Space Layout Research Articles

The Impact of Different Types of Trees on Annual Thermal Comfort in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Areas

Trees positively improve the annual thermal comfort of the built environment in tropical areas, where climate change is slight throughout the year. However, for areas with high changes in climate all year, the current studies have only explored the summer cooling performance of trees without the impact of different types of trees on annual thermal comfort, especially in cold seasons. Therefore, to quantify the impacts and scientifically guide the optimization of green space layout in hot summer and cold winter areas, this study selected Changsha City as the study area and analyzed how the annual thermal comfort is affected by evergreen trees and deciduous trees, which are two common types of trees in hot summer and cold winter areas. The analytical results indicated that the difference in the effect of deciduous and evergreen trees on outdoor thermal comfort was insignificant in summer, where the difference in the monthly mean PET for the three summer months was slight, being 0.28 °C, 0.14 °C, and 0.29 °C, respectively. However, evergreen trees greatly exacerbated winter cold compared to deciduous trees, with a monthly mean PET decrease by nearly 1.0 °C and an hourly PET reduced by up to 3.57 °C. The difference is mainly attributed to the absorption and reflection of solar radiation by the tree canopy, as well as the cooling and humidifying effect of the tree leaf. In hot summer and cold winter areas, outdoor thermal comfort is still in the “comfortable” and “slightly warm” acceptable stage despite the warming effect of deciduous trees in the spring and autumn seasons. Planting evergreen trees is an inevitable thermal mitigation choice for tropical areas. However, for the areas with high annual climate change, such as hot summer and cold winter areas in China, a change in empirical tree planting patterns and selecting deciduous trees where appropriate will improve year-round outdoor thermal comfort.

Study on the Coupling Coordination Degree and Driving Mechanism of “Production-Living-Ecological” Space in Ecologically Fragile Areas: A Case Study of the Turpan–Hami Basin

One of the key conditions for achieving superior regional growth is ensuring the harmonious development of both the layout and functions of territorial space. Territorial space, which includes production space, living space, and ecological space, serves as a critical system and venue for economic, cultural, and social activities in a region. The harmonized growth of production–living–ecological space (PLES) is essential for attaining sustainable development goals. Research on PLES offers a fresh perspective on promoting sustainable development of the spatial domain and the sustainable use of resources. However, studies on PLE functions in ecologically fragile areas are lacking. Therefore, in this study, which adopts a PLES perspective, land-use data are used to classify land according to the dominant functions of production, ecology, and living. Integration of point-of-interest (POI) data with socio-economic data was established to spatially describe indicators at the grid level and create a scoring system for PLES indicators in ecologically fragile areas. Finally, the entropy weight method, holistic assessment methods, coupling coordination degree model (CCDM), and geodetector were employed to explore the coupling coordination relationships and factors influencing PLESs in the Turpan–Hami Basin from 2010 to 2020. The results indicate that the Turpan–Hami Basin consists predominantly of potential ecological space, mainly in the central and northern regions, which are characterized by the Gobi Desert and bare rock landforms. Over the past decade, the PLES framework has seen a notable rise in the allocation of residential and ecological areas, whereas the portion dedicated to production spaces has diminished. The overall coupling coordination degree (CCD) of PLES in the Turpan–Hami Basin is at a coordinated level and gradually increasing. The most significant impact on the degree of PLES coupling coordination is exerted by population and natural factors. The research findings provide theoretical support for the sustainable utilization of resources in the Turpan–Hami Basin and other ecologically fragile areas while also offering scientific evidence to promote the coupling coordination of PLES, thereby contributing to high-quality regional development.

