Main Traffic Roads Research Articles

Evaluation of spatial form and activation strategies of traditional villages using spatial information technology

Traditional villages are important carriers of regional cultural inheritance. The challenge of utilizing spatial information technology to protect and preserve the architectural spatial patterns and regional context of traditional villages has attracted significant attention. This study focuses on Biasha Miao village in Guizhou province, China, as the case study. Digital information technology was used to evaluate the architectural spatial texture and typical street space characteristics of different villages. Using the DepthMap model of space syntax and parameters such as integration, average depth value, and connectivity, the article examines the spatial form of traditional villages across three aspects: overall space, street space, and point-like public space. In the end, a spatial activation optimization strategy was proposed. The results showed that the spatial layout of buildings in different villages is closely related to the distribution characteristics of landscape elements such as landform, water system, and farmland, as well as residents’ production, lifestyle, and regional culture. Da village and Zaige new village are well-connected to the main traffic roads connecting them to the outside world, resulting in high spatial permeability and a more extroverted spatial development. Most public spaces are located near the main village road, offering good accessibility, or at the geometric center of the village, where they serve critical roles in cultural display and distribution. This study proposes targeted activation strategies focusing on road traffic, street layout, and spatial nodes to optimize and enhance the spatial quality of traditional villages, improve residents’ living environments, and provide practical guidance for the sustainable development of traditional village spaces.

A new method for constructing roads map in forest area using UAV images

High definition map is a map used for automatic driving. Its absolute precision is sub meter level, that is, the error between the position of an element on the map and the position of the element in the real world is less than 100 cm. In addition, compared with ordinary maps, high definition maps contain more geographic information, such as road width, slope, curvature, etc. At present, high definition roads map construction is largely for the main traffic road. However, there are few studies on the construction of high definition forest roads map for forestry production and management. Thus, it is imperative and helpful to explore an efficient and low-cost method for constructing high definition forest roads map that can provide accurate basic map services for forestry management activities. In this study, firstly, the DJI Phantom 4 RTK UAV was used for aerial photography to obtain the forest oblique images. Then, combined with close range photogrammetry, the high-resolution images under the forest are acquired and generated into dense point cloud images. Next, the two images are fused using iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm combined with manual registration; Finally, the fine-grained 3D scene model is generated by using the Context Capture 3D modeling software, based on which a high definition forest roads map was constructed using human-computer interaction model. Taking Menggongshan Forest Farm as an example, the construction of the fine 3D scene model was carried out to solve the problem of loopholes and ambiguities of the road model under forest, based on which the high definition forest roads map was constructed. To evaluate the accuracy of the forest roads map, the accuracy check was conducted. The results showed that the point position on the forest roads map, compared to the actual point, had a medium, minimum and maximum error of 0.076 m, 0.020 m and 0.170 m in plane, respectively, a medium, minimum and maximum error of 0.122 m, 0.005 m and -0.214 m in elevation, respectively. The accuracy of the high definition forest roads map meets the need of forestry production and management activities. It is feasible to adopt the method of UAV oblique photogrammetry combined with close-range photogrammetry, fine 3D scene model construction and human-computer interactive for constructing high definition forest road map. And this method can provide a low-cost and high-efficiency way for constructing high definition forest roads map, and also can better provide basic map data for forest management activities.

Maternal apparent temperature during pregnancy on the risk of offspring asthma and wheezing: effect, critical window, and modifiers.

The objective of this study was to explore the impact of maternal AT during pregnancy on childhood asthma and wheezing, as well as the potential effect modifiers in this association. A cross-sectional study was implemented from December 2018 to March 2019 in Jinan to investigate the prevalence of childhood asthma and wheezing among aged 18months to 3years. Then, we conducted a case-control study based on population to explore the association between prenatal different AT exposure levels and childhood asthma and wheezing. The association was assessed by generalized additive models and logistic regression models, and stratified analyses were performed to explore potential effect modifiers. A total of 12,384 vaccinated children participated in screening for asthma and wheezing, 236 cases were screened, as well as 1445 controls were randomized. After adjusting for the covariates, childhood asthma and wheezing were significantly associated with cold exposure in the first trimester, with OR 1.731 (95% CI: 1.117-2.628), and cold exposure and heat exposure in the third trimester, with ORs 1.610 (95% CI: 1.030-2.473) and 2.039 (95% CI: 1.343-3.048). In the third trimester, enhanced impacts were found among girls, children whose distance of residence was close to the nearest main traffic road, and children whose parents have asthma. The study indicates that exposure to extreme AT during the first and third trimesters could increase the risk of childhood asthma and wheezing.

