Context Of Cities Research Articles

São Luiz do Paraitinga: o rio e os cenários pós-enchentes

The city of São Luiz do Paraitinga has had a unique trajectory in relation to the context of cities in the Paraíba Valley region, in São Paulo, Brazil. Since the foundation of its settlement and the planning of its layout in the 18th century by Morgado de Mateus, the town has remained on the fringes of regional development, playing a less important role in the coffeeproduction circuit, which has allowed certain local traditions to remain, such as the caipira culture, the rural way of life and the religious festivities that are still local attractions today. In 2010, an unprecedented floodswept through its historic center. Buildings made of wattle and daub were unable to withstand the water and collapsed, with partial and total damage remaining. The reconstruction of the city, as well as the landmarks listed at state and federal level, represent a unique case among similar Brazilian cases, which justified a more in-depth study. The 1982 Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico, Arqueológico, Artístico e Turístico do Estado and 2010 Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional registrations reiterated the importance of the city center, its architectural ensemble and its landscape, as it was one of the first planned foundations. However, the social, cultural and economic contrasts between the Historic Center and other neighborhoods in the city raise the question of the effectiveness of landmarks and their management as a Historic and Landscape Heritage. In 2022, the cycle restarted and a flood again caused damage to at least 120 buildings. Faced with this fact, the question arises of how to preserve a landscape that is permanently at risk.

Achieving an equitable circular food economy in Vancouver

ABSTRACT Food loss and waste occur at an alarming rate while many households in the City of Vancouver are food insecure. Set within the context of City of Vancouver’s Zero Waste 2040 long-term strategic plan, the City seeks to promote a circular economy, including through food waste reduction and prevention, better food redistribution, and partaking in awareness campaigns. Food rescue and redistribution is often framed as a win–win solution to avoid throwing unwanted, unmarketable, or surplus foods from the landfill and instead redistributing the food to those who are food insecure. This solution has been framed as a useful tool to promote a circular economy. However, both food waste and food studies scholars have rightly noted that connecting unwanted foods with those who are food insecure to address systemic hunger is not a panacea, nor is it a systemic solution to prevent food waste. Drawing on key informant interviews with agri-food experts across the system (n = 20), this study identified the challenges, opportunities, and the overall vision of the circular food economy and how it is mobilised in the City of Vancouver. It seeks to understand how equity factors into the vision of a circular food economy and its implementation by agri-food and relevant actors. The findings in this study highlight the importance of dynamic governance systems that targets critical points for change including regulation, funding, and capacity building to ensure a circular food economy that considers equity and justice.

Towards urban LCA: examining densification alternatives for a residential neighbourhood

This paper explores the environmental impacts of retaining or replacing buildings by extending the consequential replacement framework (CRF) for life-cycle assessment (LCA) from individual buildings towards the urban scale. It addresses a gap in previous studies by examining the broader consequences of building-level retention or replacement decisions in the built environment, namely greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from associated infrastructure construction. The case study, which is located in Finland, investigates alternative ways to densify a growing city, some of which can be achieved within the urban structure, while others require greenfield construction elsewhere in the city. The results reveal that refurbishing and extending already existing buildings is worthwhile in terms of GHG emissions, even if some of the additional floor area targeted in densification were to be built on a greenfield site. After 50 years, the accumulated GHG emissions of scenarios that develop existing buildings are 0.2–12% less than those from replacement scenarios, depending on whether the targeted densification is minor or major and the amount of infrastructure construction involved. This is primarily due to the 11–35% smaller upfront embodied GHG emissions of refurbishment compared with new construction—which 50 years do not offset. Policy relevance This paper reinforces the notion from previous research that developing the existing building stock holds major emission-savings potential, even more so than replacement with energy-efficient new build. It highlights the potential contribution of existing building stocks in low-emission city development, even in growing city contexts. The case study results challenge the common belief in urban planning that if replacement involves densification, it must be a more low-emission alternative than retention, and conversely, if retention leads to greenfield construction, it must be higher in emissions than replacement. Low-emission urban planning should base its conclusions on urban LCA. This paper introduces an infrastructure-extended CRF that accounts for building retention and replacement scenarios, ensuring methodological robustness. The approach is essential for policymakers to base their decisions on evidence and prioritise low-emission development alternatives. Which policymakers hold power over such decisions and which instruments are suitable to pursue these goals depend on the context.

