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North American bird abundance has declined by 29% over the last 50 years. These continental population dynamics interact with local landscape changes to affect local bird diversity. Mitigating local declines in cities is particularly significant because (a) such declines greatly impact human–bird relationships since most people live in cities and (b) cities provide levers to create bird‐friendly habitat, such as managing yards and gardens, street trees, and urban parks. Yet, the potential for cities to modify habitats to mitigate broader bird declines remains unclear. Studies have been stymied by the difficulty of assembling mutidecadal habitat–bird population datasets. Instead, studies have substituted space for time (e.g. used habitat associations across space at one time point to project future species abundance due to changing land use), but this method may fail amidst nonstationary environments of the Anthropocene. Here, we test the validity of space‐for‐time substitutions for explaining changes in bird abundance in a North American city over the past two decades by examining the degree to which these changes are explainable by changes in local landcover at multiple spatial scales. Specifically, we use longitudinal urban bird surveys of Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada from 1997 and 2020; deep learning models of remote sensing data to classify contemporaneous landcover; out‐of‐sample prediction and boosted regression trees to identify multiple spatial scales of landcover that best explained bird abundance (i.e. optimal scale of effect for each species by each habitat); and Bayesian multispecies abundance models in Stan to determine relationships between changes in landcover and bird abundance. We found that total bird abundance declined by 26% over the last two decades. Landcover measured at both 50 m and optimal scales explained spatial variation in bird abundance, but only landcover at the optimal scale explained temporal changes, and only partially. These results suggest that space‐for‐time substitutions overemphasize habitat–bird ecological relationships, urban habitats only partially determine bird abundance, and measuring habitat at the appropriate scale is important for capturing the most relevant changes in landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Food Research & Development is the property of Food Research & Development Editorial Department 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 Finnish Housing Reform Association was set up in 1910 to promote public housing with new social ideas in housing design. After World War I, the association took the initiative to design affordable housing for the district of Käpylä in Helsinki. Construction was postponed by the years of instability that followed the Civil War of spring 1918. In early 1920, the City of Helsinki organised the subscription of shares in the People's Housing Company Ltd. Four– or two–family houses and even dwellings consisting of a room and a kitchen were a huge improvement to rental barracks. The quality of housing further enhanced by garden plots and communal saunas. Construction of the district resulted in notable stylistic variety. The scale of the area and the new efficient timber construction system that aimed at affordability and short construction times made Wooden Käpylä exceptional. In 1960, a design competition was organised that, had it gone ahead, would have meant the destruction of the Käpylä. The competition drew sharp criticism, and in 1971 Wooden Käpylä became protected in the master plan. Today, the street plan offers surprising views and a sense of freedom relative to previous as well as concurrent enclosed blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the mutation of Kumasi from the 'Garden City' of West Africa to a landscape of urban crises. Although it focuses on contemporary issues, it also instigates into the discourse, historical perspectives to reveal the factors responsible for the urban crises using data from multiple sources. The results show dual city governance structure resulting from the socio-political power relations between the traditional set-up and the State governance structure served as leitmotif for the urban crises. It is argued that Kumasi's unique customary identity must be integrated into city management structures to respond to the realities of changing times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The garden-city model, characterised by sprawling urban expansion and extensive open spaces, features green and water surfaces alongside substantial road networks, large parking lots and unshaded lands. This diverse landscape contributes to uneven air temperature distribution within the city. Our study investigated urban heat island (UHI) patterns in various urban environments within Putrajaya, focusing on rural, business, residential and near-water areas. Atmospheric data were collected over a year. Putrajaya exhibits two distinct UHI patterns: cool-day-hot-night in residential zones and hot-noon-temperate-elsewhere in impermeable areas. Business areas display alternating patterns based on seasonal climatic conditions and anthropogenic factors. The efficacy of artificial water bodies as a UHI countermeasure in garden cities depends on the size of the water body and the nature of the surrounding land cover. Shaded and green areas exhibit UHI intensities limited to 3°C, while impermeable areas, regardless of proximity to water surfaces, experience UHI up to 6°C. Overall, the garden-city model tends to restrict UHI variations within −1 to 3°C compared to −2 to 4°C in nearby Kuala Lumpur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garden cities evoke images of urban living immersed in urban green infrastructure (UGI). Such was the situation in Kumasi, a Ghanaian city modeled on Ebenezer Howard's Garden City philosophy. Between 1991 and 2019, the city lost over 80% of its UGI. While research frequently identifies institutional management failures as a foundational cause of the poor state of its UGI, it remains to be demonstrated whether residents' knowledge on UGI reflects their attitudes toward their management. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (i) To examine residents' knowledge on the importance of their UGI; and (ii) To analyze how residents' knowledge influences their attitudes toward their UGI. This study used a mixed-method approach, involving household surveys, and semi-structured agency interviews. Findings show that residents' high UGI knowledge does not translate into positive attitudes toward UGI management. