Central City Areas Research Articles

ENVIRONMENT OF HISTORICAL AREAS OF CITIES AS A BASIS FOR THE FORMATION OF INTERACTIVE RECREATION

Problem statement. In the modern urban planning practice of development of historical cities the role and potential of the city center are still insufficiently defined, features of its preservation and possible development are not revealed. In Ukraine, there is still no clear definition of the concept of “city center”, which does not contribute to the sustainable urban and architectural development of historic cities. Today there are different interpretations of such an urban category as “city center”. According to the researcher M. Bevz, the “city center” provides a rare opportunity to trace the millennial evolution of the urban planning system, which is rare in Ukraine. Some researchers believe that the city center is an important communication hub and a special space in which various functions of urban life are introduced, in all its evolution, modification, meanings and perceptions (O. Rybchynsky “Formation and revitalization of historical cities of Ukraine”). The author of the study considers it most appropriate to consider the concept of “city center” as identical to the concept of “historical core of the city”. Characteristics of the concept of “historic area of the city” appeared only in 2000 in the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Cultural Heritage” as part of the settlement, which preserved cultural heritage sites and related planning and form of construction that originate from previous periods of development, typical of certain crops or periods of development. One of the most important methods of preserving and properly modernizing the environment of historical areas should be considered “revalorization”, which contributes to the cultural value of the historic city center. 
 The purpose of the article is to highlight the importance of the historical area as a basis for the formation of interactive recreation. 
 Results. Implementation of revalorization into the theory and practice of domestic reconstruction of the urban environment on the basis of comprehensive and deep theoretical research, as well as ideas for improving and arranging urban space with a focus on successful foreign solutions for using the cultural potential of the central areas of historical cities in the system of interactive recreation. The city should be considered as a multifunctional phenomenon in the diversity of manifestations due to its general cultural and historical significance. In this context, the historic city center is a concentration of interactive communication between residents. Interactive communication is primarily an exchange of ideas for improving the urban environment and enhancing information exchange between people. In such interaction of people and environment of special importance acquires the reflection of human emotional reaction to the made architectural and town-planning environment with its historically formed “human” scale and richness of forms that in turn is necessary protective reaction of the modern person to “standardization” of new city building. The creation of interactive recreation based on the cultural potential of the historic areas of the city allows to form in these areas full-fledged interactive recreational spaces in the combination of existing and new buildings. 
 Scientific novelty and practical significance. Due to the active growth of requirements for the quality and comfort of the urban space of the historic core of the city, the practical significance of the study is to study the historically formed substance of the city, its authenticity; preservation, revival and development of the historical image of the city center on the principles of revalorization. Today there is a need to find and develop methods of activating the environment, one of which is the creation of interactive recreation, which will help to adapt the city-forming and functional significance of their historic areas to new needs.

JUSTIFICATION OF ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FEASIBILITY OF CARGO TRANSPORTATION BY INLAND WATERWAYS

