Low-density Form Research Articles

In Situ Synthesis of Exfoliated Ni(OH)2 Nanosheets and AgNPs-Embedded Functionalized Polyindole-Based Trinary Hybrid Microspheres: A Z-Scheme Photocatalyst for the Sunlight-Driven Degradation of Organic Pollutants with Enhanced Antibacterial Efficacy.

Advancing a facile one-pot synthetic approach for the fabrication of a hybrid heterojunction photocatalyst remains a significant challenge in research pursuits. Herein, a microsphere-like trinary hybrid nanocomposite has been synthesized (NH/PIn/MAA/Ag). It comprises exfoliated single- and a few-layered Ni(OH)2 (NH nanosheets), mercaptoacetate-functionalized polyindole (PIn/MAA), and Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) through an in situ approach. The formation mechanism is based on the exfoliation of stacked Ni(OH)2 multilayers [i.e., Ni(OH)2 microflowers] and stabilization of NH nanosheets through host-guest formation of PIn/MAA, followed by the adsorption-reduction of Ag+ ions in a one-pot reaction at low temperature. Surface morphological analyses of hybrid nanocomposite microspheres have exhibited that highly dense Ni(OH)2 microflowers have been transformed into low-density layered forms (NH nanosheets) within the polymeric platform (PIn/MAA) with deposited AgNPs. An interfacial heterojunction has been developed between the components in the depletion region, leading to an improvement in photocatalytic efficiency through a synergistic effect over the components for charge separation and transfer through the heterojunction interface via solid-state mediator Ag-based Z-scheme charge transfer dynamics. The superior photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline (98.2%) by trinary hybrid microspheres can be attributed to the deteriorated recombination rate of electron-hole pairs with reduced charge transfer resistance of the heterojunction in the photocatalyst, as obvious from photoluminescence, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, chronoamperometry, and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) analyses. Moreover, the antibacterial properties of microspheres against Bacillus pumilus (Gram-positive) and Escherichia coli (Gram-negative) bacteria have validated their potential as promising materials for the overall purification of aquatic systems.

Low-Density Urbanisation: Prestate Settlement Growth in a Pacific Society

The recognition of low-density urbanisation has been important in documenting how diverse human settlements generated enduring social and economic change. In tropical regions, the key challenges to studying low-density urbanisation have been the difficulty in acquiring past built environment data and integrating the frameworks that illuminate the social behaviours intrinsic to urbanisation. The introduction of lidar mapping and urban science methods has proven revolutionary in our understanding of low-density urbanisation as demonstrated by emerging research on settlements and states in Mesoamerica and Southeast Asia. These studies draw on urban theory to highlight patterns in the built environment associated with profound societal changes including the rise of social institutions, agglomeration effects, and ongoing settlement growth. Here, we present an approach that combines lidar survey and archaeological fieldwork with recent developments in urban science to understand the built environment of Tongatapu; the location of an archaic state whose influence spread across the southwest Pacific Ocean between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries a.d. Quantitative results show—for the first time—that settlements on a Pacific island were urbanised in a distinct low-density form and that the processes of urbanisation began prior to state development. This study highlights the potential contribution of Pacific landscapes to urban science and the low-density settlement phenomena given the presence of large populations, hierarchical societies, and vast distributions of archaeological built remains on many island groups.

Water Potential from Adaptive Force Matching for Ice and Liquid with Revised Dispersion Predicts Supercooled Liquid Anomalies in Good Agreement with Two Independent Experimental Fits.

A revised version of the Water potential from Adaptive force matching for Ice and Liquid (WAIL) was developed by using the previous data set for fitting the WAIL model but with a dispersion term calculated using symmetry adapted perturbation theory (SAPT). The model has no adjustable parameters and relies solely on fitting first-principles information. The new model, named revised WAIL (rWAIL), shows improved predictions of most properties of water when compared to the previously published WAIL model. The rWAIL model also compares favorably to other first-principles-derived water models, such as MB-Pol, at only a fraction of the computational cost. The rWAIL model is used to study the properties of supercooled water. The model shows evidence of a liquid-liquid phase transition (LLPT) in the supercooled regimes with the liquid-liquid critical point (LLCP) at 203 K and 90 MPa. This estimate is in good agreement with a recent polynomial fit to the experimental density of water. Also, the fit to the surface tension of supercooled water based on the rWAIL model shows excellent agreement with the corresponding fit to the experimental data. Consistent with previously published molecular dynamics and experimental data, the surface tension of water exhibits exponential growth in the supercooled regime, which is likely a result of the emergence of a low-density liquid form of water. The simulation thus unites two separate experimental fits with one first-principles-based model, lending strong evidence of an LLPT in real water.

