Search results for: sustainable urban waterfront

Authors: Rakibul Islam Sagor, Sadia Ibnat Raisa

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Many nations across the globe, including Dhaka, are facing challenges in meeting the needs for a satisfactory quality of life due to the combination of a growing population and limited land resources. As a result, maximum spaces in modern cities are engulfed by concrete infrastructure, and there are hardly any open spaces in the urban neighborhoods. Although vertical movement has predominantly been employed for residential and commercial applications, the notion of vertical recreational and sports facilities remains unsettled. The primary objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of implementing vertical adaptations in urban recreational spaces, drawing upon the principles of high-rise theory. This article presents an analysis of the open spaces in Gulshan, Dhaka, focusing on the evaluation of the demand for open recreational and sports facilities that adequately cater to the existing population of the region. Initially, the study tried to identify and examine all potential open spaces within the designated area. Following that, an acceptable place is selected utilizing space syntax analysis, which takes into account the most conveniently accessible space for social interactions in the neighborhood. In addition, socioeconomic conditions of the area have been studied in order to determine the feasibility of the area. Finally, the study presented viable options for vertical urban sports facilities in the context of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Additionally, it seeks to develop strategies for maximizing the use of vertical expansions, thereby promoting a healthier and more active lifestyle among the city's residents. This approach aims to effectively handle the issue of limited land availability and enhance the efficiency of recreational areas around the globe.

Keywords: vertical sports, urban open spaces, social interaction, recreational activities

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Authors: L.Vaz, L. Ferreira, R. Aparício, J. Pedro, M. Franco

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This article concerns a qualitative analysis, through an interview, regarding “Sustainability Adoption Barriers in SMEs.” To begin with, the article provides a state-of-the-art overview through fifty-seven articles initially extracted from the Scopus database. The articles were analyzed, and four main clusters emerged in the literature: 1) sustainability and small and medium-sized companies; 2) sustainable business models; 3) sustainability practices adoption procedures, and 4) adoption difficulties on sustainability practices. Utilizing interviews as a methodology, the article seeks to strengthen knowledge regarding sustainability practices, their barriers and the sustainable procedures adopted by SMEs in a Portuguese context. The results demonstrate that the literature agrees with this case study, where there are numerous sustainable practices, yet, due to financial, political, cultural, and technological factors, barriers emerge in the adoption process. By comparing the literature findings with the conducted interviews of interior Portuguese SMEs, this article develops a contribution to the scientific community through a captivating, intuitive and motivating way.

Keywords: barriers, practices, business model, green

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Authors: Ana Maria G. Sperandio, Murilo U. Malek-Zadeh, João Luiz de S. Areas, Jussara C. Guarnieri

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Intersectoral governance is a requirement for developing healthy cities. However, this achievement is difficult to be succeeded, especially in regions at low resources condition. Therefore, it was developed a cheap investigative procedure to diagnose sectoral wishes related to urban planning and health promotion. This procedure is composed of two phases, which can be applied to different groups in order to compare the results. The first phase is a conversation guided by a list of questions. Some of those questions aim to gather information about how individuals understand concepts such as healthy city or a health promotion and what they believe that constitutes the relation between urban planning and urban health. Other questions investigate local issues, and how citizens would like to promote dialogue between sectors. At second phase individuals stand around the investigated city (or city region) map and are asked to represent their wishes on it. They can represent it by writing text notations or inserting icons on it, with the latter representing a city element, for example, some trees, a square, a playground, a hospital, a cycle track. After groups had represented their wishes, the map can be photographed, and then the results from distinct groups can be compared. This procedure was conducted at a small city in Brazil (Holambra), in 2017 which is the first out of four years of the mayor’s term. The prefecture asked for this tool in order to make Holambra become a city of Potential Healthy Municipalities Network in Brazil. Two sectors were investigated: the government and the urban population. By the end of our investigation, the intersection from the group (i.e., population and government) maps was accounted for creating a map of common wishes. Therefore, the material produced can be used as a guide for promoting dialogue between sectors and as a tool of monitoring politics progress. The report of this procedure was directed to public managers, so they could see the common wishes between themselves and local populations, and use this tool as a guide for creating urban politics which intends to enhance health promotion and to develop a healthy city, even at low resources condition.

