Search results for: urban mission

Authors: Antigoni Panagiotopoulou, Lemonia Ragia

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High-resolution satellite images can provide detailed information about change detection on the earth. In the present work, QuickBird images of spatial resolution 60 cm/pixel and WorldView images of resolution 30 cm/pixel are utilized to perform automatic change detection in urban and suburban areas of Crete, Greece. There is a relative time difference of 13 years among the satellite images. Multiindex scene representation is applied on the images to classify the scene into buildings, vegetation, water and ground. Then, automatic change detection is made possible by pixel-per-pixel comparison of the classified multi-temporal images. The vegetation index and the water index which have been developed in this study prove effective. Furthermore, the proposed change detection approach not only indicates whether changes have taken place or not but also provides specific information relative to the types of changes. Experimentations with other different scenes in the future could help optimize the proposed spectral indices as well as the entire change detection methodology.

Keywords: change detection, multiindex scene representation, spectral index, QuickBird, WorldView

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Authors: Kidist Mesfin Nguse

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Ethiopia is the second most densely populated nation in Africa, and about 121 million people as the 2022 Ethiopia population live report recorded. In recent years, the Ethiopian government (GOE) has been gradually growing its road network. With 138,127 kilometers (85,825 miles) of all-weather roads as of the end of 2018–19, Ethiopia possessed just 39% of the nation's necessary road network and lacked a well-organized system. The Ethiopian urban population report recorded that about 21% of the population lives in urban areas, and the high population, coupled with growth in various infrastructures, has led to the migration of the workforce from rural areas to cities across the country. In main roads, the heterogeneous traffic flow with various operational features makes it more unfavorable, causing frequent congestion in the stretch of road. The Level of Service (LOS), a qualitative measure of traffic, is categorized based on the operating conditions in the traffic stream. Determining the capacity and LOS for this city is very crucial as this affects the planning and design of traffic systems and their operation, and the allocation of route selection for infrastructure building projects to provide for a considerably good level of service.

Keywords: capacity, level of service, traffic volume, free flow speed

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Authors: Aparna Saha, Tuhin Ahmed

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West Bengal has a number of important rivers, each with its distinctive character and a story. Traditionally, cities have ‘divulged’ to rivers at the river edges and rivers have been an inseparable part of the urban experience. Considering the research aspect, the area is taken in Barrackpore, a small but important outgrowth of Kolkata Municipal Association, West Bengal. Barrackpore, at present, has ample inadequate public open spaces at the neighborhood level where people of different socio-cultural, economic, and religious backgrounds can come together and engage in various leisure activities, but there is no opportunity either, where people can learn about and explore the rich history of the settlement. Pertaining to these issues forms the backdrop of this research paper which has been conceptualized as a place from space that will bring people back to the river and increase community interactions and will also celebrate and commemorate towards the historical importance of the river and its edges. The entire precinct bordering the river represents the transition from pre-independence (Raj era) to Sepoy phase (Swaraj era), finally culminating into the Gandhian philosophy which is being projected into the already existing Gandhi Ghat. The ultimate aim of the paper entitled ‘Utsadhara- Rejuvenating the dead river edge into an urban activity space along the banks of river Hooghly’ is to create a socio-cultural space keeping the heritage identity intact through judicious use of the water body. Also, a balance is kept between the natural ecosystem and the cosmetic development of the surrounding open spaces. It can be duly achieved by the aforementioned methodology provided in the document, but mainly it would focus into preserving the historic ethnicity of the place by holding its character through various facts and figures as well as features. Most importantly the natural topography of the place is left intact. The second priority is given in terms of hierarchy of well connected public plazas, podiums where people from different socio-economic backgrounds irrespective of age and sex could socialize and reach towards venturing into a cordial relationship with one another. The third priority is to provide a platform for the common mass for showcasing their skills and talent through different art and craft forms which in turn would enhance their individual self and also the community as a whole through economic rise. Apart from this here some spaces are created in accordance to different age groups or class of people. The paper intends to see the river as a major multifunctional public space to attract people for different activities and re-establish the relationship of the river with the settlement. Hence, it is apprehended that the paper is not only intended to a simple riverfront conservation project but unlike others it is a place which is created for the people, by the people and of the people towards a holistic community development through a sustainable approach.

Keywords: holistic community development, public activity space, river-urban precinct, urban dead space

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Authors: Debasis Sarkar

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This paper aims to apply the Grasshopper-Optimization-Algorithm (GOA) for designing and developing a Net-Zero-Energy residential building for a mega-city like Ahmedabad in India. The methodology implemented includes advanced tools like Revit for model creation and MATLAB for simulation, enabling the optimization of the building design. GOA has been applied in reducing cooling loads and overall energy consumption through optimized passive design features. For the attainment of a net zero energy mission, solar panels were installed on the roof of the building. It has been observed that the energy consumption of 8490 kWh was supported by the installed solar panels. Thereby only 840kWh had to be supported by non-renewable energy sources. The energy consumption was further reduced through the application of simulation and optimization methods like GOA, which further reduced the energy consumption to about 37.56 kWh per month from April to July when energy demand was at its peak. This endeavor aimed to achieve near-zero-energy consumption, showcasing the potential of renewable energy integration in building sustainability.

Keywords: grasshopper optimization algorithm, net zero energy, residential building, sustainable design

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Authors: Xin-Yan Ji

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The historical failures data of the spacecraft is very useful to improve the spacecraft design and the test philosophies and reduce the spacecraft flight risk. A study of spacecraft failures data was performed, which is the most comprehensive statistics of spacecrafts in China. 2593 on-orbit failures data and 1298 ground data that occurred on 150 spacecraft launched from 2000 to 2016 were identified and collected, which covered the navigation satellites, communication satellites, remote sensing deep space exploration manned spaceflight platforms. In this paper, the failures were analyzed to compare different spacecraft subsystem and estimate their impact on the mission, then the development of spacecraft in China was evaluated from design, software, workmanship, management, parts, and materials. Finally, the lessons learned from the past years show that electrical and mechanical failures are responsible for the largest parts, and the key solution to reduce in-orbit failures is improving design technology, enough redundancy, adequate space environment protection measures, and adequate ground testing.

