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This study investigated the correlation between the concentration of air pollutants in two metropolitan cities, Seoul and Incheon, located in South Korea with different urban characteristics and the number of patients with circulatory diseases among residents exposed to air pollution. The residential area was selected as Eunpyeong-gu of Seoul Metropolitan City and the industrial area as Jung-gu of Incheon Metropolitan City. The evaluation period is between 2015 and 2016. The relevant data provide by the Korea governmental agency were analysed to derive the purpose of this study. It was confirmed that PM10, PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide among air pollutants had an increasing impact on the incidence rate of circulatory diseases. The PM2.5 was positively correlated with the incidence rate of all circulatory diseases in residential area (p

Energy-efficient and sustainable buildings have become a specialized research theme for energy planning and the green building industry. Rapidly increased energy consumption in the residential area...

In this paper, a hybrid PV/diesel/battery-based energy system is designed for supplying power to the residential area being fed with diesel generators during outrage hours. The proposed system is u...

With the Nationalist Government made Nanjing its capital city, 1930s’ Nanjing witnessed a boom of detached houses. These Western style garden houses were constructed in the first residential area f...

Aim of the present research is to reveal correlation between procedural knowledge of recycling and socioeconomic status of the primary school children. The present research was designed in correlat...

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effects of the Great East Japan Earthquake on hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP) in the Fukushima Prefecture.Methods: We used the results of the Fukushima Health Management Survey which targeted women who gave birth from 2011-2012. Pregnant women were divided into three groups according to their residential area during the disaster (affected, middle, and less-affected area), and four groups according to pregnancy trimester during the disaster (first, second, third trimester, or conception after the disaster). Adjusted odds ratio (aORs) for HDP of each residential area was calculated using logistic regression models, with pregnancy trimester during the disaster as references.Results: Overall, 8323 women participated in the study (affected area: 2207; middle area: 5183; and less-affected area: 933). For women living in the affected and middle areas in the third trimester, the disaster was a significant risk factor for HDP (aOR: 2.61, 1.02-6.66, aOR: 1.93, 1.10-3.40, respectively).Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to integrate patient residential areas and gestational age during the time of a disaster to estimate the risk of HDP. The third trimester of pregnancy at the time of the disaster was associated with HDP for the women living in the affected and middle areas. The knowledge of the data on disaster-related obstetrical complications can help obstetric care providers in a disaster area provide appropriate medical aid in an emergency.

Paris imaginaries have served as inspiration for the creation of themed environments for tourism consumption in several parts of the World. These imaginaries are both the origin and the result of a stereotyped image of Paris, strongly attached to the nineteenth century, to the ‘Belle Epoque’ and to ‘Romantic Paris’. From the hotel Paris Las Vegas, to the Ratatouille scenery at Disneyland Paris or to the residential area of Val d’Europe built near Disneyland Paris, Hausmannian Paris has indeed served as the main inspiration for Parisian simulacra all around the World. Our approach consists on of analyzing the « ingredients » of Paris stereotypes as they appear through two main Parisian tourism sceneries: Paris Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, and Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquee de Remy in Disneyland Paris. The paper concludes on a with the quasi-autonomisation of the Parisian tourism imaginaries which are eventually perpetuated through and thanks to the simulacra places built around the World. Th...

Urbanization has led to high-density living in many large modern cities like Singapore, which creates the challenge of reducing the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) and to achieve higher liveability in residential towns. In order to study thermal comfort in residential areas, a method that uses solar irradiance as the criterion to investigate thermal comfort is proposed. In this method, surface temperatures in urban areas are measured and the amount of solar irradiance reaching urban surfaces is predicted, and hence a correlation between incident solar irradiance on a surface and surface temperature may be made. Solar radiation exposure for four different neighbourhood designs in a given residential area is evaluated thereafter. Both solar short-wave and long-wave radiation in pedestrian areas for these designs are then predicted and used as the criteria to assess thermal comfort in these areas. UHI effects are also analysed based on the surface temperatures measured.

Northern cities in China are experiencing severe haze pollution. How to improve the urban ventilation capacity by improving the layout of urban space is a problem that China urgently needs to solve...

Airborne particulate matter PM2.5 was collected in an industrial, a low-density, and a high-density residential area of Lagos from December 2010 to November 2011, and elemental composition was dete...

