City Life Research Articles

Low-Cost IoT Air Quality Monitoring Station Using Cloud Platform and Blockchain Technology

Air pollution is a growing concern due to severe threats to public health and the environment. The need for reliable air quality monitoring solutions has never been more critical. This research paper introduces an innovative approach to addressing this challenge by deploying a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) air monitoring station and providing a blockchain technology solution to enhance environmental data transparency, reliability, and accessibility. Our paper adopts a concept of merging IoT and blockchain technologies and collecting some parameters that help to assess air quality by using three sensors, DHT11, MQ7, and MQ135, to collect temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide parameters, respectively, to measure the gases and thus indicate the air quality within the surrounding area. Collecting and sharing these types of valuable data will be very important for various stakeholders, such as governmental bodies, researchers, and the public. This approach is consistent with the principles of sustainable development, facilitating informed decision-making and promoting eco-friendly policies. This research explores the technical architecture of the IoT air monitoring stations, offering a promising solution for addressing air pollution concerns while promoting sustainable development goals. The proposed system is a model for leveraging emerging technologies to advance environmental monitoring and create smarter, livable cities. This approach aligns with the principles of sustainable development and eco-friendly initiatives. This research offers a promising model for enhancing environmental monitoring efforts and advancing the creation of smarter, more sustainable urban environments. The proposed IoT, cloud platform and blockchain-based system not only addresses pressing air pollution challenges but also sets a benchmark for leveraging emerging technologies in environmental science.

Business Models Used in Smart Cities—Theoretical Approach with Examples of Smart Cities

This paper examines business model implementations in three leading European smart cities: London, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Through a systematic literature review and comparative analysis, the study identifies and analyzes various business models employed in these urban contexts. The findings reveal a diverse array of models, including public–private partnerships, build–operate–transfer arrangements, performance-based contracts, community-centric models, innovation hubs, revenue-sharing models, outcome-based financing, and asset monetization strategies. Each city leverages a unique combination of these models to address its specific urban challenges and priorities. The study highlights the role of PPPs in large-scale infrastructure projects, BOT arrangements in transportation solutions, and performance-based contracts in driving efficiency and accountability. It also explores the benefits of community-centric models, innovation hubs, revenue-sharing models, outcome-based financing, and asset monetization strategies in enhancing the sustainability, efficiency, and livability of smart cities. The paper offers valuable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and researchers seeking to advance smart city development worldwide.

Managing Road Risk: The Development of Road Infrastructure Toward Liveable City

A country's economic development and prosperity depend on its cities. This study is conducted due to an effectiveness of road infrastructure are still a key issue that affecting quality of life in urban areas. Traffic jams, accidents and delays not only cause driver frustration and inconvenience, but also have serious economic and environmental impacts. This study attempts to identify the type of road infrastructure, to investigate the risk classification of road infrastructure and to suggest the potential development of road infrastructure in development of rural area. The study focused on the rural development area and this research includes data collection from primary and secondary sources such as interviews. Stakeholders and expert players have been interviewed for this research. The data that we found has been analysis using content analysis which is matrix table. The results of this study have found that there are several issues that exist in implementing of good road infrastructure concept and initiatives and development in rural development area. In conclusion, all respondents gave a positive review on the study and the research shows that good road infrastructure is needed to create our country safer and our cities towards liveable city.

Housing Financialization and Community Wellbeing: Tenant Resistance in the Liveable City

Tenant movements are increasingly impacting urban governance and the development of housing in Canadian cities. Tenants resisting violent and ‘gentler’ forms of gentrification—through outright expulsion or being priced out of their communities—have demonstrated their unwillingness to allow financialized real estate to determine their housing futures. At the same time, tenants also have to contend with discourses of urban improvement that increasingly dominate the terrain of financialized rental housing (re)development. Community benefits agreements and other similar arrangements emphasizing neighbourhood liveability and wellbeing are increasingly deployed as devices to justify housing (re)development, but also work to facilitate gentrification. Through an examination of a struggle between tenants and a financialized real estate investment firm in Canada’s capital city Ottawa—which aspires to be North America’s most liveable mid-sized city—this article explores the implications of a Community Wellbeing Framework for a neighbourhood redevelopment project forged through tenant resistance efforts.

