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Keywords: Social practices; menstrual waste; urban infrastructures; water and sanitation; menstrual hygiene management; Lilongwe; prácticas sociales; desecho menstrual; infraestructuras urbanas; agua y saneamiento; manejo de la higiene menstrual; pratiques sociales; déchets menstruels; infrastructure urbaine; eau et assainissement; gestion de l'hygiène intime EN Social practices menstrual waste urban infrastructures water and sanitation menstrual hygiene management Lilongwe ES prácticas sociales desecho menstrual infraestructuras urbanas agua y saneamiento manejo de la higiene menstrual FR pratiques sociales déchets menstruels infrastructure urbaine eau et assainissement gestion de l'hygiène intime 1057 1077 21 10/12/22 20221001 NES 221001 Introduction Women[1] in global South countries are experiencing a rapid shift in access to menstrual absorbents; often referred to as the Menstrual or Sanitary Pad Revolution (Bloom, [6]; Venema, [70]). Practice theory in a post-developmental context Social practice theories encompass a diversity of approaches that have in common the use of practices as a category of analysis or as a point of departure for empirical work (Miettinen et al., [42]; Stern, [63]). Practices of disposal in sanitation systems now render infrastructures supposedly dysfunctional (e.g., blocked, incompatible with emptying), despite latrine disposal previously being supported by some sanitation and MHM actors. Discussion: learning from women's local practices, planning for menstrual waste In this article we have provided a practice-based account of menstrual waste management practices of women living in LIAs and planned areas in Lilongwe. [Extracted from the article]

Research on the geographies of finance for urban climate action has generated important insights into how climate agendas contribute to the financialisation of urban environments and strengthen the position of market actors in urban governance. However, by focusing on a limited set of financial instruments (e.g., green bonds, carbon credits), actors (e.g., real estate developers, private investors, international organisations), and projects (e.g., large‐scale infrastructure), existing studies overlook the heterogeneity of financial relations, initiatives, and actors that make possible urban climate action. This includes, for instance, the deployment of decentralised, small‐scale renewable energy technologies, or community‐led adaptation efforts. In this paper, I explore how theorisations of heterogeneous/hybrid infrastructure, diverse economies, and popular economies can advance current research, through the analysis of three decentralised renewable energy projects in France, the UK, and Zimbabwe. These concepts, I argue, can help us to expand our understanding of the multiple financial relations that underpin urban climate interventions and to explore their implications for the agency of different actors, particularly those who are most affected by climate change impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of TECHNE: Journal of Technology for Architecture & Environment is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Featured Application: Volcanic hazard evaluation, Urban Planning. Changbaishan volcano (China/North Korea; last eruption in 1903 AD) was responsible for a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) 7 eruption in 946 AD. Approximately 186,000 people live around Changbaishan and 2,000,000 tourists/year visit the volcano. An unrest occurred between 2002 and 2006. Despite the relevant hazard, the eruptive history is poorly known, a condition common to many volcanoes worldwide. Here, we investigate the extension of the areas potentially affected by pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) in case of future eruptions following a scenario-based approach. We perform energy cone runs referred to four scenarios from columns of height 3, 10, 20 and 30 km at different vents. By using global datasets on PDCs, we produce spatial probability maps of PDCs invasion. Empirical laws between covered areas, PDC travelled distances, and heights of collapse are provided. In scenarios 3 and 4, PDCs expand at distances up to 42 km and 85 km, respectively. In scenarios 1 and 2, PDCs invade the touristic area and few main roads. Severe effects emerge from scenarios 3 and 4 with the interruption of the China–North Korea land and aerial connections and PDC. Our approach may serve as guide for the rapid evaluation of the PDC-related hazard at poorly known volcanoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of outdoor spaces in residential communities affects the quality of life of residents as well as the level of comfort in a building. The study examined the characteristics and qualities of residential outdoor spaces (ROS) in Ilesa, Nigeria. The conceptual frame work showed the variables used in assessing the characteristics and qualities of ROS. The study was conducted in peripheral areas of Ilesa due to the high concentration of residential buildings with private ROS. A Multi-Stage sampling procedure was employed for the study. Out of the six areas located at the peripheral zone of Ilesa, Imo/Omi-Asoro and Oke-omiru/Ibala areas, having 944 and 1373 buildings respectively, were randomly selected from each local government area (Ilesa East and West); the sample size of 231 buildings representing 10 percent of the entire buildingsin the study area were selected systematically. Within each of the selected buildings, one household head was sampled using questionnaire administration. Findings reveal that attributes such as privacy, comfort, accessibility, layout, and safety were rated highly across the study area. Quality Index (Q.I.) computed for the two areas and the aggregated area revealed index values of3.85, 3.86, and 3.85 for Oke-omiru/Ibala, Imo/Omi-Asoro, and Ilesa respectively, indicating that quality of ROS in the study area is good. The studies empirically established that there were few scenic and blue spaces as well as few green spaces within the ROS; less availability of these spaces are not encouraging despite their numerous benefits in outdoor arenas. The relevance of this study is predicated on the essence of qualitative outdoor space to individual well-being, as well as national development. This study also provided insight for redirection of national economy towards providing and improving necessary residential and urban infrastructures, as well