Aspects Of Urban Planning Research Articles

Virtual Environments as Enablers of Civic Awareness and Engagement

The wide availability of accurate sensors currently hosted by smartphones are enabling new participative urban management opportunities. Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) allows people to actively participate in any aspect of urban planning, by collecting and sharing data, reporting issues to public administrations, proposing solutions to urban planners, and delivering information of potential social interest to their community. Although collected data can be very helpful to enhance the quality of life of citizens, mobile users are still reluctant to use their devices to take advantages of the opportunities offered by the digitized society, mainly due to privacy issues. From August to December 2018, the city of Florianópolis, capital of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, was used as a living lab environment for an MCS application called ParticipACT Brazil, a socio/technical-aware crowdsensing platform. While the current literature focuses on MCS from a purely technical point of view, this research demonstrated that a multidisciplinary approach that includes both human sciences and ICT is needed in order to better identify critical issues, highlights the untapped potential of MCS paradigm, and suggests research methodologies that could provide benefits for all the actors involved (researchers, public administrators, and citizens).

Three-Dimensional Visualized Urban Landscape Planning and Design Based on Virtual Reality Technology

The traditional methods of urban landscape planning and design cannot integrate designs into the entire planning scenes planning processes, and cannot efficiently, intuitively and coordinately express planning effects of multiple schemes and large scenes. With the development of computer science and technology, virtual reality (VR) technology, which is based on similar theory, mathematical theory, control theory, and graphics processing theory, is playing an important role in many aspects of urban landscape planning and design. On the basis of summarizing and analyzing previous research works, this article expounded the research status and significances of three-dimensional (3D) visualized urban landscape planning and design, elaborated the development background, current status and future challenges of VR technology, introduced the methods and principles of spatial roaming sorting algorithm and evaluation indicator screening and system construction, established 3D database and virtual scene model of urban landscapes, performed 3D visualized urban landscape modeling, realized 3D presentation of virtual scene landscape, discussed the integration and optimization of landscape design schemes, analyzed the 3D modeling and interactive adjustment of the landscape planning and design schemes, and finally conducted simulation experiment and its result analysis. The results show that the VR technology provides designer with realistic information processing effects through intelligent drawing, full display and timely information, which greatly improves design efficiency and effectively promotes design quality; the 3D visualized technology can transmit a large number of information through graphics in a short time, enabling professionals to intuitively and quickly observe test results or interactively process these results.

The Analysis of Urban Planning Aspects and Development of Residential Real Estate in Tallinn, Estonia

Abstract At the present time, the world’s population is rapidly increasing, and the existing resources, which are limited, are being significantly consumed. Due to this fact, in order to use these resources more efficiently, the concept of planning day by day gains importance in the framework of sustainable development. Although Estonia is one of the countries that has the fewest number of people in Europe, owing to its economic reliability, high development level and worldwide awareness of the field of software, Estonia has become one of the less affected countries by the crisis. At the same time, Estonia is one of European countries that executes planning for long-term economic development. The aim of the research is to analyse the interrelation aspects between urban planning and residential real estate development on different levels in Tallinn, capital of Estonia, in the context of sustainable development. Analysis and synthesis, comparison, observation, and logical deduction methods are used within the research. According to the research conducted, the price ranges of real estate objects are closer to each other in the condition towards homogeneity in residential settlements which have similar residential and planning features. It can be recommended to build a contemporary system regarding interrelation of urban decisions and tendencies within development of the real estate market, which can help investors and other market participants in sustainable, efficient, and long-term decision making.

Dynamic Models for Exploring the Resilience in Territorial Scenarios

The present paper focuses on the role covered by dynamic models as support for the decision-making process in the evaluation of policies and actions for increasing the resilience of cities and territories. In recent decades, urban resilience has been recognized as a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon that characterizes urban and metropolitan area dynamics. Therefore, it may be considered a fundamental aspect of urban and territorial planning. The employment of quantitative methods, such as dynamic models, is useful for the prediction of the dynamic behavior of territories and of their resilience. The present work discusses the system dynamics model and the Lotka–Volterra cooperative systems and shows how these models can aid technicians in resilience assessment and also decision makers in the definition of policies and actions, especially if integrated in wide evaluation frameworks for urban resilience achievements. This paper aims to provide an epistemological perspective of the application of dynamic models in resilience assessment, underlying the possible contribution to this issue through the analysis of a real case study and methodological framework. The main objective of this work is to lay the basis for future compared applications of these two models to the same case study.

