City Planning Research Articles

How accessible are cities for visually impaired pedestrians? A case of Greater London

Urban planning and design aim to encourage active mobility by promoting various models that assess a city’s transportability and accessibility. In practice, these models are not attuned to a huge part of the population that have mobility impairments, therefore they uphold a flawed city design and prevent these populations from being an equal part of the inclusive city vision. We suggest an approach to develop new visually impaired mobility accessibility indices of urban space using open-source geospatial data and showcase them across different wards and boroughs in Greater London. Results show the various urban accessibility levels for visually impaired pedestrians, pointing to existing problems this community faces when navigating the city, such as challenging street network connectivity and dangerous walking areas. These indices can be used for more inclusive city planning and design, enhancing urban mobility and walkability equality, and improving this community’s quality of life.

Analysing the drivers of smart city implementation using DEMATEL method

<p>Indian cities are becoming more and more populated, and the technological, environmental, social, political, and economic infrastructure of those cities is deteriorating, necessitating the development of more innovative methods to enhance public utilities and services. The growth of smart cities encourages the creation of a stable, networked, and sustainable metropolitan structure. The “100 Smart Cities Mission” was started by the Indian government to encourage planned development. However, there is also a literature of criticisms of the indicators used by the smart city mission. A thorough investigation is necessary to identify the critical infrastructure, important resources, and development patterns for smart city planning. The purpose of my study is to achieve and move towards Smart City Mission goals in a holistic framework. This research paper proposes a weighted criteria to assess the eligibility factors identified from the literature studies of the Smart City Mission, to analyze the complex relationships among the indicators, to develop a holistic approach, and to classify factors based on the drivers of dependence and implementation. The findings of this study shed light on the key drivers and barriers to the implementation of smart city initiatives. The DEMATEL method provided a valuable tool for analyzing the complex interrelationships between different factors and identifying the most influential drivers. The results can guide policymakers, city managers, and other stakeholders in developing more effective strategies for smart city implementation. However, the study also highlights the need for further research to explore the context-specific factors that may affect the drivers of smart city implementation in different regions and cities. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on smart cities and provides practical insights for decision-makers seeking to promote sustainable and inclusive urban development.</p>

Kajian teorI keterkaitan setting fisik dan identitas Kota dalam konteks City Branding

City branding is very important for the growth and marketing of cities. Urban planning, visual communication, and graphic design are used to build a distinctive city identity that represents its values ??and goals. This research examines how city branding improves local economies and competitiveness around the world and how physical and non-physical variables shape city identity over time. This research examines city branding, city identity, and 'place fuzziness' using a comprehensive literature review. The aim of this research is to find out how the form of city identity, especially in tangible terms, supports city identity so that branding of a city can be achieved from an architectural and urban design perspective. The research results show that city branding can attract investment and tourists and strengthen the character and attractiveness of the city. A complex combination of physical and non-physical components forms a city's identity, which underlies city branding. This research also emphasizes the need to resolve 'place fuzziness'—unclearness of a place's identity or function—to improve city branding. This research suggests that city planners and marketers must work together to ensure that physical development and social activities promote a city's identity, eliminate ambiguity, and improve its image. Creating a vibrant and sustainable city image requires integration and strategic planning in city branding and identity management.

Precise GDP Spatialization and Analysis in Built-Up Area by Combining the NPP-VIIRS-like Dataset and Sentinel-2 Images.

Spatialization and analysis of the gross domestic product of second and tertiary industries (GDP23) can effectively depict the socioeconomic status of regional development. However, existing studies mainly conduct GDP spatialization using nighttime light data; few studies specifically concentrated on the spatialization and analysis of GDP23 in a built-up area by combining multi-source remote sensing images. In this study, the NPP-VIIRS-like dataset and Sentinel-2 multi-spectral remote sensing images in six years were combined to precisely spatialize and analyze the variation patterns of the GDP23 in the built-up area of Zibo city, China. Sentinel-2 images and the random forest (RF) classification method based on PIE-Engine cloud platform were employed to extract built-up areas, in which the NPP-VIIRS-like dataset and comprehensive nighttime light index were used to indicate the nighttime light magnitudes to construct models to spatialize GDP23 and analyze their change patterns during the study period. The results found that (1) the RF classification method can accurately extract the built-up area with an overall accuracy higher than 0.90; the change patterns of built-up areas varied among districts and counties, with Yiyuan county being the only administrative region with an annual expansion rate of more than 1%. (2) The comprehensive nighttime light index is a viable indicator of GDP23 in the built-up area; the fitted model exhibited an R2 value of 0.82, and the overall relative errors of simulated GDP23 and statistical GDP23 were below 1%. (3) The year 2018 marked a significant turning point in the trajectory of GDP23 development in the study area; in 2018, Zhoucun district had the largest decrease in GDP23 at -52.36%. (4) GDP23 gradation results found that Zhangdian district exhibited the highest proportion of high GDP23 (>9%), while the proportions of low GDP23 regions in the remaining seven districts and counties all exceeded 60%. The innovation of this study is that the GDP23 in built-up areas were first precisely spatialized and analyzed using the NPP-VIIRS-like dataset and Sentinel-2 images. The findings of this study can serve as references for formulating improved city planning strategies and sustainable development policies.