Keywords: governance, health promotion, intersectorality, urban planning

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Authors: Teesta Dey

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Integrated Transport development with proper traffic management leads to sustainable growth of any urban sphere. Appropriate mass transport planning is essential for the populous cities in third world countries like India. The exponential growth of motor vehicles with unplanned road network is now the common feature of major urban centres in India. Kolkata, the third largest mega city in India, is not an exception of it. The imbalance between demand and supply of unplanned transport services in this city is manifested in the high economic and environmental costs borne by the associated society. With the passage of time, the growth and extent of passenger demand for rapid urban transport has outstripped proper infrastructural planning and causes severe transport problems in the overall urban realm. Hence Kolkata stands out in the world as one of the most crisis-ridden metropolises. The urban transport crisis of this city involves severe traffic congestion, the disparity in mass transport services on changing peripheral land uses, route overlapping, lowering of travel speed and faulty implementation of governmental plans as mostly induced by rapid growth of private vehicles on limited road space with huge carbon footprint. Therefore the paper will critically analyze the extant road network pattern for improving regional connectivity and accessibility, assess the degree of congestion, identify the deviation from demand and supply balance and finally evaluate the emerging alternate transport options as promoted by the government. For this purpose, linear, nodal and spatial transport network have been assessed based on certain selected indices viz. Road Degree, Traffic Volume, Shimbel Index, Direct Bus Connectivity, Average Travel and Waiting Tine Indices, Route Variety, Service Frequency, Bus Intensity, Concentration Analysis, Delay Rate, Quality of Traffic Transmission, Lane Length Duration Index and Modal Mix. Total 20 Traffic Intersection Points (TIPs) have been selected for the measurement of nodal accessibility. Critical Congestion Zones (CCZs) are delineated based on one km buffer zones of each TIP for congestion pattern analysis. A total of 480 bus routes are assessed for identifying the deficiency in network planning. Apart from bus services, the combined effects of other mass and para transit modes, containing metro rail, auto, cab and ferry services, are also analyzed. Based on systematic random sampling method, a total of 1500 daily urban passengers’ perceptions were studied for checking the ground realities. The outcome of this research identifies the spatial disparity among the 15 boroughs of the city with severe route overlapping and congestion problem. North and Central Kolkata-based mass transport services exceed the transport strength of south and peripheral Kolkata. Faulty infrastructural condition, service inadequacy, economic loss and workers’ inefficiency are the most dominant reasons behind the defective mass transport network plan. Hence there is an urgent need to revive the extant road based mass transport system of this city by implementing a holistic management approach by upgrading traffic infrastructure, designing new roads, better cooperation among different mass transport agencies, better coordination of transport and changing land use policies, large increase in funding and finally general passengers’ awareness.

Keywords: carbon footprint, critical congestion zones, direct bus connectivity, integrated transport development

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Authors: Marta Kaprzyk

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The cinema of Alejandro González Iñárritu hasn’t been subjected to a lot of detailed analysis yet, what makes it an exceptionally interesting research material. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the significance of urban space in three films of this Mexican director, that forms Death Trilogy: ‘Amores Perros’ (2000), ‘21 Grams’ (2003) and ‘Babel’ (2006). The fact that in the aforementioned movies the urban space itself becomes an additional protagonist with its own identity, psychology and the ability to transform and affect other characters, in itself warrants for independent research and analysis. Independently, such mode of presenting urban space has another function; it enables the director to complement the rest of characters. The basis for methodology of this description of cinematographic space is to treat its visual layer as a point of departure for a detailed analysis. At the same time, the analysis itself will be supported by recognised academic theories concerning special issues, which are transformed here into essential tools necessary to describe the world (mise-en-scène) created by González Iñárritu. In ‘Amores perros’ the Mexico City serves as a scenery – a place full of contradictions- in the movie depicted as a modern conglomerate and an urban jungle, as well as a labyrinth of poverty and violence. In this work stylistic tropes can be found in an intertextual dialogue of the director with photographies of Nan Goldin and Mary Ellen Mark. The story recounted in ‘21 Grams’, the most tragic piece in the trilogy, is characterised by almost hyperrealistic sadism. It takes place in Memphis, which on the screen turns into an impersonal formation full of heterotopias described by Michel Foucault and non-places, as defined by Marc Augé in his essay. By contrast, the main urban space in ‘Babel’ is Tokio, which seems to perfectly correspond with the image of places discussed by Juhani Pallasmaa in his works concerning the reception of the architecture by ‘pathological senses’ in the modern (or, even more adequately, postmodern) world. It’s portrayed as a city full of buildings that look so surreal, that they seem to be completely unsuitable for the humans to move between them. Ultimately, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate the coherence of the manner in which González Iñárritu designs urban spaces in his Death Trilogy. In particular, the author attempts to examine the imperative role of the cities that form three specific microcosms in which the protagonists of the Mexican director live their overwhelming tragedies.

Keywords: cinematographic space, Death Trilogy, film Studies, González Iñárritu Alejandro, urban space

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Authors: Wei Ji

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This study was conducted in the Kansas City metropolitan area of the United States, which has experienced significant urban sprawling in recent decades. The remote sensing of land cover changes in this area spanned over four decades from 1972 through 2010. The project was implemented in two stages: the first stage focused on detection of long-term trends of urban land cover change, while the second one examined how to detect the coupled effects of human impact and climate change on urban landscapes. For the first-stage study, six Landsat images were used with a time interval of about five years for the period from 1972 through 2001. Four major land cover types, built-up land, forestland, non-forest vegetation land, and surface water, were mapped using supervised image classification techniques. The study found that over the three decades the built-up lands in the study area were more than doubled, which was mainly at the expense of non-forest vegetation lands. Surprisingly and interestingly, the area also saw a significant gain in surface water coverage. This observation raised questions: How have human activities and precipitation variation jointly impacted surface water cover during recent decades? How can we detect such coupled impacts through remote sensing analysis? These questions led to the second stage of the study, in which we designed and developed approaches to detecting fine-scale surface waters and analyzing coupled effects of human impact and precipitation variation on the waters. To effectively detect urban landscape changes that might be jointly shaped by precipitation variation, our study proposed “urban wetscapes” (loosely-defined urban wetlands) as a new indicator for remote sensing detection. The study examined whether urban wetscape dynamics was a sensitive indicator of the coupled effects of the two driving forces. To better detect this indicator, a rule-based classification algorithm was developed to identify fine-scale, hidden wetlands that could not be appropriately detected based on their spectral differentiability by a traditional image classification. Three SPOT images for years 1992, 2008, and 2010, respectively were classified with this technique to generate the four types of land cover as described above. The spatial analyses of remotely-sensed wetscape changes were implemented at the scales of metropolitan, watershed, and sub-watershed, as well as based on the size of surface water bodies in order to accurately reveal urban wetscape change trends in relation to the driving forces. The study identified that urban wetscape dynamics varied in trend and magnitude from the metropolitan, watersheds, to sub-watersheds in response to human impacts at different scales. The study also found that increased precipitation in the region in the past decades swelled larger wetlands in particular while generally smaller wetlands decreased mainly due to human development activities. These results confirm that wetscape dynamics can effectively reveal the coupled effects of human impact and climate change on urban landscapes. As such, remote sensing of this indicator provides new insights into the relationships between urban land cover changes and driving forces.