The Inter-Relationships of Territorial Quality of Life with Residential Expansion and Densification: A Case Study of Regions in EU Member Countries

High-density urban development is promoted by both global and local policies in response to socio-economic and environmental challenges since it increases mobility of different land uses, decreases the need for traveling, encourages the use of more energy-efficient buildings and modes of transportation, and permits the sharing of scarce urban amenities. It is therefore argued that increased density and mixed-use development are expected to deliver positive outcomes in terms of contributing to three pillars (social, economic, and environmental domains) of sustainability in the subject themes. Territorial quality of life (TQL)—initially proposed by the ESPON Programme—is a composite indicator of the socio-economic and environmental well-being and life satisfaction of individuals living in an area. Understanding the role of urban density in TQL can provide an important input for urban planning debates addressing whether compact development can be promoted by referring to potential efficiencies in high-density, mixed land use and sustainable transport provisions. Alternatively, low-density suburban development is preferable due to its benefits of high per capita land use consumption (larger houses) for individual households given lower land prices. There is little empirical evidence on how TQL is shaped by high-density versus low-density urban forms. This paper investigates this topic through providing an approach to spatially map and examine the relationship between TQL, residential expansion, and densification processes in the so-called NUTS2 (nomenclature of terrestrial units for statistics) regions of European Union (EU) member countries. The relative importance of each TQL indicator was determined through the entropy weight method, where these indicators were aggregated through using the subject weights to obtain the overall TQL indicator. The spatial dynamics of TQL were examined and its relationship with residential expansion and densification processes was analysed to uncover whether the former or the latter process is positively associated with the TQL indicator within our study area. From our regression models, the residential expansion index is negatively related to the TQL indicator, implying that high levels of residential expansion can result in a reduction in overall quality of life in the regions if they are not supported by associated infrastructure and facility investments.

Glass Polymorphism in Hyperquenched Aqueous LiCl Solutions

We investigate the glass polymorphism of dilute LiCl-H2O in the composition range of 0-5.8 mol % LiCl. The solutions are vitrified at ambient pressure (requires hyperquenching with ∼106 K s-1) and transformed to their high-density state using a special high-pressure annealing protocol. Ex situ characterization was performed via isobaric heating experiments using X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. We observe signatures from a distinct high-density and a distinct low-density glass for all solutions with a mole fraction xLiCl of ≤ 4.3 mol %, where the most notable are (i) the jumplike polyamorphic transition from high-density to low-density glass and (ii) two well-separated glass-to-liquid transitions Tg,1 and Tg,2, each pertaining to one glass polymorph. These features are absent for solutions with xLiCl ≥ 5.8 mol %, which show only continuous densification and relaxation behavior. That is, a switch from water-dominated to solute-dominated region occurs between 4.3 mol % LiCl and 5.8 mol % LiCl. For the water-dominated region, we find that LiCl has a huge impact only on the low-density form. This is manifested as a shift in halo peak position to denser local structures, a lowering of Tg,1, and a significant change in relaxation dynamics. These effects of LiCl are observed both for hyperquenched samples and low-density samples obtained via heating of the high-density glasses, suggesting path independence. Such behavior further necessitates that LiCl is distributed homogeneously in the low-density glass. This contrasts earlier studies in which structural heterogeneity is claimed: ions were believed to be surrounded by only high-density states, thereby enforcing a phase separation into ion-rich high-density and ion-poor low-density glasses. We speculate the difference arises from the difference in cooling rates, which are higher by at least 1 order of magnitude in our case.