Connecting modernist university campuses and their cities. From current mobility patterns to sustainable mobility scenarios for the university of Buenos Aires campus, Argentina

ABSTRACT Many university campuses inspired by modernist architectural ideals were built in locations peripheral to their city contexts, leading to current unsustainable car-dependent mobility patterns. This paper explores this problem through a study of the main campus of the University of Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria (CU), in Argentina. The aim is to estimate the environmental benefits associated with shifting to a more sustainable modal split. To do this an online survey was conducted to generate baseline information on current travel patterns and associated CO2 emissions. Then, research-by-design methods were applied to create two scenarios of incremental levels of transportation sustainability. Finally, the CO2 emissions associated with each scenario’s mobility pattern were evaluated. Compared to the baseline, it was estimated that the first scenario would result in 7.1% of CO2 emissions reductions, while the second scenario would yield a reduction of 27.7%.

Conservation and regeneration of architectural and urban heritage: The case of the Xinmalu historical site, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China

The current discourse about contemporary cities emphasizes the notion of heritage conservation and preservation as a catalyst for expressing local identity and accomplishing community development. This article uses the case of Ningbo City (Zhejiang, China) to interrogate different approaches to preserve and rehabilitate architectural and urban heritage. Over the past two decades, the identification, documentation, and preservation of deteriorating dwellings and the urban context of traditional cities have undergone an unprecedented cycle of transformation. The article explores the economic, social, and cultural practices that inform strategies for heritage conservation, with a particular focus on Ningbo’s experiences. The selected projects from the city’s context range from independent house restoration and rehabilitation to traditional markets and the preservation of its urban heritage core. In addition, the article provides insights into the complexities of the ongoing discourse surrounding the interpretation, evaluation, protection, and augmentation of heritage territories. It confronts questions such as how to encourage inclusivity and diversity in cities’ heritage zones and urban spaces, and how specific chapters of the past are chosen and reintroduced for suggested contemporary functions. The article also examines the cooperation between international organizations and local planning entities in shaping a vision for Ningbo’s heritage conservation and rehabilitation. The study concludes by summarizing the successes of projects in the Xinmalu Heritage District in Ningbo, which foster growth and community development without compromising the value of its heritage.

Exploring the factors hindering the intention to adopt sustainable transportation options in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: using structural equation modeling

With poor transportation infrastructure and increased reliance on motorization, fast-growing cities in the Global South that are experiencing rapid urbanization have received less attention in terms of sustainable transportation research. In this regard, it is imperative to support active mobility and public transit that help to reduce vehicle emissions, traffic congestion, road fatalities, and energy depletion while supporting public health, robust economies, and social equity. However, in the emerging cities context, the adoption of sustainable transportation options are constrained by various factors. This study aims to explore the key factors hindering the adoption of sustainable transportation options in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. To do so, travel survey data were gathered from 720 households using stratified sampling and analyzed using factor analysis. The results from factor analysis indicated five groups of factors hindering residents’ intention to adopt sustainable transportation options, including (1) infrastructure condition, (2) modal characteristics, (3) land use pattern, (4) policy framework, and (5) technology-related factors. The confirmatory factor analysis also depicts the five latent factors and the contributions of observed variables that are statistically significant (p < 0.01). More specifically, observed variables such as (i) inadequate pedestrian facilities, (ii) lack of bike facilities, (iii) poor public transit facilities, (iv) limited availability of reliable public transport, (v) long wait times, (vi) high public transport fare, (vii) discomfort, (viii) safety and security issues are the most significant factors. Another set of factors includes (ix) walking distance, (x) dispersed land use pattern, (xi) poor land use mix, (xii) inadequate policy support, and (xiii) lack of real-time information. Furthermore, the intention to adopt sustainable modes of transportation is influenced by socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, educational status, income, family size, and car ownership. The result contributes to the existing literature by providing insight into adopting sustainable transportation modes in emerging cities like Addis Ababa, which are characterized by several urban transportation challenges.

