Sustainable Places Research Articles

Green infrastructure as panacea , deus ex machina , or both?

The concept of ‘green infrastructure’ gained prominence within urban planning as decision-makers attempted to create more sustainable and multi-functional places. However, as the concept gained traction its advocates engaged in a process of terminological exploration which led to divergencies in praxis. The result has been an ongoing debate regarding what green infrastructure ‘is’ and whether alternative terms are better placed to address contemporary planning issues. The wider debates regarding green infrastructure have been framed as a ‘solution’ to complex and often historical landscape and urban planning problems. We argue that situating green infrastructure as a panacea , a deus ex machina , or both undermines understanding of the concept’s principles and application in practice. However, there is a value to these debates if, and where, they facilitate consensus on how, what and where investments should be made by decision-makers. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/

Ontologies in digital twin: Methodology, lessons learned and practical approach

This article is a result of joint workshop which took place during Sustainable Places 2022 conference in Niece, France, and was co-organized by the Building Digital Twin Association (BDTA) and six EU-funded projects that have developed a construction-phase digital-twin data model, and their ontological representation, which is capable of capturing all data requirements for the digital representation of building and/or infrastructure construction sites. Four of the EU-funded projects participating in the event contribute to this Open Letter which aims to highlight the relevance of ontology in the digital twin environment, and the approach by the different EU-funded projects. All four LC-008-EEB funded projects contributing to this article (BIMprove, COGITO, ASHVIN and BIM2TWIN), agreed on joining forces for raising awareness around Digital Building Twins and its impact in the construction industry. Their primary aim is to share knowledge, experiences and research outcomes with other stakeholders and communities around the EU and beyond, via online communication like webinars, newsletters, social media channels and scientific or technical articles. This initiative aims at delivering the wide range of digital tools for the construction sector needed on the European market and to raise awareness about the benefits coming from their use.

Cultural Sustainability of Hoi an Ancient Houses in the process of becoming the World Cultural Heritage City

In the face of increasing pressures of development towards industrialization and modernization, Hoi An ancient town, needs to add more research to preserve and sustainably promote the value of its cultural heritage. However, there are few studies on cultural sustainability in Hoi An ancient house architecture. Therefore, one of the research objectives of this article is to fill this gap by enhancing current knowledge in the field. The structure of this article explains the relationship between heritage value and ancient heritage houses, as well as the place and role of cultural sustainability in the overall framework of sustainable development. An in-depth literature analysis was conducted following a survey of five ancient houses in Hoi An to achieve these goals. This article also studies the cultural sustainability of ancient houses to solve problems in line with the orientation of Hoi An as an eco-cultural-tourism city

Indicators, Strategies, and Rule Settings for Sustainable Public–Private Infrastructure Partnerships: From Literature Review towards Institutional Designs

Public–private partnerships (PPPs)-driven infrastructure projects frequently disappoint in terms of sustainability outcomes. This paper substantiates this. It develops and presents an institutional design that can integrate environmental and social sustainability principles into PPP infrastructure projects (sustainable PPPs). The institutional design includes principles for the planning processes (preparation, procurement, contracting) and outcome indicators. The paper builds upon and synthesizes extant research through a literature review that employs the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statements. The review covers the appropriateness of the used indicators for the investigation and measurement of environmental and social sustainability policy strategies designed to enhance sustainability and institutional intercalation. About the latter, a specific lens to focus on the relationships between the institutional design characteristics (the rule settings) of planning processes and the sustainability outcomes is developed based on three variables within the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework of Ostrom. Consequently, rule settings that enable the investigation of the institutional process preconditions for sustainable PPPs and the evaluation of the sustainability outcomes are amalgamated. Our study indicates that the IAD framework provides a useful theoretical lens to harmonize and categorize process principles to achieve the rule settings that guide involved actors towards sustainable PPPs and place lenses on the envisioned environmental and social sustainability outcomes.