Topicality. Currently, the demand for transport by inland waterways is constantly growing, especially in economically developed countries. In order to maintain the national economy and create a more efficient and sustainable logistics system in Ukraine, transportation by inland waterways must be developed, because inland waterway transport has a number of advantages over other modes of transport, which creates the preconditions for changing logistics routes. To reduce transport costs, improve infrastructure and logistics in the face of uncertainty, the relationship between the stakeholders of rail and road transport with representatives of water transport is important. Reorientation of transportation from road transport to inland waterway transport, intensification of international trade and attraction of new freight flows to inland waterway transport will contribute to the overall growth of the country's economy and is possible subject to liberalization of transportation.Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the economic and environmental feasibility of transporting goods by inland waterway transport in the context of the global trend of the need to preserve the environment and rational use of resources.Research results. The port infrastructure of Ukrainian rivers also does not meet modern requirements and is actually in decline. Most of the ports are located in the central areas of cities, causing the destruction of city roads by trucks that are sent for loading / unloading at these ports. In the context of the global trend of the need to preserve the environment for most countries of the world, inland waterway transport is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly mode of transport, suitable for transporting significant volumes of products, mainly raw materials. In Ukraine, the volume of cargo transported by river transport has significantly decreased over the past decade. Of the available volumes of freight transport by river transport, building materials, grain and metallurgy products prevail in the nomenclature. A certain impetus to the development of inland waterway transport was the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Inland Waterway Transport", which outlined the prospects for increasing the cargo turnover of river transport. Considering the volume of emissions from river transport, it is the most environmentally friendly compared to road transport. At the same time, the existing rolling stock of water transport is capable of replacing several thousand trucks. It has been established that the Dnieper basin plays the main role in the transportation of domestic cargo and passengers. More than 90% of all river transport in the country is carried out along the Dnieper and its largest tributaries Pripyat and Desna. However, the low operational characteristics of the fleet are one of the factors holding back the development of freight traffic on inland waterways. The four selected shipping companies provide cargo transportation on the Dnieper and Danube rivers, and are also capable of ensuring the potential development and competitive advantages of Ukrainian water transport.Conclusion. The studies carried out made it possible to substantiate the economic and environmental feasibility of transporting goods by inland water transport in Ukraine. Based on the determination of the share of transportations by inland water transport in the EU countries and Ukraine, the potential opportunities for the development of this area were established, taking into account other similar indicators, as well as the growth of export flows of grain and metallurgical products from the central part of Ukraine. Therefore, the development of domestic inland waterways is economically necessary, expedient and will have a positive effect for the entire country and the economy as a whole, given the low level of pollution and environmental pressure on air, land, water resources, biodiversity, which, in turn, affect climate change. , ecosystems in general and public health. Taking into account the total length of the navigable routes of Ukraine and the tendency to reduce the existing fleet, due to moral and physical aging, it is important to assist in attracting investments in the river fleet, will provide potential technical and technological opportunities for the development of all inland water transport and its key players.

Urban Policies and Large Projects in Central City Areas: The Example of Madrid (Spain)

Since the late 20th century major, European cities have exhibited large projects driven by neoliberal urban planning policies whose aim is to enhance their position on the global market. By locating these projects in central city areas, they also heighten and reinforce their privileged situation within the city as a whole, thus contributing to deepening the centre–periphery rift. The starting point for this study is the significance and scope of large projects in metropolitan cities’ urban planning agendas since the final decade of the 20th century. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the correlation between the various opposing conservative and progressive urban policies, and the projects put forward, for the city of Madrid. A study of documentary sources and the strategies deployed by public and private agents are interpreted in the light of a process during which the city has had a succession of alternating governments defending opposing urban development models. This analysis allows us to conclude that the predominant large-scale projects proposed under conservative policies have contributed to deepening the centre–periphery rift appreciated in the city.

Increased Risk of Sub-Clinical Blood Lead Levels in the 20-County Metro Atlanta, Georgia Area-A Laboratory Surveillance-Based Study.

Lead (Pb) is a naturally occurring, highly toxic metal that has adverse effects on children across a range of exposure levels. Limited screening programs leave many children at risk for chronic low-level lead exposure and there is little understanding of what factors may be used to identify children at risk. We characterize the distribution of blood lead levels (BLLs) in children aged 0–72 months and their associations with sociodemographic and area-level variables. Data from the Georgia Department of Public Health’s Healthy Homes for Lead Prevention Program surveillance database was used to describe the distribution of BLLs in children living in the metro Atlanta area from 2010 to 2018. Residential addresses were geocoded, and “Hotspot” analyses were performed to determine if BLLs were spatially clustered. Multilevel regression models were used to identify factors associated with clinical BBLs (≥5 µg/dL) and sub-clinical BLLs (2 to <5 µg/dL). From 2010 to 2018, geographically defined hotspots for both clinical and sub-clinical BLLs diffused from the city-central area of Atlanta into suburban areas. Multilevel regression analysis revealed non-Medicaid insurance, the proportion of renters in a given geographical area, and proportion of individuals with a GED/high school diploma as predictors that distinguish children with BLLs 2 to <5 µg/dL from those with lower (<2 µg/dL) or higher (≥5 µg/dL) BLLs. Over half of the study children had BLLs between 2 and 5 µg/dL, a range that does not currently trigger public health measures but that could result in adverse developmental outcomes if ignored.

