Search

This paper follows the basic principles of taxi dynamics and uses an agent-based modelling approach (ABM) to simulate the underlying road network, vehicles and passenger situations in an urban environment and to carry out evaluations. First, based on two evaluation metrics: passenger travel time and total number of passengers transported, a comparison is made between the ride-hailing system (RH) and the system with ridesharing under different supply and demand rates, revealing the impact of ridesharing on system efficiency at urban scale. Then, in the ridesharing system (RS), four levels of supply are taken as examples, and passenger travel time is disaggregated to quantify how the definition of vicinity in the matching process affects the passenger travel time, passenger waiting time and vehicle detour time in a given city. Finally, a summary of the level of supply and the range of vicinity where ridesharing can be effective is presented in terms of the total distance travelled by the system. From a city management perspective, these results can help in the analysis and planning of efficient transport services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insufficient accuracies of the low end position and orientation system (POS) used in low cost UAV LiDAR systems (ULSs) cause the direct georeferencing data to lead to poor point cloud quality. Trajectory correction and scan-to-map matching are two commonly used strategies for point cloud quality refinement. The existing trajectory correction strategies work with the assumption that POS errors can be modeled as a time-variant function, which cannot be applied to the low end POS. The existing scan-to-map matching methods have difficulty refining the ULS point clouds due to the large gaps between scan lines. This paper proposes HR-ULS, hierarchical refinement for low cost ULS point cloud quality in the urban environment, to solve these challenges. HR-ULS separated the raw laser scanning point clouds into a set of scan-blocks and refined the point cloud quality with a hierarchical strategy, resulting in local and global optimization, respectively. First, the internal scan-block matching (ISBM) estimated multiscale distributions for each laser frame and calculated relative motions iteratively to achieve local map consistency in each scan-block. Second, the multiview scan-block matching (MSBM) took inertial, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and laser measurements into a unified adjustment framework to correct the trajectory, achieving global map consistency between scan-blocks. Comprehensive experiments evaluated the proposed HR-ULS with the point clouds captured by a low-cost ULS in three typical urban areas. They showed that the average plane fitting RMSE of the ULS point clouds was improved from 0.34 m to 0.09 m, and the average checkpoint offset was improved from 1.86 m to 0.21 m, achieving an identical level of accuracy with that of direct georeferencing using a high end POS, APX-15-UAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exhibition is dedicated to the need to impose the geoformation model of development of the Bulgarian Black Sea municipalities. At the beginning, the need to impose intelligent development of the regions and in particular the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria was justified. Then the methods and the model of research are outlined. After that, the results of the research were outlined, recommendations and trends were made in the Black Sea municipalities. Aspects related to the imposition of the model of development of intelligent systems for management of the urban environment and the formation of a smart region on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City of Palma de Mallorca has been historically affected by flood events, with the latest flood of great magnitude occurring in 1962. After decades without large flooding events, since the start of the 21st century, 28 floods have been identified within the city boundaries. As change in the spatial location of these events has been observed, a research to identify where the floods are located nowadays and which causes can be related to such distribution has been undertaken. Six types of floods were identified and the events classified accordingly, with the deficient planned infrastructures, flat urban areas without defined drainage and coastal sectors the three most common types. The results highlight the importance of the urban sprawl and malpractices related to flood risk areas, thus increasing the occurrence of floods of less spatial impact but with greater disturbance on the daily activity of the city inhabitants. Nevertheless, some uncertainties are identified in this research, demonstrating the need of further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of urbanization on terrestrial thermal and hydrological changes should be considered for sustainable development of urban environment and economy. However, previous studies mainly focused on the impacts at short time scales, which is insufficient to provide the needed information. This study augmented the high‐resolution Conjunctive Surface‐Subsurface Process version 2 (CSSPv2) land model with an urban canopy model that incorporates domestic wastewater recharge (DWWR) and dynamical impervious surface area (ISA) to develop a new CSSPv2_Urban model and conducted 38‐year simulations over the Beijing metropolitan area at 1 km resolution to quantify the urbanization impacts. Compared with CSSPv2, CSSPv2_Urban decreases the root‐mean‐square errors in surface latent/sensible heat fluxes, near‐surface air temperature and land surface temperature by 15%–66%, increases Kling‐Gupta efficiency for streamflow by 27%–34%, and reproduces the observed long‐term trends of land surface temperature and streamflow. It also reduces