A scene-setter, matchmaker, or co-creator? The role of the HEI in the CCI ecosystem engagement when branding a place

This article focuses on the third mission of higher education institutions (HEIs) and their role in the ecosystem of creative and cultural industries (CCIs) consisting of the innovation framework (Quadruple Helix) stakeholders. The article provides a comprehensive literature review of the role of HEIs as the knowledge-creating and engaging actor in the CCI ecosystem and place brand co-creation. The research paves the way for empirical validations of our longitudinal and multi-method research to highlight the ability of a university to implement its third mission of supporting the CCI ecosystem engagement to strengthen place branding efforts in regional development. We utilized relational access to collect extensive qualitative data, which provides an understanding of the shift of knowledge transfer processes toward an intensive engagement in economic and social development in the CCIs’ ecosystem and place brand co-creation. In conclusion, we present the role of HEIs in CCI ecosystem stakeholder engagement as one living a sustainable and inclusive place brand.

A New Approach to Understanding the Impact of Automobile Ownership on Transportation Equity

Transportation affordability, the ability of a household to comfortably bear necessary transportation expenses, is a pressing challenge to the development of sustainable and equitable places. Transportation planners have historically identified transit user groups as choice riders, those with access to other modes or the ability to purchase access, and captive riders, transit-dependent populations who must use transit regardless of service quality. However, this characterization is incomplete, disregarding built-environment pressures that compel a much larger population of households to own and use vehicles regardless of their ability to afford the very high price of vehicle ownership. We propose a new theoretical construct, illuminated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey Public Use Microdata—the transportation choice/captivity matrix—which examines transportation user groups via vehicle ownership and income variables.

Exploring Immersive Co-Design: Comparing Human Interaction in Real and Virtual Elevated Urban Spaces in London

Virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to revolutionize public engagement in the design of urban projects, leading to more sustainable and inclusive environments. This research scrutinizes this potential through a study of elevated urban spaces, specifically the Sky Garden and Crossrail Place in London. Comparing real and virtual interactions, the aim is to highlight their differences and similarities while underscoring the importance of design decision-making for sustainable public places. Through walk-along interviews with 33 visitors in each space and a VR experiment with a separate group of 33 participants, the study analyses the effectiveness of VR as a co-design tool. The outcomes demonstrate that VR positively influences user involvement and allows for the production and real-time testing of design alternatives. Significantly, the majority of participants, who had not physically visited the spaces, could identify design concerns and propose potential activities and features through the VR experiment. These findings were consistent with those expressed by actual users of the spaces. By comparing human activities, circulation, and design concerns in both physical and virtual environments, the research underscores the potential and limitations of VR as a co-design tool for creating sustainable public spaces.

Mundanity, fascination and threat: Interrogating responses to publicly engaged research in toilet, trans and disability studies amid a ‘culture war’

Toilets are political spaces: inadequate toilet access means limited access to wider space and community. Between 2015 and 2018 I led a series of interdisciplinary research projects collectively known as Around the Toilet ( http://aroundthetoilet.com ), which centred the experiences of trans, queer and disabled people to explore what makes a safe and accessible toilet space. The research sought to consolidate commitments to feminist, queer, trans and disability politics. In this article, I interrogate the repercussions of doing work at these political intersections by focusing not so much on the research findings themselves, but on the ways in which the project has been responded to within a context which is anti-expert, anti-‘woke’ and one of perceived scarcity. I reflect on my experiences as a trans person, leading a public-facing research project which centres trans lives, within a context of increasing trans hostility. I will show how Around the Toilet has at once been understood as too mundane (a waste of taxpayers’ money; a humorous thing to be researching); a fascination (a good journalistic ‘hook’; focus on particular aspects of the work, whilst ignoring others); and a threat to social order. I argue that – during a time where ‘impact’ is valued and academics are expected to be ‘public-facing’ – universities need to recognise harms that can come from this, and resource the labour that it takes to mitigate these harms (if the risk is deemed worth taking). I also outline ways in which universities and those with varying degrees of institutional power can help to make the academy a more sustainable place to work for those targeted in current culture wars.

