlus are used to generate outputs of UHI intensity and total buildings’ energy consumption, respectively. Those outputs are changed based on a set of variable inputs related to urban morphology aspects, such as building height, urban canyon width and population density. Lastly, an optimization problem is cast where the utility function quantifies the performance of each design candidate (e.g. minimizing a linear combination of UHI and energy consumption), and a set of constraints to be met is set. Solving this optimization problem is difficult, since there is no simple analytic form which represents the UWG and EnergyPlus models. We therefore cannot use any direct optimization techniques, but instead, develop an indirect “black box” optimization algorithm. To this end we develop a solution that is based on stochastic optimization method, known as the Cross Entropy method (CEM). The CEM translates the deterministic optimization problem into an associated stochastic optimization problem which is simple to solve analytically. We illustrate our model on a typical residential area in Singapore. Due to fast growth in population and built area and land availability generated by land reclamation, urban planning decisions are of the most importance for the country. Furthermore, the hot and humid climate in the country raises the concern for the impact of UHI. The problem presented is highly relevant to early urban design stages and the objective of such framework is to guide decision makers and assist them to include and evaluate urban microclimate and energy aspects in the process of urban planning.

Keywords: building energy consumption, stochastic optimization, urban design, urban heat island, urban weather generator

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Authors: Ashfaq Ahmed Kharal

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The study asserts that environment-friendly practices are increasingly being used by businesses throughout the world. Today, there is a great deal of interest in green management from both practitioners and academics. People expect managers to use resources intelligently and responsibly and to minimize the use of water, minerals, and other components in the finished products, as a crucial factor in this passion. The ethical or moral relevance of green management cannot be overstated. Employee Green Behavior (EGB) and environmental sustainability were shown to be significantly influenced by green human resource management (GHRM) in this study. Environmental issues, such as climate change, global warming, and resource conservation have a direct impact on business activities. The environment, society, and economy all suffer as a result of such obstacles. The depletion of natural resources needs immediate replenishment. As a result of government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), environmental activists, and labor unions putting pressure on businesses and firms are now required to operate in ecologically responsible ways. Organizations are increasingly concerned about environmental sustainability in light of contemporary environmental circumstances and commercial marketplaces. Companies that emphasize long-term viability will benefit from integrating green employee behavior, green human resource management techniques, and environmental sustainability. Competition drives firms to respond to external causes, adapt, and evolve in response to changing conditions in the marketplace. Organizations develop strategic capabilities to transform their resources and acquire a competitive edge while implementing a business plan. The study of GHRM's function is being prioritized since environmental sustainability is becoming a more important strategic goal.

Keywords: EGB, GHRM, environment sustainability, green ecology

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Authors: Barbara Vojvodikova, Katerina Jupova, Iva Ticha

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Cities in their historical evolution have always adapted their internal structure to the needs of society (for example protective city walls during classicism era lost their defense function, became unnecessary, were demolished and gave space for new features such as roads, museums or parks). Today it is necessary to modify the internal structure of the city in order to minimize the impact of climate changes on the environment of the population. This article discusses the results of the Urban Climate model owned by VITO, which was carried out as part of a project from the European Union's Horizon grant agreement No 730004 Pan-European Urban Climate Services Climate-Fit city. The use of the model was aimed at changes in land use and land cover in cities related to urban heat islands (UHI). The task of the application was to evaluate possible land use change scenarios in connection with city requirements and ideas. Two pilot areas in the Czech Republic were selected. One is Ostrava and the other Hodonín. The paper provides a demonstration of the application of the model for various possible future development scenarios. It contains an assessment of the suitability or inappropriateness of scenarios of future development depending on the temperature increase. Cities that are preparing to reconstruct the public space are interested in eliminating proposals that would lead to an increase in temperature stress as early as in the assignment phase. If they have evaluation on the unsuitability of some type of design, they can limit it into the proposal phases. Therefore, especially in the application of models on Local level - in 1 m spatial resolution, it was necessary to show which type of proposals would create a significant temperature island in its implementation. Such a type of proposal is considered unsuitable. The model shows that the building itself can create a shady place and thus contribute to the reduction of the UHI. If it sensitively approaches the protection of existing greenery, this new construction may not pose a significant problem. More massive interventions leading to the reduction of existing greenery create a new heat island space.

