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The failure of experts and lay people to understand each other has been fueling conflict around the environmental clean-up of the many sites in the United States that are contaminated by the nuclear weapons program. This mutual distrust was exacerbated by the culture of secrecy surrounding the atomic weapons program during World War II, and later by the innate culture of bureaucracy in the federal agencies that have sprung up since then. A prime example of this problem can be found in the regulation of chronic long-term risk from low-level radiation exposure affecting communities in Missouri's North St. Louis County. This case study illuminates this divide, and illustrates opportunities to close it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the prevalence of high air pollution levels in Beijing, China. Topics discussed include failure of the Chinese government's efforts to clean the air since the 2008 Olympic games which was organized in the city, the accumulation of a murky kong qi wu ran smog and its health impacts and the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the region. Topics including impact of industrialization on the environment in China and the country's air pollution control approaches are discussed.

The article discusses the devastation caused in Houston, Texas from Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 and outlines the efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and volunteers to provide relief and rebuild the area. The efforts of the volunteers discussed include provision of temporary housing to the victims and development of mobile home parks. Details on the Oak Homes Park refurbished mobile home park are provided.

A combination of the urban heat island effect and a rising temperature baseline resulting from global climate change inequitably impacts socially vulnerable populations residing in urban areas. This article examines racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in the spatial distribution of exposure to urban heat in the context of climate justice and residential segregation in the U.S. An urban heat risk index (UHRI) is calculated from measures of land surface temperature, structural density, and vegetation abundance, acquired from summer 2010 remote sensing imagery. Twenty of the largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the U.S. are selected and analysed using census tract-level socio-demographic data from the U.S. Census. Multilevel modelling is utilised to examine the statistical associations between urban heat, minority status, socioeconomic disadvantage, and MSA-level segregation of racial/ethnic minority groups. Variables representing socioeconomic status (i.e. household income, home ownership, and education level) are consistently and significantly associated with greater urban heat exposure. Minority status and measures of segregation have a significant but varied relationship with urban heat exposure, indicating that there are inconsistent associations with urban heat due to differing social geographies. Urban heat and social vulnerability present a varying landscape of thermal inequity in different metropolitan areas, associated in many cases with residential segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two important environmental challenges for many cities are to prevent flooding after heavy rain, and to minimize warming due to the urban heat island effect. There is a close link between these two phenomena, as rainfall intensity increases with rising air temperature. The two problems of flood management and urban warming therefore need to be tackled together. In particular, management strategies that contribute to reducing urban temperatures should be recognized as a means of reducing flood risk, especially in regions prone to intense rainfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a series of photographs taken in May 1992 during a trip to the province of Chelyabinsk by a group of 23 activists and professionals, and a conference arranged by Russian environmentalists to call attention to the damage caused by nearly 50 years of bomb work. Providing information on monitoring the environment and pushing bureaucracy to clean up the mess; Wastes dumped in the area; Chelyabinsk people becoming more assertive; History of the area; Contradictions.

Legacies of social and environmental injustices can leave an imprint on the present and constrain transitions for more sustainable futures. In this article, we ask this question: What is the relationship of environmental inequality and histories of segregation? The answer for Baltimore is complex, where past practices of de jure and de facto segregation have created social and environmental legacies that persist on the landscape today. To answer this question, we examine the interactions among past and current environmental injustices in Baltimore from the late 1880s to the present using nearly twenty years of social and environmental justice research from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a long-term social–ecological research project. Our research demonstrates that patterns and procedures in the city's early history of formal and informal segregation, followed by “redlining” in the 1930s, have left indelible patterns of social and environmental inequalities. These patterns are manifest in the distribution of environmental disamenities such as polluting industries, urban heat islands, and vulnerability to flooding, and they are also evident in the distribution of environmental amenities such as parks and trees. Further, our work shows how these legacies are complicated by changing perceptions of what counts as an environmental disamenity and amenity. Ultimately, we argue that the interactions among historical patterns, processes, and procedures over the long term are crucial for understanding environmental injustices of the past and present and for constructing sustainable cities for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental justice sheds light on the distributive and procedural aspects of planning and decision-making. We examined the challenges arising from the perspective of environmental justice on multi-level and participatory environmental governance by exploring the governance of aquatic environments in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. We found three main challenges and potential responses to them. First, even though most of Helsinki’s shoreline is free and/or accessible by road and accordingly used actively by people for recreational purposes, many parts of the shoreline are perceived as inaccessible, reflecting a need to combinefactual and perceived accessibility of aquatic environmentsin detail during the planning processes and to discuss reasons for possible discrepancies between these two. Second, there was a remarkable seasonal variation in the use of aquatic environments, so more attention should be paid tosocial-demographic factors explaining the distribution of the use of urban nature. Third, it seems to be difficult to capture the variety of perceptions of people and to integrate them into planning and decision-making processes even on a local scale, and this challenge is likely even more pronounced on higher levels of planning and governance. Thus, betterintegration of regional and local-scale planning procedures should be encouraged. Building on these observations, we conclude that integration of procedural and distributive environmental justice into the practices of the governance of aquatic environments could remarkably decrease unwanted trade-offs and potential conflicts in their use and management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ingesting waters holding high levels of natural occurring radioactive element like Radon would contribute to increase in the effective dose received by people followed by an increased prevalence of cancer. The current study is an attempt to describe the extent of contribution of222Rn to natural background radiation and the resultant effective dose to public of different age groups. In order to do so, 65 groundwater samples from selected parts of Bangalore city were collected and analyzed for radon activity using RAD7 radon monitor coupled with RAD H2O accessories. The radon activity was in the range of 3.05–696 Bq/L (mean: 91.39 Bq/L) and 92.31% of the groundwater samples recorded elevated radon concentration above the United States environmental protection agency (USEPA's) Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) value of 300 pCi/L, corresponding to 11.1 Bq/L. The mean annual effective dose contribution of people falling under different age groups (viz., infants, children, teens: males and females, adults: males and females, pregnant and lactating women) due to ingestion of water-borne222Rn ranged from 0.082 to 0.444 mSv/y and was found to be higher in all the age groups of males compared to respective female age groups, but well within the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) and World Health Organization (WHO) proposed limit of 1 mSv/y. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have become a major type of persistent organic pollutant (POPs) in the world. To well understand the occurrence, spatial distribution and source apportionment of 16 PAHs in different media in Beijing, a comprehensive study was conducted based on 337 obtained and subsequently selected samples in four specific media, including soil, road dust, surface water and atmosphere covering sampling time spanning from 2005 to 2014. Mean concentrations of Σ16 PAHs in soils (878.5 μg/kg) decreased from inner city to exterior areas with different land uses decreased in the order of industrial estate (2510 μg/kg)>educational area (1331 μg/kg)>Park (783 μg/kg)>cultivated (650 μg/kg)>roadside (583 μg/kg)>residential (568 μg/kg)>green area (478 μg/kg)>forest area (125 μg/kg). Meanwhile, PAHs concentrations in branch roads were slightly higher than trunk roads and mainly concentrated in urban areas (1136 μg/kg). Affected by industrial and residential areas, PAHs concentrations in downstream surface rivers were much higher than upstream surface rivers (475 ng/L). Due to strong mobility, PAHs concentrations in atmosphere were not equally distributed around the study area (157.59 ng/m3). The result of source apportionment determined by diagnostic ratios method indicated PAHs in multiple media in Beijing are mainly from coal and biomass combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the effects of a significant flood event on levels of property crime across 400 neighborhoods in a capital city in Australia. It considers the degree to which postflood property crime deviates from expected trends in neighborhoods characterized by different sociodemographic profiles. After conducting time series analysis of property crime at the city level, we classify neighborhoods by disaster vulnerability and employ time series analyses to examine postflood property crime trends, on average, in flooded and nonflooded neighborhoods in each cluster. Though results of the citywide analysis suggest that the flood was associated with significant increases in property crime across Brisbane, closer examination indicated that citywide increases were driven by property crime trends in nonflooded, affluent neighborhoods. The results of our research suggest that in affluent Brisbane neighborhoods, disaster-related property damage in flooded neighborhoods may have led to displacement of property crime into nonaffected areas where target availability remained high. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public transportation automatic fare collection (AFC) systems are able to continuously record large amounts of passenger travel information, providing massive, low-cost data for research on regulations pertaining to public transport. These data can be used not only to analyze characteristics of passengers’ trips but also to evaluate transport policies that promote a travel mode shift and emission reduction. In this study, models combining card, survey, and geographic information systems (GIS) data are established with a research focus on the private driving restriction policies being implemented in an ever-increasing number of cities. The study aims to evaluate the impact of these policies on the travel mode shift, as well as relevant carbon emission reductions. The private driving restriction policy implemented in Beijing is taken as an example. The impact of the restriction policy on the travel mode shift from cars to subways is analyzed through a model based on metro AFC data. The routing paths of these passengers are also analyzed based on the GIS method and on survey data, while associated carbon emission reductions are estimated. The analysis method used in this study can provide reference for the application of big data in evaluating transport policies. Implications: Motor vehicles have become the most prevalent source of emissions and subsequently air pollution within Chinese cities. The evaluation of the effects of driving restriction policies on the travel mode shift and vehicle emissions will be useful for other cities in the future. Transport big data, playing an important support role in estimating the travel mode shift and emission reduction considered, can help related departments to estimate the effects of traffic jam alleviation and environment improvement before the implementation of these restriction policies and provide a reference for relevant decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We used 39 morphological and anatomical needle traits in the biometric comparisonsAbies nebrodensiswithA. albaandA. cephalonica. The multivariate analyses were utilised and a closer relationship ofA. nebrodensistoA. cephalonicathan toA. albawas detected, in contrast to what has been shown for cone characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An assessment of the natural value of some extensively managed agroecosystems in Latium region (central Italy) has been made, through the collection of floristic and phytosociological data and the development of new indices (Floristic Naturalness Index – FNI and a set of synthetic indices). The survey allowed the evaluation of the study areas as High Natural Value Farmland areas. In a GIS environment, a mapping of the naturalness levels was then carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter below 10 μm (PM10) forecasting is difficult because of the uncertainties in describing the emission and meteorological fields. This paper proposed a wavelet-ARMA/ARIMA model to forecast the short-term series of the PM10concentrations. It was evaluated by experiments using a 10-year data set of daily PM10concentrations from 4 stations located in Taiyuan, China. The results indicated the following: (1) PM10concentrations of Taiyuan had a decreasing trend during 2005 to 2012 but increased in 2013. PM10concentrations had an obvious seasonal fluctuation related to coal-fired heating in winter and early spring. (2) Spatial differences among the four stations showed that the PM10concentrations in industrial and heavily trafficked areas were higher than those in residential and suburb areas. (3) Wavelet analysis revealed that the trend variation and the changes of the PM10concentration of Taiyuan were complicated. (4) The proposed wavelet-ARIMA model could be efficiently and successfully applied to the PM10forecasting field. Compared with the traditional ARMA/ARIMA methods, this wavelet-ARMA/ARIMA method could effectively reduce the forecasting error, improve the prediction accuracy, and realize multiple-time-scale prediction. Implications: Wavelet analysis can filter noisy signals and identify the variation trend and the fluctuation of the PM10time-series data. Wavelet decomposition and reconstruction reduce the nonstationarity of the PM10time-series data, and thus improve the accuracy of the prediction. This paper proposed a wavelet-ARMA/ARIMA model to forecast the PM10time series. Compared with the traditional ARMA/ARIMA method, this wavelet-ARMA/ARIMA method could effectively reduce the forecasting error, improve the prediction accuracy, and realize multiple-time-scale prediction. The proposed model could be efficiently and successfully applied to the PM10forecasting field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To identify the characteristics of air pollutants and factors attributing to the formation of haze in Wuhan, this study analyzed the hourly observations of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, O3, and CO) from March 1, 2013, to February 28, 2014, and used hybrid receptor models for a case study. The results showed that the annual average concentrations for PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, O3, and CO during the whole period were 89.6 μg m−3, 134.9 μg m−3, 54.9 μg m−3, 32.4 μg m−3, 62.3 μg m−3, and 1.1 mg