Irrigation suitability and health risk assessment of groundwater resources in the Firozabad industrial area of north-central India: An integrated indexical, statistical, and geospatial approach

The recent global upsurge in anthropogenic activities has resulted in a decline in the quality of water. This by extension has resulted in increased ubiquity of water pollution in terms of sources. The application of traditional water quality assessment methods usually involves the use of conventional water quality parameters and guideline values. This may be associated with bias and errors during the computation of various sub-indices. Hence, to overcome this limitation, it is critical to have a visual appraisal of the water quality in terms of source and human health risks exposure for sustainable water resource management and informed decision-making. Therefore, the present study has integrated multiple water quality assessment indices, spatio-temporal, and statistical models to assess the suitability of fifty groundwater samples (n = 50) within the Firozabad industrial area for irrigation and drinking; as well as the likely health risks from oral intake and dermal contact by inhabitants. Electrical conductivity (mean = 1,576.6 μs/cm), total hardness (mean = 230.9 mg/L), dissolved sodium (mean = 305.1 mg/L) chloride (mean = 306.1 mg/L) and fluoride (mean = 1.52 mg/L) occurred in the water at concentrations above the recommended standards; attributed influxes from agricultural and industrial wastewater. The pollution index of groundwater and water quality index revealed that 100% of the groundwater samples are extremely polluted; this was also supported by the joint multivariate statistical analyses. The majority of the irrigational water quality indices (sodium adsorption ratio, Kelly’s Ratio, permeability index, percent sodium) revealed that the long-term use of the groundwater for irrigation in the area will result in reduced crop yield unless remedial measures are put in place. Higher Hazard index (HI > 1) for nitrate and fluoride ingestion was recorded in water for the children population compared to adult; an indication that the children population is more predisposed to health risks from the oral intake of water. Generally, risk levels from ingestion appear to increase in the western and north-eastern parts of the study area. From the findings of this study, it is highly recommended that adequate agricultural practices, land use, and water treatment regulatory strategies be put in place for water quality sustainability for enhanced agricultural production and human health protection.

The interview - Bryan Dean

As the company's first satellite heads for the skies, CEO of space engineering firm Dragonfly Aerospace Bryan Dean discusses how Earth imaging can make the world a more sustainable place to live in.

Determination of Physico-Chemical Parameters of St. Nicholas River, Bayelsa State, Niger Delta, Nigeria

The Physicochemical parameters of St. Nicholas River were determined from October, 2020 to September, 2021. Three sampling stations were identified and used throughout the duration of the studies. They were Meinmokiri, Ebierewo-bugo and Egeinkiri sampling stations. The physicochemical parameters were measured in situ with Mercury in Glass Thermometer for Temperature, Hand held Digital Salinometer for (Model AR8012) for Salinity, pH meter (Model PH-009(1)) for pH, Digital conductivity tester (Model AR8011) for Conductivity, TDS meter (Model AR8012) for Total Dissolved Solid, Digital Water Velocity meter (Model PF LV550) for Water Velocity, Secchi Disk for Transparency, Digital Depth Founder (Model SD-5) for Water Depth and Dissolved Oxygen Meter (Model OM-51-10) for Dissolved Oxygen. The mean values of the Physicochemical parameters of water at the three sampling stations are temperature; 29.98±0.550C, Dissolved Oxygen DO; 11.89±0.33mg/L, Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD; 2.06±0.26 mg/L, Salinity; 16.80±2.06 PPT, Conductivity; 27.54±3.03µS/cm, Total Dissolved Solids TDS; 9.44±0.50mg/L, pH; 7.41±0.14, Water Depth; 0.58±0.06m, Transparency; 27.27±0.03cm and Water Velocity; 54.79±5.71m3/s. These physicochemical parameters values are comparable with other water bodies in the Niger Delta indicating contaminated waters. The contamination was caused by anthropogenic activities in terms of parameters assessed, therefore mitigation should be put in place for biodiversity conservation and sustainability of the ecosystem.