Deep learning based automated estimation of urban green space index from satellite image: A case study

The green area factor model is a crucial tool for conserving and creating urban greenery and ecosystem services within neighborhood land. This model serves as a valuable index, streamlining the planning, assessment, and comparison of local-scale green infrastructures. However, conventional on-site measurements of the green area factor are resource intensive. In response, this study pioneers a computational approach that integrates ecological and social dimensions to estimate the green area factor. Employing satellite remote sensing and advanced deep learning techniques, the methodology utilizes satellite orthophotos of urban areas subjected to semantic segmentation, identifying and categorizing diverse green elements. Ground truths are established through on-site measurements of green area factors and satellite orthophotos from benchmarking sites in Örebro, Sweden. Results reveal an 82.0% average F1-score for semantic segmentations, signifying a favourable correlation between computationally estimated and measured green area factors. The proposed methodology is potential for adapting to various urban settings. In essence, this research introduces a promising, cost-effective solution for assessing urban greenness, particularly beneficial for urban administrators and planners aiming for insightful and comprehensive green strategies in city planning.

Evaluating Urban Green Space Inequity to Promote Distributional Justice in Portland, Oregon

Access and exposure to urban green space—the combination of parks and vegetative cover in cities—are associated with various health benefits. As urban green space is often unequally distributed throughout cities, understanding how it is allocated across socio-demographic populations can help city planners and policy makers identify and address urban environmental justice and health equity issues. To our knowledge, no studies have yet combined assessments of park quality, park availability, and green cover to inform equitable urban green space planning. To this end, we developed a comprehensive methodology to identify urban green space inequities at the city scale and applied it in Portland, OR, USA. After auditing all public parks in Portland and gathering green cover data from publicly accessible repositories, we used a suite of statistical tests to evaluate distribution of parks and green cover across Census block groups, comprising race, ethnicity, income, and educational attainment characteristics. Right-of-way tree canopy cover was the most significant urban green space inequity identified in bivariate analysis (rs = −0.73). Spatial autoregressive models identified that right-of-way, private, and overall tree canopy cover (Nagelkerke pseudo-R2 = 0.66, 0.77, and 0.67, respectively) significantly decreased with the proportion of minoritized racial population and increased with median income. The results were then used to identify priority locations for specific urban green space investments. This research establishes a process to assess intra-urban green space inequities, as well as identify data-informed and spatially explicit planning priorities to promote health equity and environmental justice.

A study on the image of Guilin’s urban central space from multidimensional views

In the context of high-quality urban development, strengthening the distinct characteristics of the city itself has become a hot topic. This study focuses on the present Guilin’s urban central space as its research object, aiming to explore the characteristics of Guilin city image through three dimensions: traditional method, spatial syntax, and big data analysis. By exploring the differences presented across these dimensions, the study seeks to analyze the influence of human activities on the spatial form of the city. The investigation reveals that the current development of Guilin’s urban central space manifests a diverse cognitive image characterized by large dispersion, small aggregation, and weak systematicity. The influence of natural landscape on the development of city images in Guilin’s urban central space lies in its ability to facilitate the outlanders’ macroscopic cognition of Guilin’s unique landscape characteristics. However, it also hinders the development of the road network in the urban area, resulting in reduced spatial accessibility and cognitive intensity. In short, Guilin’s urban central space requires systematic integration of the development of multiple images in its future development. This approach entails strengthening the accessibility of public transportation and effectively enhancing the coordination of its unique landscape and natural elements with the development of other urban spaces. Moreover, this study attempts to provide insights into the future planning of cities from the perspective of integrated image development. In addition, it represents a pioneering effort to acquire data and analyze methodologies for cognitive research on city morphology and city image.

