Urban Population Distribution Research Articles

Construction and optimization strategy of urban emergency logistics system

Emergency logistics has special logistics attributes, which will provide necessary emergency supplies for sudden public health events and natural disasters, reduce the degree of disaster losses, and pursue the maximization of time efficiency. Due to the characteristics of urban population distribution, the construction of efficient and orderly urban emergency logistics management mechanism is an important research field of emergency management system in the new era. Therefore, this paper first defines the concept and characteristics of emergency logistics, describes the constituent elements of emergency logistics, and deeply analyses the problems existing in the urban emergency logistics operation system, and finally conducts an in-depth exploration of the optimization strategy for the construction of urban emergency logistics system. It is hoped that it can provide certain reference for the relevant government departments, social enterprises and other parties involved in emergency logistics.

StadtWildTiere – added value and impact of transnational urban wildlife community science projects

We present and exemplify the potential of the long-term community science (= citizen science) project StadtWildTiere (German for ‘urban wildlife’) in a transnational context. StadtWildTiere gathers opportunistic sightings of urban wildlife to raise awareness of, increase knowledge of, and promote biodiversity in urban areas across Central Europe. Transnationally similar methodologies enable direct comparisons concerning occurrence, distribution, and trends of urban wildlife populations and allow for new insights into and potential conservation and management measures of these otherwise unmonitored wildlife populations. We advocate the use and promotion for such community-based science projects, which align with the guiding principles of awareness, knowledge, and action. Such projects should whenever possible connect with similar initiatives in other countries to benefit from comparisons and get a strong impact on a transnational level.

Multi-scale Driving Mechanism of Urbanization on PM2.5 Concentration in Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

Exploring the nonlinear effect of urbanization on PM2.5 concentration and its driving mechanism is crucial for controlling urban air pollution. Based on remote sensing data and statistical data from 2002 to 2020, spatial autocorrelation, systematic dynamic panel regression, and spatio-temporal geographical weighted regression models were used to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of PM2.5 concentration in the urban agglomeration of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and explore the driving mechanism of urbanization on PM2.5 concentration at different spatial scales. The results showed that:① PM2.5 concentration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River showed an overall decreasing trend from 2002 to 2020, with a spatial distribution pattern of "high in the north and low in the south." ② Hot spot cities expanded towards the western part of the urban agglomeration, whereas cold spot cities showed enhanced spatial correlation. ③ The relationship between PM2.5 concentration and economic, land, and population urbanization followed N-shaped, U-shaped, and U-shaped curves, respectively. Secondary industry and energy consumption significantly promoted the change in PM2.5 concentration, and precipitation and vegetation helped mitigate PM2.5 pollution. ④ The overall driving effects of all urbanization factors in local areas were transformed, and the main areas of influence were concentrated in the southeast, northwest, and southwest of the study area. Considering the current urban development status and regional characteristics of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, promoting green industrial transformation, rational planning of urban spatial distribution and population distribution, and enhancing infrastructure construction will facilitate the coordinated development between urbanization and environmental protection.

Rapid urban expansion and potential disaster risk on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in the 21st century

ContextCities are still expanding in many parts of the world in the 21st century, especially in developing regions, where socioeconomic transition has triggered urbanization. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, characterized by its high elevation, developing economy, and fragile environment, has undergone rapid urbanization in the past twenty years, potentially heightening the region’s risk of geological and hydrometeorological disasters.ObjectivesThis article examines the process of urbanization on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in order to better understand the relationship between urban expansion and population change and to explore whether geological and hydrometeorological disasters threaten urban expansion.MethodsWe created a high-resolution urban built-up boundary dataset from 2000 to 2020 based on remote sensing and GIS. By examining the spatio-temporal pattern of urban expansion and its population dynamics from 2000 to 2020 in 15 cities across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, we quantified the urban expansion characteristics and explored the rising geological and hydrometeorological disaster risks urban areas face.ResultsThe Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has experienced rapid and uneven urbanization in the past 20 years. The total expansion rate was over 252% – 1.48 and 2.81 times higher than that of China and the world, respectively. Urban expansion exceeded population growth in most cities throughout the whole period. The urban built-up areas and population of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau tended to concentrate in the Yellow River-Huangshui River Valley of Qinghai Province and the Yarlung Zangbo River and its two tributaries of Tibet. High-density urban built-up areas and population distribution were exposed to geological and hydrometeorological disasters. The urban boundary dataset produced in this study has better accuracy than the other five existing datasets, for the given area and time range.ConclusionsThis study will not only provide a scientific reference for urban development research and future urban planning on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau at the regional scale, but will also contribute to research on the urbanization process of the plateau and mountainous regions on a global scale, raising awareness of geological and hydrometeorological disaster risk prevention in these areas worldwide