A mathematical model was developed and applied to optimize many to one demand-responsive transit (DRT) systems using a zonal strategy. Such a DRT system provides service between a residential area ...

Over time, urban developments with increased densities have led to a decrease in private open space with a lack of public open space. Residential open spaces are missing in housing legislations as ...

This paper studies the determinants of interethnic relationships between non-migrants and migrants in Germany. A large body of literature documents that such relationships generate positive outcomes for individual migrants as well as non-migrants and the social cohesion of host-societies at large. Previous research tends to focus on the migrant side, thereby neglecting the factors enabling non-migrants’ interethnic relationships. Moreover, the existing research on non-migrants exclusively uses cross-sectional data for causal inferences. In contrast, this paper draws on longitudinal data, thus providing a more comprehensive and empirically rigorous picture of the determinants of interethnic relationships. The paper identifies possible determinants of non-migrants’ interethnic relationships, combining them into a single analytical framework that allows for gauging their relative importance. Moderately high migrant shares in the neighbourhood are found to be connected to more interethnic relationship...

In this article, we focus on child perspective methodology when co-researching well-being with children and young people. The paper explores how to produce and analyse data produced with children and young people, and how to further develop the method of co-researching with them? We combined visual and verbal methods by using photo elicitation interviews (N = 16) and drawing group discussions (N = 49) to study the subjective well-being of 2–16-year-olds in their residential areas. We found out that by combining two methods it is possible to achieve a wider view of children’s subjective well-being. However, we must be aware that well-being is a complex entity and that there are barriers to use child perspective methods. Co-researching requires situationality, reciprocity and the researcher’s willingness to hear the perspectives of children.

Aim: Following a group of young men with Chilean background living in a Swedish territorially stigmatised area, the author analyses how the actors create, recreate and use ethnicity and on what structural grounds such creation is carried out. This analysis is done to provide a complex and socially constructed view of ethnicity. Method: Between 2003 and 2015, the author followed a group of 16 young men, born in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The fieldwork included interviews and participant observations in places that were important to the young men; the residential area where they lived in Sweden and the area in Chile that some of them visited during the time of the research and where they have their roots. Findings and conclusion: During childhood and adolescence, ethnic identification became a means to group identification. However, ethnic identity practiced in the street culture and the illegal economy cannot be seen as essential, but rather as something that is performed and staged in differe...

Acquiring information about earthquake-damaged buildings is essential for effective rescue and restoration operations. Building damage must be assessed to provide detailed information regarding the location and proportion of damage to individual buildings. Automatic processing of damage assessment is also critical in hastening relief efforts. Therefore, we propose a new method for automatically extracting damaged building parts and quantitatively assessing the damage to individual buildings caused by earthquakes. The proposed method consists of four parts: generating differential information, differential seeded region growing DSRG, rule-based earthquake damage analysis, and accuracy assessment. First, differential information is automatically derived to extract the damage candidates. The damage candidates are then used as seed points for the region growing process to extract damaged building parts without requiring intervention by a human analyst. Then, designed automated extraction rules based on the condition of the collapsed or crushed buildings are used on the DSRG results. We applied the proposed method to both a residential area and a business area in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and evaluated its accuracy using a visual comparison, a location-based assessment, and a proportion-based assessment. The results of the visual comparison were similar to the reference data, exhibiting location accuracies of 86% and 89% for the chosen residential and business areas, respectively. An assessment of the damage proportion to individual buildings was performed, which showed that the proposed method achieved accuracies of 81% and 84% for the residential and business areas, respectively, and was highly correlated with the reference data. The proposed method can accurately estimate damaged building parts, which can accelerate rapid relief actions in earthquake-damaged areas. In addition, the proposed method promotes cost-effective relief actions because it filters out many intact buildings without omitting damaged buildings.

Extraction of rural residential areas from high spatial resolution remote sensing images is important for monitoring urban development and assessing disasters. In practice, plant rows in dry lands, field ridges and vegetable greenhouses around rural residential areas are easily confused in the images. To eliminate or reduce these confusions, an edge-suppressed points voting (ESPV) method is proposed. The rationale is that these nonrelated line-segment features have striking differences in perpendicular directional filtering responses. Comparison experiments indicate that ESPV can eliminate a lot of confusions and perform well in rural residential area extraction in accuracy aspect.

