Roadside Buildings Research Articles

Building usage prediction in complex urban scenes by fusing text and facade features from street view images using deep learning

Building usage maps are inputs to many urban planning applications, however, the existing methods and the available data have limitations in generating instance-level high-resolution usage maps. In this study we tackle this problem by utilizing Street View Images (SVIs) and proposing a novel ensemble learning architecture that leverages building facade features and text extracted from hoardings, posters, etc. on buildings to predict the usage class. A pre-trained object detection model i.e., Grounding DINO, is implemented to efficiently identify buildings. A novel manually labeled training data of detected buildings corresponding to their usage is used to extract features from building facades across diverse Indian cities (Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi) using Vision Transformer (ViT) model. Following this, CLIPSeg a pre-trained segmentation model is used to recognizes text specifically on building elements like signs, posters, and banners. We then leverage GPT-3.5 Turbo, a Large Language Model (LLM), fine-tuned with a specifically designed few-shot prompting method, to infer building usage from the recognized text. To achieve optimal performance, the proposed ensemble linear metaclassifier combines predictions from ViT and LLM model. The predicted building usages are attributed to their corresponding locations to develop spatial maps. An analysis of our framework compared against ground truth data collected from various Indian cities reveals significantly accurate outcomes. Our findings highlight the utility of textual information in classifying utilities and commercial buildings, while features extracted from vision models prove more informative for residential buildings. Our approach can automate the generation of roadside building attributes and usage details on a larger scale.

A comprehensive approach in post-earthquake blockage prediction of urban road network and emergency resilience optimization

This study presents a probabilistic method for predicting urban road blockages due to the collapse of roadside buildings and develops network restoration planning through resilience optimization. Resilience analysis of a blocked network has faced two challenges: (1) blocked paths opening time estimation; and (2) network time-varying functionality evaluation. Probabilistic models, including earthquake magnitude, fault rupture location, seismic intensity, damage, debris, blockage, and debris evacuation models are utilized to determine the probability distribution of blocked paths opening time considering relevant uncertainties. A generalized network functionality metric is developed to evaluate network performance considering emergency multi-nodes such as medical centers. The optimization algorithm based on Simulated Annealing is extended for network restoration by assuming multi-location for resources pre-positioning. Three restoration scenarios are defined to identify required resources for network recovery with different restoration objectives. The proposed methodology is implemented in Region 2 of the Tehran metropolis. The results demonstrate that scenario (II) gives the highest number of required resources, so it is suitable where adequate resources are available. Scenario (III) predicts the least number of required resources; hence, it is appropriate where sufficient resources are not accessible. Subsequently, scenario (I) is an intermediate approach to determine the required resources with the lowest computational effort.

Impact of roof shape on indoor gaseous pollutant level for natural ventilation buildings in a street canyon: Numerical simulation

Introduction: Coupling the indoor and outdoor airflow of roadside buildings in a street canyon, the impact of flat and triangular roofs on indoor air pollutant concentration and ventilation rates of naturally ventilated buildings is studied using numerical simulation methods.
 Materials and methods: The flow and pollutant diffusion control equations are solved by using ANSYS Fluent. In simulation, RNG k-ε turbulence model is adopted. The numerical model is validated using the three-dimensional street canyon test data from the wind tunnel experiment at University of Karlsruhe.
 Results: The flow and pollutant concentration distributions under different roof shapes are obtained. The ventilation rates with different air flow resistances and pollution level indoors are provided.
 Conclusion: Ventilation direction through windows of roadside buildings determines the level of indoor air polluted by vehicle emissions in street canyon. When the building main height equals to the width of the street, flat roofs make the indoor concentration basically consistent with that near the external walls of the canyon. The higher the triangular roofs, the higher the ventilation rate and the lower the indoor concentration. The ventilation rate is influenced not only by roofs, but also by the floor location and indoor ventilation resistance.v

The Effects of Roadside Buildings Roof Shapes and Tree Plantings on the Vehicle Exhaust Gas Pollution Dispersion in the Urban Street