Menadžment saobraćaja u turizmu - značaj saobraćajne infrastrukture za razvoj turističkih destinacija u Srbiji na primeru grada Kraljeva i Zlatiborskog okruga

Transport infrastructure in Serbia constitutes an integral part of the material basis of tourism. The development of a tourist destination is impossible without the development of transport infrastructure. Traffic infrastructure is an integral part of a tourist destination and a condition for the development of all activities and processes in the destination. The attractive factors of the tourist destination itself cannot be successfully valorized if there is no good traffic infrastructure and traffic connections. In fact, the development of traffic contributed to the movement of people and the development of tourism, especially the construction of traffic infrastructure, railways, roads and airports, which have led to modern mass tourism. Improving the quality of traffic in terms of speed and comfort of travel is an extremely important factor in the tourist offer today. Destinations that have quality traffic infrastructure and good traffic connections are more attractive as destinations for tourists. An important prerequisite for the development of tourism in destinations is the development of traffic infrastructure, that is, the position of the destination in relation to the main traffic roads. The development of air traffic and the existence of an airport with flights to emitting markets is one of the important prerequisites for the development of tourism in Serbia. The region around the city of Kraljevo and the Zlatibor district have an extremely good position for the further development of Serbia's tourist offer. The construction of transport infrastructure is the first and decisive factor that affects the growth and development of tourism in a certain tourist destination. Traffic infrastructure extremely strongly defines and directs the economic and tourism development of Serbia. The inclusion of the airports in Kraljevo and Užice, as well as the further inclusion of other smaller airports, especially in those locations that gravitate towards a larger number of cities, will strongly influence the improvement of tourism at the country level. Multiple benefits from the inclusion of smaller airports in Serbia will be most easily seen through the increase in the number of passengers at these airports, but the real effects will be seen when the mobility of people, primarily from the region, will be noticed in the years to come.

A Monitoring Method Based on Vegetation Abnormal Information Applied to the Case of Jizong Shed-Tunnel Landslide

Landslides are one of the most dangerous natural disasters, which have affected national economic development and social stability. This paper proposes a method to indirectly monitor the deformation characteristics of landslides by extracting the abnormal vegetation information, especially for the inaccessible high-mountain landslides in southwestern China. This paper extracts the vegetation anomaly information in the Jizong Shed-Tunnel landslide which is located on the main traffic road to Tibet by the optical remote sensing Gaofen-1 (GF-1) data, and analyzes the temporal and spatial characteristics of the vegetation anomaly information through a time series. Then, we use the small baseline subsets interferometry synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology to process Sentinel-1 data to obtain the time-series surface deformation information. Finally, we analyze and verify the results of the two methods. The results show that there is obvious vegetation coverage (VC) decline, with a maximum increasing percentage of 8.77% for the low and medium VC, and obvious surface deformation around the landslide, with the highest settlement rate of between 0 mm/year and 30 mm/year. Through the time-series analysis, we find that the change trends of the two methods are basically the same. This paper shows that the method of using abnormal vegetation information to monitor the Jizong Shed-Tunnel landslide has a certain degree of reliability and practicability. It can provide a new idea and effective supplement for landslide monitoring.

Engaging Students in Learning the Relations of Geographical Elements through GIS-Enabled Property Price Visualization

Understanding the relations of urban elements is important in secondary school geography. Based on the price data of 22,684 listed apartments, this article aims to enable students to understand how geographical elements are related to the distribution of apartment prices through spatial analysis using ArcGIS 10.8. The spatial analysis showed that apartment prices are related to their proximity to government offices, schools, hospitals and main traffic roads. The content analysis of field notes, interviews and discussions suggests that students favor geographic information system (GIS)-based teaching and feel geospatial technology is useful to visualize the relationship of apartment prices to other geographical elements. Moreover, GIS-based teaching not only improves students’ skill of generating datasets and raster maps, but also provides more room for students’ enquiries compared to conventional teaching.

