Administrative Boundaries Research Articles

A Global Estimate of the Size and Location of Informal Settlements

Slums are a structural feature of urbanization, and shifting urbanization trends underline their significance for the cities of tomorrow. Despite their importance, data and knowledge on slums are very limited. In consideration of the current data landscape, it is not possible to answer one of the most essential questions: Where are slums located? The goal of this study is to provide a more nuanced understanding of the geography of slums and their growth trajectories. The methods rely on the combination of different datasets (city-level slum maps, world cities, global human settlements layer, Atlas of Informality). Slum data from city-level maps form the backbone of this research and are made compatible by differentiating between the municipal area, the urbanized area, and the area beyond. This study quantifies the location of slums in 30 cities, and our findings show that only half of all slums are located within the administrative borders of cities. Spatial growth has also shifted outwards. However, this phenomenon is very different in different regions of the world; the municipality captures less than half of all slums in Africa and the Middle East but almost two-thirds of all slums in cities of South Asia. These insights are used to estimate land requirements within the Sustainable Development Goals time frame. In 2015, almost one billion slum residents occupied a land area as large as twice the size of the country of Portugal. The estimated 380 million residents to be added up to 2030 will need land equivalent to the size of the country of Egypt. This land will be added to cities mainly outside their administrative borders. Insights are provided on how this land demand differs within cities and between world regions. Such novel insights are highly relevant to the policy actions needed to achieve Target 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (“by 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services, and upgrade slums”) as interventions targeted at slums or informal settlements are strongly linked to political and administrative boundaries. More research is needed to draw attention to the urban expansion of cities and the role of slums and informal settlements.

Constructing ‘Local’ and ‘Sustainable’: A critical analysis of place-based public food procurement

Public food procurement, involving public sector entities purchasing and distributing food for government-run programs or facilities, is gaining traction as a strategy to counter the dominance of global corporations in food systems. This paper examines the potential and challenges of a place-based procurement model that links urban and rural areas through direct supply chains to promote local, environmentally sustainable food production and consumption, drawing on an in-depth analysis of South Korea’s Urban-rural Coexistence Public Meal Program. The findings of this study highlight that program agendas focused on locality and sustainability may misalign, limiting transformative potential, especially when ‘place’ is narrowly defined within territorial or administrative boundaries. The paper advocates for a comprehensive understanding of ‘place’ that transcends spatial limits, as a key to rebuild regional supply chains, acknowledging its multi-scalar nature and socio-ecological connections between urban and rural spheres. Evidence from South Korea informs the design of place-based food systems, emphasizing the importance of aligning local realities, coordinating different food systems agendas, and exchanging context-specific knowledge. This study contributes to the theoretical elaboration of place-based approaches and the envisioning of urban policies that support food system sustainability and localization.

Community-Centred Energy Planning: Within and beyond Administrative Borders

Since its introduction in 2008, the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) has helped municipalities meet EU Climate and Energy goals and thresholds through Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Planning (SECAP). The engagement of local communities holds particular significance for smaller municipalities, which can leverage collective strategies to mutually contribute to climate change mitigation efforts, thereby optimizing results. In the realm of communities, Renewable Energy Communities (REC) have emerged as a potential tool for SECAP implementation, but although they target common objectives and constitute subsequent steps of the same planning flow, their interaction is poor. This study aimed to investigate similar tools’ integration by focusing on administrative and technical boundaries whose overlaps often hinder their interoperability. To this aim, the Italian framework was chosen due to the representation of its signatories in the CoM. Municipalities that have undertaken actions related to RECs within their Joint SECAPs have been compared through an analysis of the CoM datasets. Finally, two Italian case studies were selected to evaluate the impact of different territorial and institutional configurations on these initiatives, aiming to face climate change and achieve a green transition. This helped the authors propose practical recommendations and policy implications concerning this kind of community-centred energy planning solution as outlined in the concluding section.