The Effect of Urban Form on the Heat Island Phenomenon and Human Thermal Comfort: A Comparative Study of UAE Residential Sites

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) has a detrimental impact on human thermal comfort and the health of city dwellers through raising average temperatures. Urban geometry is one of the factors that affect the intensity of the UHI phenomena. The purpose of this research is to evaluate and compare traditional vs. modern urban forms with respect to temperature and thermal comfort in the United Arab Emirates. Three of each were chosen based on their densities and form. Traditional buildings in the UAE differ from others in the Middle East in that they are primarily single-story, while in the surrounding countries of the region, such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, they are mainly two stories. The UAE climate also has its distinct characteristics. Each configuration was investigated using the ENVI-met urban microclimate simulation software. The comparisons were made for three seasons: summer, winter, and spring. Each configuration was evaluated through four parameters: building shape, street geometry, orientation, and urban density. The results revealed that the low-density traditional urban form exhibited the lowest air temperature in August because it has a low sky view factor (SVF), high height-to-width ratio, and less density. The highest ambient temperature was observed in the sites with low-medium density, lowest height/width ratio, and maximum SVF. The high-density modern urban form displayed lower air temperatures in the summer season than the low and low-medium-density modern urban sites due to the building form, high height-to-width ratio, low SVF, and wind corridors. The traditional compact urban form in Al Fahidi, which has the highest urban density of the six configurations, achieved the best thermal comfort levels in the summer due to the sizable height-to-width ratio and lowest SVF.

Regulating Bacterial Behavior within Hydrogels of Tunable Viscoelasticity.

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are a new class of materials in which living organism incorporated into diffusive matrices uptake a fundamental role in material's composition and function. Understanding how the spatial confinement in 3D can regulate the behavior of the embedded cells is crucial to design and predict ELM's function, minimize their environmental impact and facilitate their translation into applied materials. This study investigates the growth and metabolic activity of bacteria within an associative hydrogel network (Pluronic‐based) with mechanical properties that can be tuned by introducing a variable degree of acrylate crosslinks. Individual bacteria distributed in the hydrogel matrix at low density form functional colonies whose size is controlled by the extent of permanent crosslinks. With increasing stiffness and elastic response to deformation of the matrix, a decrease in colony volumes and an increase in their sphericity are observed. Protein production follows a different pattern with higher production yields occurring in networks with intermediate permanent crosslinking degrees. These results demonstrate that matrix design can be used to control and regulate the composition and function of ELMs containing microorganisms. Interestingly, design parameters for matrices to regulate bacteria behavior show similarities to those elucidated for 3D culture of mammalian cells.

Structural characteristics of low-density environments in liquid water.

The existence of two structural forms in liquid water has been a point of discussion for a long time. A phase transition between these two forms of liquid water has been proposed based on evidence from molecular simulations, and experiments have also been very recently able to track the proposed transition of the low-density liquid form to the high-density liquid form. We propose to use the average angle an oxygen atom makes with its neighbors to describe the structural environment of a water molecule. The distribution of this order parameter is observed to have two peaks with one peak at ∼109.5^{∘}, corresponding to the internal angle of a regular tetrahedron, indicating tetrahedral arrangement. The other peak corresponds to an environment with a tighter arrangement of neighboring molecules. The distribution of O-O-O angles is decomposed into two skewed distributions to estimate the fractions of the two liquid forms in water. A good similarity is observed between the temperature and pressure trends of fractions of locally favored tetrahedral structure (LFTS) form estimated using the new order parameter and the reports in the literature, over a range of temperatures and pressures. We also compare the structural environments indicated by different order parameters and find that the order parameter proposed in this paper captures the structure of first solvation shell of the LFTS accurately.

High-efficient electromagnetic absorption and composites of carbon microspheres

Electromagnetic (EM) pollution is evolving into a widely concerned environmental problem raised by the extensive application of EM emitting mobile devices. Microwave absorption materials (MAMs), as functional media for the sustainable conversion of EM energy, have been intensively developed for EM pollution precaution in the past two decades. Carbon materials are always considered as one of the most promising candidates for high-performance MAMs due to their tunable dielectric property, good chemical stability, low density, and diverse forms. In particular, carbon microspheres receive much considerable attention, not only for their intrinsic characteristics from the nature of carbon materials but also for their unique advantages in high dispersity and microstructure plasticity. Therefore, the construction of high-performance MAMs based on carbon microspheres has become an active field of research for microwave absorption. This perspective paper offers the recent advances on the explorations of various highly efficient MAMs related to carbon microspheres. Literature review indicates that some unique microstructures, including porous, hollow, core-shell, yolk-shell configurations, and rational chemical composition, can reinforce the microwave absorption performance of carbon microsphere composites significantly through intensifying their loss capability and improving their impedance matching. Besides, the challenges and perspectives are also proposed in terms of current research progress to inspire the further developments of carbon microspheres.

