Fast-paced Urbanization Research Articles

An Integrated Depok Smart City Evaluation

Given the complicated pressures brought on by the fast pace of urbanization, innovative and long-lasting solutions to the issues arising from urban expansion are needed. To ensure a greater standard of life for their citizens and make sustainable growth one of their long-term goals, cities will need to make more inventive, persistent, and successful changes to their infrastructure. Nonetheless, smart cities require complex solutions to problems involving ICT, economics, government, social issues, the environment, and transportation. The sustainability of smart cities is now a topic that academics, environmental policymakers, and governmental organizations are more interested in. Depok's smart city must be evaluated to determine its capacity to fulfill the desired vision to help implement the Movement Towards 100 Smart Cities. This study offers an evaluation approach for the Depok smart city. Three indices were used to construct an integrated evaluation approach: the IMD Smart City Index 2023, The Cities of the Future Index, and the Global Power City Index. None of the indexes' results include all six of the Depok Smart City's necessary dimensions. Thus, the advice was to merge the three indices into an integrated evaluation approach for evaluating the six primary dimensions of the Depok Smart City. The results of this study also offer a sample measurement statement according to Depok Smart City. Furthermore, follow-up actions that the government or stakeholders can take to improve Depok's smart city performance include implementing the integrated matrix indicators and evaluating their validity and relevance in the real world.

Advancing flood resilience: the nexus between flood risk management, green infrastructure, and resilience

IntroductionClimate change and the fast pace of urbanization are two major factors contributing to the exacerbated risk of flooding in urban areas. Flood resilience strategies, underpinned by the principles of green infrastructure, are gaining importance as within broader spatial planning approaches, and various global cities are adopting revised policies and frameworks to improve flood risk management. Yet, such responsive approaches are still limited and context-specific.MethodsIn this article, thematic analysis using NVivo was employed to analyse 49 documents related to flood risk management, resilience, and green infrastructure planning.ResultsThis paper reflects on the concepts of flood risk management, flood resilience and green infrastructure planning to identify the synergies between these concepts, and identify challenges that are prohibiting global flood resilience.DiscussionEnhancing flood resilience requires coordinated efforts, effective communication, and collaborative governance among stakeholders. The paper also draws planning recommendations for advancing flood resilience through governance and an integrated planning approach, in support of the global goals toward flood resilience.

Faunistic overview of the freshwater zooplankton from the urban riverine habitats of Pune, India

Urbanization modifies the physical, chemical, and biological nature of all ecosystems including rivers. Such changes negatively impact all aquatic biodiversity including the freshwater zooplankton. Given the fast pace of urbanization in all the major cities across India, the aim is to provide a faunistic overview of Rotifera, Cladocera, and Ostracoda from two polluted rivers flowing through Pune, one of the rapidly growing cities in the state of Maharashtra, India. A one-year survey of three localities on the rivers Mula & Mutha and data from published literature on another locality revealed the presence of 73 species which includes 47 rotifers, 15 cladocerans, and 11 ostracods. A higher species number of rotifers was seen at lesser polluted localities while cladocerans and ostracods occurred even in the most urbanized sampling locality. Many of the species found were commonly observed species from the region. Epizoic associations of cladocerans and rotifers and red coloration in the former group were observed during a low dissolved oxygen phase in both rivers. Such observations underscore the potential bioindicator value of these small animals to the impacts of urbanization.

Data-Driven Projections Demonstrate Non-Farming Use of Cropland in Non-Major Grain-Producing Areas: A Case Study of Shaanxi Province, China

The non-farming use of cropland has led to food insecurity in China due to drastic land use (LU) changes under the stresses of ecological restoration and urbanization, particularly in non-major grain-producing areas. Questions were raised about spatiotemporal cropland losses/gains and their drivers in these areas in the future for sustainable development of the agriculture sector. However, the answers to these questions have not been well acknowledged. This study, therefore, presents analyses of cropland area change from 1990 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2051 in Shaanxi province based on the Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model that follows the integration of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 2 and the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (SSP245) within the International Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6). The results highlight that ecological restoration and fast-paced urbanization mainly drove the alarming non-farming use of cropland. The per capita cropland area is projected to increase, but the cropland loss will still occur, which potentially causes food insecurity. Thus, food security will be a challenging issue in the near future. The quantitative findings call for careful designs of LU policies, taking into account cropland protection, socio-economic development, and ecological restoration.

Waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber reinforced mortar in enhancing the bond behavior of masonry

Fast-paced urbanization and population growth have increased the daily use of plastic. Although plastic is used for different purposes, a sharp rise in the utilization of bottled water and other beverages in both developing and developed countries has been observed. In spite of the fact that plastic as containers has several benefits, improper plastic waste management has resulted in the disposal of a large amount of plastic waste in landfills and marines. This has negatively affected the ecosystem as plastics are non-biodegradable. Therefore, there is an urgent need to recycle and reuse plastic waste. The field of civil engineering has a vast scope of utilizing waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles as a raw material; nonetheless, not much has been studied regarding the utilization of plastic waste in masonry structures. Hence, the current research focused on the experimental investigation of PET fiber-reinforced mortar in enhancing the mechanical properties of masonry, as the bond between brick and mortar significantly affects the strength of masonry. Different proportions and two different sizes of PET fibers were reinforced in mortar to obtain the optimum quantity and size of fiber. In the first phase, the compressive and flexural strengths of reinforced mortar were determined and compared with unreinforced mortar. Further, compressive strength and bond strength (shear and tensile) of masonry specimens cast with reinforced mortar were evaluated. Additionally, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were conducted to study the change at the microstructure level. The outcomes of the experimental tests are encouraging. A significant improvement in the mechanical properties (up to 1.87 times for compressive strength, up to 3.2 times for tension bond strength and up to 6 times for shear bond strength) of PET fiber-reinforced masonry was observed.

Settling with forests in Thua Thien Hue (Vietnam)

In the ever fast-paced urbanization and globalization, the impact of climate change has manifested. There is an urgent need for new types of occupations that balance the built environment and nature (especially forests). For that reason, the concept of vernacular landscape has gotten attention in many disciplines but been regarded as a stand-alone tool or study subject. The paper aims to investigate the co-presence of vernacular and political landscapes (which termed by J. B. Jackson). The hypothesis of this study is that understanding interaction of the vernacular and political way of settling with forests throughout history can pull out problem statements for the future development. By analysis of archival documents combined with fieldwork and interpretive mapping in Thua Thien Hue Province through the key historical periods, the result reveals that the co-presence of the two landscapes has become increasingly profound over time. Simultaneously, there is a trend of decentralization in the territory. Problem statements drawn from the result set a basis for future studies of alternative environmental design and settling model linked with forests to adapt to climate change.

Modeling the Impact of Urbanization on Land-Use Change in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia: An Integrated Cellular Automata–Markov Chain Approach

The fast-paced urbanization of recent decades entails that many regions are facing seemingly uncontrolled land-use changes (LUCs) that go hand in hand with a range of environmental and socio-economic challenges. In this paper, we use an integrated cellular automata–Markov chain (CA–MC) model to analyze and predict the urban expansion of and its impact on LUC in the city of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. To this end, the research marshals high-resolution Landsat images of 1991, 2002, 2011, and 2018. An analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method is then used to identify the biophysical and socioeconomic factors underlying the expansion in the research area. It is shown that, during the period of study, built-up areas are rapidly expanding in the face of an overall decline of the farmland and vegetation cover. Drawing on a model calibration for 2018, the research predicts the possible geographies of LUC in the Bahir Dar area for 2025, 2034, and 2045. It is predicted that the conversions of other land-use types into built-up areas will persist in the southern, southwestern, and northeastern areas of the sprawling city, which can mainly be traced back to the uneven geographies of road accessibility, proximity to the city center, and slope variables. We reflect on how our findings can be used to facilitate sustainable urban development and land-use policies in the Bahir Dar area.

The Experience of Seoul City to Develop the Social and Solidarity Economy: From the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals to the Creation of International Sharing Network

This commentary discusses the role of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN. The fast pace of urbanization has caused many social and environmental problems on our planet. Instead of following the profit-maximization approach for development, SSE is regarded as one of the solutions to address the issues. This commentary introduces the characteristics of SSE and its tendency to address social and environmental issues effectively due to the people-centred and integrated approach. In the second part of the commentary, the City of Seoul is used as an example to showcase how social economy can be implemented, its achievement and contribution to the society, and the challenges for the expansion of SSE with competition within the market economy.