the corresponding errors in the modern reanalysis products by up to 70%. The model sensitivity analyses showed that the urbanization over Beijing area contributed to 31% of the surface warming during 1979–2017 and kept the warming trend over the new development zone during 2000–2013 when global warming slowed down. Although the large fraction of ISA in the city center increased streamflow by generating more surface runoff, 39%–62% of the increasing trend of streamflow was caused by the increased DWWR. Our study highlights the importance of the urban heat island effect from a climatological perspective and suggests that the influences of urbanization on streamflow may be underestimated if ignoring DWWR. Plain Language Summary: Fast urbanization since last century has been modifying the terrestrial energy and water cycle significantly. However, quantifying urbanization's impacts on long‐term changes of terrestrial thermal and hydrological conditions at high spatial resolution, which is important for providing guidelines for urban sustainable development, is still in progress. Here, we added an urban canopy model that incorporates domestic wastewater recharge (DWWR) and dynamical impervious surface area (ISA) into the Conjunctive Surface–Subsurface Process version 2 (CSSPv2) land model and conducted high‐resolution (1 km) and long‐term (1979–2017) simulations over the Beijing metropolitan area to investigate the urbanization impacts. The newly developed CSSPv2_Urban model is superior to the CSSPv2 and modern reanalysis data sets in simulating the thermal and hydrological variables. Sensitivity analysis revealed that urbanization contributed to about 31% of the surface warming trend in Beijing and sustained the warming during 2000–2013 when the global warming slowed down. Moreover, increased ISA and DWWR during the urbanization were found to interpret the increasing streamflow trend by 30% and 51%, respectively. Thus, more attentions should be paid to the DWWR which is usually ignored in current urban models to better capture the hydrological influences of urbanization. Key Points: CSSPv2_Urban was developed with urban energy model, dynamic impervious surface area (ISA), and domestic wastewater recharge (DWWR) schemeCSSPv2_Urban 1 km high‐resolution simulation outperformed modern reanalysis for energy and water cycle over Beijing metropolitan areaSimulation suggests that ISA and DWWR contributed to 30% and 51% of the increasing streamflow trend during 1979–2017 near Beijing city center [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensitivity of the PALM model 6.0 with respect to land-surface and building properties is tested in a real urban environment in the vicinity of a typical crossroads in a densely built-up residential area in Prague, Czech Republic. The turbulence-resolving PALM is able to simulate the urban boundary layer flow for realistic setups. Besides an accurate representation of the relevant physical processes, the model performance also depends on the input data describing the urban setup, namely the building and land-surface properties. Two types of scenario are employed. The first one is the synthetic scenarios altering mainly surface and material parameters such as albedo, emissivity or wall conductivity, testing sensitivity of the model simulations to potentially erroneous input data. Second, urbanistic-type scenarios are analysed, in which commonly considered urban heat island mitigation measures such as greening of the streets or changing surface materials are applied in order to assess the limits of the effects of a particular type of scenario. For the synthetic scenarios, surface parameters used in radiation balance equations are found to be the most sensitive overall followed by the volumetric heat capacity and thermal conductivity of walls. Other parameters show a limited average effect; however, some can still be significant during some parts of the day, such as surface roughness in the morning hours. The second type, the urbanistic scenarios, shows urban vegetation to be the most effective measure, especially when considering both physical and biophysical temperature indicators. The influence of both types of scenario was also tested for air quality, specifically PM 2.5 dispersion, which generally shows opposite behaviour to that of thermal indicators; i.e. improved thermal comfort brings deterioration of PM 2.5 concentrations. [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]

Urbanisation is a transformative process that can dramatically reshape land surfaces. Archaeologists working in urban environments are often required to relate the outcomes of this process to the archaeological record. This is particularly true for pre-European Aboriginal cultural heritage, where the enduring presence of pre-contact ground surfaces has important implications for cultural heritage management. Accurately predicting which parts of a city have increased or decreased in elevation historically could provide archaeologists with a new means of assessing archaeological potential. In this paper we present a methodology for modelling historical landscape change using nineteenth century topographic maps and GIS. To demonstrate the approach, changes in elevation between 1853 and 1895 were modelled across Melbourne's central business district (the Hoddle Grid). The results of that modelling were then related to contemporary heritage inventories. When coupled with historical research, this form of landscape modelling could produce valuable insights about city formation, industrial era activity, and the ways city dwellers domesticate space in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Estudios de la Administración Local y Autonómica is the property of Instituto Nacional de Administracion Publica 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.)

