Urban Perspective Research Articles

Appraisal of urban growth impacts on seawater intrusion vulnerability using GIS-based modified GALDIT-U model: a case study of Kozhikode coastal stretch, Kerala, South India

We investigate the potential vulnerability to seawater intrusion into the aquifers along the Kozhikode coastal stretch using the modified GALDIT (GALDIT-U) model from an urbanization perspective. Urban growth impact (expansion of the impervious surface) was added as an additional input parameter in the GALDIT model, and the analyses were performed using GIS. The results indicated that the area of 16.84 km2, found within the proximity of urban settlements and eroded shorelines along with the Kozhikode, Beypore, Kadalundi, and Faroke, falls under very high vulnerability to seawater intrusion with vulnerability index values ranging 24.82 to 29.82. In the southern sector, the area of 16.84 km2 between Elathur and Beypore also falls within very high vulnerability zones. Similarly, the area of 37.01 km2 in Quilandi, Faroke, Puthiyankadi, Panniyankara, and the east sector of Kozhikode municipality is seen as high vulnerability zones with the vulnerability index values ranging 19.84 to 24.82. Seawater intrusion estimated under moderate vulnerability zones is found to occupy 47.85 km2 (vulnerability index values 14.88 to 19.84). The low and very low vulnerability zones cover 65.07 and 48.07 km2, with the vulnerability index values ranging 9.92 to 14.88 and 4.96 to 9.92, respectively. When cross-validated using major hydrochemical parameters, the results indicate a strong correlation between the vulnerability index classes and groundwater physicochemical parameters. The sensitivity analysis carried out indicated that the distance from the shoreline (D), impacts of urban growth (U), and depth to groundwater table above sea level (L) to be highly influencing parameters for seawater intrusion vulnerability in the coastal stretches. The modified GALDIT-U model shows reliable accuracy for estimating and demarcating seawater intrusion vulnerability zones and could act as an efficient tool in the sustainable management of coastal aquifers in an urban environment.

Using digitized public accessible building data to assess the renovation potential of existing building stock in a sustainable urban perspective

• Public building registers can provide easily accessible and cheap data for indicators to support optimization of existing buildings in the early planning. • There was still not enough data to meet data requirements for all indicators • Lack of data, which, according to the legislation, should in fact be available. • There is a need for more research into uncovering how much uncertainty can be allowed in publicly available data and how much impact the quality of the data has on the possibilities for assessing improvement opportunities for existing buildings. Being able to assess potentials and obstacles regarding different optimization scenarios for an old building is essential. However, the data needed to provide this information should be operational and suitable for the early design and planning phases of rebuilding or renovation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilities of using information from public registers and databases on existing buildings as possible input data to inform designers and other stakeholders about the renovation potential of existing buildings in urban developments. This includes evaluating sustainability indicators for indoor climate, energy savings, flexibility, affordability, materials composition, recycling opportunities, etc. Denmark is a frontrunner in digitalizing building data and making them publicly accessible. The results of a mapping of three public building registers and databases show that they – although they were initially established for purposes of taxation, preservation, and energy savings can be put to new use in a circularity perspective. However, even though Denmark is far in the digitalization of building data, the analysis also shows that there are data gaps, outdated data, and errors in registrations that still need to be addressed. Therefore, this article lists recommendations for developing national or regional digital building data registers to support better decisions about renovation and urban development.

Cities, Migration and the Historiography of Post-war Europe

Abstract The role of municipalities in migrant integration in post-war European history has largely slipped below the radar in previous migration research. Our special issue presents case studies on how Bristol, Dortmund, Malmö, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Utrecht managed migrant influxes from the mid-1940s to 1960s. Following interdisciplinary advances in local migration studies, our urban histories take a diversity of approaches, present diverse temporalities, and uncover municipal responses that range from generosity to indifference and to outright hostility. In all six cities, despite such diversity in local attitudes and municipal policies, municipal authorities had significant impacts on migrants’ lives. The introductory article explores how our urban perspectives contribute to scholarship on reconstruction and the post-war boom; welfare; democracy and citizenship; and European integration. Using local migration as a lens into postwar European history, we argue, provides important new insights for the historiography of postwar Europe.

Urban Indigenous Second-Language Learning

As the language revitalization movement progresses, the impacts of Indigenous language beyond the domain of language use are gaining recognition. Previous literature has identified links between Indigenous language revitalization efforts and Indigenous well-being, but to date, there are few studies that explore this topic thoroughly. The purpose of this study is to explore the impacts of Indigenous second-language learning on urban Indigenous perceptions of their well-being. Urban Indigenous populations are growing, and are particularly impacted by language loss; thus, it is vital that urban perspectives be represented. Indigenous language-learners from the Nêhiyaw (Cree) Language Lessons Program in Edmonton, Alberta participated in semi-structured interviews. Five exploratory themes emerged from thematic analysis. The results presented in this paper, while exploratory, are a meaningful addition to the existing scholarship in this field. They may be used as a departure point for future research on the topic of Indigenous language learning and how it impacts Indigenous well-being.