Unveiling Instances Of Participatory Planning In Urban Development

Fast pace of urbanization is often complimented with inefficient urban infrastructure, a mismatch between demand and supply of urban services and poor quality of life. These are few of the driving forces for planners to introduce grass-root level planning process as an approach to facilitate local urban governance. The purpose of the paper is to present a methodical review of literary instances on participatory planning and its successful implementation. The paper includes review of 98 articles and research works that embodies the development of the subject over time. The findings of the study are suggestive that local area planning as a subject has witnessed tremendous change since its inception in 18th century till date, in terms of topics covered and methodologies employed. The paper explicate that despite formal existence of participatory approach to planning since 18th century, the paradigm has not yet achieved its objectives in true sense. There are reported gaps in terms of stakeholder analysis, framework of comprehensive local area planning and its implementation, which offers opportunity to the researchers to explore the subject further.

Transforming Dubai: Oasis to Tourist’s Paradise

Owing to fast pace of urbanization and associated development, Dubai rose to global prominence in a matter of a few years. Dubai has transformed its geographical incapacities to phantasmagorical way of living; from building the superlative structures to its magnificent architectural fantasies, to the reconfiguring of a desert into an urban hub of business, logistics, tourism, and retail shopping paradise. In the race to achieve global competence, it has changed its ecological realities into pursuits driven by enigma of capital and desire of hyper-consumerism. The creation of the cityscape paralleled by vanishing natural and cultural spaces of the recent past, retrofitted with global desires like shopping complexes, beach resorts, luxurious hotels, ski clubs, art museums, operas, etc. The article is situated in the context of the urban spatial transformation of Dubai, driven by neoliberal politics and the changing human–nature relationships riding on the accelerating capital circulation.

Public health risk management case concerning the city of Isfahan according to a hypothetical release of HF from a chemical plant.

Accidents have happened in the chemical industries all over the world with serious consequences for the adjacent heavily populated areas. In this study, the impact of the probable hypothetical event, releasing considerable amounts of hydrogen fluoride (HF) as a strong irritant into the atmosphere over the city of Isfahan from a strategic chemical plant, was simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this model, the meteorological parameters were integrated into time and space, and dispersion of the pollutants was estimated based on a probable accidental release of HF. According to the hypothetical results of the simulation model in this study, HF clouds reached Isfahan in 20min and exposed 80% of the general public to HF concentration in the range of 0-34ppm. Then, they dissipated 240min after the time of the incident. Supposing the uniform population density within the proximity of the city of Isfahan with the population of 1.75 million, 5% of the population (87,500 people) could be exposed for a few minutes to a HF concentration as high as 34ppm. This concentration is higher than a very hazardous concentration described as the Immediate Danger to Life and Health (30ppm). This hypothetical risk evaluation of environmental exposure to HF with the potential of health risks was very instrumental for the general public of Isfahan in terms of risk management. Similar studies based on probable accidental scenarios along with the application of a simulation model for computation of dispersed pollutants are recommended for risk evaluation and management of cities in the developing countries with a fast pace of urbanization around the industrial sites.

Urban health: Needs urgent attention.

Urban population in our country has increased at an annual rate of 2.7% during the last decade and it is estimated that by 2031, there would be about 600 million people living in urban India. The fast pace of urbanization has come to stay with increasing proportion of urban poor and vulnerable with health indicators much worse than their rural counterparts. The need to provide health care to urban poor has been emphasized in the past in various health committees' reports and National 5-year Development Plans, but no significant dent was made to improve the urban health scenario of the country. The National Urban Health Mission launched in May 2013 provides us a concrete mechanism to address special health needs of urban population with focus on urban poor. There is a strong need to set up primary healthcare system in urban areas and systematically deal with urban health challenges in terms of vector-borne diseases, rising incidence of noncommunicable diseases, air pollution and acute respiratory infections, road traffic accidents, trauma, and injuries. The initiatives to address these challenges do not remain confined to health sector alone but also need to be supported by sectors other than health such as social welfare, women and child development, road transport and highways, school education, drinking water, and sanitation. We really need to address wider and social determinants of health to effectively improve the urban health scenario.