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of UGI benefits by residents, the majority of them had negative attitudes toward their management, reflected in indiscriminate disposal of waste in nature and waterways, and incessant encroachment on UGI. This demonstrates that residents' knowledge on the importance of UGI does not automatically translate into environmental consciousness. Regrettably, this situation is exacerbated by weak regulatory structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government regulation of cities in Sweden started with the 1874 National Building Code. In 1907 a Town Planning law was introduced. The praxis that followed was characterized by garden cities and large courtyard housing blocks, adapted to the sites with curved streets in green town plans by the architect P. O. Hallman who was based in Stockholm and influential in international planning debates. Inspired, inter alia by Camillo Sitte and Raymond Unwin, and as a teacher at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), he introduced artistic town planning into Sweden. The leading architects designed housing for workers, with simplicity and moderation, typical for the period. In 1926 the Stockholm municipality started a cottage-bureau called the Stockholms stads småstugebyrå (SMÅA), which helped workers to build their own homes by using factory-built units. The SMÅA assisted with organization, materials and instructors. In 1923 tenants created a cooperative housing movement called the HSB. All these efforts were aided by site-leasehold loans with low rate, starting in 1907. This article analyses four town plans by Hallman of importance for introduction of housing for workers: Röda Bergen (1906), Enskede Garden City (1907), Helgalunden (1911), Blecktornsparken (1918), and how they were modified across the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The garden city is one of the most enduring concepts in the history of modern urban planning. At the beginning of the twentieth century, garden city movements emerged in Britain, France, the United States, and Japan—and in Germany. While the German garden city is often viewed as a later adaption of the British type, its real origins are more complex. This article situates the genesis of the German garden city project within the larger framework of nineteenth-century Protestant thought and practice. It places the intellectual, institutional and legal innovations that prefigured the twentieth-century garden city in Protestant social reform, providing a longer-term perspective on its rich and diverse intellectual origins. The German garden city, it is argued, should be considered on its own terms, rather than merely as a derivative of the British type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas can be both detrimental for pollinators or function as suitable habitats, depending on the land-use type, the urban context and the pollinator group in focus. Urban green spaces, including gardens, parks or cemeteries can provide essential resources for a wide range of pollinator groups, like wild bees, hoverflies and beetles. Urban community gardens can be particularly structurally complex and harbour a diverse range of nesting and food resources for pollinators. However, we know little about how garden features may vary with the urban context of gardens and which specific garden features can increase the abundance of pollinators in general and of different pollinator groups. Over two summer seasons, we recorded garden features and pollinators using flower observations in 33 urban community gardens in Munich and Berlin, Germany. We examined how garden features differ amongst urban community gardens from three urbanisation categories, and analysed the effects of garden features such as floral and nesting resources and landscape imperviousness (as indicator of urbanisation) on pollinator abundance, richness and diversity. In more urbanised gardens, flower richness and bare substrate were less prevalent. Flower richness was positively correlated with overall pollinator abundance, richness and diversity as well as with the abundances of all pollinator taxa excluding beetles. Landscape imperviousness was negatively correlated with hoverfly and beetle abundances. Hoverflies also decreased with increasing bare substrate and wasp abundance decreased with increasing deadwood availability. Our findings highlight the important role of flower richness for insect conservation in urban management and show that pollinator taxa react differently to garden features and urbanisation. To support pollinating insects, gardeners can increase flower richness, especially in highly urbanised areas. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of worldwide biodiversity and wild bee decline, it is increasingly important to better understand the effect of land-use changes on wild bee communities at a global scale. To do so, we studied the effect of city area and urban green spaces layout on wild bee species richness and community composition, as well as on wild bee species with an unfavorable UICN conservation status. This study was based on a large European dataset encompassing 20 cities from France, Belgium and Switzerland. We found a mean wild bee species richness in cities of 96 ± 48 (SD), showing that this species richness was highly variable among cities. The main factor positively influencing wild bee species richness in cities was the area of the city. Conversely, species richness was not significantly related to the total area of urban green spaces in a given city, measured as the spatial extent of urban parks, wastelands and other semi-natural habitats, excluding urban private gardens. Species with conservation status were quite scarce in urban environments, especially when compared to the European Red List of Bees, and we could not link their presence to either city or urban green space area. Dissimilarities in wild bee species community compositions were not associated with any of the studied characteristics of cities. We found that the dissimilarity of wild bee community composition among cities was mainly driven by the rarest species, as the most common ones were found in a majority of the cities sampled. Overall, these results emphasize that larger cities host more wild bee species, but are no refuge for the ones with concerning conservation status. Thus, stakeholders are encouraged to design their cities in favor of biodiversity to better support wild bee communities, and perhaps mitigate the established effect of the urban ecological filter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lilian Harrison was a pioneering South American swimmer who established new records for open water distance swimming, and time spent swimming, in December 1923, as she became the first person to swim across the Rio de la Plata, from Uruguay to Argentina. Until now, her achievements have been remembered and studied as a South American history, from Harrison's birth in Quilmes to her training in Tigre, to the tumultuous reception she received when returning to Buenos Aires after her successful swim. In this article, we situate Harrison's achievement within the historical context of her early life and education, which was spent in an idealistic and pioneering school in Letchworth Garden City, in England. We argue that Harrison's English schooling was a vital ingredient in her 1923 success that was generally overlooked in the press reports. Using existing newspaper sources as well as privately-held family papers which we have been fortunate to consult, we look at Harrison's education at school, in the pool and her family upbringing. The article concludes with some reflections on the nature of global sporting histories in the early twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Wildland Fire Science is the property of Journal of Wildland Fire Science Editorial Office 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.)

