Given the important role of green environments playing in healthy cities, the inequality in urban greenspace exposure has aroused growing attentions. However, few comparative studies are available to quantify this phenomenon for cities with different population sizes across a country, especially for those in the developing world. Besides, commonly used inequality measures are always hindered by the conceptual simplification without accounting for human mobility in greenspace exposure assessments. To fill this knowledge gap, we leverage multi-source geospatial big data and a modified assessment framework to evaluate the inequality in urban greenspace exposure for 303 cities in China. Our findings reveal that the majority of Chinese cities are facing high inequality in greenspace exposure, with 207 cities having a Gini index larger than 0.6. Driven by the spatiotemporal variability of human distribution, the magnitude of inequality varies over different times of the day. We also find that exposure inequality is correlated with low greenspace provision with a statistical significance (p-value < 0.05). The inadequate provision may result from various factors, such as dry cold climate and urbanization patterns. Our study provides evidence and insights for central and local governments in China to implement more effective and sustainable greening programs adjusted to different local circumstances and incorporate the public participatory engagement to achieve a real balance between greenspace supply and demand for developing healthy cities.
Humans benefit from multiple ecosystem services of wetlands, but massive wetland loss has occurred worldwide due to rapid urbanization. To assess the problem, it is necessary to quantify the spatial extent of urbanization‐induced wetland loss. Here, we investigated the amount and pattern of wetland loss in China due to urbanization from 1990 to 2010, based on the China National Land Cover Database (ChinaCover). Our results show that, during these 20 years, China lost 2,883 km2 of wetlands to urban expansion, of which about 2,394 km2 took place in the eastern regions (Northeast China, North China, Southeast China, and South China). The rate of urbanization‐induced wetland loss was 2.8 times higher between 2000 and 2010 (213 km2 year−1) than between 1990 and 2000 (75 km2 yr−1). Of all wetland categories, reservoirs/ponds and marshes suffered the most severe losses. Most of the wetland loss was due to the expansion of urban built‐up areas rather than industrial or transportation lands. Four hotspots of urbanization‐induced wetland loss in China were identified: the Beijing–Tianjin metropolitan region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Jianghan Plain, and the Pearl River Delta. Urbanization and industrialization continue to unfold in China for the next few decades, and the rapid expansion of small‐ and middle‐sized cities and urban traffic networks is expected to encroach on more wetlands. Although great efforts have been made towards wetland conservation in recent years, China must prevent more wetlands from being wiped out by urbanization if the country is to ahieve its sustainable development goals.
Abstract. Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of global urbanization over a long time series is increasingly important for sustainable development goals. The harmonized time-series nighttime light (NTL) composites by fusing multi-source NTL observations provide a long and consistent record of the nightscape for characterizing and understanding the global urban dynamics. In this study, we generated a global dataset of annual urban extents (1992–2020) using consistent NTL observations and analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of global urban dynamics over nearly 30 years. The urbanized areas associated with locally high-intensity human activities were mapped from the time-series global NTL imagery using a new stepwise-partitioning framework. This framework includes three components: (1) clustering of NTL signals to generate potential urban clusters; (2) identification of optimal thresholds to delineate annual urban extents; and (3) check of temporal consistency to correct pixel-level urban dynamics. We found that the global urban land area percentage to the Earth’s land surface raised from 0.22 % to 0.69 % in 1992 and 2020, respectively. Urban dynamics over the past three decades at the continent, country, and city levels exhibit various spatiotemporal patterns. Our resulting global urban extents (1992–2020) were evaluated using other urban remote sensing products and socioeconomic data. The evaluations indicate that this dataset is reliable for characterizing spatial extents associated with intensive human settlement and high-intensity socioeconomic activities. The dataset of global urban extents from this study can provide unique information to capture the historical and future trajectories of urbanization, and understand and tackle the urbanization impacts on food security, biodiversity, climate change, and public well-being and health. This dataset can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16602224.v1 (Zhao et al., 2021).