Barking up the Right Tree: Using Tree Bark to Track Airborne Particles in School Environment and Link Science to Society.

Children's exposure to air pollution affects both their health and learning skills. Fine and ultrafine particulate matter (PM2.5, PM1), notably issued from traffic sources in urban centers, belong to the most potential harmful health hazards. However their monitoring and the society's awareness on their dangers need to be consolidated. In this study, raising teacher and pupil involvement for air quality improvement in their schools environment is reached through developing a passive monitoring technique (bio‐sensors made of tree bark). The experiment was implemented in two urban elementary schools situated close to a main traffic road of the city of Toulouse (South of France). Magnetic properties, carbonaceous fraction measurements, and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM‐EDX) investigations were realized both on passive bio‐sensors and filters issued from active sampling. We find that traffic is the main PM1 source for both outdoors and indoors at schools. Higher levels of outdoor PM in the school's environments compared to urban background are reached especially in the cold period. The schools proximity to a main traffic source and lack of ventilation are the main causes for observed PM1 accumulation in classrooms. The co‐working experiment with educational teams and pupils shows that the use of bio‐sensors is a driver for children empowerment to air pollution and therefore represents a potential key tool for the teachers though limiting eco‐anxiety. As PM accumulation is observed in many scholar environments across Europe, the proposed methodology is a step toward a better assessment of PM impact on pupil's health and learning skills.

Application of University Campus Noise Map Based on Noise Propagation Model: A Case in Guangxi University

Considering the characteristics of a campus environment and the rules that govern outdoor sound propagation, this paper identifies traffic noise as the dominant noise source of the campus environment based on the measurement of the noise environment. A noise propagation model that is suitable for university campuses was developed and used it was to create a noise map of the ambient area of the teaching building on the campus of Guangxi University. This noise map was then utilized to analyze the noise environment. The results revealed that for a given teaching building, the noise disturbance on high-rise classrooms is more significant compared to the impact on low-rise classrooms. Attention should then be paid to noise control in the high-rise classroom of the building. By appropriately increasing the distance between the building and the main traffic road or by adopting a judicious soundscape design that considers the shape of the building, it is possible to effectively reduce the interference of noise during teaching activities in a building and improve the sound quality of the campus environment. The results of this study provide a theoretical framework for the governance of the campus acoustic environment.

Occurrence, Distribution and Risk Assessment of PAHs in Road Dust Sediment in Daejeon Metropolitan City, South Korea

In this study, the occurrence and distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in road dust sediment(RDS) deposited from main traffic roads as well as residential and industrial areas were examined with a total of 144 samples in seasons. Based on the results, the concentrations of PAHs were found to be higher in winter and ranged between 0.15 and 1.94 mg/kg with an average of 0.65 mg/kg. The results indicate that pyrene, fluoranthene, phenanthrene, and benzo(ghi)perylene were commonly found in RDS, likely originated from vehicle exhaust emissions and fuel combustion by the diagnostic ratio study. Non-cancer risk from PAHs for humans exposed to RSD was found to be low (HI 1.2E-05). The estimated excess cancer risks by PAHs in RDS was also much less than the regulatory guideline for cancer risk (1×10-6). Thus, current concentrations of PAHs in RDS are expected to be pose no threat to humans under the assumed exposure scenarios with applied exposure factors. However, more extensive and long-term sample analysis for gaseous and particulate PAHs is still warranted to determine potential risks to humans and the fate in the environment, since their concentration and distribution can be influenced by micro-metrological conditions, traffic volumes, or road clean-up conditions.