m−3, respectively. The monthly variations revealed that the peak values of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, and CO occurred in December because of increased local emissions and severe weather conditions, while the lowest values occurred in July mainly due to larger precipitation. The maximum O3concentrations occurred in warm seasons from May to August, which may be partly due to the high temperature and solar radiation. Diurnal analysis showed that hourly PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO concentrations had two ascending stages accompanying by the two traffic peaks. However, the O3concentration variations were different with the highest concentration in the afternoon. A case study utilizing hybrid receptor models showed the significant impact of regional transport on the haze formation in Wuhan and revealed that the mainly potential polluted sources were located in the north and south of Wuhan, such as Baoding and Handan in Hebei province, and Changsha in Hunan province.Implications: Wuhan city requires a 5% reduction of the annual mean of PM2.5concentration by the end of 2017. In order to accomplish this goal, Wuhan has adopted some measures to improve its air quality. This work has determined the main pollution sources that affect the formation of haze in Wuhan by transport. We showed that apart from the local emissions, north and south of Wuhan were the potential sources contributing to the high PM2.5concentrations in Wuhan, such as Baoding and Handan in Hebei province, Zhumadian and Jiaozuo in Henan province, and Changsha and Zhuzhou in Hunan province. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The human dimensions of visibility degradation remain under-researched academically. Based on Zube and Sell'sProcess Model of the Perception of, and Response to, Environmental Change, a questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong between 5 June 2012 and 26 January 2013 (n= 1,203). The respondents’ perceptions towards visibility degradation were collected. The results show that respondents were moderately knowledgeable to visibility degradation, perceiving the problem as anthropogenic and unfavorable and identifying the fight against the degradation as an important environmental issue. It is further deduced that the respondents’ physical and sociocultural attributes, and the way they gain information about visibility degradation, can affect their perceptions of visibility degradation. The results reveal that improving information channels can positively promote human sensitivity to and understanding of visibility degradation in order to mitigate it. Yet, any attempts to educate the lay public should not assume the existence of a homogenous community of like-minded people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Detailed chemical characterization of exhaust particles from 23 individual city buses was performed in Helsinki, Finland. Investigated buses represented different technologies in terms of engines, exhaust after-treatment systems (e.g., diesel particulate filter, selective catalytic reduction, and three-way catalyst) and fuels (diesel, diesel-electric (hybrid), ethanol, and compressed natural gas). Regarding emission standards, the buses operated at EURO III, EURO IV, and EEV (enhanced environmentally friendly vehicle) emission levels. The chemical composition of exhaust particles was determined by using a soot particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SP-AMS). Based on the SP-AMS results, the bus emission particles were dominated by organics and refractory black carbon (rBC). The mass spectra of organics consisted mostly of hydrocarbon fragments (54–86% of total organics), the pattern of hydrocarbon fragments being rather similar regardless of the bus type. Regarding oxygenated organic fragments, ethanol-fueled buses had unique mass-to-charge ratios (m/z) of 45, 73, 87, and 89 (mass fragments of C2H5O+, C3H5O2+, C4H7O2+, and C4H9O2+, respectively) that were not detected for the other bus types at the same level. For rBC, there was a small difference in the ratio of C4+and C5+to C3+for different bus types but also for the individual buses of the same type. In addition to organics and rBC, the presence of trace metals in the bus emission particles was investigated. Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon occurring within urban areas or city-clusters is increasingly becoming a severe problem in the urbanization process. Previous research mainly focusing on static UHI modeled at fixed time instants is not capable to track the evolutionary process of the UHIs in both time and space domains. This research designs an object-oriented dynamic model to reconstruct the evolutionary process of UHIs. Each UHI is modeled as a spatiotemporal field-object with its own life-cycle. The dynamic behavior of an UHI is defined by a series of filiations (e.g. expansion and contraction). The model was implemented in an object-relational database and applied to air temperature data collected from weather stations in hourly basis over 7 days. The behaviors of UHI were extracted from the data. Results suggest that the model can effectively identify different behaviors and status of UHIs, and reveal the spatiotemporal behavior of each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disparate residential hazard exposures based on disadvantaged gender status (e.g., among female-headed households) have been documented in the distributive environmental justice literature, yet no published studies have examined whether disproportionate environmental risks exist based on minority sexual orientation. To address this gap, we use data from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey, and the Environmental Protection Agency at the 2010 census tract level to examine the spatial relationships between same-sex partner households and cumulative cancer risk from exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) emitted by all ambient emission sources in Greater Houston (Texas). Findings from generalized estimating equation analyses demonstrate that increased cancer risks from HAPs are significantly associated with neighborhoods having relatively high concentrations of resident same-sex partner households, adjusting for geographic clustering and variables known to influence risk (i.e., race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, renter status, income inequality, and population density). HAP exposures are distributed differently, however, for same-sex male versus samesex female partner households. Neighborhoods with relatively high proportions of same-sex male partner households are associated with significantly greater exposure to cancer-causing HAPs, whereas those with high proportions of same-sex female partner households are associated with less exposure. This study provides initial empirical documentation of a previously unstudied pattern and infuses current theoretical understanding of environmental inequality formation with knowledge emanating from the sexualities and space literature. Practically, results suggest that other documented health risks experienced in gay neighborhoods could be compounded by disparate health risks associated with harmful exposures to air toxics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we suggest that vegetation series is a useful conceptual tool to identify a clear level of biodiversity of land systems among the many possible logical levels. The suggestion is supported by the results of a case study carried out for the province of Almeria (Spain) using the watersheds as operational geographic units. The application of standard correlation analysis, simple and partial, the Mantel’s test, and the cluster analysis has shown that α and β vegetation diversities, based on vegetation series, are significantly predictive with respect to environmental heterogeneity expressed by pedodiversity, lithodiversity, and some parameters of digital elevation model. Being a product of the Braun Blanquet’s floristic approach, vegetation series could be the key to enter into vegetation databases for biodiversity analysis of land systems at many other levels of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Geopolitics should be understood as a broader subject than the usual association ‘nation-states + international relations + military power + geographical conditions’ suggests. Actually, ‘geopolitics’ is nothing but an explicitly political