City Of Montreal Research Articles

Projected risk and vulnerability to heat waves for Montreal, Quebec, using Gaussian processes

Urban areas face increasing climate risks and are at the forefront of adaptation challenges. Despite the growing number of cities that are developing adaptation plans, they often fail to implement, monitor, and evaluate them. This article addresses this issue by modelling a comprehensive risk assessment that includes vulnerability using Gaussian processes. Mortality during heat waves for the City of Montreal, Quebec, is used as a case study. The vulnerability model includes sensitivity components (age and socioeconomic variables) and an adaptive capacity component (a suitable level of vegetation to decrease the urban heat island effect). Various aging and climate scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5) are used for projections up to year 2100. SHAP values are used to show features contributions to the model. As the climate warms, Montreal will face increasing summer mortality. The city should therefore increase its vegetation cover in vulnerable neighbourhoods. Despite inherent limitations to the complexity of risk modelling, this approach facilitates the implementation of adaptation solutions and their monitoring. Greater effort should be made in the future to improve comprehensive risk modelling and more research is required to validate which framework is best in closing the gap between science and political decisions.

Exploring labor market dynamics and profiles of Latin American migrants in Quebec, Canada

This study examines the labor profile and perceived barriers of Latin American migrants in Quebec, specifically in the cities of Montreal and Quebec City. Using a qualitative research approach, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 24 migrants to collect data on variables such as age, location, educational level, language fluency, migration status, main barrier observed, gender and work domain. Despite the modest sample size, the findings revealed significant patterns that provide a deeper understanding of the labor dynamics of this migrant population. A multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used to identify distinctive segments within the sample and differences between migrants located in Montreal and Quebec City were discussed. The main barriers to employment were analyzed, highlighting the importance of professional networks, cultural adaptation and structural deficiencies in the labor market. This article contributes to the literature by providing specific recommendations for employment policies targeting different groups of migrants, with the objective of promoting more equitable and effective labor market integration in the province of Quebec.

Characterization of a Covid-fired urban bike delivery system: The Montreal experience

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a rapid change in consumers' demand for home deliveries and traditional delivery modes were unable to deliver consumers and shops due to the sudden increase in demand. This study investigates the results of a local cargo bike delivery initiative in Montreal, Canada, during the forced closure of non-essential businesses from March to May 2020. The objective of this study is to identify the variables which interacted with the performance of a cargo bike delivery initiative while considering the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic. To assess such changing conditions, a multilevel linear regression analysis is carried out. This analysis allows to quantify the number of home deliveries while considering the impact of the number of active Covid-19 cases and sociodemographic predictors on the cargo bike initiative. The dataset covers 6,700 deliveries made by cargo bikes in the city of Montreal over 16 weeks. The results show that the presence of advertising and the characteristics of consumers' households, such as a smaller household size and a younger average age are amongst the strongest factors for the success of such initiative. The specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic allowed a better penetration of cargo bikes within the last-mile ecosystem.

The Saint-Leonard Urban Glaciotectonic Cave Harbors Rich and Diverse Planktonic and Sedimentary Microbial Communities.

The terrestrial subsurface harbors unique microbial communities that play important biogeochemical roles and allow for studying a yet unknown fraction of the Earth's biodiversity. The Saint-Leonard cave in Montreal City (Canada) is of glaciotectonic origin. Its speleogenesis traces back to the withdrawal of the Laurentide Ice Sheet 13,000 years ago, during which the moving glacier dislocated the sedimentary rock layers. Our study is the first to investigate the microbial communities of the Saint-Leonard cave. By using amplicon sequencing, we analyzed the taxonomic diversity and composition of bacterial, archaeal and eukaryote communities living in the groundwater (0.1 µm- and 0.2 µm-filtered water), in the sediments and in surface soils. We identified a microbial biodiversity typical of cave ecosystems. Communities were mainly shaped by habitat type and harbored taxa associated with a wide variety of lifestyles and metabolic capacities. Although we found evidence of a geochemical connection between the above soils and the cave's galleries, our results suggest that the community assembly dynamics are driven by habitat selection rather than dispersal. Furthermore, we found that the cave's groundwater, in addition to being generally richer in microbial taxa than sediments, contained a considerable diversity of ultra-small bacteria and archaea.