Urban environments can be deemed 'harsh' for some wildlife species, but individuals frequently show behavioural flexibility to cope with challenges and demands posed by life in the city. For example, urban animals often show better performance in solving novel problems than rural conspecifics, which helps when using novel resources under human-modified environments. However, which characteristics of urban environments fine-tune novel problem-solving performance, and their relative importance, remain unclear. Here, we examined how four urban environmental characteristics (direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance, size of green coverage and squirrel population size) may potentially influence novel problem-solving performance of a successful 'urban dweller', the Eurasian red squirrel, by presenting them with a novel food-extraction problem. We found that increased direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance and a higher squirrel population size decreased the proportion of solving success at the population level. At the individual level, an increase in squirrel population size decreased the latency to successfully solve the novel problem the first time. More importantly, increased direct human disturbance, squirrel population size and experience with the novel problem decreased problem-solving time over time. These findings highlight that some urban environmental characteristics shape two phenotypic extremes in the behaviour-flexibility spectrum: individuals either demonstrated enhanced learning or they failed to solve the novel problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decades, urbanization has been highlighted as one of the main causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Among organisms commonly associated with urban environments, ants occupy urbanized green areas and can live both inside and around human settlements. However, despite the increasing number of studies on the ecological dynamics of ant species developed mainly in temperate urban ecosystems, there is still little knowledge about the behavioral strategies that allow ant species to live and even thrive within cities. In this study, we evaluated the role of urbanization in shaping ant communities, including their social foraging, considering built cover as a gradually changing variable that describes an urban gradient. Specifically, we assessed whether species richness, composition, and the proportion of exotic ant species are related to an urban gradient in a medium-sized Neotropical city immersed in a cloud forest context in Mexico. Moreover, we evaluated the social foraging strategies that could promote ant species coexistence in an urban environment. In general, and contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that the built cover gradient affected the richness, composition, or proportion of exotic ant species foraging on food resources, indicating a filtering and simplification of ant communities given by urbanization. Moreover, we show for the first time that urban ant species exhibited a "discovery-defense strategy", whereby the ant species with the greatest capacity to discover new food resources were those that showed the greatest ability to monopolize it after 120 min of observation, regardless of the type of resource (i.e., tuna or honey bait). Our findings have a direct impact on the knowledge about how urbanization shapes ant communities and behavior, by showing the foraging strategies of ant species that feed on similar food resources present that allows them to coexist in urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of phenotypic change are greater in cities than in any other habitat. Consequently, urban habitats are an ideal experimental area to study contemporary evolution and adaptation. A key question related to phenotypic changes in urban animals relates to the patterns of gene flow between the city and the natural habitats surrounding cities, but the results obtained thus far have been contradictory. The aim of this study was to analyze genetic differentiation and patterns of gene flow and size variation in urban blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus in Barcelona city, using a panel of 26 microsatellites. We compared birds from one locality at the city center, one at the suburban area, and one in a nearby forest. We found a significant genetic differentiation between the populations, which has evolved over a period of about 35 generations (50 years), based on historical data. There was significant gene flow between all populations. There was no significant asymmetric gene flow between the forest and the other two populations, which is consistent with balanced gene flow and dispersal. City birds were smaller than individuals from the forest. Simulations showed that the selection required to achieve these phenotypic differences would have to be high, which in turn suggests that phenotype-dependent dispersal may be involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The next-generation systems are expected to be largely cyber–physical systems (CPSs) that autonomously control physical processes, through sensors and actuators typically in real-time feedback and cooperative control loops distributed among physical and cyber environments. The rapid technological advancements enhance the smartness of these CPSs, pushing their boundaries of performance and efficiency by embedding new information and communication technologies. However, to what extent CPSs should be smarter so that they do not compromise safety and security of safety critical systems? is an open research question. Towards this goal, the purpose of this study is to establish a grounded theory to analyse what makes these systems smart? and eventually, how to find a balance between smartness and safety risks? In this precinct, this article aims to develop a conceptual framework, define the dimensions and derive the characteristics that make CPSs smart. The proposed approach combines an automated informetric and systematic analysis of literature pertinent to the topic of smartness across anthropology, science, engineering and technology. The analysis of a case study building and the discussions presented herein support the connection between the existing understanding of CPSs and smartness offered by the building design approach in urban environment. • A generic framework to comprehend smartness of CPS is conceptualized. • Case study exemplifies practical understanding of smartness in an urban environment. • Analysis establishes a new conceptual foundation that contemporary buildings are CPSs. • Introduces the link between cyber-physical hazards and building designs in the AEC industry. [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]