Ecotheology and Analysis of Christian Education in Overcoming Ecological Problems

Various environmental problems have become a central focus recently and are expected to increase in the coming years. God's command to Adam and Eve to fill and dominate the earth was not intended to exploit natural resources. As stated in Genesis 1:28,31; 2:15, one of God's purposes for creating humans is to inhabit, rule, and maintain the universe as a sustainable place to live. The method used in this study is a qualitative method with a review of literature on ecotheology and analysis of Christian Religious Education in overcoming ecological problems. The basis for understanding environmental theology (ecotheology) is the awareness that the environmental crisis is not only a secular problem, but also a serious religious problem, because it stems from religious misunderstandings about life. Through environmental theology, a review is carried out on religious understandings in society, especially regarding the position of humans and their responsibilities in relation to the nature that has been inhabited. The environment is a very important subject to pay attention to and of course it must get special attention within the learning and application of Christian Religious Education.

Sustainable and Green City Brand. An Exploratory Review

Although city branding is not new, the importance of sustainability and environmental demands is placing an enormous challenge in city/place branding activities. As such, the aim of this article is to analyze how sustainable/green city/place branding is understood and what its main idiosyncrasies are. For that an exploratory literature review was implemented and 32 articles were analyzed. It is possible to conclude that there are three main strands covering the topic related to green, sustainable, and slow city (cittaslow) or place branding. Moreover, green resources are dealt with seeking to improve the image of the city, the quality of urban life, and the green spaces supporting the city as a tourism destination. Complementarily, sustainability embraces also economic and social aspects, which are not fully covered in the previous strand. Finally, the cittaslow perspective follows a sustainable perspective more closely than the green/environmental one. The three strands are very segmented and the stage of development is still in a growing up stage. The stakeholders play an important role in disclosing the natural resources, the environmental challenges for a city/place to develop a positive sustainable reputation. Finally, there is an important role from the public policy perspective to position the city as a green, sustainable place destination.

Developing the next generation of renewable energy technologies: an overview of low-TRL EU-funded research projects.

A cluster of eleven research and innovation projects, funded under the same call of the EU's H2020 programme, are developing breakthrough and game-changing renewable energy technologies that will form the backbone of the energy system by 2030 and 2050 are, at present, at an early stage of development. These projects have joined forces at a collaborative workshop, entitled ' Low-TRL Renewable Energy Technologies', at the 10th Sustainable Places Conference (SP2022), to share their insights, present their projects' progress and achievements to date, and expose their approach for exploitation and market uptake of their solutions.

Lessons learnt during the workshop “Empowerment of citizens: fostering user engagement for innovative demand response for effective flexibility”

This open letter summarises the discussions held during of the workshop “Fostering user engagement for innovative demand response for effective flexibility” celebrated during the 10th edition of the Sustainable Places 2022 conference. This event was organised in a hybrid format in Nice, France, from the 6th September to 9th September 2022, in which the sister projects iFLEX, ACCEPT, HESTIA, SENDER, and ReDREAM participated. This open letter follows the format used by the workshop held in Sustainable places 2022 (SP2022): the questions were asked by the moderator and the answers were given by sister projects’ representatives, together summarising the collaborative work performed by the five projects.

Air quality by inhalable particulate matter (PM10) in five urban centers in South America

The present study aims to analyze the records of the inhalable particulate matter PM10 from 2002 to 2018 in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre (Brazil), Montevideo (Uruguay), and Buenos Aires (Argentina), verifying if they were within the established limits and if the air quality reports, produced in each city, were contextualizing air pollution with relevant legislation and geographic factors. For this, we downloaded the air quality reports from websites of environmental agencies that, in accordance with their laws, are obligated to publish them. After reading, it was pointed out: the publication formats, if geographic factors were addressed in air quality analyses, the legal bases for the diagnosis, as well as which of them were more tolerant with air pollution, and the frequency they published their data and their justifications. Next, a comparison of the annual average and maximum in 24 hours PM10 records was performed. Therefore, we found that São Paulo presented the most complete document and Buenos Aires the least comprehensive. Rio de Janeiro exceeded PM10 tolerance limits several times, and Montevideo has the least polluted air quality. Only Buenos Aires did not address geographic factors as a form of analysis or suggestions. Finally, it is suggested that Porto Alegre and Buenos Aires should increase their data collection networks. The poor performance of some cities make it difficult to accomplish the task to transform them in more sustainable and healthy places.

