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Copyright of Contributions to Contemporary History / Prispevki za Novejšo Zgodovino is the property of Prispevki za Novejso Zgodovino 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.)

Using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in security has become common in the Czech Republic. This paper focuses on using drones as an example of the application of smart technologies in conjunction with the Internet of Things (IoT) and state security forces, especially in cooperation with the police, fire and medical emergency services in the context of the new Smart Cities concept. Drones are one of the most suitable examples of use along with IoT within the security sector, which play a key role in the daily protection of citizens' safety, public order security and crisis management. It is related to developing and implementing 5G networks, which allow real-time transmission of data obtained by drones directly to information systems, and is also gaining importance. This technology enables fast and efficient communication between the different actors involved in an intervention and creates a platform for fast and effective emergency response. Among other things, paying attention to cybersecurity, such as securing data transmissions, protecting against cyber threats, complying with security standards and legislation, and introducing special procedures and methodologies applicable in crisis, is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary economy paradigm is globalization. This paper contains the interdisciplinary expertise on the innovative solutions of sustainable development of urban areas and cleaner environment. Due to inequality between the developed and undeveloped parts on the regions and countries, big migrations are happening. The result is recognized in overcrowded cities. Concentration of people on small areas produces serious negative consequences on the environment and the quality of the life. This paper aims to point out innovative models of cities from the perspective of sustainable development. New population migrations, relating to their elementary and civilization needs require better solutions. Holistic concept of blue green cities is the latest and the most advanced stage in sustainable development for urban areas. Different renewable energy implementation models and principals of circular economy up to zero waste are researched in this manuscript, representing support of the main idea of blue green cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building sustainable cities and communities is a key priority of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the spatial mismatch of construction land (SMCL) poses a significant challenge to sustainable urban development. This paper presents a new framework for measuring the SMCL from the dual perspectives of planning deviation (PD) and economic mismatch (EM). Using a minimum deviation estimation model, a land-comparable correction method, and the extended HK model, this study focused on 285 cities in China from 2002 to 2021. The results revealed that the PD exhibited an "N"-shaped fluctuating trend, reaching a peak of 27.63 km2 in 2011, with the deviation direction generally characterized by over-planning allocation followed by lack of planning allocation. The eastern region had the highest PD, with an annual average of 35.06 km2, followed by the western region. In contrast, the central and northeast regions had relatively low PD. The EM fluctuated in a "W" shape, with an annual average of 0.37. The direction was always dominated by economic over-allocation and complemented by economic under-allocation. There was also heterogeneity in EM across regions. Furthermore, both PD and EM differed considerably between cities by size. In 2021, most cities in China still existed PD or EM, but EM was more widespread and severe. This indicated that SMCL was still a serious issue in China, and there was still a long way to go to achieve the vision of sustainable allocation of construction land. This paper enriches the relevant literature on SMCL and provides a decision-making reference for governments to implement optimal land allocation. • Provide a new framework for measuring spatial mismatch of construction land (SMCL). • Apply the framework to study the SMCL in 285 Chinese cities in 2002–2021. • Planning deviation (PD) or economic mismatch (EM) existed widely in Chinese cities. • EM is more serious and the pattern of land development needs to change urgently. • The vision of sustainable land allocation in China still has a long way to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformative adaptation (TA) places emphasis on changing the underlying causes of climate risk. Little is known about how TA can be achieved in practice in southern African cities. This paper reports on a set of criteria, derived from the literature and transdisciplinary engagements, for taking TA from theory into practice. These are: fundamental/sustainable changes in thinking and doing; inclusivity; challenging power asymmetries; demonstrability; responsive and flexible; and holistic, complex systems thinking. These criteria were explored through five water-related projects in Durban (South Africa) and Harare (Zimbabwe), which were identified by actors as having transformative potential to reduce urban climate risks. The study suggests that trade-offs might need to be made between several of these criteria, with strong synergies between others. Challenging power asymmetries is important in southern African cities where adaptation should change the structures of society that give rise to highly differential climate vulnerabilities. Challenging power structures largely requires true inclusivity and an equal stake in shaping decisions as opposed to tokenistic participation. While TA is needed in southern African cities, the complexity of these contexts and the scale of TA ambition introduces practical challenges when compared with incremental adaptation, i.e. small changes to existing practices to reduce climate impacts within the current development paradigm. Given such practical limitations, the paper concludes that TA in southern African cities might pragmatically be attempted as part of a process of ongoing learning to identify opportunities for gradual restructuring and expanding, in scale and ambition towards transformation. • Incremental