Assessing the efficiency of urban blue-green space in carbon-saving: Take a high-density urban area in a cold region as an example

Urban blue-green space responds to climate change by providing relatively cooler surrounding environments to indirectly reduce residents' energy consumption and directly adsorb CO2 from the air. However, the carbon-saving potential of urban blue-green space at the urban scale needs to be addressed in the literature. In this study, an improved ideal quantitative model of carbon-saving is constructed from the user's perspective, considering the cooling effects of urban blue-green space and integrating surface temperature, building information, and urban public space layout. A high-density urban area in a northern cold region of China (Tianjin center urban area) is taken as an example to estimate the annual carbon-saving by performing Landsat surface temperature inversions with the delineation of the effective cooling area, as well as regression analyses based on four seasons of data. The results show that the annual carbon-saving in 2021 is about 78 tonneC/km2, equivalent to 2.21 times the carbon sequestration of the same region. Compared with the edge of the center urban area, the urban blue-green space in the center has a carbon-saving with a 1.4 times higher fluctuation value and a cumulative annual difference of about 394 tonneC/km2. Large blue-green patches in the cold region, while capable of conserving more carbon in spring, summer, and fall, become carbon-source in winter due to increased heating energy consumption and reduced willingness of residents to adopt zero-carbon transportation. The indicators that have the most significant impact on the carbon-saving of urban blue-green space are the cooling area and the background surface temperature. The urban blue-green space coverage and the percentage of impervious surfaces, such as buildings and open spaces, will indirectly impact carbon-saving by affecting the cooling area. The above finding recognizes the carbon-saving potential of urban blue-green space in cold regions. It provides a feasible estimation scheme for comparing the carbon-saving capacity in different seasons.

FormatAEG: a framework for bypassing ASLR defense and automated exploitation of format string vulnerability

Abstract The format string vulnerability is a common software vulnerability. A well-constructed format string can read and modify arbitrary memory addresses, causing serious system problems. Existing automated exploit generation solutions for format string vulnerability are unable to cope with the limitations imposed by the vulnerability defense mechanism Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and the program itself on vulnerability exploitation. In this paper, to address the above challenges, we propose FormatAEG, the first automatic exploitation framework for format string vulnerabilities that can bypass ASLR defense and the program's own constraints. Specifically, we first proposed an arbitrary address reading and writing method based on a format string vulnerability, which can modify the target address data by directly arranging the target address or automatically searching and utilizing the pointer chain in the stack. Then, we propose a vulnerability reentry method based on global offset table (GOT) hijacking, which hijacks the program control flow by modifying function addresses in the GOT, making the vulnerability reentrant. In the experimental section, we evaluated FormatAEG using 20 Capture The Flag programs from top international tournaments and two real-world programs with format string vulnerabilities. The evaluation results show that with ASLR defense turned on, FormatAEG successfully detects format string vulnerability in 19 of these programs and generates exploit code for 15 of them. Compared with existing tools, FormatAEG detected 11 more format string vulnerabilities and generated 13 more exploit codes.

Evaluation of the influence of traditional village square layout factors on wind comfort

The layout factors of traditional village squares play a significant role in determining the comfortable outdoor wind environment, making them the primary venue for outdoor communication activities among residents. This study focuses on the traditional village square spaces within the jurisdiction of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. Through onsite measurements and CFD simulations, the effects of various layout factors on the wind environment are compared and analyzed. The results are as follows: (1) The plane permeability index of the enclosed square space layout impacts wind speed, comfort, and ventilation performance. Lowering the index will decrease wind speed, but it will improve comfort. (2) Increasing the height-to-cross-section ratio index of the enclosed layout of the square space will reduce wind speed, thereby improving wind comfort. (3) Increasing the enclosure rate index of the square space enclosure layout will decrease wind speed, resulting in better wind comfort. Overall, the research findings indicate that careful consideration should be given to the enclosed layout of traditional village square spaces to ensure optimal wind conditions.