Keywords: spacecraft anomalies, anomalies mechanism, failure cause, spacecraft testing

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Authors: Sagir M. Yusuf, Chris Baber

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We describe issues bedeviling the coordination of heterogeneous (different sensors carrying agents) multi-agent missions such as belief conflict, situation reasoning, etc. We applied Bayesian and agents' presumptions inferential reasoning to solve the outlined issues with the heterogeneous multi-agent belief variation and situational-base reasoning. Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was used in modeling the agents' belief conflict due to sensor variations. Simulation experiments were designed, and cases from agents’ missions were used in training the BBN using gradient descent and expectation-maximization algorithms. The output network is a well-trained BBN for making inferences for both agents and human experts. We claim that the Bayesian learning algorithm prediction capacity improves by the number of training data and argue that it enhances multi-agents robustness and solve agents’ sensor conflicts.

Keywords: distributed constraint optimization problem, multi-agent system, multi-robot coordination, autonomous system, swarm intelligence

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Authors: Dewi Fatmaningrum, Ade Wiradnyani

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Background: Optimal feeding, include optimal micronutrient intake, becomes one of the ways to overcome the long-term consequences of undernutrition. Macronutrient and micronutrient intake were important for rapid growth and development of the children. Objectives: To assess macro and micronutrient intake of children aged 12-23 months old and nutrients inadequacy from intake of children aged 12-23 months old. Methods: This survey was a cross-sectional study, simple random sampling was performed to select respondents. Total sample of this study was 83 children aged 12-23 months old in Paseban Village, Senen Sub-district, Central Jakarta. The data was collected via interview and hemoglobin measurement of children. Results: The highest prevalence of inadequacy was iron intake (52.4%) compared to other micronutrients, 11.98% children had inadequate energy intake. There were 62.6% anemic children in the study area in which divided into anemic (37.3%) and severe anemic (25.3%). Conclusion: Micronutrient inadequacy occurred more frequently than macronutrient inadequacy in the study area. The higher the percentage of iron inadequacy gets, the higher the percentage of anemia among children is observed.

Keywords: micronutrient, macronutrient, children under five, urban setting

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Authors: Wenyang Wan

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The study of urban land use and landscape pattern is the current hotspot in the fields of planning and design, ecology, etc., which is of great significance for the construction of the overall humanistic ecosystem of the city and optimization of the urban spatial structure. Banan District, as the main part of the eastern eco-city planning of Chongqing Municipality, is a high ground for highlighting the ecological characteristics of Chongqing, realizing effective transformation of ecological value, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. The analytical methods of land use transfer matrix (GIS) and landscape pattern index (Fragstats) were used to study the characteristics and laws of the evolution of land use landscape pattern in Banan District from 2000 to 2020, which provide some reference value for Banan District to alleviate the ecological contradiction of landscape. The results of the study show that ① Banan District is rich in land use types, of which the area of cultivated land will still account for 57.15% of the total area of the landscape until 2020, accounting for an absolute advantage in land use structure of Banan District; ② From 2000 to 2020, land use conversion in Banan District is characterized as Cropland > woodland > grassland > shrubland > built-up land > water bodies > wetlands, with cropland converted to built-up land being the largest; ③ From 2000 to 2020, the landscape elements of Banan District were distributed in a balanced way, and the landscape types were rich and diversified, but due to the influence of human interference, it also presented the characteristics that the shape of the landscape elements tended to be irregular, and the dominant patches were distributed in a scattered manner, and the patches had poor connectivity. It is recommended that in future regional ecological construction, the layout should be rationally optimized, the relationship between landscape components should be coordinated, the connectivity between landscape patches should be strengthened, and the degree of landscape fragmentation should be reduced.

Keywords: land use transfer, landscape pattern evolution, GIS and Fragstats, Banan district

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Authors: Iraklis Argyriou

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The transition to net-zero emission urban bus (ZEB) systems is receiving increased attention in research and policymaking throughout the globe. Most studies in this area tend to address techno-economic aspects and the perspectives of a narrow group of stakeholders, while they largely overlook analysis of current bus system dynamics. This offers limited insight into the types of ZEB governance challenges and opportunities that are encountered in real-world contexts, as well as into some of the immediate actions that need to be taken to set off the transition over the longer term. This research offers a multi-stakeholder perspective into both the technical and non-technical factors that influence ZEB transitions within a particular context, the UK. It does so by drawing from a recent transition visioning stakeholder workshop (June 2023) with key public, private and civic actors of the urban bus transportation system. Using NVivo software to qualitatively analyze the workshop discussions, the research examines the key technological and funding aspects, as well as the short-term actions (over the next five years), that need to be addressed for supporting the ZEB transition in UK cities. It finds that ZEB technology has reached a mature stage (i.e., high efficiency of batteries, motors and inverters), but important improvements can be pursued through greater control and integration of ZEB technological components and systems. In this regard, telemetry, predictive maintenance and adaptive control strategies pertinent to the performance and operation of ZEB vehicles have a key role to play in the techno-economic advancement of the transition. Yet, more pressing gaps were identified in the current ZEB funding regime. Whereas the UK central government supports greater ZEB adoption through a series of grants and subsidies, the scale of the funding and its fragmented nature do not match the needs for a UK-wide transition. Funding devolution arrangements (i.e., stable funding settlement deals between the central government and the devolved administrations/local authorities), as well as locally-driven schemes (i.e., congestion charging/workplace parking levy), could then enhance the financial prospects of the transition. As for short-term action, three areas were identified as critical: (1) the creation of whole value chains around the supply, use and recycling of ZEB components; (2) the ZEB retrofitting of existing fleets; and (3) integrated transportation that prioritizes buses as a first-choice, convenient and reliable mode while it simultaneously reduces car dependency in urban areas. Taken together, the findings point to the need for place-based transition approaches that create a viable techno-economic ecosystem for ZEB development but at the same time adopt a broader governance perspective beyond a ‘net-zero’ and ‘bus sectoral’ focus. As such, multi-actor collaborations and the coordination of wider resources and agency, both vertically across institutional scales and horizontally across transport, energy and urban planning, become fundamental features of comprehensive ZEB responses. The lessons from the UK case can inform a broader body of empirical contextual knowledge of ZEB transition governance within domestic political economies of public transportation.