Terminator Double Layer Explorer (TerDLE): Examining the Near-Moon Lunar Wake

Abstract As the solar wind flows by the Moon, an antisunward-directed low-density wake forms as the plasma expands to fill in the trailing void in the plasma flow. Analytical modeling and modern plasma simulations suggest that plasma quasi-neutrality could possibly be broken close to the terminator obstruction as solar wind electrons expand into the wake ahead of the ions, leading to the formation of a standing (time-stationary) double layer. The objective of the Terminator Double Layer Explorer is to extend the fundamental understanding of the plasma expansion into the trailing near-vacuum wake region by (1) identifying any plasma expansion density anomalies at low altitudes near the terminator wake initiation region, (2) assessing the highly variable solar wind’s effect on the low-altitude wake region, and (3) determining if plasma neutrality is maintained or lost during passages through the low-altitude expansion region. The mission concept uses a propulsion-driven CubeSat with ion spectrometer and plasma wave system in elliptical orbit about the Moon with periselene near the terminator. Over the course of the mission, the periselene decreases, placing the CubeSat ever closer to the terminator wake initiation location and the possible nonneutral region.

Sunshine environment in different forms of communities in Guiyang, China.

In this study, six different types of residential areas in Guiyang were selected as the research objects, including high-rise high-density, high-rise low-density, middle-rise high-density, middle-rise low-density, low-rise high-density and low-rise low-density. The indices of sunshine compliance rate and the building's sunshine hour ratio were constructed to compare and analyze sunshine environment across those six different residential areas. The factors influencing sunshine environment in different residential areas were studied. The results showed that the average sunshine compliance rates of the six types of residential areas were 36.9%, 61.9%, 20.6%, 69.6%, 26.5% and 45.0%, respectively. The average sunshine compliance rate of low-density residential areas was 2.25 times higher than that of high-density residential areas within the same type, among which the sunshine environment of low-density residential areas was better. The sunshine environment of different types of low-density residential areas was different. The sunshine hours for high-rise low-density and middle-rise low-density forms were concentrated in 5-6 hours, while the building's sunshine hour ratio was 0.24 and 0.32, respectively. The sunshine hours for low-rise low-density forms were mainly 6-7 hours, with a building's sunshine hour ratio of 0.28. Compared with other types of residential areas, the low-rise low-density type of sunlight environment was the best. The plot ratio was significantly positively correlated with the building's sunlight ratio of 0-1 h sunlight hours in the residential area.

Cobalt Chloride Induces Macrophage Foam Cell Formation: A Chemical Hypoxia Model for Anti-Atherosclerotic Drug Screening.

Macrophages would engulf circulating oxidized (ox)- low-density lipoprotein and form lipid droplet-laden foam cells. Macrophage foam cells are considered an important therapeutic target of atherosclerosis. The aim of the study was to investigate a hypoxic foam cell model for anti-atherosclerotic drug screening using the chemical hypoxia-mimicking agent cobalt chloride (CoCl2). The oil red O stating results showed that treatment with CoCl2 could induce lipid accumulation and lead to cell transformation to spindle-shaped and lipid-rich foam cells in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Incubation with 150 μM CoCl2 for 24 h significantly increased the area of intracellular lipid droplets in macrophages, compared with the control group. Our findings indicate that CoCl2-triggered macrophage foam cells should be a potential in vitro hypoxia model for atherosclerosis drug discovery.

Experimental observation of the liquid-liquid transition in bulk supercooled water under pressure.

We prepared bulk samples of supercooled liquid water under pressure by isochoric heating of high-density amorphous ice to temperatures of 205 ± 10 kelvin, using an infrared femtosecond laser. Because the sample density is preserved during the ultrafast heating, we could estimate an initial internal pressure of 2.5 to 3.5 kilobar in the high-density liquid phase. After heating, the sample expanded rapidly, and we captured the resulting decompression process with femtosecond x-ray laser pulses at different pump-probe delay times. A discontinuous structural change occurred in which low-density liquid domains appeared and grew on time scales between 20 nanoseconds to 3 microseconds, whereas crystallization occurs on time scales of 3 to 50 microseconds. The dynamics of the two processes being separated by more than one order of magnitude provides support for a liquid-liquid transition in bulk supercooled water.