approach to social–spatial analysis, even if we pragmatically reserve the term for situations in which we face state interventions and strategies aiming at socio-spatial control and/or expanding political influence. Similar to the Copenhagen School’s ‘wider agenda’ for security studies, I think it is useful to develop a ‘wider agenda’ for the critique of geopolitics—for instance, one that clearly incorporates some urban problems as relevant subjects. ‘Eco-geopolitics’ refers to the governmentalisation of ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’, using the ‘environmental protection’ and often even the ‘environmental security’ discourse as a tool for socio-spatial control. Within the framework of this governmentalisation, there are increasing connections between local-level expressions of socio-spatial control in the name of ‘environmental protection’ and national and global agents and agendas. More concretely, ‘urban eco-geopolitics’ is above all related to strategies of socio-spatial control apparently designed to prevent people from ‘degrading the environment’, though in fact they have several social and spatial implications. Rio de Janeiro is here nothing but an illustration of a very general phenomenon. Nonetheless, Rio is a ‘privileged laboratory’ due to an almost unique conjunction of factors: (a) a proverbial ‘abundance of nature’ (i.e. a huge national park inside the heart of the metropolis); (b) a similarly proverbial socio-spatial inequality (hundreds offavelascoexist with elite neighbourhoods in the context of a complex segregation pattern that also includes a huge periphery and an extreme socio-spatial stigmatisation); (c) a ‘modernising drive’ that has significantly changed Rio’s urban space several times since the beginning of the 20th century, being recently represented by the direct or indirect effects of the ‘sporting mega-events fever’ that has dominated Rio’s city marketing since the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a prevalent condition in adults aged ≥40 years characterized by progressive airflow limitation associated with chronic inflammatory response to noxious particles in the airways and lungs. Smoking, genetics, air pollution, nutrition and other factors may influence COPD development. Most hospitalizations and deaths for COPD are caused by its acute exacerbations, which greatly affect the health and quality of life of COPD patients and pose a high burden on health services. The aims of this project were to identify trends, geographic patterns and risk factors for COPD exacerbations, as revealed by hospitalizations and deaths, in the Basque Country, Spain, over a period of 12 years (2000–2011). Hospitalization and mortality rates for COPD were 262 and 18 per 100,000 population, respectively, with clusters around the biggest cities. Hospital mortality was 7.4%. Most hospitalized patients were male (77.4%) and accounted for 72.1% of hospital mortality. Hospitalizations decreased during the study period, except for 50–64 year-old women, peaking significantly. Using a multivariate modeling approach it was shown that hospitalizations were positively correlated with increased atmospheric concentrations of NO2, CO, PM10, and SO2, and increased influenza incidence, but were negatively associated with increased temperatures and atmospheric O3concentration. COPD exacerbations decreased in the Basque Country during 2000–2011, but not among 50–64-year-old women, reflecting the high smoking prevalence among Spanish women during the 1970–1990s. The main metropolitan areas were those with the highest risk for COPD exacerbations, calling attention to the role of heavy car traffic. Influenza virus, cold temperatures, and increased atmospheric NO2, CO, PM10, and SO2(but decreased O3) concentrations were identified as potential contributors to the burden of COPD exacerbations in the community. These findings are important for both the understanding of the disease process and in providing potential targets for COPD-reducing initiatives and new avenues for research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urban living environments are known to influence human well-being and health. The literature on environmental equity focuses especially on the distribution of nuisances and resources, which, because of the unequal spatial distribution of different social groups, leads to an increased exposure to risks or to less access to beneficial elements for certain populations. Little work has been done on the multidimensionality of different environmental burdens and the lack of resources in some urban environments. This article has two main objectives. The first objective is to construct an environmental equity index that takes into consideration seven components of the urban environment (traffic-related pollutants, proximity to major roads and highways, vegetation, access to parks, access to supermarkets, and the urban heat island effect). The second objective is to determine whether groups vulnerable to different nuisances—namely, individuals under fifteen years old and the elderly—and those who tend to be located in the most problematic areas according to the environmental justice literature (i.e., visible minorities and low-income populations) are affected by environmental inequities associated with the application of the composite index at the city block level. The results obtained by using four statistical techniques show that, on the Island of Montreal, low-income persons and, to a lesser extent, visible minorities are more frequently located in city blocks close to major roads and with higher concentrations of NO2and less vegetation. Finally, the environmental equity index is significantly lower in areas with high concentrations of low-income populations in comparison with the wealthiest areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The vegetation and impervious surface area (ISA) are the most key indicators for the urban heat islands (UHI). This study used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as the indicator of vegetation abundance, the modified normalized difference impervious surface index (MNDISI) as the indicator of impervious surface fraction to estimate the land surface temperature (LST)–vegetation relationship and LST–ISA relationship. The land surface cover types were obtained by classification and regression tree (CART). Results demonstrate and verify that LST possessed strong negative correlations with NDVI and positive correlations with MNDISI at various spatial resolutions (30–960 m). Both correlation coefficients reached their strongest points at 30 m resolution, which is believed to be the operational scale of LST, NDVI and MNDISI. Further, information capacity (IC), as a spatial index, is used to characterize the spatial pattern of UHI. Results show that the IC of LST (LSTIC) possessed strong positive correlations with the IC of NDVI (NDVIIC) and the IC of MNDISI (MNDISIIC). It is suggested that the spatial pattern of UHI has a direct correspondence with the vegetation and ISA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A key part of reducing CO2 emissions is exploring scientific methods for calculating carbon footprints and allocating their sources. Several limitations in current approaches exist at smaller scales due to shortcomings and uncertainty in data collection. This article implements an improved approach to allocate carbon footprints at the local, neighborhood scale, taking land uses as a criteria, after verifying the correlation between industry sectors and land uses through cointegration test. A case study of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area (Wh MA) is provided to examine the method's applicability and effectiveness. Some related spatiotemporal variations in carbon-footprint values at the township scale are depicted as a spatial tendency from zonal agglomeration to radial diffusion in a core-periphery structure, which relates to such human-driven factors as population, transportation, and urban (built-up) area. The findings provide insight for policymakers to generate appropriate allocative strategies for low-carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the garden and landscape design of the 17th century mainland of Venice, Italy, referencing English travelers' writings during their grand tours of the region. An overview of the English traveler, author and gardener John Evelyn's perspective on Venice's landscapes and gardens is provided.

