Image Of City Research Articles

Has the healthy city pilot policy improved urban health development performance in China? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

Healthy city (HC) construction, as an important path for many cities or regions at home and abroad to cope with economic, ecological and demographic problems, and to improve the image of cities, is gradually becoming an important grip for China to promote the construction of beautiful China, healthy China and ecological civilization. On the basis of systematically reviewing the connotation of healthy cities, this study constructed a HC assessment system, measured the HC construction performance of 284 cities in China using the combination model based on the analytic hierarchy process and entropy weight, and further applied the synthetic control method and interaction term model to quantitatively assess the implementation effects and impact mechanism of China's HC pilot policies. The results showed the following. (1) The average allocation level of HC construction performance in China from 2009 to 2019 showed an "N-shaped" fluctuating upward trend, rising from 0.3251 in 2009 to 0.3556 in 2019, an increase of 9.38%, but the average allocation level was between 0.3 and 0.4, which was still at a relatively low level. (2) The spatial distribution pattern of the HC construction performance showed the characteristics of "south > north" and "east > central", and mainly showed the spatial evolution pattern of gradually decreasing from the high value area with the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, cross-strait city cluster, Pearl River Delta city cluster, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster as the core. (3) The implementation of the HC pilot policy had a positive impact on the HC construction performance of most of the pilot cities, but there were differences in the policy effects. The driving effect on the HC construction performance of pilot cities such as Dalian, Wuxi and Yuxi was more significant, while the driving effect on the HC construction performance of pilot cities such as Baoji was not significant. (4) The HC pilot policy-related initiatives would have positive effects on HC construction performance through reducing pollution emissions and improving medical services, while the impact pathways of improving environmental quality and enhancing health culture atmosphere have not yet played a positive role. These findings could provide references for the implementation and improvement of the new round of HC policies.

Tensions between Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes in the Renewal and Regeneration Interventions in Naples

This paper provides some insights contributing to the governance processes toward the creation of a future urban agenda of the city of Naples. In line with this purpose, the paper focuses on the phenomenon of urban renewal and regeneration and how top-down or bottom-up processes interact through the shaping of empty spaces, here generically defined urban voids. The transformation processes that would affect urban and social processes inevitably have to face up with some tensions that consist of claims about a range of socio-spatial “rights to the city” (Lefebvre, 1996). It is, more generally, the right to experience the spaces of the city, to feel part of them, to feel themselves responsible for them, and above all to manage these spaces. However, the set of urban and social conflicts, which generally involves citizens, inhabitants, movements, governments, but also other institutions, generate specific clusters that fight on oppositional goal in the ultimate aim of revealed or undermined the legitimacy of local city governance. In this sense, urban and social conflicts can be both understood as a negotiation of authority, prevalence, and strength of the images of cities and the development trajectories that emerge from the vision assessed by the different groups that experience the city life. Since Naples is a large and complex metropolitan city—transgressive and full of conflictual dynamics—it is difficult to talk about its dynamics in manage the local governance of spaces and way of experience life in these spaces. Taking into account this reflection, with the intent to understand some complex phenomena that modify appearance and character of the city space, the aim of this paper is to give a sense, a shape and a dimension to specific urban and social processes that directly affect local city governance. These phenomena are renewal and regeneration experiences—both in urban and social sense—linked to the actions of a multiplicity of actors that implements top-down and bottom-up interventions on the city space interact through the shaping of empty spaces here generically defined urban voids. For return the considered complexity, this study uses a visual methodology to investigate the fragmented space of mining behind the analysed processes. The implemented technique go through the collection of data on renewal and regeneration processes by mapping these starting from a series of interviews to key informers involved in these processes and from them particular perception of events, dynamics and use, reuse and meaning attributed to the city space. Through this technique, it is growing a general spatial reasoning about the images of the city that the multiplicity of local actors have in mind. What arise from this way of reasoning are contrasting and very different points of view of city perceived as fragmented in many specific sections affected by dissimilar degree of urban void connotation. The collected result allows us to conceptualize a typological scheme of future development trajectories for the city. In addition, a step forward to the constituted typology is to go in depth on a specific part of the city, in order to understand more closely the local dynamics shaping local governance: the Old Town. After the presentation of this specific case, what it is reached are open questions rather than real conclusions that helping in shape the research lines on which forthcoming attention is needed in the desire to develop a more articulated discourse aimed at creating a Future Urban Agenda for Naples. Moreover, all these elements can become useful instruments through whom it can be possible to learn from the urban and social conflicts and dynamics, from the practice of governance and from the struggles of everyday urban and social life.