Carbon Emission Evaluation in Jinan Western New District Based on Multi-Source Data Fusion

Carbon emissions caused by human activities are closely related to the process of urbanization, and urban land utilization, function vitality and traffic systems are three important factors that may influence the emission levels. For clarifying the space structure of a low-carbon eco-city, and combining the concept of “Combining Assessment with Construction” to track and contrast the construction of the low-carbon eco-city, this research selects quantifiable low-carbon eco-city spatial characteristics as indicators, and evaluates and analyzes the potential carbon emissions. Taking the Jinan Western New District as an example, diversity of construction land, travel carbon emission potential, and density and accessibility of adjacent road networks in the overall urban planning were measured. After the completion of the new urban area, the evaluation mainly reflected certain factors, such as the mixed degree of urban functions, the density of urban functions, the walking distance to bus stops and the density and number of bus stops. Dividing the levels and adding equal weights after index normalization, the carbon emission potential is evaluated at the two levels of the overall and fragmented areas. The results show that: (1) The low-carbon emission potential areas in the planning scheme basically reached the planned goals. (2) There is inconsistency between districts and indicators in the planning scheme. The diversity of construction land and the accessibility of the adjacent road network are relatively small; however, there is a large difference between the travel carbon emission potential and the road network accessibility. (3) Carbon emission potential after completion did not reach the planned expectation, and the low-carbon emission potential plots were concentrated in the Changqing Old City Area and Central Area of Dangjia Town Area. (4) The carbon emission indicators varied greatly in different areas, and there were serious imbalances in the density of public transportation lines and the mixed degree of urban functions.

Cool island effects of urban remnant natural mountains for cooling communities: A case study of Guiyang, China

With the rapid development of urbanization, abundant cone-shaped or tower-shaped karst peaks and peak forests were surrounded by human-dominated urban matrix, forming urban remnant natural mountains (URNMs). URNMs, as the precious ecological resources, could provide a variety of ecosystem services in cities. In order to explore the cool island effects of URNMs, taking the built-up area of the Guiyang city center as the study area and the URNMs as the research object, the cool island effects of URNMs and factors that influence their cooling amplitudes were analyzed through a land surface temperature (LST) inversion with the mono-window algorithm and buffer, correlation and regression analyses. Results showed that : (1) URNMs were the main contributing source to LST reduction, which had cool island effects on their surrounding communities, (2) the average cooling distance was approximately 170 m, and the cooling range was 0.2–2.5 °C, (3) the landscape structure and patch density of the surrounding buffer matrix had a significant influence on mountain cool island (MCI) intensity in the range of 330 m. Results of this study could provide guidance for urban planners and policy makers to protect and manage URNMs and improve urban community spatial planning to alleviate urban heat island effect.

Fast generation of microclimate weather data for building simulation under heat island using map capturing and clustering technique

In this research, Urban Weather Generator (UWG) is utilized for UHI modeling in a center city area of Shenzhen based on urban morphologic data collected by an information-collection framework. The framework uses map capturing technique and unsupervised clustering for building type classification to gather input parameters for UHI model. The developed building type clustering technique, which adopted principal component analysis and Gaussian Mixture Model, is shown to have potential application in district-scale UHI modeling. Together with a differential-evolution-based calibration procedure, the proposed framework is implemented to the UWG modeling for the selected urban tissue. After calibration, it is found that the weighted sum of coefficient of variance for temperature and relative humidity has been reduced from 7.45 % to around 5.5 % compared with the uncalibrated model. The simulation results shows that the annual mean UHI index and max UHI index in center city Shenzhen is found to be 0.50 °C and 5.9 °C. After applying UHI effect to the typical meteorological year (TMY) data, the cooling degree day and heating degree day change by +12.60 % and −11.92 % compared with the original TMY. The developed method is computationally efficient and the morphed TMY data is a more accurate reflection on local urban microclimate.

Methodological Framework for Understanding Urban People Flow from a Complex Network Perspective

