Percentage Of Buildings Research Articles

Landscape factors influencing bird nest site selection in urban green spaces

IntroductionUnderstanding the birds’ breeding strategies in urban habitats is vital for ensuring their continued existence. Therefore, more research must be conducted on bird breeding and urban adaptation strategies in urban green spaces. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating the influence of landscape factors on the selection of bird nest sites. MethodsData on the presence and absence of magpie (Pica pica) and gray magpie (Cyanopica cyana) nests were collected through field surveys conducted in the campus of Nanjing Forestry University during the 2023 breeding season. Generalized additive models (GAMs) incorporating landscape variables were employed to assess the effects of these predictors on nest occurrence. The model with the lowest Akaike’s information criterion value was selected among the candidate GAMs.ResultsBelow is a summary of the main results. Nest tree height (TH), distance from the central lawn (D), and tree coverage (TC) within the sampled area were identified as the primary landscape factors influencing nest site choice. Conversely, factors such as the shortest distance to the water source, herb coverage, shrub coverage, percentage of buildings, and percentage of hard pavement did not significantly impact on nest site selection. Furthermore, the nesting potential of magpies and grey magpies initially increased with tree height, reaching a maximum at ca. TH=25 meters after which it began to decline. The nesting occurrence rate showed an initial decrease tendency with increasing distance from the central lawn, reaching a minimum at D=400 meters, and then increased with further distance. Additionally, nesting potential decreased initially with increasing of TC in the range of 0–20%, fluctuated evenly between 20–60% TC, and decreased rapidly when TC exceeded 60%.DiscussionThis study provides valuable insights into the selection of nest sites by birds in urban habitats, specifically with respect to landscape factors. The understanding of the impact of urban green spaces on urban birds and the underlying mechanisms of their behavior contributes to the conservation of wild birds and promotes the harmonious development of urban areas.

A Neighborhood-Based Urban Water Carrying Capacity Assessment: Analysis of the Relationship between Spatial-Demographic Factors and Water Consumption Patterns in Tehran, Iran

The upward trajectory of urbanization, coupled with the ever-growing demand for more water resources, has led to increased pressure on limited water resources, particularly in cities with dry climates such as Tehran. Since the balance of Tehran’s water ecosystems has been disturbed, and the quality and quantity of water resources have been affected in recent years, conducting an assessment of water environment carrying capacity (WECC) seemed vital for this city. WECC was used as the basis of water supply sustainability evaluation concerning Tehran’s land use and demographic characteristics on a neighborhood scale. Therefore, the effect size and correlation of 12 types of land use and six variables derived from the literature with water consumption patterns were examined in warm and cold seasons. The results show that land use, population density, percentage of deteriorated area, percentage of buildings over 30 years old, residential–commercial land use, and green spaces correlate significantly with water consumption. The percentage of deteriorated areas and buildings over 30 years old has a negative, and the rest has a positive impact on water consumption. It is also recommended to use the research findings to improve Tehran’s water environment carrying capacity and apply the proposed evaluation procedure to other cities. The results of this research can be used in planning large and densely populated cities with a neighborhood-oriented approach, in which local institutions play an essential role in attracting people’s participation and inclusive urban planning.

Collapse Probability of Immediate and Special Moment Frames in Tehran under MCE

Residential buildings in most cities, which make up the most significant percentage of buildings, generally contain the most financial and human losses in the face of strong earthquakes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of the collapse of intermediate and unique steel moment frames against maximum ground excitations. In this study, through the first two steps of PEER methodology, using four steel structural frames with intermediate and unique moment frames, after designing according to the codes of national building regulations of Iran and standard 2800, this probabilistic evaluation was used to ensure their safety against collapse. In the next step, to deepen the results, 7 other sites from Tehran were selected. Their hazard spectrum was used to calculate the probability of collapse. In the end, it was observed that, with the reduction of the number of structural floors, the IDA curves at the lower IM level become horizontal in this project. The results showed that some of the 5-story steel structures under study in some parts of Tehran have a higher probability of collapse than acceptable.