The effect of renewable energy and urbanization on CO2 emissions: A panel data

ABSTRACTEurope has experienced fast-paced urbanization development over the past three decades. This paper empirically investigates the long-run equilibrium relationships and causal relationships among urbanization, renewable energy consumption, and CO2 emissions, and this is important for EU countries’ future sustainable development. DOLS and FMOLS approaches are used for the period 1992–2014 .Granger causality results show that there is a unidirectional relationship from CO2 emissions to urbanization, and there is no causality between renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The results have important implications for EU policymakers on the path toward a sustainable society. Urbanization can have negative impacts on the natural environment with the net effect being hard in EU countries.

Conditions and opportunities for green infrastructure – Aiming for green, water-resilient cities in Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam

In this paper we examine the conditions and opportunities for establishing a functional green infrastructure under the pressure of urbanization in Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam. Inspired by transition theory, we look for regimes and niches which support retainment of green space and their adaptive capacity based on interviews and workshops with key urban stakeholders. A top-down master planning paradigm combined with a green institutional framework preoccupied with beautification seem to block possibilities of supporting and integrating GI experiments coming from outside the regime. The master plans are vague, outdated before finalised and inefficient for coping with the fast pace of urbanization. In Addis Ababa, despite an emergent recognition of the role of the green infrastructure in the city plan, informal encroachment and planned large scale land-conversions to housing takes place. In Dar es Salaam, that subscribes to, but lacks a functional master plan, the regime seems paralysed and is too fragmented and engrossed with the pressing urbanization problems to prioritize a green infrastructure. For establishing a functional green infrastructure coalition partners from housing, road and urban agriculture authorities but also large land owners, informal settlers, urban farmers and local organisations are needed. Solutions must be attractive also for the actual green space managers − the individual plot- and condominium owners and local groups. Local niche experiments linking up to on-going coping strategies could push forward coalitions as well as generating knowledge on how to retain green areas while addressing water shortages, livelihood and urban farming.

A Decomposition Analysis of Embodied Energy Consumption in China’s Construction Industry

With the fast-paced urbanization process, there will be a rapid development of China’s construction industry. However, it could also drive for considerable energy consumption, resulting in immense pressure on the environment. Based on non-competitive (import) input–output tables, we employed the SRIO (Single Region Input–Output) model to analyze energy use embodied in China’s construction industry from 1995 to 2009 and made projections for 2020. Our results show that about 4.84 billion tons of coal equivalent energy would be consumed by China’s construction industry in 2020. It implies that urbanization not only promotes the flow of embodied energy, but also provides development opportunities for a green and energy-saving construction industry.

Alternative Approaches to Food: Community Supported Agriculture in Urban China

One of the most remarkable features of China’s development path is its large-scale and fast-paced urbanization. As cities already accommodate more than half of China’s population, new challenges to urban food systems have emerged concurrently. Concerns over environmental degradation and food safety have provoked growing dissatisfaction with China’s food regime. Amidst these concerns, the aim of this paper is to study the role of new and alternative approaches to food, focusing in on the question of how community supported agriculture (CSA) can deal with the food-related issues emerging from China’s development. The paper adopts Granovetter’s notions of social embeddedness to describe CSA’s relational role in consumer-farmer dynamics, as well as the structural role within its broader relational context. Empirical data is drawn from surveys distributed among CSA farms, and interviews with key stakeholders in the Chinese CSA movement. The study finds that the model of CSA demonstrates an innovative approach to deal with food safety issues, address sustainability, and operate in an environment where future food demands are most critical. Although the movement’s structural embeddedness is bound by several limitations and contradictions, it is argued that the CSA model offers important insights and adds value into ameliorating China’s food systems.

Empirical research on coordination evaluation and sustainable development mechanism of regional logistics and new-type urbanization: a panel data analysis from 2000 to 2015 for Liaoning Province in China.

