City Square Research Articles

The role of Glory Square in the system of ecological spaces of Novosibirsk

One of the important elements included in the ecological framework of the city is city squares. The square of Glory of Novosibirsk is a unique, multifunctional object. On the territory of the square there is Memorial Ensemble dedicated to the feat of the Siberians in the Great Patriotic War of 19411945, which is an integral part of patriotic education. Along with the social, transit and architectural and decorative functions, the square of Glory, due to the large area of green spaces, performs a medium-improving function. 89 species of woody plants grow on the territory. The studied plants belong to 25 botanical families. Of the conifers, the largest is the Pinaceae family 7 species, and of the deciduous Rosaceae family 28 species of trees and shrubs. Lianes are isolated: Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch., Clematis terniflora L. The largest number of woody plants belong to mesophytes 84,0%, while 16% belong to xerophytes. There are several areas with elements of natural landscapes of the Novosibirsk Region. 38 species of wild-growing species of herbaceous plants, representatives of 16 families, grow on the territory of the park. It has been concluded that the square of Glory is an important element in the system of ecological spaces of the city.

Status Mutu Kualitas Udara Ambien Pada Beberapa Kota Besar di Papua Menggunakan ArcGIS

The increase in population in recent years has affected the utilization of facilities and infrastructure, including the use of vehicles. For the past 10 years, the population in Papua has increased by around 4.13% per year, resulting in the need for daily mobility to increase. The high mobility demand in Papua could affect the increase in pollution, thus affecting the air quality. Exposure to pollutants in ambient air and environmental noise in the long term will have an impact on human health. Therefore, in this study, we analyze the current conditions of air pollution parameters in several major cities in Papua, such as Jayapura, Merauke, Sentani, and Timika. The method used is a survey. Environmental parameters measured were air content of SO2, NO3, PM 10, PM 2.5, HC, O3, CO, dust, Pb, noise, and The Air Pollutant Standard Index (ISPU) value. Observational data obtained were analyzed and displayed using the ArcGIS program. The parameters for determining the location of sampling points are densely packed highway areas, industrial areas, residential areas, and offices. The results of the study indicated that the ambient air quality in all study sites is below the required quality standard. While the results of environmental noise that exceed the highest quality standards located in specifics area on each study site are as follows, Merauke at PLTD Merauke I PT. PLN Persero with 81.24 dB(A), Sentani at Sentani City Square Roads with 70.2 dB (A), Mimika at Perumahan Pemda SP-2 with 65.30 dB(A), and Sentani at Kantor Bupati Jayapura with 64, 54 dB (A). However, the ISPU value for pollutant substances is still in the range of 0-50, which means that the air quality category is very good to carry any outdoor activities, and does not have any negative impact on humans, animals, or plants.Key words: air quality; noice; ISPU; Papua.

CAD Rendering of City Square Landscape Design of Virtual Reality Scene

CAD Rendering of City Square Landscape Design of Virtual Reality Scene

Towards Sustainable Revitalization: The Public Squares Characteristics - Led the Adaptive Urban Revitalization Mechanisms

The public square is a specifically designed urban space that includes many natural and formative elements that achieve communication among the main axes of the city and facilitate the movement of users through it. The public squares (PSs) in many cities, especially Baghdad, need to be revitalized. The Adaptive Urban Revitalization (AUR) strategy, which focuses on improving the quality of urban spaces for PSs to enhance their location, activity, and purpose, can be used for this revitalization. The result is a new space that is adaptive and convenient with regard to the sustainable revitalization of the contemporary city. The main research problem is how to make PSs attractive places for users. There is an absence of clear knowledge about the mechanisms of the AUR strategy, its relationship to the characteristics of PSs, and its influence on the revitalization process. Considering this problem, the main research goal is to reveal the characteristics of PSs as factors that affect the mechanisms of AUR and the role that these influences have in developing a clear approach to the AUR strategy to make PSs attractive places for users. This can be done by improving their conditions and promoting their use more effectively. To achieve this goal, the research will address improving the quality of urban spaces through the application of the AUR strategy. The focus is on addressing urban problems that have an effect on PSs, obtaining the indicators of AUR, applying them to the selected case studies and testing them mathematically. The results of the research produced a clear approach with regard to utilizing the strategy of AUR in PSs. It examined all mechanisms represented by Urban Response, Urban Accessibility, and Dynamic Activities. The results showed a positive relationship of these mechanisms on the characteristics of PSs. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-04-015 Full Text: PDF