Role of Stakeholders in Sustainable Management of an Urban Waterbody and Wetland

Waterbodies and wetlands in urban areas face fragmentation due to multiple administrative boundaries, necessitating collaboration among various stakeholders. To enhance stakeholder involvement in social-ecological systems (SES), participatory tools have been employed. This article aims to identify factors affecting the sustainability of Najafgarh Lake and Wetland in Northern India, by identifying relevant stakeholders, examining their perceptions about the current state of the lake using a problem analysis participatory tool (PAST), and presenting the findings along the four subsystems of Ostrom’s (2007) general framework for analyzing the sustainability of SES. An analysis of stakeholders’ perceptions reveals the factors affecting Najafgarh Lake’s sustainability and highlights two competing and conflicting interests: reducing water inflow into the lake and constructing an embankment, versus designating the lake as a wetland. Balancing the two competing issues namely immediate gains from draining the lake and the long-term benefits arising from its preservation is crucial. These insights can guide policymakers in developing a sustainable lake and wetland management plan.

Measuring variation in infant mortality and deaths of despair by US congressional district in Pennsylvania: a methodological case study.

Many ecological studies examine health outcomes and disparities using administrative boundaries such as census tracts, counties, or states. These boundaries help us to understand the patterning of health by place, along with impacts of policies implemented at these levels. However, additional geopolitical units (units with both geographic and political meaning), such as congressional districts (CDs), present further opportunities to connect research with public policy. Here we provide a step-by-step guide on how to conduct disparities-focused analysis at the CD level. As an applied case study, we use geocoded vital statistics data from 2010-2015 to examine levels of and disparities in infant mortality and deaths of despair in the 19US CDs of Pennsylvania for the 111th-112th (2009-2012) Congresses and 18 CDs for the 113th-114th (2013-2016) Congresses. We also provide recommendations for extending CD-level analysis to other outcomes, states, and geopolitical boundaries, such as state legislative districts. Increased surveillance of health outcomes at the CD level can help prompt policy action and advocacy and, hopefully, reduce rates of and disparities in adverse health outcomes.

Identification of ecological restoration areas based on the ecological safety security assessment of wetland-hydrological ecological corridors: A case study of the Han River Basin in China

In recent years, wetland resources have been threatened by human activities such as mining, agriculture and construction land expansion, and problems such as shrinkage of wetland area and deterioration of water quality have emerged, impeding the exchange of materials between wetlands and reducing the ecological function of wetlands. Water systems are important channels for material exchange between wetland sources, and evaluating the ecological safety of wetland–water system ecological corridors can aid in efficiently delineating ecological restoration areas and identifying ecological problems. In this paper, the ecological safety of wetland–hydrological ecological corridors in the Han River Basin was evaluated, and ecological restoration areas were delineated by adopting the method of “identification of source areas - construction of resistance surfaces - extraction of wetland–hydrological ecological corridors” with the watershed as the research unit. The study identified wetland–hydrological ecological corridors with a total length of 7,589.77 km and delineated 31 sections of wetland–hydrological ecological corridors with a total length of 1,076 km; these corridors were located in the Hanzhong Canyon area, tributaries of the Danjiang River and Tangbai River, and tributaries of the main streams below Danjiangkou. Among them, 8 sections of the primary corridor account for 27 %, 14 sections of the secondary corridor account for 33 %, and 9 sections of the tertiary corridor account for 39 %. This study breaks administrative boundaries, emphasizes the correlation between wetlands and water bodies, highlights the integrity of ecosystems, and establishes a multidimensional systematic restoration methodology of “points, lines and surfaces”, which provides guidelines for the long-term planning of ecological corridors of wetlands and water systems in large-scale regions.