In this study, the effects of roadside building roof shapes and roadside tree plantings on the dispersion of vehicle exhaust gas pollution in the urban street have been carefully explored. Three typical roof shapes, i.e., flat, triangle and round shapes, are considered in the present work. Firstly, the numerical simulations of air pollution transport in the atmospheric turbulent boundary layer with/without the vegetation canopy have been performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Secondly, the mean flow patterns and the distribution of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are then examined. Finally, the concentrations of the air pollution have been carefully explored. It is found that the triangle roof could result in a lower concentration of air pollution in the street canyon. The existence of the roadside trees could decrease the air pollution concentration, although its influence is much weaker than the roof shape. It is also found that the concentration of air pollution is quite related to the flow pattern and TKE distribution. This study could provide helpful guidance on the urban planners on the design of the urban street in the future.

Study on Shapes, Colors and Ornaments According to Architecture Psychology: A Case Study of Roadside Buildings in Kitakyushu

Psychology in architecture is one that is highly considered in urban planning, or even smaller, the buildings in it. In this research, the study of shape, color, and ornament is the focus of the research. This research is a basic study for more in-depth research on the psychology of architecture in urban Kitakyushu. This study aims to study the shape, color, and ornamentation of buildings scattered in the center of urban growth in Kitakyushu. The survey results in this study will be assessed based on the theory of psychology in architecture. The method used in this research is a design and visual approach, with qualitative approaches. In the survey that has been carried out, it was found that the characteristics of Kitakyushu buildings are generally box-shaped with the use of natural colors, such as the color of the ground. This study also assumes that building design, color selection, and ornamentation affect urban vibes in Kitakyushu and directly affect the psychology of the people in it.

Modelling of hazardous chemical gas building ingress and consequence analysis during a leak accident

Leakage of hazardous chemical gases during storage or transport via roadways is a common type of accident that threatens human life. This study built a typical residential building model in rural areas of southern China based on Building Information Model technology. The model was then simplified and employed as a target building to simulate the hazardous gas dispersion around it after a leak accident by means of Computational Fluid Dynamic methods. A dose-response model was combined with a probit function analysis to quantitatively identify the exposure risks for different scenarios. The impacts of source location and ventilation path on the dispersion characteristics were analyzed through comparisons of indoor concentration distributions. In addition, the study also quantified the relationship between individual mortality risk and the source intensity by employing H2S as a source of toxic substances. If the source strength was increased by 2.5 times for the same ventilation path, the corresponding mortality rates can improve from 0.1 to 99%. The findings provide effective information about rapid consequence evaluation after accidental leakage of hazardous chemical gas and could be helpful in proposing effective emergency measures to minimize the exposure risk in roadside buildings.

Field investigation for ambient wind speed and direction effects exposure of cyclists to PM2.5 and PM10 in urban street environments

In China, an increasing number of cyclists commute on urban streets. Cyclists are usually exposed to high traffic-related particulate matter (PM) concentrations. The distribution of cycling exposure concentrations may be affected by meteorological conditions under different street configurations. To investigate these impacts, we collected concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 10 at the breathing height of cyclists and meteorological data in two differently oriented streets and an open road in Fuzhou. Relative exposure concentrations (RECs) were determined by subtracting the background concentration and monitoring intervals were determined with the minimisation of the coefficient variation of traffic to identify the impacts of meteorology (e.g., wind speed and wind direction) on REC distribution. Wind speed had the most significant impact on REC and explained 26–63% of the variation in REC. Higher RECs (>6 μg/m 3 ) were mainly distributed at lower wind speeds (<2 m/s), while lower RECs (<3 μg/m 3 ) were dominant when the wind speed exceeded 4 m/s. Temperature and relative humidity were not significantly correlated with the REC. Parallel winds can improve the dispersion of particles. In the up-wind condition, RECs on the leeward side were 2 μg/m 3 higher than those on the windward side because of the accumulation of particles caused by the vortex effect, especially in the west-east streets with residential roadside buildings with strip pattern features. More building gaps on both sides of the streets could weaken the vortex effect, and RECs on the leeward side decreased faster with increasing wind speed. These results can be used to propose strategies for reducing cycling exposure. • Relative exposure concentration (REC) improved the identification of meteorological factors. • Wind speed can explain 26–63% of the variation in cycling REC. • Parallel wind can better benefit the dispersion of particles. • Buildings with strip pattern features can increase REC on the leeward side. • More gaps between buildings can benefit the dispersion of pollutants in urban streets.