Keywords: net-zero emission transition, stakeholders, transition governance, UK, urban bus transportation

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Authors: Giulio Mangano, Alberto De Marco, Giovanni Zenezini

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The concept of City Logistics (CL) has emerged to improve the impacts of last mile freight distribution in urban areas. In this paper, a System Dynamics (SD) model exploring the dynamics of the diffusion of a ICT platform for CL management across different populations is proposed. For the development of the model two sources have been used. On the one hand, the major diffusion variables and feedback loops are derived from a literature review of existing diffusion models. On the other hand, the parameters are represented by the value propositions delivered by the platform as a response to some of the users’ needs. To extract the most important value propositions the Business Model Canvas approach has been used. Such approach in fact focuses on understanding how a company can create value for her target customers. These variables and parameters are thus translated into a SD diffusion model with three different populations namely municipalities, logistics service providers, and own account carriers. Results show that, the three populations under analysis fully adopt the platform within the simulation time frame, highlighting a strong demand by different stakeholders for CL projects aiming at carrying out more efficient urban logistics operations.

Keywords: city logistics, simulation, system dynamics, business model

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Authors: Anurag Mishra, Prabhat Kumar Singh, Anurag Ohri, Shishir Gaur

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Streams and rivulets are crucial in maintaining river networks and their hydrology, influencing downstream ecosystems, and connecting different watersheds of urban and rural areas. The river Assi, an urban river, once a lifeline for the locals, has degraded over time. Evidence, such as the presence of paleochannels and patterns of water bodies and settlements, suggests that the river Assi was initially an alluvial stream or rivulet that originated near Rishi Durvasha Ashram near Prayagraj, flowing approximately 120 km before joining the river Ganga at Assi ghat in Varanasi. Presently, a major challenge is that nearly 90% of its original channel has been silted and disappeared, with only the last 8 km retaining some semblance of a river. It is possible that initially, the river Assi branched off from the river Ganga and functioned as a Yazoo stream. In this study, paleochannels of the river Assi were identified using Landsat 5 imageries and SRTM DEM. The study employed the Normalized Difference Vegetation Seasonality Index (NDVSI) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to detect these paleochannels. The average elevation of the sub-basin at the Durvasha Rishi Ashram of river Assi is 96 meters, while it reduces to 80 meters near its confluence with the Ganga in Varanasi, resulting in a 16-meter elevation drop along its course. There are 81 subbasins covering an area of 83,241 square kilometers. It is possible that due to the increased resistance in the flow of river Assi near urban areas of Varanasi, a new channel, Morwa, has originated at an elevation of 87 meters, meeting river Varuna at an elevation of 79 meters. The difference in elevation is 8 meters. Furthermore, the study explored the possibility of restoring the paleochannel of the river Assi and nearby ponds and water bodies to improve the river's base flow and overall hydrological conditions.

Keywords: River Assi, small river restoration, paleochannel identification, remote sensing, GIS

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Authors: Rania Ajmi, Faiza Allouche Khebour, Aude Nuscia Taibi, Sirine Essasi

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Urban green spaces (UGS) as an important contributor can be a significant part of sustainable development. A spatial method was employed to assess and map the spatial distribution of UGS in five districts in Sousse, Tunisia. Ecological management of UGS is an essential factor for the sustainable development of the city; hence the municipality of Sousse has decided to support the districts according to different green spaces characters. And to implement this policy, (1) a new GIS web application was developed, (2) then the implementation of the various green spaces was carried out, (3) a spatial mapping of UGS using Quantum GIS was realized, and (4) finally a data processing and statistical analysis with RStudio programming language was executed. The intersection of the results of the spatial and statistical analyzes highlighted the presence of an imbalance in terms of the spatial UGS distribution in the study area. The discontinuity between the coast and the city's green spaces was not designed in a spirit of network and connection, hence the lack of a greenway that connects these spaces to the city. Finally, this GIS support will be used to assess and monitor green spaces in the city of Sousse by decision-makers and will contribute to improve the well-being of the local population.

Keywords: distributions, GIS, green space, imbalance, spatial analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Elisa Coraggio, Dawei Han, Weiru Liu, Theo Tryfonas

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Water is one of the most important resources for human society. The world is currently undergoing a wave of urban growth, and pollution problems are of a great impact. Monitoring water quality is a key task for the future of the environment and human species. In recent times, researchers, using Smart Cities technologies are trying to mitigate the problems generated by the population growth in urban areas. The availability of huge amounts of data collected by a pervasive urban IoT can increase the transparency of decision making. Several services have already been implemented in Smart Cities, but more and more services will be involved in the future. Water quality monitoring can successfully be implemented in the urban IoT. The combination of water quality sensors, cloud computing, smart city infrastructure, and IoT technology can lead to a bright future for environmental monitoring. In the past decades, lots of effort has been put on monitoring and predicting water quality using traditional approaches based on manual collection and laboratory-based analysis, which are slow and laborious. The present study proposes a methodology for implementing a water quality prediction model using artificial intelligence techniques and comparing the results obtained with different algorithms. Furthermore, a 3D numerical model will be created using the software D-Water Quality, and simulation results will be used as a training dataset for the artificial intelligence algorithm. This study derives the methodology and demonstrates its implementation based on information and data collected at the floating harbour in the city of Bristol (UK). The city of Bristol is blessed with the Bristol-Is-Open infrastructure that includes Wi-Fi network and virtual machines. It was also named the UK ’s smartest city in 2017.In recent times, researchers, using Smart Cities technologies are trying to mitigate the problems generated by the population growth in urban areas. The availability of huge amounts of data collected by a pervasive urban IoT can increase the transparency of decision making. Several services have already been implemented in Smart Cities, but more and more services will be involved in the future. Water quality monitoring can successfully be implemented in the urban IoT. The combination of water quality sensors, cloud computing, smart city infrastructure, and IoT technology can lead to a bright future for the environment monitoring. In the past decades, lots of effort has been put on monitoring and predicting water quality using traditional approaches based on manual collection and laboratory-based analysis, which are slow and laborious. The present study proposes a new methodology for implementing a water quality prediction model using artificial intelligence techniques and comparing the results obtained with different algorithms. Furthermore, a 3D numerical model will be created using the software D-Water Quality, and simulation results will be used as a training dataset for the Artificial Intelligence algorithm. This study derives the methodology and demonstrate its implementation based on information and data collected at the floating harbour in the city of Bristol (UK). The city of Bristol is blessed with the Bristol-Is-Open infrastructure that includes Wi-Fi network and virtual machines. It was also named the UK ’s smartest city in 2017.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, hydroinformatics, numerical modelling, smart cities, water quality