Cities are connected by their functions and so are the spaces within cities. With the emergence of multisource data containing abundant urban residents’ mobile information and the introduction of complex network methods to urban space research, a large amount of research has focused on exploring spatial structures from spatial interaction networks. Previous studies have limitations of lacking an understanding of the urban spatial structure from a systematic perspective and have not addressed the application value of research results from the perspective of urban planning. To address this research gaps, this paper proposed an analytical framework for a multiscale urban spatial characteristics analysis that is sufficiently intuitive for understanding both the spatial structure and organization relationship from a complex network perspective based on urban resident mobility data. This framework includes the full cycle workflow from data preprocessing, the construction of people flow network, method choice, and application. Unlike other works that focus on the community identified, this analytical framework considered the spatial characteristic within the communities and the relationship between communities and then compared the research results and planned urban structure. The goal of this research was to propose an analytical framework that can be applied for the identification of urban spatial structure, division of spatial management units, assessment of the implementation effects of spatial planning, and the configuration and optimization of auxiliary public service facilities. Two weeks of mobile phone signaling data that cover the Wuhu city center area were used in the empirical analysis. The results showed that (1) there is significant spatial heterogeneity between the compactness and intensity of the people flow network, (2) the community that was identified from the people flow network is more dispersed and microscopic in space compared with the communities from master plan; and finally, (3) at the community scale, there are fewer communities in the urban north area than in other areas and the interaction between communities in the urban north area is much looser and weaker in intensity. These findings may help in understanding the organizational relationship of urban groups from a systematic perspective and provide useful information to the division of planning groups and show the effects of assessment planning implementation to the planer.

The clustering of city images on Instagram: A comparison between projected and perceived images.

The spatial concentration of tourists poses a challenge for many cities. Understanding the projected and perceived images of the city via social networks may help to improve management of this phenomenon. That said, social networks tend to be studied in quite a uniform way. The present study analyses the differences that could exist between 784 images posted on the Instagram network by tourist boards (projected) and 10.590 posted by visitors (perceived). The study is based on the case of Barcelona. The use of cartographic analysis tools indicates that tourist boards tend to focus on just a few specific locations. Nevertheless, user-generated images show a wider range of locations, which multiplies by seven the area where the images of the tourist board are concentrated. That said, in both cases, the images posted tend to be located in the central areas of cities. The fact that Instagram tends to reinforce the image of central spaces and that it has only a limited capacity to promote new tourist attractions outside what are already the most consolidated areas for tourism has been underlined. • Location of user-generated and tourist board image in Instagram has been compared. • A partial coincidence is observed in the spatial distribution of images. • The tourist board focus on what are already consolidated tourist areas for tourism. • Visiting tourists project a richer and more diverse image of the city. • Instagram tends to reinforce the image of central spaces.

Spatiotemporal Variations in the Urban Heat Islands across the Coastal Cities in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Over 70% of the cities in China are experiencing urbanization, and urban heat island intensity (UHII) evaluation studies have been widely performed. However, under the rapid economic development in China, few studies on surface urban heat island (SUHI) interannual variations have been conducted in coastal cities in the leading economic region of the Yangtze River Delta. In this study, the long-term summer daytime SUHI from 2001 to 2019 is studied based on the remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) in 11 coastal cities in the Yangtze River Delta. The results show that notable SUHIs occur in the study area with high spatial heterogeneity, particularly in the central area, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Ningbo. The SUHI trends are not synchronous across the study area, with suburban areas revealing higher trends than city center areas. In addition, all 11 cities show an increasing trend of the urban heat proportion index (UHPI) over 19 years, which is more profound in Shanghai and Zhoushan but less profound in Lianyungang and Wenzhou. The strong correlation between the UHPI and artificial impervious coverage indicates that artificial impervious coverage plays an important role in determining the spatial and temporal distributions of the summer daytime SUHI in the 11 coastal cities, which are especially notable in Ningbo and Taizhou.

Source identification of fine and coarse aerosol during smog episodes in Debrecen, Hungary

In this study, the identification of PM sources during smog episodes in Debrecen is presented. The smog episodes were characterized by the high concentration of PM10, and were linked to a thermal inversion period in November 2011 in Hungary, when an anticyclone occurred across Europe. The sources of PM2.5 and PMcoarse were identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF). Additionally, the source locations were explored by using the conditional probability function (CPF). A numerical weather prediction model (WRF) was also applied to evaluate the air pollution situation. In order to meet the goals of the study, the elemental composition with high (2-h) time resolution, the elemental size distribution, and the planetary boundary layer were examined in an urban background site of downtown Debrecen, Hungary. Our results highlight the importance of biomass burning (39%) and traffic (31%) as the major contributors to PM2.5. The main tracers of these sources (K, Cl, Pb, Zn) appeared mainly in droplet mode (0.5–1 μm). The major sources of PMcoarse fraction were soil (32%), and dust attributed to tramline construction (30%). The combination of PMF and CPF results revealed that the PM10 concentrations were affected by sources within the urban agglomeration of Debrecen (city centre and suburban areas) under the given meteorological conditions. This conclusion is further validated by the fact that the diurnal variation of the identified source contributions presented a distinct pattern that depended strongly on the daily activities of the city’s residents (compared to the usually unstructured diurnals of transported sources).