The Grass Ceiling: Hidden Educational Barriers in Rural England

Rurality is rarely integrated into analyses of educational inequalities and this article presents an alternative perspective on rural–urban attainment and highlights the impact of rurality on educational outcomes. The traditional narrative of urban–rural educational disadvantage is that urban pupils do less well in the English exam system. Decontextualised data across different English exam performance measures demonstrate how rural pupils outperform their urban counterparts. Socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) has the most significant impact on attainment and this analysis explores the rural–urban attainment gap through this SED lens. An analysis of the Department for Education (DfE) data explores possible factors that might explain the emerging rural educational gap and presents an argument that rurality is another limiting factor that intersects with SED. This article demonstrates how rural underachievement in England has been hidden by the relative sizes and SED distribution of rural and urban populations.

Recycling facemasks into civil construction material to manage waste generated during COVID-19.

Growing plastic pollution in the context of COVID-19 has caused significant challenges, exacerbating this already out-of-control issue. The pandemic has considerably boosted the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), such as facemasks and gloves, all over the globe, and mismanaging this growing plastic pollution has harmed the environment and wildlife significantly. To mitigate negative environmental impacts, it is necessary to develop and implement effective waste management strategies. This present study estimated the daily facemask generation throughout the pandemic in Iran based on the distribution of urban and rural populations and, likewise, the daily generation of hand gloves in the COVID-19 era and the amount of medical waste generated by COVID-19 patients were calculated. In the next step, the quantities of discarded facemasks dumped into the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman from the coastal cities were determined. Finally, the innovative alternatives for repurposing discarded facemasks in civil construction materials such as concrete, pavement, and partition wall panel were discussed.

Spatial analysis applied to indicators of urban road network and population distribution for the identification of Functional Urban Regions in Angola

This research aimed to carry out an exploratory analysis on Functional Urban Regions (FURs) in Angola. Thus, two groups of data were used, road network and population, which were analyzed through Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). Road network data were extracted from the OpenStreetMap project and population data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE, 2020). Computational tools were used, namely: QGIS and GeoDa for the analyses. The results were presented by means of thematic maps, box maps and Moran index and p-value. There was greater spatial homogeneity for the Road Network Population Density (DPV) indicator, showing a good coincidence between the municipalities classified in the quadrant HH and the five most populous provinces in Angola.

Study on the Access Convenience of Public Library Layout from the Perspective of Spatial Statistics

As an important part of the development of social and cultural undertakings, public library (a public cultural facility that is open to the public free of charge, collects, collates and saves documents and information, provides inquiry, borrowing and related services, and carries out social education) undertakes the important mission of promoting social civilization and progress and improving the quality of citizens.In order to improve the efficiency of public libraries, access convenience is an important issue that must be paid attention to when constructing and layout them. This article uses the basic theories and research methods of spatial statistics, taking Beijing as an example, to analyze the urban population distribution trend, library surrounding facilities construction, and urban transportation development status that affect the accessibility of public libraries. Based on the problems existing in the accessibility of Beijing Public Library, suggestions are proposed to improve the accessibility of the library from three aspects: spatial fairness in layout, strengthening the construction of grassroots libraries, and coordinating the layout of surrounding areas.

Investigations to the Dynamics of City-Size Distribution Containing Birth and Death Factors

A kinetic model, which involves emigration, immigration, birth, death, and fluctuation terms, is utilized to investigate the evolution of city-size distribution. The Boltzmann-type equation and the corresponding Fokker–Planck equation are obtained to analyze the urban size distribution. Three different population variable functions, containing both birth and death rates, are considered. For each population variable function, the closed form of its stationary solution is derived. It is found that the size of urban population distribution follows a power law. Numerical simulation illustrates the correctness of the results.

The Function of Urban Green Space in Avoiding Disasters in Central Shanghai, China