A prostituição e a imagem da cidade de Amsterdã

In this paper I analyse the role of prostitution to the image of the city of Amsterdam. The presence of prostitution in the city, mainly since its flourishing in the 1970s as a sex industry, was fundamental to create the image of Amsterdam as a liberal and progressive city in the international tourism market, attracting tourists interested in the Red Light District not only because of the sex work but also for the consumption of the image that was attached to it. Then I highlight the contradictions about prostitution in Amsterdam from the perspective of urbanism to demonstrate that recent actions aims at changing the city’s image. In conclusion, I show that prostitution is a constant battleground as there is a plethora of political and economic interests regarding this neighbourhood.

Uncoordinated urbanization and economic growth—The moderating role of natural resources

AbstractMalthusian population theory states that, when population growth exceeds the growth of the means of production, socioeconomic development will be hindered. This paper analyzes this issue from the perspective of uncoordinated urbanization. We used the data available for 262 cities at the prefecture level and above in China, for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We empirically investigated the relationship between uncoordinated urbanization and urban economic growth. We also examined how this relationship is affected by natural resource constraints. The research results show that there are temporal and spatial differences in the distribution of uncoordinated urbanization in China. From a temporal perspective, from 2000 to 2015, 45.61% of China’s 262 cities show under‐urbanization, while 36.45% of cities show over‐urbanization. However, the number of cities with over‐urbanization is growing. From a spatial perspective, the number of cities in the northeastern region with over‐urbanization is declining. Conversely, the number of cities with over‐urbanization in Beijing in the central and southeastern coastal areas is increasing. Empirical research shows that uncoordinated urbanization and urban economic growth have an inverted U‐shaped relationship. Abundant natural resources can make the inverted U‐shaped curve of uncoordinated urbanization and economic growth flatter. The “resource curse” seems to occur only under high levels of uncoordinated urbanization (over‐urbanization). For some cities where there is under‐urbanization, abundant natural resources are conducive to urban economic growth.

Social exclusion in a post-industrial city: towards a critical urban social work perspective

ABSTRACT Many cities around the world have been radically transformed by deindustrialisation, neoliberalism, and globalisation. While these processes have marked progress in various aspects of urban life, they have also generated inequality and social exclusion especially in already marginalised communities. The purpose of this article is threefold: to address community exclusion in a post-industrial city, to identify mechanisms and practices that propel it; and to move towards a preliminary conceptualisation of post-industrial urban marginalisation for social work. We build on data from a qualitative study in a post-industrial city in Israel that applied interviews (N = 30) and focus groups (N = 63), documents, walking tours and observations. The findings confirm the progressive deterioration of the communities under study and identify multiple institutional practices in three main mechanisms: service erosion, spatial deterioration, and political disempowerment. These mechanisms manifested urban policies reflected at the local level, while sustaining a dynamic that spiralled community marginalisation. Study implications suggest that social work practice and research in post-industrial cities should (a) be informed by the urban context affecting communities (b) critically re-examine services and programmes to identify their possible effect on urban mechanisms of exclusion (c) adopt a multidisciplinary approach to confront the varied aspects of urban community marginalisation.

Towards a perspective of everyday urbanism in researching migrants in urban China

This paper presents one of the first theoretical interventions that apply a perspective of everyday urbanism to the research of (internal) migrants in reform-era urban China. Theoretically, the paper draws on two approaches that theorise the multifaceted relationships between everyday life and capitalist urbanization. The first, informed by Lefebvre's works, stresses the alienation of everyday life and the rationalisation of urban spaces, while asserting that everyday life contains the seeds of resistance to the colonising logics of capitalism. In the second approach, everyday urban practices are analysed in terms of a transversal logic to the state regime and the formal economy, or as the provisional intersections of heterogeneous social and material conditions that generate contingent outcomes and possibilities. Based on these theoretical premises, the paper develops a reinterpretation of existing literatures on migrants in China to see how a perspective of everyday urbanism enables us to rethink this field. The paper concludes by proposing everyday urbanism as a new frontier for research, and several ways in which future works can enrich our understandings of migrant lives, spaces and communities by engaging with this perspective.

