Urban planning challenges and missed opportunities after an industrial disaster in Hungary

Introduction: Urban spatial planning is critical for the development of sustainable and livable cities. However, traditional planning methods often face challenges in handling complex planning scenarios and large-scale data.Methods: This paper introduces UrbanGenoGAN, a novel algorithm that integrates generative adversarial networks (GANs), genetic optimization algorithms (GOAs), and geographic information system (GIS) to address these challenges. Leveraging the generative power of GANs, the optimization capabilities of genetic algorithms, and the spatial analysis capabilities of GIS, UrbanGenoGAN is designed to generate optimized urban plans that cater to various urban planning challenges. Our methodology details the algorithm’s design and integration of its components, data collection and preprocessing, and the training and implementation processes.Results: Through rigorous evaluation metrics, comparative analysis with existing methodologies, and case studies, the proposed algorithm demonstrates significant improvement in urban planning outcomes. The research also explores the technical and practical considerations for implementing UrbanGenoGAN, including scalability, computational efficiency, data privacy, and ethical considerations.Discussion: The findings suggest that the integration of advanced machine learning and optimization techniques with spatial analysis offers a promising approach to enhancing decision-making in urban spatial planning. This work contributes to the growing field of AI applications in urban planning and paves the way for more efficient and sustainable urban development.

Water is a scarce resource in many semi-arid cities in the developing world, but remains ignored within the domain and processes of urban planning. This paper compares urban planning in Botswana with aspects of planning theory and public policy theory to assess the disjunction between urban and water planning. It shows that conventional urban planning processes neglect water resource planning because it is an unconventional land-use planning issue. Water planning is a concern that warrants a central role in urban planning in order to reconfigure the water management paradigm and shift the emphasis away from water supply augmentation, which dominated the twentieth century.

Disasters can cause major setbacks to achieving development goals but, at the same time, provide opportunities for development. In post-disaster reconstruction, the implementation of the ‘Build Back Better’ principle can result in improved road surfaces and wider road network coverage. However, the maximum benefit of such an investment can only be achieved if the road networks are properly maintained. Failing to provide the required maintenance needs may result in the investment made during the reconstruction period to prematurely diminish. As a result, the intended impact on the economic development of the areas concerned may not be achieved.

Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the development and design of land use and other problems, such as transportation, communications and its distribution networks. In Ho Chi Minh City case, the fastest developing city in Vietnam, the transportation problems have become worse and worse, recently. Even through received lots of concerns from Ho Chi Minh City government and notices from many different stakeholders, traffic jam and others traffic problem keep occur and increase-in-level in many new projects area of Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, there are several challenges for Vietnam urban planners to develop Ho Chi Minh City without exacerbated the current traffic situation. In scope of this article, some specific challenges in urban transportation planning, in Vietnamese urban planning process, would be identified, such as: Limitation in Traffic impact assessment, the limitation in analysis approach method for forecasting and reduction of traffic problem; and lack of communication and synchronous cooperation between departments and other agencies in municipalities. After research on these challenges in urban transportation planning in Vietnamese urban planning process, some related solutions will be research and proposed in future research articles.

PurposeThis study aims to examine the role of information and communication technology (ICT)-based communication technologies to create a sustainable recovery strategy through Build Back Better practice in the existing policy framework of Bangladesh. Its purpose is to analyse the problems associated with the current recovery process of the country and how the ICT-based communication technology can improve the situation. Nevertheless, the aim also extends towards the limitation of the technology and the infrastructures and possible adjustments in this regard.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the aim, the study conducted an extensive literature review of numerous grey literature, policy papers and scientific/academic articles in an exploratory approach.FindingsThe result shows that the disaster recovery process of Bangladesh is slow, and there are some mismanagements (the lengthy risk assessment using ancient data generation processes, lack of accessibility and report-based data product) which was a cause behind the massive destruction done by recent cyclones. The ICT-based methods (proper database, many to many communications, GIS) can make this response faster, transparent and easy to access.Research limitations/implicationsThe research results may lack generalizability due to the research approach of the study. Thus, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.Practical implicationsThe study includes some possible adjustments to the argument for the existing policy infrastructure and scope of communication technology to bridge the theory and practice.Social implicationsThe study also includes some suggestions to engage society in disaster recovery processes.Originality/valueThis paper urges to study the implication of technology in terms of disaster recovery on a broad scale.

A growing number of large-scale disasters and inefficiencies in reconstruction projects in recent years necessitated the development of guidelines for completing successful post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) projects. Reconstruction projects are still facing several challenges such as time and cost overruns and low quality due to several issues during the implementation. Various studies in construction industry have been undertaken on PDR projects. However, there has been no attempt of scientometric analysis to explore the holistic understanding of the current state of PDR research. The aim of this research is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the available PDR literature and to provide a picture of the research status from 2010 to August 2021. There were 352 documents extracted from the database of Scopus. VOSviewer tool was used to visualize the literature contained through countries, scientific journals, and keywords. The outcomes showed that "Reconstruction", "Resilience", "Build Back Better", and "Project Management" were lately risen to prominence as mainstream topics in this field and piqued the curiosity of academics, which may represent future research possibilities as well. Moreover, based on the most keywords frequently used, three important research domains linked with post-disaster have been identified, including "Post-Disaster Reconstruction", "Housing", and "Vulnerability". Accordingly, the explanations related to research outcomes, recommendations for future studies have been provided on the projects of PDR. The result from this review will contribute to the field of PDR by assisting scholars and practitioners to explore the current state and path the way for future trends of PDR research.

