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Urban areas can be both detrimental for pollinators or function as suitable habitats, depending on the land-use type, the urban context and the pollinator group in focus. Urban green spaces, including gardens, parks or cemeteries can provide essential resources for a wide range of pollinator groups, like wild bees, hoverflies and beetles. Urban community gardens can be particularly structurally complex and harbour a diverse range of nesting and food resources for pollinators. However, we know little about how garden features may vary with the urban context of gardens and which specific garden features can increase the abundance of pollinators in general and of different pollinator groups. Over two summer seasons, we recorded garden features and pollinators using flower observations in 33 urban community gardens in Munich and Berlin, Germany. We examined how garden features differ amongst urban community gardens from three urbanisation categories, and analysed the effects of garden features such as floral and nesting resources and landscape imperviousness (as indicator of urbanisation) on pollinator abundance, richness and diversity. In more urbanised gardens, flower richness and bare substrate were less prevalent. Flower richness was positively correlated with overall pollinator abundance, richness and diversity as well as with the abundances of all pollinator taxa excluding beetles. Landscape imperviousness was negatively correlated with hoverfly and beetle abundances. Hoverflies also decreased with increasing bare substrate and wasp abundance decreased with increasing deadwood availability. Our findings highlight the important role of flower richness for insect conservation in urban management and show that pollinator taxa react differently to garden features and urbanisation. To support pollinating insects, gardeners can increase flower richness, especially in highly urbanised areas. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of worldwide biodiversity and wild bee decline, it is increasingly important to better understand the effect of land-use changes on wild bee communities at a global scale. To do so, we studied the effect of city area and urban green spaces layout on wild bee species richness and community composition, as well as on wild bee species with an unfavorable UICN conservation status. This study was based on a large European dataset encompassing 20 cities from France, Belgium and Switzerland. We found a mean wild bee species richness in cities of 96 ± 48 (SD), showing that this species richness was highly variable among cities. The main factor positively influencing wild bee species richness in cities was the area of the city. Conversely, species richness was not significantly related to the total area of urban green spaces in a given city, measured as the spatial extent of urban parks, wastelands and other semi-natural habitats, excluding urban private gardens. Species with conservation status were quite scarce in urban environments, especially when compared to the European Red List of Bees, and we could not link their presence to either city or urban green space area. Dissimilarities in wild bee species community compositions were not associated with any of the studied characteristics of cities. We found that the dissimilarity of wild bee community composition among cities was mainly driven by the rarest species, as the most common ones were found in a majority of the cities sampled. Overall, these results emphasize that larger cities host more wild bee species, but are no refuge for the ones with concerning conservation status. Thus, stakeholders are encouraged to design their cities in favor of biodiversity to better support wild bee communities, and perhaps mitigate the established effect of the urban ecological filter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for a mutation in how mental health is conceived in the early twenty-first century. In this mutation, physical environments, in the form of homes, workplaces, and streetscapes, are understood as central to the production and maintenance of good mental health. Much writing on this topic has taken place within a rhetorical division between stereotypically urban buildings or spaces (tower blocks, for example), which are said to be harmful to the human mind, and idealized rural or green spaces, such as parks or small hamlets, understood to be psychologically restorative. This discourse, which has its roots in both cultural and scientific developments, has rendered mental disorder as, at least in part, a spatial problem—which is to say, as a problem that might be both understood through but also treated by spatial practices. The goal of the article is to establish the ground of this claim and to make some of its epistemic roots visible. The article begins with an ethnographic account of a contemporary intellectual movement aimed at populating urban spaces with trees in the name of global mental health. Then the discussion turns to a series of critical developments in the psychological and neurobiological sciences—the article demonstrates how these, in turn, are efflorescing into new links between the architectural and psychological sciences. The article shows how this scientific discussion is paralleled by developments in urban planning—Ebenezer Howard's program of the early twentieth century, set out in Garden Cities of To-Morrow, is taken as exemplary here. The article ends with a reading of Clive Barker's 1985 short story "The Forbidden" and of the film Candyman, which it gave rise to, whose shared sense of horror at the visceral consequences of failed urban experiments, I argue, should be read as a critical inflection point for the contemporary relationship between psychology and architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urbanization progresses globally, there is a growing concern regarding the diminishing connection between humans and nature. Informal green spaces (IGS) have been identified as a potential solution to this, offering unscripted opportunities for urban residents to engage with nature in a way that is not possible in formally planned parks and gardens. Despite an increasing focus on IGS, we are still developing our understanding of the extent to which people use these spaces to interact with nature. Our work addresses this research gap by employing a spatial analysis method to map IGS within Greater Melbourne, Australia. We used citizen science data to analyse the location and density of human-nature interactions on IGS compared to formal green spaces, as well as comparing different types of IGS and formal green spaces. Our findings revealed no significant difference in the density of citizen science observations between IGS and formal green spaces, once the variance in available area of each land use is accounted for. Notably, railway and utility easements exhibited the highest density of citizen science observations among all types of IGS. This research demonstrates that IGS make an important contribution to urban green space networks and additional thought should be given to how urban planning and land management may further increase the value of these spaces for people interacting with nature. • Informal green space (IGS) supports human-nature interactions in urban areas and can be as important as formal green space. • Railway and utility easement IGS are particularly important for facilitating human-nature interactions. • IGS are important but don't replace formal green spaces; they should be considered as part of broader green space networks. • Citizen science presents unique opportunities for studying the ways humans interact with nature in the urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban vegetation is essential for the quality of life in cities. Despite direct vegetation loss during urban expansion, urbanization can indirectly enhance vegetation greening through various factors. Yet, it remains unclear what conditions promoted these greening trends within cities. We quantified the greenness trends in 294 Chinese cities based on satellite imagery (2001–2018), which we then explained with climate and socioeconomic indicators, particularly considering the National Garden Cities incentive program for urban greening (NGC). Results reveal large potential for enhancing greenness under urban densification, with larger cities leading urban greening development. We further show that the effectiveness of NGC in promoting enhanced urban greenness is context-dependent, particularly depending on aridity, which is not sufficiently considered in current policy. Our findings show that the indirect vegetation growth index is an effective tool to evaluate urban greening governance and highlight the importance of tailoring regional greening strategies to local conditions for sustainable urban vegetation development. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Boletim de Geografia is the property of Universidade Estadual de Maringa 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.)