A growing number of cities around the world have taken advantage of their green image of the purpose of place branding. In the research literature, it is suggested that these practices are motivated by place-based competition over financial and social capital, combined with more holistic motives of sustainable urban development. However, although an increasing number of green cities are engaged in place branding, few studies have researched the impact of place branding on environmental policy-making in a city, building up to the question: how is local environmental policy-making affected by green place branding? Addressing this issue, this paper critically investigates how the continuity of local environmental policy-making is affected by place-branding practices. To tackle this task, the paper firstly develops an analytical framework aiming to understand how green cities emerge and become famous based on their policy-making. Secondly, using that framework, this paper present an in-depth case study of a city branding itself as the 'Greenest City in Europe'. Drawing on the growing body of work on green cities, this paper investigates the 'understudied' practice of using policy for the purpose of place branding as well as the impact of place branding 'on the environment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to rapid urbanization and increasing energy consumption, human society poses increasing pressure on the surrounding ecosystems that it depends on. As a result, evaluation of urban development should view cities as complex ecosystems including human and natural elements. This paper establishes a carbon balance index (CBI) for an urban ecosystem based on its socio-economic development and land use and land cover change in Xiamen, a rapidly urbanizing coastal city in southeast China. Dynamic changes in CBI can quantitatively indicate the sustainability of the urbanization process from a carbon cycling perspective. Results show that Xiamen's carbon balance condition experienced three stages: the period 1987–2002 where CBI decreased slightly, 1992–2002 where CBI moderately increased from 1.4 to 4.2, and 2003–2011 where CBI rapidly increased from 5.2 to 17.3. The carbon imbalance increased with the expansion of urban scale and urbanization. By stepwise multiple regression analysis, it was found that the main influencing factors of CBI are urbanization rate, industrial coal consumption, length of roadway network and forest area, and city managers should take these factors into consideration to achieve low-carbon city development. Finally, the CBI for the year 2030 is predicted based on CO2emissions and sequestration scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban plannings and design processes, through land management, are important factors that significantly influence the distribution of urban green lands (UGLs), and thus, the provision of ecosystem services (ESs), thereby providing opportunities for managing climate adaptation processes at the local level. However, planning for UGLs is often secondary to other planning categories, and they often remain underutilized. Through an analysis of Master Plans of major urban centres in Serbia and Bulgaria, this paper discusses the conceptualization of UGLs and the integration of ESs in planning and design processes. Based on findings obtained through an Analytical Hierarchy Process, this paper develops a conceptual framework for linking ESs with different UGL types in the course of urban planning, in order to achieve a better application of UGLs in strategies for the amelioration of micro-climatic conditions in urban areas. This paper proposes framework for an ecosystem sensitive conceptualization of UGLs in planning and design process, where UGL typology should replace functional categories, and spatial indicators are defined in relation to UGL types. Such an approach can improve the understanding and ES-sensitive application of UGLs in planning processes and local adaptation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Decades-long effects of drainage and development in south Florida that began in early to mid-20th century have resulted in the loss of natural forested and rangelands, and expansion of agricultural and urban areas. This has brought a change in the thermalscape of the surrounding areas. Surface and atmospheric surface-layers become drier and warmer in anthropogenic land covers compared to natural ones, introducing an effect called the urban heat island. This study aims to analyse the spatial and temporal existence of the urban heat island on land surface and near-surface atmosphere during summer using land-use/land-cover data, surface-based weather station records, radiosonde profiles, and Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper images captured between 1970 and 2012 in south Florida. Urban cover increased by about 10% from 1974 to 2011. The station-based urban-rural temperature difference (Tu-rþ is about 4°C over the entire area of south Florida and Landsat-derived surface temperature difference is about 3°C in the Landsat-covered area. They both show temporal increase throughout the period at a rate higher than the rate of increase of global average temperature. A decreasing near-surface diurnal temperature range of about -1°C (p = 0.005) and increased lifting condensation level (>20 m) were detected from the Miami radiosonde. Satisfactory validation results of surface and near-surface temperature (Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient = 0.70, coefficient of determination = 0.79) from the eastern urban stations further substantiate the findings on urban heat islands explored by the observed data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where and how new industrial paths emerge are much debated questions in economic geography, especially in light of the recent evolutionary turn. This article contributes to the ongoing debate on path creation with a new analytical framework that specifies the formation of generic resources in embryonic industries. It suggests that path creation processes are not only conditioned by preexisting regional capabilities and technological relatedness but also by the way firm and nonfirm actors mobilize and anchor key resources for industry formation. Our framework elaborates on the early industry development phase, extending the focus on regional knowledge spillovers in evolutionary economic geography (EEG) literature with recent insights on industry formation dynamics from innovation studies. It understands early path creation as conditioned by four systemic resource formation processes—knowledge creation, investment mobilization, market formation, and technology legitimation—that can be mobilized both from inside or anchored from outside the region. The use and value of the analytical framework is illustrated by a case study on on-site water recycling technology (OST), based on interviews with 40 experts in three Chinese city regions. The findings suggest that, despite possessing the least favorable initial conditions, a sizable OST industry developed only in Beijing. This is explained based on the specific anchoring process of the four key resources in the early development stage of the industry. Our results imply that EEG would profit from incorporating a broader set of variables than knowledge-based relatedness in explanations of regional industrial path creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the persistence of thunderstorms in cool air during winter in Baltimore, Maryland. Topics discussed include an overview of thunderstorms in Baltimore, the weather condition of the city, its condensation, its elevated conviction in warm and moist air, and the energy released during the condensation period.