The destructive work of restoration: Fishing communities facing territorialization in Turag river

Urban river restoration efforts are growing worldwide. Along with restoring and conserving rivers, riverside land is slated for public recreation, property development, and infrastructure for adaptation to climate change. Riverine landscapes, embedded in larger watershed ecosystems and claimed by multiple communities, are sites of contested planning in contemporary cities. In this paper, we advance the scholarship on contestation over control and access of urban rivers and floodplains by analyzing the role of river restorative legislation and water-centered planning in managing Turag, an urban river in Bangladesh. While river degradation in urbanizing regions is often ascribed to lack of regulatory controls and enforcement, we argue that restorative legislation and interventions facilitate Turag River's ecocide by processes of territorialization. Territorialization refers to the co-constitutive dynamics of river restorative legislations and interventions as well as planned infrastructure and land use changes, which erase and displace river-based communities with reciprocal relations to the river. Riverine livelihoods and lifemaking, among fishing and farming communities in the case of Turag, are erased from planning and restoration practices, and are consequently expelled from the expanding city. Drawing on qualitative and counter-cartographic investigation of one severely polluted urban river in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we show how territorialization materializes through five co-constitutive dynamics involving environmental legislation, encroachment reporting, river demarcation, encroachment evictions, and wetland to land conversions. We draw out critical implications of how river restoration can be just and advance a riverine urbanism.

Motivations of Bangkok’s Food Truck Owners during the COVID-19 Disrupted Supply Chains and High Inflation of 2020-2023: An Example of Resilience from Bangkok’s Informal Economy

This study considers the motivations of food truck owners and prospective owners in Bangkok during a difficult period both locally and globally. Plans for Bangkok’s future development were opaque. Inflation was rising rapidly, particularly food and energy costs critical to the industry. COVID-19 continued throughout the research. The aim was to stress-test motivation and commitment within the industry. The study asked participants what motivates them through qualitative and quantitative techniques, the former subject to thematic content analysis. Further, there was discussion with stakeholders and observation. Stakeholders particularly included training providers in the industry. Vendors requested more help so they could sustain themselves and prosper in the industry. Food trucks were of interest because of the relatively casual labour that found a place during COVID-19, although the number of trucks had declined before the pandemic. The study found that food truckers are still highly motivated and eager to help shape Bangkok’s food truck industry going forward and, thereby, the urban landscape and economy of the city. Demotivating factors suggested by the participants themselves focused on murky city planning, which became a major element in the study. Clearly, a transparent path forward must be negotiated between relevant stakeholders in determining the future development of the city.

Advancing Health Equity through 15-min Cities and Chrono-urbanism.

Implementing the 15-min city and chrono-urbanism aims to improve sustainability and quality of life by ensuring residents' proximity to essential services. The 15-min city model is gaining global traction, with localized adaptations to suit communities' needs. Beyond environmental motivations, 15-min cities can benefit public health through enhanced walkability, social cohesion, and universal accessibility. However, research examining the intersection of health and equity among chrono-urbanism and the 15-min city remains limited. This study aims to develop a framework to integrate health and equity into chrono-urbanism and 15-min city plans. We describe the potential benefits and risks of the 15-min approach for urban planning, daily behaviors, and health outcomes. Potential benefits of 15-min cities for health equity include proximity to destinations, increased physical activity, strengthened social capital, reduced emissions, and traffic calming. Risks that must be mitigated include gentrification, variable proximity definitions, infrastructure upgrades, and inadequate cultural sensitivity. Recommendations to integrate 15-min cities into planning activities include conducting comprehensive baseline assessments, aligning goals with sustainability, economic development, flexible zoning, inclusive public spaces, and diverse community engagement tactics. We recommend interventions targeting marginalized communities and developing standardized measurement tools for comparison, monitoring, and evaluation. A nuanced, equitable approach to implementing 15-min cities can help urban plans support health equity across diverse populations.

Sustainability in Action: Green Infrastructure as a Marker of Sustainable Urban Development

The current form and pace of urbanization is an ongoing threat to sustainable urban development. As these problems span social, environmental, and economic realms, it is imperative that any proposed solution is able to address these problems holistically. Although a number of silver-bullet solutions such as electric vehicle adoption have been introduced, they do not respond to the problems with an integrated approach. Tackling this problem will require a solution that can be changed and applied on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, the development of green infrastructure is the most efficient solution when responding to the problems threatening urban sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to argue for the efficacy of green infrastructure methods by analyzing the evidence provided about factors like temperature and pollution levels in green cities as compared to other proposed solutions, and to explore critiques of green infrastructure and discuss their potential improvements. The research provided contains a mixture of case studies, participant surveys, and other scientific findings and has the potential to make green infrastructure a priority in the future planning of cities.