Analyzing Air Pollutant Reduction Possibilities in the City of Zagreb

This paper aims to present possible areas to plant different vegetation types near traffic jams to reduce air pollution in the capital of Croatia, the city of Zagreb. Based on main traffic road and random forest machine learning using WorldView-2 European cities data, potential areas are established. It is seen that, based on a 10 m buffer, there is a possible planting area of more than 220,000 square meters, and based on 15 m buffer, there is a possible planting area of more than 410,000 square meters. The proposed plants are Viburnum lucidum, Photinia x fraseri, Euonymus japonicus, Tilia cordata, Aesculus hippocastanum, Pinus sp., Taxus baccata, Populus alba, Quercus robur, Betula pendula, which are characteristic for urban areas in Croatia. The planting of proposed trees may result in an increase of 3–5% in the total trees in the city of Zagreb. Although similar research has been published, this paper presents novelty findings from combined machine learning methods for defining green urban areas. Additionally, this paper presents original results for this region.

Evaluation of microplastic pollution in Shihezi city, China, using pine needles as a biological passive sampler

Microplastic (MP) pollution has attracted much attention. To understand the characteristics of atmospheric MP pollution in Shihezi, Northwest China, this study used pine needles from trees in Shihezi City as passive samplers. MP contamination was found in all pine needle samples, with an average concentration of 16.52 ± 3.76 items/g. MPs were mainly in the shape of fragments (<0.05 mm). Differences in MP pollution were observed in different functional areas. The abundance of MPs in pine needles was the highest on the main traffic road (19.02 ± 2.52 items/g). Spectral analysis showed that the main polymer of MPs was polyethylene (17.2%), followed by polystyrene (15.5%) and polypropylene (13.8%). By analyzing the principal components and spatial distribution, fragments and pellets were found to have similar sources (mainly industrial activities), whereas films and fibers were influenced by traffic flow. The source of films was related to the packaging industry. The purpose of this study was to provide a reference for the future use of pine needles as atmospheric MP passive samplers, for the traceability and prevention of urban atmospheric MP pollution and for the formulation of national atmospheric MP environmental standards.

Acoustical Environment Studies in the Modern Urban University Campuses

The quality of the acoustic environments at Xi’an Jiatong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Soochow University (Dushuhu Campus, SUDC) in Suzhou City were investigated in the present work through real-time noise level measurements and questionnaire surveys. Before commencing the measurements and surveys, these two campuses’ sound sources were summarized and classified into four categories through on-site observation: human-made, machinery, living creatures, and natural physical sounds. For the zones near the main traffic road, with a high volume of crowds and surrounded by a park, sound from road vehicles, humans talking, and birds/insects were selected by the interviewees as the major sound sources, respectively. Only zone 3 (near to a park) at XJTLU could be classified as A zone (noise level &lt; 55 dBA) with an excellent quality acoustical environment. All other zones had either good or average quality acoustical environments, except zone 1 (near to main traffic road) at XJTLU, with a fair-quality acoustical environment.

Turbulence-permitting air pollution simulation for the Stuttgart metropolitan area

Abstract. Air pollution is one of the major challenges in urban areas. It can have a major impact on human health and society and is currently a subject of several litigations in European courts. Information on the level of air pollution is based on near-surface measurements, which are often irregularly distributed along the main traffic roads and provide almost no information about the residential areas and office districts in the cities. To further enhance the process understanding and give scientific support to decision makers, we developed a prototype for an air quality forecasting system (AQFS) within the EU demonstration project “Open Forecast”. For AQFS, the Weather Research and Forecasting model together with its coupled chemistry component (WRF-Chem) is applied for the Stuttgart metropolitan area in Germany. Three model domains from 1.25 km down to a turbulence-permitting resolution of 50 m were used, and a single-layer urban canopy model was active in all domains. As a demonstration case study, 21 January 2019 was selected, which was a heavily polluted day with observed PM10 concentrations exceeding 50 µg m−3. Our results show that the model is able to reasonably simulate the diurnal cycle of surface fluxes and 2 m temperatures as well as evolution of the stable and shallow boundary layer typically occurring in wintertime in Stuttgart. The simulated fields of particulates with a diameter of less than 10 µm (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) allow a clear statement about the most heavily polluted areas apart from the irregularly distributed measurement sites. Together with information about the vertical distribution of PM10 and NO2 from the model, AQFS will serve as a valuable tool for air quality forecasting and has the potential of being applied to other cities around the world.

