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Transit-oriented developments (TODs), as a smart growth policy, have gained popularity as a way to combat the negative effects of urban sprawl. TODs are also purported to have both environmental and socio-economic benefits. However, little or no research exists regarding their environmental impact, specifically in high-latitude cities. This study aims to bridge the knowledge gap in the literature by analyzing the relationship between TODs and the urban heat island (UHI) effect, which is an environmental phenomenon that results in high temperatures in urban areas. We studied seven transit stations in the city of Edmonton, Canada designated as sites of transition to TODs, to determine the extent of UHI effects in TODs in high-latitude cities. Our results show a significant UHI effect in Edmonton's TOD-designated (TODD) areas over the last decade compared to non-TODD areas. The variation was mainly linked to the reduced vegetation cover at the expense of increasing developments. Although non-TODD areas also experienced an increase in temperature, the rate of increase in land surface temperature (LST) and UHI effect was higher in the select TODD areas. Our findings suggest urban planners should consider UHI mitigation strategies such as preserving or increasing natural landscape as a key requirement to developing and designing the newly built forms in TODD areas. Keywords: urban heat island; transit-oriented developments; surface temperature, high-latitude city, Edmonton Les am nagements ax s sur les transports en commun (TOD), en tant que politique de croissance intelligente, ont gagn en popularit comme moyen de lutter contre les effets n gatifs de l' talement urbain. Ce type d'am nagement sont galement cens s pr senter des avantages la fois environnementaux et socio- conomiques. Cependant, il existe tr s peu de recherches sur leur impact environnemental, en particulier dans les villes des hautes latitudes. Cette tude vise combler le manque de connaissances dans la litt rature en analysant la relation entre les TOD et l'effet d' lot de chaleur urbain (UHI), qui est un ph nom ne environnemental entra nant des temp ratures lev es dans les zones urbaines. Nous avons tudi sept stations de transport en commun de la ville d'Edmonton (Canada) d sign es comme sites de transition vers les TOD, afin de d terminer l' tendue des effets de l'UHI dans les TOD dans les villes de haute latitude. Nos r sultats montrent un effet UHI significatif dans les zones d sign es TOD (TODD) d'Edmonton au cours de la derni re d cennie par rapport aux zones non TODD. La variation tait principalement li e la r duction de la couverture v g tale au d triment de l'augmentation des am nagements. Bien que les zones non TODD aient galement connu une augmentation de la temp rature, le taux d'augmentation de la temp rature de la surface des terres (LST) et l'effet UHI taient plus lev s dans les zones TODD s lectionn es. Nos r sultats sugg rent que les urbanistes devraient consid rer les strat gies d'att nuation de l'UHI, telles que la pr servation ou l'augmentation du paysage naturel, comme une condition essentielle au d veloppement et la conception des formes nouvellement construites dans les zones TODD. Mots-cl s : lot de chaleur urbain ; D veloppements ax s sur le transport en commun ; Temp rature de surface, ville des hautes latitudes, Edmonton, Introduction By 2050, cities are anticipated to house 60% of the world's population (United Nations 2014). As cities grow, they will continue to expand outward, consuming greenfield areas to make [...]

