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Of the four atoll countries in the world, the Maldives has the lowest average elevation. Therefore, it is likely to be the first country to lose its land when the sea level rises due to climate change. As a countermeasure to sea level rise, the government of the Maldives is constructing an artificial island called Hulhumalé by raising an atoll adjacent to the capital city of Malé. Other atoll countries may employ the same method to adapt to the anticipated sea level rise. There is a concern that people who are forced to relocate to the artificial island will be affected in various ways. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify measures to reduce the potential impacts of migration to artificial islands. This study aimed to identify factors that will work effectively to satisfy migrants from outside the Malé region to Hulhumalé. At this stage, sea level rise is not a motivating factor for migration to Hulhumalé. For the time being, enhancing high-income employment and high-level education in Hulhumalé, which are the main motivations for migration, will help sustain voluntary migration. Over the past two decades, rapid economic growth has changed the desire of Maldivians. Hulhumalé is attracting people with its new urban environment and employment opportunities. A small-scale questionnaire survey on the satisfaction level of post-migration life was conducted among the residents of Hulhumalé and the results showed that those who changed their jobs before and after migration were less satisfied with their migration than those who did not. In Hulhumalé, smart cities are being developed and new types of employment are being created. In order to facilitate the smooth migration of residents from remote islands, policies that focus on occupational changes before and after migration are needed, such as public job placement programs that enable migrants to find the same jobs that they had before migration, and job training programs that prepare them for career changes and enable them to adapt smoothly to new jobs. At present, mental health issues among migrants are not a major problem. Strengthening people-to-people networks through the use of information technology (IT) will contribute to smooth migration and resettlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues related to the urban environment and mental well-being have become increasingly important in recent decades. Although this association has been mainly investigated in developed countries, there is limited knowledge on whether similar results can be acquired in the urban environments of developing countries like Iran. This study intends to present a new dynamic and active approach to determine the environmental quality characteristics that influence the mental well-being of urban residents and to engage people to healthy urban public environments. In this respect, the research is directed by both qualitative and quantitative surveys in the public open spaces of Kermanshah, Iran. Firstly, the data are collected by Grounded Theory (GT) to identify significant environmental quality characteristics related to mental well-being by applying 24 semi-structured interviews. Secondly, the questionnaire survey based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to examine the association between each characteristic of the developed conceptual framework. The results reveal that the environmental quality characteristics of public open spaces, directly and indirectly, relate to users' mental well-being. It should be noted that the public open spaces with unique functional and intrinsic features seem to have different impacts on mental well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pixo: Revista de Arquitetura Cidade e Contemporaneidade is the property of Pixo Revista de Arquitetura Cidade e Contemporaneidade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Due to phenomena such as urban heat islands, outdoor thermal comfort of the cities' residents emerges as a growing concern. A major challenge for mega-cities in changing climate is the design of urban spaces that ensure and promote pedestrian thermal comfort. Understanding pedestrian behavioural adaptation to urban thermal environments is critically important to attain this goal. Current research in pedestrian behaviour lacks controlled experimentation, which limits the quantitative modelling of such complex behaviour. Combining well-controlled experiments with human participants and computational methods inspired by behavioural ecology and decision theory, we examine the effect of sun exposure on route choice in a tropical city. We find that the distance walked in the shade is discounted by a factor of 0.86 compared to the distance walked in the sun, and that shadows cast by buildings have a stronger effect than trees. The discounting effect is mathematically formalised and thus allows quantification of the behaviour that can be used in understanding pedestrian behaviour in changing urban climates. The results highlight the importance of assessment of climate through human responses to it and point the way forward to explore scenarios to mitigate pedestrian heat stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Al-Frahids Arts is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Visually impaired people have unique perceptions of and usage requirements for various urban spaces. Therefore, understanding these perceptions can help create reasonable layouts and construct urban infrastructure. This study recruited 26 visually impaired volunteers to evaluate 24 sound environments regarding clarity, comfort, safety, vitality, and depression. This data was collected in seven different types of urban spaces. An independent sample non-parametric test was used to determine the significance of the differences between environmental evaluation results for each evaluation dimension and to summarize the compositions of sound and space elements in the positive and negative influence spaces. The results suggested that visually impaired people (1) feel comfort, safety, and clarity in parks, residential communities, and shopping streets; (2) have negative perceptions of vegetable markets, bus stops, hospitals, and urban departments; (3) feel anxious when traffic sounds, horn sounds, manhole cover sounds, and construction sounds occur; and (4) prefer spaces away from traffic, with fewer and slower vehicles, with a suitable space scale, and moderate crowd density. These results provide a reference for the future design of activity venues (i.e., residential communities, vegetable markets, bus stops, parks, shopping streets, hospitals, and urban functional departments) and the planning of accessibility systems for visually impaired urban residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban thermal environment issues have become a potential threat to the urban ecosystem and residents' health. Thermal environment issues in Changsha are becoming more serious with the expansion of built-up areas and the decrease in the area of blue-green spaces. In this study, the spatiotemporal evolution of blue-green spaces and their influence on the thermal environment of Changsha from 1988 to 2019 were assessed using Landsat images. The results show that the loss of blue-green spaces and the exacerbation of thermal environment issues in Changsha began around 1999. Over the study period, the total area of blue-green spaces decreased by 427.27 km2, corresponding to 16.5% of the study area, leading to an increase in the average land surface temperature (LST) of Changsha of 2.59 °C. During summer, the cooling effect of water is the highest among all blue-green space types, which is -1.29 °C, followed by cropland (-0.82 °C) and forest (-0.55 °C). However, the cooling effect of forest in other seasons is always greater than that of cropland. The cooling