Socio-economic prerequisites for reconstruction of residential buildings of the first mass series

The article considers normative-legal, town-planning, technical and technological aspects of the problem of deployment of mass reconstruction and modernization of large-block residential buildings of the first mass series. Analysis and generalization of practical experience in the design and implementation of mass reconstruction of residential buildings of the first mass series in Ukraine and abroad shows that with the introduction of innovative approaches to the design of spatial planning and design solutions, application of modern and well-established technologies for their reconstruction economic, resource-saving, energy-saving, environmental protection and architectural and aesthetic benefits. The analysis of modern researches testifies to expediency of introduction of methods of reconstruction. An important aspect of mass reconstruction is the economic attractiveness for investors, this parameter is most widely discussed in this article. It is also important that the moral obsolescence of the building began much earlier than the physical, and the needs of people and the requirements for comfort increased significantly, which suggests the need for mass reconstruction of buildings of the first mass series. The condition for the deployment of mass reconstruction and modernization of large residential buildings of the first mass series is a comprehensive justification of its social, urban, regulatory and technological feasibility, as well as economic attractiveness for investors. This provision is taken as the task of this article. Analysis and generalization of normative-legal, social and technological aspects of reconstruction of large-block residential buildings of the first mass series and practical experience of designing and implementation of such reconstruction are accepted as the main research methods. On the example of the city of Chernivtsi the scheme of building of the city was developed and the percentage of building by buildings of the first mass series was calculated. This allows you to pay attention to the mass nature of the issue.

The index of the Prognosis Rural Landscape Preferences (IPRLP) as a tool of generalizing peoples’ preferences on rural landscape

Social preferences of visual landscape quality are commonly analysed based on diverse techniques, among which the assessment of landscape photographs are the most often applied. Such evaluation is affected by the presence, configuration, colour, texture, etc. of different landscape attributes combined with respondent characteristics such as level of education, gender, age and environmental attitudes. The complexity of factors affecting preferences for visual quality raise the question of whether the objectifying of this kind of research is possible. That is why the aim of this paper is to determine if it is possible to generalise peoples' preferences on rural landscapes. This study developed the Index of Prognosis Rural Landscape Preferences (IPRLP), which is composed of nine variables referring to the presence or percentage share of different landscape attributes. The IPRLP was tested on 32 scenes of two regions located in Central Eastern Poland - the Polesie region and the Roztocze region. The index values were compared with real preferences expressed by respondents (n = 240). The results showed that this index was highly correlated with the respondents’ preferences (0.79 < r < 0.90), which indicates that objectivity of visual preferences studies are possibly based on the mathematical model. Stepwise multiple regression indicates three explanatory variables of the model: percentage of buildings (PB), presence of negative manmade objects (NE) and degree of naturalness (DN) indicating that it is easier to predict what kind of landscape people would not prefer than would prefer.

Measuring Livability at the Neighborhood Scale – Development of Indicators and Methods for the Comparison between Neighborhoods and Best Practice within the Chosen City

A method that allows an assessment of the livability by comparing different neighborhoods with each other as well as with the best practice was developed in this paper. First of all, a set of 51 indicators comprising the categories of connectivity, traffic, public transportation and bicycle infrastructure, urban form, density, land use, open space coverage ratio, potential for PV, green roof and materials were defined. The values for these indicators were investigated for 36 neighborhoods in the city of Hamburg, Germany. Secondly, some neighborhoods were chosen as the most livable neighborhoods and the average of their results was used for indicating the best practice in Hamburg. This approach allows users to compare their chosen neighborhoods with the best practice of their own city. Thirdly, each absolute indicator value was transferred into a relative one, where 0 % represents the lowest found value and 100 % the highest one. Fourthly, each indicator was assigned with a character. If the smaller percentage the better, like percentage of buildings near a noisy street, this character is “S”. If the bigger percentage the better, like frequency of public travel, the character is “B”. If the closer to the best practice the better, like inhabitants per hectare, the character is “R”. Thus, the ideal neighborhood would show 0 % for character S, 100 % for B and the best practice for R. Finally, the results are presented in the radar charts in order to facilitate the comparison.

An integrated approach of the analytic network process and fuzzy model mapping of evaluation of urban vulnerability against earthquake

The earthquake is one of the most devastating natural hazards that most of the Iranian cities. District 9 of Tehran will be vulnerable due to old residential texture, proximity to North Tehran fault and industrial land use in case of earthquake. Therefore, reducing the vulnerability to this natural disaster is one of the main goals of this study. In the present research, to evaluate vulnerability due to earthquake hazard, 10 indices are studied as effective factors in cities buildings vulnerability. These factors are selected on the basis of indices in previous studies. Indices involving materials type, type of facade building density, the age of building, the number of floors, ground area of buildings, compatibility of adjacent users, distance from the fault, geology formation and width of passageways are analyzed by using computational method of ANP scored by experts. The criteria weight is applied in effective layers in vulnerability. At last, by integrating the layers in GIS environments, general vulnerability map is extracted in the area. In order to evaluate the buildings vulnerability against earthquake, data obtained and from ANP analysis were made fuzzy. Finally, vulnerability map in district 9 of Tehran against earthquake was extracted. The research results show that if earthquake occurs, in district 9 of Tehran, 19.46% and 10.69% of buildings respectively have trivial and low vulnerability, while 50.29 percent of buildings have medium vulnerability. Also, 17.62% and 1.91% of building have high and very high vulnerability respectively, or they are completely damaged.