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Authors: Alexander Dolin

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In the practice of Faith-based counseling, the clinician frequently faces multifaceted issues that come together when theological directives meet professional ethics to create a special set of dilemmas. The study narrates one working through the professional dilemmas of these Faith-based counselors, thereby looking into the tensions between the necessity of fidelity to faith and the requirements to follow the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with practitioners from various denominational backgrounds, the study has identified common ethical challenges and best practices that enable the integration of faith and ethics in practice. The findings provide insight into how faith-based counselors would reconcile a situation of conflict between religious belief and professional obligations but are striving to provide care that honors both their spiritual convictions and ethical responsibilities. This will add to existing discussions related to ethical decision-making in faith-based counseling by providing practical ways of dealing with these dilemmas in support of the counselor's professional integrity and spiritual mission.

Keywords: ethics, faith, common challenges, practical tools, counseling

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Authors: Lya Porto, Giulia Giacchè, Mario Aquino Alves

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The paper aims to describe the linkage between government and civil society proposing a study on agro-ecological agriculture policy and urban action in São Paulo city underling the main achievements obtained. The negotiation processes between social movements and the government (inputs) and its results on political regulation and public action for Urban Agriculture (UA) in São Paulo city (outputs) have been investigated. The method adopted is qualitative, with techniques of semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and documental analysis. The authors conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with organic farmers, activists, governmental and non-governmental managers. Participant observation was conducted in public gardens, urban farms, public audiences, democratic councils, and social movements meetings. Finally, public plans and laws were also analyzed. São Paulo city with around 12 million inhabitants spread out in a 1522 km2 is the economic capital of Brazil, marked by spatial and socioeconomic segregation, currently aggravated by environmental crisis, characterized by water scarcity, pollution, and climate changes. In recent years, Urban Agriculture (UA) social movements gained strength and struggle for a different city with more green areas, organic food production, and public occupation. As the dynamics of UA occurs by the action of multiple actresses and institutions that struggle to build multiple senses on UA, the analysis will be based on literature about solidarity economy, governance, public action and networks. Those theories will mark out the analysis that will emphasize the approach of inter-subjectivity built between subjects, as well as the hybrid dynamics of multiple actors and spaces in the construction of policies for UA. Concerning UA we identified four main typologies based on land ownership, main function (economic or activist), form of organization of the space, and type of production (organic or not). The City Hall registers 500 productive unities of agriculture, with around 1500 producers, but researcher estimated a larger number of unities. Concerning the social movements we identified three categories that differ in goals and types of organization, but all of them work by networks of activists and/or organizations. The first category does not consider themselves as a movement, but a network. They occupy public spaces to grow organic food and to propose another type of social relations in the city. This action is similar to what became known as the green guerrillas. The second is configured as a movement that is structured to raise awareness about agro-ecological activities. The third one is a network of social movements, farmers, organizations and politicians that work focused on pressure and negotiation with executive and legislative government to approve regulations and policies on organic and agro-ecological Urban Agriculture. We conclude by highlighting how the interaction among institutions and civil society produced important achievements for recognition and implementation of UA within the city. Some results of this process are awareness for local production, legal and institutional recognition of the rural zone around the city into the planning tool, the investment on organic school public procurements, the establishment of participatory management of public squares, the inclusion of UA on Municipal Strategic Plan and Master Plan.

Keywords: public action, policies, agroecology, urban and peri-urban agriculture, Sao Paulo

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Authors: Ana Maria Girotti Sperandio, Jussara Conceição Guarnieri, Lauro Luiz Francisco Filho, Ana Claudia Martins Alves, Adriana Aparecida Carneiro Rosa

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The urban planning of a city should contemplate the construction of healthy spaces to provide quality of life for people. In a Brazilian municipality located 180 km from the capital of São Paulo with around 27,000 thousand inhabitants, the federal government made possible a program that allows the improvement of the quality of life of the inhabitants through the practice of physical activity. To describe health promotion strategies in the city that collaborate in the reduction of chronic non-communicable diseases (CDNT) and the improvement the quality of its residents. Considering the CDNT as a fundamental public health concern in different countries, the methodology of this work considered the different actions of health promotion that occurred in the city for the implementation of the Polo Health Academy with the objective of increasing the population's access to places that could develop targeted physical activities. As an instrument, it used records of participants of this academy such as: assessment sheets, evolution, photos, filming and daily reports of physical activities. Results: The implantation and implementation process of the Polo Health Academy in the city of Conchal / SP / Brazil was in accordance with the principles and values of the National Health Promotion Policy (PNaPS) in Brazil and with the city statute, that provides improvement in the quality of life of the Brazilian population. An increase was observed in the number of participants in different hours practicing physical activities in the territory linked to one of the five Health Units, showing the program provides that happiness and well-being to the students. The Brazilian health promotion policy, combined with the city’s development policy, provides the population with access to programs that stimulate the reduction of CDNTs, confirming the urban planning of a healthy city.