TRAFFIC ZONES ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL USERS. DESIGN SOLUTIONS AND MATERIAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OUTDOOR TRAFFIC ZONE PAVEMENTS

This article discusses the aspects of designing the pavements of pedestrian zones, shared spaces, city squares and other public spaces in terms of the selection of their parameters, colour and texture, which can significantly improve their comfort of use and, in a wider context, improve the accessibility of public spaces and buildings. When we think about a friendly city, we aim to create urban spaces free from any barriers that could exclude some people from the social life. Urban space can be defined as friendly from the perspective of an end user who moves around on foot, or uses crutches or a wheelchair, but also in the context of fully fit people, who are nevertheless limited in their movement because they are pushing a pram, carrying a baby or heavy luggage, etc. It has been proven that a well-designed pavement can significantly improve access to an area, reducing therefore the stigmatisation of elderly, disabled, blind, visually impaired people, etc. Solutions described in this article go well beyond the applicable legal acts in the context of the building law and therefore significantly improve the accessibility of public spaces and buildings and help to create spaces that are friendly to all users – i.e. spaces that are safe and free of any risks connected with disorientation, psychological security or the possibility of collision due to the existing barriers. Keywords: universal design, accessibility, pavement, pedestrian

Powdery mildews fungi of trees of Karaganda, Balkhash and Temirtau cities

Karaganda region is a major industrial center of our country. In such cities of the region as Karaganda,Temirtau and Balkhash there are large enterprises of ferrous metallurgy, construction, chemical JSC “ArcelorMittal Temirtau”, JSC “Temirtau Electrometallurgical Combine”, LLP “Ecominerals”, JSC “CentralAsia Cement”, “Agat-Service” LLP, JSC “Kazakhstan Invest Comir”, LLP “Kazakhmys Corporation”, LLP “MMC Kazpolymetal”, Metal-Kit Karaganda, LLP “Mining and Metallurgical Combine”, Nonferrous metals processing plant, etc. All technogenic factors lead to a decrease in plant productivity and often to their death. The dynamics of seasonal development of phytopathogenic fungi depends on meteorological conditions. Changes in the dynamics of factors corresponding to the season of the year occur in the habitat of the species. Phytopathogenic fungi also directly depend on their own host-plants, the conditions of their development and the growing season. The article presents information about the types of powdery fungi affecting various types of trees growing in parks and squares of the cities of Karaganda, Balkhash, Temirtau. 4 species of trees affected by powdery mildew were analyzed. And during the study, the following types of phytopathogenic fungi were identified at various stages of development: Uncinula aceris Sacc., Microsphaera betulae Magnus, Microsphaera penicillata (Wallroth.) Leveille, Uncinula salicis Winter f. populorum Rabenhorst. Phytopathogenic fungi of trees growing in parks and squares of the industrial cities of Temirtau and Balkhash were studied for the first time.

Spatial pattern and influencing factors of tourism based on POI data in Chengdu, China.

Based on the analysis of the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of 2879 attractions POI in Chengdu, this paper studies the spatial distribution types, spatial concentration, and equilibrium of attractions by using standard deviation ellipse, geographic concentration index, and kernel density estimation. Buffer analysis, near analysis, correlation analysis, and grey relation analysis are used to study the influencing factors of tourism in Chengdu. The results show that: (1) The overall attractions POI in Chengdu is in an east-west direction, and except for other types of attractions POI, the remaining types are also in an east-west direction. (2) The spatial agglomeration areas of different types of attractions POI in Chengdu were quite different. Among them, parks and city squares were mainly concentrated in the central urban areas, namely Jinjiang, Qingyang, Jinniu, Wuhou, and Chenghua, forming a prominent gathering area. (3) There were differences in the influence degree of each factor on the spatial distribution of attractions POI. Topography and drainage, transportation, tourist source market, and other factors significantly correlated with the distribution of attractions, which were the main factors affecting the spatial distribution of attractions. Industrial development and economic population were also important factors affecting the distribution of attractions. Tourism is an important thrust for urban development. The study of the spatial distribution of tourism and its influencing factors has clear guiding significance for later tourism development, which can help optimize the integration of tourism resources, promote the cooperation of regional tourism development and provide a basis for decision-making for tourism development.