With the advancement of urbanization in China, there is a growing demand for intelligent landscape management in urban science and innovation parks. To improve landscape management efficiency in science and technology innovation parks, this study adjusted the Inception module and activation function of the GoogLeNet algorithm, designed an improved GoogLeNet algorithm, and based on this, constructed a multi clue science and technology innovation park landscape vegetation intelligent recognition system. This is also the main contribution of this study. The experimental results show that the average image recognition accuracy of the Improve GoogLe Net+MM model designed from the study is 92.95%, which is higher than all the comparison models. Additionally, the computation time is significantly lower than the comparison models when the computation data volume is larger. The model designed in this study has a certain application value to improve the performance of the landscape intelligent management system within smart cities' science and technology parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban ecosystems can provide diverse habitats for enhancing pollinator biodiversity. Here, we describe efforts to initiate a community wide conversation around pollinator friendly yard (lawn and garden) management practices in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA, using a series of projects. We began with wild bee census work at local environmental education centers and city parks, then expanded to community science common gardens as part of the "Bring Your Own Bees" project, and shifted gears to implement a No Mow May campaign. We outline the timeline of events that led to the creation of the Pollenablers group, which allowed us to work alongside city legislators and community leaders to bring No Mow May to Appleton. Through our experiences, we learned about the timescales and processes of small-town government structures, and the challenges of engaging in open science that garners media attention. Engaging in community conversations across scales was an essential component, including individual discussions, co-generation of research goals in alignment with community builders at Pollenablers meetings, and collaborating with political leaders to align legislative resolutions with research objectives. We hope that our insights inspire others to continue to "bee" change-makers in their local communities, and build systems of reciprocity to cultivate richer human, and more biodiverse, urban ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Mexican ambassador to Brazil between 1930 and 1936, Alfonso Reyes deployed a remarkable diplomatic activity that has been studied from different political angles. However, we know less about other strategies, especially cultural diplomacy, employed by the Mexican writer. In this article, I show how during his residence in Rio de Janeiro, Reyes used elements representative of Mexican nature, such as the amapola and peyote, or the donation of the statue of the god Xochipilli to the Botanical Garden of that city, to foster rapprochement between the two nations. In three phases, this article proposes first to review the history of the diplomatic relationship between Mexico and Brazil before the arrival of Reyes; subsequently, to show his interest in nature as a formative element of both nations, and finally, to analyze his strategies to use that knowledge through cultural diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is Japan creating a new economic model through digital and green transformation which will overcome its 'lost decades' lethargy and demographic challenges? Do Society 5.0, DX, GX, 'new/sustainable capitalism', Digital Garden City Nation and other initiatives represent a well-intentioned mish-mash, or something new and potentially coherent which other countries should take notice of? These questions animated a conference held in Oxford in February 2023, and subsequently informed the 11 articles in this special issue by European and Japanese academics and policy makers. The collection identifies tensions and contradictions but also significant changes in in corporate governance, innovation, public policy and human resources, which may point to a new direction for Japanese capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Online Journal of Art & Design is the property of Online Journal of Art & Design 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.)