The aim of this symposium is to examine the situation of the creative economy in cities—specifically cities of sub‐Saharan Africa. In this introduction we set out the case for the need to 're‐describe' the (much derided) phenomenon of the creative city. This task requires clarification of what is understood in academe and policy communities by the term 'creative economy', the pronounced growth of this sector, particularly in the global South, and its particular urban character. Secondly, in the face of conceptual and policy confusion we argue for the actually existing, and growing, importance of the urban creative economy. Thirdly, with this ground clearing achieved, we seek to frame, and focus on, the emergence of new research on the urban creative economy. Finally, we use the evidence from the symposium contributions to argue for a reformulation of the creative economy within African sub‐Saharan urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban air pollution is one of the most important environmental problems. Lichens are good bioindicators in air pollution studies because of their dependence on the atmospheric deposition for nutrition. The present study focused on the effects of urbanization on the composition of atmospheric deposition inputs and physiological parameters of transplanted epiphytic lichen Ramalina farinacea. The status of lichens responded to urban pollutants related to vehicle and industrial activity (NO3−, Ca2+, Mg2+, NO2, PM10). The content of chlorophyll and FV/FM were positively related to the amount of precipitation (mm) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The increase in lipid peroxidation and electrolyte conductivity, indicating damage to the cell membrane, was found in lichens transplanted to the urban environment. The high variability in electrolyte conductivity indicated that cell membrane injuries were characteristics of the investigated study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent urban analysis has emphasised the 'big moves' – planetary scales, extensive processes, major actors, mega-developments and substantial financial flows – important in accounting for a seemingly all-encompassing urbanisation. Still, significant volumes of the urban environment have historically been shaped by the collaborative efforts of residents and their associative institutions. These were collaborations largely operating without formal contracts or consensus, piecing together concrete places capable of holding different practices and sentiments and, as such, rarely became sedentary, even if conditions and power relations might have appeared fixed. These forms included and exceeded clear demarcations of entities (individual, household, social), with, for example, the operations of the digital media increasingly beyond the apprehension of human cognition, making it increasingly unclear 'who is the what that does something to whom.' As a result, the terms and economies of such collaborations amongst residents – their acts of autoconstruction – have become more complex and precarious, particularly as residents emphasise the importance of mobility, flexible commitments and individual aspirations. Hence, urban environments are elaborated in ways not captivated by plans, measures or even advanced computational analyses, and there are many ways that residents continue to operate in concert but without discernible mobilisation or organisation. Focusing on temporariness – not as a specific sector or set of practices but as a constellation of efforts to generate something of value – and drawing upon fieldwork across different sites in Indonesia, this lecture explores the new terrain of urban invention by poor, working and lower middle-class residents in the wake of its purported demise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the invention of electric lighting, artificial light at night (ALAN) has become a defining, and evolutionary novel, feature of human-altered environments especially in cities. ALAN imposes negative impacts on many organisms, including disrupting endocrine function, metabolism, and reproduction. However, we do not know how generalized these impacts are across taxa that exploit urban environments. We exposed brown anole lizards, an abundant and invasive urban exploiter, to relevant levels of ALAN in the laboratory and assessed effects on growth and reproduction at the start of the breeding season. Male and female anoles exposed to ALAN increased growth and did not suffer increased levels of corticosterone. ALAN exposure induced earlier egg-laying, likely by mimicking a longer photoperiod, and increased reproductive output without reducing offspring quality. These increases in growth and reproduction should increase fitness. Anoles, and potentially other taxa, may be resistant to some negative effects of ALAN and able to take advantage of the novel niche space ALAN creates. ALAN and both its negative and positive impacts may play a crucial role in determining which species invade and exploit urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on urbanism. Topics discussed include historical urban environments in modernist urban design, analysis of the relationship between architecture and urban space by urbanists Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter; and the 1990s urbanization dynamics which showed parallels with the early post-war period regarding growing suburbanization and sprawl.