Cities have increasingly become the focal point for climate change initiatives. However, how cities respond to climate change challenges and through what mechanisms have remained largely unexplored. This paper develops a framework for local governance to examine and explain climate change initiatives in cities. Based on the analysis of 20 climate change initiatives in major cities and a detailed case study of Hong Kong, this paper has two main findings. First, local governments at the city level have an important role to play in climate change policies by embracing some key strategies (such as deliberation and partnership) and values (such as equity and legitimacy) of good governance. Second, by comparing and contrasting the experience in other cities, our case study of Hong Kong provides insights about the barriers that may limit a city's ability to adapt to new forms of governance that would enable it to better respond to climate change. The paper concludes by exploring the potential role of local governance as a model to strengthen climate change initiatives at the city level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the results of ethnographic research conducted with several environmental justice (EJ) organisations in Latino communities of Los Angeles, California. Traditional EJ politics revolves around research and advocacy to reduce discriminatory environmental exposures, risks, and impacts. However, I argue that in recent years there has been a qualitative change in EJ politics, characterised by four main elements: (1) a move away from the reaction to urban environmental “bads” (e.g. polluting industries) in the city towards a focus on the production of nature in the city; (2) strategies that are less dependent on the legal, bureaucratic, and technical “regulatory route”; (3) the formation of a distinctive “Latino environmental ethic” that offers a more complex consideration of the place of race in EJ organising; and (4) a spatial organisation of EJ politics that moves away from hyperlocal, vertical organisation towards diversified city-wide networks that include EJ organisations, mainstream environmental groups, nonprofits, foundations, and entrepreneurs. This shift in EJ movement politics is shaped by broader political-economic changes, including the shift from post-Fordist to neoliberal and now green economy models of urban development; the influence of neoliberal multiculturalism in urban politics; and the increasingly prominent role of Latinos in city, state, and national politics. New spaces of Latino EJ also reflect the ambitions of Los Angeles as a global city, with urban growth increasingly framed in an international discourse of sustainability that combines quality of life, environmental, and economic development rationales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A dietary survey of 3431 residents was conducted by a 24-h dietary recall method in Shanghai, China, quarterly from September 2013 to September 2014. A total of 400 food samples were tested for aluminium concentration, including wheat flour and puffed products from 2011 to 2013. Probabilistic analysis was used to estimate the dietary exposure to aluminium from wheat and puffed products. The means of dietary aluminium exposure for children (2–6 years old), juveniles (7–17 years old), adults (18–65 years old) and seniors (over 65 years old) were 1.88, 0.94, 0.44 and 0.42 mg kg−1body weight (bw) week−1respectively, with a population average of 0.51 mg kg−1bw week−1. The proportions of those who had aluminium exposure from wheat and puffed products lower than the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) were 77%, 90%, 97%, and 97% respectively from children to seniors. We estimated that the proportions of people at risk would decrease by 13%, 6%, 2% and 2% respectively under the new China National Standards – GB 2760–2014 National Food Safety for Standards for using food additives. The results indicated that aluminium from wheat flour and puffed products is unlikely to cause adverse health effects in the general population in Shanghai; however, children were at a higher risk of excess aluminium exposure. Significant improvements in reducing the dietary exposure to aluminium are expected in the population, especially for children after the implementation of GB 2760–2014. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the possibilities of the cities across the world to realize their capacities in addressing climate change. He cites the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that started in Bonn, Germany in 1995. Also emphasized is the importance of the urban areas as sites for experimentation, resistance and justice while complying with the international climate policies.

Coastal urban cities frequently face multiple hazards, including potentially disastrous extreme events. To combat this, vulnerability assessment is essential to developing an effective mitigation strategy. This study proposes a framework to assess the vulnerability of any densely populated urban area to disasters by considering both the population and the assets that are at risk. A set of indicators is also proposed to assess the vulnerability of social and socioeconomic systems, infrastructure, critical facilities, and adaptive capacity. The components of vulnerability were evaluated individually, using an accessible open source geographic information system at a fine 1-km grid scale, providing an insight into the spatial variability of the vulnerability. The optimal weight for individual indicators was assigned using data envelopment analysis to minimize subjective judgment and establish confidence in the results obtained. To decorrelate and reduce the dimensionality of the multivariate data, principal component analysis was performed. The proposed methodology was demonstrated on the twenty-four wards of Mumbai under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and showed the mideastern part of Mumbai as the most vulnerable—mainly due to the increase in population and the marginal workers' ratio. A reduction in social vulnerability has been observed, however, across the city through improvement in the literacy rate and the main workers' ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Long-term urban resilience requires urban systems with the capacity to respond to change and disturbance and to enhance the conditions for lasting wellbeing. Over the past century Tokyo has demonstrated impressive resilience, especially a capacity to reorganise and rebuild in response to successive major disturbances. Throughout these recoveries, the city-region maintained a focus on re-establishing, improving and maintaining international competitiveness through industrial development. Green spaces in Tokyo provided a flexible, but gradually disappearing resource. Today, to meet the needs of its ageing and minimally expanding population for enhanced wellbeing, Tokyo requires active transition planning covering many intertwined factors, but the adaptive capacity provided by the green space resource is no longer available. The Tokyo case underscores the risk inherent in the depletion of non-renewable resources (in this instance, green space) to secure immediate recovery and accommodate growth and short-term resilience at the expense of long-term resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the winter storm that affected Boston, Massachusetts which was caused by the Polar Vortex in January 2015. Topics discussed include the areas affected by the storm including New England, Long Island, New York and New Jersey, the blizzards and snowfall experienced in Boston, and the concern of Mayor Marty Walsh on the city residents' safety.

