City Today Research Articles

SHUMEN CITIZENS IN BELGIAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS (END OF XIX - EARLY XX CENTURY)

The historical narrative depicts young people of Shumen who were educated in Belgian schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They studied in today's cities of Brussels, Liege, Ghent, Gembloux and Antwerp. In the period from 1879 to 1912, 39 young people born in Shumen studied in Belgian schools. Among them were the girls Hristina Velichkova and Elena Vitanova. Several of them studied at two or more universities. For example, Stefan Kurtev studied at the New and Old Universities in Brussels, as well as in Ghent, Boris L. Velev studied in Liege and Brussels. A significant number of these people later worked in various spheres of life – as military, officials, bankers, directors of institutions. Irrespective of the fact that some of them hadn’t graduated from the respective institutions, they returned to their homeland with a good knowledge of European languages and familiarity with the achievements of the Western European civilization. Their large number, as well as the specialties chosen by them, are a vivid testimony to the aspiration of the young people of Shumen to receive better education and to contribute to the modernization of the Third Bulgarian State and their native Shumen.

Impact of circular measures to reduce urban CO2 emissions: An analysis of four case studies through a production- and consumption-based emission accounting method

Cities are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), but they can play a significant role in climate change mitigation by adopting and implementing GHG emission reduction plans, policies and measures. Circular economy measures are recognized to contribute significantly to decarbonization. However, in the literature there is a lack of quantitative analyses on circular measures in cities and their impact on urban GHG emissions.The paper aims to contribute to the literature on the relation between circular cities and climate change mitigation by focusing on circular interventions applicable in three high-impact sectors in cities: energy systems, mobility and built environment, in order to investigate their impacts in terms of emission reductions and contribution to decarbonization. The study covers four cities around the world accounting for more than 10 million of inhabitants and 2,000 km2 of metropolitan area: Bogotá, Colombia; Genoa and Milan, Italy; Glasgow, UK. The methodology uses a Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) modelling approach to develop production and consumption-based emission baselines for the four cities and to assess impacts of selected circular measures in the three sectors on the baselines. According to the in-depth analysis of the four considered urban contexts, the majority of the emissions generated by activities carried out within the urban borders are emitted outside the borders in the form of emissions scope 3, thus demonstrating how today's cities are large consumers of goods produced outside their borders, requiring the use of a consumption-based approach for emissions inventory. The results on the modelling of the GHG reduction impact of circular measures show that there is a relevant emission reduction potential in Scope 1 and 2 emissions in cities and highlight the need to prioritize decarbonization of electricity supply in order to ensure relevant emission reductions across the three sectors. The results also demonstrate the potential to reduce supply-chain Scope 3 emissions through urban measures.

Usability of Some Landscape Plants in Biomonitoring Technique: an Anaysis With Special Regard to Heavy Metals

As a result of the widespread industrial activities in today's cities and the increase in the urban population and building density, the pollution values in the urban geography are increasing. The accumulation of environmental pollutants is one of the most important problems to be considered in the construction of cities. Heavy metal pollution from various activities in urban areas is one of the riskiest environmental problems. Heavy metals are concentrated due to human activities and it is necessary to monitor and determine their accumulation levels. Detection and reduction studies of heavy metal levels in regions and areas with population density are of critical importance, as accumulation above a certain dose can cause vital problems. Studies on the accumulation of heavy metals are affected by parameters of quite different sizes, and determination of the level and identification of the source is quite complex. However, due to the high accumulation of pollutants in some landscape areas due to the effect of their type, it reveals the course of pollutants in these regions. This study aimed to determine the concentrations of Copper (Cu) and Iron (Fe) in leaves, bark and wood in various landscape species by biomonitoring heavy metals. By comparing the Cu and Fe concentrations, the heavy metal holding capacities of the species used varied significantly in plant species and in different organs of the same plant. As a result of the study, it has been determined that Schinus molle L. can be preferred in urban areas and can be used as a biomonitor in Cu and Fe accumulation.

Sera Gölü Tabiat Parkı’nın kullanıcı memnuniyeti açısından değerlendirilmesi

Günümüz kentlerinin yapılaşma ve artan nüfus nedenleri ile yeşil alanlara olan ihtiyacı günden güne artmaktadır. Özellikle kentlilerin rekreasyon ihtiyaçlarının karşılanması ve doğal alanlarla iç içe olabilme isteği, kent içi ve yakın çevrelerindeki kent ormanlarını, mesire alanlarını ve tabiat parklarını en çok ilgi gören doğal alanlar içine almaktadır. Tabiat parkları, doğal alanların korunmasını sağlayarak, kentlilerin bu parklardan dinlenme, izleme, okuma, piknik yapma, fotoğraf çekme, spor yapma gibi farklı biçimlerde yaralanmasına olanak sunan alanlardır. Doğal güzellikler, rekreatif çeşitlilik ve sunulan hizmetler tabiat parklarının kullanım tercihlerinde oldukça etkili parametrelerdir. Çalışmada Trabzon ili Akçaabat ilçesinin Yıldızlı mahallesinde yer alan Sera Gölü Tabiat Parkı’nda kullanıcı memnuniyetinin değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. 1950 yılında meydana gelen heyelan neticesinde oluşan Göl’ün bitkisel dokusu ve doğal manzara güzelliği oldukça etkili peyzajlar sunmaktadır. 100 kişilik bir kullanıcı grubu ile anket çalışması gerçekleştirilmiş ve sonuçlar değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak kullanıcıların Sera Gölü Tabiat Parkından gelen anlamda memnuniyet duydukları tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca alanda bulunan Göl’den sadece görsel olarak yararlanabildikleri, kıyı dışında alanın yeşil dokusu içerisinde yürüyüş yolları ve seyir teraslarının yapılması isteğinin öne çıktığı belirlenmiştir.