as new policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the water and energy sectors, projects geared towards new forms of cross-sectoral functioning have boomed in most European countries over the past decade, and have deeply transformed the ecology of urban services. These projects are often considered as an answer to a rising challenge affecting numerous traditional utilities: the unforeseen urban change relating to shifting (i.e. declining) demand patterns that are undermining traditional models of infrastructure management. The development of cross-sectoral strategies is considered a way both to tackle the attrition of traditional sources of revenue and to develop greener infrastructure systems by enhancing their efficiency level, often in line with low-carbon programmes implemented by national or local governments. The appeal lies in a fairly static perception of infrastructure management and technological change. Based on a detailed analysis of a traditional German local multi-utility and informed by a six-month internship within the company, the article deciphers the rationale of multi-sectoral practices, in particular the company's transformation into a cross-utility that devised a common strategy for all its infrastructure networks and its ambiguities. Various facets of such 'boundary work' are analysed, focusing on organisational and financial aspects to reveal the new sites of tensions and negotiations between sectors, but also on the material component of these cross-sectoral projects through the case of one such nexus programme, a waste-to-energy programme. This programme embodies the potential contradictions between the call for reduced use of resources (i.e. the production of less waste) and the development of new urban technical systems relying primarily on those same resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, much has been written about the potential of smart urbanism to bring about various and lasting forms of betterment. The embedding of digital technologies within urban infrastructures has been well documented, and the efficiencies of smart models of urban governance and management have been lauded. More recently, however, the discourse has been labelled ‘hegemonic’, and accused of developing a view of smart technology that is blinkered by its failure to critique its socio-political effects. By focusing on the case of Singapore’s ‘Smart Nation’ initiative, this paper embraces the paradoxes at the heart of smart urbanism and, in doing so, interrogates the tension between ideology and praxis, efficiency and control, access and choice, and smart governance and smart citizenship. It also demonstrates how such tensions are (re)produced through ‘fourthspace’ – the digitally enabled spaces of urbanism that are co-created, and that contribute to an expansion and diffusion of social and political responsibility. It ends by suggesting how such spaces have the potential to radically transform not just the urban environment, but also the role of government and citizens in designing urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is technical democracy? And why does it matter for urban studies? As an introduction to this special feature, we address these questions by reflecting onTo Our Friends, the 2014 manifesto of the Invisible Committee. We engage in particular its provocative diagnosis of the current situation: power no longer resides in the modern institutions of representative democracy and the market economy; instead, power has become a matter of logistics, infrastructures and expertise. This diagnosis, we suggest, brings into view the challenge of technical democracy, that is, the democratization of techno-scientific expertise and the instauration of forms of lasting collaboration among experts and laypeople. Urban politics, we claim, increasingly turns around socio-technical controversies and it is in terms of the politics of expertise that we should analyse and engage it. Building on Science and Technology Studies (STS), we conclude by pointing to four key conceptual dimensions of technical democracy—shared uncertainty, material politics, collective experimentation and fragile democratization—and provide examples taken from the papers included in this special feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban water flows are constitutive elements of Hanoi's morphology. Regular floods across the city illustrate that Hanoi's amphibious character is a central impediment to the installation of a ‘dry and sanitary city', the global modernist ideal of a separation of urban wastewater flows from public space through their redirection into large underground networks. Currently, the first attempt by the city government to construct a citywide sewerage network since the colonial period is taking place. In accordance with the ideal of the sanitary city, it aims at a unification and centralization of hitherto socio-spatially diverse arrangements of sanitation provision in the city. At the same time, rapid urbanization has radically transformed Hanoi, contributing to a continuous diversity of urban sanitation infrastructures and thus defeating the goal of unification and centralization. Starting from an urban political ecology perspective, this paper takes a historical focus to explain Hanoi's sanitation system as emerging from an interplay of discourses and material urbanization dynamics. Arguing that discourses permeate the material reproduction of urban wastewater flows and infrastructures, the paper focuses on the role of the sanitary city ideal for the reproduction of sanitation infrastructures and the contestations and stabilizations of this ideal in Hanoi. Furthermore, the paper addresses the material reproduction of urban sanitation and drainage in Hanoi as part of broader urbanization dynamics, based on a conceptualization of regular floods at the urban fringe of Hanoi as indicators for persisting socio-spatial fragmentations of the city's sanitation system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With data provided by modern meter-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors and advanced multipass interferometric techniques such as tomographic SAR inversion (TomoSAR), it is now possible to reconstruct the shape and monitor the undergoing motion of urban infrastructures on the scale of centimeters or even millimeters from space in very high level of details. The retrieval of rich information allows us to take a step further toward generation