Hasil untuk "Urbanization. City and country"

H. E. W. Wendel, Rebecca K. Zarger, J. Mihelcic

Zishan Liu, Zecong Tang, RuoCheng Wu et al.

The automated generation of interactive 3D cities is a critical challenge with broad applications in autonomous driving, virtual reality, and embodied intelligence. While recent advances in generative models and procedural techniques have improved the realism of city generation, existing methods often struggle with high-fidelity asset creation, controllability, and manipulation. In this work, we introduce CityGenAgent, a natural language-driven framework for hierarchical procedural generation of high-quality 3D cities. Our approach decomposes city generation into two interpretable components, Block Program and Building Program. To ensure structural correctness and semantic alignment, we adopt a two-stage learning strategy: (1) Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT). We train BlockGen and BuildingGen to generate valid programs that adhere to schema constraints, including non-self-intersecting polygons and complete fields; (2) Reinforcement Learning (RL). We design Spatial Alignment Reward to enhance spatial reasoning ability and Visual Consistency Reward to bridge the gap between textual descriptions and the visual modality. Benefiting from the programs and the models' generalization, CityGenAgent supports natural language editing and manipulation. Comprehensive evaluations demonstrate superior semantic alignment, visual quality, and controllability compared to existing methods, establishing a robust foundation for scalable 3D city generation.

Shubhi Sonal

Abstract This study investigates rapid densification within Bengaluru, India, where escalating population growth outpaces the capacity of existing infrastructure and services. Recognizing the potential for degradation in urban quality of life due to this widening disparity, the study introduces the Tetrad Axes Graphical (TAG) model. This novel data-driven framework evaluates the neighbourhood’s capacity for densification by generating a visually coded representation of the neighbourhood’s urban form parameters that are necessary to maintain an acceptable quality of life. These parameters, while primarily physical, also reflect socio-political tensions in how density and livability are experienced across neighbourhoods. The parameters represent factors amenable to influence through urban planning interventions, particularly within the context of retrospective planning frequently encountered in rapidly expanding urban centres such as Bengaluru. Applying the TAG model to four high-density neighbourhoods in Bengaluru demonstrates how these indicators can inform retrospective planning and guide targeted interventions. By emphasising context-specific thresholds rather than universal density targets, the TAG model offers planners a diagnostic tool to balance growth pressures with equitable quality of life in the city.

Kazi Ababil Azam, Hasan Masum, Masfiqur Rahaman et al.

The vehicular density in urbanizing cities of developing countries such as Dhaka, Bangladesh result in a lot of traffic congestion, causing poor on-road experiences. Traffic signaling is a key component in effective traffic management for such situations, but the advancements in intelligent traffic signaling have been exclusive to developed countries with structured traffic. The non-lane-based, heterogeneous traffic of Dhaka City requires a contextual approach. This study focuses on the development of an intelligent traffic signaling system feasible in the context of developing countries such as Bangladesh. We propose a pipeline leveraging Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) feeds, a low resources system Raspberry Pi 4B processing, and a state of the art YOLO-based object detection model trained on the Non-lane-based and Heterogeneous Traffic (NHT-1071) dataset to detect and classify heterogeneous traffic. A multi-objective optimization algorithm, NSGA-II, then generates optimized signal timings, minimizing waiting time while maximizing vehicle throughput. We test our implementation in a five-road intersection at Palashi, Dhaka, demonstrating the potential to significantly improve traffic management in similar situations. The developed testbed paves the way for more contextual and effective Intelligent Traffic Signaling (ITS) solutions for developing areas with complicated traffic dynamics such as Dhaka City.

Haitham Nobanee, Diem Thi Hong Vo, Hai Hong Trinh et al.