Bengaluru's clement weather has long been a defining factor of the urban imaginary, earning it the title of India's naturally "air‐conditioned city." Over the past three decades, escalating temperatures have changed the urban climate and challenged this understanding of the city. The "rising temperatures narrative" has become a common form of lament among native and long‐term middle‐class residents of Bengaluru (Bangalore). This narrative links hotter temperatures with the past three decades of rapid urbanization to critique uncontrolled urban growth and associated changes in the urban ecology. In telling a story about the effects of urbanization on local weather patterns, the rising temperatures narrative refuses the spatial and temporal effects of global climate change in favor of more locally and politically salient attributions. Yet the critique that this narrative generates is anchored in class‐specific experiences and historical relationships to the city. In its nostalgic descriptions of the city that came before, the rising temperatures narrative draws a line of distinction between "old" and "new" middle‐class residents of Bengaluru. The rising temperatures narrative thus exposes the ambiguities and complexities of middle‐class life in the rapidly developing city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How the urban environment influences vegetation phenology is important to understand the living environment and the climate‐vegetation interaction. This study investigates changes in vegetation phenology in the urban environment using remote sensing data for 32 major cities in the Northern Hemisphere. Vegetation phenological information for both urban and rural areas of each individual city was derived from the remote sensing data. We found that the urban environment generally enhanced vegetation growth but at varied degrees for different regions in the Northern Hemisphere. Vegetation phenology metrics, including the start of season (SOS), the end of season (EOS), and the growing season length (GSL), have large differences between urban and rural environment. Vegetation SOS in urban areas occurred earlier than in rural areas for 22 in 32 cities, and the relationships between advanced urban SOS and the distance away from urban centers are significant for 9 cities. Vegetation EOS in urban areas occurred later than in rural areas for 19 in 32 cities, and the relationships between delayed urban EOS and the distance away from urban centers are significant for 10 cities. The response of SOS to the urban environment is found dependent upon the latitude of urban centers and urban spring daytime and nighttime temperatures. Analysis on ground observational records of vegetation phenology in the region of North America supports the findings derived from remote sensing data. These findings could help to understand the impacts of the urban environment on vegetation growth. Key Points: We investigate vegetation phenology variation for 32 major cities in the Northern HemisphereVegetation phenological metrics have large differences between urban and rural environmentVegetation growth is enhanced in the urban environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Annals-XXI / Ekonomìčnij Časopis-XXI is the property of Institute of Society Transformation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article draws on in-depth research on the nature and intensity of neighbour relations in an area in Peckham, London, which underwent urban regeneration aimed at improving the urban environment and increasing the area's tenure mix. Drawing on the literature on neighbouring, the article explores residents' perceptions and attitudes towards their neighbours and the dynamics of their routine interactions. Despite findings pointing towards a general atmosphere of cordiality and solidarity, interactions were casual, coexisted with prejudiced views towards certain groups and areas, and were viewed by residents as part of their everyday social practices of community. As a result, very little else was exchanged between tenures, putting into question some policy assumptions that the increased physical proximity between housing tenures can potentially lead to instrumental interaction that can benefit low-income households in social housing. Reflecting on these findings, the article discusses some implications that have relevance for policy and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the broad celebration of Brazil's urban reform movement, recent events in Brazil have called attention to a paradox focused on the disappointing results of this movement to deal with Brazil's complex urban context. Taking this "impasse" as a starting point, this article focuses on the role of politics and its relationship to economic interests in urban development in which much decision making around urban policy takes place to understand why Brazil's progressive legislation has not succeeded in creating a more just and equitable urban environment. Using a case study of the city of Niterói, I show that patterns of state and nonstate actors are connected through both formal and informal relationships, and connections between public and private actors have a considerable impact on urban politics and policies. Focusing on the limits of participatory processes in Niterói, I call attention to the contradictions of participatory planning in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The response of small carnivores to urban environments is poorly studied. • We tested an effect of land cover, food base and built-up area on the least weasel occurrence. • Weasels colonize only