effect of blue-green spaces in spring, summer, and fall is generally greater than that in winter. Over the study period, the temperature increases caused by spatial changes from water, cropland, and forest to built-up areas are 1.39, 1.17, and 1.1 °C, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acoustic environment in an urban dwelling is a key factor in human health, especially in megacities, where there are high levels of traffic noise. This study investigated the effects of various socio-economic indicators (gender, age, roadside residence, average daily time at home) on the subjective evaluation of residential acoustic environments, employing a series of questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews in two Chinese megacities (Chongqing and Guangzhou). The findings indicate that residents in Chongqing, a typical mountainous city, are less satisfied with their acoustic environment than those in Guangzhou, a city built on a plain. However, there were no significant differences between residents in the two Chinese megacities in terms of their perspectives on their thermal, humid or luminous environments or noise-related health symptoms. Regarding perceptions of acoustic environments, there were significant differences between residents in the mountainous city and the plain city, as well as those in roadside and non-roadside homes, but no significant differences were identified between the views of men and women or the young and the old, and time spent at home appeared to have no impact. Moreover, age and average daily time spent at home are likely to be associated with noise-related health symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out to determine how the PM10 concentrations changed in the Izmir metropolitan area during the days when curfews were imposed because of Covid-19 Pandemic. In this context, data of eight air quality measurement stations were taken as basis. Within the scope of the study, days when curfew was strictly imposed were compared with other days, specifically between January 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020. Besides, by comparing daily measures taken between 2015-2020 on same days, it has been tried to determine how air quality has changed on an annual basis. While analyzing, Independent Sample t-test was used for daily data. For annual data, Friedman test was used to determine which stations had a statistically significant difference, and then Wilcoxon test was applied to determine in which years there was a statistically significant difference compared to 2020 measurements. All in all, it was found that there was an improvement in air quality in terms of PM10 concentrations on the days of curfew. This study revealed that our daily mobility in the city as urban dwellers negatively affect air quality of environment we live in, and showed the need to consider air pollution when planning our cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between February and April of each year, air pollution blankets much of northern Thailand and severely impacts the livelihoods of tourism practitioners and farmers in the region. Environmental narratives among lowland, urban residents attribute haze to biomass burning among highland farmers. Highland farmers, however, contend that environmental governance regimes have lengthened and exacerbated what is now regarded as the annually recurring haze crisis. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among urban tourism practitioners, rural farmers, and natural scientists, I demonstrate how, as a physical and symbolic entity, air pollution circulates between urban and rural spaces in ways that reshape tourism and urban-rural social relations. In doing so, I bring emerging work at the intersection of urban political ecology and new materialism to bear on tourism to reveal the more-than-human sociality of air pollution in northern Thailand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades in the city of Puno in Peru, the pollution problem has become more acute, due to the disorderly growth of the urban population, the deficient management of solid waste and the discharge of sewage that without any type of treatment is discharged into the bay of Lake Titicaca; severely affecting its biodiversity, the environment and human health. Problems that justify the development of this research that the objective was to determine the level of knowledge that the population has about the factors and sources of pollution in the bay of Lake Titicaca and its impact on human health and the environment. A non-experimental, quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational and micro-level study was carried out. The universe of study was made up of 97,264 inhabitants over 18 years of age (INEI, 2018); the simple random sample consisted of 382 people (193 men and 189 women). The collection technique was the survey; the processing, descriptive and inferential analysis and hypothesis testing were carried out with the SPSS Software. As a result, the level of knowledge is differentiated; being acceptable in 50% of heads of family, deficient in 48.7% and outstanding in 1.3%. The variability of the level of knowledge, conditioned by the socioeconomic status and the spatial location of the house in the coastal environment, denotes that in 4/5 of the heads of the family their knowledge is adequate in terms of pollution factors in the house and on sources of contamination of the bay ca; On the contrary, the knowledge about sanitation and environmental education of more than 80% of heads of families is deficient, denoting the precariousness of their environmental and ecological awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The concept of urban vibrancy has become increasingly important in the study of cities. A vibrant urban environment is an area of a city with high levels of human activity and interactions. Traditionally, studying our cities and what makes them vibrant has been very difficult, due to challenges in data collection on urban environments and people's location and interactions. Here, we rely on novel sources of data to investigate how different features of our cities may relate to urban vibrancy. In particular, we explore whether there are any differences in which urban features make an environment vibrant for different age groups. We perform this quantitative analysis by extracting urban features from OpenStreetMap and the Italian census, and using them in spatial models to describe urban vibrancy. Our analysis shows a strong relationship between urban features and urban vibrancy, and particularly highlights the importance of third places, which are urban places offering opportunities for social interactions. Our findings provide evidence that a combination of mobile phone data with crowdsourced urban features can be used to better understand urban vibrancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, at the intersection of urban anthropology and local environmental studies, offers a new and original perspective on the question of why low-income, marginalised urban communities might disregard local environmental concerns. Inspired by AbdouMaliq Simone's [(2004). "People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg." Public Culture 16 (3): 407–429.] seminal work on "people as infrastructure", it proposes a new theoretical construct, "people as environment", which sheds light on the processes whereby people perceive their urban environment primarily in relation to other people – while disregarding prominent environmental deprivations and risks. This conceptualisation is developed in two main dimensions: (1) People as environmental resource, referring to supportive social networks within marginalised urban settings, which help overcome (environmental) hardships; and (2) People as environmental threat, indicating the perception of "others" – most