This paper examines how grassroots coalitions mobilize for the right to the city, the politics they encounter and the extent to which their actions result in urban reforms benefiting marginalized communities. The paper invokes a discourse on the right to the city as the mobilizing frame for grassroots social movement encounters against exclusionary development and displacement. Drawing on interviews and documents, we situate this discourse within two case studies of forced eviction in Lagos, Nigeria. To ground the investigation and highlight the tactics and politics of coalitions, the paper applies the conceptual framework of the invited–invented space of encounter. Our findings reveal that state-led neoliberal urban restructuring and spatial displacement in Lagos have triggered grassroots movements and the formation of coalitions, which, depending on the politics encountered, have both enhanced and constrained the struggle for transformative urban reforms that enable the right to the city for marginalized communities.
Diganta Das, Bikramaditya K. Chowdhary, Swasti Vardhan Mishra
et al.
One of the oldest cities in the world, Varanasi is home to more than one religion. It is an acclaimed centre of spirituality for Hindus and Buddhists while being equally sacred for Jains and Sikhs. The city is located along the river Ganga, which many believe is a celestial incarnation to grant salvation. Varanasi is a million-plus-population city; an increasingly important provincial metropolitan centre enshrined with the values of commerce, religion, ritual and tradition; and caught between the confluence and contestations of traditions and modernity. Since 2016, Varanasi has been incorporated under India’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM) to develop the city into a smart city with a strong focus on heritage and tourism. The present article is an attempt to trace the journey of the city that has developed as a palimpsest over centuries; it deliberates the contemporary urban landscape and maps out recent urban and infrastructure developments of the city and its concerns. This article also argues that Varanasi has focused on locally specific everyday urbanisms with heritage and culture and pivoted to making itself a Smart Heritage City.
Introducing a causal model to study the drought disaster around the world is the need of the planet today. There are many causes and effects of drought disasters around the world. These parameters, by affecting and being influenced by each other, cause the formation of processes that can make the experience of this event unpleasant. By planning and formulating appropriate strategies based on the results of this model, this event can be properly treated. For this purpose, in this research, the causal model of drought disasters is introduced. First, effective criteria or parameters in the occurrence of drought are identified. The tool used in this research is the modified fuzzy DEMATEL model. After responding to the direct relations matrix and defuzzification of this matrix, the causes and effects of the drought disaster are finally realized. The results of this study indicate that the criteria of global warming, mismanagement, and war are causal parameters or causes and the criteria of climate change, deforestation and soil degradation, dam construction, agriculture and livestock, and additional water needs are the parameters of the effect. Therefore, by establishing the conditions of each of the causal parameters, drought occurs or intensifies, and with the occurrence of drought, the effect parameters are created and show their effect on the causal parameters in the occurrence of drought.
Urbanization. City and country, Environmental sciences
Lucia Chieffallo, Annunziata Palermo, Maria Francesca Viapiana
Sustainable planning in coastal areas must integrate environmental protection actions and development actions addressing settlement policies and the location of functional and tourist infrastructure and services that are particularly relevant from a socio-economic point of view. In Italy, coastal planning is fragmented between state, regional and municipal competences. All Italian municipalities have the task of drafting the plan that outlines the strategic scenarios and the structural choices for the governance of the territory under their jurisdiction. We therefore wonder how this general plan can incorporate the specificities of coastal territories starting from the elaboration of the knowledge framework to define a sustainable plan project. To answer this question, we focus on the Calabrian regional territory, which hosts 10% of the national coastal heritage. The paper presents and discusses the procedural and content aspects related to the elaboration of the Preliminary Document of the Structural Plan of a municipality located on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea to draw general conclusions from the local experience useful for planners.
