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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 [...]

This document serves as an introduction to a special edition of the journal Planning Practice & Research, which focuses on the challenges and progress related to rights in urban planning. It explores violations of rights in cities, such as discriminatory planning policies and practices, and highlights progress made at the local level. The document discusses various rights, including human, Indigenous, housing, and property rights, and how municipal governments and planners are responding to these challenges. It also discusses the concepts of the right to the city and rights in the city, as well as the importance of freedoms in exercising rights. The text further explores the adoption and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Canada, particularly in British Columbia, and examines the broader issue of rights and freedoms in cities worldwide, including property rights, the right to housing, and freedom of speech. The special edition of articles included in the text covers a range of topics related to rights in cities, including housing, land use, participation, and the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities. Overall, the text emphasizes the importance of cities in addressing and protecting human rights, while acknowledging the ongoing challenges and the need for continued progress. [Extracted from the article]

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]

Human rights are inalienable rights we each possess by virtue of being human. The Atlantic provinces in Canada are the least studied with respect to understanding how much their cities and towns fulfill constitutional and quasi-constitutional human rights obligations in their land use bylaws. This paper aims to answer this question: what are the critical human rights challenges confronting zoning bylaws of Atlantic Canadian cities? Using a mixed methods approach, the study concludes that despite some potential violations of human rights in the region, Atlantic Canadian municipalities are advancing positively on the human rights front, with a number of encouraging developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No long-term solution can evaluate the social and environmental requirements of communities near industries, especially in developing countries. The global landscape of technology, innovation, and industry has undergone significant transformation since the start of the Industrial Revolution, which has significantly altered the traditional socioeconomic structure of society, especially in urban regions. Industrialization has had positive and negative effects on society and the environment, which has left an enduring impact that includes improved employment prospects and economic growth. However, it brings adverse impacts, such as more pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, health risks, and changes in local communities and lifestyles. Threfore, efficient instruments and remedies must be used to mitigate the adverse effects of industrial activity and advances. Livability and environmental impact evaluations have become crucial tools for transforming the social and ecological spheres. Creating air pollution concentration models, particularly for industrial plumes, is a research need that is unresolved by the current environmental impact assessment (EIA) guidelines and procedures. Industries present severe risks to the population and ecosystems, because of the rapid changes in their mechanisms. In addition, no standardized method exists for assessing communities close to urban industrial clusters that encircle industrial development regions in the EIA and social impact assessment (SIA) evaluations. The national building codes (NBCs), urban and regional development plans formulation and implementation (URDPFI), and model building bylaws ignore this discrepancy. Several organizations have developed substitute models, such as California puff (CALPUFF) model from the USEPA and California Department of Pollution Monitoring, which outline risk assessment techniques for different models. Cambridge University's Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System-Urban (ADMS), from Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants, stands out as a widely used tool for evaluating pollution dispersion. Given the complexity of industrial emissions from several sources within a cluster of firms, a new strategy to lessen the effects of industrial plumes on the populations that live close to these zones is desperately needed. This means that communities must be categorized geographically according to different building heights and unique building regulations, which consider factors such as wind direction, atmospheric conditions, and separation from the sources of the emissions. This study used a cross-sectional methodology for a literature review of different issues that are due to the industrial plume rise heights in different domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

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]

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]