Supporting the Living Laboratory: A Literature Review of Montreal Sound-Related Research

Sound and noise play a critical role in the experience of urban environments. We review the literature on sound environments in Montreal and their effects on city users, including public sector reports from the City of Montreal and Montreal’s public health agency in addition to academic research, published between 2010 and 2020. 73 studies were analyzed according to scale, methodologies, methods, settings, sound sources covered, and domains of findings. This review summarizes the main findings at city level, paving the way for more integrated urban sound and noise policies tailored to local realities while staying informed of international best practices.

A parking incentive allocation problem for ridesharing systems

Ridesharing occurs when people with similar schedules and itineraries travel together to reduce their commuting costs. In this paper, we study how parking spaces can be used to incentivize drivers to participate in ridesharing systems. We develop a Parking Incentive Allocation (PIA) system to promote and allocate parking lots to ridesharing drivers in a stochastic and dynamic environment. The optimization problem is formulated at each period as a multi-stage stochastic decision-dependent program. To overcome the complexity of the model, we propose one greedy policy, and three approximations including two stochastic policies and an expected-value policy. We evaluate the effectiveness of the four policies on the data generated from GPS information collected by the MTL Trajet project, which studies residents’ travel patterns throughout the city of Montreal. The computational results indicate that on average, the approximate policies can improve the total distance saving by more than 20% over various problem settings. Additionally, the results show that the performance of the PIA system is significantly influenced by the attractiveness of the parking incentive to drivers.

Urban microclimate prediction based on weather station data and artificial neural network

Urban microclimate has a significant impact on building energy consumption. Building energy modeling (BEM) requires accurate local weather conditions near a target building, whereas Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) weather inputs often use remote airport weather data. An artificial neural network (ANN) model is presented in this study to predict urban microclimates based on long-term measurements from local weather stations near urban buildings and their significance in analyzing building energy consumption. By utilizing only a few months of data, the ANN model could connect local and remote meteorological parameters for a whole year. The 20-year historical weather data at the airport was then used to generate a local TMY. Based on the original and local TMYs, this study compared building heating and cooling loads. This method was evaluated for five weather stations within the city of Montreal to assess the impact of the local microclimate on the energy consumption of buildings. Based on locations, urban microclimate contributed to an additional 2 % to 14 % cooling energy consumption and a reduction of 1 % to 10 % winter heating energy consumption.

City-scale modelling of road thermal and hydrologic characteristics and failure mechanisms: Case study of Montreal

This study focuses on understanding and quantifying projected changes to road thermal and hydrologic characteristics that are associated with road failure, for the City of Montreal, Canada. To this end, city-scale modelling using a land surface model with realistic representation of urban regions, including roads, enabled by the super-resolution of 250 m, for the current 2001–2020 and future 2041–2060 periods are used. Analysis for the cold season suggests potential reduction in failures associated with thermal characteristics such as daily freeze-thaw and partial thaws, with a projected decrease of 12.5% and 2 %, respectively. Higher potential for hydrologic characteristics-related failures are likely, given projected increases in road/surface runoff in the 12–15% range. For the warm season, projected increases in thermal characteristics such as daily maximum and minimum temperatures (4–4.5 °C), and hydrological characteristics (25 %), suggest increased potential for road failure from rutting and drainage issues. Analysis performed separately for the highways and local roads reveal important spatial variability of the considered characteristics and associated failures, which can be helpful in prioritizing road sections for detailed analysis and in the development of sustainable adaptation strategies for the Montreal road network and enhancing the city's resilience to future climate change.

Maximum flow‐based formulation for the optimal location of electric vehicle charging stations

AbstractWith the increasing effects of climate change, the urgency to step away from fossil fuels is greater than ever before. Electric vehicles (EVs) are one way to diminish these effects, but their widespread adoption is often limited by the insufficient availability of charging stations. In this work, our goal is to expand the infrastructure of EV charging stations, in order to provide a better quality of service in terms of user satisfaction (and availability of charging stations). Specifically, our focus is directed towards urban areas. We first propose a model for the assignment of EV charging demand to stations, framing it as a maximum flow problem. This model is the basis for the evaluation of user satisfaction with a given charging infrastructure. Secondly, we incorporate the maximum flow model into a mixed‐integer linear program, where decisions on the opening of new stations and on the expansion of their capacity through additional outlets is accounted for. We showcase our methodology for the city of Montreal, demonstrating the scalability of our approach to handle real‐world scenarios. We conclude that considering both spacial and temporal variations in charging demand is meaningful when solving realistic instances.

