Metro Development Research Articles

Impact of Metro Construction Activities on Air Quality: A Case Study of Delhi Region in North India

The current study investigated the concerns about the possible effects of metro infrastructure's fast growth on the environment, particularly air quality. This study investigates how the building of metro lines in Delhi, India, affects the quality of the air at the selected locations in south and west parts of union territory of Delhi. Different air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5), gaseous pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), were monitored. Air Quality Index (AQI) was also applied to the obtained data to convert the intricate data into single digits. The findings revealed that the values of PM10 and PM2.5 were beyond the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) threshold at the proximity of metro work zones due to construction activity. Moreover, higher NO2 concentrations were noted because of construction machinery operations and vehicle emissions. The study emphasizes the necessity of efficient mitigation solutions, such as green barriers, emission control plans, and dust suppression tactics, to reduce the negative environmental effects of metro development on Delhi's air quality. The results of this study can help urban planners and politicians to create sustainable development plans for transportation infrastructure that protect the environment and public health.

Metro Stations as Catalysts for Land Use Patterns: Evidence from Wuhan Line 11

Urban rail transit systems significantly influence land use patterns in newly developed areas, yet their impact on spatial organization and functional characteristics remains understudied. This research examines Wuhan Metro Line 11, analyzing land use within an 800 m radius of stations using Point of Interest data, ArcGIS spatial analysis, and locational entropy methods. The study reveals three station types, i.e., single-function, mixed-function, and underdeveloped, each exhibiting distinct spatial differentiation patterns. On this basis, a novel “core-diffusion” model emerges, with the highest density of functional elements observed at approximately 600 m from station centers, challenging conventional proximity assumptions. Three spatial organization modes are identified: single-core independent in two-level axis, single-core continuous in single-level axis, and double-core continuous in two-level axis. These findings contribute to the Transit-Oriented Development literature, offering sustainable insights into optimizing land use around metro stations in rapidly urbanizing contexts. This study also provides a methodological framework applicable to similar urban environments, enhancing the understanding of the complex relationships between metro development and surrounding land use patterns. These results have significant implications for urban planning and policy-making, particularly in emerging economies seeking to balance transit efficiency with sustainable urban growth.

Causal mediation analysis of social and environmental factors in pathways from a metro intervention to eudaimonic wellbeing among older people

BackgroundThis research aims to unravel the pathways linking transport with eudaimonic wellbeing among older people, considering the mediating role of social and environmental factors. MethodsWe focused on outcomes across six dimensions of eudaimonic wellbeing: self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. Using a new metro line as a natural experiment, we collected cohort data of 449 older adults before and after the opening of a new metro line. The treatment group consisted of participants living within the 400-m buffer zones surrounding the new metro stations, while the control group consisted of those living in comparable station catchments. The mediators include social engagement and environmental perception. We first used difference-in-difference (DID) models to estimate the metro's direct influence on these eudaimonic elements. Causal mediation analyses were then conducted to delved into how the social and environmental factors mediated these effects. ResultThe new metro enhanced the treatment group's environmental mastery, life purpose, and self-acceptance (p < 0.05). These improvements were partly attributed to promoted social engagement and improved environmental perceptions triggered by the metro development (p < 0.05). Notably, the environmental perceptions demonstrated a stronger mediating effect than the social factors. Discussion and conclusionTransport interventions could effectively counteract the age-related eudaimonic decline. The enhancement of environmental perceptions played a key role in the effectiveness of the metro intervention. Our findings contribute to the understanding of casual mechanisms of transport and wellbeing which is vital for developing transport policies and projects that address the needs of an ageing population.

Exploring the Spatiotemporal Effects of the Built Environment on the Nonlinear Impacts of Metro Ridership: Evidence from Xi’an, China

Exploring the correlation of the built environment with metro ridership is vital for fostering sustainable urban growth. Although the research conducted in the past has explored how ridership is nonlinearly influenced by the built environment, less research has focused on the spatiotemporal ramifications of these nonlinear effects. In this study, density, diversity, distance, destination, and design parameters are utilized to depict the “5D” traits of the built environment, while Shapley Additive Explanations with eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost-SHAP) are adopted to uncover the spatial and temporal features concerning the nonlinear relationship of the built environment with ridership for metro stations located in Xi’an. We conducted a K-means clustering analysis to detect different site clusters by utilizing local SHAP coefficients. The results show that (1) built environment variables significantly influence metro ridership in a nonlinear manner at different periods and thresholds, with the POI facility density being the most critical variable and the other variables demonstrating time-driven effects; (2) the variables of population density and parking lot density exhibit spatial impact heterogeneity, while the number of parks and squares do not present a clear pattern; and (3) based on the clustering results, the metro stations are divided into four categories, and differentiated guidance strategies and planning objectives are proposed. Moreover, the current work offers a more developed insight into the spatiotemporal influence of built environments on metro travel in Xi’an, China, using nonlinear modeling, which has vital implications for coordinated urban–metro development.