Keywords: climate model, heat islands, Hodonin, land use changes, Ostrava

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Authors: Natalia Naoumova

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Facing changes and continuous growth of the contemporary cities, along with the globalization effects that accelerate cultural dissolution, the maintenance of cultural authenticity, which is implicit in historical areas as a part of cultural diversity, can be considered one of the key elements of a sustainable society. This article focuses on the polychromy of buildings in a historical context as an important feature of urban settings. It analyses the coloring of Brazilian urban heritage, characterized by the study of historical districts in Pelotas and Piratini, located in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The objective is to reveal the coloring characteristics of different historical periods, determine the chromatic typologies of the corresponding building styles, and clarify the connection between the historical chromatic aspects and their relationship with the contemporary urban identity. Architectural style data were collected by different techniques such as stratigraphic prospects of buildings, survey of historical records and descriptions, analysis of images and study of projects with colored facades kept in historical archives. Three groups of characteristics were considered in searching for working criteria in the formation of chromatic model typologies: 1) coloring palette; 2) morphology of the facade, and 3) their relationship. The performed analysis shows the formation of the urban chromatic image of the historical center as a continuous and dynamic process with the development of constant chromatic resources. It establishes that the changes in the formal language of subsequent historical periods lead to the changes in the chromatic schemes, providing a different reading of the facades both in terms of formal interpretation and symbolic meaning.

Keywords: building style, historic colors, urban heritage, urban polychromy

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Authors: Musbah Abdussayed

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The washback effect refers to the influence of assessment on teaching and learning, and this washback effect can either be positive or negative. This study implemented, sequentially, self-assessment (SA) and peer assessment (PA) and examined the washback effect of self and peer assessment (SPA) activities on the writing growth during the revision phase in the writing process. Twenty advanced Arabic as a second language learners from a private school in the USA participated in the study. The participants composed and then revised a short Arabic story as a part of a midterm grade. Qualitative data was collected, analyzed, and synthesized from ten interviews with the learners and from the twenty learners’ post-reflective journals. The findings indicate positive washback effects on the learners’ writing growth. The PA activity enhanced descriptions and meaning, promoted creativity, and improved textual coherence, whereas the SA activity led to detecting editing issues. Furthermore, both SPA activities had washback effects in common, including helping the learners meet the writing genre conventions and developing metacognitive awareness. However, the findings also demonstrate negative washback effects on the learners’ attitudes during the revision phase in the writing process, including bias toward self-evaluation during the SA activity and reluctance to rate peers’ writing performance during the PA activity. The findings suggest that self-and peer assessment activities are essential teaching and learning tools that can be utilized sequentially to help learners tackle multiple writing areas during the revision phase in the writing process.

Keywords: self assessment, peer assessment, washback effect, second language writing, writing process

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Authors: Hsiaoping Wu

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With the wide use of Internet, learners are exposed to the wider world. This exposure permits learners to discover new information and combine a variety of media in order to reach in-depth and broader understanding of their literacy and the world. Many paper-based teaching, learning and assessment modalities can be transferred to a digital platform. This study examines the use of e-portfolios for ESL (English as a second language) pre-service teacher. The data were collected by reviewing 100 E-portfolio from 2013 to 2015 in order to synthesize meaningful information about e-portfolios for ESL pre-service teachers. Participants were generalists, bilingual and ESL pre-service teachers. The studies were coded into two main categories: learning gains, including assessment, and technical skills. The findings showed that using e-portfolios enhanced and developed ESL pre-service teachers’ teaching and assessment skills. Also, the E-portfolio also developed the pre-service teachers’ technical stills to prepare a comprehensible portfolio to present who they are. Finally, the study and presentation suggested e-portfolios for ecological issues and educational purposes.

Keywords: assessment, e-portfolio, pre-service teacher, reflection

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Authors: Olalekan Olaluwoye, Joanne Williams, Elizabeth Hoban

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Background: Modern contraceptives are effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies and therefore the potential to reduce abortion rates. There is a need for information about how rates of contraceptive use and abortion vary across Cambodia and the relationship between the prevalence of modern contraception use and abortion rates. This study compares the use of contraception and abortion among female garment factory workers in rural and urban areas of Cambodia. Method: Cross-sectional surveys were conducted with 1701 women working in eleven garment factories in rural and urban areas of Cambodia. Sexual and reproductive health data were collected using Audio-Assisted Survey Interviews and analysed using STATA 14 software. Findings: Over 70% of the respondents were less than 30 years of age across both rural and urban settings and over 50% have only primary education, thus the study population was largely young women with limited education. A significantly higher proportion of the rural women earned over $200 in the previous month compared with their urban counterparts. The majority of the urban women (51.5%) were married, while single women (46.9%) made up the largest group working in the rural factories. A significantly larger proportion of women in the rural areas (83.9%) were sexually active compared to the urban women (50.9%). More women from the rural areas (41.4%) had been pregnant at some time compared with the urban population (37.7%). The use of any contraceptive method among sexually active women was significantly higher in the rural areas (80.1%) compared to the urban areas (65.7%) with p-value=0.000. However, among those women who used contraception, the prevalence of modern contraception use was slightly higher in the urban population (68.8% urban, 63.4% rural, p-value=0.1). For women who had a history of pregnancy the abortion prevalence was higher among rural women (43.8%) compared to their urban counterparts (37.7%). Regression analysis showed that after adjustment for the demographic variables (age, relationship status, income, education) only age and relationship status had a significant influence on the use of modern contraception.Single females who were sexually active and older women, who had potentially completed their families, were more likely to choose modern contraception. Conclusion: Although overall the use of contraception was higher among rural women, the use of modern contraception was higher among urban women.This finding may partly explain the higher rates of abortion among women in the rural areas as traditional contraception methods have higher failure rates and are more likely to result in an unplanned pregnancy.Despite the regional variation, the high rates of abortion across the country suggest there is a need for improve education on family planning among female garment factory workers in Cambodia.