Water urbanism and “living with flooding”: a case study in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

ABSTRACT Water in deltaic settlements is generally treated as a hazard or threat to vulnerable communities. This study aims to explore the social and spatial practices of three communities in Cai Rang, in Can Tho City, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The aim is to discuss how “living with flooding” can inform a water urbanism perspective that might be useful to planners and designers in other deltaic environments. A mixed method approach is used to uncover how households, clusters of households and communities cope with flooding twice a day during the wet season. Findings show that local residents occupy housing types and clusters that suggest a high degree of resilience to changing water levels, especially flooding. This work has implications for architecture, landscape architecture and urban design as it demonstrates how a low income waterfront community can work together to maintain water-related activities while accommodating changes in river and tidal flows.

The Evolution of the Interactive Relationship between Urbanization and Land-Use Transition: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta

In recent years, the impact of land-use systems on global climate change has become increasingly significant, and land-use change has become a hot issue of concern to academics, both within China and abroad. Urbanization, as an important socioeconomic factor, plays a vital role in promoting land-use transition, which also shows a significant spatial dependence on urbanization. This paper constructs a theoretical framework for the interaction relationship between urbanization and land-use transition, taking the Yangtze River Delta as an example, and measures the level of urbanization from the perspective of population urbanization, economic urbanization and social urbanization, while also evaluating the level of land-use morphologies from the perspective of dominant and recessive morphologies of land-use. We construct a PVAR model and coupled coordination model based on the calculated indexes for empirical analysis. The results show that the relationship between urbanization and land-use transition is not a simple linear relationship, but tends to be complex with the process of urbanization, and reasonable urbanization and land-use morphologies will promote further benign coupling in the system. By analyzing the interaction relationship between urbanization and land-use transition, this study enriches the study of land-use change and provides new pathways for thinking about how to promote high-quality urbanization.

Key factors to facilitate locally driven family planning programming: a qualitative analysis of urban stakeholder perspectives in Africa and Asia

BackgroundThere has been greater recognition of the importance of country ownership in global health and development. However, operationalising country ownership to ensure the scale up and sustainability of proven interventions remains elusive at best. To address this challenge, we undertook a thematic analysis of interviews collected from representatives of local governments, public health systems, and communities in poor urban areas of East Africa, Francophone West Africa, India, and Nigeria, supported by The Challenge Initiative (TCI), aiming to rapidly and sustainably scale up evidence-based reproductive health and family planning solutions.MethodsThe main objective of this study was to explore critical elements needed for implementing and scaling evidence-based family planning interventions. The research team conducted thematic analysis of 96 stories collected using the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique between July 2018 and September 2019. After generating 55 unique codes, the codes were grouped into related themes, using TCI’s model as a general analytical framework.ResultsFive key themes emerged: (1) strengthening local capacity and improving broader health systems, (2) shifting mindsets of government and community toward local ownership, (3) institutionalising the interventions within existing government structures, (4) improving data demand and use for better planning of health services, and (5) enhancing coordination of partners.ConclusionWhile some themes feature more prominently in a particular region than others, taken together they represent what stakeholders perceive to be essential elements for scaling up locally-driven health programmes in urban areas in Africa and Asia.

Long‐term monitoring and evaluation of land development in a reclamation area under rapid urbanization: A case‐study in Qiantang New District, China

AbstractLand reclamation has occurred extensively worldwide to accommodate urbanization and economic development, especially in developing countries like China. However, we have a limited understanding of the long‐term dynamics and key drivers of land use/cover change in the reclaimed area. In this study, we monitored the detailed spatiotemporal evolution of land reclamation from 1973 to 2018 in Qiantang New District using time‐series LANDSAT and SENTINEL‐2A images and then compared the differences of landscape changes between reclaimed, which are the new‐built land from Qiantang River, and inland areas. Key findings include: (1) A significant decreasing trend for areas near the Qiantang River along the coastline (212.21 to 80.99 km2) and an increasing trend for constructed land (10.05 to 120.89 km2) from 1973 to 2018 was detected; (2) The development modes of the inland area and reclaimed area were significantly different. Development in the inland area was similar to other Chinese cities, whereas the reclaimed area was relatively complex with two main changing paths; and (3) Year 2008 was an important turning point in the perspective of urbanization in the study area. Before 2008, urbanization was random and uncontrolled. After 2008, new governance on land appeared and changed the landscape into a compact and uniform pattern. The proposed framework should reveal the detailed trajectory of land reclamation in small areas and provide insights and tools for better understanding the impact of human activities on the landscape pattern in coastal regions under rapid urbanization.