adaptation achieves demonstrable results quickly. • Transformative adaptation needs to expand activities gradually in scope and scale. • Trade-offs exist at points along the incremental-transformative continuum. • Greater inclusivity in transformative adaptation introduces governance challenges. • Going beyond incremental adaptation requires challenging power asymmetries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unprecedented climate extremes will likely become a new 'normal'. Urban political ecology is thus confronted with the challenge of exploring and theorising emerging geographies of unprecedented climate change. This raises questions on the extent and ways in which past socionatures can be mobilised for this task. It also urges a critical reflection on what forms of knowledge are needed to meet political ecology's normative aspirations of transforming emerging and future socionatures of climate change. I argue that a critique of past and present socionatures alone is not enough to meet these theoretical and normative goals. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to lay the foundations of a future-oriented urban political ecology that approaches geographies of climate change more experimentally and speculatively. To this aim, I examine the explanatory potential of two (of many possible) experiments, collaboratively developed by a team of hydrologists, climatologists, and political ecologists. Both experiments depart from past and present logics of colonial violence, racial capitalism, and climate change, but explore competing notions of unprecedented futures. The first experiment consists of a critical-realist scenario approach that examines how power and variability in the exercise of agency might shape outcomes of future unprecedented climate extremes. The second involves a model that speculatively brings about a better world in response to climate extremes and lays the foundation of a political ecology of possibility. The paper thereby serves as a demonstration of how critique can be mobilised to explore and reimagine urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising demand for emergency food during the last couple of decades in the UK has led to a great deal of academic interest in food aid provision, and food banking in particular. Efforts have also been made to examine food poverty and responses to it in more critical terms, which has entailed moving beyond a focus on emergency food support to engage with 'more than food aid' approaches. In this paper, I discuss how these latter approaches are beginning to be mobilised by national organisations, local authorities and place-based food partnerships in the UK. An important catalyst for this shift was the Covid-19 pandemic, which provided the crisis conditions that encouraged public and third-sector actors to think about, and act upon, food poverty in different ways. Drawing on an analysis of submissions to a Covid-19 food inquiry, place-based food initiatives implemented during the pandemic period and more recent initiatives instigated by national food support and anti-hunger groups, the paper examines how a diverse range of organisations are becoming more critical of existing (food aid) responses to food poverty and are seeking to develop more supportive local foodscapes based on a 'more than food aid' approach. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this shift for future research on food poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore how precarious work is being globalized across urban space. We tie the devaluation of labour to the growth of multi-scalar inequality through the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of urban austerity. We also seek to identify opportunities for rebuilding worker power through a radical anti-capitalist politics attuned to cities in crisis. We argued that this unevenness across multiple scales creates openings and possibilities for future resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation of natural resources seeks the proper use of nature, while preservation seeks protection of nature from abuse. Both strategies can work only if the value of nature's precious resources is understood by masses. In recent decades, concerns have arisen about the valuation of forest areas specially those which are falling within the limits of metropolitan cities of the world. 'Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES)' concept, a subcategory of the broader term 'Ecosystem Services (ES)' is gaining importance in scientific literature due to the realization of their significant contribution towards human health and well-being. The valuation studies in ecosystem services discourse have been long dominated by ecologists and economists. However, the dearth of literature on social-perception of forest ecosystems, is not only limiting to CES research but also to effective landscape planning, management and decision-making to conserve this important natural resource in cities. This paper critically analyses the importance of CES concept for their conceptualization and classification for place-based values to be used in wider assessment processes. Our aim is to provide an overview of CES evaluation methods and highlight challenges faced during the process of assessment. Based on the conceptual review, we initiate a discussion of requirement of in-depth studies to be conducted from socio-ecological perspective and their integration in policy support tools for urban planning in Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While climate adaptation planning and implementation is gradually increasing across the globe, there is a documented gap between what is done and what needs to be done. Researchers have documented climate adaptation efforts at the strategic policy-making level and in urban planning practices, but less is known about how cities navigate the intricacies of climate adaptation policy-progression in the existing built environment. Contributing to the analytical unpacking of how to reduce policy implementation gaps, this paper targets ten Swedish early adopter cities seeking to proactively and pragmatically progress with their climate adaptation efforts from policy-formation to implementation in the urban built environment. Qualitative analyses of interviews and policy-documents illustrate that the cities, despite their early adopter status, struggle with stepwise policy-progression and get