Transportation engineering, Urbanization. City and country
ABSTRACT Over the last decades, managing urbanization poses a great challenge for many developed countries. To overcome, the negative impacts of urbanization and preserve sustainability in urban areas, governments are compelled to undertake measures, to increase the benefits derived from peri-urban and urban green spaces. In this study we tried to document the social and economic value of the peri-urban and urban green of the town of Florina. To do so, we tried to evaluate the ecosystem services that exist in these areas of the city, in monetary units, using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). To examine the theoretical concepts underlying urbanization and its connection to green spaces (urban and peri-urban) and ecosystem services, we decided to resort to primary data (291 questionnaires). The proposed methodology was tested in the aforementioned city, because it has lots of urban green spaces and is, in essence, surrounded by peri-urban forests. Results, demonstrated that the participants in the survey are willing to financially support and voluntarily participate in urban and peri-urban management plans. Furthermore, the results showed that the CVM method, can be successfully used to evaluate the all value of a urban and periurban green spaces in the city of Florina. Our analysis showed that in this specific case, the assessment of willingness to pay for developing green spaces (urban and peri-urban), should and can be promoted as an indispensable tool for the conservation-improvement and protection of those areas.
Urbanization is a globally shared challenge and Nepal, a small developing country in the foot of the Himalayas, is no exception. For Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC), the country’s second ranked city in terms of population density, the situation is complex as numerous historic and artistic monuments including a UNESCO World Heritage property make structural adjustment prohibitive. As a practical and sustainable response to the mobility challenge, then, LMC has teamed up with the City’s stakeholders to transform into a cyclable city. Based on a case study that employed in-depth qualitative interviewing of specialized populations, this study attempted to validate City’s course of actions in light of global trend in the use of bicycles, and discussed the movement from the perspective of sustainable urban governance. The study found that the case city is on the right trajectory for tackling urbanization challenges with sustainable means, aided by the collective wit of the political, administrative, and citizens’ power. Their effort was validated by the initiative’s alignment with the global benchmarking on the use of bicycle for sustainable mobility. The study concluded that factors such as collaborative public service design and local government led spatial management are holding keys for sustainable urban governance.
Political science, Political institutions and public administration (General)
Space is considered in the literature as having a significant influence on the formation and development of memory. In this context,
spatial experiences and the accumulation of knowledge through experiences and reflections on life all play an active role in the generation
of both social and individidual memory. In this study, spatial readings and other findings that were obtained by consulting individual
testimony of the relations between memory, space and identity were analyzed through drawings and tables.
The study focuses on the houses of the Saraçoğlu (Namık Kemal) neighbourhood in Ankara. The neighbourhood is considered as being
a cultural property and a place of memory and is studied in the context of the literature by consideration of the place and the people
who lived there. A variety of qualitative research methods were used in the study, and the evaluations obtained were used to consider both the past and to reveal future spatial potentials. The most significant result obtained in the study was that the neighbourhood can be considered to be a place that exists in the memories and lives of the residents, and so cannot be examined by considering only the architecture.
Planning the proper management of waste and considering its harmful effects on the environment in each country is one of the important principles to provide long - term benefits and move on the path of sustainable development. In this regard, waste management is considered as one of the major axes of development in rural areas. Due to the importance of the problem, the present descriptive-analytical study was conducted to identify the factors affecting rural waste management in Shirin Dareh village, Quchan city. The statistical population of this study includes the heads of rural households of Shirin Darreh village (3560) in which 347 were selected applying Cochran formula. The method of Attributive-Survey was applied to collect data. A documentary method is used to examine the record and explain the problem. Furthermore, a survey method was used to collect the data by observation, interview and completion of the questionnaire among the residents. The data were also analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software packages. Exploratory factor analysis was used in order to identify the factors associated with the structure “factor affecting of Rural Waste Management in Shirin Dareh Village”. Besides, confirmatory factor analysis was used to investigate the goodness of fit index of the research model. The results of exploratory factor analysis indicated that ten factors of ultimate disposal management, education and information, cultural, health, knowledge and awareness, inter-sectoral, financial, executive organization, planned and social programs, explains approximately 67.51% of total variance of waste management factors affecting rural areas of Shirin Darreh. The findings of confirmatory factor analysis also showed that those ten mentioned factors, to a large extent, measure the independent and discrete dimensions of "waste management factors affecting" within the study area.