Environmental justice explores the nexus between structural inequalities and environmental degradation. Although scholarship on environmental justice is vast, this literature is centred in developed countries, rather than exploring the injustices occurring in international contexts. This study aims to address this gap through a combined phenomenological and ethnographic approach in Jam City, a poor community in Nairobi, Kenya. Findings that are discussed include the similarities of environmental injustices between Jam City and the established literature as well as several nuances with the literature, including how lack of resources for response perpetuates injustice and how environmental hazards may not be explicitly dangerous but can still cause disparate harms. This study supports the argument that social workers should be more involved in promoting environmental justice by increasing our focus on the topic in our curriculum, research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Air pollution gained special attention with the rapid development in Beijing. In January 2013, Beijing experienced extreme air pollution, which was not well examined. We thus examine the magnitude of air quality in the particular month by applying the air quality index (AQI), which is based on the newly upgraded Chinese environmental standard. Our finding revealed that (1) air quality has distinct spatial heterogeneity and relatively better air quality was observed in the northwest while worse quality happened in the southeast part of the city; (2) the wind speed is the main determinant of air quality in the city—when wind speed is greater than 4 m/sec, air quality can be significantly improved; and (3) urban impervious surface makes a contribution to the severity of air pollution—that is, with an increase in the fraction of impervious surface in a given area, air pollution is more severe. The results from our study demonstrated the severe pollution in Beijing and its meteorological and landscape factors. Also, the results of this work suggest that very strict air quality management should be conducted when wind speed less than 4 m/sec, especially at places with a large fraction of urban impervious surface. Implications:Prevention of air pollution is rare among methods with controls on meteorological and urban landscape conditions. We present research that utilizes the latest air quality index (AQI) to compare air pollution with meteorological and landscape conditions. We found that wind is the major meteorological factor that determines the air quality. For a given wind speed greater than 4 m/sec, the air quality improved significantly. Urban impervious surface also contributes to the severe air pollution: that is, when the fraction of impervious surface increases, there is more severe air pollution. These results suggest that air quality management should be conducted when wind speed is less than 4 m/sec, especially at places with a larger fraction of urban impervious surface. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The noncooperative air pollution reduction model (NCRM) that is currently adopted in China to manage air pollution reduction of each individual province has inherent drawbacks. In this paper, we propose a cooperative air pollution reduction game model (CRM) that consists of two parts: (1) an optimization model that calculates the optimal pollution reduction quantity for each participating province to meet the joint pollution reduction goal; and (2) a model that distribute the economic benefit of the cooperation (i.e., pollution reduction cost saving) among the provinces in the cooperation based on the Shapley value method. We applied the CRM to the case of SO2reduction in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in China. The results, based on the data from 2003–2009, show that cooperation helps lower the overall SO2pollution reduction cost from 4.58% to 11.29%. Distributed across the participating provinces, such a cost saving from interprovincial cooperation brings significant benefits to each local government and stimulates them for further cooperation in pollution reduction. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed using the year 2009 data to test the parameters’ effects on the pollution reduction cost savings. Implications:China is increasingly facing unprecedented pressure for immediate air pollution control. The current air pollution reduction policy does not allow cooperation and is less efficient. In this paper we developed a cooperative air pollution reduction game model that consists of two parts: (1) an optimization model that calculates the optimal pollution reduction quantity for each participating province to meet the joint pollution reduction goal; and (2) a model that distributes the cooperation gains (i.e., cost reduction) among the provinces in the cooperation based on the Shapley value method. The empirical case shows that such a model can help improve efficiency in air pollution reduction. The result of the model can serve as a reference for Chinese government pollution reduction policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The left and centre-left governments of the last decade in Uruguay have led to major societal changes involving tax, labour, health, high education and individual freedom, despite which several structural social problems remain. Advances in the environmental field have been, in contrast, more modest and often controversial. At the same time, significant changes in landscape have occurred over a very short time period. This has been a common trend in South America, where large international investments and land use transformations, driven by global demand of commodities, have been promoted to fund welfare policies by the mostly centre or left-leaning governments (a process called “(progressive) neo extractivism”). In Uruguay, such land use changes (in this case from grasslands to intensive agriculture and plantations of exotic trees) have led to a notorious deterioration of key watersheds, which increased public awareness and placed the environment in the public agenda. Contradictory national policies regarding the use of nature are now sparking growing scepticism among increasing sectors of the population, and even causing disputes within government sectors: New genetically modified organisms (GMOs), some designed to resist pests that are not a problem in the country, have been just approved despite a stand-off between the public health and environmental ministries and those of economics and agriculture. An irrigation law was recently passed by Parliament to facilitate large irrigation reservoirs so crops can be grown regardless of climate variability and exports of commodities can be maintained and increased, raising major concerns among environmental scientists. Right now, several grass roots organizations are organizing a national referendum to revoke this law, extending the current controversies across society. In this regional and national context, the paradigm of sustainable development has not been able to solve the tensions between environmental protection and current productive processes. Significant challenges remain in finding structural alternatives, where knowledge of local natural processes and technological advances can be enhanced and directed to incorporate sustainability while promoting the profound social advances that South America needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews key challenges and opportunities addressed by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's (NYC-EJA) Waterfront