Vallila is a showcase of Finnish social housing at the beginning of the twentieth century. Old wooden Vallila was built 1908–1915. It consisted of 22 small building lots, all meant to be built as one family houses by standardized drawings. As times were poor, the population grew out of control. In 1908, Bertel Jung started his work as the first town planning architect of Helsinki. He signed the first town plan for New Vallila in 1913, aiming at a clearly urban environment. Houses of three to four floors height were regulated by detailed facade schemes. Trees and greenery were respected in New stone Vallila and some blocks were built around private courtyards (Swedish name: storgårdskvarter). The biggest and most impressive of them is the block 555, started in 1916 as a company dwelling, and finished as a semi-communal project in 1929. The architects were Armas Lindgren and Bertel Liljequist. During the 1920s townscape was internationally in the spotlight, and Finnish architects followed keenly Nordic and German examples. They read and travelled a widely. Contacts with Swedish colleagues brought the peculiar dwelling type of landshövdingehus from Gothenburg to New Vallila. Italian architecture gave faith in the ever-lasting value of classicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the unexpected COVID-19 epidemic, governments are facing significant challenges in mobilizing food resources, particularly fresh products. It is inevitable that there will be intermittent shortages of food during the pandemic. As a result, home food gardening has gained considerable attention from city residents and policymakers in modern cities. This is due to its potential to provide food during humanitarian emergencies and lockdown. Moreover, home food gardening is increasingly becoming a popular recreational activity in many countries, offering therapeutic benefits such as fostering social bonds through knowledge-sharing and fruit-sharing, improving mental and psychological well-being, promoting outdoor physical exercise, and strengthening the connection between humans and nature. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the latest advancements in home food gardening, including cultivated species, devices, technologies, and current issues. It also proposes perspectives based on current researches to serve as a reference for future research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary literature on urban agriculture often analyses urban community gardens as 'existing' commons with the capacity to counter neoliberal urban development and resource management practices. However, the existing literature on 'political gardening' generally focuses on cities in North America and Europe, despite the prevalence of urban community gardens and neoliberal planning across other regions, including Southern cities. This paper examines urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa to assess their capacity to function as urban commons in six areas: infrastructure, inputs, land, produce, labour and immaterial components. This mixed‐methods study employed questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and observations across 34 urban community gardens in the city. The findings and analysis demonstrate how the urban community gardens counter neoliberal privatisation and individualisation processes. However, their capacity to function as urban commons is significantly curtailed by an entrenchment within the neoliberal context. Thus, the urban community gardens are framed as 'experimental' commons, a valuable re‐conceptualisation of alternative resource utilisation in neoliberal Southern cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic erosion of grapevine is becoming a serious worldwide problem and preserving its germplasm is an urgent task. Chile is not an exception to this scenario, where diverse factors led by the replacement of traditional varieties by renown cultivars have reduced the vineyard diversity. Therefore, discovering and characterizing minor varieties were the main objectives of this study. In addition to the official catalogue of around 100 grapevine varieties used to produce wine, we present here 89 genotypes not previously described as present in Chile, widely dispersed in the main wine valleys, which were retrieved from vineyards, small collections, and city gardens. Strikingly, we found 49 grapevines with allele patterns not described before. Ten of these may be old European varieties; the other 39 have allele patterns similar to Criolla varieties (e.g., descendants from the crossing of European varieties born in America). A parentage analysis performed with 15 SSR markers in these 39 N.N. samples revealed that most of them are descendants of the so‐called foundational varieties Listán Prieto and Muscat of Alexandria, plus others in lower proportion such as Mollar Cano and Muscat à petit grains blancs, as well as known Criollas varieties such as Italiona and Moscatel Rosado. The 89 genotypes not described in Chile structured in three distinguishable groups: Criolla varieties, Central European varieties, and a third group enriched in Iberic varieties. The prevalence of each Criolla accession was quite variable, some corresponding to a single or a few vines found at a single place, while others were spread in several vineyards, even in different valleys, suggesting they were positively selected and propagated at some time. All the new Criolla varieties were different than the recently described Criollas found in Argentina. The discovery, rescue, and documentation of this rich heritage of Vitis vinifera L. genotypes found in Chile is the first step of a long‐term work that should be continued with the evaluation of their enological characteristics, yield, and optimal management systems, aiming for the diversification of the local wine industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive research has been diligently conducted on wind energy technologies in response to pressing global environmental challenges and the growing demand for energy. Accurate wind speed predictions are crucial for the effective integration of large wind power systems. This study presents a novel and hybrid framework called ICEEMDAN-Informer-GWO, which combines three components to enhance the accuracy of wind speed predictions. The improved complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (ICEEMDAN) component improves the decomposition of wind speed data, the Informer model provides computationally efficient wind speed predictions, and the grey wolf optimisation (GWO) algorithm optimises the parameters of the Informer model to achieve superior performance. Three different sets of wind speed prediction (WSP) models and wind farm data from Block Island, Gulf Coast, and Garden City are used to thoroughly assess the proposed hybrid framework. This evaluation focusses on WSP for three specific time horizons: 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and 1 hour ahead. The results obtained from the three conducted experiments conclusively demonstrate that the proposed hybrid framework exhibits superior performance, leading