stuck when approaching implementation. Ensuring appropriate climate adaptation in the existing urban built environment becomes problematic due to current legal distribution of responsibilities, diverse land-ownership patterns and path-dependent structures and configurations within cities that are dense, intricate and tightly developed over of time. We identify three pragmatic action-strategies adopted to create solution space and allowing the cities to proceed: event-driven, target-driven and opportunity-driven climate adaptation, each having their advantages and disadvantages for ensuring urban robustness, as well as different requirements for up-scaling. The analysis enables important lessons of climate adaptation policy-progression, the promise and pitfalls of stepwise adaptation and the necessity of pragmatic muddling that is required to make climate adaptation work in the existing urban built environment. • There is an implementation deficit in climate adaptation policymaking and planning. • Research on implementation outcomes, practices and solution-space is needed. • Cities struggle with stepwise policy-progression in the urban built environment. • Three pragmatic action-strategies are adopted, conditioning and enabling action. • Mixing strategies allows balancing long-term strategy and emerging opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children account for about 34% of the urban population in India. However, they continue to be forced daily consumers of adult-designed built environments. A total of 45 children die daily from road accidents. This paper discusses the findings of a case study of an interactive curriculum spanning nine modules, which aided grade IV students of a school in New Delhi to re-imagine and co-create a safer school street. The curriculum is part of the Crosswalk Program by HumanQind. The program is focused on and aligned with the frameworks of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on road safety, human rights, and human-centric urban development. • This paper discusses the findings of a pilot study on reimagining a school street with children. • Codesigning streets can provide safety and yield an equitable and ethical outcome. • Children identify 250 m of street as a safe zone, which is significantly higher than current school frontage. • A symbiotic relationship between mobility and sustainable development goals is formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opera music may be much more central to our understanding of urban modernity than is habitually thought. Since its beginnings in Bulgaria around 1890, opera has had a strong relationship with urban space and the public sphere. Most opera houses were built in urban centers and came to be seen both as secular temples and sites of entertainment, in which the appreciation of high art coexisted with conviviality. This paper aims at demonstrating that development of opera art is inextricably linked to the process of modernization of Bulgarian cities. By addressing the impact of this classical art on urbanity, the paper will also attempt to show how opera houses have been among important in towns' transformations and alteration from the late 19th to the second half of the 20th c. By studying the inception and development of opera theaters in particular Bulgarian cities and through its focus on the liaison between music and localities, this paper should add to the vast body of scholarship in social and cultural history to do with the city, and the meaning of urbanity in Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper presents nuanced insights into enabling socio-spatial conditions for urban experimentation. • An innovative method is introduced to analyse a large number of experiments with nature-based solutions (N = 520). • Findings provide details on specific patterns in policy, networks, learning and funding conditions for urban experimentation. • The study found that radical and incremental experimentation occurs in different urban environments. Cities are critical places for the emergence of sustainability transitions. The early phases of transition are often characterised by experimentation. Socio-spatial conditions, such as local policy, governance networks, localised learning and funding structures, are known to influence experimentation, yet there is little empirical knowledge on how these conditions contribute. We construct a framework to analyse how these conditions coincide with patterns in urban experimentation, distinguishing between incremental and radical experimentation and between social, technological, and systemic experiments. We introduce a method for large-N analysis and apply this to a database of 520 NBS in 100 European cities. This creates detailed insights into which socio-spatial conditions are associated with particular types of experimentation and how this relates to the urban innovative environment. Empirically, this paper focuses on 'Nature-Based Solutions' (NBS), which is an emerging concept for the innovative use of nature to address societal challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Historia Americana y Argentina is the property of Universidad Nacional de Cuyo 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.)

This paper seeks to understand how co-production can become embedded as a collaborative governance practice by which city governments plan, deliver and steward nature-based solutions. To these ends, the paper analyses how policy officers manifest capacities for co-production in three European cities – Genk (Belgium), Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Poznań (Poland) – while experimenting with co-production to develop and scale nature-based solutions. Co-production capacities include conditions and activities to (1) create space for co-production, (2) safeguard inclusive and legitimate co-production, and (3) link co-production processes and results to contexts. The results demonstrate how policy officers in the three cities have mobilised and created resources, skills, institutional support and partnerships to implement diverse processes to co-produce nature-based solutions. While these conditions mark starting changes in urban governance, engaging with and embedding co-production causes tensions between the dynamic and diffuse nature of co-production and existing formal governance settings and processes. Lessons for strengthening the capacities to embed co-production