Metaphorical Connotations of Preservice Teachers on the Concept of Nomophobia

The diversity of temporal needs in the world has increased the people's rate of communication and interaction. Many factors play a role in increasing the rate of communication and interaction. One of these factors is mobile devices. It can be said that various mobile devices have features that affect human life in many dimensions in today's world. Therefore, these devices have a very important place for individual and social sustainability. Mobile phones are the most important of the various mobile devices in the globalizing world. The excessive use of mobile phones has produced the concept of nomophobia, which is a new type of addiction in the world. In this study, based on this type of disorder, it was aimed to determine the metaphorical connotations of preservice teachers regarding the concept of nomophobia. In this study, which was carried out with a qualitative research method and a phenomenological design, the study group members were asked an open-ended question in the form of "Nomophobia is like ……….…… because …………… ." and by which, the metaphorical connotations of the preservice teachers were aimed to be determined. The analysis of their answers revealed that the preservice teachers had remarkable metaphorical connotations regarding the concept of nomophobia. The connotations compiled in the study were combined under certain themes by the researchers and presented in the findings section.

Continuity and Change: Socio-Spatial Practices in Bamberg's World Heritage Urban Horticulture

The German city of Bamberg offers lessons in how continuity and change interact within the context of the inner-urban land use of commercial horticulture, thereby informing sustainable urban transformations in historic cities. The case of Bamberg shows that urban food production is not just well-established, but a consistent and centuries-old cultural structure that influences the fabric of today’s city. In this article, we discuss what forms of urban horticulture (and thus also food production) are evident from Bamberg’s past and which may prevail in the future. Two questions structure our analysis. First, how are historical sites and spatial structures of horticulture shaped in the tension between continuity and change? Second, which practices/forms of urban horticulture are taken up and how are they updated by which actors? Both the heritage and contemporary practices of urban horticulture, it is argued, can be conceived of as a resource to create sustainable places and ways of life for citizens. Two new contributions result from this work. First, the article highlights the ongoing cultural heritage dimensions of urban horticulture in a field still dominated by eco-technical contributions associated with post-industrial innovation in urban planning; in this respect, heritage should be recognised as a dynamic that shapes urban change. In addition, secondly, the application of Luhmannian concepts of evolution in social systems reinforces the interdependence of continuity and change in urban settings.

Energy communities: engaging people and technologies in the future of energy.

This is a summary of the clustering workshop at the Sustainable Places 2022 conference. The H2020 funded projects LIGHTNESS, HESTIA, LocalRES and CREATORS came together to shed light on the importance of engaging people and unlocking the potential of technologies to promote energy communities and meet the EU's ambition of a joint net-zero emission of greenhouse gases by the year 2050. To ensure a people-centric, sustainable, just, and innovative energy future, citizens and experts must be brought into dialogue to co-design new ways of organising around energy.

CO-CREATION AS A MEANS OF CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT IN LOCAL CULTURAL POLICY MAKING

We have experienced a shift in local cultural policy making towards a more participative governance during the last decades in a situation when understanding of the meaning of culture in cultural policy has enlarged and cultural policy makers are concerned with more active actors in the field, including cultural prosumers. In the meantime, we can observe in our contemporary cities new creative forms of civic activism trying to build sustainable and livable places with creative professionals engaging as facilitators of these creative change processes in local communities. Co-creation approach is a recent trend in public governance to ensure the engage- ment of local citizens as equal partners in developing, implementing and evaluating creative solutions for local problems related to raising the quality of life. The application of co-creation approach in local cultural policy making is still comparatively new and experimental, but one can find multiple good practice case studies in Europe, although the understanding of this new concept varies in different contexts. The goal of this article is to analyse the available literature in order to clarify the use of co-creation concept in the field of culture in different contexts along with the similar concepts of co-production and co-design, to identify the purpose and possible gains of applying a co-creation approach in local cultural policy making.