This study tries to explain how small-scale gold jewelry mills adapted themselves to Seoul′s existing urban tissues, which were the residential area in the CBD. There are four manufacturing process...

Doha, the capital city of the State of Qatar, has went through a fast growth in its economy and transformation of its built environment. Currently, major urban public transit systems are under construction. This paper looks at Souq Waqif station and its surrounding neighbourhood as one of the new transit hubs of Qatar. The district is located in the core of Doha and plays a significant role in the social, economic and particularly culture, as a way of life, of the people in Qatar. Within the context of Doha, there is an urge to implement transit villages, also defined as transit-oriented developments (TODs), in most of the existing centres along the rail network. A TOD is a mixed use commercial and residential area designed to maximise access to public transport and to encourage transit ridership. Therefore, it is critical to understand the benefits and impacts that TODs would invite in this context before investing large funds in developing them. The research empirically investigates the level at which transit villages can be implemented and also formed within the built environment of Doha. It is argued that this strategy and vision would encourage sustainable development by supporting better transport integration and land use. The aim is to assess and promote sustainable developments integration in the city of Doha through controlling increasing traffic and planning for transit villages. In order to develop a strategy for intervention, the existing TOD case study of Yeerongpilly in Australia was analysed, followed by the exploration of the conditions of the existing Souq Waqif area. The assessment of the Souq Waqif allowed judgments of the existing development to be made, which in turn leads to the draft of potential recommendations and suggestions for the formation and implementation of transit villages in Doha. This study was developed as part of a research project scheme (QUSG-CENG-AUP-14\15.2) funded from Qatar University, College of Engineering, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning (DAUP).

The aim of this study is to find out how village regeneration of Ewha Village, a place that has become a tourism attraction, affected its residential satisfaction and settlement. Thus, through surv...

It has been 20 years since Neil Smith published his classic The New Urban Frontier. In this paper we argue for the continuing relevance of his concepts by analysing the development of a new exclusive residential area (New Kvillebacken) in the Gustaf Dalen area, a re-purposed industrial site on the edge of the central city of Gothenburg, Sweden. We show how the early millennial plans to create a new city district—Alvstaden (River City)—involved a redrawing of the city map that changed the conditions for this former industrial area from symbolically peripheral (though geographically central) to attractive, but insufficiently exploited, central city land, thus producing a ‘rent gap’. In our reading of Neil Smith’s concept of the urban frontier, we emphasise the close relationship between the frontier mythology that rationalises redevelopment as inevitable through stigmatisation—and the movements of capital—how and where rent gaps are created. The urban frontier creates an analytical space to unravel how the ...

Advances in technology have not always been in favor of human beings and can lead to the emergence of “emerging contaminants” in human dwellings. These contaminants have taken a new form that is colorless, tasteless, and odorless and invisibly pollute the environment. Due to being intangible, their control and measurement are more difficult than the other types of pollutants. This study is an attempt to identify and assess the risks induced by high-voltage power lines crossing a residential area in southern Iran. To this end, the process of power transmission and the equipment used was initially identified. Afterward, the failure modes of the equipment resulting in the occurrence of risk were detected. In order to measure the strength of the magnetic field, the 3D EMF TESTER was used. The identified risks were scored based on the Environmental failure mode and effects analysis (EFMEA) parameters and a risk priority number (RPN) was assigned to each risk. In the final step, SPSS version 16 software...

Traditional villages in China show a pattern of ‘self-organization’. There is unplanned overall layout of space elements within the village landscape. Since the ‘Building a New Countryside’ policy, professionals have been active in design of the village landscape. The first step is to identify the distinguishing features of the traditional village landscape. This paper aims to identify the distinguishing features of village landscape compared with an urban residential area. The results indicate that abundant plants, shabby houses, monotonous colour, badly-maintained environment and closed space are the distinguishing features. A clean environment and high vegetation coverage are important.

