Rapid Urban Development Research Articles

Design Strategy of Municipal Roads and Bridges Using BIM Technology

Under the rapid development of socio-economy and urbanization, the state’s attention toward urban infrastructure continues to increase. The construction of municipal road and bridge projects is related to people’s daily travel and transport safety, and it also plays an important role in promoting urban economic development. Therefore, modern technology should be fully utilized in the design of municipal roads and bridges to strengthen construction cost control and increase their social and economic benefits. In this paper, the characteristics and application status of BIM technology in municipal road and bridge design are analyzed, and corresponding road and bridge design strategies are explored to promote the healthy development of municipal road and bridge projects.

Contextualization Matters: Beyond Abstract, Normative and Universal Approaches

The negative ecological, health and social impacts of intensive agricultural production and deforestation, coupled with rapid urban and suburban development motivated some architects, land-use planners, landscape and urban designers last century to consider how the morphology and size of human settlements impact on natural and human ecosystems at local, regional and global levels. Some initiatives 50 years ago, including the seminal contributions of Constantinos A. Doxiadis, John Habraken, Victor Papanek (among others), preceded current concerns about complex people-society-environment-biosphere interrelations in a rapidly urbanizing world. Notably, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda recognize these dilemmas, but these initiatives have not borne anticipated outcomes since 2015. This article explains that the proposed responses to these societal challenges by these international initiatives have devalued fundamental elements of ekistics that combined and synthesized five forces - economic, social, political, technical and cultural factors in a holistic and systemic model. In addition, abstract, dogmatic, normative, and universal approaches commonly used in architecture and urban planning during the last century have remained dominant. The author requests a fundamental rethinking of key drivers of rapid urbanization that need to be understood and corrected according to the diversity and plurality of contextual conditions in which human settlements are constructed. These can be identified and accommodated in Living Labs which are creative real-world settings that explicitly reconnect knowledge and praxis about human habitats, thus overcoming the current deficit in implementing the SDGs, and in particular SDG 11.

Effect of Convergence Plant Selection of Wildflower Mixtures in China on the Plant Invasion

The rapid development of urbanization and urban land-use intensification have substantially reduced biodiversity and ecosystem services. Wildflower mixtures can improve regional biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity by establishing flower-rich habitats and providing multiple ecosystem services, which were considered one of the most favorable landscape ecological restoration technologies approaches. How to design wildflower mixtures to achieve optimal eco-efficiency is currently unclear. In China, wildflower mixture is one of landscape architecture’s most popular methods for establishing herbaceous vegetation. Currently, there is a notable lack of systematic research regarding species selection, and concerns have been raised about the design approach that introduces convergent species, which may potentially become invasive. This research integrated a wildflower mixture design database currently published in China and discovered community composition and construction methods. Based on this, we compared the species composition of wildflower mixtures in China and assessed the potential invasive species. Additionally, we attempted to explore the distribution over time and space, their potential invasion risk, and the main factors influencing species selection through modeling approaches. The results highlighted that species selection of mixture converged with different spatiotemporal attributes and design intentions, despite designed wildflower mixtures in China having gradually increased in recent years. A large number of species from North America and Europe have been causing an increase in potential invasion annually. Furthermore, the research confirmed that the convergence contributes to the homogenization of urban landscape vegetation communities, which leads to biological invasion from the design level, and revealed the possibility that ineffective ecological restoration techniques may cause adverse environmental impacts.

Mining the Performance Characteristics of Yao Nationality Musical Instruments under Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Abstract In the context of the rapid development of modernization and urbanization, the inheritance and research of music and musical instruments by ethnic minorities are facing great challenges. It is, therefore, of enormous significance to uncover the performance characteristics of ethnic minority musical instruments. This paper focuses on four categories of Yao musical instruments, namely reed instruments, air-pipe instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. We mine the performance features of Yao musical instruments using MFCC feature extraction, perceptual linear prediction parameter extraction, and other methods. The performance of this paper’s algorithm is explored by comparing the detection and recognition accuracy of its algorithm with SVM on four types of musical instruments. The performance characteristics of Yao musical instruments are explored by analyzing the timbre characteristics, auditory characteristics, and beat statistics of the four instruments. This paper’s algorithm significantly outperforms the SVM algorithm in the recognition correct rate of four different types of musical instruments, with differences of 2.1905%, 7.1574%, 5.3758%, and 3.6962%, respectively. The extracted performance features of Yao music instruments reveal that reed instruments and air-pipe instruments have a superior timbral effect than wind instruments and percussion instruments. The sound of pneumatic instruments and wind instruments is the best when it comes to audibility, and the beats of reed instruments and wind instruments are the best among the four instruments.