Exploring urban and agricultural land use planning

Socio-economic development has accelerated urban expansion, leading to the encroachment of urban space into agricultural space land and seriously undermining the stability of ecosystems. Scientifically optimizing the layout of urban-agricultural space can guarantee China's food security, promote urban development and maintain ecological stability. In this study, we focused on the rapidly growing city of Nankang. We used land, ecological and geographic location data to calculate land suitability, predicted future urban space through the GeoSOS-FLUS model, and finally optimized the agricultural-urban space conflict. The results show that: the areas of farmland with quality evaluation results for grades 1-4 were 7783.13 hm2, 9411.01 hm2, 8738.99 hm2 and 3032.73 hm2, and the areas suitable for construction, more suitable for construction, unsuitable for construction and prohibited from construction accounted for 12.19%, 16.23%, 41.34% and 30.24%, respectively. Combining the FLUS model with the land suitability evaluation results, we found that there is a conflict area of 1841.96 hm2 in the delineation scheme. Adjusting their layout according to the principle of conflict coordination, the optimized area of agricultural-urban space is 28429.34 hm2 and 8968.23 hm2 respectively, accounting for 16.32% and 5.15% of the study area. The result of spatial contradiction optimization satisfies the balance between production and residential space, promotes urban development, protects ecological security, and can provide scientific reference for regional urban ecological environment construction.

Research on Thermal Comfort Evaluation and Optimization of Green Space in Beijing Dashilar Historic District

Global warming and urban heat island effects negatively impact the development of urban thermal environments, making them very uncomfortable to live in. Green space plays an essential role in controlling and improving air pollution, regulating the microclimate, and enforcing compliance with public health requirements. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between green space and thermal comfort in the historical neighborhood of Dazhalan in Beijing through questionnaires, observational interviews, and numerical simulations. The current situation of the microclimate environment in the green space of the block was observed first. Then, the microclimate environment was simulated by the ENVI-met 5.6 software. The thermal comfort of the three types of space, such as enclosed space, strip space, and corner space, was also evaluated to explore the coupling relationship between different green space elements and microclimate evaluation factors. It was found that the thermal comfort PET had a positive correlation with the sky openness SVF. The green space morphology was quantitatively measured, and it was found that the thermal comfort PET had a negative correlation with the three-dimensional green quantity of green space. The paper developed managing strategies for optimizing the layout and construction mode of the green space. The ultimate goal was to rationally match the greening planting, improve the pavement of the underlying surface of the block, and optimize the design of the internal space topography.

Multi-Source Data-Driven Extraction of Urban Residential Space: A Case Study of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Urban Agglomeration

The accurate extraction of urban residential space (URS) is of great significance for recognizing the spatial structure of urban function, understanding the complex urban operating system, and scientific allocation and management of urban resources. The traditional URS identification process is generally conducted through statistical analysis or a manual field survey. Currently, there are also superpixel segmentation and wavelet transform (WT) processes to extract urban spatial information, but these methods have shortcomings in extraction efficiency and accuracy. The superpixel wavelet fusion (SWF) method proposed in this paper is a convenient method to extract URS by integrating multi-source data such as Point of Interest (POI) data, Nighttime Light (NTL) data, LandScan (LDS) data, and High-resolution Image (HRI) data. This method fully considers the distribution law of image information in HRI and imparts the spatial information of URS into the WT so as to obtain the recognition results of URS based on multi-source data fusion under the perception of spatial structure. The steps of this study are as follows: Firstly, the SLIC algorithm is used to segment HRI in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) urban agglomeration. Then, the discrete cosine wavelet transform (DCWT) is applied to POI–NTL, POI–LDS, and POI–NTL–LDS data sets, and the SWF is carried out based on different superpixel scale perspectives. Finally, the OSTU adaptive threshold algorithm is used to extract URS. The results show that the extraction accuracy of the NLT–POI data set is 81.52%, that of the LDS–POI data set is 77.70%, and that of the NLT–LDS–POI data set is 90.40%. The method proposed in this paper not only improves the accuracy of the extraction of URS, but also has good practical value for the optimal layout of residential space and regional planning of urban agglomerations.

Simulating the impact of ventilation corridors for cooling air temperature in local climate zone scheme

Climate change and urbanization are impacting urban microclimates, necessitating careful consideration in urban ventilation planning. However, there remains uncertainty regarding the identification and examination of urban ventilation corridors (VCs), and their mechanisms for urban heat mitigation. This study combined ENVI-met and the least-cost path (LCP) algorithm to simulate the VCs within the local climate zone (LCZ) scheme, with Guangzhou as an example. The results show that (1) VCs constructed using the LCP method are primarily distributed along vegetation and rivers, bypassing high-temperature aggregation in high-density/high-rise building areas; (2) The cooling effect of VCs varies across different LCZs, influenced by factors such as land use, vegetation, building, and topography. (3) In low-density, low-rise LCZs, VCs significantly reduce temperatures by about 0.23°C, while in high-density, high-rise LCZs, the cooling effect is weaker, with a reduction of only around 0.01°C. This study highlights the importance of preserving hydrological system and optimizing green space layout to enhance urban ventilation thus mitigate heat accumulation.