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric and systematic literature review analysis of the literature on the Big Mac Index (BMI) to identify its foundational aspects and summarize key findings. The BMI, an informal measure of purchasing power parity, has garnered scholarly interest in discussions about currency valuations, trade imbalances, and cross-country cost of living. This index encompasses a rich set of fields, including pricing drugs, cigarette/smoking across countries, professors’ salaries, income inequality, and wages. The study provides the first bibliometric analysis in this field, revealing that the number of published articles and citations is relatively low, highlighting the undervaluation of the pricing of different products and services across countries. After several screening steps, 54 articles met the criteria for examination using VOSviewer. The study offers insights into the evolution of BMI literature and highlights leading authors, documents, countries, institutions, and journals. The results indicate that Tobacco Control is the top journal publishing paper and the top-cited journal article on BMI, with the United States leading in contributions. The paper presents potential future research directions in the field of BMI.

Louise Noelle Gras , Maria Cristina Nascentes Cabral

Al concebir este número temático sobre las colecciones de arquitectura y urbanismo latinoamericano, los editores invitados decidimos abrir la convocatoria a todos aquellos que pudieran compartir sus reflexiones y experiencias con sus respectivas colecciones, sin favorecer la elección de ninguna institución en particular. El nombre de Louise Noelle surgió como una opción unánime. A lo largo de su prolífica trayectoria, Noelle no ha trabajado específicamente con ninguna colección, pero precisamente por ello, pudo aportar una perspectiva más amplia, a la vez que se involucraba en la comprensión y la protección de las colecciones. Comparte con nosotros esta labor como investigadora, docente, crítica y defensora del patrimonio local e internacional. En esta breve conversación, Louise Noelle nos cuenta sobre la historia de los archivos de arquitectura de la Ciudad de México. Describe diversas colecciones y su contenido disponible, tanto a nivel institucional como en las colecciones de grandes arquitectos del siglo XX, su área de especialización. También describe el proceso de creación y desarrollo del actual Archivo de Arquitectura Mexicana en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, que acompañó indirectamente. Finalmente, aborda con tristeza la expatriación de las colecciones de importantes arquitectos mexicanos.

Georgios Mylonas, Athanasios Kalogeras, Sobah Abbas Petersen et al.

Smart cities have been a very active research area in the past 20 years, while continuously adapting to new technological advancements and keeping up with the times regarding sustainability and climate change. In this context, there have been numerous proposals to expand the scope of smart cities, focusing on resilience and sustainability, among other aspects, resulting in terms like smart sustainable cities. At the same time, there is an ongoing discussion regarding the degree in which smart cities put people at their centre. In this work, we argue toward expanding the current smart city definition by integrating the circular economy as one of its central pillars and adopting the term smart (and) circular city. We discuss the ways a smart and circular city encompasses both sustainability and smartness in an integral manner, while also being well-positioned to foster novel business activity and models and helping to place citizens at the heart of the smart city. In this sense, we also argue that previous research in smart cities and technologies, such as those related to Industry 4.0, can serve as a cornerstone to implement circular economy activities within cities, at a scale that exceeds current activities that are based on more conventional approaches. We also outline current open challenges in this domain and research questions that still need to be addressed.

Suzan Oguz, Mehmet Tanyas

Today, supply chains and logistics operations in urban areas face increasing customer demands for productivity, quality, sustainability and traceability. Traditional methods cannot adequately respond to the rapidly changing challenges and requirements of this sector. Therefore, new methods have been developed to make urban logistics activities more modern, environmentally sensitive and integrated with technology. This research aims to identify sustainable urban logistics and the role of technological applications on urban logistics. In this research, which is designed as a systematic study, firstly, based on the existing literature, the basic concepts, trends, researchers and countries working in the field of sustainable urban logistics are examined by bibliometric analysis method. It is observed that the most frequently used technology applications in sustainable urban logistics are  last mile delivery,  vehicle routing, optimisation, electric vehicles and crowdsourcing applications. This study is expected to contribute to the development and sustainability of urban logistics.

Md Abu Sayed, Md Maksudur Rahman, Moinul Islam Zaber et al.