EquiCity game: a mathematical serious game for participatory design of spatial configurations

We propose a mathematical framework for developing social-choice games that are designed to mediate decision-making processes for city planning, urban area redevelopment, and architectural configuration of urban housing complexes. The proposed framework features a digital serious gaming approach for participatory design to support transparency and inclusion in the process of decision-making and ensure an equitable balance of sustainable development goals in spatial design outcomes. The mathematical process consists of a Markovian design machine for balancing the design decisions of actors, a massing configurator equipped with fuzzy logic and multi-criteria decision analysis, algebraic graph-theoretical accessibility evaluators, and automated solar-climatic evaluators using geospatial computational geometry. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework by implementing a multi-player online game that facilitates a participatory decision-making workshop for forming multi-functional building complexes by providing a generative configurator equipped with automated appraisal/scoring mechanisms for revealing the aggregate impact of alternatives. The EquiCity game empowers a group of decision-makers to reach a fair consensual spatial design by mathematically simulating many rounds of reasonable trade-offs between their decisions, with different levels of interest or control over various types of investments. The novelty of the framework is in its capability to encompass decision-making about the most idiosyncratic aspects of a site related to its heritage status and cultural significance to the most generic aspects such as balancing access to sunlight for the site while respecting ‘the right to sunlight’ of the neighbours of the site, ensuring coherence of the entire configuration with regards to a network of desired closeness ratings, the satisfaction of a programme of requirements, and intricately balancing individual development goals in conjunction with communal goals and environmental design codes.

Why American City Planning Needs a More Entrepreneurial Practice Modality

This commentary argues that current practice modalities are inadequate to meet the planning challenges of the day and that planners should seek out more entrepreneurial approaches. I offer three additional observations to support this argument: (1) the choice of local planning practice modality is too often determined by convention and familiarity; (2) local planners have become too reliant on regulation as their primary implementation tool; and (3) the recent performance record of counties in states with strong planning and regulatory regimes is underwhelming when compared with their counterparts in states with weaker planning regimes.

Comprehensive analysis of air pollution and the influence of meteorological factors: a case study of adiyaman province.

Adıyaman, a city recently affected by an earthquake, is facing significant air pollution challenges due to both anthropogenic activities and natural events. The sources of air pollution have been investigated using meteorological variables. Elevated southerly winds, especially prominent in spring and autumn, significantly contribute to dust transport, leading to a decline in local air quality as detected by the HYSPLIT model. Furthermore, using Suomi-NPP Thermal Anomaly satellite product, it is detected and analyzed for crop burning activities. Agricultural practices, including stubble burning, contribute to the exacerbation of PM10 pollution during the summer months, particularly when coupled with winds from all directions except the north. In fall and winter months, heating is identified as the primary cause of pollution. The city center located north of the station is the dominant source of pollution throughout all seasons. The study established the connection between air pollutants and meteorological variables. Furthermore, the Spearman correlation coefficients reveal associations between PM10 and SO2, indicating moderate positive correlations under pressure conditions (r = 0.35, 0.52). Conversely, a negative correlation is observed with windspeed (r = -0.35, -0.50), and temperature also exhibits a negative correlation (r = -0.39, -0.54). During atmospheric conditions with high pressure, PM10 and SO2 concentrations are respectively 41.2% and 117.2% higher. Furthermore, pollutant concentration levels are 29.2% and 53.3% higher on days with low winds. Last, practical strategies for mitigating air pollution have been thoroughly discussed and proposed. It is imperative that decision-makers engaged in city planning and renovation give careful consideration to the profound impact of air pollution on both public health and the environment, particularly in the aftermath of a recent major earthquake.

Population analysis using GIS software tools A case study of Chengdu

Population analysis using GIS software tools A case study of Chengdu

Identifying building function using multisource data: A case study of China's three major urban agglomerations