Effects of roadside morphologies and moving vehicles on street canyon ventilation

The influence of roadside morphology and the movement of vehicles on street canyon ventilation is important, but their coupling effect is still unclear. This study aimed to determine the best structural design for roadside buildings while considering moving vehicles’ effect on ventilation. The morphologies examined were podium, cantilever, rain shed, balcony, outdoor air-conditioning unit, and reference structures. The ventilation capacity of partial areas and the entire lane in the sidewalk and cycle lane was analyzed based on the age of air and net escape velocity (NEV). When a vehicle moves through a street canyon, the ventilation capacity of the zone part at the rear of the vehicle is improved, especially for the cycle lane on the windward side. However, for the entire lane, moving vehicles reduce the ventilation capacity by about 0.2–1.4%, with an average reduction of 0.8%. Therefore, when a vehicle passed through the street canyon, it reduced the ventilation capacity of an entire lane under a perpendicular wind direction. The cantilever morphology exhibited the best ventilation based on the vortex distribution and ventilation indices analysis. Its NEV values were 5% higher than that of the reference.

A large-scale study on the speed-calming effect of speed humps

Inappropriate speeding is one of the main causes for traffic-related injuries and fatalities. Studies have shown that more than 50 % of Danish car drivers regularly speed on urban roads and nearly 75 % of them speed on rural roads. Physical speed-calming measures, particularly speed humps, are widely used to reduce speeding in urban areas in the Danish road network. However, speed humps are often located based on reasons other than ensuring that they have the best effect on reducing the speed of vehicles. Furthermore, their speed-calming effect is not utilised sufficiently. This study evaluated more than 570 speed humps on roads with a 50 km/h speed limit. The main results reveal that speed increases with an interval between speed humps of up to 200 m at approximately 60 km/h. Additionally, a positive correlation was found between the distance from the roadside to the roadside buildings. The actual interval between speed humps ensures that suitable driving behaviour is carried out is 52 m, 70 m and 164 m for through roads, main roads and residential roads, respectively, in cases in which roadside buildings are situated farther from the road. Similar values were found for the intervals between speed bumps on these three types of roads (67 m, 89 m and 261 m, respectively) when there is a shorter distance between the roadside and the roadside buildings. Overall, speed humps are an efficient way to reduce speeding in built-up areas; however, aside from the interval between the speed humps, the distance from the roadside to the roadside building is the only significant factor contributing to the speed of the car for drivers on these roads.

Measurement-Based V2V Channel Characteristics at 5.9 GHz on Urban Crossroad

This article present single-input-single-output (SISO) measurement results of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) radio channel in an urban crossroad scenario at 5.9 GHz, where the measurement vehicles driving in vertical direction. Besides, radio channel characteristics include power delay profile (PDP), channel gain and delay spread also were conducted. Moreover, the lack of line of sight (LOS) path due to the roadside buildings can case 9 dB attention loss in channel gain and around 130 ns increase in root mean square (RMS) delay. The influences of roadside buildings on V2V radio channels cannot be ignored. All the conclusions drawn in this article have guiding significance for the design of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

The Study on Spatial Elements of Health-Supportive Environment in Residential Streets Promoting Residents' Walking Trips.