A Study on Subtitle Translation of City Publicity Video: City for Life

City publicity video spreads city images with strong visual impact, and high-quality subtitle translation builds a bridge for cultural exchange. So this paper takes the short video City For Life of Xiong'an as an example and bases on its stylistic features to discuss the strategies of sound and picture synchronization, discourse coherence strategies, and cultural value principles applied by translators in the process of subtitle translation. The translator should strive to achieve textual coherence and cultural transmission on the basis of the inherent characteristics of subtitles.

Crowdsourcing initiatives in city management: the perspective of Polish local governments

The past decade has seen a rise in the significance of the Internet facilitating the communication between local governments and local stakeholders. A growing role in this dialog has been played by crowdsourcing. The paper aims to identify areas, forms, and tools for the implementation of crowdsourcing in managing cities in Poland as well as the assessment of benefits provided by the use of crowdsourcing initiatives by representatives of municipal governments. The article utilized a quantitative study method of the survey realized on a sample of 176 city governments from Poland. Conducted studies have shown that crowdsourcing initiatives of cities concern such areas as culture, city image, spatial management, environmental protection, security, recreation and tourism as well as relations between entrepreneurs and city hall, transport and innovations. Forms of stakeholder engagement via crowdsourcing involve civic budgets, "voting/polls/surveys and interviews" as well as "debate/discussion/meeting, workshop, postulates and comments". The larger the city the more often its representatives employ the forms of crowdsourcing listed above. Local governments most frequently carry out crowdsourcing initiatives by utilizing cities' official web pages, social media, and special platforms dedicated to public consultations. The larger the city the greater the value placed on the utility of crowdsourcing.

The Image of Amman City: Structure, Identity, and Meaning

The study provides a better understanding of how city inhabitants perceive and navigate their surroundings hence the urban environment consists of both physical elements and mental representations. The study objective is to review the concept of the image of the city and its implementation in Downtown Amman - Jordan using the descriptive-analytical methodology in addition to site visits and observation that provides a detailed urban mental map for Downtown Amman illustrated by the different layers of the urban fabric. the study shed light on three components of the city image: Identity (the recognition of urban elements as distinct entities), structure (the relationship between urban elements and the observer), and meaning (the relationship between urban elements and the emotional value for the observer). By summarizing the analysis of the downtown Amman image, a visual representation of what appear to be the key issues in the city image. The analysis shows problems such as "Break of continuity", "Branching" and "Lack of integration" have appeared due to the lack of clear organization of the shape of the city facades and the way signs are placed, as well as the mixing of pedestrian paths with vehicles traffic.

Tourism Promotion Symbols for Bandung City in a Teenager Romantic Film ‘Dilan 1990’

Film induced tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the tourism industry because cinematographic history is able to persuade the audience to travel to places that are used as the setting places of several scenes in a film. This study aims to examine the message of tourism promotion in a teenager romantic film set in Bandung, West Java, entitled ‘Dilan 1990’ which was adapted from a novel by Pidi Baiq of the same title. The data were collected by observing the film using observation tables, as well as audience reviews obtained through internet searches as a reference in interpreting symbols and knowing the audience's reception of this film. The audience’s reviews were taken from various websites including the Internet Movie Database, TripAdvisor, and from several independent travel blogs articles. The analysis used a qualitative descriptive method using three theories, namely, the theory of semiotics, reception, and promotion. The analysis shows that symbols of tourism promotion in the content of the film ‘Dilan 1990’ included the beautiful and clean city of Bandung, Bandung’s natural scenery, and Bandung’s heritage iconic buildings. The positive images of Bandung city were aesthetically presented on the film through well-structured of plot story, scene, and acting, thus make the promotion of Bandung become indirectly powerful. This study also stresses that the ‘Dilan 1990’ not only provide a powerful form of promotion for Bandung city but also has inspired the local government to build new city parks namely ‘Taman Dilan 1’ and ‘Taman Dilan 2’ that boosted the images of Bandung as an attractive city to visit.