of 4-D (or even higher dimensional) dynamic city models, i.e., city models that can incorporate temporal (motion) behavior along with the 3-D information. Motivated by these opportunities, the authors proposed an approach that first attempts to reconstruct facades from this class of data. The approach works well for small areas containing only a couple of buildings. However, towards automatic reconstruction for the whole city area, a more robust and fully automatic approach is needed. In this paper, we present a complete extended approach for automatic (parametric) reconstruction of building facades from 4-D TomoSAR point cloud data and put particular focus on robust reconstruction of large areas. The proposed approach is illustrated and validated by examples using TomoSAR point clouds generated from a stack of TerraSAR-X high-resolution spotlight images from ascending orbit covering an approximately 2- km2 high-rise area in the city of Las Vegas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The scope of the paper is to overview the different approaches for evaluation of urban infrastructure sustainability. In this context, urban infrastructure covers transportation, energy, water, sewage and information networks as well as waste management and blue-green infrastructure, in terms of both the supply and demand side. A common effort of partners in the European project ?C8-Best Practice in Sustainable Urban Infrastructure?, developed under the Cooperation in Science and Technology program (COST), in brief COST C8, was focused on defining the methods, indicators and criteria for evaluation of sustainability, and resulted in a guidebook for decision-makers in local authorities. Here, the COST C8 matrix for simple sustainability assessment of urban infrastructure is applied to The Path (POT) case-a circular memorial and recreational park around the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The applicability and acceptance of the matrix in 43 other cases of sustainable urban infrastructure, collected in the COST C8 project, is presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of a three-dimensional (3D) geological model to the scale of a city (greater Bordeaux area, France) has been undertaken, using several thousand boreholes and several hundred geotechnical tests on a more limited area. Data from some specific geographical areas have also been analysed for the purposes of professional applications related to geotechnical engineering, urban archaeology and asset management of buried networks. This paper focuses on the geotechnical dimensions, uncertainties and associated hazards. First, a geometrical model of the quaternary layer basis was built to the scale of the city, the variogram of which quantifies and models the anisotropic spatial correlation of this layer. Two specific studies were then made, as described in the following: modelling of the stratigraphy, to the scale of the city, in order to assess the depth and extent of the Flandrian formations. The thickness of these formations is directly linked to the staircase terraces of the Garonne river. on-site site analysis of an area where an infrastructure has suffered damage, resulting from large differential settlements, owing to its poor geotechnical properties. We show how geostatistical methods applied to in-situ or laboratory parameters can improve knowledge and understanding of the site, and can be useful in improving the settlement predictions which had been initially underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy systems in Germany and in all western OECD countries are currently undergoing transformations that have profound implications for their urban and regional governance, as well as for regional development in general. New technologies, regulatory regimes, management styles, marketing strategies and environmental priorities have emerged, dramatically reconfiguring patterns of governance within cities and regions. This is particularly obvious in the city region of Berlin, where utility restructuring coincides with a dramatic fiscal crisis in the city. The privatization of the energy utilities and of many public services, the opening of the regional energy markets, public and private climate protection initiatives and the emergence of new market participants are radically changing the conditions of regional governance and energy planning. However, although substantial recasting of policy issues and traditional forms of governance in the energy sector is underway in Berlin, energy management is confronted with severe institutional problems of interpolicy coordination and regional cooperation, entrepreneurial governance and contract management. Thus, this article argues in favour of new policy approaches and institutional reforms to shape the development of energy networks according to local and regional sustainability needs. Résumé En Allemagne et dans tous les pays occidentaux de l’OCDE, les systèmes énergétiques connaissent des transformations qui affectent profondément la gouvernance urbaine et régionale, de même que l’évolution des régions en général. Nouvelles technologies, mécanismes régulateurs, styles de gestion, stratégies de marketing et priorités environnementales ont vu le jour, reconfigurant considérablement les modèles de gouvernance des villes et régions. Cette transformation est évidente dans la région métropolitaine de Berlin où la restructuration des services à la population coïncide avec une énorme crise fiscale de la municipalité. La privatisation de la distribution d’énergie et de nombreux services publics, l’ouverture des marchés régionaux de l’énergie, les initiatives publiques et privées de préservation du climat, ainsi que l’apparition de nouveaux acteurs sur les marchés ont affecté radicalement les conditions de la gouvernance régionale et la planification énergétique. Toutefois, malgré une large refonte des enjeux politiques et des formes traditionnelles de gouvernance dans le secteur énergétique, la gestion de l’énergie à Berlin est confrontée à de graves problèmes institutionnels de coordination entre politiques et de coopération régionale, de gouvernance de type entrepreneurial et d’administration des marchés. C’est pourquoi cet article préconise à la fois de nouvelles approches de politique publique et des réformes institutionnelles pour configurer l’aménagement des réseaux énergétiques en fonction des besoins en durabilité locaux et régionaux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]