Keywords: urban land cover, human impact, climate change, rule-based classification, across-scale analysis

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Authors: Somaieh Salehpour, Douglas Ireland, Chris Anderson, Charles Markessini

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Over the last few years, advancements have been made around improving sustainability for wood composite boards. One of the last and most challenging sustainability hurdles is finding a viable alternative to petroleum-based resin binders. In today’s market, no longer is formaldehyde emission control sufficient to meet the requirements of many architects and end-use consumers. Even the use of highly reactive isocyanates is considered by many as not sustainable enough since these chemicals are manufactured from classical fossil fuel sources. The emergence of biopolymers specifically engineered for usage as wood composite binders has been successfully demonstrated in this paper as a viable option towards a truly renewable wood composite board. Recent technology advancements driven by EcoSynthetix and CHIMAR have exploited the advantages of using an engineered biopolymer. The evidence shows that this renewable technology has the potential to be used as a partial up to full replacement of classical formaldehyde technologies. Numerous trials, both in the lab and at industrial scale, have shown that a renewable binder of the proposed technology can produce a commercially viable board in a traditional industrial setting. The ultimate goal of this work is to provide evidence that a sustainable binder alternative can be used to make a commercial board while at the same time improving the total cost of manufacturing.

Keywords: no added formaldehyde, renewable, biopolymers, sustainable wood composites, engineered biopolymers

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Authors: Claudia Popescu, Adriana Mihaela Soaita

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Within the EU accession process, Romania, as well as other CEE countries, have embarked on the post-1990 urbanization wave aiming to reduce the gaps between ‘older’ and ‘new’ EU member states. While post-socialist urban transitions have been extensively scrutinized, little is known about the developing trajectories of these new towns across the CEE region. To start addressing this knowledge gap, we wish to bring to the fore one of the most humble expressions of urbanism, that of the small, new towns of Romania. Despite rural-to-urban reclassification, urbanization levels have remained persistently low over the last three decades. In this context, it is timely and legitimate to ask about the prospects of new towns for a ‘successful’ socioeconomic performance within the urban network and avoidance of precarity and marginalization and adequate measure of place performance within the urban/settlement network and understanding the drivers that trigger towns’ socioeconomic performances. To answer these, we create a socioeconomic index of the place in order to compare the profile of the 60 new towns with large cities, old small towns and rural. We conceive ‘successful’ and ‘precarious’ performance in terms of a locality’s index value being above or below all small towns’ index average. Second, we performed logistic regression to interrogate the relevance of some key structural factors to the new towns’ socioeconomic performance (i.e. population size, urban history, regional location, connectivity and political determination of their local governments). Related to the first research question, our findings highlight the precarity of place as a long-standing condition of living and working in the new towns of Romania, particularly evident through our cross-comparative analysis across key category along the rural-urban continuum. We have substantiated the socioeconomic condition of precarity in rural places, with the new towns still maintaining features of ‘rurality’ rather than ‘urbanity’ - except a few successful satellites of economically striving large cities, particularly the country capital of Bucharest, which benefited from spillover effects. Related to our second research question, we found that the new towns of Romania have significantly higher odds of being characterized by precarity as a socioeconomic condition than all other small towns and urban places, but less so compared to the even more marginalized rural areas. Many new towns contain resource-dependent rural communities with a poor response to the context of change. Therefore, issues pertaining to local capacity building to adapt to the new urban environment should be addressed by the spatial planning policy. Our approach allowed us to bring to the fore the idea of precarity as a condition of whole localities. Thinking of precarity of place is important as it brings the whole institutional and political apparatus of spatial planning, urban and regional, into conversation with other causative or substantive axes of precarity developed in the literature. We recommend future research on the new towns in Romania and elsewhere.

Keywords: politics of fantasy, precarity of place, urbanization, Romania

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Authors: Pietro D'Ambrosio, Roberta D'Ambrosio

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The upgrading of the architectural and urban heritage of the urban historic centers almost always involves the planning for the reuse and refunctionalization of the structures. Such interventions have complexities linked to the need to take into account the urban and social context in which the structure and its intrinsic characteristics such as historical and artistic value are inserted. To these, of course, we have to add the need to make a preliminary estimate of recovery costs and more generally to assess the economic and financial sustainability of the whole project of re-socialization. Particular difficulties are encountered during the pre-assessment of costs since it is often impossible to perform analytical surveys and structural tests for both structural conditions and obvious cost and time constraints. The methodology proposed in this work, based on a multidisciplinary and data-driven approach, is aimed at obtaining, at very low cost, reasonably priced economic evaluations of the interventions to be carried out. In addition, the specific features of the approach used, derived from the predictive analysis techniques typically applied in complex IT domains (big data analytics), allow to obtain as a result indirectly the evaluation process of a shared database that can be used on a generalized basis to estimate such other projects. This makes the methodology particularly indicated in those cases where it is expected to intervene massively across entire areas of historical city centers. The methodology has been partially tested during a study aimed at assessing the feasibility of a project for the reuse of the monumental complex of San Massimo, located in the historic center of Salerno, and is being further investigated.