Crowd sensing and spatiotemporal analysis in urban open space using multi‐viewpoint geotagged videos

AbstractIncreasing concern for urban public safety has motivated the deployment of a large number of surveillance cameras in open spaces such as city squares, stations, and shopping malls. The efficient detection of crowd dynamics in urban open spaces using multi‐viewpoint surveillance videos continues to be a fundamental problem in the field of urban security. The use of existing methods for extracting features from video images has resulted in significant progress in single‐camera image space. However, surveillance videos are geotagged videos with location information, and few studies have fully exploited the spatial semantics of these videos. In this study, multi‐viewpoint videos in geographic space are used to fuse object trajectories for crowd sensing and spatiotemporal analysis. The YOLOv3‐DeepSORT model is used to detect a pedestrian and extract the corresponding image coordinates, combine spatial semantics (such as the positions of the pedestrian in the field of view of the camera) to build a projection transformation matrix and map the object recorded by a single camera to geographic space. Trajectories from multi‐viewpoint videos are fused based on the features of location, time, and directions to generate a complete pedestrian trajectory. Then, crowd spatial pattern analysis, density estimation, and motion trend analysis are performed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can be used to identify crowd dynamics and analyze the corresponding spatiotemporal pattern in an urban open space from a global perspective, providing a means of intelligent spatiotemporal analysis of geotagged videos.

Informal sport and leisure, urban space and social inequalities: Editors’ Introduction

ABSTRACT While informal sport may appear to be a poor relation of formal sport, participation in informal sport is now more popular than organised club sport. The special issue provides an opportunity to showcase international leisure studies research which variously explores the meaning and implications of informal sport as a growing form of collective leisure activity and the wider social affordances – and strains – of collective leisure practices. The Editors’ Introduction focuses on the ways in which informal sport and leisure depend on sometimes hard-won public (parks, city squares, designed leisure spaces) and reused incidental urban space (e.g. post-industrial areas). It sets out the ways in which informal sport and leisure involves marginalised and precarious urban populations, gives rise to co-ethnic and ethnically diverse identifications, secures senses of belonging and citizenship, is gender and age ex/inclusive and is attractive to policy actors. It outlines how the articles collected in the special issue address what are still under-examined aspects of the informal sport phenomenon.

Acoustic Environmental Analysis of Public Open Spaces and Its Impact on Users

Public open spaces are considered a frame of the city's life stream. Usually, park, playfield, courtyard, and city square are considered urban open spaces where people come to relax, comfort, walk, gossip, play, recreation, physical exercise, etc. Urban parks play a critical part in protecting and advancing the well-being of citizens who are frequently exposed to noise pollution and the stress of daily life. As a result, improved acoustic quality is a critical aspect of the overall comfort of urban open space. Soundscape quality analysis is progressively taking into account both the physical and aesthetic elements of a space. It is important to identify and classify the sound sources which negatively or positively affect the acoustic environment. This paper aims to analyse and understand the overall acoustic situation of urban open space. Ramna Park, Dhaka has been selected for this analysis. The study has considered the users' apparent acoustic comfort and characteristics of this park in a different zone. Determining the sound level in a different area of the park at different times considering pick and off-pick hours through the field survey. A questionnaire survey also has been performed to understand the visitor's impression of the acoustic condition. Some zone has found to be preferred by users due to the natural sound and absence of city noise. Traffic sounds came in the park with the highest level which was considered noise. As a result of a general survey and investigation, certain recommendations have been made to reduce the disagreeable sound. The study's findings are intended to improve awareness of the function of the soundscape in the establishment of urban natural quality among architects and planners, as well as assist them in soundscape arranging and planning.