Liquid-liquid transitions under pressure

Water Phases Theoretical simulations suggest that deeply supercooled water undergoes a transition between high- and low-density forms, but this transition is difficult to study experimentally because it occurs under conditions in which ice crystallization is extremely rapid. Kim et al. combined x-ray lasers for rapid structure determination with infrared femtosecond pulses for rapid heating of amorphous ice layers formed at about 200 kelvin. The heating process created high-density liquid water at increased pressures. As the layer expanded and decompressed, low-density liquid domains appeared and grew on time scales between 20 nanoseconds and 3 microseconds, which was much faster than competing ice crystallization. Science , this issue p. [978][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abb9385

The policy and practice of apartment provision: a test case for Australia’s New Urban Agenda

Despite the low-density form of Australian cities, metropolitan planning policies have long supported urban consolidation and residential densification, with the objective of achieving a more sustainable urban form. However, recent high levels of apartment development, especially in the capital cities, have failed to deliver the social and environmental advantages anticipated from providing higher density housing in established areas. Instead, rapid densification has occurred alongside, and is directly related to, a substantial decline in the affordability of housing for rent and purchase, and spatial polarisation of housing markets.Drawing upon the author’s direct involvement in policy development and regulatory reform, the paper provides a detailed investigation of the policy, governance and regulatory frameworks for apartment development in Australia’s major cities, and the specific attempts in recent years to reform these to achieve better outcomes. The research uses Ball’s ‘structures of housing provision’ framework of housing systems analysis to offer a unique contribution to the literature on urban sustainability transitions.The paper finds that apartments represent a persistent problem for Australian planning and, furthermore, that resolving this problem will be critical to managing Australia’s transition to urban sustainability, while improving access to quality, affordable housing. Relevant strategies and successful points of intervention are identified.Apartments as a development type pose a unique set of challenges for planning and other regulatory systems. Recent proliferation of apartments has highlighted the contingent nature of existing development controls, which have evolved in conjunction with market processes and established structures of housing provision, principally suburban housing growth. Apartment development presents a challenge to this established model, akin to the challenge that integrated sustainable development represents for planning systems as a whole. This paper provides a framework for understanding emergent pathways from the current impasse and some practical directions.

Multi-scale Experimental Investigations on the Deterioration Mechanism of Sandstone Under Wetting–Drying Cycles

The repeated wetting–drying (WD) cycles can cause the deterioration of rock and thus affect the service performance of the related rock engineering, e.g., the crushed-rock embankment and the reservoir. The study comprehensively investigated the deterioration mechanism of sandstone under the WD cycles based on a series of multi-scale experiments, including the microstructure, the meso–micro pore characteristics, and the macroscopic physical and mechanical properties. The results indicate that the content of dissolved minerals and the permeability are two key factors that determine the deterioration effect caused by the WD cycles. During the WD cycles, the pore size range of sandstone becomes wider due to the formation of new small pores and the connection of original pores. Thus, low-density area forms within the samples, which causes the increasing of density dispersion. The structure deterioration weakens the physical and mechanical properties of the samples. The ultrasonic test indicates that the decreasing rate of the P-wave velocity is larger than that of the S-wave velocity, especially in the first 5 cycles. Besides, the exponential equations of uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus with the number of WD cycles are established to describe the deterioration of mechanical characteristics.

Local structure in water and its comparison with hexagonal ice from molecular dynamics simulations of TIP4P/2005 water model

ABSTRACTMolecular simulations show that liquid water if sufficiently cooled can separate into low-density (tetrahedral) and high-density (non-tetrahedral) forms. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of TIP4P/2005 liquid water at 1 and 1000 bar and in the temperature range 280 to 200 K. Under these conditions we analyse liquid water's local structure and compare it with hexagonal ice. A spherical cut-off is used to collect nearest neighbours of oxygen atoms in the first coordination shell. Local orientational order parameters are then used to characterise the orientation in oxygen and hydrogen atoms in these molecules. At 1 and 1000 bar liquid water which is mostly 4 and 5 coordinated at 280 K becomes 4 coordinated when sufficieintly cooled. Oxygen atoms become more orientationally ordered with cooling and at temperatures less than 230 K its orientation is ice-like. Hydrogens tend to orient out-of-plane with cooling thus allowing the 4 coordinated water to form network like structures. Similar to oxygen ordering, hydrogens also prefer ice-like arrangment with supercooling.