Metal(loid) Partitioning and Transport in the Jinsha River, China: From Upper Natural Reaches to Lower Cascade Reservoirs-Regulated Reaches

Riverine contamination of metals and metalloids is a growing global concern. However, our understanding of how cascade reservoirs influence the fate of these pollutants remains limited. In this study, we focused on the Jinsha River, a typical large river polluted with metal(loid)s in Southwest China, to investigate the partitioning and transport of these substances from the upper natural reaches to the lower cascade reservoirs-regulated reaches during both flood and dry seasons. Results revealed that the rapid urbanization and industrial development following the construction of reservoirs led to significant copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and cadmium (Cd) pollution. Through various analytical techniques such as correlation analysis, principal component analysis, redundancy analysis, and structural equation modeling, we determined that reservoirs had a profound impact on solid-associated parameters, including particulate organic matter (POM), suspended solid concentration (SSC), and median particle diameter (D50). These parameters, in turn, affected the fate of metal(loid)s through processes like sorption-desorption and dissolution-precipitation. High POM concentrations and low SSC and D50 values resulted in the precipitation of most particulate metal(loid)s, thereby reducing their transport across reservoirs. As river water moved downstream across the reservoirs, the percentage of particulate metal(loid)s decreased by 6.1% for arsenic (As), 38.3% for Cu, 74.9% for Ni, 36.8% for Cr, 17.8% for Cd, and 41.9% for Pb, respectively. Furthermore, the cascade reservoirs had cumulative effects on the deposition of particulate metal(loid)s, particularly concerning Cr, Cd, and Pb in the final reservoirs. Human health risk assessments indicated that dissolved As and Pb posed potential non-carcinogenic threats to residents. Despite the fact that reservoirs captured most particulate metal(loid)s, the transport of dissolved As and Pb across the reservoirs still impacted the safety of downstream drinking water. Therefore, in cascade reservoir systems, the concern regarding dissolved metal(loid) pollution remains a priority for future reservoir management.

Research on Space Optimization Design of High-rise Residential Building Based on Genetic Algorithm

Abstract With the rapid development of urbanization and the continuous growth of population, the design and planning of high-rise residential buildings have become increasingly important. The purpose of this study is to explore the space optimization design method of high-rise residential buildings based on genetic algorithm(GA), focusing on the comparative analysis between traditional GA and Adaptive genetic algorithm(AGA). In this paper, AGA is used to establish the spatial optimization model of high-rise residential buildings. By dynamically adjusting the parameters of the algorithm, AGA makes the algorithm better adapt to the characteristics of the problem and improves the search efficiency. The results show that AGA is superior to traditional GA in global convergence probability, especially when the population size is large. AGA improves the adaptability and robustness of the algorithm by dynamically adjusting the crossover and mutation probability. AGA has better flexibility and adaptability in the design of high-rise residential buildings and is expected to provide more optimized solutions for solving complex design problems. The findings of this study provide a useful reference for innovation and sustainable development in the field of high-rise building design and also provide practical methods and tools for the application of GA.