Performance of Offloading Strategies in Collocated Deployments of Millimeter Wave NR-U Technology

5G New Radio (NR) technology operating in millimeter wave (mmWave) band is expected to be utilized in areas with high and fluctuating traffic demands such as city squares, shopping malls, etc. The latter may result in quality of service (QoS) violations. To deal with this challenge, 3GPP has recently proposed NR unlicensed (NR-U) technology that may utilize 60 GHz frequency band. In this paper, we investigate the deployment of NR-U base stations (BS) simultaneously operating in licensed and unlicensed mmWave bands in presence of competing WiGig traffic, where NR-U users may use unlicensed band as long as session rate requirements are met. To this aim, we utilize the tools of stochastic geometry, Markov chains, and queuing systems with random resource requirements to simultaneously capture NR-U/WiGig coexistence mechanism and session service dynamics in the presence of mmWave-specific channel impairments. We then proceed comparing performance of different offloading strategies by utilizing the eventual session loss probability as the main metric of interest. Our results show non-trivial behaviour of the collision probability in the unlicensed band as compared to lower frequency systems. The baseline strategy, where a session is offloaded onto unlicensed band only when there are no resources available in the licensed one, leads to the best performance. The offloading strategy, where sessions with heavier-than-average requirements are immediately directed onto unlicensed band results in just <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\!-\!5\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> performance loss. The worst performance is observed when sessions with smaller-than-average requirements are offloaded onto unlicensed band.

The Effectiveness of City Square Development as an Instrument for Green Open Space Policy in Depok City

Green open space is one of the important elements that must exist in every urban area. The City Government of Depok, as one of the areas that is considered to need improvement in the provision of green open spaces, has made a policy strategy by building town squares and parks in every village. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of the development of the town square as an instrument of green open space policy in Depok City. The research uses a post-positivist method where data is collected through interviews and observations, which are then processed into descriptive narratives. The results of the study show that there are still two indicators that need to be improved, where the level of interest of the target group and the use of space are obstacles in the implementation of green open space policies in city squares. Some of the factors that make these indicators ineffective include lack of community participation, lack of resources, and discrepancies between the initial concept and the results. Then it influences the indicators of clarity of agreement on policy objectives and control of spatial use. Therefore, the development of the Alun-Alun as an instrument of green open space policy is still not effective so it is necessary to add space or Alun-Alun to meet the needs of green open spaces in Depok City.

Financial Feasibility of Harvesting Rainwater from Permeable Pavements: A Case Study in a City Square

The objective of this study was to carry out the financial feasibility analysis of harvesting rainwater from permeable pavements in a city square. A case study was carried out in a square close to the beach in the city of Florianópolis, Brazil. Questionnaires were applied to pedestrians who circulate within the area. The square is to be implemented to promote sustainability and improve the user’s quality of life. From the rainfall data and the average daily water demand for irrigation of the square vegetation, the volume of rainwater to be harvested from the permeable pavement was calculated. The rainwater demand was estimated as 662 L/day. The implementation and operation costs of the pavement and irrigation systems were evaluated. The potential for potable water savings was 89.8%. The payback period was estimated as 347 months. This study showed that rainwater collected from permeable pavements is financially feasible and represents a promising technique.