as a collaborative governance practice in nature-based solutions planning, delivery and stewardship are: (1) embedding a tailor-made approach for inclusive co-production to meaningfully engage diverse actors in place-based settings, (2) embedding open-ended co-production with long-term benefits, and (3) embedding new relations and roles to sustain co-production. • Co-production requires investing in new governance capacities. • Diverse co-production processes underpin collaborative NBS governance. • No one-size-fits-all: tailor co-production to contexts, goals, target audiences. • Monitor and evaluate co-production to reveal benefits. • Invest in long-term relations and engagement to sustain co-production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • We examine the state of justice in accessing urban ecosystem services. • Most of the publications highlight that there is no justice in access to urban ecosystem services. • Environmental justice stands out prominently among the typologies of justice. • Considerable attention is directed toward the distributional and recognitional dimensions. • Cultural and regulating services have received more attention than other services. Ecosystem services are crucial for urban resilience, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development. Incorporating these services in urban environments involves various principles, partnerships, organizational strategies, and methodologies. A vast body of research exists on ecosystem services. However, there is a lack of studies that address equity concerns in access to urban ecosystem services. This paper critically reviews the literature to investigate the state of access to ecosystem services in urban areas. We use deductive content analysis for this purpose. We explore traditional concepts of justice and update them by examining the sources and types of ecosystem services in urban environments. We examine justice typology considering various social, environmental, infrastructural, ecological, and mobility issues. We also explore different justice dimensions, including distributional, procedural, recognitional, and restorative issues. Results showed a notable prioritization of green infrastructures (73%) over blue infrastructures (5%). Furthermore, there has been an apparent emphasis on cultural services (42%) and regulating services (25%) in offering recreational activities, fostering social integration, improving place-making capabilities, showcasing adaptability, and demonstrating resilience. An important finding is that most of the publications (87%) highlight that there is no justice in access to ecosystem services. Regarding typologies, we found that there has been more attention to environmental justice, and infrastructural, ecological, and mobility justice are underexplored. As for dimensions, more attention has been paid to distributional and recognitional justice at the cost of restorative justice. A key shortcoming is that cities in the Global South are not adequately represented in the literature, despite their significance for achieving sustainable urban development in the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an emerging consensus that the health of the planet depends on the coexistence between rapidly growing cities and the natural world. One strategy for guiding cities towards sustainability is to facilitate a planning process based on positive visions for urban systems among actors and stakeholders. This paper presents the Urban Nature Futures Framework (UNFF), a framework for scenario building for cities that is based on three Nature Futures perspectives: Nature for Nature , Nature for Society , and Nature as Culture. Our framework engages stakeholders with envisioning the three Nature Futures perspectives through four components using participatory methods and quantitative models: identification of the socio-ecological feedbacks in cities, assessment of indirect impacts of cities on biodiversity, development of multi-scale indicators, and development of scenarios. Stakeholders in cities may use this framework to explore different options for integrating nature in its various manifestations within urban areas and to assess how different community preferences result in various cityscapes and distribution of associated benefits from nature among urban dwellers across multiple scales. • The Urban Nature Futures Framework (UNFF) explores transformative future scenarios that are positive for nature and people. • Nature for Nature promotes rewilding in city parks and in areas around cities. • Nature for Society promotes a range of nature-based solutions in cities that benefit society. • Nature as Culture promotes a cultural experience of nature in cities. • This framework can be used to develop alternative visions and scenarios for the management of nature in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bitácora Urbano/Territorial is the property of Bitacora Urbano/Territorial 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.)

Cities and their residents are impacted by the growing effects of climate change in various ways. Urban areas, infrastructure, and green places are all destroyed by extreme weather events. The goal of measures made to strengthen cities' resilience and adaptation to climate change is to lessen or eliminate negative effects or to boost the advantages of hazards. They vary in personality and shape according on the degree of economic and social development as well as the availability of financial, institutional, human, and intellectual resources. The methods and equipment utilised in planning and urban development are very crucial. The study focuses on structuring urban space, highlighting the value of environmental services, and strengthening resilience to climate change via planning and implementation initiatives. The study is concentrated on Polish cities that have developed Urban Adaptation Plans (MPA). The purpose of this paper is to outline the blue-green infrastructure projects covered by the MPA, discuss the opportunities for their implementation, and demonstrate how they contribute to urban spaces' increased appeal, better quality of life, and increased local community awareness and participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Governance Review / Revue Gouvernance is the property of University of Ottawa, Center on Governance 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.)