A Mobility Justice Framework to prioritize areas for mobility interventions

Understanding, visualizing, and quantifying how resources are allocated and the fairness of distributions and access is significant for supporting decision-makers in incentivizing development and ensuring that future changes are widely beneficial and fair. By pointing out the need for mobility justice research to shift from state-centric to more society-centric frameworks and metrics, this study proposed a Mobility Justice Framework that integrated two important theories of justice: distribution and recognition justice. The proposed framework highlights the distribution of amenities and burdens in providing transport infrastructure. It also aims to identify those disadvantaged socio-economic groups more exposed to mobility inequalities. To make the framework applicable within the city context and guide decision-making, several metrics (variables) were identified to make principles of distributive and recognition justice operationalizable. Variables such as 1) accessibility by walking, 2) exposure to traffic negative effects, 3) frequency of use of transport modes, and 4) availability of transport infrastructure were used to identify neighborhoods and the different types of mobility resources/burdens that disadvantaged socio-economic groups are exposed to. To showcase its usability, the framework and methodology have been applied to the city of Munich to highlight neighborhoods with a higher proportion of older people and the transport disadvantages associated with these target groups. A higher negative correlation between older people and mobility resources/burdens can be observed for the following variables: accessibility by walking to activities, availability of walking and cycling infrastructure, and availability of car-sharing services. When measured against exposure to negative transport effects, a higher positive correlation was observed. The paper ends with a discussion section on the relevance and usability of the proposed framework for transport planning and policy and its limitations.

Examining the nexus of building regulations, urban planning, and housing prices and affordability: insights from Prishtina, Kosovo

PurposeThe present study aims to investigate the relationship between building regulations, urban planning, and perceptions of housing affordability and prices in Prishtina, Kosovo.Design/methodology/approachA self-report survey with 1,000 respondents, selected through stratified probability sampling, provided the necessary data. Principal component analysis was applied to the questionnaire's internal structure, while regression analysis helped uncover housing affordability and housing prices perception predictors.FindingsThe study found that building regulation standards and zoning/land-use regulations reveal positive relationships with housing prices and housing affordability perception. Among these components, building regulations and standards show a stronger connection with housing affordability and price perception in comparison to urban planning and development.Research limitations/implicationsBy investigating the relationship between building regulations, urban planning, and housing affordability and price perception in Prishtina, the present research makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature. The findings of this research hold significant implications for policymakers, urban planners, and developers, highlighting the relevance of adopting a well-balanced approach to building regulations and urban planning in order to uphold and maintain housing affordability and understand housing price dynamics.Originality/valueThe novelty of this research originates from the investigation of these relationships within a rapidly urbanizing city context, contributing to a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics between regulatory policies and outcomes in the housing market. Further research should examine additional dimensions and employ longitudinal designs to gain a deeper understanding of the components predicting housing affordability and price perception in Prishtina and similar urban contexts.

Promoting active aging in Brazil: A longitudinal study of land use mix and utilitarian walking in older adults

Despite walking being common among older adults, international evidence suggests its prevalence is lower compared to other age groups. Land use mix (LUM) is believed to encourage walking, but in the context of Brazilian and other Latin American cities, empirical evidence for this association for older age groups is lacking. Moreover, existing studies for this cohort usually employ a cross-sectional design, weakening the robustness of conclusions. This study addresses these gaps by investigating the impact of LUM on utilitarian walking in Brazil using a longitudinal approach with 566 older adults. Logistic regression analyses reveal significant positive associations between walking and two LUM measures (entropy and objective NEWS diversity), indicating that land use diversity plays a crucial role beyond local accessibility and non-residential availability, even within the context of Brazilian cities. Therefore, the attractiveness of walking for transportation among older adults can be amplified through a combination of diverse amenities, closer proximity to residential areas, and an equitable distribution of land uses coupled with more locally integrated street layouts that allow easy access to nearby surroundings. Practical steps include participatory local street design and development planning to enable grid intensification, avoidance of monofunctional zones and planning incentives for multifunctional developments.