Extended Abstract
1-Introduction
Today, protecting the environment and nature (both urban and rural areas) has become one of the most important human concerns. Since the beginning of human life, waste production has been an integral part of his life, in various sectors of home, agriculture, health, etc. Population growth, economic growth, increasing urbanization, and essentially a new way of life for humans have changed the pattern of consumption and increased production waste, resulting in numerous environmental problems. Environmental pollution and consequently the risk of rural health and health risks require a proper model of waste management based on existing conditions. Therefore, the management of rural waste is one of the most important issues which requires to be considered. The current study aims to identify the status of rural waste management in Quchan city investigating the factors which affect rural waste management by rural households in order to obtain a realistic picture of rural waste management situation in Quchan city.
2-Materials and Methods
Descriptive-analytical method and quantitative method has been applied in current study since it aims to identify of factors affecting of rural waste management. Attributive-Survey is applied to collect data through questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. 40 items were used to assess the factors affecting of rural waste management in the study area. Respondents were asked to rate each item on their scale in a five-point Likert scale for their village. A panel of experts confirmed the content validity of the questionnaire. Pilot study was conducted in the same region with a population of 30 questionnaires and the reliability was 0.832 using Cronbach's alpha formula. The statistical population of the study includes the villages of Shirin Dareh village in Quchan city. According to the census of 1395, there were 15435 people in 4718 households scattered in 30 rural areas. According to the frequency of the villages under study, 10 villages were selected to distribute and complete the questionnaire, which includes 3560 households; thus, using Cochran formula, 347 households were selected as sample size. The study area is divided into two groups (lowland and mountainous) in terms of location and topography, for this purpose, the abundance of villages in these two groups was determined by classified probability sampling. Applying simple sampling, four lowland villages and six mountainous villages were randomly selected. A quota sampling method was used to select the sample size within each village showing that each village was categorized according to a number of households residing.
3- Results and Discussion
The findings from ranking the items of rural waste management factors revealed that the first factor of rural waste management in the study area is to separate the origin and not mix wet, dry and special (hazardous) household waste. Exploratory factor analysis was used to categorize "rural waste management problems within the study area" and determine the amount of variance explained by each of the variables in the form of categorized factors.
Based on the results of the research, the significance of Bartlett test at 99% level and the KMO value indicated correlation and the fact that it was proper for the intended variables to perform factor analysis. Eigenvalue criterion was applied to extract the factors considering the factors greater than one. As the findings revealed, generally, ten extracted factors could explain approximately 67.51% of the total variance of the structure (factors affecting of Rural Waste Management in Shirin Dare). In the meantime, the first factor, "Disposal Management", with a specific value of 4.39, has the most variance (19.88%). In order to investigate the structural validity of the questionnaire and the fitting of the measurement pattern related to the structure of "factors affecting of Rural Waste Management in Shirin Dareh Village of Quchan", the collected data were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL software. The obtained fit indices indicate the appropriate fit of the studied model with the observed data. According to the fitted model of rural waste management factors affecting of Shirin Dareh district of Quchan, standardized factor loadings show that the measuring instruments have appropriate structural validity. The results of the significant coefficients indicated that the obtained t values were greater than 1.96 for all the studied variables and the relationships between these variables with the relevant factors have been significant. Accordingly, it can be stated that the factors of final disposal management, education and information, cultural, health, knowledge and awareness, inter-sectoral coordination, financial, executive, lack of planned and social program, to a large extent, measure the independent dimensions of the structure of "factors affecting of Waste management in rural areas of Shirin Dare". These ten factors prioritized from first to tenth, respectively, in explaining factors affecting rural waste management.
4- Conclusion
Rural Waste management is an important issue due to the changes in lifestyles, environmental pollutions which endangers the villager health. Achieving an appropriate model of waste management requires identifying and evaluating the existing conditions in the region and analyzing the factors affecting waste management.