Keywords: evaluation, methodology, restoration, reuse

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Authors: A. M. H. Shokry, N. S. M. El-Tayeb

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The environmental impacts caused by fertilizers call for the adaptation of more sustainable technologies in order to increase agricultural production and reduce pollution due to high nutrient emissions. One particular technique has been to coat urea fertilizer granules with less-soluble chemicals that permit the gradual release of nutrients in a slow and controlled manner. The aim of this research is to develop a biodegradable slow-release fertilizer (SRF) with materials that come from sustainable sources; starch and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The slow-release behavior and water retention capacity of the coated granules were determined. In addition, the aqueous release and absorbency rates were also tested. Results confirmed that the release rate from coated granules was slower than through plain membranes; and that the water absorption capacity of the coated urea decreased as PVA content increased. The SRF was also tested and gave positive results that confirmed the integrity of the product.

Keywords: biodegradability, nitrogen-use efficiency, poly-vinyl alcohol, slow-release fertilizer, sustainability

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Authors: Shweta Vardia

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The 2021 decision by the World Heritage Center to align buffer zones with the 2015 Strategy for Sustainable Development marks a significant advancement in the protection of cultural and natural heritage sites. Buffer zones play a critical role in preserving the outstanding universal value, authenticity, and integrity of heritage sites, shielding them from threats such as urbanization, industrialization, and tourism. The 2015 Strategy emphasizes the integration of culture and heritage into sustainable development policies, highlighting the importance of community participation, traditional knowledge, and effective management in the conservation of heritage sites. This paper examines the implications of this strategic alignment for tentative World Heritage Sites in India. It explores how buffer zones can serve as tools for sustainable tourism, economic growth, and environmental protection while also addressing the socio-economic needs of local communities. By adopting a people-centered approach, the study underscores the need for active community involvement in heritage conservation, recognizing local residents as long-term custodians of cultural heritage. The role of buffer zones in promoting sustainable livelihoods, enhancing resilience to environmental changes, and fostering a sense of belonging among communities is also discussed. The challenges associated with buffer zones, including restrictive boundaries, unclear legislative frameworks, and potential disconnection from sociocultural contexts, are critically analyzed. The paper advocates for a holistic and integrated approach to buffer zone management, ensuring that policies are not only theoretically sound but also practically feasible. It concludes by emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts among conservation professionals, local communities, and policymakers to achieve sustainable development goals that respect both the heritage site's integrity and the well-being of surrounding populations.

Keywords: buffer zones, India, local communities, urbanization, world heritage sites

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Authors: Taiwo, Richard Oluseyi, Morakinyo, Kolawole O., Oyeniran, Demilade O.

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This study examines the effects of digitalization and sustainability on professionals' performance within the built environment. By examining the interplay between these two transformative forces, the study seeks to unravel the complexities and opportunities presented by digital technologies in fostering sustainable practices across various professional disciplines. Through an extensive analysis of literature and expert interviews, this research explores how digitalization can enhance professionals' abilities to incorporate sustainability principles, optimize resource utilization, and promote resilient and inclusive built environments. Furthermore, it examines the challenges and barriers professionals face in adapting to and harnessing the potential of digital tools and processes. The findings will contribute to a greater comprehension of the beneficial interactions between digitalization and sustainable development and provide valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and educators in fostering an ecosystem that supports professionals' capacity building, collaboration, and innovation toward achieving sustainable goals in the built environment.

Keywords: digitisation, sustainability, professional performance, built environment

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Authors: Mahmood Niroobakhsh

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This article deals with special structuralism approaches to explain a certain kind of social problem. Widespread presence of poverty is a reminder of deep-rooted unresolved problems of social relations. The expected role from an individual for the social system recognizes poverty derived from an interrelated social structure. By the time, enabled to act on his role in the course of social interaction, reintegration of the poor in society may take place. Poverty and housing type are reflections of the underlying social structure, primarily structure’s elements, systemic interrelations, and the overall strength or weakness of that structure. Poverty varies based on social structure in that the stronger structures are less likely to produce poverty.

Keywords: absolute poverty, relative poverty, social structure, urban poverty

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Authors: Evangelia Gaitanidou, Evangelos Bekiaris

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Considering that resilience implies the ability of a system to adapt continuously in order to respond to its operational goals, a system is considered as more or less resilient depending on the level and time of recovering from disruptive events and/or shocks to its initial state. Regarding transport systems, enhancing resilience is considered imperative for two main reasons: Such systems provide critical support to every socio-economic activity, while being one of the most important economic sectors and, secondly, the paths that convey people, goods and information, are the same through which risks are propagated. RESOLUTE (RESilience management guidelines and Operationalization appLied to Urban Transport Environment) Horizon 2020 research project is answering those needs, by proposing and testing a set of guidelines for resilience management of the urban transport system. The methods and steps towards this goal, through a step-wise methodology, taking into account established models like FRAM (Functional Resonance Analysis Model), and upon gathering existing practices are described in this paper, together with an overview of the produced guidelines. The overall aim is to create a framework which public transport authorities could consult and apply, for rendering their infrastructure resilient against natural disaster and other threats.