Experimental investigation on shear behavior of I-shaped concrete beam with Fe-SMA rebars

Vertical prestress loss causes cracking in prestressed box-girder bridge webs. As a new type of prestressed material, iron-based shape-memory alloy (Fe-SMA) rebars can be used as vertically prestressed rebars to compensate for the loss of vertical prestress in box-girder webs. In this study, box-girder webs were simplified into I-shaped beams, and the shear performance of these I-shaped beams with vertical Fe-SMA rebars in the shear span was analyzed to estimate the feasibility of using Fe-SMA rebars. The effects of the activation state, layout spacing, and rebar diameter on the shear performance of the I-beams were explored. The variations in the cracking load, ultimate load, and main tensile strain were systematically investigated. The results indicate a significant transformation from brittle to ductile bending shear failure following Fe-SMA activation. Moreover, the ultimate deflection exhibited a significant increase exceeding a factor of 2. The activation of the Fe-SMA was beneficial for delaying specimen cracking and improving shear strength. Specifically, the shear cracking and ultimate loads increased by 24.21 % and 12.11 %, respectively. Simultaneously, the activation of the Fe-SMA rebar significantly reduced the primary tensile strain within the shear span segment and effectively delayed crack development. The diagonal fracture width of the specimens with the activated Fe-SMA was significantly reduced (67.24 %, 57.14 %, and 52.22 %, respectively) at three different stress settings (400, 450, and 500 kN). Furthermore, a methodology for estimating the shear cracking and bearing capacity of I-beams with vertical Fe-SMA rebars is proposed. The calculated values are in excellent agreement with the experimental data, thereby serving as a valuable reference for future research.

The use of heritage in the place-making of a culture and leisure community: Liangzhu Culture Village in Hangzhou, China

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the use of heritage – or, rather, heritages – in place-making in the Chinese context, through the lens of a case study of Liangzhu Culture Village (LCV), a newly built residential community near a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Based on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 2019 to 2022, this study finds that not only Liangzhu heritage but also Buddhist and Confucian intangible heritages are used in place-making. The findings show that Liangzhu heritage functions through a top-down mechanism by which stakeholders such as the government and heritage experts formulate policies and strategies concerning urban development and heritage conservation and the real estate developer uses heritage to promote its projects. Some tangible and intangible heritage attributes are used to enrich the community’s cultural flavour and foster residents’ attachment to the community. Tangible elements of Liangzhu’s heritage are expressed in the built environment, such as the layout and naming of key roads, public spaces and cultural facilities. The local residents’ meaning-making of Liangzhu heritage is related to their national identity and national pride. Also, Liangzhu heritage provides the residents with tourism and leisure opportunities. The residents tend to use traditional Chinese heritages in their daily lives as a way of fostering attachment to the community and enhancing their relationships. The study contributes to a better understanding of heritage’s complex role in urban development.