Keywords: health city, health promotion, physical activity, urban planning

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Authors: Daramola Japheth, Tabiti S. Tabiti, Daramola Elizabeth Lara, Hussaini Yusuf Atulukwu

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Bida urban centre is faced with solid waste management problems which are evident in the processes of waste generation, onsite storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing and disposal of solid waste. As a result of this the urban centre is defaced with litters of garbage and offensive odours due to indiscriminate dumping of refuse within the neighborhood. The partial removal of the fuel subsidy by the Federal Government in January 2012 leads to the formation of Subsidy Reinvestment Programmes (SURE-P), the Federal Government’s share is 41 per cent of the savings while the States and Local Government shared the remaining 59 percent. The SURE-P Committee in carrying out the mandate entrusted upon it by the President by identifying few critical infrastructure and social Safety nets that will ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians. Waste disposal programme as an aspect of Solid waste management is one of the areas of focus for Niger State SURE-programmes incorporated under Niger State Environmental Protection Agency. The emergence of this programme as related to waste management in Bida has left behind a huge refuse spots along major corridors leading to a serious state of mess. Major roads within the LGA is now turned to dumping site, thereby obstructing traffic movements, while the aesthetic nature of the town became something else with offensive odours all over. This paper however wishes to underscore the use of geographical Information System in identifying solid waste sports towards effective solid waste management in the Bida urban centre. The paper examined the spatial location of dumping points and its impact on the environment. Hand held Global Position System was use to pick the dumping points location; where a total number of 91 dumping points collected were uploaded to ArcGis 10.2 for analysis. Interview method was used to derive information from households living near the dumping site. It was discovered that the people now have to cope with offensive odours, rodents invasion, dog and cats coming around the house as a result of inadequate and in prompt collection of waste around the neighborhood. The researchers hereby recommend that more points needs to be created with prompt collections of waste within the neighborhood by the necessary SURE - P agencies.

Keywords: dumping site, neighborhood, refuse, waste

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Authors: Azzah Aldeghather, Sara Alkhodair

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In the modern urban planning and architecture landscape, with western ideologies and styles becoming the mainstay of experience and definitions globally, the Islamic world requires a methodology that defines its expression, which transcends cultural, societal, and national styles. This paper will propose a methodology as an objective system to define, evaluate and apply traditional Islamic knowledge to Islamic urban planning and architecture, providing the Islamic world with a system to manifest its approach to design. The methodology is expressed as Four Pillars which are based on traditional meanings of Arab words roughly translated as Pillar One: The Principles (Al Mabade’), Pillar Two: The Foundations (Al Asas), Pillar Three: The Purpose (Al Ghaya), Pillar Four: Presence (Al Hadara). Pillar One: (The Principles) expresses the unification (Tawheed) pillar of Islam: “There is no God but God” and is comprised of seven principles listed as: 1. Human values (Qiyam Al Insan), 2. Universal language as sacred geometry, 3. Fortitude© and Benefitability©, 4. Balance and Integration: conjoining the opposites, 5. Man, time, and place, 6. Body, mind, spirit, and essence, 7. Unity of design expression to achieve unity, harmony, and security in design. Pillar Two: The Foundations is based on two foundations: “Muhammad is the Prophet of God” and his relationship to the renaming of Medina City as a prototypical city or place, which defines a center space for collection conjoined by an analysis of the Medina Charter as a base for the humanistic design. Pillar Three: The Purpose (Al Ghaya) is comprised of four criteria: The naming of the design as a title, the intention of the design as an end goal, the reasoning behind the design, and the priorities of expression. Pillar Four: Presence (Al Hadara) is usually translated as a civilization; in Arabic, the root of Hadara is to be present. This has five primary definitions utilized to express the act of design: Wisdom (Hikma) as a philosophical concept, Identity (Hawiya) of the form, and Dialogue (Hiwar), which are the requirements of the project vis-a-vis what the designer wishes to convey, Expression (Al Ta’abeer) the designer wishes to apply, and Resources (Mawarid) available. The Proposal will provide examples, where applicable, of past and present designs that exemplify the manifestation of the Pillars. The proposed methodology endeavors to return Islamic urban planning and architecture design to its a priori position as a leading design expression adaptable to any place, time, and cultural expression while providing a base for analysis that transcends the concept of style and external form as a definition and expresses the singularity of the esoteric “Spiritual” aspects in a rational, principled, and logical manner clearly addressed in Islam’s essence.

Keywords: Islamic architecture, Islamic design, Islamic urban planning, principles of Islamic design

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Authors: Yiseyon Sunday Hosu, Motebang Dominic Vincent Nakin, Elphina N. Cishe

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Universal access to clean and safe drinking water and basic sanitation is one of the targets of the 6th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper explores the evidence-based indicators of Water Rights Acts (2013) among households in the rural communities in the Mthatha River catchment of OR Tambo District Municipality of South Africa. Daily access to minimum 25 litres/person and the factors influencing clean water access were investigated in the catchment. A total number of 420 households were surveyed in the upper, peri-urban, lower and coastal regions of Mthatha Rivier catchment. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted on the data collected from the households to elicit vital information on domestic water security among rural community dwellers. The results show that approximately 68 percent of total households surveyed have access to the required minimum 25 litre/person/day, with 66.3 percent in upper region, 76 per cent in the peri-urban, 1.1 percent in the lower and 2.3 percent in the coastal regions. Only 30 percent among the total surveyed households had access to piped water either in the house or public taps. The logistic regression showed that access to clean water was influenced by lack of water infrastructure, proximity to urban regions, daily flow of pipe-borne water, household size and distance to public taps. This paper recommends that viable integrated rural community-based water infrastructure provision strategies between NGOs and local authority and the promotion of point of use (POU) technologies to enhance better access to clean water.