An integrated simulation framework for the prevention and mitigation of pandemics caused by airborne pathogens.

In this work, we developed an integrated simulation framework for pandemic prevention and mitigation of pandemics caused by airborne pathogens, incorporating three sub-models, namely the spatial model, the mobility model, and the propagation model, to create a realistic simulation environment for the evaluation of the effectiveness of different countermeasures on the epidemic dynamics. The spatial model converts images of real cities obtained from Google Maps into undirected weighted graphs that capture the spatial arrangement of the streets utilized next for the mobility of individuals. The mobility model implements a stochastic agent-based approach, developed to assign specific routes to individuals moving in the city, through the use of stochastic processes, utilizing the weights of the underlying graph to deploy shortest path algorithms. The propagation model implements both the epidemiological model and the physical substance of the transmission of an airborne pathogen (in our approach, we investigate the transmission parameters of SARS-CoV-2). The deployment of a set of countermeasures was investigated in reducing the spread of the pathogen, where, through a series of repetitive simulation experiments, we evaluated the effectiveness of each countermeasure in pandemic prevention.

Analysis of the Relationship of Video Text and Urban Image Communication Based on the Calculation Method of Wedge Diffraction in Geometrical Optics

City image reflects a city’s comprehensive competitiveness and is also an important indicator of a city’s spiritual civilization and urbanization process. A good city image is an intangible asset of a city, which can contribute to the political, economic, cultural, and social construction of a city and create more value for the city. This paper mainly discusses the research status and research methods of urban image at home and abroad. Based on the calculation method of wedge diffraction in geometrical optics, various heuristic uniform diffraction formulas of lossy wedge are compared and analyzed, and a better heuristic formula of uniform diffraction of lossy wedge is given. Finally, the selection of important channel parameters in the propagation channel is discussed, and a method for predicting the statistical parameters of the propagation channel of urban images based on the results of ray tracing is proposed. Then, the channel parameters are analyzed by using statistical parameters, and the channel parameters of the city image propagation model are analyzed.

Developing a Tourism Strategy for Heritage Villages in the Kayutangan Area

The development of tourism in Malang is expanding, supported by the increasing number of tourists. To answer the growing demand of tourists, local governments should innovate with thematic villages. One such village that elevates historical and cultural values is the Kayutangan heritage tourism village, located in the Kayutangan corridor area in Basuki Rahmat Street, Malang City. The city’s image plays a role as an identity-maker and adds to the attraction in the development of the city area. For a long time, the image of Malang, especially the Kayutangan corridor, has been rich in cultural heritage from the Dutch colonial period. The typical Dutch colonial architectural style can be seen in government buildings, shops, and settlements in urban spatial plans developed to this day. However, loss of ownership resulting in the transfer of buildings to new owners, who then renovate the buildings with a more modern design, means that the number of buildings with historical value is decreasing. Furthermore, the empty and renovated buildings can negatively affect the visual appearance of the physical environment and the spatial character of the area, reducing the aesthetic quality. This study aimed to describe the elements that form the image of the city in the Kayutangan area, which can then be used in developing a tourism development strategy in the Kayutangan heritage area. The results of this study indicated a unique development opportunity that focuses on image-forming elements consisting of paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Changes in the shape of the buildings are increasing, thereby reducing the aesthetic value of the area. Based on the SWOT analysis results, the elements forming the existing city image need to be optimized as part of a strong aesthetic identity in the Kayutangan heritage tourism village area. The elements forming the existing city image, if developed thoughtfully, can become a brand for the city and lead to an increase in local tourism.
 Keywords: urban environment, city image elements, tourism development strategy

THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF PEOPLE DIMENSION IN CITY BRANDING IN DIGITAL AGE

City branding, as a relatively new concept and research topic, has been positioned as one of the most important factors for overall city image and its further development. Besides location, infrastructure, natural beauty, heritage, prerequisites and potential, people are also seen as an integral part of city branding, especially in digital age. Local population represents an important pillar of city branding due to its characteristics, hospitality (joviality and friendliness), as well as lifestyle (relaxation, enjoyment in food and drink, friendship, music). The aim of this paper is to analyze the role and importance of the local population in city branding in the digital age. This paper may be valuable for city leaders and residents who are involved in the city branding process, because it analyzes and provides guidance on how the local population affects the general atmosphere of the city and its brand in the digital age.

Application Research and Case Analysis of Landscape Design in Artificial Intelligence Platform

Modern landscape greening plays an important role in the construction of modern cities and plays a positive role in improving the natural environment of cities and building a good image of cities. With the continuous progress of society and technology, human’s understanding of artificial intelligence is deepening, and intelligent technology is gradually integrated into all aspects of life. Because media technology has rich design elements and can carry out rich design structures, it will be more intuitive to use multimedia means for garden landscape design. Therefore, for meeting people’s requirements for the diversification of modern urban gardening construction, this study makes a deep analysis of the current status and problems of landscape design and tries to study the effective application methods of artificial intelligence technology in landscape design, to promote the combination of landscape design and artificial intelligence design. At the same time, the combination of AI lighting planning, AI water landscape planning, AI sprinkler planning, and AI paving planning is used to illustrate the application of AI in the specific project design of landscape design. The use of artificial intelligence not only promotes the innovation and optimization of landscape design, but also ensures the quality of modern landscape design and effectively improves the efficiency of modern landscape design.

Factors influencing event media personnel's frame building process at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

Holding major events has the capacity to improve a host city's tourism image. Effective event leverage for image benefits requires host destinations to implement strategies to influence event media coverage in the lead up, during, and after the event. This research takes a media frame building perspective to understand the processes behind how event media personnel frame coverage of an event host. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with event media personnel at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. We developed a grounded theory model that depicts how event media personnel's pre-event frame repository and event period experiences influenced their perceptions and potential frames of the host destination. We advance knowledge of event leveraging, and media framing theory, by demonstrating the importance of experience and unofficial sources in event media framing. This knowledge can be used by stakeholders involved in event leveraging to better design strategies aimed at positively influencing media coverage of events.

GAUGING THE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN KARACHI: AN APPLICATION OF DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS (DEA)

Karachi is the leading metropolitan in Pakistan with the largest population and some additional attributes, including Transport intensity, and diverse business operations. The rising population increases the pressure on transport demand and to meet such mandates it is the responsibility of the state to ensure the supply of quality transport which is economically feasible and environmentally sustainable. BRTS was initiated to improve the quality of life through value addition in the existing transport. The rising trend of building BRTS is briskly on the rise in emerging countries across the world. The outcrop of shipping in big cities pursues to increase economic growth and alter the city's image for dwellers and interlopers. The goal of this research is to look at the use of the best possible substitute energy-saving methods in public transport. A decision-making efficiency analysis approach is used for the comparative study of both orthodox fuel and hybrid bus systems for Karachi city. In this paper, the application of an energy-based bus system is investigated in comparison to customary public transportation services in Karachi on a specific route. Except for one midway portion, the hybrid Bus system's efficiency remained better or comparable to the conventional value of 1. The study found that BRTs are sustainable solutions for big cities and they can be used instead of the customary bus system and it will serve as an energy-efficient and environmentally beneficial way out of public transport. The government of Sindh should promote such types of projects for the sustainable future of Karachi and its inhabitants. Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, Bus Rapid Transit, Green Line.