This study addresses the conditional nature of the effectiveness of open-street CCTV (closed circuit television) by examining the differences in the effects (1) between daytime and nighttime crime, (2) between weekday and weekend crime, (3) across specific-crime offenses, and (4) depending on CCTV site characteristics, including location type (e.g. downtown, business district, school/university, or residential area) and the site’s base rate of crime. This study used HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) with 84 repeated measures across 34 camera locations in Cincinnati, Ohio, while also accounting for overlapping camera areas. Overall, the findings provided minimal evidence of the effectiveness of CCTV in reducing crime, though some types of crime were reduced in residential areas especially, and effectiveness was clearly interdependent with an area’s base rate of crime. Finally, WDQ analyses showed that diffusion of benefits occurred much more often than displacement in cases where there was a crime reducti...

This paper presents results on the characterisation of sediment build-up on roads and footpaths of a residential catchment in Dublin, Ireland. Compared to power and exponential functions, the linear function provided the best fit of the road sediment build-up in terms of total and size-fractionated loads. Significant road sediment build-up rates were recorded for the majority of size fractions on the three street zones sampled, however it was not possible to separate build-up rates between size fractions due to random variation in sediment loads. There was a significant difference in total road sediment build-up between two of the sampling zones, which was likely due to the proximity to a highly trafficked road. Build-up rates on footpaths could not be separated from random variation. Footpath sediment loads were between 6% and 22% of road sediment loads, with texture depth identified as an important difference between these surfaces.

This paper looks at the transformation of Milan's Chinatown in the years following the April 2007 revolts and how these changes have been affected by conflicting interests. More specifically, I look at the political economy of urban space and the role of Chinatown in the dynamics of urban restructuring in Milan. Milan's Chinatown today is neither a Chinese residential area, nor a tourist district; rather, it is an ethnic economic and commercial enclave in a gentrified area near the city centre, where businesses owned by Italians and foreign nationals coexist. Since the revolts, Chinatown has become an increasingly contested space characterised by the presence of conflicting agendas. On the one hand, Italian businesses, the autochthonous population and local authorities regard Chinatown as a ‘problem’ and have attempted to reclaim the area. On the other hand, Chinese retailers and workers claim the right to use this urban space and carry out their businesses.

Noise pollution associated with household electricity generators is an emerging environmental degradation in many developing nations. The aim of this study is to evaluate noise pollution from the use of household electricity generators in a high-density residential area. A survey was conducted with 302 households who participated as respondents, and the procedure adopted noise measurements and a descriptive survey. Measured noise levels were compared with levels allowed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The average noise level of 97.60 dB obtained exceeded the WHO value of 50 dB allowed for residential areas. There was a significant test difference (p

Soil metal contamination is of great concern due to these elements’ bioavailability, toxicity, and persistence. A total of forty soil samples were collected from mining, industrial, agricultural, and residential areas. Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) was employed to determine the concentrations of the heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn). Geoaccumulation indices and health risk assessment models were employed to evaluate the potential ecological and health implications. The concentrations of As, Cr, and Zn in the industrial zone were higher than the values from the other areas, whereas the concentrations of Cd, Cu, and Pb were highest in the residential area. The distribution of metals may be attributed to different anthropogenic sources. The soils in the industrial area were moderately contaminated by As. The noncarcinogenic risk due to metals was determined to be negligible in these areas, while a high carcinogenic risk was obtained in the industrial area. The priority control...

This study contributes to expanding the knowledge of the health of older persons living in Indonesia, a country with limited welfare benefits. The research employs a variable, ‘self-rated health’ (SRH), to investigate socio-cultural factors linked to the health of older Indonesians. The data presented in this study are based on fieldwork collected using a mixed-method approach. Sex-difference in SRH in older age is shown to be predominantly a result of enduring inequalities across the life course, manifested in cultural practices, education, employment and programs for health. An older person's status within the family is a significant determinant of SRH, but the direction of the relationship depends on the sex and ethnicity of the person. Other variables related to SRH are age, lifestyle, education, residential area and intergenerational transfers.

The aim of this study was to investigate the degree of satisfaction with housing and housing support for people with psychiatric disabilities in Sweden. A total of 370 residents, in supported housing and in ordinary housing with housing support, completed a new questionnaire and reported a high degree of overall satisfaction, but many of them wanted to move somewhere else. Differences were found between the two different types of housing concerning satisfaction with housing support, social life and available choices. Security and privacy, as well as other's influence on the choice of residential area and dwelling proved to be important predictors for satisfaction.