Impact of heat islands vs. city greening: Real-time monitoring and modeling of drinking water temperature in the city of Montreal in Canada

Urbanization increases the land surface temperature through surface mineralization, adversely affecting vegetation and enhancing the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Global climate change has intensified this warming effect with more frequent and intense heatwaves during hot seasons. While these transformations influence soil temperature, their consequences on drinking water temperature within the drinking water distribution system (DWDS) remains poorly understood. Literature proposes to increase pipe burial depths to mitigate drinking water heating during summer. In this study, we monitored drinking water temperatures in a DWDS in Montreal, Canada with deeply buried pipes (average 1.8 m) during the summer of 2022, focusing on two contrasting zones in terms of UHI and green coverage. Monitoring revealed a 8°C heating effect compared to the water treatment plant, attributed to low green coverage and anthropogenic heat. Conversely, the greener zone exhibited cooler drinking water temperatures, reaching a maximum cooling effect of 8°C as compared to the temperature at the exit of the water treatment plant. Utilizing a soil and water temperature model, we predicted drinking water temperatures within the DWDS with acceptable accuracy. Soil temperature modeling results aligned well with measured water temperatures, highlighting DWDS water temperature approaching its surrounding soil temperature fairly quickly. Despite heatwaves, no immediate correlation emerged between air temperature records and measured water temperatures, emphasizing soil temperature as a superior indicator. An increase in water age displayed no correlation with an increase in measured water temperature, underscoring the dominant influence of UHI and green coverage on water temperature. These findings highlight the cooling advantages of green spaces during summer, providing valuable insights for sustainable urban planning.

Closing the Cycling Gap: Examining Equity Implications of Montreal’s Bikesharing Network Growth

The worldwide growth of bike-sharing systems demonstrates their mass appeal and success. Montreal’s bike-sharing system, BIXI, opened in 2009, is now one of the largest in the world, and has drastically expanded since being taken over by the City of Montreal in 2014. The system now has over 750 stations up from 459 in 2014. This paper analyzes BIXI’s expansion through the lens of equity, revealing how factors including race and income can explain its growth. First, we mapped high-need equity areas that BIXI could have plausibly expanded to, and those that BIXI actually expanded to. We then created a logistic regression model with dissemination areas that gained new access to BIXI as the dependent variable, and income, race, the number of nearby trips, the population count, and the number of bus stops as independent explanatory variables, and controlled for distance from existing stations. Our regression findings demonstrated that race and income were statistically significant in explaining BIXI’s expansion, with a general trend that BIXI was expanding into lower-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a greater proportion of visible minorities, as defined by Statistics Canada. Finally, we compared the same explanatory variables in areas that had gained access to BIXI stations, and those in areas that had not but plausibly could have to show the socioeconomic differences in areas gaining new access to service.

Instantaneous nostalgia for the future: 10,000 postcards for 2042

This article focuses on analogue postcards as a communicative and artistic tool for potentially engaging nostalgically with the past, present, and future. It poses questions about the experience of time and place in a specific setting (the city of Montreal, Canada), as well as in a specific project that looks at cultural mediation in public spaces. During the summer of 2017, Comptoir public, an organization that works with artists and cultural mediators, launched the project “Postes du futur” ( Mail from the Future). The organizers asked Montrealers to write a postcard to a recipient of the sender's choosing, so that it will be mailed in 2042 during the celebration of Montreal's 400th anniversary (i.e., 25 years later). One of our main findings is that most of these postcards will be sent to the current addresses of future recipients. Choosing one's home as one of the settings to write to and to write about finally made it possible to connect to the historical and medical meaning of nostalgia: the homesickness, the yearning for a place of one's own, for a space we now miss prospectively on in the future. Home, where people live their lives, is not yet “lost” or “left behind.” But anticipating its loss and transfer to others becomes one of the primordial factors shaping instantaneous nostalgia and its expression—a future in which postcard senders are no longer present or even alive. The issue of the finiteness and the irreversibility of time is usually an indicator of past-oriented nostalgia. In our case, it is projected toward the future. The printed, analogue postcard becomes the writing space that leaves room for anticipated and anticipatory nostalgia and for imagining future communication technologies.