Revisiting the local turn in peacebuilding – through the emerging urban approach

In this article, we revisit the ‘local turn’ debate in the peacebuilding literature, and explore its most recent and promising approach to ‘the local’, focussing on post-war cities and on urban dimensions of peacebuilding. There is still substantive contestation and frustration in the peacebuilding research field with regards to the conceptual fuzziness of ‘the local’, and with the continual failures of international interventions to actually take into account local perspectives, promote local agency and establish local ownership. In this article, we explore to what extent recent urban approaches to peacebuilding can help alleviate some of the conceptual problems that has persisted in the literature. We reflect on and raise questions about what a focus on cities and urban perspectives is contributing to the study of local peacebuilding more specifically. We suggest three facets of analytical added value: (1) an increased understanding of how the particularities of urban and rural space affects peacebuilding locally and potentially beyond; (2) how cities and urban space are interrelated with traditional territoriality; and (3) the methodological benefits of the city/urban as (local) analytical entry point. We also discuss potential pitfalls and limitations of urban approaches to peacebuilding, and identify prospective pathways for further research.

Modeling pervasive platforms and digital services for smart urban transformation using an enterprise architecture framework

PurposeIn smart cities pervasive systems are deployed by enterprises and stakeholders in municipalities to provide digital services to citizens. But cities are faced with the challenge of achieving system pluggability, mainly service integration due to numerous actors and systems needed for smart urban transformation. Hence, there is need to employ a comprehensive and holistic approach to help achieve service integration of pervasive platforms. Therefore, this study presents an Enterprise Architecture Framework (EAF) to support smart urban transformation.Design/methodology/approachIn this study the design science research methodology is adopted based on a multi-case studies of two organizations and data is collected using semi-structured interview from an organizations and municipality in Norway to validate how service integration can be achieved by the developed EAF to address pluggability challenges faced in urban environment.FindingsFindings suggest that the presented EAF provides the structure to manage changes and maintain urban transformation and aims to align the business with the underlying information systems from the perspective of the stakeholders. Additionally, findings from the case studies modelled in ArchiMate language depict how service integration of different pervasive platforms provide digital services for smart urban transformation.Research limitations/implicationsThis research only employed semi-structured interviews to validate service integration of digital platforms, other identified dimensions of pluggability were not fully addressed in this study.Practical implicationsFindings from the case studies provides insights on how pervasive platforms can be integrated to achieve a pluggable digital service from different stakeholders and data sources in practice. The developed EAF presented in this study provide a model that supports collection and exchange of data from different data sources in smart urban environment to enable the provision and consumption of digital services.Social implicationsThe developed EAF aids system pluggability of actors and systems in providing digital service such as smart urban transformation that contributes to sustainable use of electric mobility in cities.Originality/valueAs cities increasingly deploy pervasive platforms to support urban innovation, researchers are seeking to explore how these platforms shape urban transformation. Presently, prior studies do not offer important insights into pervasive platform management from urban perspective. Against this backdrop, this study employs the information systems perspective of digital platforms literature roots in software development and physical product development to depict how the EAF can be employed to describe specific cases that integrate different pervasive platforms deployed by different stakeholders communicating to co-create collective digital services to citizens.

Religion and urban political eco/pathology: exploring communalized coronavirus in South Asia

ABSTRACT wWe use the urban political ecology perspective to explore how communities of homo religiosus (re)configure politics of COVID-19 in India and Pakistan. This urban health crisis unfolds in five parallel registers of conflictualities: (i) where religious communities carve out a domain for self-governance of the pandemic with their own ‘knowledge and truths’, (ii) where embodied religious practices challenge or undermine state biopower and transform governmentalities, (iii) where the spatial dimension of conflict evolves into the crisis of technologies of governance, (iv) where religious identities are stigmatized and the minority groups are excluded and (v) where communalism organizes around international relations. It is argued that religious groups in South Asia influenced the urban political (eco)pathology with their disruptive potential which transformed biosecurity regimes and enhanced health risks on the one hand and on the other, they embraced and internalized discords of disease within their antagonistic communal and sectarian memories and histories and weaponized the pandemic to produce more cracks in the social fabric. This essay underscores the significance of unusual actors in the urban political ecology framework and calls for a renewed understanding of human–nature interface by incorporating religion and religious beliefs and how they view and shape the metabolic flows in the urban spaces for social sustainability of the city as a ‘natural object’.

Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020

This Special Issue of Energies “Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020” introduce contemporary research on Smart Cities and on Positive Energy Districts. The topic highlights the variety of research within this field: from the analysis of 61 Positive Energy Districts cases to papers illustrating the Positive Energy Districts dimension or Smart Energy Communities supporting low carbon energy transition as well as selected Smart Cities Experiences. The focus is thus given on how RD&I stakeholders and Municipalities are facing sustainable urban development challenges. An overview of Horizon Europe RD&I program on sustainable urban areas is provided.