Build back better: A framework for sustainable recovery assessment

Rapid urbanization across the world creates several challenges for the field of sustainable development. One promising approach to addressing challenges in urban planning and fostering sustainable development in such a setting is the integration of AI with remote sensing technology. This research provides a summary of how AI and remote sensing are being used for sustainable development in urban planning. The article's first part presents an outline of the most pressing issues created by urbanization, such as population growth, resource depletion, environmental degradation, and increased energy use. It emphasizes the need to include sustainable development concepts in urban planning to address these concerns. Focusing on its ability to gather high-resolution spatial data, monitor changes in land use, and assess environmental conditions, this article explores the role that remote sensing plays in urban planning. The merging of AI algorithms with remote sensing data enables the automation of operations like photo classification, object detection, and data analysis, hence enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of urban planning procedures. Keywords: - Artificial Intelligence (AI), Smart and Sustainable Cities Literature, Research, Advances, Trends, And Applications.

Qatar is a Middle Eastern country characterised by an arid climate. Key challenges in urban planning in general are uncertainties of the future, especially when it comes to water resources and specifically storm water. While textbook of urban planning concentrates the most on social and economic factors that promote prosperity for the communities, in many arid areas the concept of planning from a climate change and specially storm water might be looked at as the least important in the priority list of criteria required for a successful and practical urban planning. This situation poses a challenge to urban planners in general, especially with limited available standards and criteria of planning from a storm water and climate change perspectives. This paper intends to shed some light on the above-mentioned challenges of planning from storm water perspective and provide a more practical approach to urban planning from climate change perspective, and aims at providing the urban planning community with the basics of optimizing the challenge of rainfall and possible flooding in such an arid area like Qatar.

Selecting an institutional mechanism for Building Back Better: Lessons from Victorian bushfires recovery

Autonomous vehicles will significantly affect mobility conditions in the future. The changes in mobility conditions are expected to have an impact on urban development and, more specifically, on location choices, land use organisation and infrastructure design. Nowadays, there is not enough data for a real-life assessment of this impact. Experts estimate that autonomous vehicles will be available for uptake in the next decade. Therefore, urban planners should consider the possible impacts from autonomous vehicles on cities and the future challenges for urban planning. In this context, the present paper focuses on the challenges from the implementation of autonomous road vehicles for passenger transport in European cities. The analysis is based on a systematic review of research and policy. The main outcome of the analysis is a set of challenges for urban planning regarding the features of urban development, the local and European policy priorities, the current lack of data for planning and the potential for autonomous vehicles to be used by planners as data sources. The paper concludes that tackling these challenges is essential for the full exploitation of the autonomous vehicles’ potential to promote sustainable urban development.

Long-term Recovery from Recent Disasters in Japan and the United States

A disaster can be viewed, from the project perspective, as a unique public problem to be addressed by stakeholders, including the government, through appropriate response, recovery, reduction, and readiness measures. In view of successful disaster management practices, this research explores relevant literature on countries’ post-disaster reconstruction and recovery along with countries’ resilience in curbing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The research aims to enhance understanding on the successes of past and ongoing events with a disaster resilience lens. It examines the reported critical success factors (CSFs) within resilience to natural hazards and COVID-19, and analyzes them using the Build Back Better (BBB) Framework, a framework intended to evaluate recovery efforts. The analysis results reveal that the CSFs could be linked to the framework’s three categories: disaster risk reduction, community recovery, and effective implementation. However, the emerging environment sees political influences and public policy driving community resilience, which are currently not highlighted in the framework. The research findings are not meant to be exhaustive, since mostly Asia-Pacific case studies were integrated into the literature, and the solution to COVID-19 has yet to be significantly realized. Further systematic review considering the recent developments may corroborate the findings on success and direct future research

For over three decades or so, urbanisation and urban development alongside urban planning have become a cardinal issue to urban dwellers, government institutions and professionals in the developed and developing countries. It is in this regard that this paper examines urban planning challenges and prospects in Nkambe town. The growing population of Nkambe like in other emerging Cameroonian towns suffers from the problem of socio-economic and environmental problems and need adequate urban spatial planning. Field surveys, observations, interview with the administration, questionnaire administration, interviews and on-the-spot appraisals constituted the main data sources. Three focus group discussions were carried out which was complemented by secondary sources. The results indicated that the driving forces of urban disorder were population increase manifested through inadequate enforcement of its plan, non-respect of building codes, poverty and limited houses with potable drinking water, business conflicts, inadequate health facilities, and increasing crime waves. The study recommended that there is a need for a change of mentality of the Nkambe man towards an awareness that the town has its carrying capacity and when overstretched could lead to devastating respond in an undesirable manner probably in future.

With the rapid expansion of volume of electric vehicles in China’s transportation system, forecast of the electricity charging load poses challenges in urban planning and grid planning. This article, based on the rudimentary daily operation data of electric vehicles in Shenzhen, made short-term and long-term forecast of charging load. Forecast of the charging load mainly refers to volume of electric vehicles, daily power demand, charging load distribution. Considering the differences in driving characters and vehicle usages, totally 6 categories of vehicles were analyzed in this article. Findings in this article will provide important information for charging pile planning and power grid planning, and put forward constructive opinions for urban services and management.KeywordsElectric vehicleCharging load forecastCharging pile planning