Keywords: guidelines, infrastructure, resilience, transport

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Authors: D. Dannehl, Z. Taylor, J. Suhl, L. Miranda, R., Ulrichs, C., Salazar, E. Fitz-Rodriguez, I. Lopez-Cruz, A. Rojano-Aguilar, G. Navas-Gomez, U. Schmidt

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Growing environmental and sustainability concerns have driven continual modernization of horticultural practices, especially for urban farming. Controlled environment and soilless production methods are increasing in popularity because of their efficient resource use and intensive cropping capabilities. However, some popular substrates used for hydroponic cultivation, particularly rock wool, represent a large environmental burden in regard to their manufacture and disposal. Substrate-less hydroponic systems are effective in producing short cropping cycle plants such as lettuce or herbs, but less information is available for the production of plants with larger root-systems and longer cropping times. Here, we investigated the viability of a hybrid aeroponic/nutrient film technique (AP/NFT) system for the cultivation of greenhouse tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Panovy’). The plants grown in the AP/NFT system had a more compact phenotype, accumulated more Na⁺ and less P and S than the rock wool grown counterparts. Due to forced irrigation interruptions, we propose that the differences observed were cofounded by the differing severity of water-stress for plants with and without substrate. They may also be caused by a higher root zone temperature predominant in plants exposed to AP/NFT. However, leaf area, stem diameter, and number of trusses did not differ significantly. The same was found for leaf pigments and plant photosynthetic efficiency. Overall, the AP/NFT system appears to be viable for the production of greenhouse tomato, enabling the environment to be relieved by way of lessening rock wool usage.

Keywords: closed aeroponic systems, fruit quality, nutrient dynamics, substrate waste reduction, urban farming systems, water savings

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Authors: Xiaoting Jing, Ling Huang

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After the reform and opening up, Chongqing has formed far more high-rise residential areas than other cities in its more than 40 years of urban construction. High-rise residential areas have become one of the main modern living models in Chongqing and an important carrier reflecting the city's high quality of life. Reviewing the construction process and renewal work helps understand the characteristics of high-rise residential areas in Chongqing at different stages, clarify current development demands, and look forward to the focus of future renewal work. Based on socio-economic development and policy background, the article sorts the construction process of high-rise residential areas in Chongqing into four stages: the early experimental construction period of high-rise residential areas (1978-1996), the rapid start-up period of high-rise commodity housing construction (1997-2006), the large-scale construction period of high-rise commodity housing and public rental housing (2007-2014), and the period of renewal and renovation of high-rise residential areas and step-by-step construction of quality commodity housing (2015-present). Based on the construction demands and main construction types of each stage, the article summarizes that the construction of high-rise residential areas in Chongqing features large scale, high speed, and high density. It points out that a large number of high-rise residential areas built after 2000 will become important objects of renewal and renovation in the future. Based on existing renewal work experience, it is urgent to explore a path for sustainable renewal and development in terms of policy mechanisms, digital supervision, and renewal and renovation models, leading the high-rise living in Chongqing toward high-quality development.

Keywords: high-rise residential areas, construction process, renewal and renovation, Chongqing

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Authors: Magigi Wakuru, Gaudensi Kapinga

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This study examines land use changes and its implications on livelihood activities of peri-urban settlements in Msaranga, Moshi Municipality. Specifically; it analyses the historical development of the settlement, socioeconomic characteristics and land use changes over time. Likely, find out existing livelihood activities and how have been changing over time in the context of urbanization, and lastly highlights land use change implications on livelihood activities to residents. Interviews, observations, documentary reviews and mapping were data collection tools employed. The study shows that housing, urban agriculture, roads infrastructure, recreational, open spaces and institutions are some land use types existing in the settlement. On-farm and off-farm livelihood activities have been identified livelihood activities in the settlement. These include crop cultivation, livestock keeping, trading and formal employment and have been changing over time. However, urbanisation observed to be a catalyst of change and affect livelihood activities over time. Resorting to off-farm livelihoods activities including engaging in retail business and seeking employment in formal and informal sector are some copying strategies documented. The study wind up by pointing roles of different actors and issues of particular attention to different stakeholders towards reducing impact of land use changes on livelihood strategies in the settlement. Likely, unresolved issues for future research and policy development agenda are highlighted in this study. The study concludes that the impact of land use changes on livelihood activities need collaborative effort of different stakeholders, policy enforcement as well as public private partnership in issues based implementation in cities like Moshi where land use is rapidly changing over time within urban planning cycles due to increasing population demand in cities of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: land use, land use changes, livelihood activities, peri-urban settlement, Moshi, Tanzania

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Authors: Sapan Tiwari, Namrata Ghosh

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In urban mass transit, crew scheduling always plays a significant role. It deals with the formulation of work timetables for its staff so that an organization can meet the demand for its products or services. The efficient schedules of a specified timetable have an enormous impact on staff demand. It implies that an urban mass transit company's financial outcomes are strongly associated with planning operations in the region. The research aims to demonstrate the state of the crew scheduling studies and its practical implementation in mass transit businesses in metropolitan areas. First, there is a short overview of past studies in the field. Subsequently, the restrictions and problems with crew scheduling and some models, which have been developed to solve the related issues with their mathematical formulation, are defined. The comments are completed by a description of the solution opportunities provided by computer-aided scheduling program systems for operational use and exposures from urban mass transit organizations. Furthermore, Bus scheduling is performed using the Hungarian technique of problem-solving tasks and mathematical modeling. Afterward, the crew scheduling problem, which consists of developing duties using predefined tasks with set start and end times and places, is resolved. Each duty has to comply with a set line of work. The objective is to minimize a mixture of fixed expenses (number of duties) and varying costs. After the optimization of cost, the outcome of the research is that the same frequency can be provided with fewer buses and less workforce.