Площадь как визуальный паттерн городской среды

This article is devoted to the analysis of the square as one of the key visual elements (patterns) of the urban environment. To understand how a city works, it is necessary to find out what urban practices are associated with the square, what its role is in shaping the overall appearance of the city, and in what ways it relates to other visual patterns. The study of the city square in its aesthetic, semiotic, social, and cultural aspects is a necessary part of the discourse, which is focused on the theoretical understanding and practical formation of the overall image of the city. The article deals with questions about the human scale of the square, its cultural functions, artistic integrity, and forms of its participation in the scenography of urban space. A comparison of the closed and open squares is made by referring to some well-known examples. It is shown that a normal urban pattern is a square that combines the properties of ‘openness’ and ‘closedness’ and at the same time includes elements of geometry, architecture, sculpture, and local history in its ensemble. It is concluded that a stable visual pattern of the urban environment can only be such a square that combines several functions, is in obvious combination with patterns of other types, has a human scale, and is a noticeable architectural ensemble. The square can act as a visual dominant of the entire urban structure, determine the general perception of the city, its appearance and silhouette. At the same time, the city also influences the square, programming its form, style, and function. The degradation of squares, which leads to the degradation of the urban environment as a whole, is explained by their dehumanization, functional reduction (the transformation of squares into transport hubs) and, most importantly, the fragmentation of their visual perception. The city square is degrading precisely because the townspeople cease to understand and perceive it as a certain and very complex form of organization of the urban texture, on which both the compositional unity of the city and the continuity of its cultural identity rest.

Cultural heritage as an initiator of urban development: The city square in Brcko

Locations, where cultural heritage is located are potential drivers of urban development due to their importance in the urban space and social community. These buildings worldwide influence cities' economic, sociological and urban development. Such a case can be seen in the town square in Brcko. This square is the subject of analysis to examine cultural heritage's influence on urban development. The paper examines the importance of cultural heritage buildings in urban development by analyzing planning documents based on which cultural heritage mapping was done. After that, the quality of the town square in the Brcko area was determined with the help of specific quality criteria. The results indicated the role of cultural heritage buildings in driving urban development. Based on the results, guidelines and recommendations were given for adequate inclusion of cultural heritage in urban development.

Users' vulnerability and exposure in Public Open Spaces (squares): A novel way for accounting them in multi-risk scenarios

Public Open Spaces (POSs) such as streets and squares, in our cities are characterized by spatio-temporal variations of users' vulnerability and exposure in view of the hosted social, governmental, religious, and commercial functions. Single or multi-risks conditions in POSs can hence vary over time. This work proposes a methodology to perform local-scale analyses on use patterns in real-world POSs, pursuing a quick-to-apply approach based on remote analysis tools and easy-to-apply surveys, to be also used by non-expert technicians. Main literature-based factors concerning users' vulnerability/exposure and methods for their collection are identified. Rules to define typological (that is recurring) scenarios are provided through specific key performance indicators relating to overall POS use and daily/hourly temporalities. The methodology capabilities are preliminary assessed through a sample of 56 squares in historic Italian cities, considering working days and holidays. Results trace the overall typological characterization of the squares sample adopting a “robust-to-outliers” approach, and provide bases for expeditious assessment of users' vulnerability and exposure scenarios. The typological scenarios can be then used to support rapid risk assessment actions in POSs by safety designers and local authority technicians, and employed as input in simulation-based analyses to include the users' features in the related evaluations.

Sööme, joome, lükkame, sõidame... Sotsiaalmeediakasutajate mäng Facebooki sündmuse formaadis

The Internet and its social media platforms offer opportunities to make visible grassroots creative products and activities, which would not otherwise receive wider attention. In November 2018, as Facebook enables to create online meeting spaces for various events, a series of fake events was initiated on this social media platform by Estonian-speaking users. The “actions” were announced exactly like any other Facebook event, yet were not actually intended to be performed. It is reasonable to consider the event-organising game as a special vernacular practice that deserves to be observed from a folkloristic perspective. The analysis focuses on various aspects of fake events – the genre of these actions, the seriality of events, the dialogue between the participants and those interested in the comments sections, but also the peculiarities of the co-created content. The article attempts to frame the groups of internet users that temporarily gathered around the events within the concept of event community, and traces which stages of the formation and operation of an event community occur in the fake events. In a broader context, the author discusses the similarities between the parodies that lie at the forefront of the fake events initiated by social media users’ communities and the Renaissance carnivals in a public city square.

Research on the Vitality Evaluation of Parks and Squares in Medium-Sized Chinese Cities from the Perspective of Urban Functional Areas.