Sustainable Urban Development: A Sustainability Study of the Dhaka Megacity

Sustainable urban development is a precondition for positive and eco-centered development under the Urban Sustainability Framework (USF) (ADB, 2018). Climate change has played a vital role in global economic development. Meanwhile, the Earth is a roughcast multidimensional development dilemma, in which urbanization is one of them. There is a perceptual gap between the actual demand of the public and decision-makers’ perceptions. According to recent UN studies, approximately 55 per cent of the world’s population resides in urban areas, whereas it was 30 per cent in 1950. Currently, urbanization trends are very significant by population, for instance, in North America (82%), Latin America, and the Caribbean (81%), Europe (74%), and Oceania (68%). Urban growth in Asia is at an average of 50% and in Africa at 43% (UN, 2018). In the last two decades, the urbanization rate in Bangladesh has been 39.7% and the annual average growth rate is 3.21% (Knoema, 2023). However, this unplanned development has been destructive to natural growth, destroying the ecological environment, dishonouring historical monuments, and, finally, the cost is high in terms of money and sustainability. In this study, Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is the most vulnerable city in the world because of population, internal migration, air pollution, water pollution, and many more genuine reasons. Accordingly, this city is now unable to bear the load of this growing population’s weight, which is horrible (ADB, 1998). Unplanned development also helps to increase traffic, and people waste their productive time in a way that also affects the GDP of Bangladesh. Ultimately, unplanned, imbalanced, and unsustainable development is increasing hazard, death risk, and several negative impacts of urban development in Dhaka. Consequently, for the sake of God, this type of rapid urban development needs to be reconsidered by policymakers and implementers for the betterment of current and future generations.

Strengthening the Spatial Quality of Fishpond towards Disaster Mitigation on the Urban Riparians of Meureudu River, Indonesia

Meureudu City center, which is located on the riverfronts of Meureudu River, Pidie Jaya Regency continues experienced rapid urban development caused dramatic changes in the land use. Developments that occur in this area must be controlled strictly, given often conflicting management and use of land, especially between cultivation activities for the economic improvement of local community and interests of the environmental protection. Conflicting interests in land use in urban area, especially for fishpond cultivation as productive land for the local community, which partly utilizes river borders, riparian corridors, and green open spaces which in the RDTR (Detailed Spatial Planning) of Meureudu District are buffer areas that need to remanage. The knowledge about the potential fishpond is important to ensure the ecological stability of the area in terms of restoration of riparian corridors. Implementing sustainable management of the fishpond land layout is a must, because this area is vulnerable to flash floods, tsunamis, and strong winds. This study aims to examine the development of sustainable fishpond land management and be able to play a role in local disaster mitigation. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach method. Management strategy analysis was carried out using the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) method. The results of the research are; strategies to improve the spatial quality of fishponds that are multifunctional, in addition to having sustainable productive functions and are also capable of disaster mitigation.

“Urban ruins” The strategical importance of abandoned buildings in the process of urban reanimation

Entire generations of people, separated by time, through history, are mentally connected through the memories stored in those buildings which had survived to become imposing reminiscences of our past, through which we are able to connect with our ancestors and, therefore, our history. Urban ruins are a natural urban phenomenon. They represent a consequence of time and space, and also the direct result of the rapid urban development of the city, shaped constantly by internal and external social, political and economic conditions. They are usually those abandoned buildings and constructions, who lost their physical integrity due to their advanced state of physical degradation, caused by the lack of periodic maintenance, due to the abandonment of their owners, mostly due to economic reasons. They are usually found in abandoned or contaminated sites, better known as Brownfields and Greyfields. These old abandoned industrial and large commercial urban sites had formed in time disused urban tissues which had caused morphological and technical problems to the entire existing urban fabric of the city. Their lack of activity and advanced state of decay parasitizes the space they occupy within the city, endangers the urban hygiene and the safety of citizens, and overall damages the urban image of the city. The current PhD thesis aims to document the presence of all urban ruins, by mapping all the abandoned buildings and constructions in Bucharest City and analyse their strategic value and importance, in order to establish applicable theoretical principles regarding the urban morphological peculiarities of other cities which also may constitute the subject of this global phenomenon.