Identifying the Impact of Shoreline Change on Land Use in Bedono Village with Google Earth

Sloping coastal areas pose a threat to environmental degradation. Previous data and research show that the north coast of Java Island is a sensitive area to abrasion that was exacerbated by sea level rise and land subsidence, one of which occurs in Bedono Village, Demak Regency. Bedono Village is the village that has lost the most land. Based on the latest administrative boundary data, Bedono Village has been divided into three pockets surrounded by sea areas. This study aims to determine the spatial-temporal impacts of shoreline changes on land use in Bedono Village using Google Earth data. In the last two decades, there has been a significant change in the coastline and its impact on land use change. Residential areas continue to decrease in size, reaching 16.38 ha. Ponds, as the most dominating area in 2003, also continued to decrease in area by 127.27 ha or 100% of the initial area. The loss of this land use was replaced by the inundation of sea water that continued encroaching into the land area. A total of 197 residential building units were lost, or an average of 788 people were affected. This study concluded the severe facts and impacts of shoreline change that must be addressed to reduce potential losses.

Machine learning-based characterisation of urban morphology with the street pattern

Streets are a crucial part of the built environment, and their layouts, the street patterns, are widely researched and contribute to a quantitative understanding of urban morphology. However, traditional street pattern analysis only considers a few broadly defined characteristics. It uses administrative boundaries and grids as units of analysis that fail to encompass the diversity and complexity of street networks. To address these challenges, this research proposes a machine learning-based approach to automatically recognise street patterns that employs an adaptive analysis unit based on street-based local areas (SLAs). SLAs use a network partitioning technique that can adapt to distinct street networks, making it particularly suitable for different urban contexts. By calculating several streets’ network metrics and performing a hierarchical clustering method, streets with similar characters are grouped under the same street pattern. A case study is carried out in six cities worldwide. The results show that street pattern types are rather diverse and hierarchical, and categorising them into clearly demarcated taxonomy is challenging. The study derives a set of new morphometrics-based street patterns with four major types that resemble conventional street patterns and eleven sub-types to significantly increase their diversity for broader coverage of urban morphology. The new patterns capture urban structural differences across cities, such as the urban-suburban division and the number of urban centres present. In conclusion, the proposed machine learning-based morphometric street pattern to characterise urban morphology has an enhanced ability to encompass more information from the built environment while maintaining the intuitiveness of using patterns.

A multi-case study of the vertically integrated health-care at county-level in rural China: towards holistic and dynamic governance.

In contrast to the Grading Diagnosis and Treatment System (GDTS), Vertically Integrated Health-care at County-level (VIHC) is a strategic policy in rural China. This research intends to analyze the shift in governance paradigm with regard to the adjustment of the power structure and interest relationships among various participants, using the building of VIHC as a cut-in point. We carry out a multi-case study to investigate the paradigms of health governance when building VIHC in three different rural counties in China. There were exchanges between government and other participants, vertical and horizontal collaborations among government divisions, and prompt responses to public requirements. County C's local administration, in particular, placed a strong emphasis on bureaucratic power and collaboration between various departments both within and outside of administrative boundaries. In contrast, County B's local administration emphasized the independence of healthcare practitioners and worked to win their support. In contrast to the previous two governments, County A encouraged social actors to participate and saw a little improvement in performance. In examining the health reform in rural China, this study paints a picture of the development of the health governance paradigm. In rural China, a comprehensive and dynamic governance paradigm was created through the integration of the health decision-making process, which was driven by the public's health needs, the operation mechanism, which featured both competition and cooperation, and the action logic of sharing responsibility.

Spatial planning of China’s lower-tier cities: strategies, implementation, and consequences

ABSTRACT Because of the uneven distribution of territorial power and autonomy, cities in lower positions in China’s urban hierarchical system are typically disadvantageous in obtaining vital and timely political and economic resources. Applying the theoretical discourse of spatial selectivity in state space production, this study focuses on the territorial dimension of spatial strategies and investigates how local spatial selectivity strategies have unfolded in Bengbu and Chuzhou, two third-tier cities in Anhui Province. The research finds that while lower-tier cities endeavor to use spatial selectivity and advocate new administrative and economic spaces by making connections to higher-tier cities, their spatial strategies overlook insufficient interconnections with their peers. Territorial status categorization, spatial relational adjustment, and administrative boundary realignment may have adverse effects when the mismatch between their targeted places and proposed functions occurs. Institutional reconfigurations through rescaled government and multi-level and cross-regional governance network are not common in lower-tier city’s spatial strategies.

