Urban Phenomenon Research Articles

Ecological effects of land use and land cover changes on lakes in urban environments

AbstractUrban lakes confront significant threats due to changes in land use and land cover (LULC) resulting from urbanization and subsequent climate change. This review discusses the intricate effects of the urban heat island phenomenon on lakes, specifically attributed to LULC changes. Utilizing the Scopus and Web of Science databases, this study gathers the most pertinent earlier research in the LULC and water bodies. This study systematically categorizes variables into five distinct groups and scrutinizes the drivers, parameters, tools, and management strategies influencing the LULC dynamics on lakes. A research gap is identified in understanding the conjoined impacts of LULC and urban heat island effects within urban lake environments. The review further investigates diverse ways in which LULC impacts lakes, intersecting with multiple United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), notably SDGs 6, 11, 13, and 15. Consequently, this review serves as a valuable contribution to the understanding of LULC to provide substantial benefits to the urban climate research toward meeting SDGs.

A pathway to urban resilience: investigating green open space priority areas to mitigate the urban heat island phenomenon in Samarinda City, Indonesia

PurposeThe potential for massive economic growth exists in Samarinda City due to the intensification of activities in built-up areas. This suggests the potential for increased urban disease in the relocation of Indonesia’s new capital city to a location adjacent to Samarinda. One of the most striking impacts is the urban heat island (UHI). The increase in this phenomenon can be addressed effectively and efficiently through the provision and arrangement of appropriate vegetation-based actions. Therefore, this study aims to identify priority areas of green open space (GOS) based on UHI levels. In addition, this study also aims to present alternative mitigation measures to reduce the risk of disasters due to UHI.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach was used in this research, involving an initial land surface temperature analysis to identify the UHI class. This analysis was complemented by quantitative spatial analyses, such as scoring, overlay and intersect methods, to determine the priority level class and the typology of GOS priority. A qualitative analysis was also conducted through data triangulation or comparison methods, such as examining existing land use, GOS priority maps and spatial plan policies.FindingsThe findings show that the total UHI area in Samarinda City was 6,936.4 ha in 2019 and is divided into three classifications. In Class 1, the UHI area is very dominant, reaching 87% of the total area. Meanwhile, the main results identified two priority classes of GOS in Samarinda, namely, the medium and high categories with an area of 960.43 ha and 113.57 ha, respectively. The results also showed that there were 17 typologies associated with five alternative mitigation measures: green industry, greening parking lots, improving urban green infrastructure and buildings, urban greening and mining restoration.Research limitations/implicationsSpecific to assessing UHI, image data were available only in medium spatial resolution, leading to a consequence of detailed accuracy. In addition, since the determination of mitigation considered local policies, the method should be used in other locations requiring adjustments to existing regulations, specifically those related to spatial planning.Originality/valueThis study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the UHI phenomenon in Indonesia, especially in the urban areas of Kalimantan Island. In addition, the study presents new insights into alternative mitigation actions to reduce the risk of UHI. Innovatively, this study introduces a typology of regions associated with appropriate alternative mitigation actions, making it an important achievement for the first time in the context of this study.

Selection of urban flood shelter locations based on risk assessment

Within the framework of global climate change, there is a recurring occurrence of floods and waterlogging disasters, which pose significant risks to human lives and overall safety. The phenomenon of urbanization has led to an increased vulnerability of cities to flood disasters. Evacuation serves as a viable strategy for adapting to climate change, managing intense precipitation events, and mitigating the impact of flood disasters. Hence, the meticulous choice of shelters has emerged as a crucial element in enhancing the effectiveness of evacuations. Nevertheless, the process of choosing shelters sometimes neglects to consider the potential for flooding and has not undergone thorough testing. Hence, the objective of this research is to systematically choose shelters within the central metropolitan region, incorporate flood risk considerations into the shelter site model, and assist cities in mitigating the consequences of floods resulting from climate change. To begin with, employ a two-dimensional shallow water model in order to replicate instances of intense precipitation and produce data on flood inundation. Subsequently, the simulation results are utilized to assess the flood risk using the entropy weight approach. This risk is then incorporated into the multi-objective optimization model to determine the optimal shelter placement. Ultimately, the ABM model was employed to create a simulation of crowd evacuation in urban areas, confirming the efficacy of shelter selection and thoroughly examining the influence of various shelters on the efficiency of community emergency evacuation. The study's findings indicate that a total of 26 shelters were chosen within the study area using a multi-objective methodology, ensuring the inclusion of all affected populations. The utilization of multi-objective models in the selection of shelter places has been shown to enhance evacuation efficiency, as confirmed by the ABM model. The simulation findings indicate a decline in the population's death rate from 1.94% to 0.98%, an increase in the evacuation rate from 97.4% to 98.4%, and a reduction in the number of casualties by 133 individuals.