Augmented reality (AR) has experienced a breakthrough in many areas of application thanks to cheaper hardware and a strong industry commitment. In the field of management of urban facilities, this technology allows virtual access and interaction with hidden underground elements. This paper presents a new approach to enable AR in mobile devices such as Google Tango, which has specific capabilities to be used outdoors. The first objective is to provide full functionality in the life-cycle management of subsoil infrastructures through this technology. This implies not only visualization, interaction, and free navigation, but also editing, deleting, and inserting elements ubiquitously. For this, a topological data model for three-dimensional (3D) data has been designed. Another important contribution of the paper is getting exact location and orientation performed in only a few minutes, using no additional markers or hardware. This accuracy in the initial positioning, together with the device sensing, avoids the usual errors during the navigation process in AR. Similar functionality has also been implemented in a nonubiquitous way to be supported by any other device through virtual reality (VR). The tests have been performed using real data of the city of Jaén (Spain). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social participation is recognized as a key tool in conducting urban regeneration projects. However, in the current era of environmental change, the literature often refers to the need to address the perception of participatory regeneration in the context of sustainability orientation. This paper aims to identify the potential role of community participation in sustainable urban regeneration processes of small-scale spaces. A qualitative approach was adopted in the research whereby individual interviews and field observations were conducted. The main research questions posed were: What are the challenges to community participation in sustainable urban regeneration processes in courtyard-related projects, and how should community participation be organized to facilitate the transition towards more sustainable urban regeneration? The results present an identification of the most important challenges while also indicating their place in the participation process, and suggestions for methods which can be used as potential solutions. This paper suggests the use of a participatory process cycle involving local communities and focusing on degraded residential areas, such as urban courtyards, which are to be regenerated towards social and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The last few decades have witnessed rising trends in urbanization as a global phenomenon. • Researchers are promoting liveability approaches as elementary to assess the degree of living standards of cities. • The paper earmarks noticeable variations in the existing liveability approaches between the East and West. • The review examines a comparative critical assessment of the existing four liveability approaches accordingly. • The paper accomplishes a gap prevails concerning liveability approaches between various global cities. The last few decades have witnessed increasing trends in urbanization as a global phenomenon. In this regard, the concept of liveability has appeared as elementary for evaluating the degree of living standards of cities. The present review investigates a comparative critical assessment of the existing liveability approaches in urban studies. Based on the assessment, the review concludes that a gap prevails concerning liveability approaches between global cities in different parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid proliferation of festivals experienced by cities round the world over the last four decades was brought to a sudden halt in early 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic. Planned gatherings ranging from local arts festivals to global megaevents were summarily abandoned, postponed, or converted to digital alternatives. This paper opens with a contextual introduction. The ensuing section considers the reasons for the seemingly unfettered proliferation and festivalization that had occurred pre-Covid-19, but indicates that problems had already arisen over appropriation of public space, overtourism and security before the current crisis. The next part surveys the pandemic’s impact on the urban festival sector to date. With reference to the megaevents planned for 2020 and a series of case studies of arts festivals, it notes responses ranging from whole or partial cancellations to implementation of wholly digital options. The conclusion argues that the continuing importance of physical congregation in designated places must be recognized, contending that this is enhanced rather than challenged by the rise of digital alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Could the marriage of online meetings, emails, social media, worldwide pandemic, ‘working from home’, and home deliveries really signal the end of cities? If the story of cities has not come to an end, how might they evolve in response to these new impulses, particularly in the UK? This paper begins to provide some answers to these pressing questions. It does so by turning to London’s urban history, to the 1960s and 1970s anti-urban ethos, to the fall and rise of London and New York in the 1970s and 1980s, and especially by applying to cities theories of innovation that have been developed in the context of managing business and explaining the creative process. The discussion casts doubt on the city pessimists and suggests that although cities may be restructured to combat the impacts of Covid-19, they certainly won’t be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Soft-systems approach identifies place-based peculiarities of urban food systems. • A multi-actor approach supports the development of sustainable urban food strategies. • Local specificities affect food systems' capacity to include sustainable diets. • Food strategies need to engage with multi-scalar processes. • Integrating the views of local actors fosters the democratization of food policies. Urbanization processes have been accompanied by a shift towards diets that have placed increased pressures on the environment and human health. City governments are increasingly striving to address these challenges through a policy focus on "sustainable diets". Using the example of the city of Vienna (Austria), this paper adopts an innovative multi-actor approach to unpack the complexities involved in the implementation of the core principles of sustainable diets. The analysis of data collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key urban food system actors identifies place-based peculiarities and drivers of change that are not yet discussed within debates on urban food. As we conclude, there are important methodological implications emerging from our findings for both policy-makers and researchers interested in the design, implementation and evaluation of urban food strategies that contribute to democratizing the food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A joint framework for nature-based solutions and ecosystem services facilitates tackling urban challenges. • Nature-based solutions affect ecosystem service flows and often result in increases in co-benefits. • Uniting the nature-based solutions and ecosystem services