Residence proximity to traffic-related facilities is associated with childhood asthma and rhinitis in Shandong, China

Associations of asthma and rhinitis with residential traffic proximity were investigated in several studies, but conclusions were inconsistent. From January to April in 2015, a cross-sectional study was conducted in two cities of Shandong, China. Parents-reported questionnaires were collected from 69 kindergartens for 3–6-year-olds preschoolers. Here we investigated associations of four traffic-related facilities (main traffic road, automobile 4S shop, filling station, and ground car park) close to residence with childhood asthma and rhinitis under considering individual and residential characteristics. In the two-level (kindergarten-child) mixed-effect logistic regression analyses among 5640 children who did not change residences since birth, filling station close to residence within 100 m (reference: >200 m) was significantly associated with lifetime-ever asthma (adjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval: 2.63, 1.28–5.40), wheeze (2.06, 1.35–3.15), rhinitis (1.69, 1.08–2.64) and current (past 12 months prior to the survey) wheeze (2.11, 1.34–3.34) and rhinitis (1.65, 1.05–2.59). Numbers of the facilities close to residence had dose-response relationships with odds of asthma, wheeze and rhinitis symptoms. These dose-response relationships were generally stronger in children whose bedrooms were in the 1st-3rd floors, and in children with low ventilation in bedroom and kitchen, and in children from families who did not using natural gas for cooking. The similar associations were found in the sensitive analyses among all surveyed 9597 children. Our results indicate that residence close to the traffic-related facilities likely is a risk factor for the occurrence of asthma and rhinitis among preschool children. The studied associations could be modified by household ventilation and air pollutants.

Gambaran Tingkat Kebisingan Akibat Suara Kendaraan Bermotor di Beberapa Sekolah Berlokasi di Sekitar Jalan Raya kota Padang

Concern about noise pollution has been increasing in worldwide nowadays, especially in industrial and urban areas. Children could be particularly vulnerable to the effects of noise because of its potential to interfere with learning at a critical development stage. Most of the learning occurs at school and thus noise exposure at school gives significant influence on learning performance. According to World Health Organization (WHO), traffic is one of the main sources of environmental noise exposure in urban communities, including school. This paper will review the noise level in some schools located near the main traffic road around Andalas and Simpang Haru area of Padang City, West Sumatera Province. Sound levels are measured at four points, i.e. at the main road in front of school, school gate, the nearest and farthest class room from the main road. The measurements are conducted from 7.00 am in the morning to 04.00 pm in the afternoon. It is found that almost in all positions in the schools are exposure by noise above the threshold limit value reversed by WHO and Indonesian Government 55 dBA. In the morning when the peak time of the traffic session, the noise levels from the class to the gate are around 70 dBA to 85 dBA, and its decrease to 50 dBA and 75 dBA in the afternoon. Some noise is possibly generated not only by traffic noise, but the noise graphics are seemed to be related to the traffic noise in the road.

Traffic Operation Data Analysis and Information Processing Based on Data Mining

With the acceleration of urbanization, urban traffic problems are becoming more and more prominent. In the face of massive traffic data, it is difficult to predict traffic condition with effective data analysis methods. In order to deal with traffic data better, this study applied data mining in traffic data analysis and processing, constructed a Hadoop based data analysis system to collect and preprocess data, and analyzed traffic data using parallel distributed calculation based on MapReduce. The improved fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm and the random forest algorithm were used. The simulation results showed that the error rate of the improved FCM algorithm is 10% and the accuracy rate of the random forest algorithm is 92.3%, indicating the system had high reliability. Then an experiment was carried out on the main traffic roads in Huadu district of Guangzhou, China. It was found that the method was efficient and accurate and had a good application prospect.