Urban green space is an essential green infrastructure and spatial guarantee for sustainable development in Shanghai, China. Additionally, its spatial layout’s rationality directly influences the city’s disaster prevention and reduction effect. To use the buffer analysis method, this study selected the ArcGIS 9.0 software platform for making a quantitative analysis of disaster-proof green space service capacity in downtown Shanghai based on relevant construction standards and specifications. The results showed the following: (1) the distribution pattern of disaster-proof green space in downtown Shanghai is less homogeneously distributed in the central area but more homogeneously distributed in the edge area; (2) the service area of all disaster-proof green spaces in the central urban area of Shanghai accounted for 85.07% of the total area, with a service population of 12,516,600. Less than 15% of the area was still uncovered, meaning 2,196,700 people were unserved. These results suggest that the buffer radius of disaster-avoidance green space reaches 400 m. It covers the largest area and serves the largest population, accounting for more than 50% of the central urban area. The mismatch between urban green space distribution and population distribution patterns affected the service effect difference of green space for disaster avoidance. Therefore, new urban green spaces, stadiums, school playgrounds, and other open spaces could be added to enhance the (emergency) urban disaster avoidance ability of central urban areas; (3) the whole central urban area should form an urban mesh disaster avoidance system by combining points, lines, and surfaces with emergency and temporary shelters as first-level disaster avoidance points, fixed and central shelters as second-level disaster avoidance points, urban branch roads and secondary roads as disaster avoidance channels, and expressways and main urban roads as disaster-relief channels.

Evaluation of socio economic status in Malabar Coast in India: An in-depth analysis of socio-economic factors shaping society

The Malabar Coast in India comprises of two distinct regions, the North Malabar Coast and the South Malabar Coast. The North Malabar Coast is located in the state of Kerala and stretches from Kasargod in the north to Kannur in the south. The South Malabar Coast is located in the state of Kerala and Tamil Nadu and stretches from Kannur in the north to Kanyakumari in the south. The North Malabar Coast is known for its scenic beauty, greenery, and pristine beaches. It is also home to several wildlife sanctuaries and historic sites, such as the Bekal Fort and the Ananthapura Lake Temple. All over the study I mainly worked on the socio economic status of Malabar Coast and used some method after that I mainly found the Malabar Coast has the highest literacy per capita income, and highest sex ratio. For more accurately I considered urban population of different district to measure the status of urban population one district to another. After the analysis we find out the total entire area has more or less equal distribution of urban population that indicate less regional disparity and high development.

Adaptive weighted least squares (AWLS): A new vector-based model to improve urban population estimation at small-area scale using morphology and attractiveness criteria

Fine-resolution urban population mapping is vital for many applications, including urban planning and disaster management. However, these data are rarely available. Despite the well-established correlation between urban population distribution and the physical parameters of residential areas and urban mobility, there needs to be a comprehensive model that effectively utilizes these relationships. This article proposed a novel model for population estimation, adaptive weighted least squares (AWLS), based on the correlations between urban morphology (e.g., physical parameters and shape of residential areas) and attractiveness (e.g., points of interest) and weighing them in the least square regression. This hierarchical model first uses the AWLS method to account for local correlations. Then, it disaggregates the population into lower-level spatial units specifically city blocks and parcels. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated in three neighborhoods in Tehran, Iran, with differences and similarities in terms of morphology and attractiveness. This method significantly improved population estimation accuracy, outperforming common global and local estimation models (11% and 8% in Neighborhood A, 14% and 13% in Neighborhood B, and 5% and 5% in Neighborhood C). This model successfully disaggregated the census tract (CT) population into city block and parcel levels, providing valuable data for crisis management.

Commercial floating car data application in Sub-Saharan African transport planning contexts: A critical review and research agenda

Floating car data (FCD) are a source of traffic information reported by GPS-enabled probes from within the traffic stream. FCD define speed, travel time and movement patterns, all key inputs for transport planning. FCD are readily available over the entire road network without roadside sensors and communications infrastructure, making this a particularly relevant traffic data source in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where resource limitations restrict the expansive distribution of traffic sensors. This review article aims to investigate the applicable use-cases of FCD in LMICs, while simultaneously sensitising transport practitioners to the potential data biases that may be present in FCD. Particularly, this paper considers whether the context of Sub-Saharan African countries allows for the application of FCD similarly to high-income country FCD use-cases, critically examining insights from literature. Sub-Saharan African countries typically differ from high-income nations with respect to urban form, population distribution (and segregation), modal choice, driver population, and technology penetration. To date, there has been no literature that concatenates the current practice of FCD use-cases in Sub-Saharan Africa, nor defines the fundamental differences between transport and land use planning in high- and low-income countries with the view to determine if these dissimilarities impact FCD collection and use. Literature revealed novel research involving the application of FCD to investigate informal public transport systems that are specific to Sub-Saharan Africa, while also determining that accuracy and potential biases of FCD are not widely understood in Sub-Saharan Africa. Findings show that biases are likely to occur in FCD in Sub-Saharan Africa because of the representation and behaviours of the sample reporting FCD, as well as the urban form of Sub-Saharan African cities. The paper concludes by developing a research agenda that will assist to further the knowledge of FCD sample bias and the applicable use-cases of FCD in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The spatio-temporal dynamics of urban growth and population in metropolitan regions of Iran