Keywords: crew scheduling, duty, optimization of cost, urban mass transit

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Authors: Joao Almeida, Ana Azevedo, Myriam Kanoun-Boule, Maria Ines Santos, Antonio Tadeu

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The effects of the increasing expansion of cities and climate changes have encouraged European countries and regions to adopt nature-based solutions with ability to mitigate environmental issues and improve life in cities. Among these strategies, green roofs and urban gardens have been considered ingenious solutions, since they have the desirable potential to improve air quality, prevent floods, reduce the heat island effect and restore biodiversity in cities. However, an additional consumption of fresh water and mineral nutrients is necessary to sustain larger green urban areas. This communication discusses the main technical features of a new system to manage urine recovery at the building level and its application in green roofs. The depletion of critical nutrients like phosphorus constitutes an emergency. In turn, their elimination through urine is one of the principal causes for their loss. Thus, urine recovery in buildings may offer numerous advantages, constituting a valuable fertilizer abundantly available in cities and reducing the load on wastewater treatment plants. Although several urine-diverting toilets have been developed for this purpose and some experiments using urine directly in agriculture have already been carried out in Europe, several challenges have emerged with this practice concerning collection, sanitization, storage and application of urine in buildings. To our best knowledge, current buildings are not designed to receive these systems and integrated solutions with ability to self-manage the whole process of urine recovery, including separation, maturation and storage phases, are not known. Additionally, if from a hygiene point of view human urine may be considered a relatively safe fertilizer, the risk of disease transmission needs to be carefully analysed. A reduction in microorganisms can be achieved by storing the urine in closed tanks. However, several factors may affect this process, which may result in a higher survival rate for some pathogens. In this work, urine effluent was collected under real conditions, stored in closed containers and kept in climatic chambers under variable conditions simulating cold, temperate and tropical climates. These samples were subjected to a first physicochemical and microbiological control, which was repeated over time. The results obtained so far suggest that maturation conditions were reached for all the three temperatures and that a storage period of less than three months is required to achieve a strong depletion of microorganisms. The authors are grateful for the Project WashOne (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-017461) funded by the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) of Portugal 2020, with the support of the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).

Keywords: sustainable green roofs and urban gardens, urban nutrient cycle, urine-based fertilizers, urine recovery in buildings

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Authors: Bahareh Montakhabi

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Earthquake is known as one of the deadliest natural disasters, with a high potential for damage to life and property. Some of Iran's cities were completely destroyed after major earthquakes, and the people of the region suffered a lot of mental, financial and psychological damage. Tehran is one of the cities located on the fault line. According to experts, the only city that could be severely damaged by a moderate earthquake in Earthquake Engineering Intensity Scale (EEIS) (70% destruction) is Tehran because Tehran is built precisely on the fault. Seismic risk assessment (SRA) of cities in the scale of urban areas and neighborhoods is the first phase of the earthquake crisis management process, which can provide the information required to make optimal use of available resources and facilities in order to reduce the destructive effects and consequences of an earthquake. This study has investigated strategies to promote safety and reduce the vulnerability of worn-out urban textures in the District 12 of Tehran to the potential risk of earthquake aimed at prioritizing the factors affecting the vulnerability of worn-out urban textures to earthquake crises and how to reduce them, using the analytical-exploratory method, analytical hierarchy process (AHP), Expert choice and SWOT technique. The results of SWAT and AHP analysis of the vulnerability of the worn-out textures of District 12 to internal threats (1.70) and external threats (2.40) indicate weak safety of the textures of District 12 regarding internal and external factors and a high possibility of damage.

Keywords: risk management, vulnerability, worn-out textures, earthquake

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Authors: Jahanzaib

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The rural economy can be uplifted through agricultural extension education for female as the majority is uneducated. The present study was carried out in five districts (Bahawalpur, Lodhran, Raheem Yar Khan, Bahawalnagr, and Vehari) of southern Punjab, Pakistan. The ten females were selected from each district, poor economic background for agricultural training. The training was provided free of cost, through Punjab skills development program. After six month training, the trainees were awarded with certificates and a tool kit. After completion of training data was recorded and analyzed, the results indicate that, female trainees were in a better economic position than the females of nearby districts without training. From this study, we can conclude that agricultural education for female can not only improve the economy of the individual family but also improve the agriculture of Pakistan on the sustainable basis as the majority of workers are female in rural areas of Pakistan.

Keywords: agricultural extension education, sustainable rural development, agriculture, rural development in Pakistan

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Authors: Ram Narayan Khare, Aradhna Shrivastava, Adhyatma Khare

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the damage that has been occurred in the Ancient structures due to various factors such as rainfall, climate, insects, lifespan and also most important lack of technologies in the era of its construction. The structure is of lime surkhi masonry and is made a century ago. It has crossed its durability but is of historical importance for the area, that is the reason why it needs utmost importance for its Rehabilitation. The paper deals with the damage that has been occurred in the structure and how to repair and renovate the same keeping in mind that the material deviation could not take place because it shows how in ancient era structures are made of. The building has used lime surkhi mortar along with wood apple as fibrous material for providing adhesiveness in masonry binding. The paper helps in sustainable retrofitting of the structure without changing the integrity of the structure. This helps in maintaining the originality of structure in present era and also help in providing information to the upcoming generation how ancient civil construction has been carried out that withstand even more than a century.