to statistically significant improvements across all three time horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractBeauty, as an aesthetic ideal and intrinsically power-laden paradigm, is central to urban development projects. Yet there remains limited critical work that interrogates the colonial underpinnings, violent outcomes, and negotiations of beauty politics in urban beautification programs. In our article, we approach urban beautification campaigns in downtown Kampala, Uganda via an explicitly African, and Black feminist analytic of beauty. Specifically, we center the experiences of women market vendors as they navigate city greening initiatives and development plans which promise to ‘transform’ Kampala and re-brand it once again as the ‘Garden City of Africa’. We argue that pairing urban beautification and Black and African scholarship around beauty offers generative insights as it understands such spatial programs as always embodied, contested, and inseparable from intersectional power hierarchies. In turn, we take seriously and carefully examine discourses around beautification: by tracing its colonial and gendered foundations and its visceral impacts as it is internalized and renegotiated by low-income women operating in downtown markets in Kampala. As such, our focus on beauty situates beautification as a disciplining and displacing practice and as mentally and physically violent. Finally, it reveals how women try to envision their own beautiful Kampala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ebenezer Howard is one of the foundational figures of town planning. His Garden Cities of To-morrow envisions a Utopian synthesis of the urban and the rural to enhance the well-being of residents, in contrast to the industrial megalopolis of the late 19th century. While realized Garden Cities took many forms different from Howard's original layout, this is the one we find in the urban roots of the deep past. About 4350 BCE we see the formation of large, circular, decentralized settlements in what is today central Ukraine. Elsewhere, in the Brazilian Amazon between 1200 and 1600 CE, we see a transformation of the jungle into a vast park landscape filled with clusters of circular settlements, with horticultural land-use in between them. In addition to similarities in planning, these past settlements also involve the social aspect of countering inequality and fostering freedom and cooperation. This paper explores the possibility of Garden Cities in the past and the implications of decentralized 'rurban' landscapes from the deep history perspective of archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourists' visual preferences are of paramount importance for the local garden environment assessment. However, the diversity of garden elements presents challenges in achieving uniform assessments. This study focuses on 65 modern gardens around Taihu Lake (太湖), utilizing image semantic segmentation and the Semantic Differential (SD) method to evaluate tourists' visual perceptions, identifying 16 perceptual indicators associated with garden elements. The research findings indicate the following: (1) Modern gardens in different cities (Wuxi, Suzhou, Huzhou) offer distinct visual experiences to tourists. (2) Through quantitative analysis of garden elements and tourists' visual perceptions, it is revealed that middle and high-rise vegetation, hydrology, architecture, and sketch elements enhance visual aesthetics, while main road and low-rise vegetation elements result in less pronounced perceptions. This study quantitatively explores the complexities in evaluating garden aesthetics and serves as a bridge between qualitative and quantitative aspects for future garden environmental impact assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses attention on the importance of preserving objects of the historical urban landscape, which the authors consider as a response to the challenges of war. The relevance of the study is due to the desire of Ukraine to follow European values in the formation of urban spaces. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the essential, to be preserved, characteristics of the elements of historical urban landscapes - gardens and squares. In the work, the analysis of the stages of formation of elements of the historical urban landscape is carried out on the example of a garden and a square in the cities of Poltava and Kharkov; factors and patterns that influenced the features of their architectural and landscape formation are identified; the main characteristics of the spatial planning and landscape organization of the studied objects are revealed. A new research algorithm for Ukrainian practice will strengthen the scientific justification of projects for the preservation and revival of the country's historical urban landscape objects, as a response to the challenges of the post-war period. The result of the study can be used in works aimed at preserving historical urban landscapes in various urban conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardens have emerged at the cracks and edges of the densely built environment of Metro Manila, taking on a variety of forms that cultivate a sense of habitability amid harsh urban conditions. The empirical diversity in the spaces, practices and trajectories of urban gardens in the city, however, often exceeds their usual framings either as state‐sponsored projects from above that seek to transform individual dispositions, or as grassroots initiatives from below that result from conscious collective resistance or encroachment. Framing gardens as a locus to understand city‐making amid massive urbanisation, this paper aims to provide a different account of urban gardens by focusing on how they emerge from a certain edginess, characterised by a coming together of various actions, aspirations and relations, and by a mode of practice marked by a distinctive temporality and peripheral logic. Using particular accounts of gardening from across Metro Manila, the paper demonstrates the edginess of urban gardens in terms of four articulations: as interstitial, provisional, transversal and experimental. Making a garden work and maintaining its place in the city entail consolidating relationships between various urban elements that carve spaces of manoeuvre, produce diverse eventualities, and map onto the indeterminate politics of the maybe. Framing gardens as a locus to understand city‐making amid massive urbanization, this paper aims to provide a different account of urban gardens by focusing on how they emerge from a certain edginess, characterized by a coming together of various actions, aspirations and relations, and by a mode of practice marked by a distinctive temporality and peripheral logic. Using particular accounts of gardening from across Metro Manila, the paper demonstrates the edginess of urban gardens in terms of four articulations: as interstitial, provisional, transversal and experimental. Making a garden work and maintaining its place in the city entail consolidating relationships between various urban elements that carve spaces of maneuver, produce