Definition of the city in the legal aspect of urban development

The article provides a general overview of the definition of a city in the legal aspect of urban development. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of a generally accepted legally fixed definition of a city at the federal level, the variety of interpretations of this concept at the regional level and the identified cases of inconsistency of administrative boundaries with real urban boundaries. This leads to the fact that the established categories of settlements are often a reflection of administrative management, rather than the real spatial structure; there is no clear understanding of the degree of real urbanization of Russia and the number of cities in it. The study examines cases of inconsistency between the administrative boundaries of cities and their actual spatial characteristics. The object of the study is the definition of the city, the subject of the study is the representation of the concept of the city in the legislation regulating urban development.The article analyzes the upper-level regulations, laws on the administrative and territorial structure of various subjects of the Russian Federation, and statistical data. Various approaches to the concept of a city in the legislation on the administrative-territorial structure of the subjects of the Russian Federation are identified and the signs of classifying a settlement as a city contained in them are considered. It is established that the definition of a city in the legal field is vague, its urban planning and spatial planning aspects are lost. The city ceases to be considered as a real physical space and is replaced by administrative-territorial and municipal categories. It is necessary to develop a unified conceptual framework and criteria fixed at the federal level for classifying settlements as urban, taking into account regional peculiarities. The development of a unified methodology for determining the criteria of urban structure based on spatial characteristics will help determine the number of cities in Russia and determine the real degree of urbanization of the country.

The price of clean air – quantifying air pollution exposure in real estate decisions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the significance impact of air quality as a contributing factor on residential property rents by applying geo-informatics to economic issues. Since air pollution poses a severe health threat, city residents should have a right to know about the (invisible) hazards they are exposed to.Design/methodology/approachWithin spatial-temporal modeling of air pollutants in Berlin, Germany, three interpolation techniques are tested. The most suitable one is selected to create seasonal maps for 2018 and 2021 with pollution concentrations for particulate matter values and nitrogen dioxide for each 1,000 m2 cell within the administrative boundaries. Based on the evaluated pollution particulate matter values, which are used as additional variables for semi-parametric regressions the impact of the air quality on rents is estimated.FindingsThe findings reveal a compelling association between air quality and the economic aspect of the residential real estate market, with noteworthy implications for both tenants and property investors. The relationship between air pollution variables and rents is statistically significant. However, there is only a “willingness-to- pay” for low particulate matter values, but not for nitrogen dioxide concentrations. With good air quality, residents in Berlin are willing to pay a higher rent (3%).Practical implicationsThese results suggest that a “marginal willingness-to-pay” occurs in a German city. The research underscores the multifaceted impact of air quality on the residential rental market in Berlin. The evidence supports the notion that a cleaner environment not only benefits human health and the planet but also contributes significantly to the economic bottom line of property investors.Originality/valueThe paper has a unique data engineering approach. It collects spatiotemporal data from network of state-certified measuring sites to create an index of air pollution. This spatial information is merged with residential listings. Afterward non-linear regression models are estimated.

Analysis of Regional Medical Supply and Demand Network Characteristics Based on “Patient Flow Phenomenon”: A Case Study of the Core Area of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area

Examining medical supply–demand imbalances, as revealed through patients’ cross-boundary treatment behaviors, is vital for reducing a metropolitan area’s medical supply–demand gap and furthering sustainable development goals. This study, leveraging medical supply–demand and commuting data, scrutinizes medical imbalances in the Wuhan metropolitan area core. It includes a ‘People-centered’ theory for elucidating patients’ treatment behaviors, proposes a method for constructing a regional medical supply–demand network, and explores the problem of supply–demand imbalance. The key findings include: (1) Wuhan’s central area, despite its abundance of quality medical resources, fails to adequately cover the entire metropolitan area, indicating a need for broader resource distribution. (2) The Ezhou–Huangshi–Huanggang junction shows a stark contrast to Wuhan with its limited medical services and extensive hinterland connections. Future initiatives should aim to integrate resources dispersed from Wuhan, reducing regional disparities. (3) The city’s periphery, influenced by resource distribution models and geographic distance, exhibits significant variance from central urban areas in medical supply–demand connectivity, particularly around Wuhan’s eastern administrative boundaries. Future urban planning is needed to reinforce this area’s role as a vital medical services conduit. (4) The distinguishing differences among the nine medical service communities in terms of resource recognition, service sharing, and patient mobility provide policy guidance for the allocation of medical resources.