commonly, newcomers and "outsiders" – as hazards while downplaying the presence of actual environmental risks. This conceptualisation has been developed in relation to several research sites in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region characterised by ongoing urban marginality and environmental inequality. It is informed by a multimethod qualitative research on long-term residents' concerns with their neighbourhood environment, which included street questionnaires, as well as focus groups in two lower-income neighbourhoods with a history of ethno-class discrimination. Our findings reveal that when long-term residents were asked about prominent environmental concerns, they generally ignored particular risks and, instead, evoked ideas about an idealised neighbourly past in contrast to a threatening present defined by "others" around them. Such recurring perceptions indicate both the theoretical significance and policy relevance of the people-as-environment concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban political ecology scholars recognise that a historical perspective is central to elucidating processes of racialised uneven development. In this paper, I articulate a collectively produced "peoples' history" of the Portland Harbor Superfund Site, recounting how over a century of industrial pollution in Portland, Oregon has disproportionately impacted Native, Black, immigrant and refugee, and houseless residents of all backgrounds—and has spawned collective work for a more just future. I argue that it is imperative for scholars to not only articulate such racialised pasts, however, but also to recognise how those working on the front lines of change draw on their own personal and group experiences to produce shared narratives, particularly across difference and in a context of depoliticised, ahistorical sustainability discourse. The case of the Portland Harbor Community Coalition reveals how the production of a shared history can be an important part of work to redress racialised dispossession and displacement in so‐called green cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health disorders appear as a growing problem in urban areas. While common mental health disorders are generally linked to demographic and socioeconomic factors, little is known about the interaction with the urban environment. With growing urbanization, more and more people are exposed to environmental stressors potentially contributing to increased stress and impairing mental health. It is therefore important to identify features of the urban environment that affect the mental health of city dwellers. The aim of this study was to define associations of combined long-term exposure to air pollution, noise, surrounding green at different scales, and building morphology with several dimensions of mental health in Brussels.Methods: Research focuses on the inhabitants of the Brussels Capital Region older than 15 years. The epidemiological study was carried out based on the linkage of data from the national health interview surveys (2008 and 2013) and specifically developed indicators describing each participant's surroundings in terms of air quality, noise, surrounding green, and building morphology. These data are based on the geographical coordinates of the participant's residence and processed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Mental health status was approached through several validated indicators: the Symptom Checklist-90-R subscales for depressive, anxiety and sleeping disorders and the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire for general well-being. For each mental health outcome, single and multi-exposure models were performed through multivariate logistic regressions.Results: Our results suggest that traffic-related air pollution (black carbon, NO2, PM10) exposure was positively associated with higher odds of depressive disorders. No association between green surrounding, noise, building morphology and mental health could be demonstrated.Conclusions: These findings have important implications because most of the Brussel's population resides in areas where particulate matters concentrations are above the World Health Organization guidelines. This suggests that policies aiming to reduce traffic related-air pollution could also reduce the burden of depressive disorders in Brussels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journals Eduction for Girls is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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

Current management and control of Aedes aegypti populations in urban areas are based on the spraying of insecticides. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of spraying larvicide (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) using a truck-mounted Buffalo Turbine and adulticide (Deltamethrin) using a Grizzly ULV Sprayer in an urban area with high densities of Ae. aegypti and many cryptic and difficult to reach aquatic breeding habitats. Experiments were conducted in a tire shop located in Miami-Dade County, Florida with approximately 100,000 used airplane tires. Insecticide interventions were performed after a baseline survey consisting of 3 weeks of collections, followed by two insecticide interventions: (i) application of the adulticide followed by the application of larvicide on the subsequent week; and (ii) application of both adulticide and larvicide on two consecutive weeks. The first insecticide intervention resulted in a non-significant decrease in the relative abundance of Ae. aegypti. On the other hand, the second insecticide intervention significantly reduced the Ae. aegypti relative abundance (P < 0.002). Our results demonstrated that the combined insecticide interventions on two consecutive weeks significantly reduced the relative abundance of Ae. aegypti. This result indicated that the larvicide was successfully propelled reaching cryptical and difficult to reach aquatic habitats. However, even though the number of mosquitoes was greatly reduced, it was still greatly above the 10-mosquito threshold by trap night used by the Miami-Dade Mosquito Control Division to deploy an inspector to survey the area. Considering the lack of new and effective mosquito control tools, efficient and mobile insecticide propellers such as Buffalo Turbine can be of great help to manage mosquito populations in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of DYNA - Ingeniería e Industria is the property of Publicaciones Dyna SL and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Street lighting (SL) forms a major share of municipal energy consumption and should thus be energy efficient. However, question of how much energy can be saved on SL without compromising on the feeling of safety (FoS), which SL helps to provide for pedestrians, poses a major challenge. To tackle this challenge, in this study, we attempt to determine the amount of energy that can potentially be saved by a proper selection of SL attributes, such as light color and uniformity, while preserving FoS by pedestrians. As the study indicates, using warmer lights and increasing light uniformity can result in 30–50% energy savings on SL. Using this assessment, we estimate that for medium-size cities with population of 200–400 K residents, energy savings on SL can reach 8–23 MWh per annum, which is equal to the output of a small-to-medium-size power plant. As we conclude, the study findings help to design more efficient SL systems that can promote urban residents' well-being, while saving energy and contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable urban environment. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first that shows that energy on SL can be saved by using warmer lights and increasing light uniformity, while preserving a reasonable level of FoS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental focus of current ecological and evolutionary research is to illuminate the drivers of animals' success in coping with human‐induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). Behavioural adaptations are likely to play a major role in coping with HIREC because behaviour largely determines how individuals interact with their surroundings. A substantial body of research reports behavioural modifications in urban dwellers compared to rural conspecifics. However, it is often unknown whether the observed phenotypic divergence is due to phenotypic plasticity or the product of genetic adaptations. Here, we aimed at investigating (a) whether behavioural differences arise also between rural and urban populations of non‐commensal rodents; and (b) whether these differences result from behavioural flexibility or from intrinsic behavioural characteristics, such as genetic or maternal effects. We captured and kept under common environment conditions 42 rural and 52 urban adult common voles (Microtus arvalis) from seven subpopulations along a rural–urban gradient. We investigated individual variation in behavioural responses associated with risk‐taking and exploration, in situ at the time of capture in the field and ex situ after 3 months in captivity. Urban dwellers were bolder and more explorative than rural conspecifics at the time of capture in their respective sites (in situ). However, when tested under common environmental conditions ex situ, rural individuals showed little change in their behavioural responses whereas urban individuals altered their behaviour considerably and were consistently shyer and less explorative than when tested in situ. The combination of elevated risk‐taking and exploration with high behavioural flexibility might allow urban populations to successfully cope with the challenges of HIREC. Investigating whether the observed differences in behavioural flexibility are adaptive and how they are shaped by additive and interactive effects of genetic make‐up and past environmental conditions will help illuminate eco‐evolutionary dynamics under HIREC and predict persistence of populations under urban conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban climate models are indispensable tools for the evaluation of climatic risks faced by the growing urban population. In order to accurately simulate the urban surface energy balance at a high spatial resolution, it is important to provide models with detailed input data that can adequately describe the spatial variation of land covers, urban morphology, construction materials, and building functions within an urban area. Using Hong Kong—a city well-known for its complex, high-rise urban environment—as the testing ground, this study aims to present a geographic information system–based workflow for the construction of a refined urban database. Firstly, maps of land cover tiles, pervious and impervious surface fractions, building height, and other input parameters required by mesoscale atmospheric models are derived from multiple data sources including administrative building data, satellite images, and land use surveys. Secondly, a total of 18 representative building archetypes, with their corresponding architectural characteristics and occupant behaviour schedules, are defined. This allows for models to take into account the radiative, thermal, and dynamic interactions between buildings and the atmosphere, as well as the anthropogenic heat fluxes. Finally, locally adapted ranges of urban morphological parameters for the different local climate zones (LCZs) are derived, enabling the expansion of data coverage to neighbouring areas of Hong Kong, where detailed urban data are not readily available. Uncertainties of the refined database and limitations of the LCZ scheme are also discussed so that a similar approach may be adapted and applied to other cities in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Human Sciences (19922876) is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The change in the concept of urban agriculture has been driven by social, political and economic factors, changing the role of agriculture in the urban environment. From the second half of 20th century topicality and practices of urban agriculture are growing widely not only in social initiatives but also in scientific research (the number of articles in scientific databases has increased 18-30 times since 2000). Growing interest has identified various variations and tendencies in the interpretation of the concept of urban agriculture, having regard to the current United Nations definition that is broad, but in research works and case studies researchers adapt the definitions to the local characteristics and aim of the study, thus creating a number of risks in the interpretation of the concept, including limited possibilities for quantitative comparisons between studies. The aim of the article is to identify the historical development stages of the concept of urban agriculture and to determine the main research tendencies in its application. To achieve this aim, the method of monographic and descriptive analysis was used for theoretical discussion, analysis, synthesis and deduction - for information gathering, logical systematization and classification. As a result of the study, it was identified that the concept of urban agriculture is developed in three different stages - originally associated with the technical solutions of urban planning for providing food for city dwellers, it is currently developing in tendencies of different directions: analysis of agriculture's role in urban areas (including mitigating climate change risks), classification of types of urban agriculture, opportunities for adapting innovations and technological solutions to urban agriculture, the place and context of urban agriculture for sustainable development in the circumstances of urbanization. Such in-depth research of the experience and impact of urban agriculture on sustainable development could increase dynamically due to environmental considerations, aspect of the circular economy, and new paradigms in planning urban and peri-urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aesthetics of landscapes and the environment has not received considerable research attention. The main reason for this is that aesthetic evaluation contains too many subjective elements, which is not always compatible with the cold rationalism of researchers. Despite this, researchers regularly comment on the aesthetics of urban environments. This is not accidental. There is a connection between the aesthetics of phenomena and the decision-making with regard to them. The aesthetic appearance of an area affects millions of decisions regarding investments, tourism destinations, or the choice of dwelling-place. In Hungary, around one third of the urban population is living in housing estates; this environment is an everyday reality for most of the urban population. The housing estates were built during the communist era and received major criticism almost instantly in both sociology and architecture. In recent decades both the Hungarian state and the local government of Szeged have made significant investments aimed at increasing the quality of the housing estates' environment. For determining the aesthetics of housing areas and their environment, we improved our earlier- developed method, which was used for evaluating single downtown buildings. The improved method was tested in three different sample housing areas. For the evaluation of architecturally homogeneous, newlv-constructed or refurbished buildings, we have introduced the concept of the visual unit, which incorporates multiple buildings and their surroundings. This solution speeds up the evaluation process, and it can also be used to score individual buildings, if necessary. We also examined visual conflicts which affect the