non-isolated fragments of urban environment. • Food base (abundance of rodents) also limit the occurrence of weasels. • The occurrence of weasel can be an indicator of well-planned urban greenery. Abstract Terrestrial mammalian carnivores are generally sensitive to urbanization. Yet, some mesocarnivores have adapted to the urban and suburban environment. The response of small carnivores to urbanization is poorly studied, partly due to methodological difficulties. We assessed the impact of urbanization on a representative of small carnivores – the least weasel Mustela nivalis. Data from 254 trapping sessions of monitoring small mammals (27 810 trap-days) conducted in different urbanized and non-urbanized habitats (Poland, Central Europe) were used and analysed in a logistic regression model. The probability of occurrence of weasels was tested in relation to the land cover type, abundance of rodents (weasel's food base), proportion of a built-up area (on the 500 m radius buffer) and trapping effort. The weasel avoided urban areas and if the percentage of a built-up area was higher than 32% the probability of occurrence of the weasel was low (P < 0.5). Within urbanized areas, least weasel were only detected on the outskirts of a city or in the valleys of large rivers. Conversely, habitat type did not predict the presence of least weasel in non-urbanized areas. The possible reasons for the lack of the weasel in urban green areas are narrow food specialization (mainly rodents as prey; no use of anthropogenic food sources), high energetic demands, and fragmentation and isolation of green areas. Despite the high ecological plasticity of this species, the strong negative response of the least weasel to urbanization causes that their occurrence can be an indicator of well-planned urban greenery. The occurrence of the least weasel indicates both the functional connectivity of green areas in the city and the abundance and availability of the prey base – ground-dwelling animals from lower trophic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although large and medium-sized herbivorous mammals avoid urbanized areas, they have recently begun to colonize towns and cities. In general, ungulates continue to avoid the centres of urban areas, and utilize mainly their thinly built-up outskirts. While extension of urban development is preventing ungulates from penetrating the urban landscape, the influence of noise and light pollution on the occurrence of mammalian herbivores is still poorly understood. Hence, we investigated the hypothesis that habitat availability shapes the distribution of roe deer Capreolus capreolus and artificial lightening discourages them from penetrating the urban landscape. Roe deer was recorded on 37% of randomly selected sample plots (N = 60) located within the city of Kraków (S Poland). The occupied plots contained significantly more open habitats, woodland patches were larger in them, but proximity to rivers, and noise and light pollution were significantly lower. The logistic regression model revealed that an increasing area of open habitats was positively correlated with the probability of roe deer occurring. However, the artificial lighting at night was negatively correlated with the probability of the species occurring: the negative effect of light pollution was mitigated by the greater area of open habitats. Our study highlights the very considerable potential of light pollution as a predictor of the occurrence of large mammals in the urban landscape. We argue that urbanization and the related artificial lighting at night may be a factor preventing ungulates from penetrating potentially suitable habitats in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are some of the most complex dynamical systems in human societies and in nature. There is growing interest in producing more comprehensive quantitative theory, capable of describing many of the features now observable in urban environments, especially those that show empirical regularities across cities of different sizes, geographies, and levels of development. The principal challenge of achieving such a goal is our ability to build frameworks that include realistic but simple accounts of agents' choices and strategic behavior, beyond current approaches in statistical physics or economics. Here, I propose a general framework that integrates agents' behavior with their resource and information management towards seizing opportunities in their environment. I show how this approach integrates urban scaling theory with a statistical mechanics of open-ended (economic) growth. The framework is general and, with appropriate modifications and elaborations, can account for the statistical dynamics of other complex systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Images are mentally stored information about the perceived environment and based on direct interaction of human beings with the environment, previous knowledge about that environment, the differences in human ability to navigate, and the task at hand. The perceived environmental information is assessed in the mind, stored as mental images and used to direct the following actions. GPS-based navigation systems, on the contrary, offer precise descriptions of a particular environment and explanations for reaching a specific target. These systems have become an integral part of daily routine through mobile phone applications. However, the use of these systems limits the visual and tactile relationship of individuals with the environment and diminishes the holistic experience and profoundness of a live mental image. Therefore, the