Keywords: domestic water, household technology, water security, rural community

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Authors: Siti Murniningsih, Evi Anggraheni

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Various infrastructures such as dams, flood control dams and reservoirs have been developed in the 19th century until the 20th century. These infrastructures are very effective in controlling the river flows and in preventing inundation in the urban area prone to flooding. Flooding in the urban area often brings large impact, affecting every aspect of life and also environment. Ciliwung is one of the rivers allegedly contributes to the flooding problems in Jakarta; various engineering work has been done in Ciliwung river to help controlling the flooding. One of the engineering work is to build Ciawi Dam and Sukamahi Dam. In this research, author is doing the flood calculation with Nakayasu Method, while the previous flooding in that case study is computed using Level Pool Routine. The effectiveness of these dams can be identified by using flood simulation of existing condition and compare it to the flood simulation after the dam construction. The final goal of this study is to determine the effectiveness of flood mitigation infrastructure located at upstream area in reducing the volume of flooding in Jakarta.

Keywords: effectiveness, flood simulation, infrastructure flooding, level pool routine

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Authors: Inês Amorim Leitão, Loes van Shaick, António Dinis Ferreira, Violette Geissen

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Plastic pollution is a growing concern worldwide: plastics are commercialized in large quantities and it takes a long time for them to degrade. When in the environment, plastic is fragmented into microplastics (<5mm), which have been found in all environmental compartments at different locations. Microplastics contribute to the environmental pollution in water, air and soil and are linked to human health problems. The progressive increase of population living in cities led to the aggravation of the pollution problem worldwide, especially in urban environments. Urban areas represent a strong source of pollution, through the roads, industrial production, wastewater, landfills, etc. It is expected that pollutants such as microplastics are transported diffusely from the sources through different pathways such as wind and rain. Therefore, it is very complex to quantify, control and treat these pollutants, designated current problematic issues by the European Commission. Green areas are pointed out by experts as natural filters for contaminants in cities, through their capacity of retention by vegetation. These spaces have thus the capacity to control the load of pollutants transported. This study investigates the spatial distribution of microplastics in urban soils of different land uses, their transport through atmospheric deposition, wind erosion, runoff and streams, as well as their deposition in vegetation like grass and tree leaves in urban environment. Coimbra, a medium large city located in the central Portugal, is the case-study. All the soil, sediments, water and vegetation samples were collected in Coimbra and were later analyzed in the Wageningen University & Research laboratory. Microplastics were extracted through the density separation using Sodium Phosphate as solution (~1.4 g cm−3) and filtration methods, visualized under a stereo microscope and identified using the u-FTIR method. Microplastic particles were found in all the different samples. In terms of soils, higher concentrations of microplastics were found in green parks, followed by landfills and industrial places, and the lowest concentrations in forests and pasture land-uses. Atmospheric deposition and streams after rainfall events seems to represent the strongest pathways of microplastics. Tree leaves can retain microplastics on their surfaces. Small leaves such as needle leaves seem to present higher amounts of microplastics per leaf area than bigger leaves. Rainfall episodes seem to reduce the concentration of microplastics on leaves surface, which suggests the wash of microplastics down to lower levels of the tree or to the soil. When in soil, different types of microplastics could be transported to the atmosphere through wind erosion. Grass seems to present high concentrations of microplastics, and the enlargement of the grass cover leads to a reduction of the amount of microplastics in soil, but also of the microplastics moved from the ground to the atmosphere by wind erosion. This study proof that vegetation can help to control the transport and dispersion of microplastics. In order to control the entry and the concentration of microplastics in the environment, especially in cities, it is essential to defining and evaluating nature-based land-use scenarios, considering the role of green urban areas in filtering small particles.

Keywords: microplastics, cities, sources, pathways, vegetation

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Authors: Mengjiao Hu

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Nowadays, China's consumption pattern is entering the "experience era"; people's consumption behavior is no longer simply "buy, buy, buy" but the transition from "consumption in space" to "consumption of space". The street is a basic public product and an important public space in the city, and commerce along the street is an important space for people to consume in the "experience era". Therefore, in this way, it is particularly important to create the vitality of the gray space along the street. From the perspective of vitality construction, this paper takes Sha Zheng Street in Chongqing as the empirical object, combined with the theoretical knowledge of behavioral architecture, and based on the current situation of the commercial gray space along Sha Zheng Street, this paper explores the influence factors and the constraints behind the spatial vitality and then puts forward a general strategy to improve the spatial vitality of the commercial gray space along the street. The author hopes that through the exploration of the vitality of commercial gray space along the street, environmental design can be introduced into the integrated design vision of the urban public environment, and the urban designers can be inspired to create a street environment with a living atmosphere with a small start.

Keywords: vitality creation, gray space, street commerce, sha zheng street

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Authors: Tamar Trop, Michal Roffeh

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One of the emerging trends in construction is installing an exterior “green wall” (GW). GW is an overarching and most common term for various techniques of incorporating greenery into buildings’ vertical elements, mainly facades. This green infrastructure yields numerous benefits for the urban environment, the public, and the buildings’ tenants and users, such as enhancing air quality and biodiversity, managing stormwater runoff, mitigating urban heat island and climate change, improving urban aesthetics and mental wellbeing, improving indoor comfort conditions, and saving energy. Yet, the penetration rate of GWs into the construction market, especially into the housing sector, is still very slow. Furthermore, the research regarding prospective homebuyers’ willingness to purchase and pay a price premium for GW apartments is scarce and does not refer to newly built buildings and specific GW types. This research aims to narrow these knowledge gaps by exploring the willingness of prospective homebuyers in Israel to purchase a newly built apartment with a hydroponic living wall, the size of the PP that they would be willing to pay for it, and the various factors ̶ knowledge-related, concern, economic, and personal ̶ that influence these motivations. A nationwide online survey was conducted among a sample of 514 adults using a structured questionnaire. Findings show that despite low familiarity with GWs and strong concerns about various kinds of nuisance, technical issues, and maintenance costs, potential homebuyers express a relatively high willingness to purchase and pay a significant price premium for such an apartment. The main motivations behind this willingness were found to be potential energy savings and governmental incentives. Study findings can contribute to a better understanding of the maturity of the housing market in Israel to adopt GWs and to better tailor intervention tools for increasing GWs’ uptake among potential homebuyers.