aesthetics of the area and can reduce the value of the visual condition. The key result of our research is the thematic mapping of three categories, including the aesthetically valuable, and therefore attractive areas, which can be distinguished from the aesthetically problematic, and therefore repulsive areas, and from the areas which can be (and should be) improved aesthetically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of ensuring the well-being of residents is central to systems of municipal governance. The purpose of our study is to measure the well-being of residents in an urban environment and, based on the obtained results, to identify problem areas that impede the achievement of strategic development goals in the megapolis. We conducted a representative survey of residents in one of the largest industrialized Russian megacities, Ekaterinburg. Based on the survey data, an index of subjective well-being in the urban environment was obtained, which included 4 blocks of assessment indicators: 1) assessment of the current state of the urban environment; 2) assessment of the changes in the urban environment; 3) assessment of personal well-being; and 4) assessment of intentions to live in the city. The study revealed that the most prosperous citizens in the urban environment are: 30-39 years old; married; employed. The problems of low well-being and the absence of youth intent to connect their futures with the city are identified as the main threats to the megapolis' development. The results of our study are of practical importance for making informed management decisions in urban restructuring planning, urban infrastructure upgrades, and the development of social policy measures aimed at improving the quality of life and well-being of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green roofs have gained global acceptance as a technology that is beneficial for both the environment and the urban population. It is generally believed that green roofs also improve the quality of runoffs. The article presents the results of a 6-years study of water quality in runoffs from extensive green roofs of different constructions with respect to the quality of rainwater and runoff from a reference roof. The research results show that analyzed green roofs are capable of neutralizing runoffs and should not be also regarded as sources of ammonium nitrogen pollution in runoffs. Apart from the positive effects, these green roofs can also have a negative influence on the quality of runoffs. The high total concentrations of nitrite nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, phosphates, and the content of organic substances that do not undergo biodegradation observed in the runoffs. Based on the results of this research it can be inferred that the influence of green roofs on the runoff quality will improve during the operation period, but not for all quality indicators. There is a need to focus more on the quality of green roof runoff. It should be controllable through better design, management, and maintenance of green roofs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Half of the world's population live in the urban environment. Lifestyle changes in the 20th century have led to spending more time indoors and less in nature. Due to safety concerns, longer hours in formal education, as well as lack of suitable outdoor environments, children in particular have been found to spend very little time outdoors. We have an opportunity, both timely and unique to have our children (re)connect with nature. Nature connection is a subjective state and trait that encompasses affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects in addition to being positively associated with wellbeing, and strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. This mini-review brings together recent studies that report on interventions to increase nature connection in children. Fourteen studies were identified through electronic searches of Web of Science, Scopus, PsychInfo, ERIC, and Google Scholar. The review aims to offer an overview of the interventions identified, provide a snapshot of the current state of the literature, briefly present themes and trends in the studies identified in relation to nature connection in young people, and propose potential guidelines for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Il existe des violences tacites qui passent inaperçues ou qu’on n’appréhende pas aisément en tant que telles parce qu’elles se dissimulent dans les rouages de la modernité, dans les rapports de pouvoirs, sous la tolérance, sous la soumission... Cette recherche d’anthropologie urbaine examine le cas de violence exercée par l’habillement féminin hard dans la quotidienneté de la vie à Kinshasa laquelle se manifeste sous forme de harcèlerie. La genèse de ce phénomène remonte à l’époque coloniale durant laquelle la rencontre des cultures occidentale et africaine a fendillé le socle des traditions négro-africaines qui régissaient les connectivités culturelles notamment celles qui étaient établies entre « femme et sexualité », « femme et société » entre les sexes « masculin et féminin », entre générations d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, et entre les groupes sexuellement divisés. L’habillement féminin hard s’aperçoit à la fois comme une déviance culturelle, un écart de normes d’éthique, et contrairement, comme un signe de croissance de l’érotisme dans l’art vestimentaire et comme une libre expression de la féminitude. Il révèle des contradictions de goûts et d’interprétations, des conflits de générations, des chocs de cultures lesquels aboutissent à une sexualité dominante ou imposée de la « femme-éros » qui d’une part, satisfait plusieurs esprits, mais d’autre part, dérange des consciences, irrite des libidos, déséquilibre des rapports sociaux anciens, propose des nouvelles reconstructions sociales, marche à l’avant-garde de la liberté de la femme et qui par son esthétique, rappelle la femme primitive... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whole blood (WB) has been used for more than a century for far-forward combat resuscitation. Following the Iraq/Afghanistan combat, maritime, and austere environment use of WB for the resuscitation of severely hemorrhaging patients, there has been an increasing use of WB for the civilian urban resuscitation environment population. The impetus for this was not just improved outcomes in far-forward hospitals, which had different populations and different needs than the civilian urban population, but also an application of the lessons suggested by recent 1:1:1 plasma:platelets:packed red cells fixed-ratio studies for patients with massive transfusion needs. Mechanistic, logistic, and standardization concerns have been addressed and are evolving as the WB project advances. A small number of studies have been published on WB in the civilian urban trauma population. In addition, European experience with viscoelastic testing and resuscitation with fibrinogen and prothrombin complex concentrate has provided another viewpoint regarding the choice of resuscitation strategies for severely bleeding trauma patients in urban civilian environments. There are randomized controlled trials in process, which are testing the hypothesis that WB may be beneficial for the civilian urban population. Whether WB will improve mortality significantly is now a matter of intense study, and this commentary reviews the history, mechanistic foundations, and logistical aspects for the use of WB in the civilian trauma population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores risk transfer options that precarious and marginal urban communities could use to protect themselves from future damages and losses generated by socio-natural hazards and disasters at the individual and community levels. The design is framed within an