Thresholding-based cellular automata for transportation network derived future urban growth patterns in a peri-urban area

The present study uses the standalone Cellular Automata (CA) model to predict the transportation network-derived future urban growth patterns of a rapidly expanding peri-urban area in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The Landsat satellite images of 1999, 2009, and 2019 are used to deduce the study region's land use/land cover (LULC) patterns. The road networks, suburban railway stations and proposed metro stations are considered the primary drivers of urban growth. The classification results show an increase in built-up area by 48 km2 (104%) from 1999 to 2019, decreasing the open land and vegetation by 21%. The fine-tuned CA gives an area under the relative operating characteristic curve of 0.907, locational accuracy >72% and quantitative accuracy of >89%, indicating a good model fit. The calibrated model is used to simulate the urban growth of 2029 for two scenarios: first a no-metro case and second considering the proposed metro's impact. While the built-up area increases by 28%–120 km2 for the no-metro case, including the proposed metro increases the built-up prediction to 133 km2. The enhanced built-up highlights the role of metro development in triggering significant growth in the region. Although the present study uses Kalyan and contiguous area, the general structure of model and its ability to function with a limited data makes it adaptable across diverse regions at different stages of development worldwide. Such an urban growth model can serve as a practical tool for planners in prompt decision-making.

Urbanization and land subsidence: multi-decadal investigation combined SBAS-InSAR and multi-factors in Shanghai, China

Situated in the Yangtze River Delta’s alluvial plain, Shanghai has faced intensified land subsidence problems since the economic reforms of the 1990s. However, previous studies have lacked long time-series land subsidence monitoring and an analysis of multifactorial interactions in Shanghai over the past years. This study analyzed Shanghai’s land subsidence from 1992 to 2020 using SAR data from ERS-1/2, ENVISAT ASAR, and Sentinel-1A, applying the SBAS-InSAR technique. The geo-detector method was used to identify key factors affecting land subsidence, including groundwater, urban structure, metro development, and population dynamics. The results showed that (1) the utilization of multi-sensor SAR data enables the comprehensive analysis of urban land subsidence over an extended temporal series, facilitating the acquisition of its spatiotemporal distribution; (2) the extent of subsidence in Shanghai was gradually spreading from the core to the outskirts, and the rate of subsidence was gradually decreasing during 1992-2020 period; (3) groundwater was the most influential factor on land subsidence, and the interaction between groundwater and metro had a stronger influence on land subsidence.

Safety assessment for a ballast railway induced by underground subway tunnel blasting: A case study

Modern railroad infrastructure is subject to blast vibrations. The dynamic safety of an operating railroad under the influence of tunnel blasting is a primary problem for metro development in urban areas. In this paper, the blasting excavation of Wuhan Metro Line 5 was selected as a case. The ballast rail- sleeper- ballast bed composite structure numerical model was developed and validated in order to evaluate the ballast railway’s safety. The smoothed particle hydrodynamics element was chosen to replicate the ballast bed due to the instability and unpredictability of the ballast bed constructed from crushed stone. Further analysis was conducted on the dynamic response characteristics of the ballast rail-sleeper-ballast bed composite structure. On the basis of the parameter calculation and analysis, a prediction model of the blast vibration velocity of the ballast rail under blasting conditions was developed. Next, the rail was simulated as a semi-infinite Euler beam and placed on the Kelvin foundation to calculate the rail displacement at the train’s limited operation speed. By substituting the maximum rail displacement when the train is running at maximum speed into the rail velocity prediction model, it is possible to determine the maximum blast velocity that the rail can withstand in this instance. In this case, the ballast bed, sleeper, and ballast rail were also deemed safe.