Tracking down pharmaceutical pollution in surface waters of the St. Lawrence River and its major tributaries

A reconnaissance survey was undertaken to evaluate the occurrence and risks of 27 pharmaceuticals and metabolites in the St. Lawrence watershed. Surface water samples were collected over a five-year period (2017–2021) along a 700-km reach of the St. Lawrence River as well as 55 tributary rivers (overall N = 406 samples). Additionally, depth water samples and sediments were collected near a major wastewater effluent. Caffeine, diclofenac, and venlafaxine were the most recurrent substances (detection rates >80 %), and extremely high levels were found near a municipal effluent (e.g., ibuprofen (860 ng/L), hydroxyibuprofen (1800 ng/L) and caffeine (7200 ng/L)). Geographical mapping and statistical analyses indicated that the St. Lawrence River water mass after the Montreal City effluent was significantly more contaminated than the other water masses, and that contamination could extend up to 70 km further downstream. This phenomenon was repeatedly observed over the five years of sampling, confirming that this is not a random trend. A slight increase in contamination was also observed near Quebec City, but concentrations rapidly declined in the estuarine transition zone. Tributaries with the highest pharmaceutical levels (ΣPharmas ∼400–900 ng/L) included the Mascouche, Saint-Régis, and Bertrand rivers, all located in the densely populated Greater Montreal area. When flowrate was factored in, the top five tributaries in terms of mass load (ΣPharmas ∼200–2000 kg/year) were the Des Prairies, Saint-François, Richelieu, Ottawa, and Yamaska rivers. All samples met the Canadian Water Quality Guideline for carbamazepine. Despite the large dilution effect of the St. Lawrence River, a risk quotient approach based on freshwater PNEC values suggested that four compounds (caffeine, carbamazepine, diclofenac, and ibuprofen) could present intermediate to high risks for aquatic organisms in terms of chronic exposure.

Smart Urban Wind Power Forecasting: Integrating Weibull Distribution, Recurrent Neural Networks, and Numerical Weather Prediction

The design, operational planning, and integration of wind power plants with other renewables and the grid face challenges attributed to the intermittent nature of wind power generation. Addressing this issue necessitates the development of a smart wind power (and in particular wind speed) forecasting approach. This is a complex task due to substantial fluctuations in wind speed. To overcome the inherent stochastic nature of wind speed and mitigate related challenges, traditionally, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are employed for wind speed forecasting. However, the applicability of NWP models is limited to short-term forecasting due to their computational constraints. In this study, a hybrid AI-based approach is proposed to improve forecast accuracy over a 48 h horizon for the city of Montreal. The results demonstrate that by integrating the probability distribution of wind speed with a deep learning model, the forecasted values align closely with the observed values in terms of seasonality and trend, exhibiting enhanced accuracy. Evaluation metrics reveal a substantial reduction in the root mean squared error (13–31%) across three prediction horizons (summer, fall, and winter) compared to a single long, short-term memory model. Furthermore, integrating the improved model with the numerical weather prediction model yields increased accuracy and decreased error compared to the LSTM–Weibull model.

Understanding the Sustainability Tripod in the Context of Local Markets

The crisis of the agri-food model opens space for discussion around food seeking more sustainable ways of production and consumption. The local markets can help to walk on this way, making the environment more sustainable. Thus, the article aims to analyze aspects related to environmental, social and economic sustainability with food product exhibitors in local markets in Canada and Brazil. Qualitative research was carried out at local markets, in the Concordia Farmers Market (CFM), in the city of Montreal - Canada and in the Mercado de Produção da Agricultura Familiar (FEPRAF), in the city of Júlio de Castilhos - Brazil. Data were collected through interviews and participant observation, and analyzed using content analysis. The results identified aspects related to environmental sustainability (organic and artisanal foods without chemicals and waste reduction), social (local markets generate an opportunity to strengthen relationships between producers and customers, bonds and exchange of information) and economic (appreciation of local products by developing the region's economy).

A creativity-focused anniversary: Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebrations at the heart of a cultural economy of the past

In 2017, the City of Montreal commemorated its 375th anniversary. Because it celebrated the city’s “creative” spirit more than its past, this 375th anniversary stands as an opportunity to explore reconfigurations of public anniversaries, which often take the shape of cultural mega-events. This article presents the different logics behind these celebrations, largely shaped by the communications and entertainment industries, and examines how they partake in developing of a cultural economy that benefits from the past. The purpose is thus not only to identify the presence of a commercial relationship but to explore how celebrations develop in light of the paradigm of creativity, which is currently a pillar of cities’ economic development policies. This article draws on interviews with people involved in the event organization, individuals sidelined by the process, and media and archives analysis.