evidence-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy and follows the case study research approach. We analyze the 2018 Neighborhood Approach for DRR programming evaluation carried out in four Latin American cities' informal settlements and review relevant risk transfer experiences aimed at vulnerable populations. We calculate the pure risk premium for the four cases selected, using a previous catastrophe risk assessment for earthquakes and landslides. We propose three risk transfer options based on our analysis: (1) voluntary collective insurance; (2) structural reinforcement with a comprehensive housing insurance; and (3) hybrid parametric insurance. Risk transfer mechanisms conventionally focus on residual risk management. Here, due to the precariousness of the analyzed urban settings, the proposed alternatives go beyond the management of just residual risk to positively impact the beneficiaries' quality of life and the reduction of the built environment's physical vulnerability in the short and medium terms. Our study proposes a prospective estimation of future risk despite the limitations of data availability. This study opens a window to new approaches and proposes a systematic process to design DRR policy aimed at the poor and vulnerable strata of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the social practices of the inhabitants of the medieval town as it is expressed in the materiality of the urban landscape. It is argued that a practice‐based approach allows an understanding of how urbanity, defined as a specific set of social practices motivated by the shared space, developed in the medieval period. The town is seen as something more than a physical entity. The argument is developed through a diachronic and contextual analysis of the spatial organisation and layout of the medieval town of Odense in Denmark, as it is seen in the archaeological record of I. Vilhelm Werners Plads, representing the 9th‐16th centuries. The analysis demonstrates that from the mid‐12th century, the organisation of the settlement plot and the interaction between town dwellers and townscape change. This change of practices is seen as related to a different mind‐set and perception of what it means to live in a town, that progressively has provided a sense of urbanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on research into the navigational practices of blind and visually impaired people in urban environments. The members of this community encounter many types of obstacles, but this article focuses on 'unpredictable inanimate moveable objects'. The analyses are based on recorded video material from 'naturally occurring' walks in a Danish urban area and are informed by ethnomethodology, with a focus on how blind or visually impaired people navigate and deal with trouble sources. This research unpacks the detailed features of navigation and obstacle-detection in the urban environment and demonstrates the value of using ethnomethodology to analyze the skilled character of everyday navigation in spaces in which the walker-with-cane is a kind of assemblage in harmony or at odds with other surfaces and objects. The findings have implications for space design and technology developments which can assist blind people with obstacle detection. The article uses empirical cases to discuss an ocular-centric bias and suggests the need for a more granular understanding of physical objects and tactile experiences in future developments of a sociology of space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban environment, understood as the environment changed by man, is represented by the city as a space for coexistence of individuals, endowed with an entire infrastructure composed of public goods and services, which aim at the wellbeing of its inhabitants. When people effectively participate in decision-making interest in cities, they feel more responsible for the outcome of their decisions, providing a political maturity of the population. In both Brazil and Portugal, the Master Plan is the main instrument for planning and regulating cities and the urban environment. The difference between them may lie in the fact that Brazil is one step ahead with popular participation in urban planning and participatory budgeting, probably due to the political and socio-economic characteristics of the country, and the needs that this condition imposes on its inhabitants. Regardless of both Brazil and Portugal already make great efforts in this direction, and the question of community involvement in the decision-making process, urban planning, and participatory budgeting is already addressed and considered (although at different levels, stages, and legal formalization), there is still much to be done in this direction to ensure the effective participation of the population in the construction and evolution of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal care of young is the norm in mammals because of internal gestation and lactation by females. Care by adults other than the mother is rare in most mammals but is common in primates, rodents, and carnivores. We studied parental care in an urban population of the San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica), a small canid endemic to the San Joaquin Desert in California. Kit fox family groups typically consist of a mated pair, the young-of-the-year, and occasionally older offspring from previous years known as helpers. The relative contributions of the parents and helpers to the rearing of young are unknown in San Joaquin kit foxes. We determined the relative time investment (den attendance), the tasks performed (e.g., provisioning and guarding), and the chronology of participation and tasks performed by adult group members in pup rearing. We classified group members into 3 categories (mother, father, and helper) and monitored them for 3 periods of the reproductive season (preparturition, nursing, and weaned). There was no difference in den attendance between periods, but there was a significant difference in den attendance by role. Mothers spent significantly more time at the den than either fathers or helpers. There was no significant difference between average provisioning events per hour per individual by role, but provisioning rates were significantly lower during the nursing period compared to the weaned period. Mothers provided the most direct care to young, while the role of fathers was primarily to guard the family and maintain the territory. Assistance provided by helpers supplemented the efforts of the mother and father and consisted primarily of guarding and some social interaction, especially play. Pups in groups with helpers were left unattended significantly less than pups in the group with no helpers, which may result in lower predation levels on pups. Helpers were likely tolerated because of a superabundance of food in the urban environment, but their presence may reduce pup-rearing costs for parents and enhance the successful rearing of the current litter. Future research should compare parental care in urban and nonurban kit foxes and determine whether helpers increase pup survival rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street-level environment characteristics influence the health behaviors and safety of urban residents, and may particularly threaten health within informal communities. However, available data on how such characteristics vary within and among informal communities is limited. We sought to adapt street audit strategies designed to characterize the physical environment for use in a large informal community, Rio das Pedras (RdP) located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A smartphone-based systematic observation protocol was used to gather street-level information for a high-density convenience sample of street segments (N = 630, estimated as 86% of all street segments in the community). We adapted items