concepts helps to make multifunctionality explicit. • Strongly linking the concepts helps determine which solutions are most appropriate for local challenges. In an increasingly urbanized world, the concepts of ecosystem services and nature-based solutions can help tackle grand challenges. However, ambiguity in their definitions and in the relationship between the two concepts complicates comprehensive research efforts as well as their effective application in policy and planning in urban systems. This paper presents a framework to clarify and explicitly relate the two concepts, enhancing their applicability in the management of urban challenges. Within the framework, addressing urban challenges serves as the starting point for the development and implementation of nature-based solutions. Nature-based solutions alter the flows of ecosystem services that are produced by an ecosystem by altering the performance of the ecosystem or by changing how people engage with the ecosystem. This results both in changes in the target ecosystem services, as well as non-targeted ecosystem services, leading to benefits. Using two illustrative case studies, we show how the framework can be applied to two urban challenges that are expected to increase in intensity in cities across the world: stormwater management and urban heat stress. Moreover, we highlight key research topics that will benefit from more integrated use of nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. The framework helps emphasize co-benefits, and can be used to help make co-benefits and multifunctionality explicit in urban decision-making and planning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only 18% of global flood losses experienced between 2011 and 2021 were insured. Governments are increasingly examining ways to transfer financial flood risks to the private insurance market. Flood insurance is widely recognized as an effective financial risk-transfer mechanism that helps societies efficiently recover from sudden and unexpected flood losses. However, flood insurance is often unavailable to high-risk properties via the private market. Insurers assert that access to better flood model data and sustained investment in flood damage prevention can foster flood insurance availability and affordability as risks can be more precisely evaluated and fewer damages result from flooding. This paper presents a conceptual framework for a data platform designed to reduce and manage the number of high-risk uninsurable properties through public-private data-sharing. Drawing on survey results from municipalities and insurance companies, it assesses whether the conceptual data platform has a role to play in Canada. The study entailed participation of municipal officials representing 59 Canadian cities, and insurance professionals representing 7 insurance companies. Findings confirm there is appetite for both sectors to engage in cross-sector data-sharing and that the conceptual data platform is perceived as a tool that could establish new forms of collaboration that can lead to changes in flood insurance availability in high-risk areas. Other countries experiencing insurance challenges with high-risk properties could benefit from testing the viability of the conceptual data platform in their context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience has become a policy and practical framework for addressing a range of threats from natural disasters and extreme weather events to political conflicts and terrorism. Focusing on the context of cities, this paper offers a conceptualisation of urban resilience, critically interrogating its use for urban governance and the political implications it has for individual agency. The paper also seeks to contribute to the existing critical literature on urban resilience. The second part of the paper focuses on the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities programme as implemented in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile. Empirical data obtained through fieldwork and interviews with representatives of the public sector and civil society suggest that while creating an illusion of inclusiveness and empowerment, the 'resilience approach' has largely ignored the structural conditions of extreme social and spatial inequality in Santiago. Local political realities and private sector interests play an important part in this equation. The case study points to a general tendency to treat city resilience as a technical question, thereby downplaying its deeply political nature. It highlights the disconnection between the topography of risk on the one side and technological interventions on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 Historic Urban Landscape Recommendation (HUL) by UNESCO defines cities as dynamic environments subject to cultural processes, tangible/intangible heritage and community values, leaving some key questions open. Is the heritage sector better defining historic places, or because their complexity defies verbal description, it re-iterates simplified concepts? Are existing boundaries between disciplines such as architecture, planning and landscape design enriching or constraining heritage? This paper analyses the urban morphology of Venice and the Piazza San Marco, a key context in which architecture emerges as legitimised vehicle for urban regeneration in early modernity. Looking at the relationship between the Piazza and the urban networks of Venice alongside intangible spatial practices and symbols, the paper makes three contributions to urban conservation: a) it defines the HUL as the interrelationship of the anonymous city with the authored products of design, b) it revisits the foundations of early modern consciousness about architecture, urban conservation and innovation in order to better understand interdisciplinary knowledge in the heritage sector and c) it approaches heritage as social construction, involving the selection of structures, from buildings to entire areas, and from legal documents and political instruments to ideologies through which societies are seen from dominant positions, often disguising conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in respect of climate change. As the African continent struggles to adapt to climate change, a variety of measures are being pursued to alleviate the resultant pressures on people, properties and their livelihoods in several African cities. Collectively, they show that climate change adaptation in Africa is not as hopeless as widely claimed, and that there are some promising prospects. The literature shows a deficiency on studies which examine the extent to which climate change adaptation is being pursued in African cities. This paper addresses this need, and outlines some of the most important climate threats (e.g. increasing temperatures, droughts, sea level rise, sea and river flooding) and synergic non-climate factors, as well as recent progress made in respect of implementing climate change adaptation in African cities. Rather than adopt a general description of trends, this research focuses on concrete case studies from six major cities across the central, western, and eastern regions of the African continent (Douala, Lagos City, Dar-es-Salaam, Accra, Addis Ababa and Mombasa). The vulnerability and adaptive capacity status of the studied cities are discussed. Difficulties and challenges encountered