The severe drought during 2007, which came after a long period of below the average rainfall, had drastically reduced the water reserves of the surface and underground reservoirs. Therefore, in order to eliminate the dependency of the towns and tourist centers on annual rainfall and in view of the increasing water demand, the Government turned the attention to non-conventional water resources such as desalination. The city of Limassol, especially came across a huge potable water scarcity because of the aridity of Kouris Dam, and the growing population and expanding tourist industry that were placing extra pressure on the existing water supply. A significant water recourse for the city of Limassol was Garillis aquifer, which is located at the center of the residential area of the town, but at that time was not suitable for human consumption due to high levels of nitrates (NO3). The Cyprus water development department (WDD) awarded Nirosoft Ltd, in July 2008 the implementation of a cost-effective so...

Understanding how people perceive green spaces in their surrounding environments is important for planning of residential areas in a city. Green spaces provide various benefits to communities in the form of recreation, education, relaxation and aesthetic appeal. This Article reports on research on residents' opinions and understanding of green spaces and their access and use of green spaces. It also assesses perceptions regarding climate change and the value of urban green spaces in mitigating against climate change impacts and threats. The importance of urban green spaces in the context of climate change is well documented, specifically to relieve the impacts of increased temperatures and natural disaster events. It also plays a critical role in preserving biodiversity and improving air quality. While several studies focus on residents' perceptions of green spaces, very few (if any) examine differences between men and women. This Article disaggregates results from a resident survey conducted in t...

The paper examines attitudes of mutual tolerance as expressed by the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Jaffa, a mixed residential area in the city of Tel Aviv. More specifically, it focuses on the willingness of members of each group to share residential locations at different geographical scales (such as: the same housing unit, street, neighborhood, or the city as a whole). The survey's findings indicate, as expected, that Arabs and Jews alike tend to be more tolerant in this respect as the geographical scale increases and when actually residing in mixed neighborhoods, in comparison to those living in ethnically homogeneous residential areas. At the same time, it became evident that residents expressing intolerance are more sensitive to geographical scale when compared to residents expressing greater tolerance. Furthermore, sensitivity to scale was found to be more intense among the Jewish majority population, particularly among residents of homogeneous neighborhoods. We interpret those patterns of tolerance across geographical scale as expressing people's desire to control their daily encounters with the Other through practices of avoidance while simultaneously tending to preserve intergroup contacts for their functional benefits and social rewards.

Involuntary migration triggered by war has the capacity to generate substantial socioeconomic and environmental changes in cities of developing countries, resulting in aberrant alterations to land use and land cover LULC. This scenario has the potential to diminish the quality of life of inhabitants of a city and present administrative challenges for government and other officials. Gauging the scope and trajectory of urban LULC changes in a war-related environment is pivotal for urban and regional planning, the sustainability of natural resources, and information needs of policy makers. Scholarships that link remote sensing to social science mostly focus on a non-conflict environment, resulting in little or no information on the ramifications of conflict-induced forced migration on changes in LULC. As a result, the role of civil conflict-induced forced migration on the composition and configuration of urban landscape in developing countries remains elusive. This study employs a dense time stack of Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper TM images and a hybrid classification approach that integrates linear spectral unmixing and an ensemble decision-tree classifier to characterize LULC in a primate city and two lower-ranked cities in Sierra Leone. The study examined three time-steps which span 1986–1991, 1991–2002, and 2002–2010 with the overarching goal of elucidating changes in LULC conditioned by civil conflict. Image classification accuracy overall accuracy ranged between 84.0% and 90.2%. The study demonstrated that civil conflict has the capacity to trigger notable growth in urban agricultural land 37.4% in a primate city, while the expansion of residential 112.7% and industrial/commercial 18.7% lands is more prominent in a lower-ranked city. The study further revealed that population expansion does not necessarily result in significant growth in residential area in a primate city that has experienced civil conflict.

This study investigates individual and collective impacts of tourism on the residents of Hat Yai City Municipality as well as their perceptions of tourism development in their residential area through a survey conducted among a sample of residents living in 47 communities within Hat Yai City Municipality. Individual impacts are the impacts that satisfy individual needs, while collective impacts are the impacts that meet communal needs. The results of data analysis reveal that residents who benefit from tourism (individually or collectively) perceive tourism more positively than those who do not benefit from it. Although the study finds that residents are a little more concerned about how they, as individuals rather than as a collective group of community, are affected by tourism, it is unable to conclude which one of these impact categories is more influential in forming residents’ attitudes.