related to physical disorder and physical deterioration. Measures selected to illustrate the approach include the presence of the following: (1) low-hanging or tangled wires, (2) litter, (3) structural evidence of sinking, and (4) an unpleasant odor. Intercept-only spatial generalized additive models (GAM) were used to evaluate and visualize spatial variation within the RdP community. We also examined how our estimates and conclusions about spatial variation might have been affected by lower-density sampling from random subsets street observations. Random subsets were selected to determine the robustness of study results in scenarios with sparser street sampling. Selected characteristics were estimated to be present for between 18% (unpleasant odor) to 59% (low-hanging or tangled wires) of the street segments in RdP; estimates remain similar (± 6%) when relying on a random subset created to simulate lower-density spatial sampling. Spatial patterns of variation based on predicted probabilities across RdP differed by indicator. Structural sinking and low-hanging or tangled wires demonstrated relatively consistent spatial distribution patterns across full and random subset sample sizes. Smartphone-based systematic observations represent an efficient and potentially feasible approach to systematically studying neighborhood environments within informal communities. Future deployment of such tools will benefit from incorporating data collection across multiple time points to explore reliability and quantify neighborhood change. These tools can prove useful means to assess street-level exposures that can be modifiable health determinants across a wide range of informal urban settings. Findings can contribute to improved urban planning and provide useful information for identifying potential locations for neighborhood-scaled interventions that can improve living conditions for residents in Rio das Pedras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Upon request of the local administration a control campaign targeting commensal rats (Rattus rattus, R. exulans) was conducted in 30 sub‐districts (villages) of the World Heritage town Luang Prabang, Northern Laos, using rat bait containing lethal quantities of the parasitic protist Sarcocystis singaporensis. The associated investigations assessed the short‐term control efficacy, willingness of residents to co‐operate (community approach), and temporal and spatial changes of the urban rat population in response to treatment. RESULTS: Biological rodent control significantly reduced rodent activity (percentage of positive tracking patches) in the town, from a mean of 25.3% (±12.8% SD) before (January–February) down to 8.0% (±4.4%) after (June) treatment. Reduction of rodent activity relative to three untreated villages was 83%. Similarly, residents observed significantly fewer rats on their properties after the campaign (mean percentage of households (HHs) per village with sightings), whereby reduction of sightings amounted to 57%. There was significant correlation between residents' observation rates and rodent activity. Among 94 rats trapped before and after treatment each, proportions of adult R. exulans and juvenile R. rattus were higher after rodent control, suggesting that a considerable part of the adult house rat population had been removed. Furthermore, a 5% post‐campaign incidence of infection suggested that few rats had survived bait uptake. CONCLUSION: S. singaporensis may be used successfully as tactical biocontrol agent for culling of rats in urban environments. We propose additional components of a long‐term rodent management strategy for the town, without which the impact of culling campaigns would be limited. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study quantifies the multiscale structure of urban impervious surfaces (UIS) across space. • UIS exhibits power law scaling within local cities, but a staircase pattern beyond them. • The amount of UIS scales more tightly with urban area than with urban population size. • UIS increases faster than urban area but more slowly than urban population. • UIS can be predicted across space following a hierarchical scaling-ladder approach. Urban impervious surfaces (UIS) influence the structure and function of urban systems, and are widely considered a key indicator of urban environmental conditions. However, the amount and pattern of UIS both change with spatial scale, which complicates the computation and interpretation of UIS as an indicator. A better understanding of the spatial scaling relations of UIS is needed to resolve this predicament. Thus, the main objective of this study was to explore how UIS would change with increasing spatial extent and population size across urban hierarchical levels, using data from the three largest urban agglomerations in China. In addition, a comparative analysis of six world metropolitan regions was conducted to test the generality of the UIS scaling relations. Scalograms and standardized major axis regression were used to investigate the scaling relations with respect to spatial extent and city size, respectively. Our major findings include: (1) the total amount of UIS increased, whereas the percentage of UIS decreased, in a staircase-like fashion when the spatial extent of analysis expanded from within a local city to the entire urban agglomeration; (2) the spatial scaling of UIS followed a rather consistent and tight power law function within a local city, but became less consistent and less tight beyond a local city; (3) the scaling relations of the total amount of UIS were more consistent than those of the percentage of UIS, and the total amount of UIS scaled more tightly with urban area than with urban population size. These findings shed new light on the scale dependence of UIS, suggesting that a multiscale approach should be adopted for quantifying UIS and for using it as an urban environmental indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxi trajectory data contains the detailed spatial and temporal traveling information of urban residents. By using a clustering algorithm, the hotspots' distributions of pick-up and drop-off points can be extracted to explore the patterns of taxi traveling behaviors and its relationship with urban environment. Comparing with traditional methods that determine hotspots at a relatively large scale, we propose an approach to detect small-scale hotspots, so called docking points, to represent the local clusters in both sparse and dense stops areas. In this method, we divide the research area into grids and extract the docking points by finding local maximums of a certain range. The extracted docking points are classified into five levels for the subsequent analysis. Finally, to uncover detail characteristics of taxi mobility patterns, we analyze the distributions of docking points from three aspects – the overall, by day of the week, and by time of the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric concentrations of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xylene and oxylene) were measured in five different urban cities in Kuwait through the year of 2016. The overall mean of total BTEX in all sites tested in this study was 5.21 µg/m³ and it was found that the toluene level was the highest in all monitored sites. In terms of seasonal variations, BTEX concentrations were slightly higher in the winter than in the summer. This is plausibly due to higher chemical removal reaction rates of BTEX and to dust storm in the summer that eventually removes BTEX from the atmosphere. The diurnal patterns showed high records of BTEX concentrations in the morning (07:00-8:00 h) and during rush hours (19:00-21:00 h) in the evening, due to high volume of traffic and weak atmospheric dispersion and photochemical reactivity. Low records of BTEX concentrations were detected during midday, probably due to the high