The profit-oriented hub line location problem with elastic demand

This paper deals with an extension of the hub line location problem considering demand elasticity with respect to travel times. The proposed model aims to capture the impact the hub network topology has on demand. The objective is to maximize the total revenue generated by each unit of demand using the hub line. We propose mixed-integer nonlinear formulations to model this problem. We study some properties of the nonlinear objective function associated with these formulations. Due to the inherent complexity involved in solving these nonlinear formulations with state-of-the-art solvers, we also present alternative mixed-integer linear programming formulations. Computational results compare the proposed formulations and the benefits of the presented model using benchmark instances commonly used in hub location. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis study is carried out with real data from the city of Montreal, Canada, to demonstrate the added value of incorporating demand elasticity when using the proposed model for public transportation planning.

Learning from intersectoral initiatives to respond to the needs of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants without status in the context of COVID-19 in Quebec and Ontario: a qualitative multiple case study protocol

BackgroundRefugees, asylum seekers, and migrants without status experience precarious living and working conditions that disproportionately expose them to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In the two most populous Canadian provinces (Quebec and Ontario), to reduce the vulnerability factors experienced by the most marginalized migrants, the public and community sectors engage in joint coordination efforts called intersectoral collaboration. This collaboration ensures holistic care provisioning, inclusive of psychosocial support, assistance to address food security, and educational and employment assistance. This research project explores how community and public sectors collaborated on intersectoral initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic to support refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants without status in the cities of Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Toronto, and generates lessons for a sustainable response to the heterogeneous needs of these migrants.MethodsThis theory-informed participatory research is co-created with socioculturally diverse research partners (refugees, asylum seekers and migrants without status, employees of community organizations, and employees of public organizations). We will utilize Mirzoev and Kane’s framework on health systems’ responsiveness to guide the four phases of a qualitative multiple case study (a case being an intersectoral initiative). These phases will include (1) building an inventory of intersectoral initiatives developed during the pandemic, (2) organizing a deliberative workshop with representatives of the study population, community, and public sector respondents to select and validate the intersectoral initiatives, (3) interviews (n = 80) with community and public sector frontline workers and managers, municipal/regional/provincial policymakers, and employees of philanthropic foundations, and (4) focus groups (n = 80) with refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants without status. Qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings will be used to develop discussion forums to spur cross-learning among service providers.DiscussionThis research will highlight the experiences of community and public organizations in their ability to offer responsive services for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants without status in the context of a pandemic. We will draw lessons learnt from the promising practices developed in the context of COVID-19, to improve services beyond times of crisis. Lastly, we will reflect upon our participatory approach—particularly in relation to the engagement of refugees and asylum seekers in the governance of our research.

Politicisation at the local political level within representative and participative institutions: the example of a poor Montreal borough

ABSTRACT The majority of studies on local politics and politicisation have focused on the study of electoral participation, political parties or civil society. The qualitative dimension of politicisation within local institutions has thus been overlooked. This research addresses this dimension by comparing how citizens politically discuss the world in a representative and a participative institution (The borough council and the participatory budget respectively) of local democracy in one of the poorest areas of the city of Montreal in Canada. In order to grasp the politicisation within political institutions, we link the notion to a rise in generality echoing a conflictualisation of stakes or/and a reference to (in)justice. Our analysis reveals that both institutional designs examined acts in complementary ways. By giving utterance to conflict, the borough council permits the expression of all neighbourhood issues while the participatory budget allows for citizens to dream the future by bringing out the consensus of the moment.

Solving jointly districting and resource location and allocation problems: An application to the design of Emergency Medical Services

This paper proposes an integrated approach to jointly tackle districting and resource allocation decisions, two interrelated problems that, in most cases, are handled separately. The proposed approach is applied to the context of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), where a large territory needs to be covered by a limited number of resources, i.e., the ambulances. The territory is usually split into districts; each district receives a share of ambulances, which are managed quasi-independently. This paper focuses on the importance of districting decisions, which will impact daily operations and, therefore, the performance of the system. To address the districting and resource location and allocation problems jointly, it proposes an iterative algorithm that exploits the interaction between the strategic (i.e., the districting) and the operational (i.e., the location and allocation of resources) decisions to build compact and balanced districts and, at the same time, find the location and allocation of resources that maximize the performance in terms of system’s response time. Starting from an initial set of districts, the iterative algorithm solves the associated resource location and allocation problem for each of them. Then, according to the performance reached by the location–allocation solutions, the districts are modified. Applied to realistic instances inspired by the city of Montreal, Canada, the algorithm produced results that improved simultaneously the system’s expected response time and the metrics assessing the quality of the districts.