Environmental Changes and Food Security in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

This study aims at evaluating the role of Geo-spatial techniques in vegetation cover analysis and mapping, environmental changes and food security in Nigeria. The challenges of food security in Nigeria especially in urban centres are enormous. The unmitigated rural-urban drift as a result of socio-economic development has made it imperative to address the problem of food security in the study area. Also, the issue of rapid urban development without appropriate attention given to the important issue of food security with persistent deteriorating infrastructure for urban food processing has led to rapid price changes, in food and other agricultural products. This study, therefore, attempts to demonstrate that the recent advancements in remote sensing integration with Geographic Information System technologies provide powerful tools for mapping and detecting changes in land use and land cover using Ado-Ekiti as a case study. The digital image processing techniques of remote sensing (RS) was employed to enable speedy, accurate and objective interpretation of the multispectral data used for the study, in order to understand the extent, rate and the magnitude of land use and land cover dynamics in the study area. The study reveals that the agricultural land and natural vegetation have the highest change. Much of their land areas were converted to built-up areas for the three study epochs (1992,2007,2022). The study concludes that there is a progressive encroachment of built-up areas to other land use in the study area, thereby resulting in significant environmental changes and affecting food security.

Analysis of Noise Level with Convergent and Divergent Shape of Muffler and its Impact on Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is one of the key hazards that decreases people's quality of life globally. Due to the rapid development of technology, industrialization, urbanization, and transportation networks, noise pollution has reached serious levels in recent years. Sound transmission loss, the attenuation of sound as it passes through diverse objects and environments, is crucial in lowering noise pollution and preserving the acoustic integrity of ecosystems. Due to de-throttling tactics implemented to optimize cylinder fill, the intake system of internal combustion engines is the primary noise source while the vehicle is at low speeds and high loads. Therefore, achieving high acoustic performance of intake systems constitutes a critical issue in complying with the increasingly stringent European regulations for overall noise emission. The Transmission Loss computation is typically the most used technique for describing a system's acoustic performances. This work provided an overview of sound transmission loss and discussed its substantial environmental effects. It investigates the fundamentals of sound transmission, the factors that influence it, and the environmental impacts of sound attenuation. This paper proposed a comparison of three designs like straight duct (muffler), convergent and divergent design of muffler. The main aim is to observe sound transmission loss and compare the noise level with three muffler configurations with the same gas volume. High transmission loss indicates more noise reduction in muffler design, which will help reduce environmental noise pollution.

Spatiotemporal Variability and Impact Factors of Domestic Water Prices in China

Given China’s status as one of the most water-scarce countries globally, its rapid development of urbanization and sustained economic growth have led to increasing pressure on the urban water supply. Water pricing is also receiving increasing attention as an important tool for water resource management. This study analyzes the spatial and temporal characteristics of domestic water prices in China and their drivers. To this end, domestic water price data from 285 cities in China were collected. Spatial statistical analysis and geodetector were used to examine the spatial distribution and temporal patterns of domestic water prices from 2007 to 2020, as well as to identify the primary factors influencing these prices. The following results are noted: (1) The national average domestic water price has increased from 2 RMB/m3 to 3.12 RMB/m3, where the northeast and eastern regions have higher prices than the national average, while the central and western regions have lower prices. (2) The spatial distribution of urban domestic water prices presents clear differences characteristic of north–south and spatial agglomeration effects; the high-value area of domestic water prices is mainly concentrated in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei. (3) On a national and regional scale, the price of domestic water is closely related to economic development, water resources, and resident’s income level. Furthermore, this study revealed that the interaction between pairwise factors played a more significant role in influencing domestic water prices compared with the individual impact of each factor. This finding contributes to a deeper understanding of the spatiotemporal heterogeneity in domestic water pricing and offers valuable insights and guidance for water pricing reform in China.

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Discharge and Water Quality Evaluation in a Small Basin of the Upper Reaches of Lijiang River

The Lijiang River Basin is a humid, subtropical, karst landform in China and is listed as a World Heritage Site. However, with the rapid development of urbanization and tourism activities in recent years, it faces increasingly severe non-point source pollution. To understand the temporal and spatial variations in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution discharge and the changes in river water quality, the Jingui Small Basin, in the upper reaches of the Lijiang River, was chosen as a representative system. Changes in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were continuously monitored in the main river channel and the river water quality was evaluated using the comprehensive water quality identification index method. The results indicated that there were obvious seasonal changes in nitrogen and phosphorus discharge loads in the basin. Both nitrogen and phosphorus discharge loads were higher in the crop-growing season than in the non-growing season. No significant difference in nitrogen and phosphorus discharge load between different scales was found, and the scale was not the key factor affecting the nitrogen and phosphorus discharge load of Jingui River. As the river flowed from the initial water source to the outlet of the basin, water quality was characterized by the spatial pattern of the upper reaches > the middle reaches > the lower reaches. Except for the water quality at the outlet of the basin in November and December, which reached Class V, the comprehensive water quality of each sub-basin reached the target water quality of the water function zoning from May to December. The elucidation of the nitrogen and phosphorus pollution discharge patterns in the Jingui River and the changes in water quality provide a reference for the control and management of agricultural non-point source pollution in the Lijiang River Basin.