diverse eventualities, and map onto the indeterminate politics of the maybe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces, encompassing parks, gardens, and natural landscapes, play a vital role in improving the quality of life for city residents. These areas provide environmental benefits such as enhanced air quality, regulation of temperatures, and conservation of biodiversity, fostering a healthier urban environment. Additionally, green spaces offer opportunities for recreation and places for social interaction, which strengthen community unity and individual wellbeing. This study examines literature and case studies to identify factors that influence the efficacy of urban green spaces, stressing the importance of fair and comprehensive access. It also underscores the significance of integrating green spaces into urban planning to develop sustainable, livable cities. By advocating for increased investment in green infrastructure, this paper seeks to educate policymakers, urban planners, and community stakeholders about the critical role of urban green spaces in improving quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a book review of "City: A guidebook for the Urban Age" by P. D. Smith. The book explores the complexities of cities and offers different perspectives on understanding them. It is divided into eight chapters that cover topics such as migration, history, customs, transportation, and leisure. The author touches upon various aspects of cities throughout history, including architecture, art, and literature. The book is recommended for those interested in urban studies and provides a comprehensive view of the different facets of society and the physical environment that make cities fascinating. [Extracted from the article]

Understanding the inherent characteristics of a local agricultural industry is imperative in designing policies that are responsive to the context, needs, and challenges of its stakeholders. Grounded in this premise, this study unpacked the complexities of the mango industry in the Island Garden City of Samal, an agricultural city in the southern Philippines. Specifically, it aims to understand its labor dynamics and market arrangements using a qualitative approach. This study presents an overview of the mango production cycle in the garden city, which includes the corresponding labor requirements and market of the local mango industry. In terms of labor, aside from the quantity and quality of labor needed, this paper also presents the roles of men and women that are inherent in local mango production. Likewise, the study also enumerates the different issues and challenges faced by the local mango producers. These issues and challenges were concerns related to erratic prices, labor needs, and high production costs. Moreover, the study offers explanations for the existing labor dynamics in the garden city. This includes the interplay between the material nature of the commodity and the gender dynamics in the labor force. In addition, a discussion on the varying quality standards of different target markers is also provided. Finally, this study also explained the rationale behind the prevailing contractual arrangements within the local mango industry. The results presented in this paper offer insights into designing context-based programs and policies, which could further support the local mango industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban parks provide environmental, social and economic benefits to users. A notable model that sought to integrate green spaces and create self-sufficient, healthy and pleasant places to live by combining the best aspects of urban and rural life was the garden city model. This led to the creation of many green areas across many African cities, including Kumasi, Ghana. However, considering the rapid decline and deterioration of urban parks in African cities, a key question being asked by the paper is that: is there decline in urban parks and their usage because users are not satisfied with them and thus do not patronise them? Premised on this, this paper examines the factors that influence the satisfaction and patronage of the Rattray Park in Nhyiaeso, commissioned in 2015 and remains the only functional recreational and urban green park in the city of Kumasi. Data was obtained from 237 park users along four indicators, namely (i) sociability, (ii) user and activities, (iii) accessibility and linkage and (iv) comfort and image. The results showed sociability as the most significant factor which influenced users' satisfaction and patronage of the park, i.e. users were more concerned about the provision of facilities for recreation and socialisation. The major contribution of this paper is that sustaining urban parks will happen when there are conscious attempts by relevant stakeholders to identify, appreciate and understand the varying needs of users. This study further contributes to better understanding the garden city model and provides some suggestions to improve upon the quality and patronage of parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of Germany's low self-sufficiency in fruits and vegetables, policymakers are advocating for regional and local sustainable agricultural and food systems as pathways towards a crisis-resistant agriculture. In this context, the alignment of agriculture towards urban areas plays a significant role. During the 2nd Braunschweig Urban Green Day, participants further explored the potential contribution of non-professional urban food production in Braunschweig's gardens to the city's self-sufficiency in fruits and vegetables. The surprising outcome was that, in theory, Braunschweig could self-supply with fruits and vegetables within its city limits. However, the practical implementation barriers were discussed extensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Mother went in to work tonight, how I hate her on Sunday work!," wrote fourteen years old Kathleen Biddlecombe in her diary, on Sunday, January 13, 1918. Kathleen and her family lived on 6 Cobbett Road, London, in Well Hall Garden Suburb—mostly known today as Progress Estate. Built between January and December 1915, in the first year of the First World War, the estate provided some 1,086 houses and 212 flats for the munition workers of the nearby Royal Arsenal factory in Woolwich. This article examines the First World War history of this housing project, by focusing on the diary of young Kathleen. Using the works of Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certueau, the article probes the tensions between the ways this space was planned and built—in accordance with the agenda of the Garden City Movement—and the ways it was produced and used by its inhabitants during the war. It uncovers the production of space by the people whose houses were built along the Well Hall Road, where Route 44 of the Tram stopped to take them to and from the munition factory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Constelaciones (2340-177X) is the property of Fundacion Universitaria San Pablo - CEU 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.)