Residents’ walking trips are a kind of natural motion that promotes health and wellbeing by modifying individual behavior. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the major influence of the spatial elements of a health-supportive environment on residents’ walking trips. This study analyzes residents’ walking trips’ elements based on the spatiotemporal characteristics of walking trips, as well as the spatial elements of a health-supportive environment in residential streets based on residential health needs. To obtain the spatial elements that promote residents’ walking trips and to build an ordered logistic regression model, two methods—a correlation analysis and a logistic regression analysis—were applied to analyze the elements of residents’ walking trips as well as the spatial elements of a health-supportive environment in residential streets by means of SPSS software, using on-site survey results of ten residential streets and 2738 pieces of research data. The research showed that the nine kinds of spatial elements that significantly affect residents’ walking trips are density of pedestrian access, density of bus routes, near-line rate of roadside buildings, average pedestrian access distance, square area within a 500 m walking distance, distance to the nearest garden, green shade ratio, density of street intersections, and the mixed proportion of differently aged residential buildings. In order to construct a spatial environment that promotes walking trips, it is necessary to improve the convenience of residents’ walking trips, to increase the safety of roadside buildings and pedestrian access, to expand the comfort of “getting out to the nature”, and to enrich the diversity of different architectural styles and street density.

Dynamic three-dimensional distribution of traffic pollutant at urban viaduct with the governance strategy

Urban viaducts influence air pollution due to their elevated emission sources and complex wind fields. This study investigates the three-dimensional distribution of a typical traffic pollutant (i.e., PM2.5) alongside a viaduct in Guangzhou, China, by using a movable measurement platform. Based on the measured data, the study explores the statistical relationship between the pollutant and the influencing factors. A hybrid method with validation using the measured data is developed to model the dynamic variations in the PM2.5 distribution. The distribution of PM2.5 is studied in an asymmetric street canyon with a viaduct under different wind speeds (i.e., 0.7 m/s, 4 m/s, 10 m/s), and the influence of canyon structures with different height–width ratios on the PM2.5 dispersion is evaluated. The study finally proposes a series of strategies for reducing roadside pollution along the viaduct. The well-validated hybrid model is also used to determine the optimal pollution reduction strategy for a specific scenario. This work not only reveals the dynamic distribution law and key influencing factors of traffic pollutants in urban viaducts but also provides an important practical basis for traffic infrastructure construction and roadside building design to effectively alleviate air pollution from traffic emission sources.

Characterizing temporal and vertical distribution patterns of traffic-emitted pollutants near an elevated expressway in urban residential areas

Elevated expressways have been built in many cities worldwide to improve the accessibility and capability of urban road network. Meanwhile, intensive emissions from ground- and elevated-road traffic would significantly elevate personal exposure levels to air pollutants, such as fine particles (PM1), carbon monoxide (CO) and black carbon (BC). However, their transport and dispersion mechanisms in urban residential areas have not been clearly recognized. In this study, we characterized temporal and vertical distribution patterns of traffic-emitted pollutants near an elevated expressway in near-road buildings. Vertically-resolved measurements of traffic emissions were made at different floors of a roadside building alongside the Inner Ring Viaduct in downtown Shanghai, China from January to June 2019. Results show that higher pollutant concentrations were observed during the morning (Local Time, UTC+8, LT 08–09) in winter and during the late afternoon (LT 17–18) in summer, the result of seasonal variations in vehicular activities and meteorological factors. Additionally, the vertical profiles of traffic-emitted pollutants all exhibited bimodal distribution patterns, which was more obvious for PM1 than for CO and BC. The upper peak appeared slightly above noise barriers, attributable to the extra vehicular emissions on the elevated expressway. The lower peak occurred at ground level mainly due to on-road congested traffic flow, and the presence of the elevated road, which inhibited the dilution of ground-level vehicular exhausts. These findings reveal the general trends of the dispersion patterns of traffic emissions surrounding urban elevated expressways, and could provide implications in making control measures to mitigate air pollution exposure.