Analysis of traffic pattern recognition and traffic congestion expansion in real time are one of the exciting and challenging tasks which help the government to build a robust and sustainable traffic management system specially in a densely populated city like Dhaka. In this paper, we analyze the traffic intensity for small areas which are also known as junction points or corridors. We describe Dhaka city traffic expansion from a congestion point by using gravity model. However, we process real-time traffic data of Dhaka city rather than depend on survey and interview. We exactly show that traffic expansion of Dhaka city exactly follows gravity model. Expansion of traffic from a congestion point spreads out rapidly to its neighbor and impact of congested point decreases as the distance increases from that congested point. This analysis will help the government making a planned urbanized Dhaka city in order to reduce traffic jam.

Nkosingizwile Mazwi Mchunu, George Okechukwu Onatu, Trynos Gumbo

This paper discusses the impact of electricity blackouts and poor infrastructure on the livelihood of residents and the local economy of Johannesburg, South Africa. The importance of a stable electricity grid plays a vital role in the effective functioning of urban infrastructure and the economy. The importance of electricity in the present-day South Africa has not been emphasized enough to be prioritized at all levels of government, especially at the local level, as it is where all socio-economic activities take place. The new South Africa needs to redefine the importance of electricity by ensuring that it is accessible, affordable, and produced sustainably, and most of all, by ensuring that the energy transition initiatives to green energy take place in a planned manner without causing harm to the economy, which might deepen the plight of South Africans. Currently, the City of Johannesburg is a growing spatial entity in both demographic and urbanization terms, and growing urban spaces require a stable supply of electricity for the proper functioning of urban systems and the growth of the local economy. The growth of the city brings about a massive demand for electricity that outstrips the current supply of electricity available on the local grid. The imbalance in the current supply and growing demand for electricity result in energy blackouts in the city, which have ripple effects on the economy and livelihoods of the people of Johannesburg. This paper examines the impact of electricity blackouts and poor infrastructure on the livelihood of residents and the local economy of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Cheng Gong, Chaofan Xian, Tong Wu et al.

Abstract Air pollutant removal by urban vegetation is perceived to be a key ecosystem service for mitigating air pollution. However, the effectiveness of air phytoremediation in cities requires more synthesis to inform environmental management. A Bayesian meta-analysis approach was used to quantify the effectiveness of the removal of typical air pollutants—particle matter (PM), nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3)—by synthesizing global field measurement studies. The results revealed that urban vegetation can mitigate the growth of air pollutant concentrations, with reduction rates of 16.5~26.7% for PM, 13.9~36.2% for NOx, and 20.5~47.8% for SO2. However, they failed to significantly mitigate ground-level O3, corresponding to an increase of 5.1~25.9%. The variability in effect sizes was mainly influenced by the distance to nearest highway, ambient concentration, relative humidity, and green coverage. A questionnaire survey conducted in Shenzhen city (China) showed that most environmental managers supposed positive impacts of urban vegetation on all four air pollutants, which was at odds with our findings with respect to O3. This study can inform the lessening of discrepancies between scientific research and environmental managers’ perceptions on how to improve air phytoremediation for urban air pollution mitigation in China and elsewhere.

P. Ellis, M. Roberts

This report describes the progress of urbanization and structural transformation in South Asia, the market and policy failures that have shaped the region’s towns and cities, and the decisive actions needed to better leverage urbanization for South Asian prosperity and livability. Part one (chapters one–two) sets the context by analyzing key urbanization developments and related trends of structural transformation and economic growth. Part two (chapters three-six) discusses and diagnoses the main policy problems, identifies areas for policy reform, and provides examples of best practices from both within and outside the region to help inform the decisions of policy makers and practitioners. Chapter one focuses on recent urbanization related outcomes and trends at the regional level. It provides a broad comparison of the region’s current state with other world regions and with historical trends in developed countries. Chapter two then provides a spatially detailed analysis of trends and outcomes within the region and at the subnational level. The chapters of part two identify four fundamental areas for policy action: governance and finance; connectivity and planning; land and housing; and resilience to natural disaster and the effects of climate change. The four areas are interlinked. Governance and finance (chapter three) are fundamental to the supply of urban infrastructure and basic services and thus also undergird the three other policy areas. Indeed, improvements in the way South Asia’s cities are governed and financed may be a precondition for achieving meaningful progress in these other areas and therefore in prosperity and livability. Of course, the ways in which cities are planned and connected (chapter four) also influence the supply of affordable housing (chapter five). Likewise, urban planning policies, and their enforcement, help determine a city’s resilience to natural disaster and the effects of climate change (chapter six).