in implementing adaptation policies in these areas are also highlighted. Furthermore, some successful examples of climate change adaptation initiatives in the surveyed cities are provided. Finally, the paper outlines some of the policy measures which can be implemented towards strengthening the capacity of African cities to adapt to a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and governments are increasingly interested in refurbishing the existing built environment as a key component in plans to reduce GHG emissions and resource efficiency strategies. In this sense, the building industry started to develop sustainability assessment tools, first to guide new or major renovation building projects, and slowly progressing toward the evaluation of neighborhoods and cities. However, scaling up sustainability is a challenge due to the increased number of parameters and stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. This paper presents a methodology to scale up LEED-ND sustainability assessment from the neighborhood towards the city scale with the support of GIS modeling. This approach was tested for the current Lisbon case study. It resulted in the identification of the priority intervention areas and parameters. The paper further highlights four policy recommendations: reduce water flood risk; increase mixed residential and non-residential developments; reinforce the adoption of energy certifications, and create similar schemes for water consumption. These findings can support decision-makers to develop urban redevelopment strategies and improve the overall city sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partnerships emerge as part of an environmental governance paradigm shift towards less hierarchical, more collaborative, and non-regulative steering arrangements. This paper examines the prevalence of partnerships in environmental governance on an urban level in a semi-authoritarian setting, by exploring climate initiatives in cities in China. The paper presents exploratory qualitative analysis of governance in urban China through analysis of a database of 150 climate initiatives in 15 cities, which are seen at the forefront of climate protection. The analysis suggests that climate partnerships are used as a governance strategy in China. Moreover, partnerships perform a range of essential governance functions, from rule-setting and provision of public infrastructure and services, to supporting technology development and low carbon demonstration projects. The results indicate that partnerships can facilitate local climate action by creating access to resources, such as information, technology, and funding, as well as contribute to introduction of emission reduction technology and new policy approaches. However, the inclusion of non-state actors in the formulation and delivery of climate mitigation projects redefines the lines of authority over public issues. This draws attention to two key governance challenges in the context of a comparatively state-controlled, top-down political system: skewed participation and lack of deliberative opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon has become a regional issue for Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL) as a number of studies reported an elevated air temperature in highly dense urban areas compared to the rural peripheries. An initial literature survey of UHI studies in GKL revealed an insufficiency and paucity of field measurements for more than one decade (since 1991) before gaining its momentum again after 2004. Despite a very limited number of studies in GKL, many studies used a vague set of site classification, operational definitions of Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII) derived from such vague classification, uncontrolled and old set of data, limited coverage of weather station network and limited number of weather parameters in data collection. Therefore, this paper attempts to provide an overview of UHI studies in GKL by highlighting the major methodological shortcomings that hamper the reliability of previous measurements and by providing vital suggestions for an improved UHI quantification in future. The findings of most of the studies disclose an increasing trend in the UHII which is associated to the reduction in vegetation cover and land use changes. Eventually, this open up new opportunities for the upcoming studies to investigate the sensitivity of UHI to other unexplored factors in the local context. Besides focusing on the role of vegetation on urban temperature reduction, future studies need to focus more on examining the feasibility of other remediation technologies. This paper also suggests that rigorous attention should be given to a systematic site characterization, controlled and synchronous measurements, broader weather station network as well as incorporation of real-time data to elucidate the current UHII status. In addition, local studies could significantly benefit from the utilization of advanced modelling and simulation technologies as a basis for a more informed decision-making in line with the aspiration of GKL to achieve a world class sustainable metropolis by 2020 (GKL Initiative under the National Key Economic Area). Lastly, the incorporation of UHI phenomena in local policies is also essential to mitigate its deleterious impacts via more urban climate-friendly practices by various stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to give a portrait of the state of social relationships in Italy, focusing mainly on relationships among neighbors living in urban settings. After a general recognition on the status of social solidarity in the Italian contemporary society, particular attention will be given to the role and the efficacy of on-line platforms and social networks specifically designed to enhance collaboration among neighbors. Finally the paper will delve into the emerging phenomenon of Social Streets, giving a theoretical definition and a very accurate description drawing on the empirical data collected by the search «Vicini e connessi. Alla scoperta del vivere social», conducted by the Observatory on Social Street, founded and directed by the Author himself. This search, mainly based on the city of Milan, is a quali-quantitative project. The collection of empirical data was conducted by means of an on-line survey, more than 70 in-depth interviews with the foundators of the social streets of Milan, and ethnographical observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharing economies are being identified across diverse territories, including the food sector, as potential means to enact urban sustainability transitions. Within these developments ICT (information and communication technologies) are seen as a crucial enabler of sharing, stretching the spaces over which sharing can take place. However, there has been little explicit conceptual or empirical attention to these developments within the broad landscape of food sharing. In response, this paper provides the first macro-geographical analysis of urban food sharing mediated by ICT. Focusing on individual food-sharing initiatives drawn from a scoping database of 468 urban areas and ninety-one countries, this analysis reveals a variegated geography of food sharing in terms of location, what is being shared and the mode of food sharing adopted. Also documented is the extent to which these initiatives articulate sustainability claims and provide evidence to substantiate them. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the work that such a scoping database can do in relation to wider challenges of transforming urban food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how African student migrants negotiate life in China through gastronomic practices and cultures. African migration to Chinese cities such as Guangzhou and Wuhan is part of internationalization processes that are transforming cities. A thoroughfare in Guangzhou known as Xiaobei is associated with the visible urban presence of African migration because of the ethnic restaurants and shops there. Such typecasting, however, masks more complex food practices that illuminate the social stratification contained within the category popularly referred to as “African.” Food practices also direct attention to migrants’ social interactions with Chinese residents in cities. This paper first highlights the impact of African migration on urban space in China and the social anxieties arising on the part of the Chinese state and residents. Second, the paper argues that even though the African students consume Chinese food as part of their lifestyle routines in China or African food that remind them of home, they also seek out “Western” food as a symbol of cosmopolitan identity to counter racialization in China. Their accounts of food signal colonial and postcolonial negotiations toward the wider global geographies of power in which African countries and the student migrants are situated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Young people's engagement with urban public space has been facing a number of obstacles that reflect a lack of understanding of their needs, values and priorities. The emergence of digital devices and social media as integral elements of youth culture adds further urgency to the need to understand how young people themselves visually articulate their perceptions of life in the city. Bringing together elements from urban studies, youth studies and digital media literacy, this paper puts forward a pedagogic and research approach that aims to facilitate youth engagement with urban landscapes and the community. Participatory photography was used a tool for capturing youth urban voice with British undergraduate students. A methodological framework for the coding and analysis of participants' images and reflective pieces was conducted with a pilot study involving 51 students. By employing a participatory/reflective photography methodology analyzing youth engagement with the urban landscape, the exercise produced highly engaged and emotive visual and textual narratives. Student work focused around issues of unemployment, dereliction and conglomeration. Findings reveal that participants focused more on the social and economic properties of place than on its aesthetic and architectural ones. They viewed their local spaces through media filters and a prism of disempowered and individualized consumption. The paper ultimately highlights a paradox: while young people are at the forefront of unprecedented global digital connectivity, at the same time their narratives emit a sense of civic loneliness. Global change and urbanization are perceived as destructive forces that have an adverse effect on their way of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the procedures through which climate change can be rendered governable in the present. Climate change has generally been approached as an abstract, global, and long-term problem, thereby disconnecting it from the places and times in which decisions are made. Relational thinking in geography has articulated the local and regional levels of climate governance, hence foregrounding the practices through which the climate is situated in concrete local and organisational contexts. However, in time climate change has remained an abstract and long-term problem. This calls for studies of how the need for rapid climate action can be established in the present, and how climate governance can be aligned with the temporal rhythms in which organisations operate. This paper examines Oslo's "climate budgets", an innovative governance tool which integrates climate planning into the regular municipal budgeting cycle. It brings attention to the practices through which different temporalities of climate action are aligned, how climate change is rendered legible, and how uncertainties are managed. Drawing on the literatures on temporality and governmentality, it develops a conceptual approach to assess the practices through which responsibility for global, long-term concerns can be articulated in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change in information systems is a continuation of the development of technology, systems, and the urban environment throughout history. This paper puts this into perspective through three areas. By considering housing, jobs, and communication as a representative selection of functions based on Cooley's Theory of Transportation, it is possible to demonstrate the increasing need for a structured and deliberate consideration of the changing needs and opportunities inherent in a developing technology and communications-driven environment. These needs can be mirrored through housing, job, and communications needs as a progression of technology and through decentralization via communications and networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use estimates of the effectiveness of existing road safety technologies and interventions to estimate the reduction in road safety deaths in six Indian cities over the next decade, in order to achieve the SDG 3.6 goal of a 50% reduction by 2030. Only the existing interventions are considered and technologies that might be available in the future are not accounted for. The results show that similar policies for all cities will not produce the same results, and that achieving the SDG 3.6 goal does not automatically reduce fatality rates in cities with high fatality rates. The introduction of safer cars with currently available safety technologies, although necessary, will have much less effect than the combined effect of motorcycle safety technologies, speed control and traffic calming. This study suggests that while SDG 3.6 targets may be satisfied by 2030 with great effort in India, the presently available safety interventions may not be adequate to bring about death rates below 2.0 per hundred thousand persons. Since the situation differs significantly between cities, it will be important to evolve city-specific policies for safety intervention priorities and changes in travel behavior. The desired reduction in road traffic injuries in India will not be possible without much greater investment in road safety research and road design for safer travel. • SDG 3.6 targets may be reached by 2030, but death rates will not decrease below 2.0 per hundred thousand in Indian cities. • Similar policies for all cities will not produce the same results. • Enforcement of motorcycle safety technologies and helmet use is essential for all cities. • The maximum benefit will be achieved by speed control, traffic calming measures, and facilities for vulnerable road users. • The desired reductions in road death rates in India will require a greater investment in road safety research and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]