The Innovative Trends in Architecture and Urban Planning of Health Care Institutions

The article depicts and systematizes innovative global trends in the field of architecture and urban planning of healthcare institutions taking as the example leading countries in the field of healthcare (Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates). The territorial, administrative and demographic features that significantly affect the formation and functioning of the architecture and urban planning network of medical institutions are analyzed. The features, indicators, and structure of the public and private sectors of the medical organization of the listed countries are examined in detail. The main innovative trends in the architecture and urban planning of the healthcare network that put the considered countries on the top of the world leaders in the efficiency of healthcare organization rapidly are identified. The trends are considered in urban planning, architecture, medical, economic, environmental, technological and innovative aspects.

THE IMAGE OF THE CITY IN THE TREATISES BY T. MORE AND T.CAMPANELLA

The article is devoted to the problem of the aspects of urban planning and architecture in utopian cities in the context of the connection with social and political ideology based on the treatises by Sir Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella. This article presents an analysis of the two most famous socio-utopian treatises - “Utopias” by T. More and “The City of the Sun” by T. Campanella. These works are considered to be the first to describe the models of utopian states and have a stronginfluence on all subsequent works of utopian philosophers. In their works, utopian philosophers focused on architectural and urban planning aspects as an important background for the development of social utopia. In their writings, particular importance was primarily placed on the functional purpose of certain elements of the urban structure, expressed in the correct geometry of urban education (aesthetic and visual characteristics, as a rule, were ignored by philosophers). For example, Thomas More used a shape of a square for his ideal city, and divided it into small patterns, with regular structure of the streets and neighborhoods (grid plan). Tomasso Campanella on the contrary used a circle, but also divided his city into smaller parts – city consists of seven rings (circumferential and radial roads). Forming perfect models of social structure, they used architecture as a background to provide a comfortable and functional space that would meet the requirements of an ideal society.The analysis of the descriptions of urban planning and architectural elements in the writings of prominent philosophers allows us to gain an understanding of how the city and its architecture are seen by people whose professions were not directly related either to architecture or urbanism, and, in contrast, are oriented on people and their living standards. Also, the article presents the schemes of city-states developed by the authors, according to their description in the treatises by T. More and T. Campanella.

Urban mobility and inequalities. Some perspectives from different disciplines

Urban mobility is one of the key aspects of urban planning and development. It plays an important role in the achievement of a resilient, inclusive and sustainable city. However, the complex interrelations of urban mobility, transportation and other city dimensions implies the need of an interdisciplinary approach to understand and plan it. In this brief paper, we discuss the social aspects of urban mobility and inequality and how it has been addressed in the literature. We also show different ways of gathering data relevant for the understanding of urban mobility, their sizes, scopes, and nature. Finally, we aim to promote an interdisciplinary debate based on our academic literature review about the relationship of urban mobility with social variables such as poverty.

Does landscape play a role in strategic spatial planning of European urban regions?

Cities and urban regions have become central to ensuring a sustainable future. Many regions employ strategic spatial planning, a transformative and integrative public-sector-led activity, to create a coherent spatial development strategy in order to pursue sustainable development. Due to its encompassing, cross-sectoral qualities, landscape science is expected to strengthen nature-related aspects of urban planning. The aim of this paper is thus to assess the role of landscape in contemporary strategic spatial planning. This study is based on content analysis of the strategic spatial plans of 18 European urban regions. Plans were assessed following a framework that focuses on how plans took advantage of landscape’s integrative power, how plans are based in knowledge on functioning of landscape systems, and how plans show the contribution of landscapes to human well-being. The findings show that landscape science contributes considerably to strategic planning. Overall, the strategic plans of European urban regions had a strong anthropocentric perspective on landscapes. Most of the plans are based on knowledge about landscape functioning and show the contribution of landscapes to human well-being. However, only few use the full potential of the integrative power of landscapes in terms of governance processes. Based on our analysis, we identified research needs and suggested recommendations for future strategic planning with the aim of strengthening nature-related aspects in strategic spatial planning.

Psychological aspects of architecture and urban planning in crime prevention

Today over a half of the world’s population lives in cities, where dense building surrounds the individual and makes architecture an integral part of one’s life. Although the influence of architecture and urban planning on human functioning and psyche seems obvious, research on this subject began to be carried out, just over half a century ago. Therefore, this article was devoted to the presentation of information on the relationship between the manner of shaping land development plans and buildings, aiming at providing the safety and comfort of urban residents. The focus was on the aspect of density and construction height, urban greenery solutions and ways of arranging space, meant to improve and humanize housing conditions, to care for the psyche and physical health of city residents.