Keywords: green façade, green wall, living wall, willingness to pay

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Authors: Fawzia Mohammed Idris

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Zakat is an Islamic procedure for wealth distribution as a social protection mechanism for needy people. This study aimed to assess the possibility to expand the share of fund for national health insurance fund from zakat funds allocated for poor people by measuring the reduction of poverty that result from the investing on direct payment to the needy or by covering them in social health insurance. This study used stata regression as a statistical analysis tool and the finding clarified that there is no significant relationship between the poverty rate as the main indicator and, the number of poor people covered by national health insurance on one hand and the number of benefits poor people from the distribution of zakat fund. This study experienced many difficulties regarding the quality and the consistency of the data. The study suggested that a joint mission between national health insurance fund and zakat chamber to conduct study to assess the efficient use of zakat fund allocated to poor people.

Keywords: health finance, poverty, social health insurance, zakat

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Authors: Tim Vollmer, Andrea Greven, Malte Brettel

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Family firms represent the predominant business structure worldwide, accounting for 90 percent of all operational businesses. These firms are essential to society and the economy. In the past decade, family firm exits increased by 72%; and in the next five years, 95,000 German family firms will be sold, acquired, or liquidated. For family firms, socioemotional wealth represents the frame of reference and value to preserve when making decisions. Family firm exits threaten the socioemotional wealth, as in extreme scenarios, economic logic may take over. So, a dilemma arises: Maintaining socioemotional wealth versus pursuing financial wealth. Family firm researchers agree that family involvement leads to specific goals, behaviors, and outcomes. For instance, the desire to protect socioemotional wealth when selling the firm and the focus on particular exit success dimensions, depending on the family's role inside the firm. However, despite the regularity of family firm exits, there is little research on the effect of family involvement on the family firm CEOs' perceived exit performance. We investigate the family firm CEOs' perceived exit performance, which we call exit success. Considering the deficiencies in the literature, we identify two research gaps. First, it remains unclear how family involvement affects the dimensions of exit success. Hence, we provide evidence of which success dimensions matter most depending on the family's involvement and how to differentiate successful from unsuccessful exits. Second, prior work has analyzed family involvement in the socioemotional wealth context but found contradictory findings. This work considers, for example, the family generation in control and identifies the tipping point of economic objectives becoming preferable over socioemotional wealth-related goals. This paper theorizes and empirically investigates, through the lens of socioemotional wealth and conflict theory, how socioemotional wealth mediates the relationship between family involvement and family firms' exit success. We analyze family firms' exit success dimensions of personal financial benefits, personal reputation, employee benefits, and firm mission persistence. Family involvement considers the family firms' heterogeneity in ownership, management, and generation. We use a quantitative approach in the form of an online survey by drawing on 116 responses from former family firm CEOs'. This study highlights that socioemotional wealth mediates the relationship between the dimensions of family involvement and exit success. The greater socioemotional wealth, the greater the family firm CEOs focus on the pro-organizational exit success dimensions of employee benefits and firm mission persistence. In contrast, the self-regarding dimension of personal financial benefits is significantly negatively affected. An important finding is that later generations and the number of family managers involved significantly negatively affect the two pro-organizational dimensions of exit success. Family ownership does not show any significant effect. Our work widens implications for research, theory, and practice by contributing in two meaningful ways. First, our results offer insights to differentiate successful from unsuccessful family firm exits and provide evidence of which success dimensions matter and which to focus on, most dependent on the family's role inside the firm. Second, our article advances research and empirical understanding of family firms and socioemotional wealth by clarifying contradictory findings.

Keywords: exit success, family firm exit, perceived exit performance, socioemotional wealth

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Authors: Elisa Menardo, Margherita Pasini, Margherita Brondino

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A growing body of empirical research from different areas of inquiry suggests that brief contact with natural environment restore mental resources. The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) is the widespread used and empirical founded theory developed to explain why exposure to nature helps people to recovery cognitive resources. It assumes that contact with nature allows people to free (and then recovery) voluntary attention resources and thus allows them to recover from a cognitive fatigue situation. However, it was suggested that some people could have more cognitive benefit after exposure to urban environment. The objective of this study is to report the results of a meta-analysis on studies (peer-reviewed articles) comparing the restorativeness (the quality to be restorative) perceived in natural environments than those perceived in urban environments. This meta-analysis intended to estimate how much nature environments (forests, parks, boulevards) are perceived to be more restorativeness than urban ones (i.e., the magnitude of the perceived restorativeness’ difference). Moreover, given the methodological difference between study, it studied the potential role of moderator variables as participants (student or other), instrument used (Perceived Restorativeness Scale or other), and procedure (in laboratory or in situ). PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, SpringerLINK, Web of Science online database were used to identify all peer-review articles on restorativeness published to date (k = 167). Reference sections of obtained papers were examined for additional studies. Only 22 independent studies (with a total of 1371 participants) met inclusion criteria (direct exposure to environment, comparison between one outdoor environment with natural element and one without natural element, and restorativeness measured by self-report scale) and were included in meta-analysis. To estimate the average effect size, a random effect model (Restricted Maximum-likelihood estimator) was used because the studies included in the meta-analysis were conducted independently and using different methods in different populations, so no common effect-size was expected. The presence of publication bias was checked using trim and fill approach. Univariate moderator analysis (mixed effect model) were run to determine whether the variable coded moderated the perceived restorativeness difference. Results show that natural environments are perceived to be more restorativeness than urban environments, confirming from an empirical point of view what is now considered a knowledge gained in environmental psychology. The relevant information emerging from this study is the magnitude of the estimated average effect size, which is particularly high (d = 1.99) compared to those that are commonly observed in psychology. Significant heterogeneity between study was found (Q(19) = 503.16, p < 0.001;) and studies’ variability was very high (I2[C.I.] = 96.97% [94.61 - 98.62]). Subsequent univariate moderator analyses were not significant. Methodological difference (participants, instrument, and procedure) did not explain variability between study. Other methodological difference (e.g., research design, environment’s characteristics, light’s condition) could explain this variability between study. In the mine while, studies’ variability could be not due to methodological difference but to individual difference (age, gender, education level) and characteristics (connection to nature, environmental attitude). Furthers moderator analysis are working in progress.