effects of GPS-based navigation systems on mental image formation process need to be investigated in the research of spatial perception. The aim of this study is to discuss the effects of wayfinding methods used on perception and image formation in urban environments. In the field study, two different urban patterns -one organic and the other conceived- were chosen. One group of participants proceeded to a specific target in both urban patterns by relying only on GPS-based navigation devices, while the other group found their way by asking dwellers for the directions. After completing their routes, all participants were asked to draw cognitive maps of the wayfinding tasks, and then a structured survey was conducted. Analysis of the resulting data was conducted through the comparison of the experiences completed by the use of GPS-based navigation systems and by route enquiries. According to the results of the study, in an unfamiliar urban environment, the use of GPS-based navigation systems during wayfinding did not prevent the storage of perceived environmental information or clues as mental images and this mentally stored information was used to direct the future actions in that environment. It was revealed that the dominant mental images that emerged during the wayfinding were landmarks. Highlights • The use of a navigation device during wayfinding does not affect image formation. • Mental images perceived while using a device, direct future actions with no assistance of a device. • Environmental information is used to ensure the accuracy of the route on the device. • Dominant mental images that emerge during the wayfinding are landmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animals that live in cities face a number of challenges particular to the urban environment that may impact on overall health and survival. Nevertheless, relatively few studies have investigated injury and health in urban species. We measured body condition, injury rate and fluctuating asymmetry in urban and forest populations of the tropical lizard Anolis cristatellus. We found that although there were strong differences in body condition between urban and forest populations, the direction of this difference varied between municipalities. We also found that injury rates (amputated digits and bone fractures) were slightly, but significantly, more common in urban populations; this phenomenon may be due to changes in intraspecific interactions or predation pressure in urban sites. Contrary to our expectations, we found that fluctuating asymmetry was greater in forest compared to urban populations. Because our data were collected from adults, this may be a sign of stronger natural selection on the symmetry of functional traits in urban than in forest environments. Finally, we found no persuasive evidence that city living is inherently detrimental to individuals of this species despite a slightly higher rate of injury. Being able to overcome the challenges of city life may be integral to urban persistence and a step along the path to urban adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial planning affects the way in which cities are created and developed, as well as their economics and welfare. It does so by constructing institutional frameworks that frequently undergo states of contradiction and demands for adjustment and revision. This situation is particularly evident by looking at the way in which urban facilities have been planned during the twentieth century. The article explores the issue of urban facility planning in Italy by taking into account the adaptations of the institutional framework governing and regulating their supply. In particular, it explores the central contradictions which guided reforms and revisions of urban facility planning in Italy, starting from the post-war period until now, and the main problems left unsolved after years of attempts at innovation aiming at a more flexible and quality-oriented approach. In order to contribute to this debate, specific policy implications and devices are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper raises the problem of the impact of unregulated property and ownership rights on the development of the city centre. It applies to Warsaw as a post-socialist city that has recorded fast economic growth since the country’s communist regime collapsed in 1989. We follow the course of changes in the city centre of Warsaw, in particular, those pertaining to land use and high-rise buildings for office use as investments that encounter difficulties under the unregulated status of construction sites and lack of clear regulations for private property restitution that was nationalized under socialism. To describe and explain the difficulties, we provide data showing the location of large companies and office buildings, and examples of conflicts as well. Unregulated ownership issues and property rights weigh on Warsaw’s city centre, now vastly dispersing and gravitating westwards, and prevent the district from rational and effective development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the European level, several strategic documents concerned with spatial and urban development have been published during the last decades. While these documents are essential to communicate European ideas and objectives, they are often regarded least influential in practice due to their abstract nature, legally non-binding status and lack of allocated resources. Though these limitations apply to the EU Urban Agenda, this recently published policy paper introduces partnerships as a new implementation tool. The partnerships can be