Philipp Gareis, Christian Diller, Bärbel Winkler-Kühlken
According to most (inter)national studies, life satisfaction in small towns is higher than in other types of towns with more inhabitants. With a population survey in eight German cities, we examine the importance of the infrastructure as an aspect of quality of life and the accessibility of infrastructure for local life satisfaction and whether or not the factor of social cohesion has a stronger impact on life satisfaction. The results show a differentiated picture: First, the infrastructure offer, as an aspect of objectively measurable quality of life does not have the greatest impact on life satisfaction. The population of the small towns in central locations apparently takes advantage of the infrastructure offers of their neighbouring towns and other places. Somehow, they are very satisfied with life on site, despite a low level of satisfaction with the infrastructure. The study thus tends to confirm the borrowing size concept, according to which small towns in the surrounding area benefit from the functions of the core city. On the other hand, the two factors of social cohesion and satisfaction with the performance of the local administration are closely related to the individual life satisfaction on site. For further research, the question arises, as which factors can explain local common sense best and how this can be improved through political measures.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
While government housing can raise living standards for the urban poor, it has environmental impacts and contributes to urban resource consumption. In Gauteng Province, South Africa, government housing aims to improve quality of life, reduce poverty and inequality, and transform unsustainable urban forms. This paper draws on survey and interview data to explore the social justice and environmental sustainability outcomes of Gauteng’s government housing programmes. The data reveal improved access to basic services and amenities. However, the developments tend to be poorly located with regard to economic opportunities, and residents are forced to explore other income generation opportunities. This paper highlights the complex interplay between justice and sustainability, where the outcomes are aligned in some instances and conflictual in others. It points to the need to move beyond linear, reductionist relationships between justice and sustainability to further the conceptual understanding of their interlinkages.
ABSTRACT Vietnam is a tropical country where mosquito-borne diseases are common. This review explores the transmission of mosquito-borne flaviviruses in urban areas of Vietnam. It concludes that urban transmission has mainly been studied for Dengue virus, and so far, much less for Japanese encephalitis virus. Dengue is the most common flavivirus in Vietnam. Due to fast urbanization and favorable climatic conditions, the viral transmission concentrates mainly to large cities with high population density including Ha Noi, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh. Human cases of Japanese encephalitis have been controlled by an expanded immunization program. However, this virus is still circulating throughout the country, also in cities due to the pig rearing practices in urban and peri-urban areas. Zika virus is an additional major concern because it has long circulated in the Northern area and is now increasingly diagnosed in urban areas of the Central, Central Highlands and Southern regions using the same mosquito vectors as Dengue virus. There was alarge outbreak of Zika disease from 2016 to early 2017, with most infections observed in Ho Chi Minh city, the largest town in Vietnam. Other flaviviruses circulate in Vietnam but have not been investigated in terms of urban transmission.
Abstract The ways in which urban rail transit influences land development have been extensively studied for cities in the United States and Europe; studies from less-developed countries are limited. However, the influences of rail transit on land development in developing countries such as China have drawn much scholarly attention in recent years, in part due to the unprecedented speed and scale of its urbanization and development of rail systems. The main research questions of the present study are whether rail transit attracts new developments or redevelopment to areas surrounding stations and whether the city-shaping ability of rail transit differs between central areas and suburbs. Our study focused on Shenzhen, one of the most quickly urbanizing areas in China. We utilized land parcel data in Shenzhen collected in two different years and applied multiple linear regressions with interactive terms to compare the effect of rail transit stations on land development by region (i.e., central areas vs. suburbs). The evidence supported our hypothesis that the densifying of land development brought on by rail transit is more prominent in already developed central areas than in low-density suburbs. Our research findings help illuminate the interactive relationships between transportation and land development in China; this study also contributes to the broader discussion of sustainable urbanization.