Keywords: meta-analysis, natural environments, perceived restorativeness, urban environments

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Authors: Mounir Azzam, Valerie Graw, Andreas Rienow

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The Syrian war, which commenced in 2011, has resulted in significant changes in the real estate market in the Damascus metropolitan area, with rising levels of insecurity and disputes over tenure rights. The quest for spatial justice is, therefore, imperative, and this study performs a spatiotemporal analysis to investigate the impact of the war on real estate differentiation. Using the hedonic price models including 2,411 housing transactions over the period 2010-2022, this study aims to understand the spatial dynamics of the real estate market in wartime. Our findings indicate that war variables have had a significant impact on the differentiation and depreciation of property prices. Notably, property attributes have a more substantial impact on real estate values than district location, with severely damaged buildings in Damascus city resulting in an 89% decline in prices, while prices in Rural Damascus districts have decreased by 50%. Additionally, this study examines the urban texture of Damascus using correlation and homogeneity statistics derived from the gray-level co-occurrence matrix obtained from Google Earth Engine. We monitored 250 samples from hedonic datasets within three different years of the Syrian war (2015, 2019, and 2022). Our findings show that correlation values were highly differentiated, particularly among Rural Damascus districts, with a total decline of 87.2%. While homogeneity values decreased overall between 2015 and 2019, they improved slightly after 2019. The findings have valuable implications, not only for investment prospects in setting up a successful reconstruction strategy but also for spatial justice of property rights in strongly encouraging sustainable real estate development.

Keywords: hedonic price, real estate differentiation, reconstruction strategy, spatial justice, urban texture analysis

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Authors: Mi Ok Kang

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This study explores the factors that motivate urban high school students from racially/ethnically diverse backgrounds to choose teaching as a future career. It draws on in-depth interviews with high school students of color living in an urban downtown located in an intermountain area in the U.S. Using the factors influencing teaching choice (FIT-Choice) model, this study examines the motivations, mobility experiences, and aspirations of participating high school students who self-identified as Latino/a, Tongan, and Chinese. The study identifies influential factors -both challenges and strengthening effects- that high school students of color experience in their career decision making. The study concludes that self-perceptions of teaching abilities, parental support, social connections, job security, and prior work with children during the internship in K-12 classroom motivated them to be a teacher. Limitations such as financial struggles of parents, the low social status of teaching career, and the low salary and benefit packages in the U.S. are among the factors that cause students to waver in or doubt their career choice.

Keywords: career development, diversifying teaching force, FIT-Choice, high school students of color

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Authors: Yen-Jong Chen, Jei-An Su

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Public use facilities provide the basic infrastructure supporting the needs of urban sustainable development. These facilities include roads (streets), parking areas, green spaces, public schools, and city parks. However, how to acquire land with the proper location and size still remains uncertain in a capitalist economy where land is largely privately owned, such as in cities in Taiwan. The issue concerning the proper acquisition of reserved land for local public facilities (RLPF) policies has been continuously debated by the Taiwanese government for more than 30 years. Lately, the government has been re-evaluating projects connected with existing RLPF policies from the viewpoints of the needs of local residents, including the living environments of older adults. This challenging task includes addressing the requests of official bureau administrators, citizens whose property rights and current use status are affected, and other stakeholders, along with the means of development. To simplify the decision to acquire or release public land, we selected only public facilities that are needed for living in the local community, including parks, green spaces, plaza squares, and land for kindergartens, schools, and local stadiums. This study categorized these spaces as the community’s “leisure public facilities” (LPF). By constructing an accessibility index of the services of such multi-function facilities, we computed and produced a GIS map of spatial buffer zones for each LPF. Through these procedures, the service needs provided by each LPF were clearly identified. We then used spatial buffer zone envelope mapping to evaluate these service areas. The results obtained can help decide which RLPF should be acquired or released so that community services can be maximized under a limited budget.

Keywords: urban public facilities, community demand, accessibility, spatial buffer zone, Taiwan

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Authors: Domenica Bona

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Colin Chant and David Goodman argue that historians of Chinese pre-industrial cities tend to underestimate revolutions and overestimate cyclic patterns: periods of peace and prosperity in the earl part of each d nast , followed b peasants’ rebellions and upheavals. Boyd described these cyclic patterns as part of the background of Chinese town planning and architecture. Thus old ideals of city planning-square plan, southward orientation and a palace along the central axis - are revived again and again in the ascendant phases of several d nastic c cles (e.g. Chang’an, Kaifen, and Beijing). Along this line of thought, m paper questions the relationship between the “magic square rule” and modern Chinese urban- planning. As a matter of fact, the classical theme of “cosmic Taoist urbanism” is still a reference for planning cities and new urban developments, whenever there is the intention to express nationalist ideals and “cultural straightforwardness.” Besides, some case studies can be related to “modern d nasties”: the first Republic under the Kuo Min Tang, the red People’s Republic and the post-Maoist open country of Deng Xiao Ping. Considering the project for the new capital of Nanjing in the Thirties, Beijing’s Tianan Men area in the ifties, and Shenzhen’s utian CBD in late 20th century, I argue that cyclic patterns are still in place, though with deformations related to westernization, private interests and lack of spirituality. How far new Chinese cities are - or simply seem to be - westernized? Symbolism, invisible frameworks, repeating features and behavioural patterns make urban China just “superficiall” western. This can be well noticed in cities previousl occupied b foreigners, like Hong Kong, or in newly founded ones, like Shenzhen, where both Asians and non-Asian people can feel the gender-shift from New-York-like landscapes to something else. Current planning in main metropolitan areas shows a blurred relationship between public policies and private investments: two levels of decisions and actions, one addressing the larger scale and infrastructures, the other concerning the micro scale and development of single plots. While zoning is instrumental in this process, master plans are often laid out over a very poor cartography, so much that any relation between the formal characters of new cities and the centuries-old structure of the related territory gets lost.

Keywords: China, contemporary cities, cultural heritage, shenzhen, urban planning

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