Prediction of surface urban heat island in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam using remote sensing and logistic regression model

Urban heat island is a concerning environmental issue in major cities, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City. With a high rate of urbanization, the city’s extensive impervious surface area contributes to land surface temperature increase, leading to the expansion of the urban heat island phenomenon. This study was conducted in the Ho Chi Minh city region from 2009 to 2020, images from Landsat 5 (TM) and Landsat 8 (OLI/TIRS) satellites were employed to estimate land surface temperature (LST), examine the spatial distribution of the urban heat island (SUHI), and analyze changes in impervious surface area (ISA). A logistic regression model was established to predict the relationship between SUHI and ISA, with the percentage of ISA calculated by the Kernel Density Estimation method (KDE). The results revealed that the impervious surface area in the city doubled from 2009 to 2020, accounting for 29.54% of the city’s area, which correlated with a significant expansion of SUHI from 37,000 ha to 53,000 ha. The SUHI predicting model exhibited good discrimination ability (AUC = 0.98) and total accuracy of 96% through Hosmer & Lemeshow Test in R. The probability of the predicted SUHI showed a high correlation (R2 = 0.885) with the actual SUHI. In areas where ISA increased from 60% to 80%, the probability of SUHI occurrence also increased from 52.85% to 98%. This study presented a novel approach, utilizing statistical modeling to accurately quantify SUHI based on changes in impervious surface density. This method can contribute to an effective evaluation of heat-related health risks, provide the government and urban planners with a precise orientation in management toward sustainable development.

Utilization of Multitemporal Landsat Images for Analysis Urban Heat Island Based on Google Earth Engine in Cimahi City

Cimahi City is physically part of the Bandung-Cimahi core city conurbation of the system of cities in the Bandung City Basin Region so has high development activity. This condition causes an increase in the surface temperature of Cimahi City, especially in the downtown area and triggers the Urban heat island phenomenon. This research was conducted to map multi temporal spatial changes in the vegetation index (MSAVI) and land surface temperature (LST) in Cimahi City in 2015, 2019 and 2023 and to analyze their relationship to the phenomenon and the widespread distribution of urban heat island using Landsat 8 imagery by integrating cloud techniques. computing Google Earth Engine. The results of surface temperature (LST) were correlated with vegetation density (MSAVI) using a simple regression test to determine how much influence changes in vegetation density had on surface temperature (LST). The distribution of urban heat islands was obtained from the classification of LST processing with urban heat island threshold values. The results showed that there was an increase in the distribution area of the urban heat island phenomenon with a total area of urban heat island increasing by 1319.94 Ha in 2015, 3389.04 Ha in 2019, and 3634.04 Ha in 2023. The areas that are dominated by urban impacts The heat island occurred in South Cimahi District with an area affected of 1440.43 Ha.

What affect the satisfaction, preferences, and visitation of pocket parks? Evidence from Shanghai

The phenomenon of rapid urbanization and densification in megacities has emphasized the significance of access and exposure to urban green spaces. Pocket parks, due to their small size, low cost, and accessibility, have the potential to meet the daily needs of nearby residents for urban green spaces. They play crucial roles in enhancing the satisfaction and health benefits of city residents through physical activities, social engagement, and stress relief. In this study, we conducted a survey to evaluate pocket park satisfaction and to identify the importance level of different park attributes from users' perspective. The results showed that (1) The satisfaction levels of visitors in terms of environment, facilities, management, and overall satisfaction were significantly associated with their social groups, while the satisfaction levels related to environment and landscape were significantly different among visitors of different age and visiting frequency groups, respectively; (2) visuality characters had higher importance level than perceptibility characters, with “well-maintained facilities”, “landscape richness” and “safety facilities”, “hard landscape”, and “plant conservation” having the highest importance scores; (3) proximity to parks, visitors’ age and overall satisfaction had significant impact on pocket park visiting frequency. These findings provide implications for decision makers to on how to build high-quality and well-designed pocket parks that have a positive impact on the well-being of citizens. Management implicationsThe work in this study is related to the mangement of pocket parks. It explored factors that affected visitors’ satisfaction and preferences towards different attributes and features of pocket parks. It also identified the predictors for visiting frequencies of pocket parks. The findings will provide implications for decision makers to on how to build high-quality and well-designed pocket parks that can attract more citizens. The high importance of “well-maintained facilities” and “plant conservation” showed this study will also help park administrators to prioritize their work in the management and maintenance of pocket parks.