The spatial configuration and the dynamics of urban physical growth are important topics of analysis in contemporary urban studies. This paper examined urban land expansion and population distribution evolution and their coupling in seven major Iranian metropolitan regions (pop>1M), and it contributes to understanding diverse urban physical growth patterns in the vast Global South. The analysis is based on an innovative approach of integrating two growth indices: a) ULE (urban land expansion) and b) PPE (population pattern evolution), applied to the demographic data and satellite imageries from 1990 to 2020. The findings show that population decentralization and land consumption have been significant over the previous three decades, although spatial growth patterns varied significantly across the chosen metropolitan regions. Furthermore, Iran's urban physical growth pattern goes from monocentric to polycentric, which is largely associated with the parent city's dominance. In fact, urban physical growth follows a concentrated-decentralization trend, with the latter spreading quicker than the former. Despite expectations, the infill growth has not essentially exposed to higher population density. This study's findings can help readers understand the urbanisation pattern and occurrence in Iran, and may assist policy-makers in understanding the physical impact of conflicting national executive policies, such as mass housing supply projects in urban edges versus inner-urban regeneration projects. In addition, it gives a major knowledge of the evolution of urban physical growth patterns, intra-city interactions, and growth drivers.

The Dynamic Heterogeneous Relationship between Urban Population Distribution and Built Environment in Xi’an, China: A Case Study

The interaction between the population and built environment is a constant topic in urban spaces and is the main driving force of urban evolution. Understanding urban population distribution and its relationship with the built environment could provide guidance for urban planning, traffic, and disaster management. Following this line of thought, this study conducted an empirical analysis in Xi’an, a rapidly developing western city in China. Well-permeated mobile phone location data were used to represent the spatiotemporal dynamics of the population, and the built environment was characterized from five perspectives—transportation, location, building, greenery, and land use—using multisource geospatial data. Finally, the dynamic heterogeneous influence of built environment factors on population distribution was examined using multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR). Overall, the influencing coefficients exhibited a significant dynamic changing process from a temporal perspective and simultaneously demonstrated spatial nonstationarity. Moreover, the specific findings about the influence of each built environment factor facilitate a deeper insight into dynamic population distribution and its determinants.

Emerging trend and pattern of urbanization and its contribution from migration in Gujarat: Evidence from district level analysis

Gujarat has been one of the leading states in India as far as the levels of urbanization are concerned. This is due to its pull factors attracting migrations from outside the state. However, the urban population is concentrated in a few districts dominated by large urban centers such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar. The levels of urbanization in Gujarat have been higher than the national average throughout independent India. It has also experienced rapid urban growth of population during the same period, but the recently emerging concentration and pattern of urbanization have been lopsided, meaning that a few districts contributes more than half of the total urban population of the state. Literature in the thematic areas of urbanization particularly in Gujarat are few and limited. The studies so far have discussed about the impact of globalization and urbanizations, trends and patters of urbanization, dynamics of urban development and migration in Gujarat. This study particularly focuses on establishing a link between migration and urbanization using district level data on urbanization. This study is unique in the sense that previous studies have failed to capture the interstate migration and levels of urbanization in the state of Gujarat in India. Recent census data show a substantial increase in the census towns in Gujarat in the vicinity of the developed corridor and within the influence areas of large metropolitan cities. This paper aims to analyze the trends and emerging patterns in the levels of urbanization at the district level. It attempts to understand the inequalities in the distribution of urban population using the GINI coefficient of different size-class towns during the 2001 and 2011 censuses. It also tries to map the distribution of the urban population at the district level to show the emerging pattern. Emerging trends and the existing network of the census towns of 2011 have also been mapped to provide the idea of regional distribution. The existing urbanization pattern in Gujarat matches with the industrial development. It reminds colonial experiences of induced industrialization, attracting colossal in-migration and higher urbanization. The migration pattern during the last two census periods shows that respective districts of the above-mentioned cities are attracting in-migration due to the early post-independence industrialization period. We have calculated the net contribution from migration to the levels of urbanization using D-2 Series migration data from the census of India for the years 2001 and 2011. It shows that Central Gujarat, Saurashtra and South Gujarat have gained more due to migrations from other states to sustain their industrial development, leading to rapid and higher levels of urbanization in these regions. However, the future of urbanization in the state will depend on carefully selecting industrial activities that are sustainable in the long run.