Study on operation situation and issues of District Plans for Urbanization Control Areas from the aspect of urban planning

この研究の目的は市街化調整区域の地区計画（以下、「調地区」と言う。）制度における市街化区域と市街化調整区域の区域区分制度（以下、「線引き制度」と言う。）をはじめとする都市計画上の課題を明らかにすることを目的としている。本研究は、調地区にかかる三大都市圏（首都圏・中京圏・近畿圏）の動向、府県のガイドライン、市町村に対する実態調査と特徴的な事例（兵庫県姫路市・愛知県豊田市・茨城県つくば市）の分析により構成される。その結果、1）自治体のガイドラインによる適切な調地区の活用、2)線引き制度との整合、3)都市計画と農林業との調整の重要性が明らかになった。

El Plan General del Este: La ordenación territorial como ciencia para la colonización nazi de Polonia

Nazi Germany saw Eastern Europe as an opportunity to expand its territory, its living space. Poland would become the laboratory for an inhumane colonisation plan, the Generalplan Ost (“General Plan for the East”), which involved the replacement of non-Aryan population with Germanic farmers. The anti-urban management of that lobotomised territory was scientifically drafted by a group of architects, geographers, and agronomists working under the orders of Heinrich Himmler. The urban planning aspects of this utopian plan, based on central place theory, self-sufficiency, and the neighborhood unit, are of great technical interest and influenced the creation of new communities in Franco’s regime. However, we cannot overlook that, had the Nazi plan been completed, it would have resulted in the forced relocation of 31 million Europeans.

Utsatt på arbetsmarknaden och beroende av kollektivtrafiken

Being able to get to work or other daily activities is one of the most crucial factors in avoiding exclusion. The Swedish planning model has been characterized by a tradition of supplying cities, suburbs and surroundings with good access to service, housing and transport. At the same time, demands are made for longer commuting distances and it is crucial that public transport deliver accessible routes. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into how employees at a retirement home reason about the trip to and from work and what impact a defective public transport system has on their work and everyday life. To a large extent, the employees are dependent on public transport because they do not have access to a car or a driving license. The analysis is based on eight qualitative interviews. A time-geographical approach is used to draw attention to how the interaction between infrastructure, geography, time, urban planning, and corporal aspects shape the work journey. The study shows that deficient public transport means that employees who are dependent on public transport are forced to spend much of their day traveling. The interaction between geographical and spatial aspects and the employees’ bodily and emotional boundaries creates an image of a vulnerability that is specifically linked to transport. It is an example of transport poverty in a Swedish context. The study contributes to questioning the image of commuting as a consequence of individuals’ strategic choices in an increasingly geographically extended labor market.

Urban Planning Aspects of Ecological and Urban Planning Regulation Fundamentals for Main Street and Road Network Functioning and Forward Development

The greatest influence of motor vehicles is manifested in the urbanized environment. The city is an indicator of sustainable development or an unfavourable relationship between motor vehicles and the urban environment. The study is based on an assessment of the impact of the vehicles current state on the street and road network and trunk road adjacent areas to substantiate the adopted planning protective measures and to determine the functional purpose of the trunk road adjacent areas proceeding from environmental impact on street and road networks. Anthropogenic air pollution sources are primarily represented by industrial enterprises and vehicles emissions. The main task in determining the assessment of the effectiveness of the protective solutions of trunk road adjacent areas is the correct choice of assessment criteria, according to which the efficiency of solutions will differ. Since the street and road network with all its traffic flows is an integral structural element of the city, its impact on the environmental performance of the urban environment can undoubtedly be called the prevailing one. It is necessary to highlight noise, airborne emissions and air (atmosphere) pollution among the main environmental impacts, the source of which is the functioning of the street and road network. Since the street and road system is the main tool in wastewater collection and disposal, it also has a direct impact on the ecological condition of hydrosphere objects, i.e. groundwater, springs, water bodies. Its environmental impacts on the urban setting's lithosphere are also evident: road surface contamination, lubricant residues and gasoline pollute the soil during the removal of rain and melt wastewater. It is impossible to rule out the harmful effects of electromagnetic loads from rail vehicle operation. According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the quality of atmospheric air in a modern developed city is primarily dependent on the volume of pollutant emissions, the two main sources of pollution being stationary 15…30% and mobile 70…85% (using Kyiv's example).