rate of photochemical reactions, to the increased mixing depth, to the upshifting of the urban boundary layer, and to the decreased traffic volume. Benzene/Toluene (B/T) and Xylene/ethylbenzene (X/E) ratios suggested that vehicular emissions were the main source of BTEX. Since individual pollutant exposure is associated with cancer risk (CR), BTEX concentrations are far from being safe for the population residing in these urban cities. According to individual hazard quotient (HQ), there is no serious threat of chronic non- cancer health effects in specific target organs for the urban cities population. A quite extensive review of BTEX in atmosphere was presented and it was found that the amount of BTEX in Kuwait was among the lowest compared with that of other cities in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green spaces are an essential component of urban environment due to their role in improving the quality of life by ensuring the quality of environmental factors and the health of the population as well as contributing to increased social inclusion by creating opportunities for people of all ages to interact through both informal social contact and participation in city events. From this perspective, this research aims to evaluate and analyze green spaces and recreational facilities in parks of Bucharest, in order to determine their role in the communities, for each of the six sectors and the entire Bucharest. This theme is linked with the human need to be closer to nature, even when choosing to live in a highly urbanized environment. In recent years, in Bucharest, more and more areas of green spaces suffered, being modified and replaced by various constructions. While the surface of the green spaces has decreased, the surface of the areas intended for recreation has also decreased. This paper is mainly aimed at presenting and analyzing the perception of residents regarding green spaces and recreational and leisure facilities in the Bucharest parks. The results of this study can be useful in the urban planning activity of the local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation and civic engagement in the urban planning process are societal trends that stretch across countries, cultures, and classes. After decades of communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc, where there was basically no civic participation, civic society in the Czech Republic began to engage in discussions with the authorities, and citizens became more active in local planning. In 1994 eleven municipalities started the Network of Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic as a platform for sharing good practices in sustainable development and local participation. In the last three years, members of the Network have used emotional mapping activities to facilitate and improve the process of participatory planning. This paper describes the timeline of development and the deployment of an emotional mapping methodology in various workshops in the Healthy Cities network. A total of forty-six emotional mapping workshops were organised in thirty-five municipalities of the Czech Republic. The paper presents the change from crayon-based maps to digital web-mapping platforms; and presents a case study of the Prague 12 district, where emotional mapping workshops were used to explore the perception of safety, among other issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing drift of urbanization and its impact on urban and regional settings are a major concern for Indian cities. It draws the attention of policymakers and researchers on the growing distress towards the future of cities and community wellbeing. In this context, livability can be interpreted as a degree of interactions between citizens and their surroundings. Focusing on the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) India, the empirical research is endeavouring to assess livability variations of constituent urban centers based on Integrated Urban Geographic Factors (IUGFs). These factors represent the spatial interactive association of an individual with his/her urban environment. ‘K’ means clustering algorithm has been identified to delineate KMA into ‘K’ number of clusters. In the final segment, the research has forwarded the interpretation through a validation obtained from a spot opinion survey among residents of the selected clusters to comprehend the livability variations for ensuring all-inclusive wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is expected to increase in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), and might contribute to the increased disease burden. The association between urbanization and CKD is incompletely understood among LMICs. Recently, Inoue et al., explored the association of urbanization on renal function from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. The study found that individuals living in an urban environment had a higher odds of reduced renal function independent of behavioral and cardiometabolic measures, and this effect increased in a dose dependent manner. In this commentary, we discuss the results of these findings and explain the need for more surveillance studies among LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are formed aiming to satisfy multiple expectations of their citizens. Among the most significant expectations are resources availability, related to existential needs, efficiency in communication and satisfaction of other contemporary civilization and cultural needs. However, pursuance to create conditions for those needs satisfaction necessarily leads to high level of urban area construction. Thus, sort of paradox appears: aspiration to improvement of living conditions leads to negative effects which jeopardize the health and lives of urban population. This fact requires holistic approach, i.e. consideration of all aspects of life's needs of urban population in order to provide their long term sustainability. This paper aims to consider some aspects of urban areas sustainability relative to blue green cities philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban background air pollution is the lowest level of pollution representative for the exposure of general urban population and mainly originates from non-local sources of pollution. Moss bag technique has been predominantly adopted for biomonitoring of trace elements across anthropogenically devastated areas, such as urban and industrial zones. However, the technique has been rarely used for measurement of background air pollution. In this study, element content and concomitant physiological parameters were assessed in the moss Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. after its exposure within the bags in the Botanical garden (Belgrade, Serbia), as the presumable background area. During the summer of 2014, the moss bags were exposed for 60 days in total, and the sample analyses were performed every 15 days. As a control of the measured physiological parameters, a set of the moss bags was kept within the phytotron, under conditions of optimal-like growth. The total content of 21 elements, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids), phenolics, and antioxidative capacity were determined in the moss samples. The levels of trace elements were markedly lower within the Botanical garden in comparison to the street ambient, but still significantly higher than in the moss pristine habitat. However, the performed physiological tests indicated that the vulnerability of the moss during exposure time was not caused by the low trace element enrichment, but probably by the harsh meteorological parameters in an urban area. Finally, the Botanical garden could be assumed as control site for measurement of the urban background pollution, and it might be effectively measured by the moss bag technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]