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT POLICY OF INDIA AND THE BARRIERS IN ITS IMPLEMENTATION

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has emerged as a promising urban planning approach globally, aiming to create sustainable, equitable, and livable cities by promoting compact, mixed-use development around transit nodes. In India, where rapid urbanization and burgeoning population densities pose significant challenges to urban mobility and sustainability, TOD has gained traction as a potential solution. However, the effective implementation of TOD policies in Indian cities faces numerous barriers, including deficiencies in public transportation infrastructure, outdated land use regulations, affordability and accessibility concerns, financing constraints, governance issues, and challenges related to gap in policy between state and local bye laws in its implementation. This research paper provides a comprehensive analysis of these barriers and proposes a policy framework to overcome them, drawing on insights from international best practices and case studies from Indian cities. Through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates urban planning, transportation engineering, economics, and public policy perspectives, this paper offers actionable recommendations for policymakers, urban planners, and stakeholders to facilitate the successful implementation of TOD in Indian cities. By addressing the identified barriers and leveraging the potential of TOD, India can realize its vision of sustainable, inclusive, and transit-oriented urban development.

Conceptualizing the Young Women Social Entrepreneurship Phenomenon in al-Madinah al-Munawarah

Social entrepreneurship has become a global trend, and in Saudi Arabia, it is gaining traction among public authorities, financial institutions, young people, and academics. Despite its growing popularity, scientific publications on the subject remain limited. This study aims to conceptualize the phenomenon of young women's social entrepreneurship in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, the cradle of Muslim civilization and Islamic charity. Based on the field experience of Basiqāt Waqf, which trained 128 young women from 2020-2022 in personal development and entrepreneurial excellence using the Personal Development Analysis (PDA) tool, the study finds existing models insufficient to capture the multidimensionality of this phenomenon. A key factor identified is the intrinsic pleasure young women derive from engaging in social entrepreneurship projects that sustainably improve the quality of life in the holy city. The challenge lies in identifying what these women love doing while being beneficial to others. Despite limitations, this study aids stakeholders in better coordinating efforts to promote social entrepreneurship among young women in Madinah beyond merely creating a competitive or attractive ecosystem. Data from 2023-2024 indicate that many of these trained women actively participate in the Basiqat project, particularly in organizing the breaking of the Ramadan fast at the Prophet's Mosque.

Assessing the Degree of Publicness in Streets

Streets have always been a vital source of public life in Indian cities. The advent of virtual technologies and changingurban realities, have impacted its publicness and activation. Additionally, increasing degree of publicness in privatelyowned public spaces poses significant reduction in street life. Hence, it is important to assess the street qualities whichcontribute to public life. The physical, non-physical and metaphysical qualities of street assessments will bring out theessential qualities of streets that contribute to public life in contemporary streets. This paper enquires socio-culturaland sensory aspects of street life. It would assess parameters that contribute or contradict the degree of publicness.The study would discuss and build assessments from Vikas Mehta, William H. Whyte, Henry Lefebvre and Jan Gehl’stheories and perspectives. This research would build a critical enquiry about temporality and everyday urbanism andcontribute to the discussions on placemaking and tactical urbanism strategies.