Decoupling forest characteristics and background conditions to explain urban-rural variations of multiple microclimate regulation from urban trees.

BackgroundRapid urbanization in semi-arid regions necessitates greater cooling, humidifying, and shading services from urban trees, but maximizing these services requires an exact understanding of their association with forest characteristics and background street and weather conditions.MethodsHere, horizontal and vertical air cooling, soil cooling, shading, and humidifying effects were measured for 605 trees from 152 plots in Changchun. Additionally, weather conditions (Tair, relative humidity, and light intensity), forest characteristics (tree height, diameter at breast height (DBH), under-branch height, canopy size, tree density, and taxonomic family of trees) and background conditions (percentage of building, road, green space, water, and building height, building distance to measured trees) were determined for three urban-rural gradients for ring road development, urban settlement history, and forest types. Multiple analysis of variance and regression analysis were used to find the urban-rural changes, while redundancy ordination and variation partitioning were used for decoupling the complex associations among microclimate regulations, forest characteristics, background street and weather conditions.ResultsOur results show that horizontal cooling and humidifying differences between canopy shade and full sunshine were <4.5 °C and <9.4%, respectively; while vertical canopy cooling was 1.4 °C, and soil cooling was observed in most cases (peak at 1.4 °C). Pooled urban-rural data analysis showed non-monological changes in all microclimate-regulating parameters, except for a linear increase in light interception by the canopy (r2 = 0.45) from urban center to rural regions. Together with the microclimate regulating trends, linear increases were observed in tree density, Salicaceae percentage, Tair, light intensity outside forests, tree distance to surrounding buildings, and greenspace percentage. Redundancy ordination demonstrated that weather differences were mainly responsible for the microclimate regulation variation we observed (unique explanatory power, 65.4%), as well as background conditions (12.1%), and forest characteristics (7.7%).DiscussionIn general, horizontal cooling, shading, and humidifying effects were stronger in dry, hot, and sunny weather. The effects were stronger in areas with more buildings of relatively lower height, a higher abundance of Ulmaceae, and a lower percentage of Leguminosae and Betulaceae. Larger trees were usually associated with a larger cooling area (a smaller difference per one unit distance from the measured tree). Given uncontrollable weather conditions, our findings highlighted street canyon and forest characteristics that are important in urban microclimate regulation. This paper provides a management strategy for maximizing microclimate regulation using trees, and methodologically supports the uncoupling of the complex association of microclimate regulations in fast urbanization regions.

Is there a relationship between socio-economic factors and biodiversity in urban ponds? A study in the city of Stockholm

Urban small water bodies, such as ponds, are essential elements of human socio-economic landscapes. Ponds also provide important habitats for species that would otherwise not survive in the urban environment. Knowledge on the biodiversity of urban ponds and the relationship between their ecological value and factors linked to urbanization and socio-economic status is crucial for decisions on where and how to establish and manage ponds in cities to deliver maximum biodiversity benefits. Our study investigates if the pattern of urban-pond biodiversity can be related to different socio-economic factors, such as level of wealth, education or percentage of buildings of different types. Because of lack of previous studies investigating that, our study is of exploratory character and many different variables are used. We found that the biodiversity of aquatic insects was significantly negatively associated with urbanisation variables such as amount of buildings and number of residents living around ponds. This relationship did not differ depending on the spatial scale of our investigation. In contrast, we did not find a significant relationship with variables representing socio-economic status, such as education level and wealth of people. This latter result suggests that the socio-economic status of residents does not lead to any particular effect in terms of the management and function of ponds that would affect biodiversity. However, there is a need for a finer-scale investigation of the different potential mechanism in which residents in areas with differing socio-economic status could indirectly influence ponds.