Understanding China's metro development: A comparative regional analysis

Economic growth and infrastructure development in China has appeared to be regionally imbalanced for many years during the post-reform period since 1978. The significant differences in transport infrastructure and facilities among various regions in China can be depicted as “stairs” descending gradually from the higher eastern coastal region to the lower west of China. Metro systems have been developed in both coastal and inland provinces, and they are now present in the four different economic regions of China. The findings in this paper show that the distribution of metro systems from the perspective of spatial and regional development in China tends to be mixed and diverse. Considering the length, numbers of lines and stations, there is a consistent pattern in the medians of the datasets for different regions, with no significant differences in the levels of metro development between coastal provinces and inland provinces, and among the four economic regions. However, the Eastern Region not only has the largest number of cities with extensive metro systems; it also has many prefecture-level cities and non-provincial capital cities with developed metro systems. The analysis also shows that economic and population factors are positively and significantly correlated with the scale of metro development in both coastal and inland regions, and these factors have stronger influence on the scale of metro systems in cities in the inland region compared with cities in the coastal region. In summary, the evidence suggests that the spatial and regional layouts of metro development in China are influenced by economic, population, and institutional and policy factors; the latter having an important role to play in reducing regional imbalances in metro infrastructure development.

How urban metro networks grow: From a complex network perspective

Metro lines emerged and developed in cities driven by various factors, and resulted in different structures as we see today. How do metro lines grow as a system? The spatiotemporal growing patterns of metro networks and their complex-network statistics may shed light on this question. Within the framework of the complex network analysis, this paper establishes a nine-metric scheme to quantify the service performance of an urban metro network from three dimensionalities i.e., accessibility, resilience, and serviceability. Accordingly, a shamrock plot is proposed as a tool to visualize the multi-dimensional maturity of a metro network as well as its growing pattern. The metrics and the visualization tool are used to reveal metro development in 42 cities of Chinese mainland. The results show that metro networks can evolve from nascent, to skeleton, and to mature forms, with their scores increasing in all dimensionalities. The choice of urban transportation between metro-dominant and automobile-dominant results from the race between metro development and car popularity. Cities may be more likely to become metro-dominant if metro develops early at a low level of car ownership. Urban metro network may develop as a response to the city’s needs hierarchically from the most basic (e.g., accessibility) to more advanced (e.g., resilience and serviceability), similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of individual needs.

Metro systems and urban development: Impacts and implications

Many cities in the world have developed metro systems. Metro systems affect urban development in many ways, such as enhancing labour force mobility, increasing urban productivity and promoting urban underground space (UUS) utilisation to accommodate urban functions. This paper explores the relationship between metro systems and urban development, with particular focus on the comprehensive impacts of metro development on the economic, environmental and social development of cities. The contribution of metro systems to urban development has been confirmed by numerous studies in many cities in the world. The positive capitalisation of metro systems is reflected in property values in areas surrounding metro systems, although the impacts may vary spatially, temporally and geographically. In addition, metro systems impact on the natural and built environments by reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging new development and urban renewal, sharping urban development and land use, facilitating commercial growth and residential development, promoting the utilisation of UUS, and increasing mixed land use and urban density. However, there are mixed effects, both positive and negative, of metro systems on equality of transit opportunity, accessibility and connectivity, public health, travel behaviour, personal identity, travel experience and safety. This study sheds light on the impacts of metro systems on urban development, and provides important information for urban and transport planners and policy-makers wishing to develop metro systems to support sustainable urban development.

ТЕНДЕНЦИИ РАЗВИТИЯ АРХИТЕКТУРЫ МОСКОВСКОГО МЕТРОПОЛИТЕНА В ПЕРИОД С 1935 ПО 2000ГГ.

For 200 years, the Metro has been carrying out most of the passenger traffic in large cities and metropolitan areas. The metro architecture embodies cultural ideals, historical milestones and the achievements of society in various fields. The metro is the transport frame of the city, participates in the formation of the urban ensemble. Sustainable development of the metro requires a comprehensive study of its architecture, analysis of domestic and foreign analogues: the prerequisites and chronology of metro development, identification of concepts, directions, principles and techniques of the architectural formation of metro objects. A systematic approach to architectural analysis and design of the metro, identifying the importance of the role of an architect allows to determine the prospects and vectors for the development of transport infrastructure, improve the quality and safety of passenger traffic, design energy-efficient, autonomous, economical, aesthetic and ergonomic metro stations. The high rates of modern metro design require the development of measures to preserve the unity of the metro lines and communication with the city space. Systematization and classification of trends in the development of metro architecture in the period from 1823 to 2000 will allow to determine the arsenal of architectural techniques, to develop urban planning approaches to the architectural solution of the stations

Sustainable Development of Urban Metro System: Perspective of Coordination between Supply and Demand.