Influence of roadside buildings on the noise in the backside blocks in city area

Influence of roadside buildings on the noise in the backside blocks in city area

Study on Influencing Mechanism of Outdoor Plant-related Particles on Indoor Environment and its Control Measures during Transitional Period in Nanjing

ABSTRACT Most city trees in Nanjing are Platanus acerifolia and Populus nigra, which generate many whirling willow catkins in the air during the transitional season, yet little attention has been paid to the health risks, including itchy skin and respiratory infections, on occupants of roadside buildings. Since the air quality of these indoor spaces cannot meet WHO guidelines during the transitional season due to the influence of plant pollutants, a suitable ventilation scheme, together with air filtration measures, is urgently needed. Hence, four ventilation schemes were compared: natural ventilation, no ventilation with the door and windows closed, recirculating ventilation with a ceiling cassette fan-coil unit but no air filter, and recirculating ventilation with a ceiling cassette fan-coil unit and F7 filter. The performance of these modes was evaluated by comparing the effects of outdoor particulate matter on the indoor air quality. The results showed that the larger the particle size, the lower the I/O ratio. Furthermore, the influence of the occupants’ activities on indoor particle concentrations cannot be ignored, particularly for large particles, which varied more than small particles according to indoor human activity. Therefore, we suggest operating the ceiling cassette fan-coil unit with an air filter for this application, which can reduce the indoor particle concentration to an acceptable level and decrease the potential health risk posed by plant pollutants.

Road network risk analysis considering people flow under ordinary and evacuation situations

Both pre-disaster approaches, e.g., mitigation and preparedness, and post-disaster approaches, e.g., response and recovery, play important roles to mitigate the damage from large-scale disasters. From the viewpoint of disaster response, there have been studies on evacuation guiding schemes and applications using evacuees’ mobile devices, e.g., smart phones. On the other hand, disaster preparedness has also been studied mainly on geographical information analysis, e.g., road blockage probability and people flow data. The road blockage probability is the probability that the corresponding road is blocked due to collapse of roadside buildings when an earthquake occurs. The people flow data express the people flow in usual time. In this paper, with the help of evacuation guiding schemes, road blockage probability, and people flow data, we propose a road network risk analysis approach that considers people flow in both ordinary and evacuation situations, which can be used to as a tool to strengthen the urban fabric for fostering better evacuees’ responses in disaster situations. First, the proposed approach derives ordinary road demand, which is the degree of road usage at a certain interval in an ordinary situation, from the people flow data. Then, it calculates evacuation road demand, i.e., the degree of road usage at a certain interval in an evacuation situation, by extending the edge betweenness centrality under the assumption that people located according to the ordinary road demand move to refuges along their evacuation paths. Finally, it detects roads with high risk of encountering blocked road segments by combining the road blockage probability and evacuation road demand. Through numerical experiments under a case study of Arako area of Nagoya city in Japan, we show the proposed approach can detect such high-risk roads. Furthermore, we show the detected roads spatially change according to the people flow in ordinary situations, evacuation behavior, and disaster occurrence time.

The 2001–2017 Façade Renovations of Jongno Roadside Commercial Buildings Built in the 1950s–60s: Sustainability of Ordinary Architecture within Regionality

This paper examines 41 roadside commercial buildings of the Jongno region built in the 1950s–60s that received façade renovations between 2001 and 2017. The aim is to show the relations between the forms of renovation and the regionality of the commercial areas, which have been historically formed in the original city center of Seoul, as well as the relation of these connections to the sustainability of ordinary architecture. Because Jongno has been the city center for the 600 years following the Joseon dynasty, the region is still a center for politics, administration, economics, and culture. Specialized commercial areas exist in each region within Jongno, and each of these reflect their own regionality. Within such regionality, the roadside commercial buildings are adapting and changing to fit the times, and regionality is sustained through façade renovation of ordinary architecture. The façade renovations of roadside commercial buildings that reflect such regionality and sustainability do not involve redevelopment through overall demolition, which represents a loss of regionality and history and is conducted undemocratically; rather, the practice should be acknowledged for adding value as past heritage and the simultaneous incorporation of present and future values.