Representations of Chagas disease among Bolivian immigrants in the city of São Paulo

BackgroundTransnational immigrants are particularly impacted by neglected diseases, which take a heavy biological, social, and emotional toll in these marginalized communities. Chagas disease has transformed from an exclusively rural to an increasingly urban phenomenon encompassing non-endemic areas in Latin America.MethodsThrough semi-structured interviews, we investigated representations of Chagas disease in Bolivian immigrants in São Paulo, Brazil. Between August and September 2015, 27 adult migrants were interviewed, 11 of them with Chagas disease. We explored problems of access to health services and essential knowledge about the disease, as well as related conceptions and health practices.ResultsParticipants constructed social representations of Chagas through interactions with family and social networks, drawing on earlier experiences in Bolivia. Diagnosis often provoked fear, and participants faced barriers to care based on language differences and uncertainties about the disease and treatment options. Healthcare personnel played an important role in alleviating concerns and facilitating access to information.DiscussionThe complex intersection of migration and neglected diseases creates challenges for local and national health programs, requiring innovative responses incorporating the perspectives and needs of the often vulnerable affected communities.

Spatial coupling relationship between architectural landscape characteristics and urban heat island in different urban functional zones

The process of urbanization exacerbates the urban heat island phenomenon. In order to reasonably identify urban functional zones, and reveal the influence of buildings on land surface temperature (LST). Guiyang, a multi-mountainous city in China, was taken as the research area, Open Street Map (OSM) and land use type data were used to identify urban functional zones. Subsequently, the correlation between urban building morphology metrics and LST was analyzed using Pearson correlation and boosted regression tree (BRT) model. The results showed that: (1) There were significant differences in LST among different urban functional zones. (2) The relative contribution value of building density (BD) to land surface temperature was high, and it significantly exacerbated the urban heat island effect across all urban functional zones, with the maximum impact on LST reaching 2.5 °C in Utility zone. (3) Mean building height (MBH), Southerly wind speed (S_Wind speed) and Landscape shape index of building (LSI_Building) had the effect of alleviating thermal environment, and the mitigation degree of land surface temperature was the highest in Residential zone and Ecological zone, reaching 0.6 °C, 0.8 °C and 2.0 °C, respectively. This study enhances our understanding of the relationship between urban functions and LST, providing valuable insights for mitigating the urban thermal environment and promoting sustainable development.

More developed means dangerous: spatial evidence of multi-decadal urbanising watershed and its impact to flash flood in metropolitan Semarang-Indonesia

ABSTRACT This research conducts spatial verification of the watershed urbanisation phenomenon’s occurrence, which has implications for environmental problems and disasters. The evaluation employs a spatial analysis tool that incorporates variables such as changes in land cover, water run-off, flood risk, and stakeholders’ participation in watershed spatial planning. The study is supported by spatio-temporal data from remote sensing from 1970 to 2023, utilising various types of Landsat satellite imagery, including Landsat 5 TM, 7 ETM, and 8 OLI. The data is processed using GIS and several calculations assessing the impact of land cover changes on run-off discharge. The findings reveal significant differences in land cover in the upper area of the Garang Watershed-Metropolitan Semarang, Indonesia. This situation is exacerbated by overlapping interests in management, resulting in a watershed spatial plan that does not support land conservation efforts and prioritises the growth of upper-class settlements in the watershed area. These results demonstrate that the spatial policy in the Garang Watershed has yet to fully accommodate the interests of sustainable development, particularly in addressing the issue of watershed urbanisation.

Using Qualitative Methods to Understand the Interconnections Between Cities and Health: A Methodological Review.