The Barcelona Gothic Quarter was re-constructed in the twentieth century. Although theoretically historic monuments refer back to past epochs, in many cases they were produced recently. In Barcelona, medieval buildings were restored in a gothic style, while other historic buildings and facades were moved stone-by-stone into the area and ordinary residential houses were removed and replaced by seemingly historic buildings. As a result, the new Gothic Quarter seems to be a space which is completely medieval but was actually re-built between 1927 and 1970. This re-creation was meant both as an example of the invention of tradition in the context of Catalan nationalism and as a way to promote the city through spectacular historic monuments, irrespective of whether they were materially authentic. In this context, this article focuses on the second phase of this process, in the commoditisation of heritage alongside city marketing, stressing the relationship between the touristic promotion and the production of urban space. It also examines the principal reconstructions in the neighbourhood and how this process of changing a residential area into a space for tourist consumption were the first signs of gentrification in Barcelona.

This study surveyed the attitudes of local residents living in an urban area in Japan toward stray cats. An anonymous questionnaire asked local residents (359 houses) about their attitudes toward stray cats. Responses were received from126 houses (35%). Answers about nuisance, respondents' actions, and actions to be taken with regard to stray cats did not differ by place or type of residence of respondents. More than one third (36.7 ± 16.6%) of the respondents answered that the "bad smell of the feces and urine" was a nuisance. Respondents who lived in detached houses tended to like cats compared with those who lived in condominiums. Respondents who liked cats took care of cats more frequently, whereas those who disliked cats chased cats away and prevented their intrusion into their houses and land. However, it is noteworthy that one third or more (minimum value: 37.8%) of respondents of all kinds answered that neutering is one effective way to suppress the population of stray cats.

In Malaysia, the endemic level of dengue fever (DF) has already changed morbidity indicators, and the magnitude of these incidences in the last few years has surpassed the incidences of all other diseases of compulsory notification. The reasons for the dramatic emergence of DF are complex and not well understood. There are many factors that contribute to the epidemiological conditions that favour viral transmission by the main mosquito vector. This study, therefore, is filling this gap by analysing the impact of dengue incidence at a local (Subang Jaya) scale using environmental factors. Meteorological data and land-use pattern were consolidated using geographic information system (GIS) and its components as an analytical tool. We have shown that weather variables (relative humidity, temperature and precipitation) have significant correlation with DF incidence with seasonal variation. Besides land-use pattern, DF incidence shows the higher distribution in the residential area, followed by commercial and i...

Since the roll out of no cost antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in health centers in Zambia in 2004, the number of Zambians receiving treatment has substantially increased. While research has addressed adult responses to ARVs in Zambia and elsewhere, there is little known about how children experience and respond to the presence of treatment in their communities and households. The increasing acknowledgment that children provide care and treatment support to people with HIV in their households demands a better understanding of children's knowledge of HIV and ARVs. To examine children's ARV knowledge, this article focuses on three children's workshops carried out with 38 children ages 8-12, who participated in a yearlong ethnographic study in 2007 and 2008. All children lived in a low-income and heavily HIV-affected residential area in Lusaka, and many children lived with parents or guardians who had HIV. Findings suggest that, when the children discussed ARVs, they made two intersecting points: (1) local conditions make living with HIV, even while on antiretroviral therapy (ART), difficult; and (2) children face particular challenges, concerns, and insecurities when caring for and living with the ill. Children's discussions about ARVs offer a deeper understanding of experiences of HIV and childhood in a disproportionately HIV-affected and low-resource area. Such insights might productively inform future programming and research aimed at assisting children and adults.