Medium-sized cities are increasingly committed to the planning and construction of urban public spaces to meet people's demand for high-quality urban life. Parks and squares are important parts of urban public spaces, and their vitality represents the quality of public spaces to a certain extent and reflects the happiness index of urban residents. At present, the functional areas and transportation networks of medium-sized cities are still developing. Due to the influence of urban construction, the planning of parks and squares in medium-sized cities has not yet caught up to that in larger cities. This study analyzed a medium-sized city, Jiaozuo, as an example, with the help of point of interest (POI) data, OpenStreetMap road network density data and WorldPop population data. The vitality of parks and squares in different functional spaces in the main urban area in Jiaozuo was quantitatively evaluated in terms of the four following aspects: urban space functional area characteristics, travel vitality index of urban residents, park and square attractiveness and the regional service levels of parks and squares. The effects of functional mixing, traffic network density, population density and spatial distribution on the vitality of parks and squares in medium-sized cities were also studied. The results showed that (1) the functional mixing in the main urban area in Jiaozuo was characterized by a spatial distribution of high in the center and low in the surrounding areas, with the highest functional mixing in the central part of the Jiefang District; (2) the travel dynamics of urban residents were characterized by a clear development of concentric circles radiating in a circular pattern; (3) the levels of service in parks and squares were particularly high in Jiefang District, with a spatial distribution of Jiefang District > Shanyang District > Macun District > Zhongzhan District; (4) under the condition that the service levels of each district were the same, the vitality values of the existing parks and squares in each district were compared and, from high to low, were Jiefang District (1.0-3.5), Shanyang District (0.2-2.0), Macun District (0-1.4) and Zhongzhan District (0-1.2). Functional mixing, road networks and population density had significant impacts on the vitality of parks and squares. Based on our study on the division of urban functional areas, we expanded the study to include urban microspaces. By evaluating the vitality of existing parks and squares and analyzing the influencing factors of spatial vitality, we found that it would be helpful to adopt targeted strategies to improve spatial vitality. Considering the spatial layouts of parks and squares, planning and constructing high-vitality parks and squares would be conducive to the future development of medium-sized cities. The existence of high-vitality spaces could also help to realize the sustainable development of cities.

Objects-memes in the architectural organization of attractive urban public spaces

A methodology is proposed for the architectural organization of new and activation of existing abandoned, degrading urban spaces and their transformation into attractive public spaces through the introduction of new architectural objects-memes into them, which will bring new emotional and functional content to these places. The notions of a meme in architecture and object-meme are introduced and scientifically substantiated. The last one is proposed as a tool for activating and increasing the attractiveness of existing and new various urban public spaces and, in particular, city parks and squares. The questions that object-meme must solve for this are generalized and systematized. Based on an international sociological video experiment on the perception of different people in different urban public spaces, the characteristics of the last ones, which evoke positive emotions in most people in them, were analyzed and summarized. Recommendations are systematized on the architectural and functional organization of such spaces, in particular city squares and parks, and the placement of objects-memes in them. Approbation of the put forward theoretical provisions is presented in the conceptual projects for the creation of a new city square in the historical part of Kyiv and the revitalization of the existing degrading park in the Gran-San-Blas area in Madrid.

The influence of spatiotemporal radial road on the outdoor thermal environment

The urban planning of squares with open space and the radioactive road is often seen in many cities. It forms a particular type of landscape and affects the traffic system and urban microclimate. However, the influence of city square spatial morphological indicators on the thermal environment at pedestrian height has not been studied well. This study took the most representative Zhongshan Square of Dalian as the case, the city with the most squares in China. The measurement analysis found that the central air temperature of the square is severe higher than the fixed points 250 m away, with a difference between 4.5 °C and 1.7 °C. The road location in the same orientation was the primary factor affecting the air temperature by 1.0 °C in the 500 m range by mobile measurement. The air temperature in the east-west was higher than in the north-south. The simulation results within 500 m proved that road orientation also affects air temperature. In the same direction, three types of roads with a significant height difference of buildings, broad streets, and straight roads will be conducive to ventilating and create a better thermal environment. This work contributes to urban planning development and decision-making around similar city squares with road networks.