Owing to their natural, scientific, social, cultural and economic values, wetlands are sensitive ecosystems that need to be protected. This research aims to identify ecosystem services that the Mogan-Eymir Lakes wetland ecosystem, located in the “Gölbaşı Special Environmental Protection Zone (ÖÇKB)’ in the city center of Ankara, offers to the locals. Urban development in Ankara was seen to have made an impact on the ecosystem services of Mogan and Eymir Lakes. The research, therefore, has two main objectives: identification of the ecosystem services that the Mogan and Eymir lakes provide to Ankara, and the impact that urban development has had on these services. A mixed research methodology was applied to reach the aims of this research. Data was obtained by carrying out a survey with a representative sample group. Maps were created using the software ArcGIS 10.1 to understand the urban development of Ankara in detail. Participants were observed at the research site to test the research findings. In-depth interviews were conducted with stakeholders related to the research field. The data obtained was divided into categories and sub-themes through the software Maxqda 2020. The research revealed the various provisioning, regulating and cultural services offered by the lakes especially to those living in the city of Ankara. Finally, the information collected during the research has been comprehensively analysed by taking into consideration the possible impacts of urban development in the vicinity of the lakes.
Using the example of the political-planning discourse on former plans to develop a large-scale shopping centre in the inner city of Mainz, the potential benefits of a discourse and governmentality approach to spatial research subjects is discussed. In particular, the discursive discursive mechanisms of inscribing an entrepreneurial and depoliticized conception of urban space into apparently neutral and objective techniques of spatial analysis are worked out. At the same time, this idea of urban space as a competitive entity determined by spatio-economic principles is challenged by competing conceptions of urban development focused on the conservation of place-specific structures of the built environment. Thus, the case study illustrates how discourse analysis can excavate the spatial knowledge structures guiding the management of contemporary urban development projects.
Cities. Urban geography, Urbanization. City and country
Fadjar Hari Mardiansjah, Wiwandari Handayani, Jawoto Sih Setyono
Urbanization has brought rapid changes and transformations in many aspects of urban processes of many developing countries, including in spatial aspect, in the form of extended spatial formation of the cities into the surroundings, in order to meet the needs of economic and productive processes as well as those of social and consumption processes. Using the case of the growth of Surakarta Metropolitan, this paper aims to deepen understanding on the spatial process of urban population growth in the peripheries of secondary metropolitan that based on medium city size in Java, which is considered as one of the most densest populated in the world. The article will show the process of metropolitanization in Surakarta Metropolitan, in which influenced of its limitness of the administrative jurisdiction of the core area, the the growth extends into the surrounding areas. The analysis employs a time serial analysis by utilizing the national censuses population data from 1990 to 2010, The result shows that the urbanization process in Surakarta leads into a extended spatial form which also characterized by a fragmented phenomena. The spatial urban formation formed by such a process consist of a combination of some extensions of the previous urban areas and the formation of new urban centers that approached and merged one to each other in the long run. This process need to be understood as urbanization process is also a major contributors that shape the resource allocation and consumption of resources in the metropolitan and the surrounding areas. For Indonesia, the understanding of these processes will be very beneficial for the formulation of regional collaboration strategies in developing sustainable urbanization in the future.
Worldwide, urbanization constitutes a major and growing driver of global change and a distinctive feature of the Anthropocene. Thus, urban development paths present opportunities for technological and societal transformations towards energy efficiency and decarbonization, with benefits for both greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollution mitigation. This requires a better understanding of the intertwined dynamics of urban energy and land use, emissions, demographics, governance, and societal and biophysical processes. In this study, we address several characteristics of urbanization in Santiago (33.5°S, 70.5°W, 500 m a.s.l.), the capital city of Chile. Specifically, we focus on the multiple links between mobility and air quality, describe the evolution of these two aspects over the past 30 years, and review the role scientific knowledge has played in policy-making. We show evidence of how technological measures (e.g., fuel quality, three-way catalytic converters, diesel particle filters) have been successful in decreasing coarse mode aerosol (PM10) concentrations in Santiago despite increasing urbanization (e.g., population, motorization, urban sprawl). However, we also show that such measures will likely be insufficient if behavioral changes do not achieve an increase in the use of public transportation. Our investigation seeks to inform urban development in the Anthropocene, and our results may be useful for other developing countries, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean where more than 80% of the population is urban.