Participatory Design (PD) is increasingly interested in the repair process, motivated by the curiosity to articulate a more caring and relational attitude toward our socioecological environment. However, placing ‘repair’ centrally in PD is difficult, since the latter has been traditionally focused on ‘making together’ and less on repairing what was once made, or even ‘unmake’. While repair is part of our continuous activities (repairing clothes, bikes, marriages, and relationships), it is often a painful and challenging endeavor. Repair entails hope but also grief. This article discusses how we used a Live Lab to explore more intimate design approaches, opening pathways to explore plural relations and access embodied and emotional knowledge. Finally, based on our research experience in a garden city, we reflect upon how acting within an intimacy framework contributes to PD’s repair process, by bringing socioecological entanglements to the agenda of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many advocates of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) consider Tokyo an exemplary transit metropolis that uniquely relies on private railways. To better understand this enduring practice, this study traces its institutionalization before 1945. It concludes that following the Meiji Restoration, former feudal elites founded a private railway industry consisting of joint-stock companies when the state lacked funds. As a semi-public effort, the industry served the industrial and political pursuits of Meiji Japan. To defend the industry, these elites frustrated the attempt to nationalize railways in 1892 and weakened the extent of the nationalization in 1907. The latter directed private railway capital to the suburbs. By 1929, the elites had incrementally legitimized private railway conglomerates that developed railways and landed properties, including housing estates and commercial facilities, along railway corridors in Osaka and, later, Tokyo. Inspired by railway suburbs and garden cities in the Anglosphere, Japanese TOD was developed as a localized institution in a developmental state: a 'standard operating practice' framed by the iron triangle of industrialists, politicians, and bureaucrats. Because its defenders preserved the institution from wartime regulation and automobilization, this semi-public institution, balancing private and state pursuits, contrasted with its global counterparts, and continued to influence post-war Tokyo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In key moments of urban history, urban design is confronted with the emergence of new paradigmatic design models, such as the garden city and the radiant city. Recently, the Smart City seems to have gained centre stage in the public debate. However, despite its emblazoned technological features, the Smart City remains a hazy concept in the urban design domain to such an extent that almost any form can be built under the Smart City label. While this may sound libertarian and progressist, it is also concerning since different urban forms are associated with different societal outcomes. This paper aims to investigate the forms of Smart City districts through morphometric comparison. More specifically, it proposes a replicable methodology based on 18 metrics of urban form and statistical analysis to compare a Smart City district with other city areas with known design models of reference. Such a methodology is applied to three case studies on the French Riviera: Méridia, a Smart City district, Hôtel-des-Postes, a 19th-century traditional district, and Sophia Antipolis, a sprawling technopark. The results show that Méridia has a hybrid form that partly resembles Hôtel-des-Postes (higher densities, gridiron plan, and functional mix) and partly Sophia Antipolis (bulky buildings with large setbacks). However, the top–down approach used in the production of the physical space ultimately renders Méridia more similar to Sophia Antipolis than Hôtel-des-Postes. This study provides one of the first morphometric characterisations of a Smart City district, but also a replicable methodology that can further the morphological understanding of the Smart City phenomenon worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Builder (1896-0642) is the property of PWB MEDIA Zdzieblowski sp.j. 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.)