Objective: Using different perspectives and methods to investigate the links between the urban phenomenon and health is critical in an urbanizing world. This review discusses qualitative methods in the context of urban health research. Methods: We conducted a narrative review following these steps: We identified the qualitative data collection, analysis and sampling methods that could be more relevant for the problems researched in the urban health field. We conducted searches for methodological articles and other documents about those methods. We included some influential materials and examples of empirical urban health studies using those methods. Results: We included 88 studies and identified several qualitative data gathering, analysis and sampling methods relevant for urban health researchers. We present those methods, focusing their strengths and limitations, and providing examples of their use in the field of urban health. These methods are flexible and allow in-depth analysis of small samples by collecting and analyzing rich and nuanced data. Conclusion: This article should contribute to a better understanding of how, and when, qualitative methods may improve our knowledge on urban health.

Urban heat island phenomenon in Istanbul: A comprehensive analysis of land use/land cover and local climate zone effect

The relationship between urban heat island (UHI) and land use/land cover (LULC), and local climate zone (LCZ) is apparent and takes rising attention in the current literature. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between meteorological data collected from 30 stations between 2016 and 2022 and Istanbul’s LULCs and LCZs. Several notable findings were uncovered, providing light on the UHI phenomenon and its consequences for the city’s characteristics. The stations in urban areas (typology A) had higher temperatures than stations in rural/suburban (typology B) and forested landscape (typology C). Those yearly values were ∼1°C for monthly mean temperatures and ∼1.5°C for monthly minimum temperatures. Moreover, urban areas possessed +4 and +2 hot days (35°C and above) for typologies B and C, respectively. Another remarkable result was that stations situated close to water surfaces exhibited a lower tendency to exceed temperatures of 35°C. Furthermore, built-type LCZs wind velocity achieved a lower value than land cover type, and humidity in typology A was 5% and 10% less than the typologies B and C, respectively. Consequently, the southern part of Istanbul emerged as the most vulnerable location to the UHI phenomena, suffering greater temperatures.

How studentification reshapes social vulnerability in urban Korea: Impressions based on regeneration and shrinkage

This work examines to what degree studentification may be associated with social vulnerability and be influenced by urban regeneration and shrinkage across four anchor institutions and their surrounding areas. Focusing on four South Korean metropolitan cities and utilizing longitudinal secondary data concerning studentification, social vulnerability, and shrinkage, we conducted correlation analysis and comparative case studies. Our findings demonstrate that each campus and surrounding areas reflected distinct urban phenomenon, particularly in terms of the relationships among studentification, social vulnerability, urban shrinkage, and urban regeneration. Of notable concern, student influx (as a representative studentification outcome) was determined to be a driver in influencing lower social vulnerability and less shrinkage. In this vein, our study provides initial insights for policymakers and urban residents in potentially addressing urban challenges and studentification in combination with urban regeneration and shrinkage.

ANALISIS DAMPAK PERUBAHAN PENGGUNAN LAHAN PERKOTAAN TERHADAP URBAN HEAT ISLAND DI KECAMATAN KEDATON

The Urban Heat Island phenomenon is defined as a form of local climate change. In the formation of the Urban Heat Island phenomenon, there are several factors, namely changes in land use, vegetation density, building density, and vehicle emissions. Dense development areas that have caused changes in land use, settlements, and transportation activities have begun to accumulate in Kedaton District. Kedaton District is included in the activity center area so that changes in land use from 2017 to 2022 occur significantly, which can cause an increase in urban temperatures. This study aims to analyze the impact of changes in urban land use on Urban Heat Island in Kedaton District. The variables used are land use, surface temperature, vegetation density, building density, motor vehicle intensity, and motor vehicle emissions. The analytical methods used are LST, NDVI, NDBI, road service level analysis, vehicle emission analysis, and correlation analysis. The results of the analysis show that the impact of changes in land use will result in a 76% decrease in vegetation density in 2022, a 95% increase in building density, and a 99% increase in vehicle emissions. The impact of changes in land use has contributed to the distribution of urban heat islands in Kedaton District. To minimize the impact of changes in use on the Urban Heat Island in Kedaton District, mitigation efforts based on the resilient city concept are needed, namely the addition of private green open spaces, reflective roof paint in densely populated areas, and optimizing public transportation.