Block play and mathematics learning in preschool: The effects of building complexity, peer and teacher interactions in the block area, and replica play materials

Block play has been included in early childhood classrooms for over a century, yet few studies have examined its effects on learning. Several previous investigations indicate that the complexity of block building is associated with math ability, but these studies were often conducted in adult-guided, laboratory settings. In the present investigation, the relationship of block play variables to both the complexity of block structures and math learning was studied in naturalistic free play settings. A total of 41 preschool children were videorecorded playing with blocks. Time in blocks, number of structures built, levels of social participation, frequency of teacher interactions, percentage of buildings without replica play toys, and structure complexity were coded. Findings indicated that level of social participation and percentage of structures built without toys predicted the complexity of children’s buildings. This building complexity was, in turn, associated with growth in math learning, as measured by Tools for Early Assessment in Mathematics. Based on these findings, a path model was constructed to hypothesize causal relationships between block play features, structure complexity, and math learning.

Verifying the Performance of Multiple Linear Regression in Predicting the Indicator of Mass Accumulation of Waste. The Case of Lubelskie Voivodship

In this study, the effectiveness of classical regression models to forecast the indicator of mass accumulation of waste was investigated. The economic and infrastructural variables were used as explanatory variables. The conducted studies show that applying regression models can produce forecasting models generating errors at an acceptable level although only for the municipalities of urban and urban-rural administrative type. For the models where the following were selected as explanatory variables: income indicator, mean number of persons living in a residential building, proportion of arable land in the structure of land use, percentage of buildings in the municipality covered by the waste collection scheme, and the functional type of municipality, the error in the forecast obtained for the test set amounted to 12%–14%. Using the same set of explanatory variables for the rural municipalities caused the models to display forecasting errors for the test set ranging from 35% to 50%. Also, applying another combination of input variables gathered in the course of the studies did not result in developing models of better quality. Therefore, further studies are necessary in the search for more effective methods or other variables describing the mass waste accumulation indicator in rural municipalities.

The diffusion of voluntary green building certification: a spatial approach

Improvements in overall sustainability include reductions in energy consumption. There remain significant yet largely unexploited opportunities to reduce energy consumption of commercial buildings. The investments required for green certification can help systematically improve the sustainability of the design of buildings. If the percentage of buildings with green certificates increases, sustainability of the overall building sector can be improved. In order to facilitate the diffusion of green commercial buildings, it is important to understand the patterns of the diffusion and the key factors influencing buildings’ decisions. Applying a spatial fraction logit model and an instrumental variable approach to data on commercial buildings for New York, Arizona, Colorado, and Florida, this paper demonstrates that there is strong spatial correlation in the diffusion of green building certificates. It also finds that the split-incentive problem between building owners and renters plays a role in the diffusion. The findings have important implications for policy makers. By analyzing the interactions of the green buildings and the characteristics of the green building clusters, the results are useful in the identification of buildings that are more likely to adopt green certificates.

Analyses on the BIM Technology Using in the Design of Green Village Buildings

Based on current status of village buildings as a starting point, combination of BIM technology with the design the green village buildings is discussed. By using software to simulate the concrete village building energy consumption, application effect of BIM technology is verified. Result shows that BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology not only help to make the building satisfying the green standards, saving energy by 32% than the other village buildings in the region , but also makes the time period percentage of building satisfying the requirement of minimum illumination that relying on natural lighting alone as much as 92.6%. It is helpful to energy saving, environmental protection, reduction of construction cost, and would become an important platform for planning and construction of green village buildings.

Myths and realities about the recovery of L׳Aquila after the earthquake

There is a set of myths which are linked to the recovery of L׳Aquila, such as: the L׳Aquila recovery has come to a halt, it is still in an early recovery phase, and there is economic stagnation. The objective of this paper is threefold: (a) to identify and develop a set of spatial indicators for the case of L׳Aquila, (b) to test the feasibility of a numerical assessment of these spatial indicators as a method to monitor the progress of a recovery process after an earthquake and (c) to answer the question whether the recovery process in L׳Aquila stagnates or not. We hypothesize that after an earthquake the spatial distribution of expert defined variables can constitute an index to assess the recovery process more objectively. In these articles, we aggregated several indicators of building conditions to characterize the physical dimension, and we developed building use indicators to serve as proxies for the socio-economic dimension while aiming for transferability of this approach. The methodology of this research entailed six steps: (1) fieldwork, (2) selection of a sampling area, (3) selection of the variables and indicators for the physical and socio-economic dimensions, (4) analyses of the recovery progress using spatial indicators by comparing the changes in the restricted core area as well as building use over time; (5) selection and integration of the results through expert weighting; and (6) determining hotspots of recovery in L׳Aquila. Eight categories of building conditions and twelve categories of building use were identified. Both indicators: building condition and building use are aggregated into a recovery index. The reconstruction process in the city center of L׳Aquila seems to stagnate, which is reflected by the five following variables: percentage of buildings with on-going reconstruction, partial reconstruction, reconstruction projected residential building use and transport facilities. These five factors were still at low levels within the core area in 2012. Nevertheless, we can conclude that the recovery process in L׳Aquila did not come to a halt but is still ongoing, albeit being slow.