Metro systems are gradually becoming more and more crucial in promoting the economy and society in cities. However, various challenges such as financial resources and the efficiency of utilizing these metro plans bring difficulties for metro construction. Hence, accurately evaluating the urban metro system’s development condition seems significant for the sustainable development of the urban metro system. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation indicator system of metro development conditions containing 25 indicators from dimensions of demand and supply is established in this study, and a coupling coordination degree model combined with the entropy weight method and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is proposed to analyze the level of metro development conditions and coupling coordination conditions of 35 cities in China. According to the calculation results, 35 cities are divided into six categories, and radar charts are constructed to promote the sustainable development of the metro system.

Museums and Heritage Sites — The Missing Link in Smart City Planning: A Case Study of Pune City, India

The process of urbanisation has dramatically increased in India in recent years. The Government of India launched Smart City Mission in 2015 which was intended to transform 100 cities into smart cities. The focus of our research is one such city in India on its path to smartification. Pune’s smart city mission focuses on techno-infrastructural development to increase mobility and digital connectivity. Social-cultural and historical indicators are not considered an integral part of this development. Given this, does the smart city mission of Pune privilege the techno-infrastructural development of a city over its social and cultural development? In this paper, we identify museums and heritage sites in Pune as signifiers of a city's culture and analyse metro development plans through GIS to understand whether the museums' current geography mentioned above and heritage sites require alignment with Pune’s planned smart city mission. The research shows that the quest to ‘upgrade’ and ‘modernise’ is not adequately aligned with the role of key historic-cultural institutions such as museums and heritage sites. The case of Pune city shows that, without careful and inclusive development plan, a full roll-out of the smart city project will exclude a large number of historical and cultural spaces such as museums and heritage sites from emerging as an integral part of smart cities across the country and render them peripheral to modern urban life.

Exploring influencing factors on metro development in China from urban and economic perspectives

As an important form of public transport and utilisation of urban underground space (UUS), metro has been promoted in an increasing number of large cities in China. By the end of 2019, China’s 37 cities had developed metro systems with a total length of over 5000 km. It is widely acknowledged that urban and economic factors can significantly influence transport infrastructure development and UUS utilisation. The results of this study indicate that there are statistically significant relationships between urban and economic factors and the level of metro development. The results of the regression analyses show that the variables of metro operation history and general public budget revenue are significantly and positively related to metro operation length, number of lines and number of stations of cities with metros in China. Resident population in urban areas does not appear to be a significant determinant of the level of metro development when other urban economic factors are controlled for. Administrative division (prefecture-level cities) and economic regions (Northeast Region) are significantly and negatively associated with the level of metro development in China. The findings of this study suggest that policy and institutional factors, and operation history of metro, along with urban and economic factors such as economic capabilities, regional differentiation, and administrative divisions, play important roles in influencing the development levels of metro systems in China.

Water and Food Nexus: Role of Socio-Economic Status on Water–Food Nexus in an Urban Agglomeration Hyderabad, India Using Consumption Water Footprint

Cities are complex and evolving systems with various factors playing key roles, e.g., population increase, the migration of population, the availability of resources, and the flexibility of policies. Consumers’ socioeconomic status is also an important aspect that needs to be studied in the context of a self-reliant urban city in its resource consumption. In this regard, the association between water–food and socio-economic attributes was analyzed based on the consumer-centric approach for the Hyderabad Metro Development Authority (HMDA) region, India. In this study, the embedded water content in food consumption was estimated and analyzed for nine food groups and twelve economic classes of the HMDA region. The middle economic classes were found to correspond to ~80% of embedded water content in the HMDA region, followed by the upper and lower economic classes. Except for cereals, per capita, the water consumption of all food groups increased with the spending power of the economic class. The green, blue, and grey consumption water footprints (WFs) suggested that much of the water that is being consumed in the HMDA region is precipitation-driven, followed by surface and groundwater resources. Limited water resources, water resource variability, climate change consequences including future climate projections, uncertainty in data, WF estimates, and region’s future growth imply a detailed study in drafting policies to become a self-reliant region.