How Does the 2D/3D Urban Morphology Affect the Urban Heat Island across Urban Functional Zones? A Case Study of Beijing, China

Studying driving factors of the urban heat island phenomenon is vital for enhancing urban ecological environments. Urban functional zones (UFZs), key for planning and management, have a substantial impact on the urban thermal environment through their two-dimensional (2D)/three-dimensional (3D) morphology. Despite prior research on land use and landscape patterns, understanding the effects of 2D/3D urban morphology in different UFZs is lacking. This study employs Landsat-8 remote sensing data to retrieve the land surface temperature (LST). A method combining supervised and unsupervised classification is proposed for UFZ mapping, utilizing multi-source geospatial data. Subsequently, parameters defining the 2D/3D urban morphology of UFZs are established. Finally, the Pearson correlation analysis and GeoDetector are used to analyze the driving factors. The results indicate the following: (1) In the Fifth Ring Road area of Beijing, the residential zones exhibit the highest LST, followed by the industrial zones. (2) In 2D urban morphology, the percentage of built-up landscape (built-PLAND) and Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI) are the main factors influencing LST. In 3D urban morphology, building density, the sky view factor (SVF), and the area-weighted mean shape index (shape index) are the main factors influencing LST. Therefore, low-density buildings with simple and dispersed shapes contribute to mitigating LST, while fragmented distributions of trees, grasslands, and water bodies also play important roles in alleviating LST. (3) In the interactive detection results, all UFZs show the highest interaction detection results with the built-PLAND. (4) Spatial variations are observed in the impact of different UFZs on LST. For instance, in the residential zones, industrial zones, green space zones, and public service zones, the SVF is negatively correlated with LST, while in the commercial zones, the SVF exhibits a positive correlation with LST.

Analysis of Land Cover Changes to Increase Land Surface Temperature in Surabaya using Landsat Satellite

Surabaya has experienced very significant development in the last few decades. Changes in land use will cause the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. This study aims to determine how far the impact of land cover changes on the increase in surface temperature in the Surabaya. The use of Landsat satellite imagery is considered very effective in describing land cover and surface temperature because it has good spatial resolution and long data availability. During 1991 – 2020 there was a significant decrease in the amount of vegetation by 24.3%, decrease in the number of water bodies by 4.9%, and increase in the number of buildings by 29.2%. The average increase in Land Surface Temperatures was 1.40°C between decades 2 and 1, and an increase of 2.19°C between decades 3 and 2. The development of Surabaya began in the city center and then developed mainly in the west and east. The urban development model is consistent with the pattern of land surface temperature changes. Each type of land cover has special characteristics on the value of NDVI, NDBI, and surface temperature. Changes in cover from water bodies to buildings have the highest contribution to increasing the and surface temperature. There was a significant increase in hotspots in decade 3 in Surabaya which indicated an increasingly severe UHI phenomenon.

Neural embeddings of urban big data reveal spatial structures in cities

Over decades, many cities have been expanded and functionally diversified by population activities, socio-demographics and attributes of the built environment. Urban expansion and development have led to the emergence of spatial structures of cities. Uncovering cities’ spatial structures is critical to understanding various urban phenomena such as segregation, equity of access, and sustainability. In this study, we propose using a neural embedding model—graph neural network (GNN)—that leverages the heterogeneous features of urban areas and their interactions captured by human mobility networks to obtain vector representations of these areas. Using large-scale high-resolution mobility data sets from millions of aggregated and anonymized mobile phone users in 16 metropolitan counties in the United States, we demonstrate that our embeddings encode complex relationships among features related to urban components (such as distribution of facilities) and population attributes and activities. The clustered representations of urban areas show the shared characteristics among urban areas in the same cluster. We show that embeddings generated by a model trained on a different county can capture 50% to 60% of the spatial structure in another county, allowing us to make cross-county comparisons and inferences. The findings reveal complex relationships among urban components in cities. Since the identified multifaceted spatial structures capture the combined effects of various mechanisms, such as segregation, disparate facility distribution, and human mobility, the findings could help identify the limitations of the current city structure to inform planning decisions and policies. Also, the model and findings set the stage for a variety of research in urban planning, engineering and social science through an integrated understanding of how the complex interactions between urban components and population activities and attributes shape the spatial structures in cities.