Tracking the evolution of niobium cycle in China from 2000 to 2021: A dynamic material flow analysis

Niobium has been classified as one critical metal due to its wide applications in both fundamental and strategic industries. However, niobium resource is limited and unevenly distributed. China is the biggest niobium consumer and the demand for niobium will continue to increase due to its rapid urbanization and industrial development. This study aims to uncover the key features of niobium metabolism in China during 2000–2021 by employing a dynamic material flow analysis method. Our results show that both niobium flows and stocks experienced fast growth in China and the domestic demand for finished niobium products was highly concentrated. Moreover, China mainly relied on importing primary niobium resources from Brazil and Canada, while exporting semi-finished niobium products to Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Several policies are then proposed by considering the Chinese realities to improve the utilization efficiency of niobium resources and secure its sustainable supply.

The role of building violations on urban spatial development in Iran: an emphasize on Tehran metropolis socioeconomic factors

Building code violations have negatively affected Tehran’s spatial development significantly over the last three decades. This study was carried out to answer the question of what the status and factors of building violations and spatial changes were in Tehran’s districts in the first decade 1990s and 2000s, when rapid urban development was at its peak. This study’s statistical population included all buildings in the 22 districts of Tehran. In addition, the data and information for this study were gathered through library and documentary research. Furthermore, descriptive statistical methods were used to explain and interpret the data, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to represent the results. According to the findings, financial incentives were the most important motivators for committing these violations. One of the most important spatial developments in the Tehran metropolis during this time is the conflict between the Master Plan for the city and population growth, per-capita residential, commercial, and military land use. As a result, areas 1 to 7 and residential structures accounted for 56% of Tehran’s total area of residential buildings and 41.8% of the city’s population in 2001, respectively, a rise of 2.9% and 34.8%. Additionally, other public institutions increased the area of residential buildings and the population of this area by 46.5% and 42.5% during this time period, respectively, by violating building codes, particularly in area 4 of the city.

A research on the strengthening effect of sludge charcoal on activated sludge process in sewage treatment.

With the rapid development of urbanization, the number of urban sewage treatment plants is increasing, wastewater treatment volume is gradually becoming large, and correspondingly, the sludge production capacity has a rapid growth. As a new method of sludge disposal, sludge carbonization is characterized by low energy consumption, simple products, and wide resource utilization prospects, which is of great help to solve problems of current sludge disposal in China. The residual sludge from sewage plant was used as raw material in this study in order to investigate the physical and chemical properties of sludge charcoal after high temperature carbonization and explore the enhancement in the removal of pollutants including CODcr, NH3-N, TN, and TP during sewage treatment with the used sludge charcoal. The results show that the optimal dosing amount of sludge charcoal was 2g.L-1 when it was added into SBR equipment at one time, while the optimal dosing amount is 0.06g.L-1 when it was added into SBR equipment with each influent process. The enhanced removal effect of pollutants in sewage treatment process mainly depended on the physical adsorption and intensified bio-degradation of sludge charcoal, and activated sludge and sludge charcoal were synergistic in water treatment. The removal effect of pollutants is strengthened in the physical adsorption-bio-degradation-sludge charcoal reproduction-re-adsorption system. These suggested that sludge charcoal could be promising for the enhancement of pollutant removal in sewage through activated sludge process.