Barriers to care: Caregivers' accounts of raising a child with a communication disorder.

There exists a dearth of research on the psychological experiences of childhood communication disorders. Caregivers of these children are one source who can provide us with this information since the child exists within a system. Literature on the experiences of caregivers of children with communication disorders, specifically in the South African city context, is lacking. The article presents the reported experiences of six parental caregivers raising a child with a communication disorder within Johannesburg. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and underwent an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five themes are presented: feeling out of control; barriers to accessing services; caregivers left speechless; a misunderstood disability; and relinquishing control:'I needed to be a mommy'. The caregivers relayed an initially negative experience in raising a child with a communication disorder, marred with worry and fear for the future. In accessing services, they narrated their experiences of multiple barriers to access, including an overreliance on the private sector, financial barriers, time constraints, limited resources and poor information on available resources. Eventually, the caregivers were able to identify strengths, skills and capabilities within their children and themselves that allowed for adjustment and coping.Contribution:The findings highlight the importance of considering how barriers to care may marginalise and seclude parental caregivers. Over time, the caregivers were able to empower themselves through building their own knowledge and reformulating their narratives by challenging assumptions and retitling the source of disability as a product of the failure of society.

Analyzing the Requirements for Smart Pedestrian Applications: Findings from Nicosia, Cyprus

This paper elicits and analyzes the main requirements for Smart Pedestrian applications designed to enhance the pedestrian experience in urban environments by offering optimized walking routes, improved accessibility, and support for social inclusion and connectivity. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the research combines qualitative insights with quantitative data analysis based on surveys conducted in two strategically selected urban areas of Nicosia, Cyprus. Through the survey, the requirements and potential use of Smart Pedestrian apps are investigated while accounting for the quality of service of the urban infrastructure in a medium-sized city context. Additionally, the study contrasts the current smartphone applications, as they predominantly facilitate vehicular transportation, with the potential use of ICT/ITS to support pedestrians for sustainable mobility. The findings reveal a significant demand for a Pedestrian Smartphone app, driven by its ability to provide relevant information on optimum pedestrian routes, as well as act as a citizen’s voice for spotting infrastructure problems and improving the pedestrian network. Further, it is also revealed that limitations in the pedestrian infrastructure substantially restrict walking preferences, emphasizing the need for urgent city-level urban planning solutions to support active mobility. Additionally, the research carried out underscores the importance of a sustainable business model to support the successful deployment of Smart Pedestrian apps. Ultimately, the results of the study suggest prioritizing a smart technology leverage with a crowdsourcing social network business model to promote pedestrian mobility, thereby reducing vehicular dependence, enhancing public health, and improving the quality of life. Such an approach would act as catalyst for policymakers to concentrate on sustainability by investing in digital technology for integrated pedestrian networks, fostering the emergence of genuine smart cities.

Questioning pandemic recovery: A regional second city perspective

The Covid-19 pandemic unsettled many assumptions about cities and urban life. Even discounting media fears about urban ‘collapse’, the pandemic and its aftermath have led to real uncertainties about the trajectory of urban development. While the struggles of ‘superstar’ cities in the Global North have attracted significant attention, here we shift focus onto the experiences of regional second cities in an attempt to capture a different perspective. In doing so, we avoid both the sensationalism of ‘doom loop’ projections that herald the end of major cities and the uncritical embrace of new ‘opportunities’ for peripheral cities in the wake of pandemic turmoil. Instead, we offer a more critical view that acknowledges some new possibilities while highlighting both their constrained parameters and the related threat of regional gentrification. As cities around the country begin to recover from the turmoil of pandemic disruption, we accordingly question the applicability and consequences of some of the more prominent recovery strategies beyond the context of major cities and suggest careful consideration of alternative development paths for regional second cities. To illustrate the regional second city experience, we explore recent outcomes in Tacoma, Washington, where the city’s post-pandemic development strategy embraces a reliance on luxury residential growth and associated consumer amenities, defined in relation to the dominant neighbouring city of Seattle. Cautioning over working-class displacement, regional gentrification and other vulnerabilities associated with this version of recovery, we conclude by looking at emerging housing activism in Tacoma for insights into how the present moment might generate new political organising for more equitable urban development.