Effects of landscape on soundscape perception: Soundwalks in city parks

The present study analyses the effects of the physical characteristics of the visual landscape on soundscape perception in city parks, based on information gathered in field surveys using a specifically designed soundwalk method in five city parks in China. Three soundscape parameters were conceived, including perceived loudness of individual sounds (PLS), perceived occurrences of individual sounds (POS) and soundscape diversity index (SDI), which were found to correlate and should thus be applied in concert. Physical characteristics of the visual landscape were analysed from two perspectives, i.e., by on-site landscape composition and local landscape spatial patterns. The results suggest that the percentage of buildings, vegetation and sky in panoramic views (here photos) were effective landscape elements influencing soundscape perception. The landscape shape index of buildings and water areas (LSI_B, LSI_W) and the patch cohesion index of water areas (COHESION_W) showed positive effects on the perception of human sounds. The percentage of roads (PLAND_R) and the largest patch index of roads (LPI_R) were related to traffic sounds. Both the PLS and POS of biological sounds were negatively related to LPI_W and LSI_B, respectively, whilst the POS of biological sounds was positively related to PLAND_R, and LSI_R. COHESION_R was the only index negatively related to both the PLS and POS of geophysical sounds. SDI only showed positive relationship with PLAND_W. Overall, the results reveal that local landscape spatial patterns could be more influential on soundscape perception than on-site landscape composition. The study proposed introducing soundscape information from different sources into landscape management.

Application of fragility curves to estimate building damage and economic loss at a community scale: a case study of Seaside, Oregon

Community-scale estimates of building damage and economic loss are modeled for Seaside, Oregon, for Cascadia subduction zone events ranging from 8.7 to 9.3 MW with corresponding slip distances of 3–25 m considering only the effects of the tsunami. Numerical simulations are obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s method of splitting tsunami model which includes a source model, subsidence, and calculations of the propagation and inundation flow characteristics. The damage estimates are based on fragility curves from the literature which relate flow depth with probability of damage for two different structural materials of buildings. Calculations are performed at the parcel level for the inundation hazard without including damage caused by the earthquake itself. Calculations show that the severity of building damage in Seaside is sensitive to the magnitude of the event or degree of slip because the majority of the city is located on low-lying coastal land within the estimated inundation zone. For the events modeled, the percentage of building within the inundation zone ranges from 9 to 88 %, with average direct economic losses ranging from $2 million to $1.2 billion.

Municipal solid waste generation in municipalities: Quantifying impacts of household structure, commercial waste and domestic fuel

Waste management planning requires reliable data concerning waste generation, influencing factors on waste generation and forecasts of waste quantities based on facts. This paper aims at identifying and quantifying differences between different municipalities’ municipal solid waste (MSW) collection quantities based on data from waste management and on socio-economic indicators. A large set of 116 indicators from 542 municipalities in the Province of Styria was investigated. The resulting regression model included municipal tax revenue per capita, household size and the percentage of buildings with solid fuel heating systems. The model explains 74.3% of the MSW variation and the model assumptions are met. Other factors such as tourism, home composting or age distribution of the population did not significantly improve the model. According to the model, 21% of MSW collected in Styria was commercial waste and 18% of the generated MSW was burned in domestic heating systems. While the percentage of commercial waste is consistent with literature data, practically no literature data are available for the quantity of MSW burned, which seems to be overestimated by the model. The resulting regression model was used as basis for a waste prognosis model (Beigl and Lebersorger, in preparation).

Semiautomatic Building Line Extraction from Ikonos Images Through Monoscopic Line Analysis

This paper proposes a new algorithm for extracting building lines from monoscopic high-resolution satellite images. We focus on extracting lines from rectangular-shaped building roofs with a relatively large size. We achieve this task by devising a unique approach using line voting and matching. Our algorithm works as follows. An input point on a building roof is given manually. A region of interest is defined centered on the input point and within the region lines extracted. Then, a line voting process is applied to estimate initial orientation and position of a building line. The orientation and position are refined by a least squares matching process. We assessed the performance of our algorithm against two Ikonos images. Our algorithm extracted building lines from over 83 percent of buildings tested with average angular accuracy of one or two degrees and average positional accuracy of approximately one pixel. This result supports the algorithm proposed in this paper. The major contribution of this paper is that we provided an alternative way to line grouping approaches when edge responses from buildings are not strong enough.