No Place in the City: The Segregation of Affordable Formal Private Rentals in Beijing

ABSTRACT Residential segregation by income has become an emerging concern in Chinese cities. Existing literature on residential segregation has mostly focused on the informal rental market, and little is known about the formal private rentals. Nevertheless, with the continued removal of informal settlements, formal private rentals are likely to play a more pivotal role in the provision of affordable housing in the upcoming years. Using data from online rental listings, this article examines changes in the spatial distribution of affordable formal private rentals in Beijing between 2015 and 2018. Our study finds that the availability of affordable formal private rentals decreased drastically in the central city area in the 3-year period, whereas the remaining affordable units in the central-city subdistricts became increasingly segregated from other higher priced rentals. When compared across rentals of different price ranges, the affordable rentals ended up being the most segregated in both 2015 and 2018, with a city-level index of dissimilarity of 0.71 and 0.75, respectively. The research findings necessitate policies that promote affordable rental provision in central locations.

Multiple Deprivation and Urban Development in Athens, Greece: Spatial Trends and the Role of Access to Housing

This paper presents the spatial distribution of multiple deprivation in Athens, and links these spatial patterns to the city’s urban development trajectory and the way housing is accessed. Multiple deprivation was measured as the combined concentration of disadvantageous employment situation, access to education and housing conditions. A principal components analysis was utilized for 20 variables from the three said domains. Two components were identified as statistically significant. The analysis covered approximately 3000 urban spatial analysis units (URANU), using data from the population censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011. The findings unveil that from 1991 to 2011, multiple deprivation in the urban periphery as well as in city center areas worsened. Conditions in many (but not all) working-class areas in the west of Athens, as well as in middle class suburbs in the east, improved or did not get worse. If compared to the urban development trajectory of the city, this distribution means that the historical East–West socio-economic division is getting less pronounced, whereas an important center–periphery dynamic is emerging. The filtering and sorting process of the housing market could explain those trends. It appears that the most affected populations are those outside the Greek family-centered and homeownership-based model of access to housing.

Levels and Characteristics of Utilitarian Walking in the Central Areas of the Cities of Bologna and Porto

Walking is a mode of transport that offers many environmental and health benefits. Utilitarian walking refers to walking trips undertaken to fulfil routine purposes. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which walking is used as a transport mode for short urban trips in the city centers of Bologna and Porto and the barriers preventing utilitarian walking. Based on a questionnaire (n = 1117) administered in the two cities, results indicated that 21% of the individuals travel by foot, while 47% combine walking with other modes. This means that 68% of the daily trips to these city centers involve walking activity. From the overall trips, 84% were made to reach work and school/university. Statistical tests showed that utilitarian walkers were more likely to be females (p &lt; 0.001) and undergraduates (p &lt; 0.001). People from Bologna were more likely to engage in utilitarian walking than people from Porto (p &lt; 0.001). Travel distance and time were the main barriers preventing people from engaging in utilitarian walking. The findings described in this paper provide a better understanding of utilitarian walking in the central areas of both cities, which can guide policies to promote healthier lifestyles and sustainable mobility.

Support technology of deep foundation bracing and quality control

Ruibai Times Project lies in the central city area of Jinzhou District, Dalian. With the abundant underwater, the geological condition is quite complex. Underground public transportation, old brick-concrete buildings and converting station are all around the construction site. The deep foundation excavation exceeds 17m. The support design adopts a combination of pile anchor system and internal support, which better solves the problems concerning safety, construction period, and cost. The quality is controlled during the construction process, and the monitoring results show that the support method is safe and reliable.