Shanghai, the economic centre of China, is under increasing pressures of potable water shortage, urban flooding and surface water pollution by urbanization. As one of the best countermeasures, rainwater utilization plays a considerably important role in the alleviation of these issues. A four-step method of cost-effectiveness-based multi-criteria optimization (CEMCO), which integrates the advantages of monitoring data, monetary-based techniques and stakeholder preferences, was proposed for sustainable rainwater utilization. The first rainwater utilization system in the urban residential area of Shanghai was taken as a case study, and eight alternatives to the existing system were proposed. The results of the study showed that the net present value and the dynamic payback period of the optimized system during the 15-year life cycle were 407.4 thousand CNY (ChiNa Yuan) and 8.26 years, respectively. The results also indicated that rainwater utilization can improve the sustainability of cities when different ...

A common definition of architectural qualities in general and the values of the qualities in particular can differ significantly in the understanding of different operators in the building construction sector. One platform to define and investigate architectural qualities is to use a property management perspective and focus on the tenants and their individual well-being in the accommodation. In this study, architectural qualities were investigated in three residential areas with multi-family buildings in Sweden: Backa Rod, Hogsbohojd and Nybodahojden. The data were collected from interviews with building industry people and the residential tenants. Three architectural qualities became the foundation for the interviews: properties and characteristics of the surroundings, usage flexibility within the apartment, the patina and mellowness of building components. The investigation of collected data was inspired by a method called grounded theory (GT). In this study, GT was used to discover and develop a theory of architectural caring, where architectural qualities have a bearing on the nature of a residential area. We found that a central focus in the residential property management perspective is architectural caring. To care for the houses, materials, construction and the neighbourhood environment is to care for the residents and give them a sense of belonging.

This Article examines generational shifts in possibilities for the development of women's positive personhood in Manenberg. In this poor residential area on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, the effects of democratisation have been contradictory and generationally uneven for women. Building on established theories of female ordentlikheid (respectability), supplemented by detailed ethnographic research, I suggest that historical structural supports for poor, Coloured women of the area – work and welfare – enabled them to become central and respected figures in their homes and communities. This has changed in the post-apartheid era as macro-political economic shifts have largely eroded, or removed, these resources that were critical for women in conditions of relative deprivation. Historical supports continue – to some degree – to benefit the older women who utilised them adeptly in the past; however, teenage girls no longer have a clear path to becoming women of social standing. Consequent...

This article explores the phenomenon of language shift and maintenance in the Greek community of Johannesburg, which is the largest Greek community in South Africa. The main aim of the study is to provide an account of the factors which assist in maintaining the Greek language which is under pressure from English, the dominant official language in South Africa. In contrast to the many studies conducted in the United States and Australia on the Greek community, no previous sociolinguistic studies have been done on the Greek community in South Africa. The main factors which were identified as playing an important role in the maintenance of Greek are education, religion, family, language loyalty and socio-cultural activities; and to a lesser extent, media and residential area. Despite a marked shift towards English in the younger generation, the future of Greek in South Africa may be one of relatively stable bilingualism, provided that current trends continue.

Photovoltaic (PV) systems have rapidly proliferated in Japan. One resulting problem is that PV output not consumed by residences is fed to distribution lines, significantly increasing voltage in the distribution system. Power conditioning systems must therefore suppress PV output to maintain appropriate voltage levels. This paper proposes a control method for diverting reverse power flow into storage batteries, avoiding the need for suppression. Another problem is that batteries are expensive, making it necessary to reduce total battery capacity. This paper therefore identifies residences where storage batteries should be introduced by calculating a suitability evaluation coefficient. This allows allocation of a priority sequence for introducing batteries into highly ranked residences. The authors furthermore begin investigation of battery control methods for effective suppression of battery output.