LIVABILITY LEVEL OF COASTAL SETTLEMENT IN KARANGSARI VILLAGE, TUBAN REGENCY

Settlement livability measures the quality of various aspects that make up the comfort of living based on people's experiences while living in their settlement. The livability level of Tuban Regency, measured through the Most Livable City Index, produces a figure of 74.14%, indicating that Tuban Regency is quite comfortable to live in. However, there are still several areas designated as slum settlements, one of which is in Karangsari Village. Karangsari Subdistrict has a number of problems from an environmental, social and economic perspective which refer to slums. The local government has attempted a program to improve the quality of settlements, but problems arise from the community not actively participating in maintaining the sustainability of the program. This research aims to identify the level of livability which involves community perceptions in assessing the condition of their residential environment. The variables assessed are divided into three key dimensions, namely environmental, social and economic. The analysis used is Multidimensional Scaling which produces a coordinated livability index. The results of the analysis show that RW 1 and RW 2 settlements have a low level of livability. Meanwhile, RW 3 has a fairly good level of livability. The livability results are also influenced by the leverage attribute which shows the sensitivity of the attribute in changing the livability value.

Deep Smooth Random Sampling and Association Attention for Air Quality Anomaly Detection

Real-time monitoring and timely warning of air quality are vital components of building livable cities and implementing the “Healthy China” strategy. Real-time, efficient, and accurate detection of air quality anomalies holds great significance. However, almost all existing methods for air quality anomaly detection often overlook the imbalanced distribution of data. In addition, many traditional methods cannot learn both pointwise representation and pairwise association, so they cannot solve complex features. This study proposes an anomaly detection method for air quality monitoring based on Deep Smooth Random Sampling and Association Attention in Transformer (DSRS-AAT). Firstly, based on the third geographical law, the more similar the geographical environment, the closer the geographical target features are. We cluster sites according to the surrounding geographic features to fully explore latent feature associations. Then, we employ Deep Smooth Random Sampling to rebalance the air quality datasets. Meanwhile, the Transformer with association attention considers both prior associations and series associations to distinguish anomaly patterns. Experiments are carried out with real data from 95 monitoring stations in Haikou City, China. Final results demonstrate that the proposed DSRS-AAT improves the effectiveness of anomaly detection and provides interpretability analysis for traceability, owing to a significant improvement with the baselines (OmniAnomaly, THOC, etc.). The proposed method effectively enhances the effectiveness of air quality anomaly detection and provides a reference value for real-time monitoring and early warning of urban air quality.

The Role of the Characteristics of Urban Furniture and Equipment on the Quality of the Public Space of the Pedestrian Zone

Public spaces are complex structures that contain numerous elements formed by various influential forces suchas social relations, spatial elements, contemporary tendencies of city life and many others. The quality of the city'spublic space determines the frequency of its use, the concentration of content and the intensity of the experiencethat a place will have on its users. The paper describes the results of research that indicate the influence of thecharacteristics of urban furniture and equipment as architectural and urban planning elements on the quality ofpublic spaces in the city center. The systematization of the results of the comparative analysis of theoreticalpositions helped to form three groups of characteristics of architectural-urban elements: spatial, physicomorphological and functional. Through the conducted survey, the opinion of users of the pedestrian zone of NoviSad was investigated regarding the importance of the researched group of public space elements on theirexperience of the place.

Rural-urban transition and food security in India

As a growing proportion of world's population lives in cities and towns, food security is increasingly acquiring an urban character. The locus of food security research and policy agendas has correspondingly expanded from rural areas to include urban centres in recent years. However, the dominant discourse on urbanization-food security relationship appears to be shaped by perspectives from the Global North and large cities, and disregards urbanization-food security nexus in small towns of the Global South. This paper aims to correct this bias. With a focus on India where urbanization is increasingly concentrated in small, former rural regions, this paper looks at the food security implications of country's rural-urban transition and advances a conceptual framework to understand the food security impacts of peripheral urbanization.