Noise Indicators for Size Distributions of Airborne Particles and Traffic Activities in Urban Areas

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among the particle number concentration (PNC), noise, and traffic conditions. Field measurements were conducted to measure the temporal variabilities of the noise levels and PNC over 24 h in a location adjacent to three main traffic roads in Seoul, Korea. The PNC was measured in the range of 0.3 to 10 µm. The noise data was measured by utilizing both the overall levels and spectral characteristics. Traffic data including volumes and speeds of vehicles on the roads were also collected. The results showed that the correlations among the three key parameters varied depending on changes in the noise frequency and particle size. The noise levels at 100–200 Hz were positively correlated with traffic volume and submicron particles. In contrast, they exhibited inverse correlations with the traffic speed and the number of larger particles (&gt;2.5 µm). Compared to noise levels at 100–200 Hz, noise levels at 1–2 kHz exhibited reverse relationships between the traffic and PNC. Submicron particles (0.3–1.0 µm) tended to be more strongly associated with noise levels during the daytime, while those greater than 2.5 µm maintained relatively stable correlations with the noise throughout the day. The findings address the importance of temporal and spectral-specific monitoring of air and noise pollutants for a better understanding of the exposure of the community to air and noise pollution.

Residential Ambient Traffic in Relation to Childhood Pneumonia among Urban Children in Shandong, China: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Pneumonia is a leading cause of childhood death. Few studies have investigated associations between residential ambient environmental exposures and pneumonia. In January–April 2015, we conducted a cross-sectional study in Shandong Province (China) and collected 9597 (response rate: 78.7%) parent-reported questionnaires for 3–6-year-old children from 69 urban kindergartens. We then selected 5640 children who had never changed residence since birth and examined associations between residential ambient traffic-related facilities and childhood pneumonia considering residential characteristics. Prevalence of doctor-diagnosed pneumonia during lifetime-ever was 25.9%. In the multivariate logistic regression analyses, residence close to a main traffic road (adjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval: 1.23, 1.08–1.40) and automobile 4S shop (1.76, 1.16–2.67) within 200 m, residence close to a filling station within 100 m (1.71, 1.10–2.65; reference: >200 m), as well as having a ground car park in the residential community (1.24, 1.08–1.42) were significantly associated with childhood pneumonia. The cumulative numbers of these traffic-related facilities had a positive dose-response relationship with the increased odds of childhood pneumonia. These associations and dose-response relationships were stronger among boys and among children with worse bedroom ventilation status during the night. Associations of residence close to the main traffic road and ground car parks in the residential community with childhood pneumonia were stronger among children living in the 1st–3rd floors than those living on higher floors. Similar results were found in the two-level (kindergarten-child) logistic regression analyses. Our findings indicate that living near traffic-related facilities is likely a risk factor for childhood pneumonia among urban children. The child’s sex, bedroom floor level, and bedroom ventilation could modify associations of ambient traffic-related facilities with childhood pneumonia.

FWFA Optimization based Decision Support System for Road Traffic Engineering

Several ways and efforts have been already conducted to formally solve the road traffic congestion. However, the objective strategy type of road traffic engineering could not be proven truly. Try and error is one inefficient way in road traffic engineering to degrade the level of congestion. The combination between fuzzy-logic and water flow algorithm methods (called FWFA) was used as a main method to construct the decision support system (DSS) for selecting the objective strategy in road traffic engineering. The proposed DSS can suggest the most optimal strategy decision in road traffic engineering. Here, a main traffic road of Juanda in area Ciputat, Tangerang Selatan, province Banten, Indonesia; was selected as a research object in this study. The constructed DSS for road traffic engineering was structurally delivered in this paper.

Characterization of heavy metal desorption from road-deposited sediment under acid rain scenarios

Road-deposited sediments (RDS) on urban impervious surfaces are important carriers of heavy metals. Dissolved heavy metals that come from RDS influenced by acid rain, are more harmful to urban receiving water than particulate parts. RDS and its associated heavy metals were investigated at typical functional areas, including industrial, commercial and residential sites, in Guangdong, Southern China, which was an acid rain sensitive area. Total and dissolved heavy metals in five particle size fractions were analyzed using a shaking method under acid rain scenarios. Investigated heavy metals showed no difference in the proportion of dissolved fraction in the solution under different acid rain pHs above 3.0, regardless of land use. Dissolved loading of heavy metals related to organic carbon content were different in runoff from main traffic roads of three land use types. Coarse particles (>150μm) that could be efficiently removed by conventional street sweepers, accounted for 55.1%–47.1% of the total dissolved metal loading in runoff with pH3.0–5.6. The obtained findings provided a significant scientific basis to understand heavy metal release and influence of RDS grain-size distribution and land use in dissolved heavy metal pollution affected by acid rain.