Joao Rulff, Fabio Miranda, Maryam Hosseini et al.

Noise is one of the primary quality-of-life issues in urban environments. In addition to annoyance, noise negatively impacts public health and educational performance. While low-cost sensors can be deployed to monitor ambient noise levels at high temporal resolutions, the amount of data they produce and the complexity of these data pose significant analytical challenges. One way to address these challenges is through machine listening techniques, which are used to extract features in attempts to classify the source of noise and understand temporal patterns of a city's noise situation. However, the overwhelming number of noise sources in the urban environment and the scarcity of labeled data makes it nearly impossible to create classification models with large enough vocabularies that capture the true dynamism of urban soundscapes In this paper, we first identify a set of requirements in the yet unexplored domain of urban soundscape exploration. To satisfy the requirements and tackle the identified challenges, we propose Urban Rhapsody, a framework that combines state-of-the-art audio representation, machine learning, and visual analytics to allow users to interactively create classification models, understand noise patterns of a city, and quickly retrieve and label audio excerpts in order to create a large high-precision annotated database of urban sound recordings. We demonstrate the tool's utility through case studies performed by domain experts using data generated over the five-year deployment of a one-of-a-kind sensor network in New York City.

Helena Uhde

Peer-to-peer electricity trading is the exchange of electricity between interconnected participants, such as distributed energy generators, consumers and prosumers. While the term ‘peer-to-peer electricity trading’ is common in scientific discussions, the term is rarely used in policy language. However, with an increase of distributed energy resources and the need for effective management mechanisms, policy documents of the EU and China in recent years have supported the concept without explicitly using the term. This paper uses qualitative content analysis and examines six relevant policy documents of the EU and China that were issued between 2016 and 2019 to determine to what extent they reflect the concept of the ‘peer-to-peer electricity trading’ in language and content. Key terms, similarities, and differences in the conceptualisation of peer-to-peer electricity trading in the EU and China are identified. The results show that while the conditions and focus of the documents are different in the EU and China, the concept of peer-to-peer trading is a running theme in both regions.

Zhixuan JI, Mou WANG, Xinran YANG et al.

The Paris Agreement signed in 2015 basically established the post-2020 international climate system. The agreement no longer emphasizes the differences between countries of the North and South. It requested each country to outline and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, which were legally termed as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs). However, in the process of negotiating the implementation rules and regulations, there is still a big divide between developing and developed countries. Thus it is important to evaluate countries’ responsibilities, obligations and capacities for addressing climate change in the post-Paris era. By adopting the Delphi method, this paper establishes a more comprehensive index system to quantitatively evaluate countries’ capacities for addressing climate change, and to further identify and determine their capacities under the Paris Agreement. According to the evaluation results, there is still a large gap between developed and developing countries in their capacities for addressing climate change. Developing countries with weak capacities fall behind mainly in terms of the industrialization process, Human Development Index (HDI) and urbanization rate. Developed countries with strong capacities lack commitments and actions in terms of helping developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This paper, by expanding the use of the Delphi method with a multi-dimensional evaluation system that includes a historical responsibility index, attempts to provide a reference for differentiating countries’ capacities and responsibilities in global climate governance, and to promote a more equitable and reasonable global climate governance system.

Jungheum Park, Hyunji Chung, Joanna F. DeFranco

Smart cities use technology to improve traffic patterns, energy distribution, air quality and more. The elements of a smart city can also increase the convenience for its citizens, by integrating IT technology into many aspects of citizen interaction such as simplifying access to many of the city services. The fields of healthcare, education, culture, and shopping can all be integrated into the core of a smart city to create an infrastructure that allows citizens to live more conveniently. Actual deployment cases exist in U.S., Europe, Singapore, and South Korea. With this environment, we need to think ahead about cybersecurity and prepare countermeasures as the cyberattacks in a smart city can threaten the lives of its citizens. In this paper, we examine smart city security threats from a multilayered perspective, targeting representative elements that make up a smart city. A summary of attack scenarios and threat countermeasures are also described.