Refugee Housing Accessibility with a Strategic Digital City Project

Adequate housing is pivotal for the refugee’s well-being, demanding strategic urban management to facilitate their integration. The research objective is to analyze housing access for adult refugees within the context of a strategic digital city, focusing on adult refugees and city strategies as a subproject of the strategic digital city project. The research methodology adopted is a case study in Curitiba, the research employs both qualitative and quantitative techniques, guided by a research protocol. Results suggest that addressing housing access challenges entails more than mere provision; it involves safeguarding rights, stability, integration, and participation in public policies and municipal strategies within the strategic digital city framework and the right to the city. These findings underscore the necessity for support services and robust collaboration among diverse stakeholders and public policies to tackle the multifaceted refugee issue, thereby fostering their integration and well-being in the host society. The conclusion emphasizes prioritizing concepts such as privacy and dignity in housing, highlighting the urgent need for effective policies catering to refugees' diverse needs.

The right to the city versus the right to tourism in teleological perspective: an ethical conflict between goods

ABSTRACT This article proposes a teleological ethical approach for the analysis of the conflict between the right to the city and the right to tourism. Unlike the understanding of this conflict through a deontological lens, which is based on universal and unconditioned moral duties, a teleological perspective allows us to observe much more underlying and intricate problems that can arise in any cultural and socio-historical context of each tourist city. By taking the teleological model of the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre as a starting point, the article suggests the basis of a framework for an ethical understanding of the complexity of teleological conflicts that can appear in the pursuit of situated internal goods —sought cooperatively— and external goods —sought competitively— within and between social practices related to both rights.

Children’s everyday lifeworlds out of school, in Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore: Family, enrichment activities, and local communities

Children’s everyday lives beyond school need to be considered holistically, in a way which moves beyond time use. In this article we draw on our adaptation of Sarah Pink’s (e.g. 2012) video re-enactment methodology for considering children’s out-of-school lifeworlds with Year 4 children (9 and 10 years old) in the global cities of Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore. The data presented and discussed here was part of a larger Global Childhoods Project with children in the three global cities of Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Singapore. We use video re-enactment methodology to ‘think with’, to open up lines of inquiry and create conversations about children’s lives in and between the cities. Through these we consider the specifics of each city context, as well as socioeconomic and sociocultural contexts and factors that may impact differently on children’s everyday lifeworlds out-of-school within the same city. In order to focus the scope of the article, we consider family routines, enrichment activities and local communities, as aspects that we find useful to reflect on when exploring what children’s lives look like, in and across locations. We focus on these as we are interested in how they might add to the complexities of thinking about children in each location. We move between thinking about the re-enactments themselves and broader literature to explore children’s out-of-school lifeworlds in the three cities, painting a picture of children’s lives and considering the contexts which make particular activities and practices possible and desirable.

Refining urban morphology: An explainable machine learning method for estimating footprint-level building height

Fine-grained 3D buildings with diverse morphology are a cornerstone of urban physical structures and have profound implications for sustainable city development. However, accurately estimating building height at the footprint-level is a challenge. This study bridged this gap by using random forest models to integrate the elevation, geometry and shape attributes of individual buildings, further refining those with spatial aggregation. It considered over one million buildings across 10 large Chinese cities and trained two-types models that demonstrated commendable performance in city-specific (the mean absolute error (MAE) ranged from 3.43 m to 5.06 m) and combined (MAE = 4.68 m) models. Results revealed that the current dataset had a finer urban morphology compared with existing datasets and showed outstanding generalisability in method transfer and feature ablation tests. By incorporating Shapley values, we explored the features' global and local impacts. The explainable results demonstrated that building area was the most impactful feature, and the elevation-dimension features were particularly beneficial in estimating high-rise buildings. Using the fine-grained 3D buildings, we explored the connections between explicit morphology differences and implicit contexts in cities. Overall, our work is an endeavour to estimate footprint-level building height as fuel for refining urban morphology and enabling sustainable city studies.