Keywords: Lime Surkhi masonry, rehabilitation, sustainable development, historical building

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Authors: Norashikin Ismail, Nadia Anridho

Abstract:

Sustainable investing is a responsible investment that focuses on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) elements. ESG integration is essential in the investment process as it provides a positive contribution to the corporate performance for stakeholders, specifically investors. Sustainable investing is in line with the objectives of Shariah (Maqasid of Shariah), such as social inclusion as well as environmental preservation. This study attempts to evaluate the impact of ESG elements to the corporate financial performance among Shariah compliant stocks listed in two countries, namely Malaysia and Indonesia. The motivation of this study is to provide a further understanding in corporate sustainability for two different Islamic capital markets. The existence of the FTSE4Good Asean Index has played a vital role for ESG practices and eventually encouraged specific index for ESG and Shariah Compliant stocks. Our sample consists of 60 companies over the period 2010-2020 from two Southeast countries. We employ System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to reduce bias and more specific parameter estimation. Shariah Compliant companies tend to have higher ESG scores and are positively correlated to corporate financial performance. ESG integration with Shariah based investing would provide higher returns and lower risks for Muslim investors. Essentially, integrating ESG and Shariah, compliant companies lead to better financial performance.

Keywords: shariah compliant, southeast asia, corporate performance, sustainable investing

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Authors: Lauren B. Birney

Abstract:

The envisioned long-term outcome of this three-year research, and implementation plan is for 1) teachers and students to design and build their own computational models of real-world environmental-human health phenomena occurring within the context of the “Human Harbor” and 2) project researchers to evaluate the degree to which these integrated Computer Science (CS) education experiences in New York City (NYC) public school classrooms (PreK-12) impact students’ computational-technical skill development, job readiness, career motivations, and measurable abilities to understand, articulate, and solve the underlying phenomena at the center of their models. This effort builds on the partnership’s successes over the past eight years in developing a benchmark Model of restoration-based Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education for urban public schools and achieving relatively broad-based implementation in the nation’s largest public school system. The Billion Oyster Project Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (BOP-CCERS STEM + Computing) curriculum, teacher professional developments, and community engagement programs have reached more than 200 educators and 11,000 students at 124 schools, with 84 waterfront locations and Out of School of Time (OST) programs. The BOP-CCERS Partnership is poised to develop a more refined focus on integrating computer science across the STEM domains; teaching industry-aligned computational methods and tools; and explicitly preparing students from the city’s most under-resourced and underrepresented communities for upwardly mobile careers in NYC’s ever-expanding “digital economy,” in which jobs require computational thinking and an increasing percentage require discreet computer science technical skills. Project Objectives include the following: 1. Computational Thinking (CT) Integration: Integrate computational thinking core practices across existing middle/high school BOP-CCERS STEM curriculum as a means of scaffolding toward long term computer science and computational modeling outcomes. 2. Data Science and Data Analytics: Enabling Researchers to perform interviews with Teachers, students, community members, partners, stakeholders, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) industry Professionals. Collaborative analysis and data collection were also performed. As a centerpiece, the BOP-CCERS partnership will expand to include a dedicated computer science education partner. New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), Computer Science for All (CS4ALL) NYC will serve as the dedicated Computer Science (CS) lead, advising the consortium on integration and curriculum development, working in tandem. The BOP-CCERS Model™ also validates that with appropriate application of technical infrastructure, intensive teacher professional developments, and curricular scaffolding, socially connected science learning can be mainstreamed in the nation’s largest urban public school system. This is evidenced and substantiated in the initial phases of BOP-CCERS™. The BOP-CCERS™ student curriculum and teacher professional development have been implemented in approximately 24% of NYC public middle schools, reaching more than 250 educators and 11,000 students directly. BOP-CCERS™ is a fully scalable and transferable educational model, adaptable to all American school districts. In all settings of the proposed Phase IV initiative, the primary beneficiary group will be underrepresented NYC public school students who live in high-poverty neighborhoods and are traditionally underrepresented in the STEM fields, including African Americans, Latinos, English language learners, and children from economically disadvantaged households. In particular, BOP-CCERS Phase IV will explicitly prepare underrepresented students for skilled positions within New York City’s expanding digital economy, computer science, computational information systems, and innovative technology sectors.

Keywords: computer science, data science, equity, diversity and inclusion, STEM education

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Authors: J. Chakwizira, P. Bikam, T. A. Adeboyejo

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This paper seeks to illustrate the impact of rapid urbanization (in terms of both increase in people and vehicles) in the Gauteng region (which includes Johannesburg, Pretoria and Ekurhuleni). The impact that existing transport systems and options place on the capacity of residents from low income areas to travel and conduct various socio-economic activities is discussed. The findings are drawn from a 2013 analysis of a random transport household survey of 1550 households carried out in Gauteng province. 91.4% of the study respondents had access to public transport, while 8.6% had no access to public transport. Of the 91.4% who used public transport, the main reason used to explain this state of affairs was that it was affordable (54.3%), convenient (15.9%), Accessible (11.9%), lack of alternatives (6.4%) and reliable at 4.1%. Recommendations advanced revolve around the need to reverse land use and transportation effects of apartheid planning, growing and developing a sustainable critical mass of public transport interventions supported by appropriate transport systems that are environmentally sustainable through proper governance. 38.5% of the respondents indicated that developing compact, smart and integrated urban land spaces was key to reducing travel challenges in the study area. 23.4% indicated that the introduction and upgrading of BRT buses to cover all areas in the study area was a step in the right direction because it has great potential in shifting travel patterns to favor public modes of transport. 15.1% indicated that all open spaces should be developed so that fragmentation of land uses can be addressed. This would help to fight disconnected and fragmented space and trip making challenges in Gauteng. 13.4% indicated that improving the metro rail services was critical since this is a mass mover of commuters. 9.6% of the respondents highlighted that the bus subsidy policy has to be retained in the short to medium term since the spatial mismatches and challenges created by apartheid are yet to be fully reversed.