A semiotic portrait of a big Chinese city

Urban communication studies is a growing field of research aiming to reveal the regularities of human interaction in an urban context. The goal of the present study is to examine the semiotics of a big Chinese city as a complex communicative system and its effect on the social development of urban community. The material includes over 700 units (toponyms, street signs, advertisements, memorials, local foods and souvenirs, mass media, etc.) mostly collected in Tianjin, China’s fourth biggest city with a population of almost 14 million people. The research methodology is based on critical discourse analysis, ethnographic and semiotic methods, and narrative analysis. The study reveals the structure of communication in a big Chinese city and the integration of language into the city landscape. It indicates that urban historical memories are manifested in the form of memorials, symbols, historic and contemporary narratives. The physical context is associated with names of streets and other topological objects. Verbal and visual semiotic signs are used to ensure people’s psychological and physical safety. Social advertising predominantly deals with the propaganda of Chinese governmental policy, traditional values and ‘civilized behaviour’. Chinese urban subcultures, such as ‘ant tribe, ‘pendulums’, ‘shamate’, etc., reflect new social realities. Food and foodways are defined by cultural values and different aspects of social identity. The image of a big Chinese city is also affected by globalization tendencies and the COVID-19 pandemic. The research framework presented in the study provides an opportunity to show a wide panorama of modern urban life. It can be extrapolated to the investigation of other big cities and their linguistic landscapes.

INVESTIGATING COMMERCIAL URBAN CORRIDORS - A PILOT STUDY IN BEIRUT LEBANON

Urban environments are multifaceted, varied, dynamic, complex, and evolving as are the underlying features for human health and wellbeing (Bai, Nath, Capon, Hasan & Jaron, 2020). Healthy and resilient cities can be entry points and platforms for change, adaptation and innovation to achieve optimal health for urban communities and the environment (Regional Framework for Urban Health in the Western Pacific 2016–2020: Healthy and Resilient Cities, 2016). Planners considered urban corridors, which are connection and access between urban districts, as major elements in shaping the city image and forming its identity and investigating them are vital for enhancing healthy and resilient cities. Narrowing the scope on commercial urban corridors, which are a concentration of retail stores that serve a common trade area and lie along a single street (Catherine Dyste, 2012). These corridors can be seen as a dynamic space, but at the same time, they are created to create a range of experiences (Shaban et al., 2018). Improving commercial urban corridors requires several indicators for reviving the companionable and sociable life of a street. Problems occur when space use is not driven. The society therefore uses the urban commercial corridor according to their own interests. This condition may generate conflict between users of the 'Link' and users of the 'Space’, may make the corridor an uncomfortable location, and may decreases its livability. Rapid urbanization and unplanned rapid changes of commercial activities in corridors that have an impact on the surrounding streets and users’ activities imposes burdens on surrounding land use and mobility. However, this problem has contributed to various issues such as traffic congestion, pollution, decrease in green areas and degradation of the urban quality of living. That’s why investigating these corridors is imperative to know its utilization and functioning to identify the existing problems and chaos in the corridor since they are facing significant challenges, which is the lack of reliable knowledge on their characteristics and development; important for local authorities to provide wealth of knowledge and data collection. The paper aims to investigate commercial urban corridors to identify and analyze livability aspects and indicators for reviving its companionable and sociable life that can be implemented in a way of a considerable checklist which acts as a systematic structure for communicating the data required, diagnosing issues, and defining the strengths and limitations of the efficiency of a commercial urban corridor to promote a healthy and resilient urban context. To achieve the aim, the research investigates a commercial urban corridor focusing on one of the urban corridors in Beirut, Lebanon. By using Geoportal Interactive Tool, conducted by UN-Habitat and UNICEF to create cartography of the existing conditions of the pilot study, and then analyzes the aspects and indicators of livability based on cartography, walk through analysis and face-to-face interviews with inhabitants in area. After analyzing the commercial urban corridor and identifying the effective indicators, the research resulted in proposing some guidelines for enhancing livability in commercial urban corridors, which were mainly related to the physical aspect since it defines the most inadequate quality and performance.