Justice Project, a citywide campaign to promote climate resilience and sustainability in urban industrial waterfront communities of New York City. NYC-EJA is a non-profit membership-driven network linking grassroots organisations from low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour in their struggle for environmental justice. The Waterfront Justice Project is documenting community vulnerability in the context of climate change impacts, sources of industrial pollution, and demographic and socio-economic trends. This campaign is enabling community-based organisations, environmental justice communities, city planners, local and state government agencies, local business-owners, and other stakeholders to work in partnership to achieve community resilience while advocating for local jobs and promoting best practices in pollution prevention. New York City's waterfront policies ease the siting and clustering of public infrastructure, water pollution control plants, waste transfer stations, energy facilities, and heavy manufacturing uses in six areas designated as Significant Maritime and Industrial Areas (SMIAs). The SMIAs are located in environmental justice communities, largely low-income communities and communities of colour, in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City's local waterfront land use and zoning policies create cumulative risk exposure not only to residents and workers in the host waterfront communities, but also, in the event of storm surge or sea-level rise, to neighbouring, upland communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans, increasingly, manufacture their own air. In and around the three-dimensional aerial environments within and above urban regions, this manufacture of air reaches particular levels of intensity. For a species that expires without air in two or three minutes, this anthropogenic manufacture of air is of incalculable importance. Curiously, however, urban air remains remarkably neglected within the political–ecological literatures. Accordingly, this paper suggests a range of key themes, which a political ecology of urban air needs to address. These touch upon the links between global warming, urban heat-island effects and killer urban heatwaves; urban pollution crises; the paradoxes of urban pollution; horizontal movements of polluted air; the vertical politics of urban air; the construction of vertical condominium structures for elites; the vicious circles that characterise air-conditioned urbanism; heat-related deaths of workers building air-conditioned structures in increasingly hot climates; the growth of large-scale air-conditioned environments; and, finally, the manipulation of urban air through political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the Basilicata region (South Italy) slope movements, caused by soft rocks, rapid tectonic uplift, earthquakes, and seasonally heavy precipitation, constitute one of the major geologic hazards. For this reason a detailed inventory map of mass movements has been created in a test area of south-eastern Basilicata. The map was compiled from field surveys and multi-temporal air photo interpretation. For each landslide, the map depicts the state of activity and dominant type of slope movement. The integration and analysis of the data obtained by using a geographic information system has produced the mass movements inventory map at a scale of 1:25,000. Mass movements are widespread and play a key role in the landscape evolution of the study area. A total of 175 landslides were recognized, occupying a surface area of 16.2 km2, about 9% of the whole basin of interest. The spatial distribution and type of mass movements are mainly related to the lithology and structural features. Field surveys coupled with interpretation of multi-temporal aerial photos allowed us to distinguish between active (20.6%) and inactive (79.4%) landslides. Mass movements, mapped on the basis of movement type, are represented by slides, flows and complex landslides. The complex and slide type movements are very common, and represent more than 86% of the landslides mapped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indexes that measure social vulnerability to hazards have gained acceptance as a research tool that can inform local policymaking. Many indexes, however, are created remotely by researchers without using the input of those working in local policy. If practitioners are involved in creating an index that they find accurate and useful, it is more likely they will incorporate the findings of the index in local policy decisions. This article describes the process of ground truthing a social vulnerability index with practitioners working in five municipalities in Metro Vancouver and how the index was then revised to reflect their input. This process involved presenting an index to focus groups of municipal practitioners for their feedback and conducting a survey of participants that was then used to assign weights to the variables in the index. The study found that practitioners were generally accepting of the research approach to quantifying social vulnerability by place, although they often had specific concerns regarding the methodology and offered suggestions to make the index more reflective of the local context. The process of revising the index illustrates that local practitioner input can be used to create a measure of social vulnerability to hazards that is meaningful to those working in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study was undertaken to determine whether there was an association between fine particle matter (PM2.5) levels and daily outpatient department visits (OPD) for headaches in Taipei, Taiwan. Daily OPD visits for headaches and ambient air pollution data for Taipei were obtained for the period 2006–2011. The relative risk of visits for OPD headaches was estimated using a case-crossover approach, controlling for weather variables, day of the week, seasonality, and long-term time trends. For the single-pollutant model (without adjustment for other pollutants), increased OPD visits for headaches were significantly associated with levels of PM2.5both on warm days (>23°C) and cool days (<23°C), with an interquartile range rise associated with a 12% (95% CI = 10–14%) and 3% (95% CI = 1–5%) elevation in OPD visits for headaches, respectively. In the two-pollutant models, PM2.5remained significant after inclusion of sulfur dioxide (SO2) or ozone (O3) on both warm and cool days. This study provides evidence that higher levels of PM2.5increase the risk of OPD visits for headaches in Taipei, Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urban density has often been considered one of the main conditions for the emergence of urban intensity, here understood as the potential for endless random and unpredictable interactions between heterogeneous individuals and activities. However, within the expanded territory of the contemporary metropolis, the rise of mobility and communication technology has brought about new possibilities for informal interaction and exchange beyond the traditional relationship of proximity. By combining a multi-scale approach with an understanding of everyday rhythms, the present paper explores: (1) how this unprecedented space-time condition enables the emergence of intensity across low density areas; and (2) the spatial conditions involved in this potential. Empirical research undertaken in a low density Italian area, situated 50 km South of Milan, provides material for illustrating the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]