Sustainable neighbourhood development in historical multicultural contexts is a complex process encompassing many different issues (e.g. climate, biodiversity, social inequalities and wellbeing) and actors (residents, experts, local authorities and organisations). Different kinds of maps and representations support knowledge exchange, mediation between different practices and ambitions, as well as vision building among participants in different stages of the development process. Based upon the authors' research experiences in historical garden city neighbourhoods in the city of Genk (BE), as well as existing literature and practice review, this paper discusses the production of an atlas as a critical and participatory practice for transdisciplinary research in sustainable development. By engaging with the methods of critical cartography and participatory mapping, we propose the process of 'atlassing' as a tool to support negotiation between various sustainability aspects and related everyday practices, actors and participatory activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agricultural heritage is an essential subject when investigating urban history. The preservation of it contributes to inheriting farming traditions, supporting local food, and reinforcing the cities' cultural identity. To emphasize the significance and urgency of preserving urban agricultural heritage, this article first describes the concept of urban agricultural heritage from historical, ecological, social, and economic dimensions. We then choose the traditional urban grape garden in the Ancient City of Xuanhua as a case study. According to a new method we have developed, we provide a comprehensive description of the existing issues in the grape garden and the external factors that impact the study area. The results show that the traditional farming technique has been inherited; the urban fabric of courtyards containing grape funnels has not changed; the study area still lacks social concerns; and a part of households should optimize their business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical researchers of environmental alternative action organizations (EAAOs) have called for grounding two eco-political theories: David Schlosberg's sustainable materialism (SM) and Ingolfur Blühdorn's simulative politics (SP). In this article, I discuss results of an ethnographic study on a library of things, a cloth swapping initiative, and a community garden in the City of Vienna, Austria. Regarding SM, participants indeed suffer from a lack of substantive eco-political actions by liberal democratic institutions and themselves personally, however they barely convey a new materialist ontology. Regarding SP, participants indeed show an ambivalence towards consumer capitalism and ecological commitments, yet they tend to be highly critical and reflexive on the matter. Both theories are unable to detect that the EAAOs fill an eco-political lacuna in Vienna's foundational economy: Via positive framing and flexible participation virtually everyone – the crowd – is invited to co-create sustainable routines. As such, they represent rudimentary infrastructures of green everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decolonization created new opportunities for international scientific research collaboration. In Indonesia this began in the late 1940s, as Indonesian scientists and officials sought to remake the formerly colonial botanical gardens in the city of Bogor into an international research center. Indonesia sponsored the Flora Malesiana project, a flora of all of island Southeast Asia. This project was formally centered in Bogor, Indonesia, with participation from tropical botanists from around the world. The international orientation of Indonesian science led to the establishment of one of UNESCO's Field Science Co-operation Offices in Jakarta, and to a period of close collaboration between Indonesian botanists and UNESCO. This paper examines the importance of UNESCO's Humid Tropics research program, which initially provided further opportunities for Indonesian botanists to participate in international scientific networks. The paper concludes by showing that the Humid Tropics program led to the slow erosion of Indonesian agency and authority over tropical botany, and the assertion of Western control and management over tropical botany research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connecting to and extending recent debates around more-than-human thinking, this paper explores how porous boundary treatments and plot layouts might encourage ecological exchanges within new urban and peri-urban developments. This study therefore responds to suggestions for innovative plot designs that facilitate positive trans-species interactions, especially considering wider anxieties surrounding biodiversity loss and recognition of the need for climate-resilient garden spaces. Focusing on a recent example of a large-scale residential development in the English midlands, this paper outlines the socio-economic, cultural and ecological significance of embedding different hedgerow designs into early planning considerations; revealing the need to move beyond current models. The discussion then turns to how such ambitions might encourage sustainable land use, particularly through creating potentially scalable urban agricultural systems that sustain healthy food choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In daily life, people's interaction in urban areas with urban environments are a result of the quality of the urban public space. The diversity and intensity of urban space activities in public open spaces correlate with the quality of that space. In addition to the physical and environmental characteristics of urban space, indicators such as intensity and diversity of urban space activities and socio-economic status of active users provide important data when measuring spatial quality. This paper outlines the importance of the relation between urban public open space quality and urban space activity. Three public open spaces (Anıt Park, Adnan Ötüken Park, and Eser Park), designed as green bands in garden city planning in Ankara, Turkey were selected as the study area. In the study, the relationships between the spatial qualities of the three selected public open spaces and urban space activities were revealed as per the analysis carried out. The study uses the mixed method approach, which includes the determination and use of qualitative and quantitative data. Following the theoretical discussion, the study investigates the relation between urban public open space quality and urban space activity. Throughout the field study, analysis of public open spaces was performed based on sound spatial quality measurement criteria. Survey results were evaluated according to Gehl's urban space activity approach for public open spaces. Study results draw attention to the relationship between space quality in public open areas and urban space activities are dependent on physical space dimensions, the social and common content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]