regarded as innovative in two respects: On the one hand, they involve new actors, most importantly cities, in European policy debates. On the other hand, they ensure the anchorage of the Urban Agenda with a broad range of actors at various spatial scales without challenging its legally non-binding status. The Urban Agenda can thus be understood as another example of the move towards soft European spatial planning and urban development. This article investigates the notion of partnership as a soft planning and governance tool within the Urban Agenda. Moreover, based on expert interviews, it presents early opinions and expectations of actors involved in the development of the Urban Agenda and the partnerships on affordable housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the Daily Urban System (DUS) has gained relevance over the past decades as the entity to examine and explain the functionality of the urban landscape. Daily Urban Systems are usually defined and measured by the strength of commuter or shopper flows between the nodes of the system. It is important to realize that these Daily Urban Systems are the accumulated pattern of individuals making frequent, recurring trips to other localities than their own. Understanding the microeconomic decisions behind these spatial interactions will help in assessing the functional and spatial structure of DUS. In this paper is explored how, based on Dutch empirical data, the individual household’s spatial interactions shape the daily urban system and how the destination of these interactions correlates with personal and spatial variables and motives for interaction. The results show that the occurrence of non-local spatial interactions can be explained by the size-based Christallerian hierarchy of the localities of residence, but that it is the regional population - or market potential - that explains and moderates the sorting of households and the intensity and direction of their spatial interactions in the DUS, matching agglomeration theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Thermal contributions of urban land use types on Urban Heat Island effect were quantified. • Land Contribution Index was proposed for measuring such contribution of respective land use type in different seasons. • The area of Urban Heat Island in Wuhan had been expanding during 2005–2015 in line with the continuous urbanization. • Construction land provides the maximum amounts of heat, while green spaces are alleviated to Urban Heat Island. • Positive or negative thermal contributions of different land use types are less remarkable in winter. Abstract Urban Heat Island (UHI) is an urban climate phenomenon which is expected to respond to the change of urban environment and land use types in the future. UHI is closely related to urbanization and urban land use changes, since the expansion of impervious surface greatly affects the thermodynamic properties of the underlying surface. New ways to measure and assess the inner quantitative relationship between land use types and UHI are thus critical to answer the questions in this field. This paper presents a new method for better quantifying the contribution of respective land use type on UHI with the proposed Land Contribution Index (LCI). Seasonal thermal contribution of each land use type to UHI can be calculated based on the difference in average temperatures between a certain land use type and the entire study area. The experiment was conducted in Wuhan, China during 2005–2015 when the city was in rapid urbanization. Results indicate that the UHI effect has become more prominent in areas of rapid urbanization in the study area, and strong UHI (including high level and extremely high level) accounted for 8.56% of the whole region in 2015 compared with 2005 (3.35%). In addition, through analyzing temporal and spatial patterns of the distribution of UHI, increasing UHI areas were mainly distributed in the central and western parts of the city during 2005–2009, and then migrated to the surroundings from 2011. Furthermore, based on the calculation of LCI, construction land had the highest contribution to the UHI effect in the summer of 2015, while water body had conversely the lowest contribution to the UHI effect in the spring of 2005. Urban green space including forest land and agricultural land had intensively negative contributions to the UHI effect, and their alleviating functions on the thermal environment were less remarkable in winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban metabolism has been advanced as an approach to quantifying energy and resource use and supply in the modern urban system. It is a multidisciplinary approach focused on providing insight into the behaviour of cities for drafting effective proposals for a more humane and ecologically responsible future. Urban metabolism indicators could play an important role in promoting the science and practice of urban metabolism for sustainability. This paper presents a systematic review of literature centred on defining sustainabilityaimed urban metabolism indicators to improve the integration of urban metabolism and urban sustainability. Furthermore, this paper concentrates on two indicator sets (emergy synthesis and material flow analysis [MFA]), examining the relationship between these indicators and the three dimensions of sustainability (environment, economy, and society) in the literature. The paper thus builds a bridge between urban metabolism and urban sustainability in the hope that urban metabolism indicators can be used to measure and assess urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]