Simulation and Design of Three 5G Antennas

In the context of 5G networks, this paper investigates microstrip array antennas and mobile terminal MIMO array antennas. It introduces two innovative designs and, based on these, develops and fabricates a mobile terminal antenna. The first of these designs, a 4 × 4 microstrip array antenna operating in the LTE band 42 (3.4–3.6 GHz), is researched and fabricated and an innovative approach, combining embedded and coaxial feeding methods, is proposed and employed. Measurement results indicate a bandwidth of 373 MHz (3.321–3.694 GHz), achieving a relative bandwidth of 10.7%. The antenna exhibits a high gain of 12.7 dBi, with an undistorted radiation pattern, demonstrating excellent directional characteristics. The second of these designs, a “loop-slot” MIMO antenna designed for 5G mobile devices with metal frames, is investigated. By opening slots in the metal frame and integrating them into the antenna’s feeding structure, the decoupling principle is analyzed from the perspective of characteristic mode theory. This design shares resonant modes between the loop and slot antennas, allowing for the overlapping placement of the two antenna units. Experimental results confirm an isolation level exceeding 21 dB, with significantly reduced dimensions. Finally, an eight-unit MIMO antenna is designed and fabricated for 5G mobile devices with metal frames. Continuous optimization of the “loop-slot” module layout and unit spacing leads to a compact and miniaturized antenna structure. Measurement results show an isolation level exceeding 17 dB, radiation efficiency ranging from 65.8% to 73.7%, and an envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) below 0.03. Finally, an analysis of specific absorption rate (SAR) demonstrates excellent MIMO performance in terms of human body radiation exposure.

Exploring the relationship between preferred routes for walking exercise and green space layout in a dense urban area: a series of poisson regression models

ABSTRACT The literature considers urban green spaces as a key to promoting physical activity and health. Despite the increasingly recognized walking exercise promotion benefits of urban green spaces, the relationship between walking exercise preferences and green space layout remains unclear. We extracted preferred routes for walking exercise and measured the route heat using a one-year shared data of walking exercise from a mobile outdoor assistant app in the old city of Fuzhou, China. We then evaluated green space layout features within a 500-m buffer zone along the preferred routes in dimensions of scale, form, and function. The relationship between the route heat and green space layout features was analyzed using a series of poisson regression models, with the influence of urban morphology and the built environment allocation being controlled. Results showed that there existed a significant association between preferred routes for walking exercise and the combination of green space layout, urban morphology, and the built environment allocation; the route heat had positive associations with NDVI and comprehensive park area density, and showed negative associations with patch shape index and patch density. This study illustrates the necessity for targeted intervention strategies to promote the development of walkable and healthy urban areas.

Variegated urban and rural spaces: Defining village types in China

China’s system of territorial spatial planning requires an integrated layout of ecological, agricultural, and urban functional space. This paper examines urban and rural villages and finds that villages can be classified into five types: urban villages, suburban villages, rural villages, semi-ecological villages, and eco-villages. These villages have multiple functions such as ecological services, agricultural production, and town services, according to the relationship between villages and territorial space. Urban villages refer to villages within the urban space, which have certain urban socio-ecological service functions; suburban villages are villages located at the junction of urban and agricultural spaces, which adapt their functions to the needs of the town; rural villages refer to villages located in the vast agricultural space, which are dominated by large-scale agriculture, and which need to undertake the function of guaranteeing food security; semi-ecological villages refer to villages at the junction of the agricultural space and the eco-villages, which can develop diversified ecological services; and eco-villages refer to villages that are in, or essentially in, eco-space, and have an important role to play in the maintenance of natural ecosystems.

Optimization of territorial space layout in China

Optimization of territorial space layout in China

An efficient new design of nano-scale comparator circuits using quantum-dot technology

Traditional semiconductor-based technology has recently faced many issues, such as physical scalability constraints and short-channel properties. Much research on nano-scale designs has resulted in these flaws. Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a promising nanotechnology solution for solving CMOS-related issues. The 4-dot squared cell is identified as the main feature of this technology. Also, a comparator is an essential electronic device that compares 2 voltages or currents. It is frequently employed to confirm whether an input has achieved a predefined value or not. So, the design of the QCA-based comparator is one of the interesting lines in recent studies. However, cell and area consumption limits the circuit design in the most relevant research. As a result, two efficient comparator circuits based on the inherent rules of quantum dots have been presented in this work. The proposed 1-bit design employs 35 quantum cells in a 0.04 μm2 compact layout space. Also, the proposed 2-bit design uses 173 cells in a 0.19 μm2 compact layout area. These circuits, which are built across three layers of 90-degree cells, remove the need for coplanar crossovers, ensuring accessible inputs and outputs. The presented 1-bit comparator circuit uses 3 majority gates with three inputs. The first output signal in 1-bit comparator is generated after 0.75 clock phases and in 2-bit design after 1.25 clock phases. QCADesigner-E evaluated the suggested circuits' practical accuracy, cost, and power. The results showed that the proposed designs are extremely efficient in cell and area consumption compared to the state-of-the-art designs.