Keywords: abortion, Cambodia, contraception, garment factory

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Authors: Sudaff Mohammed, Wahda Shuker Al-Hinkawi, Nada Abdulmueen Hasan

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The compatibility of the Rhizome and Complex Adaptive system theory as a strategy within the urban context is the essential interest of this paper since there are only a few attempts to establish a hybrid, multi-scalar, and developable strategy based on the concept of the Rhizome and the CAS theory. This paper aims to establish a Rhizomic CAS strategy for different urban contexts by investigating the principles, characteristics, properties, and mechanisms of Rhizome and Complex Adaptive Systems. The research focused mainly on analyzing three properties: aggregation, non-linearity, and flow through the lens of Rhizome, Rhizomatization of CAS properties. The most intriguing result is that the principal and well-investigated characteristics of Complex Adaptive systems can be ‘Rhizomatized’ in two ways; highlighting commonalities between Rhizome and Complex Adaptive systems in addition to using Rhizome-related concepts. This paper attempts to emphasize the potency of the Rhizome as an apparently stochastic and barely anticipatable structure that can be developed to analyze cities of distinctive contexts for formulating better customized urban strategies.

Keywords: rhizome, complex adaptive system (CAS), system Theory, urban system, rhizomatic CAS, assemblage, human occupation impulses (HOI)

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Authors: Yang Song, Yifan Guo, Edward F. Gehringer

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Fifty years of research has found great potential for peer assessment as a pedagogical approach. With peer assessment, not only do students receive more copious assessments; they also learn to become assessors. In recent decades, more educational peer assessments have been facilitated by online systems. Those online systems are designed differently to suit different class settings and student groups, but they basically fall into two categories: rating-based and ranking-based. The rating-based systems ask assessors to rate the artifacts one by one following some review rubrics. The ranking-based systems allow assessors to review a set of artifacts and give a rank for each of them. Though there are different systems and a large number of users of each category, there is no comprehensive comparison on which design leads to higher reliability. In this paper, we designed algorithms to evaluate assessors' reliabilities based on their rating/ranking against the global ranks of the artifacts they have reviewed. These algorithms are suitable for data from both rating-based and ranking-based peer assessment systems. The experiments were done based on more than 15,000 peer assessments from multiple peer assessment systems. We found that the assessors in ranking-based peer assessments are at least 10% more reliable than the assessors in rating-based peer assessments. Further analysis also demonstrated that the assessors in ranking-based assessments tend to assess the more differentiable artifacts correctly, but there is no such pattern for rating-based assessors.

Keywords: peer assessment, peer rating, peer ranking, reliability

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Authors: Alicia Muñoz, Pedro Oyola, Cristian Henriquez

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Pollution in Santiago de Chile has a spatial variability due to different factors, including meteorological parameters and emission sources. Socioenvironmental aspects are also significant for pollution in the canopy layer since it influences the type of edification, vegetal mass proportion and other environmental conditions. This study analyzes spatially urban pollution in Santiago, specifically, from the bike path perspective. Bike paths are located in high traffic zones, as consequence, users are constantly exposed to urban pollution. Measurements were made at the higher polluted hour, three days a week, including three transit regimes, on the most polluted month of the year. The environmental parameters are fine particulate matter (Model 8520, DustTrak Aerosol Monitor, TSI), temperature and relative humidity; it was also considerate urban parameters as sky view factor and vegetal mass. Identification of an environmental injustice will be achieved with a spatial modeling, including all urban factors and environmental mediations with an economic index of population.

Keywords: canopy layer, environmental injustice, spatial modeling, urban pollution

Procedia PDF Downloads 231