An overview of recent developments in China’s metro systems

Along with rapid urbanisation and economic growth, massive development of transport infrastructure has been seen in China, facilitating overall economic development and improved quality of life. Metro is a common form of high-capacity public transport and urban underground space (UUS) utilisation in megacities. On many occasions, for social, environmental, economic and functional considerations a metro system is the optimal choice. China has seen remarkably rapid development of metro systems during the past two decades and is now leading the world with regard to the speed and scale of planning and construction of metro systems. This paper investigates recent developments in metro systems in mainland China, including the history of metro development, metro scale (measured by metro length, number of metro lines, number of metro stations, and metro patronage) and the relationships among three factors: economic capabilities, resident populations and administrative divisions of cities. The results show that China’s cities with larger resident populations tend to develop larger-scale metro systems that are longer, with more metro lines and stations. With a higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a metro city in China tends to develop longer metro systems, and more extensive metro systems with more lines and more stations, carry more passengers. Cities at higher administrative levels, with greater economic strengths and larger populations, are more likely to develop more extensive metro networks.

Rethinking Basic Infrastructure: French Aid and Metro Development in Postwar Latin America

In der zweiten Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts entstanden in lateinamerikanischen Metropolen acht neue U-Bahn-Systeme, darunter in Mexiko, Brasilien, Chile und Venezuela. Welche Fak- toren konnen diese dramatischen Veranderungen in urbanen Raumen erklaren? Der Aufsatz argumentiert, dass dafur franzosische Akteure verantwortlich waren. Wahrend internationale Entwicklungsagenturen grundlegende Infrastrukturprojekte wie Hafen oder Damme forderten, bot sich Frankreich urbanen Modernisierern an. Die Beziehungen zwischen lateinamerikanischen Planern und franzosischen Investoren kamen franzosischen Herstellern und lateinamerikanischen Befurwortern von U-Bahn-Systemen gleichermasen zugute. Der Aufsatz basiert auf spanischen, portugiesischen und franzosischen Quellen, darunter Archivmaterial der Societe francaise d’etudes et de realisations de transports urbains (SOFRETU), lokalen Zeitungsberichten und offiziellen Stellungnahmen. Er hebt die Bedeutung bilateraler Entwicklungskooperation zwischen Frankreich und lateinamerikanischen Landern hervor.

Consideration on Construction and Development of Shanghai Smart Metro

The degree of intelligence and service level of urban rail transit has significant influence on the measurement of intelligent transportation. In this paper, the importance of smart metro development is discussed from the perspectives of national development background, technology development trends, and people’s basic requirements, and the features of smart metro in multiple levels are analyzed. On this basis, the construction target, system architecture, and construction methods of smart metro are put forward, and the applications of smart metro are elaborated from smart construction, smart operation and maintenance, and smart service.

Build up circular city planning index with EAM

This study is aimed to build up a structure of circular city planning index with Essential Analysis Model (EAM). As countries around the world are engaged in finding solutions against increasingly exhausting resources and energies, the circular city is trending the metro development in future. This mandates a structure for index in circular city planning in future. To ensure the practice of the structure, it is to be based on circular economy and derived by “target oriented” essence logic. This study employs semi-structured exert interview to get professional inputs from more comprehensive population. A hierarchical structure of 18 major and 53 minor indexes is set up with the help of mind map software which may be referenced by government agencies, metro governance, urban and rural planning, and relevant competent authority in their circular city planning endeavor.

Quantifying the water footprint of an urban agglomeration in developing economy

Sustainable conservation of natural resources has become a primary concern for urban cities, globally as they are centers of consumption and economy. Due to population growth, cities depend more on imports of food, energy, water, and services from all over the globe, and consume more virtual water than direct water, because of their food habits and lifestyle. Most of the imported goods are water intensive and pose challenges in tracing the source of virtual water. The goal of this research is to develop a general framework to assess the water footprint (WF) of a typical city in India using existing databases. A consumer-centric approach has been adopted for assessing WF in Hyderabad Metro Development Area (HMDA). The variation of the WF across economic classes of consumers is also analyzed. The WF is estimated based on four broad categories: 1) food consumption, 2) fossil fuels based energy, 3) electric power, and 4) direct water. Average WF of HMDA region is 1041 m3/cap/year (2852 LPCD), in which 70% (1986 LPCD) of WF was consumed by food, 25% (744 LPCD) by electric power, only 4% (121 LPCD) is from direct water consumption and surprisingly the contribution from fossil fuel WF to total per capita WF of HMDA area is less than 1%.