Canada occupies a leadership role in resettling refugees as part of the United Nation's durable solutions to the global refugee crisis. Although resettlement is an important demonstration of international solidarity, it also poses many challenges for policymakers in terms of optimizing integration and settlement outcomes for refugees. Under the Canadian Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP), government officials are responsible for choosing the communities to which Government Assisted Refugees (GARs) are matched and destined. While a significant amount of research has focused on the socio-economic outcomes of resettled refugees, there is a dearth of contemporary research outlining the substantive aspects of matching and destining GARs to their new homes in Canada. Mismatches can lead to refugees' secondary migration, resulting in complicated trajectories of resettlement and integration. Based on interviews with key government officials and settlement providers, this study investigates the factors considered by the Canadian government, specifically, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), when making the match and assesses how they play out in the destining process by focusing on Ontario as a case study. The findings suggest that while factors such as availability of specialized medical services, family and friend connections, and a community's settlement capacity are deemed important, the resettlement process lacks consideration of refugees' individual characteristics and neglects to look at refugees' human capital. The study has strong policy implications for designing and crafting an optimized destining and matching process that gives due consideration to refugee empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group and collective rights are human rights, but such rights emerge when the members of a group are discriminated against in order to protect the group temporarily or in perpetuity, depending on how long the discrimination lasts. Studies investigating urban issues from the lens of a group right or collective right are almost non-existent. Using Kymlicka’s rights framework and relying on empirical work in the French-speaking Quebec province in Canada, the research concludes that Québec municipalities are fraught with tensions between individual and group rights and collective rights, resulting in issues related to places of worship, land development and commercial signage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A disproportionate number of Indigenous people are homeless in Canada—a situation that is particularly grave in Canada's North. This study assesses the extent of the current housing and homelessness problem and identifies contributing factors in the Tłıchǫ region of the Northwest Territories (NWT). It concludes that the housing and homelessness issue is severe, with one of the four communities in the region—Behchokǫ̀—being the site with the most persistent and longstanding concerns. It asserts that the territorial government's housing approach in the Tłıchǫ region fails to align with the best practice model employed for Indigenous housing in remote geographies. The study elaborates on how multiple, interrelated factors, such as ongoing impacts of Canada's colonial past and welfare system, sociocultural shifts within the Indigenous community, the constraints of a remote geography, and past and current housing policies, contribute to housing insecurity and homelessness. The study also offers some potential solutions and recommendations to deal with this crucial housing issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate governance studies suggest that the way climate risk and vulnerability are conceptualized, defined, and managed has consequences for people and places. In this paper, we analyze how different climate risk discourses and their vulnerability portrayals are constructed and have evolved in Bhubaneswar city in India. We conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis of various climate action plans and policy documents, as well as a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews to interpret their discursive positions on climate issues. Based on our findings, we highlight three main discourses through which risk is constructed – discourses of inevitability, collocation, and intrinsic necessity. The vulnerability portrayals across these discourses are undergoing a transition from a pure outcome vulnerability approach toward a context-based approach, while their framings range from vulnerability to events, places, and social groups. The intertwining of discursive constructions of risk and vulnerability contributes toward constantly forming and re-forming risk and governance objects (and subjects), and the reproduction and resistance to certain forms of knowledge that limit and enable governance responses to climate change at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary goal of this research is to examine the effect of loads, sliding velocity, and sliding distance on CNT added glass fibre reinforced polymer composite sliding in the inert gas condition. The wear performance of the CNT added GFRP composite sliding towards the steel alloy wheel was analysed by important tribological parameters. The results clearly show the subjective influences of the wear parameters and their impact on the rate of wear and the coefficient of friction (COF). The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) confirms the potential spectrum of responses. Also, it defines the optimum value of process factors like applied load, sliding distance, and sliding velocity, which results in a decreased response over the long life of the composite applied. The optimum solution for wear rate and COF, predicted using the design of experiment (DOE) technique in conjunction with the RSM methodology, allows users to choose the appropriate wear rate and COF combination. The asperities on the disc and the pin are well separated under inert gas conditions. Furthermore, because asperity contacts provide the least frictional heat, the development of wear debris is significantly delayed. As a result, the COF and wear rate are both at their lowest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant part of urban theory now engages with southern cities. In this paper, we synthesize the various theoretical propositions and influential concepts that have shaped the rapidly emerging field of southern urbanism in urban studies. We conduct a systematic review of the literature that engages with the idea of southern urbanism. We trace the origins and theoretical landscape of southern urbanism, from being characterized as the global South to being deployed as a theoretical strategy to critique all urban theory. We synthesize the most influential concepts that have attempted to describe observed phenomena in the southern urban space. We identify seven characteristics that dominate the everyday realities of southern cities, making them distinct from their northern counterparts. In addition, we identify existing gaps in the literature and discuss their implications for research in planning. In the discussion, we attempt to create a simplified conceptual toolbox that can be useful for future studies in southern cities' contexts. We conclude the paper by providing a framework using five characteristics of southern cities as potential starting points in future inquiries in urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]