This paper examines the transformation of open space and how it compares to older residential development. A study has been conducted at the residential level because neighbourhoods have been a basic unit of city design throughout the recent history of urban settlements. Furthermore, the neighbourhood is a more humanly relevant scale of urban development. The method adopted for this research was a comparative urbanism by comparing old and new residential areas. This study found that incremental redevelopment of old residential areas through both re-subdivision and intensification of development on existing allotments has resulted in a progressive loss of open space. However, the study also confirmed that the current supplies of open space across all the study areas (old and new residential areas) are relatively similar. The main difference between the open space supply in older and newer residential areas comes down to the ownership of land (i.e. the proportion of public versus private open space). The study demonstrated that older residential areas with large allotments have experienced a significant loss of private open space - originally from 50%, to current levels of 23-30%. The paper concludes that there is a need for a holistic approach to the provision of public and private open spaces to improve the quality of life at a residential level. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, with a magnitude of 9.0, broke most of the sea embankment and coastal vegetation belt and caused catastrophic damage to people and buildings in the Tohoku and Kanto regions of Japan. A field survey was conducted to elucidate the damage to river embankments and their hinterlands (residential area) by tsunami propagation in river channels and overtopping of embankments. Two, three, and four rivers in Iwate Pref., Miyagi Pref., and the Kanto region, respectively, were selected for the field investigation. In the hinterlands, the tsunami came from two directions, coast and river, and the situation, including the evacuation of people, became complex. Therefore, it is necessary to identify locations of river embankments that can be easily overtopped by a tsunami in different tsunami conditions. Tsunami inundation patterns were classified by the river capacity and whether a river or sea embankment was breached or not. This will provide usefu...

To assess ambient air quality at the wider area of a mining-industrial facility in Chalkidiki, Greece, the particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm (PM(10)) and its content in characteristic elements, i.e., As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn were monitored for a period of three years (2008-2010). Gravimetric air samplers were employed for the particulate matter sampling at three sampling stations located in the immediate vicinity of the industrial facility and at a neighbouring residential site. Monitoring data indicated that the 3-year median PM(10) concentrations were 23.3 μg/m(3) at the residential site close to the facility and 28.7 μg/m(3) at the site within the facility indicating a minimal influence from the industrial activities to the air quality of the neighbouring residential area. Both annual average and median PM(10) concentration levels were below the indicative European standards, whereas similar spatial and temporal variation was observed for the PM(10) constituents. The average Pb concentrations measured for the three sampling sites were 0.2, 0.146 and 0.174 μg/m(3) respectively, well below the indicative limit of 0.5 μg/m(3). The quantitative and qualitative comparison of PM(10) concentrations and its elemental constituent for the three sampling stations did not indicate any direct influence of the mining-industrial activities to the air quality of the Stratoni residential area.

Map Ta Phut industrial area (MA) is the largest industrial complex in Thailand. There has been concern about many air pollutants over this area. Air quality management for the area is known to be difficult, due to lack of understanding of how emissions from different sources or sectors (e.g., industrial, power plant, transportation, and residential) contribute to air quality degradation in the area. In this study, a dispersion study of NO2 and SO2 was conducted using the AERMOD model. The area-specific emission inventories of NOx and SO2 were prepared, including both stack and nonstack sources, and divided into 11 emission groups. Annual simulations were performed for the year 2006. Modeled concentrations were evaluated with observations. Underestimation of both pollutants was Jbund, and stack emission estimates were scaled to improve the modeled results before quantifying relative roles of individual emission groups to ambient concentration overfour selected impacted areas (two are residential and the others are highly industrialized). Two concentration measures (i.e., annual average area-wide concentration or AC, and area-wide robust highest concentration or AR) were used to aggregately represent mean and high-end concentrations Jbfor each individual area, respectively. For AC-NO2, on-road mobile emissions were found to be the largest contributor in the two residential areas (36-38% of total AC-NO2), while petrochemical-industry emissions play the most important role in the two industrialized areas (34-51%). For AR-NO2, biomass burning has the most influence in all impacted areas (>90%) exceptJor one residential area where on-road mobile is the largest (75%). For AC-SO2, the petrochemical industry contributes most in all impacted areas (38-56%). For AR-SO2, the results vary. Since the petrochemical industry was often identified as the major contributor despite not being the largest emitter, air quality workers should pay special attention to this emission group when managing air quality for the MA.

City and place marketing is highly recognized in urban planning and management. As one of the brand marketing resources, the brand and brand equity of residential areas draws considerable a...

When Ann Perkins and Leslie Knope meet, it is because of a yawning gap. Literally, the gap is an abandoned construction zone in a residential area that has left a dangerous pit in the neighborhood. Symbolically, it is the deep chasm separating citizens from their government. Leslie and Ann, characters in the popular NBC comedy Parks and Recreation, exemplify a practitioner citizen relationship dynamic not typically examined in either mainstream or academic channels. Their friendship is a codified example of reflexivity, a model for healing the wounds of bureaucrat bashing, and an opportunity to examine citizen engagement through the lens of television satire.