Limited comparability of global and local estimates of environmental flow requirements to sustain river ecosystems

Environmental flows (e-flows) are a central element of sustainable water resource management to mitigate the detrimental impacts of hydrological alteration on freshwater ecosystems and their benefits to people. Many nations strive to protect e-flows through policy, and thousands of local-scale e-flows assessments have been conducted globally, leveraging data and knowledge to quantify how much water must be provided to river ecosystems, and when, to keep them healthy. However, e-flows assessments and implementation are geographically uneven and cover a small fraction of rivers worldwide. This hinders globally consistent target-setting, monitoring and evaluation for international agreements to curb water scarcity and biodiversity loss. Therefore, dozens of models have been developed over the past two decades to estimate the e-flows requirements of rivers seamlessly across basins and administrative boundaries at a global scale. There has been little effort, however, to benchmark these models against locally derived e-flows estimates, which may limit confidence in the relevance of global estimates. The aim of this study was to assess whether current global methods reflect e-flows estimates used on the ground, by comparing global and local estimates for 1194 sites across 25 countries. We found that while global approaches broadly approximate the bulk volume of water that should be precautionarily provided to sustain aquatic ecosystems at the scale of large basins or countries, they explain a remarkably negligible 0%–1% of the global variability in locally derived estimates of the percentage of river flow that must be protected at a given site. Even when comparing assessments for individual countries, thus controlling for differences in local assessment methods among jurisdictions, global e-flows estimates only marginally compared (R 2 ⩽ 0.31) to local estimates. Such a disconnect between global and local assessments of e-flows requirements limits the credibility of global estimates and associated targets for water use. To accelerate the global implementation of e-flows requires further concerted effort to compile and draw from the thousands of existing local e-flows assessments worldwide for developing a new generation of global models and bridging the gap from local to global scales.

Sensing the multi-scale landscape functions heterogeneity by big geodata from parcel to urban agglomerations-a case of the Greater Bay Area, China

ABSTRACT Multi-scale landscape functions play a critical role in revealing intricate functional structures within large regions. However, previous studies on landscape functions have predominantly focused on a single macro or micro scale, impeding a holistic multi-scale understanding of the spatial distribution and heterogeneity of landscape functions. To address this gap, this study proposes a framework leveraging the power of big geodata to mine multi-scale landscape functions from parcel to entire urban agglomerations, as well as non-administrative divisions. Our study focuses on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China. Firstly, we integrated multi-source big geodata to derive parcel-scale landscape functions. Subsequently, we employed the Normalized Revealed Comparative Advantage index to derive landscape functions at broader scales, including towns, counties and cities. The effectiveness of our approach is validated through in-field investigations and comparisons with established policy planning positions. The outcomes not only offer distinctive planning insights at various scales but also highlight the versatility of big geodata in extracting landscape functions across scales. This study demonstrates that big geodata is adept at uncovering multi-scale landscape functions irrespective of administrative boundaries, providing valuable insights for fostering multi-scale regional coordinated development.

Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Urban Green Spaces in Response to Rapid Urbanization and Urban Expansion in Tunis between 2000 and 2020

Over the past two decades, the rate of urbanization has increased significantly worldwide, with more than half of the population already living in cities; this trend continues in numerous countries and regions. Tunisia is a North African country with a rich history and diverse cultural heritage. In Greater Tunis, its capital city, urbanization has accelerated since 1960. Rapid urbanization has increased the demand for grey infrastructure and led to changes in land-use patterns and the destruction of the environment. This study aims to understand and depict the relationship between urban expansion and the green infrastructure in the Greater Tunis area. This study uses land-use data, administrative boundaries vector data, and Google satellite imagery datasets to calculate and analyze the changes in the land use transfer matrix and landscape pattern index of built-up land and green spaces in the Tunisian capital for three periods: 2000, 2010, and 2020. We found that the expansion of built-up areas in Tunis has increased from 8.8% in 2000 to 12.1% in 2020, and changes in green spaces have decreased from 23% in 2000 to 20.9% in 2020. Without planning guidelines, the layout of green spaces has become more fragmented and disorganized. For this reason, we provide programs and suggestions for building a complete ecological network of green spaces in order to provide references and lessons for related studies and cities facing the same problems.

Zonal statistics datasets of climate indicators for Brazilian municipalities

Abstract Climate trends and weather indicators are used in several research fields due to their importance in statistical modeling, frequently used as covariates. Usually, climate indicators are available as grid files with different spatial and time resolutions. The availability of a time series of climate indicators compatible with administrative boundaries is scattered in Brazil, not fully available for several years, and produced with diverse methodologies. In this paper, we propose time series of climate indicators for the Brazilian municipalities produced using zonal statistics derived from the ERA5-Land reanalysis indicators. As a result, we present datasets with zonal statistics of climate indicators with daily data, covering the period from 1950 to 2022.

Cartographic materials for studying the historical geography of Northwest Russia

The historical process in the North-West Russia is characterized by complexity and versatility. Over the centuries, this region has witnessed a variety of historical events, changes in political and administrative boundaries, the founding of cities, the establishment of new communication routes, and the decline of old ones, alongside the growth of industry and trade. These changes were interconnected and mutually influential, highlighting the need for a comprehensive examination of all these phenomena. The spatial positioning of various geographical objects and phenomena is particularly significant, as it helps us understand why their interactions occurred in the ways they did. To grasp these spatial relationships, however, complex maps are necessary, ones that simultaneously depict different types of objects and phenomena. This article addresses the portrayal of North-West Russia's historical development on complex historical and geographical maps spanning from the 5th-6th centuries AD to the early 21st century. It includes a review of the sources used in creating the maps. The article also analyzes the challenges faced in mapping various types of objects and outlines solutions to these problems. Additionally, it presents a periodization of the historical process in the region, developed during the creation of the maps.

Possibilities of reconstruction and documentation of the relict border: the example of the Bohemian-Moravian land boundary

The article opens a discussion on the possibilities of reconstructing, documenting, and protecting relict peaceful borders, i.e., former administrative boundaries without defensive function in the past. Using the example of the Bohemian-Moravian historical land boundary (which, itself or in the form of its tangible relicts, can be seen as a heritage or monument with potential positive cultural, social, and economic benefits) the paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of the sources and methods of boundary reconstruction and boundary marks documentation. If field mapping is to reveal a maximum of preserved boundary marks (boundary stones, especially), the key is to use the most precise available surveying instruments with a thoroughly reconstructed relict boundary to the date of its last legal existence; otherwise, many boundary marks/stones may remain undiscovered, as shown by previous researchers’ documentations. However, the entire boundary reconstruction and mapping processes are very time-consuming, being the main disadvantage.

Regionalisation process and the pattern of socio-residential specialisation between the crisis of the productive and redistributive spheres in the regional assemblage of Milan

The Milanese urban region can be understood as a trans-scalar assemblage, composed not only of the diverse territories within it and the materialities and individuals present there. It is also shaped by regulatory frameworks, such as administrative boundaries, resource allocation choices, the effects of the 2008 crisis on the population’s income, and the related spending review reforms. This paper explores the mechanisms and patterns of unequal accumulation of capital, both private and public, driven by the process of socio-residential specialisation taking place in the Milanese assemblage at the intersection between the neighbourhood effects generated by the overlap between regionalised residential geographies and the stability of municipal boundaries and the advent of the 2008 economic crisis, which acted on both productive and redistributive spheres. What emerges is a process of progressive socio-economic specialisation and segregation of the territories that make up the urban region.