Trajectories to Low-Density Settlements Past and Present: Paradox and Outcomes

The conventional history of urban growth defines agrarian-based cities prior to the 19th century CE as densely inhabited and commonly bounded by defenses such as walls. By contrast industrial-based cities are viewed as more spread out and without marked boundaries. Since the 1960s a trajectory towards extensive, low-density urbanism with sprawling, scattered suburbs surrounding a denser core has been formally recognised and given various names such as megalopolis in the West and desakota in southern and eastern Asia. These sprawling industrial cities have been regarded as a unique derivative of modern phenomena such as mechanized transport and the commercial property market. However, this set of premises are not valid. The agrarian-based world also contained dispersed, low-density urbanism - on its grandest scale, the vast circa 1000 sq km urban complex of Greater Angkor and the famous Maya cities of lowland Central America with maximum areas of about 200 sq km. The Maya only used pedestrian and riverine transport so the conventional transport explanation for industrial dispersed urbanism is at best partial. There was another trajectory to extensive, low-density settlement forms for places which were generally less than 15-20 sq km in extent but could on rare occasions reach areas as large as 40 to 90 sq km. Famous examples are Great Zimbabwe, Chaco Canyon and the European oppida of the late 1st millennium BCE. No-formally agreed term is available to refer to them. I will refer to them by default as “Giants”. The three trajectories to low-density settlement form redefine the history of settlement growth and the meanings of the term “urban”. Worryingly, none of the successive low-density settlements derive from any of the low-density cases of the preceding trajectory. Neither Angkor nor the Classic Maya cities have any connection to the industrial low-density cities. By contrast compact cities, the epitome of the obsolete definition of cities display continuity to succeeding urban forms over several thousand years. The implications for modern, giant, low-density cities are ominous.

Growing up, growing out: comparing spatial patterns of urban populations in Canada

The spatial distribution of population and related density characteristics has a significant impact on urban form; a low-density urban form is typically associated with low efficiency of service delivery, poor connectivity between communities, and a high tendency of urban sprawl, whereas higher density urban form is associated with transit-oriented development, efficient service delivery, and lower overall infrastructure costs. However, an urban area is never a homogenous environment. Depending on the general community designs, natural barriers, and massive functional infrastructures (airports, large parks), the urban population be may spread out evenly or condensed into some disjointed, isolated clusters. Given the context that Canadian cities have typically low population densities, their population distributions are subject to high spatial variabilities. We use geographic information system (GIS) techniques and geostatistical approaches (Getis–Ord [Formula: see text] hot spot analysis and HDBSCAN) to visualize and compare sub-municipal level population density of the 10 most populous census subdivisions (CSDs) in Canada. Results reveal both low-density forms and density segmentations in most municipalities, especially those without a natural or political border to constrain growth. Population segmentation is sometimes unsolvable due to natural landscapes or massive infrastructures initially planned by local municipalities; however, segmentations may be mitigated if future growth strategies maximize existing population clusters.

Using comparative socio-ecological modeling to support Climate Action Planning (CAP)

We present a comparative socio-ecological modeling approach to identify possible improvement opportunities for Climate Action Plans (CAPs), focusing on two cities, Chicago and Stockholm. The aim is to provide a tool for capturing and addressing deep-rooted behavioral and institutional preferences that may aggravate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in cities. Socio-economic activities, land use change, and future urban forms are considered and forecast to the year 2040 on 30m × 30m spatial grids. GHG emissions associated with these urban development aspects are calculated and compared between the cities. Innovative policy instruments for growth control and zoning (GCZ) are simulated and tested through the socio-ecological model, to determine their effectiveness when added to other interventions included in the CAPs. Our findings show that behavioral/institutional preference for sprawl, its low-density form, and resultant carbon sink losses are main factors driving current and future residential and transportation GHG emissions in Chicago. GCZ policies are shown to counteract and mitigate around 20% of these factors in the form of future GHG emissions.