Keywords: urbanisation, population, public, transport systems, Gauteng

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Authors: Noppawan Piaseu, Surat Komindr

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This study aimed to determine factors predicting food insecurity in older Thai women living in crowded urban communities. Through purposive sampling, 315 participants were recruited from community dwelling older women in Bangkok, Thailand. Data collection included interview from questionnaires and anthropometric measurement. Results showed that approximately half of the sample were 60-69 years old (51.1%), married (50.6%), obtained primary education (52.3%), had low family income (51.7%), lived in poor physical environment (49.9%) with normal body mass index (51.0%). Logistic regression analysis revealed that older women who were widowed/divorced/separated (OR = 1.804, 95% CI = 1.052-3.092, p = .032), who reported low family income (OR =.654, 95% CI = .523-.817, p < .001), and who had poor physical environment surrounding home (OR = 2.338, 95% CI = 1.057-5.171, p = .036) were more likely to have food insecurity. Results support that social and environmental factors are major factors predicting food insecurity in older women living in the urban community. Health professionals need to identify and monitor psychosocial, economic and environmental dimensions of food insecurity among them.

Keywords: food insecurity, older women, urban communities, Thailand

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Authors: Ondrej Slach, Jan Machacek, Jan Zenka, Lucie Hyllova, Petr Rumpel

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The aim of the paper is to identify and asses different trajectories of two fashionable urban policies –creative and smart cities– in specific post-socialistic context. Drawing on the case of Czechia, we employ the concept of policy mobility research. More specifically, we employ a discourse analysis in order to identify the so-called 'infrastructure' of both policies (such as principal actors, journals, conferences, events), with the special focus on 'agents of transfer' in a multiscale perspective. The preliminary results indicate faster and more aggressive spatial penetration of smart cities policy compared to creative cities policy in Czechia. Further, it seems that existed translation and implementation of smart cities policy into the national and urban context resulted in deliberated fragmented policy of smart cities in Czechia (pure technocratic view), which might be a threat for the future development of social sustainability, especially in cities that are facing increasing social polarisation. Last but not least, due to the fast spatial penetration of the concept and policies of smart cities, it seems that creative cities policy has almost been crowded out of the Czech urban agenda.

Keywords: policy mobility, smart cities, creative cities, Czechia

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Authors: Anocha Kimkong

Abstract:

This research paper, based on demographic variables, is aimed to study the behaviour of bookkeeping for household accounts of residents living in urban communities in Dusit District, Bangkok and to investigate factors that affected the behavior of bookkeeping. By use of non proportional stratified sampling technique of probability sampling, the research had a total of 247 samples. The systematic sampling technique was also utilized by selecting one household out of every 3 households. The demographic findings reported female respondents as the majority with an average age between 26-35 years old, having married status and having children. The respondents earn a living by selling, with an average income per month of between 5,001-15,000 Baht. Most of the families rent a house and each family have approximately 3-4 members. Furthermore, most of the household respondents used to be trained to do bookkeeping for household accounts. In addition, the factors in affecting the residents’ behaviour of doing household account bookkeeping included a dislike of numbers, inaccuracy of recording, availability of accounting counselors in the communities, people’s participation in trainings arranged by outside organizations.

Keywords: household account, bookkeeping, urban community, demographic variables

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Authors: Carrie Ho, Tan Yee Yong

Abstract:

Urban runoff quality for a mixed residential-commercial land use catchment in Miri, Sarawak was investigated for three storm events in 2011. Samples from the three storm events were tested for five water quality parameters, Namely, TSS, COD, BOD5, TP, and Pb. Concentration of the pollutants were found to vary significantly between storms, but were generally influenced by the length of antecedent dry period and the strength of rainfall intensities. Runoff from the study site showed a significant level of pollution for all the parameters investigated. Based on the National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia (NWQS), stormwater quality from the study site was polluted and exceeded class III water for TSS and BOD5 with maximum EMCs of 177 and 24 mg/L, respectively. Design pollutant load based on a design storm of 3-month average recurrence interval (ARI) for TSS, COD, BOD5, TP, and Pb were estimated to be 40, 9.4, 5.4, 1.7, and 0.06 kg/ha, respectively. The design pollutant load for the pollutants can be used to estimate loadings from similar catchments within Miri City.

Keywords: mixed land-use, urban runoff, pollutant load, national water quality

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Authors: Min Wei

Abstract:

With the rapid development eco-tourism resources exploitation, the conflict between economy development and ecological environment is increasingly prominent. The environmental protection laws, however, are lack of necessary legal support to use market mechanism and economic means to carry out ecological compensation and promote the environmental protection. In order to protect the sustainable utilization of eco-tourism resources and the benign development of the interests of various stakeholders, protection of ecological compensation balance should be put on schedule. The main role of institutional guarantee in eco-tourism resources' value compensation mechanism is to solve the question 'how to guarantee compensation'. The evaluation of the game model in this paper reveals that interest balance of stakeholders is an important cornerstone to obtain the sustainable development. The findings result in constructing a sustainable development pattern of eco- tourism industry based on tripartite game equilibrium among government, tourism enterprises and tourists. It is important that the social, economic and ecological environment should be harmonious development during the pursuit of eco-tourism growth.

Keywords: environmental protection, ecological compensation, eco-tourism, market mechanism

Procedia PDF Downloads 378