Health-related quality of life and perceptions of neighborhood physical and social environment in Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT In light of rapid global urbanization and development, planners have become more concerned with the quality of life in cities. However, the perceptual connections between the built environment and resident well-being deserve more systematic attention. This study investigates the relationship between the perceived physical and social features of the neighborhood environment and the health-related quality of life for 393 adult residents in Tehran, Iran. A questionnaire was developed to examine participants’ perceptions of neighborhood social and physical factors, along with the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life – Brief Form (WHOQOL – BREF) to measure their health-related quality of life. Using factor analysis, correlations, and multiple linear regressions, the findings suggest that all subcomponents of the physical environment (accessibility, amenity, and legibility) and social environment (participation, sense of community, and satisfaction) impact psychological, social relationships, and environmental health, but that amenities were most powerfully predictive of all three types of socio-environmental health.

Ten steps towards integrated decision making for ecological restoration in cities: Rewilding the European beaver (Castor fiber) in Berlin, Germany

Ensuring a livable city for all within the more-than-human discourse, restoration of urban ecosystems requires careful consideration of both human and non-human needs. However, traditional assessments and therefore most management plans usually fail to include the latter as a core planning requirement. This article presents and explains a 10-step method which simultaneously and actively considers both to identify potential restoration areas within urban ecosystems. To do so, a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis for the multispecies needs identification is combined with a Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System (MCSDSS) for the spatial assessment. To validate this method, a case study of Berlin, Germany, an explicitly urban case, is presented. The aim of the study was to evaluate the ecosystem restoration (rewilding) potential of the city's riparian and riverine ecosystems through the enhancement of Eurasian beaver habitats.•Method combining SWOT analysis with MCSDSS for an integrated spatial assessment•Well-suited for multispecies (human and non-human) perspective on urban nature restoration

Pendidikan Kewirausahan Kampus Hijau UIN Raden Intan Lampung dalam Mendukung Ekosistem Kota Pintar Bandar Lampung

Entrepreneurship is about changing the world through solving social problems, creating innovative products and generating new solutions in life. This research examines how entrepreneurship education at universities or green campuses plays a role in supporting the Bandar Lampung smart city ecosystem. This research is library research with a descriptive approach. The results of this research show that Entrepreneurship Education on an environmentally friendly green campus is an effective way to produce intelligent people as an indicator of creating a smart city based on a green city and a liveable city. Therefore, leaders of green universities or campuses must continue to strive to create environmentally friendly entrepreneurship education so that green campus efforts as part of the green city ecosystem towards a livable city can continue to be implemented towards achieving smart city targets.

Kritik Sosial pada Puisi Lagu Orang Usiran Karya W. H. Auden

This research aims to determine social criticism in the poem Lagu Orang Usiran by W. H. Auden. This research is qualitative research. The data used are sentences in the poem Lagu Orang Usiran which contain social criticism. The data source for this research is the poem Lagu Orang Usiran by W. H, Auden. The data collection technique in this research is reading and note-taking techniques. Data analysis techniques use data reduction techniques, data presentation and drawing conclusions. The research results found that the social criticism in the poem Lagu Orang Usiran by W. H. Auden is social inequality, social conflict, nepotism, corruption, tyranny, social awareness and social mobility. In this poem the author wants to describe the reality of people's lives who struggle to live in the harshness of life in big cities. This poem criticizes the arbitrary actions carried out by the ruler who founded his ruling dynasty through nepotism. The condition of society has become differentiated due to social stratification factors and rampant corruption, resulting in the state and people becoming increasingly miserable.

Effect of Overtourism on Residents' Quality of Life in World Heritage Cities

The main aim of this paper is to determine the perceptions of residents towards overtourism (tourism impacts) and to reveal the effect of overtourism on the quality of life in Safranbolu. In the research, the data were analyzed with the statistical package program. Percentage, frequency tests, factor analysis and multivariate regression analysis were used to reach valid and reliable results. Results show that one-third of the residents believe that the city suffers from overtourism, and it affects the quality of life negatively. Besides, residents agree that tourism is harmful for the physical environment as it increases traffic congestion, parking problems, litter, water consumption and noise. In addition, they believe that tourism deteriorates the natural environment and exceeds the carrying capacity. Therefore, they have concerns about the devastation of cultural heritage arising from too many tourists.