Road Network Construction with Complex Intersections Based on Sparsely Sampled Private Car Trajectory Data

A road network is a critical aspect of both urban planning and route recommendation. This article proposes an efficient approach to build a fine-grained road network based on sparsely sampled private car trajectory data under complex urban environment. In order to resolve difficulties introduced by low sampling rate trajectory data, we concentrate sample points around intersections by utilizing the turning characteristics from the large-scale trajectory data to ensure the accuracy of the detection of intersections and road segments. In front of complex road networks including many complex intersections, such as the overpasses and underpasses, we first layer intersections into major and minor one, and then propose a simplified representation of intersections and corresponding computable model based on the features of roads, which can significantly improve the accuracy of detected road networks, especially for the complex intersections. In order to construct fine-grained road networks, we distinguish various types of intersections using direction information and detected turning limit. To the best of our knowledge, our road network building method is the first time to give fine-grained road networks based on low-sampling rate private car trajectory data, especially able to infer the location of complex intersections and its connections to other intersections. Last but not the least, we propose an effective parameter selection process for the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise based clustering algorithm, which is used to implement the reliable intersection detection. Extensive evaluations are conducted based on a real-world trajectory dataset from 1,345 private cars in Futian district, Shenzhen city of China. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The constructed road network matches close to the one from a public editing map OpenStreetMap, especially the location of the road intersections and road segments, which achieves 92.2% intersections within 20m and 91.6% road segments within 8m.

A review of assessment methods for the urban environment and its energy sustainability to guarantee climate adaptation of future cities

The current climate change is calling for a drastic reduction of energy demand as well as of greenhouse gases. Besides this, cities also need to adapt to face the challenges related to climate change. Cities, with their complex urban texture and fabric, can be represented as a diverse ecosystem that does not have a clear and defined boundary. Multiple software tools that have been developed, in recent years, for assessment of urban climate, building energy demand, the outdoor thermal comfort and the energy systems. In this review, we, however, noted that these tools often address only one or two of these urban planning aspects. There is nonetheless an intricate link between them. For instance, the outdoor comfort assessment has shown that there is a strong link between biometeorology and architecture and urban climate. Additionally, to address the challenges of the energy transition, there will be a convergence of the energy needs in the future with an energy nexus regrouping the energy demand of urban areas. It is also highlighted that the uncertainty related to future climatic data makes urban adaptation and mitigation strategies complex to implement and to design given the lack of a comprehensive framework. We thus conclude by suggesting the need for a holistic interface to take into account this multi-dimensional problem. With the help of such a platform, a positive loop in urban design can be initiated leading to the development of low carbon cities and/or with the use of blue and green infrastructure to have a positive impact on the mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Urban form resilience: A meso-scale analysis

Impacted by the compounding effects of climate change and urbanization, cities are facing a panoply of risks that threaten their sustainability. Recognizing the potentially catastrophic ramifications of inaction, local governments are increasingly involved in resilience-building activities that are informed by a vast body of research related to different socio-economic, environmental, and institutional aspects of urban planning and design. However, despite its significant impacts on growth and evolution of cities, limited research exists on how urban form can enhance resilience by increasing the abilities to plan for, absorb, recover from, and adapt to adverse events. As a step towards filling this gap, this paper explores how meso-scale urban form elements can affect urban resilience. This is done through synthesizing theoretical and empirical evidence reported in the literature. The focus is on morphological parameters related to the following urban form elements: neighborhoods, blocks, lots, and open spaces. Results show that existing evidence is mainly related to the associations between ‘neighborhood density, size and configuration of open spaces, and land use mix’ and resilience to ‘climate change impacts’, ‘earthquakes’, ‘social issues’, and ‘resource scarcity’. There is also considerable evidence on the association between design of blocks/lots and resilience in terms of climate change adaptation/mitigation and adaptability to changing circumstances. The analysis also shows that each element influences and is influenced by other elements in the urban system and different elements should not be studied in isolation and the interplay between them should be considered. Existing evidence on conflicts is mainly related to density, but measures related to other elements may also involve conflicts. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for future research towards improving resilience of urban form at the meso-scale.