Improving performance of pedestrian positioning by using vehicular communication signals

Pedestrian-to-vehicle communications, where pedestrian devices transmit their position information to nearby vehicles to indicate their presence, help to reduce pedestrian accidents. Satellite-based systems are widely used for pedestrian positioning, but have much degraded performance in urban canyon, where satellite signals are often obstructed by roadside buildings. The authors propose a pedestrian positioning method, which leverages vehicular communication signals and uses vehicles as anchors. The performance of pedestrian positioning is improved from three aspects: (i) channel state information instead of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is used to estimate pedestrian-vehicle distance with higher precision. (ii) Only signals with line-of-sight path are used, and the property of distance error is considered. (iii) Fast mobility of vehicles is used to get diverse measurements, and Kalman filter is applied to smooth positioning results. Extensive evaluations, via trace-based simulation, confirm that (i) fixing rate of positions can be much improved. (ii) Horizontal positioning error can be greatly reduced, nearly by one order compared with off-the-shelf receivers, by almost half compared with RSSI-based method, and can be reduced further to about 80 cm when vehicle transmission period is 100 ms and Kalman filter is applied. Generally, positioning performance increases with the number of available vehicles and their transmission frequency.

Time-evolution of sound levels around a roadside building

The time evolution of the sound impact due to single cars driving along a road was evaluated at seven receivers in front of and behind a road-side building. The sound impact was measured in the field and around a scale model of the building in a laboratory. In addition, two calculation methods were applied: a complex numerical finite-difference time-domain model based on the Euler equation and a simple ray-based calculation according to the ISO 9613-2 standard. On the backside of the building where sound waves only arrive by diffraction, the differences between the four methods are disappointingly large. Some of the discrepancies can be explained by diverse assumptions and boundary conditions which go along with the individual methods. However, a major disagreement largely remains an open problem, namely the magnitude of the drop of the sound level in the acoustical shadow of the building. It is fairly strong in the scale-model measurements and the Euler model simulations on the one hand, but rather weak or even not existing in the field measurements and ISO 9613-2 calculations on the other hand.

Introduction

The second issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding is dedicated to the topic of visibility. As simply put by the Texas Transportation Institute:&#x0D; Seeing the road and everything around it while driving is not a preferred option, rather it is an essential component of safe driving. Driving is a visual activity, and as we make our way down a road, we all look at a wide range of visual inputs - the roadway, the surrounding terrain, other vehicles, roadside buildings and advertisements and traffic control devices such as signs, markings, and signals - to help us get where we are going. How we distinguish those visual inputs and maneuver the vehicle safely varies from person to person and can depend on quite a number of random, uncontrollable things - the weather, time of day, driver age, health and experience, as well as unexpected distractions inside or outside the vehicle - all can have an effect.https://tti.tamu.edu/group/visibility/, last visited 6/12/17. As businesses know, their businesses must be visible to be viable. Clear signage enhances their visibility in the marketplace.&#x0D; Regardless of sign type or intended audience, being able to see and read the message on a sign is critical. In this issue of the International Journal of Signage and Wayfinding, Bullough explores the literature on visibility as it relates to the conspicuity and legibility of signage. This article provides contexts for what we know about the typographic and symbolic characteristics of signs, as well as the environments in which they are placed.&#x0D; Pedestrians rely on signs to help them navigate exterior and interior environments. Apardian and Alum demonstrate the importance of different high-visibility pedestrian warning signs at midblock crossings for pedestrian safety. Symonds explores the importance of clear wayfinding strategies inside airports while Ward and his students provides an analysis of the critical wayfinding elements on college campuses.&#x0D; Visibility is also critical for motorists as they traverse US roadways. Auffrey and Hilderbrant provide an accounting of the lost opportunities of those businesses whose signs cannot be viewed by passersby. Utilizing 3M's Visual Analysis Software, the researchers demonstrate the average probability that a sign is being viewed by motorists and make recommendations for improving visibility.&#x0D;