As the largest developing country in the world, China has witnessed fast-paced urbanization over the past three decades with rapid economic growth. In fact, urbanization has been not only shown to promote economic growth and improve the livelihood of people but also can increase demands of regional logistics. Therefore, a better understanding of the relationship between urbanization and regional logistics is important for China's future sustainable development. The development of urban residential area and heterogeneous, modern society as well regional logistics are running two abreast. The regional logistics can promote the development of new-type urbanization jointly by promoting industrial concentration and logistics demand, enhancing the residents' quality of life and improving the infrastructure and logistics technology. In this paper, the index system and evaluation model for evaluating the development of regional logistics and the new-type urbanization are constructed. Further, the econometric analysis is utilized such as correlation analysis, co-integration test, and error correction model to explore relationships of the new-type urbanization development and regional logistics development in Liaoning Province. The results showed that there was a long-term stable equilibrium relationship between the new-type urbanization and regional logistics. The findings have important implications for Chinese policymakers that on the path towards a sustainable urbanization and regional reverse, this must be taken into consideration. The paper concludes providing some strategies that might be helpful to the policymakers in formulating development policies for sustainable urbanization.

Species diversity and spatial pattern of old and precious trees in Macau

The world’s fast pace of urbanization has exerted profound pressure on urban trees. With over 400 years of urban history, Macau has developed an exceptionally high population density and ultra-compact mode, yet it permits survival of interesting and diverse heritage trees. These outstanding living remnants connote special values in history, ecology and botany. In conjunction with commemorative importance, they have been designated as Old and Precious Trees (OPT). This study evaluated the OPT with reference to: (a) species diversity and evenness; (b) spatial distribution; (c) tree dimensions, age and health; and (d) spatial differentiation of tree attributes by four districts and eight tree-habitats. Heritage trees in Macau were compared with those in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The 793 OPT belong to 63 species. The exotic Ficus rumphii is overwhelmingly dominant, followed by F. microcarpa, Cinnamomum camphora and Dimocarpus longan. Species composition, age distribution and health conditions are associated with tree-habitat. Roadside has the largest number of OPT but the least species richness. Public parks and gardens has the highest diversity and largest tree dimensions. The oldest trees are clustered in urban parks and religious places. Tree health is poorer at roadsides, and private residential and commercial properties. The patterns suggest close relationship between tree traits and physical fabric of the city. However, the variety rather than duration of geographical contacts is a key determinant of urban tree diversity. The findings offer insights for heritage-tree conservation and management strategies in compact cities with similar urban structure and history.

Matching Suitability of Solar-Biomass Hybrid Absorption Cooling System for Ecological Restaurants in Different Regions

With the fast-paced urbanization and the development of sightseeing agriculture in China, the issues of energy shortage and worsening environment gradually began looming large. Solar-biomass energy hybrid absorption cooling system was designed for saving the energy and protecting the environment which could be widely used in the areas of the remote rural living, ecological agriculture, etc. In this paper, the suitability of the hybrid energy system of 6 cities from China, India and America had been tested. The heating source suitability study was based on TRNSYS whose data was collected from an ecological restaurant. According to the distributions of the solar energy resources, the optimal solar fractions of different cities ranged 17%~32%. It could be concluded that different cities have their respective mode due to the energy distribution and weather parameters. It indicated that solar-biomass hybrid operating mode (Mode B,C) has been widely used in these cities. In addition, the prediction model was used to analyze the calorific values of biomass fuel and get the daily self-sufficiency rate in different cities. The results of the study provided a reference for the performance of solar-biomass hybrid absorption cooling system applied to different cities. The energy consumption utilization rate and a daily energy plan would be improved.

The impact of urbanization and Han Chinese migration on the endangerment of languages and cultures in China

Through a case study on the Zijun Samatao community of Kunming City in Yunnan Province of China, this paper discusses the impact of urbanization and mass Han Chinese migration on the endangerment of an ethnic minority language and culture. Samatao of Kunming is a subgroup of the minority Yi nationality of China. Historically, Kunming was the original homeland of many Yi communities including the Samatao. With the fast pace of urbanization and increasing Han Chinese migration, the Samatao community is losing their language and has lost their traditional culture and religion. Urbanization has brought mass migration into Zijun village, accelerating the endangerment of the Samatao language. Of nearly three thousand registered Samatao people, fewer than 100 (including semi-speakers) have any level of active knowledge of their language and culture. Since 1994, the endangerment of Samatao language has dramatically increased, especially since 2003. Based on data from fieldwork in the community over more than twenty years, this paper explores how the ideals of the Samatao community about preserving their language and culture are challenged by the contextual reality of urbanization and mass Han Chinese migration.