Vulnerable socioeconomic groups are disproportionately exposed to multiple environmental burden in Berlin - implications– for planning

ABSTRACT This paper takes an urban planning perspective on environmental justice by separately analysing vulnerable socioeconomic groups for multiple environmental burden (EB) at the neighbourhood level in Berlin. We selected five socioeconomic groups: i) beneficiaries of social welfare, ii) inhabitants with migration background, iii) old-age poverty, iv) child poverty, and v) single-parent households. Four ecological indicators, i) air pollution, ii) noise pollution, iii) bioclimate (heat stress), and iv) lack of urban green spaces were merged to assess multiple EB at the Planning Area Level. Combining environmental and socioeconomic maps we identified hotspots of environmental injustice (EIJ) and demonstrate that selected vulnerable socioeconomic groups are disproportionately more affected by multiple EB than population not belonging to these groups. Some of the identified hotspots overlap, except for single-parent households. Finally, multi-purpose planning measures that mitigate the EBs considering the needs of the socioeconomic groups are recommended.

Interrogating China’s Global Urban Presence

ABSTRACT This paper examines the socio-economic and geopolitical outcomes associated with infrastructure development across multiple scales. Starting from the premise that planetary socio-technical transformations in this vein have distinctly national drivers, we focus on the urban agency of Chinese-led investment. The paper explores how different forms of infrastructural development generated by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) affects transformations in the political and material fabric of cities and their host regions. We approach BRI-related infrastructural practice through three interconnected optics – discourse, instruments, and politics – so as to interrogate the articulation of projects linked to the BRI within the material site of the urban. Based on theorisations of infrastructure from an urban perspective and a critical review of literature on the BRI itself, we develop three illustrative case studies at different spatial scales and within different geographic contexts – in Pakistan, Central Europe and the UK. To examine the cases as well as their embeddedness in broader debates on the topic, we use a systematic review methodology relying on a wide variety of sources. We offer comparative and relational perspectives on the manner in which these relatively diverse cases demonstrate China’s role as a global urban actor.

Urban tourism performance index over the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study aims to propose and estimate the urban tourism performance index (UTPI), an index that can measure and track the month-by-month tourism performance on main tourism cities since the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UTPI is estimated for the following urban destinations: Bangkok, Paris, London, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, New York, Istanbul, Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Phuket, Milan, Barcelona, Bali and Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approachMonthly based data measuring the tourism industry’s performance for these urban destinations has been collected. This data includes airlines’ and hotels’ performance, as well as potential tourists’ online searches. The obtained data has been combined using a principal component analysis, generating the UTPI.FindingsThe UTPI shows that all urban areas analyzed in this study experienced a devastating negative impact because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. However, the tourism recovery evolution follows heterogeneous patterns.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed index can be estimated using additional variables. Moreover, the index is only estimated for 16 tourism cities. Future studies can reproduce the methodology by incorporating further variables and amplifying the geographical coverage.Practical implicationsThe UTPI might be useful for researchers and policymakers interested in using a measure of tourism performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in some of the most important urban destinations. Likewise, the UTPI index may serve as a suitable aggregated measure of tourism performance in a post-COVID-19 era or to monitor tourism during future crises.Originality/valueThis study analyzes the tourism performance during the COVID-19 pandemic from an urban perspective.

Benchmarking Analysis of Carbon Emission in China and Foreign Countries from the Perspective of Urbanization

With the further aggravation of global warming and the increasingly serious problems of ecological environment, the construction of low-carbon cities has become an inevitable choice for the global response to climate change and the sustainable development of economy and society. In order to understand the basic situation of China’s low-carbon cities more specifically, this paper selects countries with different urbanization rates to carry out benchmarking analysis with China, hoping to draw on the experience of other countries from the national level through multi-dimensional comparison, and guide the direction of China’s future urban development. Firstly, this paper selects the basic indicators such as the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions, per capita carbon emissions and carbon emissions per unit GDP of each country; Secondly, it compares the proportion of coal in energy and other indicators, and analyzes the energy structure of each country in depth; Thirdly, it compares the trend of carbon emissions in each country among 1990-2017. Finally, in order to reflect the carbon emission in the development of urbanization, this paper uses the “urbanization carbon emission index”, which is the ratio of per capita carbon emission and urbanization rate, to show the relationship between the degree of urbanization and carbon emission. Through benchmarking analysis, we can more clearly understand the overall trend of low-carbon city construction in different countries, recognize the gap between China and other countries, and better guide the development of low-carbon cities in China in the future.