Assessing cycling social feasibility in a medium-size Patagonian city

At present there is a global tendency in urban planning to privilege active mobility, especially in the central areas of the big cities of the world. We address the case of a medium-size city in a developing country like Argentina, which shares characteristics with other Latin American cities.The result of synthesizing experiences carried out in the city of Puerto Madryn, Patagonia Argentina is presented. The use of different instruments throughout various territorial actions allowed us to evaluate the social feasibility of implementing urban cycling policies in the city. Those instruments used were a specially designed mobile application for cyclists and two surveys that cover the cyclist’s profile and behavioral aspects towards cycling, respectively. The three of them have the common characteristics of being low-cost and simple to implement.The resulting social feasibility analysis reflects the importance of citizens’ commitment to cycling mobility. This analysis also gives an idea of the efforts needed to implement a policy in that regard. The results obtained indicate a high level of willingness to cycling, particularly among women. Family and friends support appears as a strength. Although infrastructure emerges as an important issue, it is not considered as urgent as other initiatives like safety driving campaigns, bicycle commuting programs and low infrastructure cost parking places. Traveling long distances and rough weather are inherent drawbacks of the Patagonian cities, however they were not observed as major impediments. We conclude that Puerto Madryn has an acceptable level of social feasibility towards urban cycling policies.

Calculating Energy and Its Spatial Distribution for a Subsurface Urban Heat Island Using a GIS-Approach

In urban areas, the human influence on the city-ecosystem often results in a Subsurface Urban Heat Island (SUHI), which can be used geothermally. Unfortunately, a model of a SUHI does not consider the geology and hydrogeology of the subsoil. These can vary significantly over short distances, and are of considerable importance for the energy balance. In this work, we calculated the energy and its density stored in the subsoil via a SUHI. For this so-called energy-SUHI (e-SUHI), we evaluated the geology and its physical parameters for the first 20 m below ground level in the German city of Nuremberg and linked them to measured underground temperatures in a GIS application. This approach revealed stored energy of 1.634 × 1010 MJ within the soil and water for the study area with an area of 163 km2 and a volume of 3.26 × 109 m3. It corresponds to an average energy density of 5.0 MJ/m3. The highest energy density of 16.5 MJ/m3 was found in the city center area and correlated well to increases in subsurface temperature. As expected, our model reacts sensitively to thickness changes in the geological layers and the unsaturated zone.

The Origins of Urban Renewal in Singapore: A Transnational History

This article examines the origins of urban renewal in Singapore through a transnational history lens. It focuses on the role in particular of two United Nations–led teams of experts one headed by Erik Lorange and the other by Charles Abrams in the early 1960s and the impact these had on how urban renewal proceeded in Singapore’s central city area. This approach broadens the focus to encompass more than just the role played by Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and Urban Renewal Authority which dominates much of the existing scholarship. In doing so it finds that there was much more agreement between these international experts and their visions of a modern city and that of the Singaporean agencies and individuals tasked with implementing renewal.

Expression and features of distribution of the modern style (art nouveau) architecture in the cultural landscape of Lithuania

This article is an example of an interdisciplinary scientific field of geography of art, which examines the links between landscape and architecture. The specific aim of the research is to review and evaluate the spatial and artistic expression of Modern Style (Art Nouveau) architecture objects in the cultural landscape of Lithuania. The analysis is based on data classification of scientific literature, cartographic works and on urban field research. One of the main results of the study is a map of distribution of Modern Style objects in Lithuania, which helps to identify Modern Style architecture areas in morphological regions of Lithuania landscape. The majority of Modern Style building is located in the central areas of Lithuanian cities due to development and specifics of territorial planning of the largest cities in Lithuania in the beginning of the 20th century. To evaluate the spatial expression of Modern style architecture is needed to do a wider research into the aesthetic quality of the landscape.

Rio de Janeiro noise mapping during the COVID-19 pandemic period

Abstract This paper presents a comparison between the acoustic scenario at the Rio de Janeiro city center, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Undergoing one of the most important pandemics of the recent history, the social isolation led to a new acoustic scenario for Rio de Janeiro. The study was realized at the city center, an area of historical, economic and cultural relevance. The comparison consisted of analyzing measured data and noise maps produced for the city center area. The maps were created according to measured and collected data of the respective time periods. The acoustic scenario prior to the pandemic time was reconstructed based on previous measurements and data collection, while the pandemic one was built with data survey during the highest social isolation index on July 2020. The comparative analysis showed a considerable noise reduction, between 10 and 15 dB, for areas where the traffic noise was not intense and where the human activities were predominant on the streets. However, there was no substantial noise decrease for the areas around the major avenues. This occurred due to the traffic intensity drop to 50% during the pandemic, which meant a noise reduction between 3 and 5 dB.