Impact response of steel plate-concrete composite slabs with kinked rebar connectors

The steel plate-concrete (SC) composite slabs usually undergo large deformation under impact loading. To prevent early failure of the connectors and further improve the energy dissipation capacity, a novel kinked rebar connector (KR connector) is proposed for SC slabs. Pendulum impact tests on six specimens and numerical simulation are carried out to reveal the dynamic response and failure modes of KR-SC slabs with varying connector bending angles, diameters, and layout spacing. The results show that the finite element model can well predict the dynamic response of the KR-SC slabs under impact. The KR-SC slab reaches the best energy dissipation capacity at a connector bending angle of 45°.

The Spatial Pattern Evolution of Urban Innovation Actors and the Planning Response to Path Dependency: A Case Study of Guangzhou City, China

The capacity for urban innovation is a significant symbol of contemporary urban development. In order to promote sustainable urban innovation, it is crucial to match and optimize innovation spaces, actors, and their behavioral needs. Based on the data from patent inventions, which are commonly used to represent urban innovation, in this study, we investigated the formation mechanism of Guangzhou’s innovation pattern and its characteristics from 1990 to 2020 using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. The results indicated that Guangzhou’s innovation spaces developed a center-radiation structure of “two districts and seven cores”. We investigated the path dependence of spaces, actors, and behavioral needs by examining the interaction between the innovation space layout and behavioral needs. The findings provide theoretical support for the city’s sustainable development in terms of innovation in the future.

Investigating User Feedback for Learning Space Design in Primary Schools of Shandong Province, China

A well-designed learning environment is crucial for enhancing both the physical and mental health of students, which in turn improves their learning outcomes. However, many classrooms in China, particularly in rural areas, were constructed and designed several decades ago, so it is essential to redesign these learning spaces to align with the requirements of 21st Century education. This study aims to develop the stimulation, individuality, and naturalness (SIN) theoretical framework for identifying the learning environment of current classroom by examining the full range of sensory effects experienced by individuals. This study conducted qualitative interviews with 72 students and 18 class teachers to explore major issues with their existing learning spaces in four primary schools in Shandong Province of China. The results show that high temperatures and poor air quality are frequently raised by respondents, which directly impact students’ learning experience. This finding confirms naturalness likely underpins human comfort. Teachers and students felt that the classroom should be improved from the aspects of crowded space, imperceptible decoration, congestion and monotonous layouts. The study emphasised the important factors that designers and policymakers should consider to promote a comfortable, efficient, and healthy learning environment.

Hubungan Sikap Pustakawan terhadap Tata Ruang Kerja di Dinas Perpustakaan dan Kearsipan Kota Padang

This study aims to determine; 1) what is the work space layout in the Padang City Library and Archives Service; 2) what is the attitude of librarians at the Padang City Library and Archives Service; 3) what is the relationship between librarians' attitudes towards work space layout in the Padang City Library and Archives Service. This research uses a quantitative descriptive method. The population of this research was 15 librarians with a sample of 15 respondents. Sampling used a saturated sampling technique. The main instrument of this research is a questionnaire. The instrument tests used are validity tests and reliability tests. Test the analysis requirements using the Spearman rank correlation test, hypothesis test and coefficient of determination test. The research results show that the results of the Spearman Rank correlation analysis show that the correlation between work space layout and librarian attitudes is 0.744. With a correlation value of 0.744, if seen from the table, this figure is in the interval 0.60 – 0.799 with a strong level of relationship. Based on the correlation coefficient hypothesis test, it can be seen that the value of Fcount (13.075) > Ftable (5.14) means there is a relationship between the work space layout variable and the librarian attitude variable. The results of this research found that the higher the work space layout in the library, the higher the quality of the librarian's attitude in working in the library.