Critical Evaluation of Urban Population distribution of Maharashtra state in India

Abstract: Maharashtra is the second most populous state of India with 45.23% population urbanized(India, 2011). It is the third largest state in terms of area. Urban population is dispersed in 35 districts. The aim of this paper is to evaluate urban population distribution among towns and cities. It also checks whether the population is statistically normally distributed within the urban areas. The objective is to study the city/town size distribution for the state of Maharashtra, India based on 2011 Census.

Investigating the Coupling of Supply and Demand for Urban Blue and Green Spaces’ Cooling Effects in Shandong, China

It is of great significance to determine the level of demand for thermal environment regulation and the availability of blue–green spaces for thermal environment regulation to alleviate the effects of urban heat islands. Taking Shandong Province, China, as the study area, combined multi–source remote sensing data are used in this study to construct the index system of cold island supply capacity (CIS) and the cold island demand level (CID). We use the methods of spatial regression, quadrant division, and coupling coordination degree to analyze the correlation, matching status, and the level of coordinated development between the supply capacity and demand for the cooling effect. We also explore the change law and spatial characteristics of the blue–green spaces’ cooling effects supply and demand matching. Results show that: (1) The CIS and the CID are significantly negatively correlated and spatially heterogeneous in distribution, with a significant spatial spillover effect. (2) The dominant type of supply and demand is one of low supply and high demand, which means that the supply and demand for cool islands’ cooling effect are unbalanced, with significant problems of spatial mismatch and quantitative imbalance. (3) The coupling between supply capacity and demand level is on the verge of becoming dysfunctional because the uneven distribution of urban buildings, population, and blue–green spaces reduce the coupling between supply and demand levels. This research can provide a new perspective and scientific basis for the study of the cooling effects of blue and green spaces and the mitigation of the heat island effect in densely populated urban centers.

Causal effect of metro operation on regional resident mobility considering zone-based trip time reliability

The full use of underground space is recognized as a necessary means to improve the accessibility of residents and change the spatial distribution of urban population. The dividends generated by the metro operation will increase as the increases in the number of residents attracted to the zone. However, when the number of residents within the zone exceeds a certain threshold, travel accessibility may be reduced by exceeding the optimal service capacity of the metro, which leads to a decline in the per capita dividend. This paper uses the zone-based trip time reliability (TTR) to represent travel accessibility, and describes the interaction between the zone-based TTR and regional resident mobility. A generalized boosted method based Rubin causal model with longitudinal data was adopted to investigate the impacts of the improvement of zone-based TTR by metro operation on regional resident mobility. Then, an approximate BPR function was established to represent the feedback impact of regional resident mobility on zone-based TTR. Five typical areas considering population, average age, income level and land value are proposed to recognize the resident spatial re-segmentation rule. The results show that the metro operation has a significant impact on the regional resident mobility. And the improvement of zone-based TTR by metro operation is more attractive for resident relocation in Mixed and Stable areas than in Vibrant and Siphonic areas under the similar location distance. This paper intends to indicate the trade-off between zone-based trip time reliability (TTR) and regional resident mobility, and provide a reference for the development and utilization of urban underground space.

A census from heaven: Unraveling the potential of deep learning and Earth Observation for intra-urban population mapping in data scarce environments

Urban population distribution maps are vital elements for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals, appropriately allocating resources such as vaccination campaigns, and facilitating evidence-based decision making. Typically, population distribution maps are derived from census data from the region of interest. Nevertheless, in several low- and middle-income countries, census information may be unreliable, outdated or unsuitable for spatial analysis at the intra-urban level, which poses severe limitations in the development of urban population maps of adequate quality. To address these shortcomings, we deploy a novel framework utilizing multisource Earth Observation (EO) information such as Sentinel-2 and very-high-resolution Pleiades imagery, openly available building footprint datasets, and deep learning (DL) architectures, providing end-to-end solutions to the production of high quality intra-urban population distribution maps in data scarce contexts. Using several case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa, namely Dakar (Senegal), Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), our results emphasize that the combination of DL and EO data is very potent and can successfully capture relationships between the retrieved image features and population counts at fine spatial resolutions (100 meter). Moreover, for the first time, we used state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods to predict population distributions in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi (R 2 = 0.39, 0.60) that did not require national census or survey data from Kenya or Tanzania, but only a sample of training locations from Dakar. The DL architecture is based on a modified ResNet-18 model with dual-streams to analyze multi-modal data. Our findings have strong implications for the development of a new generation of urban population products that are an output of end-to-end solutions, can be updated frequently and rely completely on open data. • An EO-DL framework to model intra-urban population in the face of data scarcity. • Building footprints is a key variable to ensure transferability in areas with no local data. • A consistency-based domain adaptation enhances the transferability outcome. • Sentinel-2 imagery has good potential to retrieve fine-scale population patterns.