Simulating urban scaling with a term linkages network of a university

In this paper, we make an attempt to increase our understanding of the urban scaling phenomenon. The aim is to investigate how superlinear scaling emerges if a network increases in size and how this scaling depends on the occurrence of elements that constitute the network. To this end, we consider a city as a complex network structure and simulate this structure by the network of all publications of a research intensive university. In this simulation, the publications take the role of the city inhabitants and the concepts (terms and keywords) in the publications represent all kinds of abilities and qualities of the inhabitants. We use in this experiment all author- and database-given terms of the scientific publications of Leiden University from 2022. We calculate the co-occurrence of terms, and on the basis of these connections, we create a network and let this network grow by successively adding publications from the total set of publications. In this way, we get a series of networks with different sizes and this simulates a series of cities with different number of inhabitants. This procedure is performed for different values of the term occurrence threshold. We then analyze how four important network parameters, namely, number of terms, number of clusters, number of links, and total link strength increase with increasing size of the network. Particularly the number of network links and the total network linkage strength are in our opinion the parameters that dominate the scaling phenomenon and can be considered as a simulation of the socioeconomic strength of a city, that is, its gross urban product. We find a significant power law dependence of these network parameters on network size and the power law exponents for the lowest occurrence threshold are within the range that is typical for urban scaling. In our approach, the number of clusters can be interpreted as a measure of complexity within the network. Since the occurrence threshold determines the diversity of terms, we may expect a special relation between the occurrence threshold and the number of clusters. This is indeed the case: whereas for the three other network parameters the scaling exponent increases with increasing occurrence threshold, the number of clusters is the only network parameter of which the scaling exponent decreases with increasing occurrence threshold. Finally, we discuss how our publication term network approach relates to scaling phenomena in cities.

Urban Heat Island effect and Urban Thermal Field Variance Index phenomenon at the heart of ‘Chicken's Neck Corridor’ of India

Siliguri corridor, the ‘Chicken Neck Corridor of India’, is one of the largest Municipal areas in West Bengal and is of great geo-strategic importance as it lies at the crossroads between India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh connecting the north-eastern part of India with mainland India. This study uses the LANDSAT 7 ETM+ and LANDSAT 9 TIR OLI imageries from USGS Earth Explorer to determine Land Surface Temperature (LST) changes, Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) changes; Normalized Differential Built-up Index (NDBI) changes; Land use and Land cover (LULC) changes; Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect; Urban Hot Spots (UHS) and Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) phenomenon. With booming trade and increasing urbanisation, Siliguri city (Municipal Corporation) has seen rise in the mean LST by 2.92 °C resulting in increased UHI intensity and UTFVI phenomena between 2000 and 2022. The average LST in UHI and UHS has risen by approx. 3 °C causing more areas to come under bad, worse and worst thermal comfort level categories of the ecological evaluation index. An attempt is made to determine the reason for such changes in this micro climate through multi-dimensional perspectives and to exhibit the land use transformations that took place between the aforesaid time periods.

A Conceptual Exploration of Hidden Spatial Layers: Reading Urban-Breccia

Sustainable urban spaces, from social and cultural perspectives, can be characterized not only by the preservation of the historical cultural structures within them but also by the subjective and collective meanings contributed by the individuals inhabiting these spaces in their daily lives across physical, social, cognitive, and cultural dimensions. Therefore, the planning and construction of socially and culturally sustainable cities is a challenging endeavor due to the intricate and dynamic nature of the urban phenomenon. The main goal of this study is to investigate the meanings of the different layers of the urban space phenomenon and how they can be conceptualized at the core of social and cultural sustainability strategies for cities. The study aims to reconceptualize urban space through the lens of ‘memory’, depicting it as ‘urban-breccia’ that emerges along the axes of remembering–construction and forgetting–destruction, mediated by visible and hidden layers. Within the entirety and variability of physical realities, concepts, phenomena, and occurrences, the urban-breccia generates dynamic, complex, multilayered, and ambiguous relational systems through the struggles of the visible and hidden layers vying for predominance. These relational systems within urban-breccia signify both semantic and syntactic approaches that encompass visible and hidden layers. It is believed that such a study would contribute to the endeavors that seek to find the fundamental domains that render urban spaces culturally and socially sustainable, within the synthesis of urban space’s physical, social, cognitive, and cultural perspectives, through a temporality inherent to memory.

The Urban Question in the Age of Innocence and Convergence

This is a discussion of how the “urban question” became a topic of general interest in the media, based on a bibliometric analysis of newspapers from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, targeting a specific process of urbanization in the United States, hinting at how the public perception of urban studies came to attract different fields of research and how new responsibilities were added to urban management. Sources used were the historic newspaper databases of Chronicling America and the New York Times, via ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Preliminary conclusions indicate directions for further multidisciplinary debate, summarized as follows: understanding of the city may have originally proceeded somewhat naïvely, disregarding central features of the urban phenomena; early methodological instruments were more frequently based on limited observation than on deeper surveys; and there is a continuing period of innocence and convergence in the understanding of the urban question.