Tourism efficiency and quality of life in Chinese cities

Tourism efficiency and quality of life in Chinese cities

Analisis Kelayakan Penerapan Inklusivitas Kota Ramah Pejalan Kaki di Surabaya: Studi Komparatif dengan Kota Bandung dalam Teori Kepublikan

This research discusses the concept of a pedestrian-friendly city or Walkable City in Surabaya, relating it to Bandung. Based on the Most Liveable City Index (MLCI), Bandung ranks at the Average Tier City level, indicating it has the best city implementation in Indonesia. Similarities in city layout, road conditions, and the economic characteristics of the population suggest that Surabaya and Bandung have similar city identities. This research employs qualitative methods with content analysis techniques to analyze data and interpret the meaning behind data and information from social media users. The findings reveal that Jalan Braga retains a historical impression and features pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, including inclusive public spaces and street designs. However, the lighting on Jalan Braga is dim, causing visitors to feel anxious at night. In Surabaya, especially on Jalan Tunjungan, the walkable city conditions are similar to Jalan Braga. However, the crossing lights are ineffective, and the lack of canopies along the sidewalks discourages walking during the day due to the extreme heat, which is a drawback for implementing a walkable city on Jalan Tunjungan.This research suggests that to improve safety, resilience, and sustainability in inclusive road and urban traffic design comprehensively, the integration framework needs to be expanded beyond conventional views—limited to technology or products, business or economics, and infrastructure or platforms—to encompass space, speed, and priority. Each of these factors directly influences accessibility, security, and social usability and has a reciprocal and interdependent relationship with the others.

Shaping future home: understanding quality of life and citizenship in smart cities

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effects of technology-, organisation- and environment-readiness, smart economic development, change valence, social cohesion and quality of life on citizenship in the context of smart cities.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a customized questionnaire which was completed by 280 residents of China’s first-tier cities. This study tested the framework using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe results indicated that smart economy development, social cohesion, change valence, technological readiness, organizational readiness and environmental readiness have a significant impact on the quality of life. Quality of life has a positive impact on citizenship.Originality/valueThis study adds new insights to smart city academic discussions. The study addresses a critical gap identified in existing literature which urges the need for a balance between user-centric, organization-centric and technology-centric approaches. It offers a fresh perspective on how the smart economy, social cohesion and readiness factors are interlinked. These elements together shape urban living experiences. For policymakers and urban planners, our findings provide clear guidance. They highlight the complex dynamics that must be considered to build more unified, inclusive and sustainable smart cities.

Гуманистическая адаптация проекта «Умный город»: эстетический аспект

In the implementation of the Smart City project, one of the significant challenges lies in the complex interaction between digital technologies and new forms of sociality, aimed at creating a comfortable living environment for humans. The concept of sustainable development, which is a priority goal of modern urbanization, implies special attention to the environmental parameters of city life. New trends in the inclusion of a natural component in the fabric of urban life are developing in line with the phenomenon of aestheticization as a characteristic feature of modern culture. The tendency to give aesthetic sound to everyday phenomena is aimed at the sensory-emotional sphere as the basis of aesthetic sensibility. Embracing the principle of naturalness in shaping nature, even if this simplicity is achieved through complex technological solutions and adheres to archetypal artistic images, provides a stable guideline for assessing the appropriateness and harmony of the environment. The study delves into the reflective aspect of perception in urban environments, emphasizing the development of emotional intelligence and the ability to engage with the sensory-rich “smart environment”. It discusses the importance of flexible communication with digital devices, facilitated by an enhanced realm of sensuousness and emotional connectivity. By embracing humanistic principles and aesthetic sensibilities, the Smart City project can create more livable, sustainable, and emotionally engaging urban environments.