My city, my love: philanthropy and rebranding of a contested city image to improve sense of place and city pride

My city, my love: philanthropy and rebranding of a contested city image to improve sense of place and city pride

A Study on the Cognition of Urban Spatial Image at Community Scale: A Case Study of Jinghu Community in Zhengzhou City

The community is the basic spatial unit for urban residents to live and rest. It is a crucial direction of city image research to explore people’s cognitive characteristics of community space image. Aiming at the lack of cognitive quantification of community spatial images, a new method that can quantify community spatial data into cognitive results is proposed. By employing spatial analysis tools, eleven spatial indicators from the perspective of community spatial form and spatial services are selected, and an image structure is constructed based on the characteristics of the indicator results. The results of multiple indicators are organized through the improved technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and overlay analysis method to produce a spatial image map of the community. The study displays that the spatial image characteristics of the community scale can be comprehensively expressed through three types of elements: district, path (edge), and node (landmark). These three types of elements constitute the image structure at the community scale and present apparent elements’ characteristics. This scrutiny is also aimed to demonstrate the construction and use process of the methodology and to provide new ideas for the cognitive research of urban spatial image at the community scale.

Narrativas cinematográficas através do caminhar pelas paisagens urbanas

Walking in urban spaces as an artistic practice gains aesthetic value, revealing a sensorial component of the human experience in spaces, consequently adding to them a symbolic charge (Careri 2015). Cinema as a form of art has often aesthetically explored images of emblematic cities as a visual technique for the construction of narratives. The pace and movement of wandering through urban landscapes is the gear for the development of the plot and from this perspective, the concept of exploring the urban landscape through walking as an aesthetic practice of fruition can be seen as the skein thread that conducts the storyline, which is then explored through various visual frames attributing symbolic and artistic value to the scenes.In this sense, this paper aims to conceptually analyze the relationship between walking and different narratives as an aesthetic and symbolic central theme in the following films: “Before Sunrise” by Richard Linklater (USA-Austria, 1995), “Lost in Translation” by Sofia Coppola (USA-Japan, 2003) and “Passerby” by Eryk Rocha (Brazil, 2010). This movie choice seeks to contemplate different geographies and timeframes focused on walkability as a form of artistic expression over the urban landscape, where the narratives are constituted. Wandering through a city stands out as a pivotal element between the urban landscape and the film development through the director’s eyes.

Study on the Current Situation of Japanese Translation of Public Signs in Tourist Attractions

The public signs of scenic spots are the name cards of scenic spots and play an important role in promoting the international image of cities. This paper takes the Japanese public signs in the scenic spots of Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province as an example, through the collection and analysis of the public signs in the scenic spots, studies the standardization and accuracy of their translation, and probes into the development maturity of Zhenjiang scenic spots. The survey results show that there are three problems in the Japanese public signs in the above survey scenic spots: First, the Japanese public signs are missing. Second, the translation is not standardized enough. Third, the translation lacks accuracy. In view of the above problems, the corresponding solutions are proposed.

Revealing virtual visiting preference: Differentiating virtual and physical space with massive TikTok records in Beijing

With the growing penetration of information and communication technologies, social media platforms have become one of the most frequently used virtual spaces in daily life, producing spatiality with new logic and structure. However, few studies have examined the difference of visiting preferences in virtual space due to the lack of proper benchmarks constructed from physical space. The quantity of geo-tagged views, likes, comments, shares embedded in TikTok filming locations was used to measuring virtual and physical visiting activities (VVAs, PVAs), providing a perfect opportunity to clarify the virtual visiting differences. Built environment components are regarded as the objects of reference and their relationships with VVAs and PVAs were examined separately, and virtual visiting preferences were revealed as the following three main points: 1. VVAs are less associated with the built environment, due to people's indirect perception of physical elements. 2. Components that people are more familiar with in physical space and could shape impressive public city images, such as landmarks and urban nodes, are dramatically enhanced in virtual space. 3. Components that could be easily perceived in physical space but hard to present through visual medium, such as functional diversity, are far less critical in virtual space.