Dynamic Assessment of Urban Carrying Capacity Load Number Using the Enhanced UCCLN Model

The sustainability of cities often changes as rapid urban developments and population growth affect the carrying capacity. Understanding the dynamics of carrying capacity becomes crucial for tourist-oriented cities. This study focused on Baguio City, the “Summer Capital of the Philippines”, attracting large crowds on holidays and actively promoting various events on other days, thus having temporal context variations classified as regular days, days with events, and holidays. Using the enhanced urban carrying capacity load number (EUCCLN) model, the changes in the load number (LN) are calculated for different temporal contexts based on spatial indicators grouped into air, traffic, economy and waste. The city experiences the worst pressures on air quality during holidays, with 99.23% of the districts at very high to critical levels, followed by regular days and days with events. However, the total LN during holidays is balanced by favorable economic conditions with only 9.23% of the districts at the critical level. EUCCLN effectively pinpoints areas that are at critical states at any given time, advocating targeted government monitoring. We demonstrate that nighttime light, for places with no available economic data, can be used as a proxy to highlight areas requiring improved urban vibrancy. This work suggests that monitoring urban pressures using EUCCLN can easily be extended to real time with nowcasting indicator data.

Mobile communication channel resource allocation technology in interference environment based on clustering algorithm

The rapid development of urbanization has led to the gradual increase of urban residential density. Relatively speaking, the spectrum resources are increasingly scarce, which leads to the increasingly serious interference between communities, and the system performance is also greatly limited. Therefore, in order to improve the efficiency of spectrum resources and solve the problem of user interference between cells, the experiment combines the advantages of clustering by fast search and find of Density Peaks Clustering (DPC), and proposes a two-step clustering algorithm. This method is proposed based on the core idea of DPC after in-depth study of the downlink multi-cell orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system architecture. The proposed model is compared with Matching Pursuit (MP) algorithm and Graph-based algorithm with the sum of clustering distance Rs, 1.5⁢Rs. The results show that the two-step clustering algorithm can significantly improve the spectrum efficiency and network capacity while ensuring good quality of service under the condition of channel tension or not. In addition, the minimum SINR value of the two-step clustering algorithm can reach 75 dB. Compared with the 220 dB of the Graph-based algorithm with the clustering distance Rs, it has extremely obvious advantages. Therefore, the two-step clustering algorithm constructed in this study can effectively reduce system interference, and has certain research and application value in solving the problem of mobile communication channel resource shortage.

Aguapuntura: a water-sensitive approach to revitalize informal settlements in the city of Asunción, Paraguay

In the last decades, rapid urban development led to the birth of informal working-class neighbourhoods. This phenomenon refers particularly to big cities of the developing world, where the slum’s expansion is uncontrolled and has caused a lack of basic services, drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, generating open sewers, pollution and landslides due to runoff. The present research, focused on the Chacarita district of Asunción (Paraguay), proposes a multiscalar strategy to manage the water resource, address environmental risk and urban and landscape redevelopment. The study proposes the regeneration of public spaces in one of the sectors that compose the Chacarita Alta neighborhood. The proposed design strategies aim at enhancing its natural and urban heritage through punctual interventions on water involving its collection, purification and reuse. Results underline the potential of the designed prototypes in improving the living conditions of the Chacarita residents.

Assessment of water resources carrying capacity using chaotic particle swarm genetic algorithm

AbstractWater resources carrying capacity (WRCC) has been evaluated repeatedly to guide sustainable regional development, with the increasing conflicts over water resources between society and nature. Urban underlying surfaces are constantly changing under the rapid development of urbanization, which has changed the WRCC. The chaotic particle swarm genetic algorithm (CPSGA) is proposed in this study to evaluate the WRCC. It combines the genetic algorithm (GA), chaotic optimization algorithm (COA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO), as well as introduces the chaotic mapping of COA and the velocity position update strategy of PSO into the GA framework to strengthen the population quality and improve the algorithm's efficiency. The effectiveness of CPSGA was demonstrated using three typical functions. Nanjing, China, was used as the study area to evaluate the WRCC from 2015 to 2018. The results showed that the comprehensive evaluation scores of the WRCC of Nanjing from 2015 to 2018 were up to 0.83. In addition, the CPSGA had better astringency and stability than GA, COA, and PSO. The application indicated that the proposed methodology is feasible, providing a reference for conducting WRCC research elsewhere.