As crucial geographical components shaping urban landscapes, defining the functions of buildings plays one of the pivotal roles in planning urban development and facilitating socio-economic human activities. Existing studies in large-scale mapping mainly ignore the environment around buildings, leading to insufficient meeting the demands of large-scale building-level mapping in certain disciplines. To abridge this gap, this article calculates the geometric characteristics of building footprint, the distances from buildings to adjacent objects, and the kernel densities of Point-of-Interest (POIs) to identify building main functions in three Chinese urban agglomerations (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration, Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, and Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration). Leveraging XGBoost, our models attained accuracies of 0.936, 0.934, and 0.940 in the three urban agglomerations, accompanied by kappa coefficients of 0.883, 0.868, and 0.891 respectively, suggesting their capability of identifying building functions in large-scale mapping. Furthermore, the conducted experiments on varying feature combinations and transferability highlight the significance of the built environment in enhancing classification accuracy. Additionally, the analysis of the classification results of buildings in the three urban agglomerations shows harmonized development strategies for Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration and Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration, while cities within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration do not show the same development strategies. All results demonstrate the feasibility of employing multi-source accessible data to efficiently categorize building functions over large areas in a cost-effective manner. This methodology can be replicated in China and even on a larger scale to offer insights into complex urban spaces and to help urban planners provide policy support such as old city renovations and new city planning.

Unveiling Milan’s Navigli and Underground Water Heritage through Integrated Urban (Water) Design

Unveiling Milan’s Navigli and Underground Water Heritage through Integrated Urban (Water) Design

Compact city and urban planning: Correlation between density and local amenities

Many scholars and planners emphasise the role of compact cities in sustainable urban development. Compact urban form is seen as a way to encourage people, for example, to drive less and walk more, which reduces transport-related GHG emissions. This argument, however, is strongly dependent on local amenity development that can support such local living. In plan-making, a common practice is to try to ensure the realisation of services with a high Gross Floor Area (GFA) residential infill development to raise the local population density. In this paper we are seeking quantitative insight on the resolution under which urban density, as measured by GFA volume, correlates with the growth of urban amenities and liveability. Specifically, we are seeking the direction in which correlation changes when moving from a larger geographical scale (low resolution) towards a smaller scale (high resolution) of walkable reach. Our study shows a clear correlation between urban amenities and planned GFA at low-resolution scales, but that correlation decreases at higher-resolution scales (walkable neighbourhood level), indicating that urban amenities tend to cluster in different locations than density is planned. Based on these findings, we argue that, if the aim of urban planning is to foster the growth of local amenities, it should shift its focus towards larger patterns of urban development rather than emphasising GFA in detailed plan-making.

Surface urban heat island analysis based on local climate zones using ECOSTRESS and Landsat data: A case study of Valencia city (Spain)

Extreme heat events in cities are becoming more intense, frequent and prolonged. The spatiotemporal dynamics of surface temperature are closely related to land cover and atmospheric conditions, especially for urban areas with extensive surface heterogeneity. Two high spatial resolution satellites, ECOSTRESS and Landsat, provide land surface temperature (LST) for a typical Mediterranean climate city, Valencia, Spain. In total of 17 images throughout two heatwaves in the period of July and August from 2022 to 2023 were selected to monitor LST and surface urban heat island (SUHI). The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) scheme and hotspot analysis were applied to analyze the patterns of LST and SUHI during and after the heatwaves. Daytime images show LCZ 2/3/6/8 and LCZ C/E/F exhibit elevated SUHI intensity, meanwhile the LCZ 4, A/B and G have lower SUHI. The SUHI intensity of compact buildings (LCZ 1/2/3), LCZ 8/E/G are significantly higher at night, especially on heatwave days, the SUHI of all types increased by 0.1–0.9 °C. Furthermore, the meteorological parameters were introduced trying to explain the obvious diurnal difference of SUHI during heatwaves. This research serves as a proxy for understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of SUHI during heatwave events, offering valuable insights for city planners and policymakers to enhance thermal comfortable level and effectively cope with extreme weather.

Place and Person at Pre-Hispanic Teotihuacan, Mexico

There are significant societal differences evident in the material remains of the Classic period (ca. AD 250-600) city of Teotihuacan in central Mexico compared to contemporary Maya kingdoms in southern Mexico and Guatemala, despite both being part of the larger Mesoamerican civilization, sharing many cultural features. One proposed explanation for these differences derives from an analytical social science dichotomy that contrasts groups and individuals. According to this approach, Maya art and architecture indicate a society centered on individuals, particularly the rivalrous semi-divine rulers. Teotihuacan’s depersonalized art, lack of royal tombs, and gridded city plan are believed to indicate a corporate ethos in which individuals were subsumed by the societal collective. However, archaeological evidence for these interpretations is not compelling; moreover, the dichotomy itself is misleading. The key to these differences may lie in conceptions of embodied versus emplaced personae. The identity of Teotihuacanos was shaped by living within the city itself, and their concepts of personhood were entwined with their built environment in ways different from their Maya counterparts.