Economic Aspects of Public Administration and Local Government in the Context of Ensuring National Security

"The study attempts to comprehend today’s trends in changing the focus of national security toward a deeper consideration of the role of local government in security processes, including economic aspects as core drivers. Geopolitics and geoeconomics implications are analyzed within the context of cities, and the challenge of the necessity and, at the same time threat of decentralization is emphasized. It is proposed to view today’s national security as a multilayer system in which economic aspects represent an important landscape."

Smart City Charging Station allocation for electric vehicles using analytic hierarchy process and multiobjective goal-programming

In view of recent developments in urban transport systems, there has been a significant increase in the presence of electric vehicles on the market. One of the major challenges faced is the effective allocation of these electric vehicles to appropriate charging stations. The aim of this study is to tackle this challenge by leveraging various input parameter models within a smart city context. The primary objective is to assign electric vehicles to the most suitable charging stations, taking into account four objectives: maximizing energy requested by electric vehicles, minimizing total response time, reducing charging costs, and minimizing battery degradation. Several factors, such as travel distance, state of charge, grid-to-vehicle energy trading, time, road traffic, driver priorities, and charging station capacity, are taken into account to address this problem. In addition, we propose a novel methodology that combines the analytic hierarchy process with a multi-objective goal programming model to aid decision-making regarding the allocation of electric vehicles–charging stations. The aim of this methodology is to assist electric vehicle owners in selecting effective charging stations within a complex decision-making environment. In addition, practical examples of how these methodologies can be used to solve a real-life problem have been highlighted. We validated the effectiveness of the proposed method in terms of enhancing the satisfaction factor of electric vehicles by updating their energy levels and reducing range anxiety through simulation results using SUMO and GAMS with the BARON solver. These results confirm the efficacy of the proposed method.

An Ontological Model to Enhance Traffic Conditions in Smart City Domain

The rising trend of the increasing interconnection of city services refers to the growing integration and interconnectedness of various urban systems and services through the utilization of technology and data. One of the primary objectives of smart city initiatives is to establish more efficient and sustainable urban environments by optimizing resource utilization and infrastructure. In this paper, we introduce a traffic ontology named "TrafCsOnto," which encompasses a comprehensive range of traffic concepts. The primary aim of this ontology is to address traffic congestion issues within the smart city context. The formalization of this ontology has been carried out using the OWL language and the protégé tool. We endeavor to illustrate the practical application of the traffic ontology through the manipulation of real-world instances and inferences.

Towards sustainable smart cities: Integration of home energy management system for efficient energy utilization

Smart Homes (SHs) play a crucial role in the broader context of smart cities, contributing to the overall efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life for residents. This work presents a computationally efficient mathematical model for Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) to activate the Demand Side Management (DSM) while minimizing the energy consumption costs of SHs. The proposed model is represented as a standard Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization problem. The proposed HEMS provides the optimal scheduling of home appliances and plugging time for charging Electric Vehicles (EV) at home. The main objective of this optimization problem is to minimize the electricity bills while improving the load profile of the distribution system in the context of smart cities. In this study, load management for a typical household has been studied considering several electricity tariffs in Portugal. The simulation results confirm that in the presence of the proposed HEMS, the electricity bill will be effectively reduced while consumer behavior is changed. The cost savings that can be attained through only shifting loads is 5.7 %, while it can reach 67.65 % by installing a hybrid energy system at the studied smart home. The weekly cost reduction percentage due to charging the EV at home is around 16.24 % compared to charging the EV using public charging stations regardless of the traveling time and waiting at the public charging stations.