Zamalek district is unique with its urban fabric which hosts various activities and land uses, each activity attracts different users thus there are many problems facing these districts in reference to the mobility, Zamalek educational land use is the main problem and these districts are no longer compatible for contemporary urban mobility. Related to the above reasons Zamalek suffers from lack of space for parking, traffic congestion, lack of traffic management and pedestrian movement problems. These problems started appearing after the 1952 revolution when a lot of the privately owned residences were nationalized and turned into Governmental and National institute schools. This transformation in Land use had drastic negative impacts on the whole district & building that will be explained thoroughly. The research listed down the Governmental and National Institute Schools in Zamalek, as well as the number of students that are enrolled in these schools. It also studied the Zamalek population and especially the school age bracket and whether they go to these schools or not. Arc GIS software was used to define the zone of service for each school in order to evaluate whether there is a lack or surplus in different categories of schools. A questionnaire was distributed over the Zamalek residents to help evaluate the educational service in this district. Finally, the researchers propose recommendations that could save both the state authorities and the community a lot, and could be applied to other similar districts, such as Maadi, Heliopolis and Garden City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Historiae Artis Slovenica is the property of Scientific Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts 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.)

Copyright of Journal of Shanghai Physical Education Institute / Shanghai Tiyu Xueyuan Xuebao is the property of Shanghai Physical Education Institute 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.)

Copyright of F@ro: Revista Teórica del Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación y de la Información is the property of Universidad de Playa Ancha de Ciencias de la Educacion 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.)