Kaoru Yamaoka, Yusuke Kumakoshi, Yuji Yoshimura

Urban morphology and socioeconomic aspects of cities have been explored by analysing urban street network. To analyse the network, several variations of the centrality indices are often used. However, its nature has not yet been widely studied, thus leading to an absence of robust visualisation method of urban road network characteristics. To fill this gap, we propose to use a set of local betweenness centrality and a new simple and robust visualisation method. By analysing 30 European cities, we found that our method illustrates common structures of the cities: road segments important for long-distance transportations are concentrated along larger streets while those for short range transportations form clusters around CBD, historical, or residential districts. Quantitative analysis has corroborated these findings. Our findings are useful for urban planners and decision-makers to understand the current situation of the city and make informed decisions.

Ruth Delzeit, Tobias Heimann, Franziska Schuenemann et al.

The replacement of fossil resources with renewable biomass in a bioeconomy is seen as a major contribution to climate change mitigation. This transformation will affect all members of society, making it crucial to consider the views of different stakeholders to ensure a socially acceptable transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy. To explore potential outcomes of bioeconomy strategies assuming different future pathways, a scenario analysis is a tool to inform decision-makers about policy impacts and trade-offs. The inter- and transdisciplinary research project “BioNex – The future of the biomass nexus” is the first project to develop bioeconomy scenarios together with stakeholders from politics, industry, and civil society in an iterative co-design process. As a result, three storylines describing diverging potential global futures are developed and quantified: Towards sustainability, business as usual, and towards resource depletion. The futures are driven by different assumptions on climate policy, cropland expansion, productivity growth in agriculture, prices of fossil energy, and consumption behaviour. Additionally, in the co-design process, three bioeconomy policies are developed: policy as usual, stronger development of the bioeconomy, and no policies. Besides presenting the results of the stakeholder workshops, this paper evaluates the strengths and shortcomings of a stakeholder approach in terms of policy-oriented research. According to the experience made within this study, it provides valuable insights for researchers and funding authorities they can use to optimise the employment of stakeholder-based research approaches.

Eduardo Leste

In late modernity, Western societies undergo profound processes of change that lead to tensions between different social actors, which sometimes occur in intergenerational terms. This article explores these tensions in the field of music through the neobakala scene, which is composed of adults who have created a nostalgic discourse to establish a hierarchy with other musical scenes created by youngsters. The concepts of nostalgia and generation, therefore, will be key in articulating this text but both will be critically approximated, since the two assume a presence of memory in their constitution (that is not always backed by evidence). In this sense, this article, which also explores the past of the neobakala scene, claims memory as a field on its own, differentiated from nostalgia and as a source of criticism of it. On the other hand, in the analysis of this nostalgia, the neobakala scene and the same intergenerational struggles that occur in this late modernity, this article will pay special attention to the role of technological changes. To this end, the article will resort to the concept of remediation and, above all, that of "technological drama", which will allow us to observe a process of reintegration in which the neobakala subversive past ends up aligning itself with power in a context of expansion of digital technologies.

Ghada Elshafei

Thermal comfort is the result of a balanced of building frameworks adjusted to both the area of the structure just as the kind of air move performed inside the structure or the room of the structure. The aim of this research is to represent the Minia city as a case study based on the Mahoney tables method to validate the best design strategy in the hot desert bioclimatic region. Mahoney tables are a collection of referenced tables utilized in construction as a climate-appropriate design manager coupled with the meteorological data to include the right design recommendations. So, the Mahoney tables can assess the climate to be more accurately reflect the environmental conditions in the summer. Also, it can beware of the passive heating technique as natural ventilation used in the construction of energy-efficient buildings. The research proceeds with a set of conclusions and recommendations that be gotten from Mahoney tables climatic characteristics, then the design strategies were recommended. These recommendations can help architects bring forward a set of bioclimatic design strategies for buildings in Minia's environment to conduct thermal comfort with the help of the climate consultant tool.