Assessing the adaptive capacity of urban form to climate stress: a case study on an urban heat island

Urban land planning shapes the urban form and is considered to be one of the many tools important for climate adaptation. Yet there is little knowledge about the adaptive capacity of urban forms to climate stress, or of an appropriate assessment method. Through a case study on the urban heat island (UHI) in Xiamen City, China, we propose a novel approach that integrates several aspects to assess the adaptive capacity of urban form to climate stress. These aspects include the calculation of urban form, the determination of climate stress and land use modeling. Our results demonstrate that this approach is applicable for assessing the adaptive capacity of urban form in the historical, current and future multitime scales. Both urban planning aspects (e.g. population density, land use mix, road density and percentage of green open space) and landscape features (e.g. shape complexity, contiguity and compactness) are found to be key urban form drivers affecting UHI. The adaptive capacity of the urban form to UHI in Xiamen City has been declining dramatically, and is expected to continue to decline in the future as long as adaptation continues to not be integrated in urban land use planning. Our analysis suggests that urban managers need to review the past development model of land use and rethink the current approach to urban planning: most urgent is the need to take full account of adaptation in future land use planning and implementation, so as to enhance climate resilience.

A Framework for the Long-term Monitoring of Urban Green Volume Based on Multi-temporal and Multi-sensoral Remote Sensing Data

Green urban infrastructure is of key importance for many aspects of urban life and urban planning. Valid and comprehensive databases with very high spatial and temporal resolution are needed to monitor changes and to detect negative trends. This paper presents an approach to assess urban indicators such as green volume and soil sealing with very high accuracy and based on a wide range of different sensors (aerial stereo images, QuickBird, WorldView 2 and 3, Sentinel 2, HRSC, LIDAR). A framework using regression tree methods was developed and successfully applied in a case study (the city of Potsdam, Germany) resulting in a long time series dating back 25 years. The methodology offers the opportunity to analyze urban development in detail and to understand the functional relationships of urban planning processes. Demands for effective climate change adaptation, especially in terms of reducing heat stress, can thus be better defined.

Contemporary architecture and urban planning of urban multi-family housing, and the state of health of the society

Abstract Introduction. For years, the influence of place of residence on human health has been the subject of interest of researchers from various scientific disciplines. The basic task in shaping space is to create conditions for proper mental and physical development, the experience of beauty, family life, social and individual life. Biotechnology, psychology and sociology, taking into account technical and aesthetic requirements, are the main design criteria for residential buildings.The omission of the most important assumptions in the design of multi-family housing might be very harmful for residents and can be expressed, for example, in poor mood, reduced work efficiency, depression, an increase in the incidence of diseases and even an increase in mortality. Deepening knowledge about proper living conditions is very important in the pro-health aspect. Aim. An attempt to answer the question to what extent human development and life are subordinated to staying in specific rooms, dwellings, housing estate, district, and finally the city and the entire metropolitan foundation. Material and methods. This study is for demonstrative purposes based on a review of publications on the quality of life of residents of urban multi-family housing in the aspect of urban planning and architecture. Results. The correct insolation of residential premises, shapeof the block, the color and texture of the facade, the location and selection of greenery, lawns, paved surfaces and the layout of buildings are just some of the factors affecting the health of residents. Proper design, construction and operation reduce the presence of bacteria and mold fungi, which directly translates into microbiological health risks. Conclusions. For the proper existence of city dwellers, it is necessary to maximize the use of sunlight and to educate in the proper use of rooms. Raising health conditions, through both proper insolation and the location of flats, “urban interiors”, areas between residential buildings, thoroughfares, playgrounds, sports fields, recreational and recreational areas, directly translates into human health.

Research on Sponge Campus Application Based on Low Impact Development Measures--A Case Study of Wuhan Polytechnic University

In recent years, China has vigorously promoted the construction of sponge cities and achieved good results. The university campus is a relatively independent existence in the city. Due to historical planning and construction reasons, it is easy to accumulate water when the city has a large amount of precipitation. Taking Wuhan Polytechnic University as an example, this paper analyzes the causes of waterlogging on campus from the aspects of urban precipitation, campus planning, rainwater harvesting and utilization, and proposes a series of low-impact development (LID) measures, such as increasing the permeability of paving area, building vegetative ditch, setting up infiltration green belt, and renovating the artificial lake in the school. The author adopted the SWMM model of urban stormwater management developed by the U.S.EPA as a carrier to construct a low-impact rainwater system model, The SWMM model which funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency was used to construct a low-impact development rainwater system model to evaluate the effect of low-impact development measures on ground runoff control.