LOCATION OF INDUSTRY IN UŞAK AND ITS EFFECT ON URBAN MACROFORM

The city of Uşak is an important industrial city today, especially with its traditional business lines, its inclusion in the priority provinces in development, and its accelerated industry. In this study, the development of the industry was evaluated together with the development process of residential areas. The relationship between the development of the city and the location of industrial facilities and its effect on the shaping of the urban macroform were examined. The fact that no studies on this subject have been carried out in the city constitutes the main starting point. The literature review was carried out by considering the data in the historical process. It has been determined that there are 3 important breaking points of the city and industrial development. The findings were differentiated between the 1923-1953 Period, the 1953-1990 Period, and the Post-1990 Period, and the relationship between industrial location and residential texture development for each period was examined on a spatial scale on maps that were originally prepared with the AutoCAD program. As a result of the study, the effects of industrial facilities, industrial clusters, and OIZ areas located on the city periphery were evaluated, and guiding determinations and suggestions for urban planning were presented. Keywords: Industry Localization, Urban Macroform, Urban Development, Uşak City.

Microclimatic Anayysis of City Pieces with Different Characters: Case of Kayseri

Günümüz kentlerinde hızlı nüfus artışının bir sonucu olarak konut sayısı ve geçirimsiz yüzeyler de artış göstermekte, bununla birlikte küresel ısınmanın da en belirgin tetikleyicileri arasında sayılabilecek olan kentsel ısı adaları (KIA) oluşumu artmaktadır. Bu durumun bir sonucu olarak kentsel alanlarda yaşam kalitesinde belirgin bir düşüş gözlenmektedir. Bu nedenle KIA’nın kent üzerindeki etkilerinin azaltılması, biyoklimatik konfor durumunun iyileştirilmesi gibi iklimle dengeli kentsel tasarıma yönelik analizler ve çalışmalar araştırma konuları arasında önemli bir yer tutmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Kayseri kenti örneğinde kat yükseklikleri, yeşil alan miktarı, geçirimsiz yüzeylerin miktarı ve cinsi farklı özellikler gösteren kent parçalarının mikroklimatik açıdan detaylı analizlerinin yapılması odak noktasına alınmıştır. Kent sınırları içerisinde Yeniköy, Alpaslan ve Erenköy mahallelerinde aynı büyüklükteki üç farklı kent parçası çalışma alanı olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu alanların mevcut durumlarının ENVI-met yazılımı ile simülasyonları yapılmıştır. Çalışmanın sonucunda özellikle geçirimsiz yüzeylerin fazla yeşil alanların az ve yüksek katlı yapıların yoğun bulunduğu alanlarda sıcak stresinin arttığı, biyoklimatik konfor düzeyinin düştüğü saptanmıştır. Bağıl nem değerleri hava sıcaklığı ile ters orantılı bir değişim sergilemiştir. Rüzgâr hızının açık alanlarda yüksek oranlara ulaştığı yapı ve bitkilendirmenin yoğun olduğu alanlarda düştüğü belirlenmiştir. Bitkilerin bulunduğu alanlarda noktasal olarak ışıma sıcaklıklarının düştüğü diğer alanlarda yüksek olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Elde edilen bütün bu bulgular; kentlerde kat yüksekliklerinin düşük olması, kentsel açık ve yeşil alanların fazla, geçirimsiz yüzey miktarlarının düşük olmasının biyoklimatik konfor düzeylerinde belirgin bir artışa ve mikroklimatik açıdan daha yaşanabilir alanların oluşumuna katkı sağladığını göstermektedir.

Strategi Pengembangan Industri Kecil Menengah (IKM) Yang Berdaya Saing Pada Saat Covid-19 di Kota Pekanbaru

The objective of this study is to analyze the main issues that inhibit the development of IKM competitiveness in Pekanbaru City at the time of COVID-19 by identifying the development status of IKM in Pekanbaru City today and the persemade strategy in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the development of IKM competitiveness in Pekanbaru city at the time of covid. According to the data provided by Pekanbaru City Industrial and Trade Bank, the population in this study are all IKMs operating in Pekanbaru City. The IKM that becomes the subject of this study is the IKM of manufacturing or IKM which manufactures products that are able to be competitive in the broad market and become a substitute for consumers in Pekanbaru City. The data analysis used in the IKM study is a descriptive analysis using the SWOT analysis method.The results showed the development of the IKM competitiveness in Pekanbaru city at the time of COVID-19 that was in the 2nd quadrant position. For that, the IKM development model is consistent with the forward, backward and horizontal integration strategy, that is, by strengthening business relationships with upstream and downstream industries, and increasing control over competitors through cooperation and company acquisitions. As for the market penetration strategy or by determining the market's ability to absorb the resulting product. Also, the product development strategy is to develop products with offer value (value proposition) combined with services to enhance the uniqueness of the product, which can help IKM improve marketing performance and market expansion. And keep the market satisfied by opening up new market shares resulting from market development strategies.

Evaluation of Metro Lines with Swarm Intelligence Approach

Metro lines, which have become one of the most important transportation routes for today's cities, require long design and implementation processes. Their design load is mostly due to detailed engineering calculations, have to expand to meet the needs of the ever-increasing population. The behavior of slime moulds to find the shortest path they use to reach the food source has inspired models created specifically to test the accuracy of highway routes. The hypothesis of this study is that the swarm behavior of slime moulds and the routes they follow may produce the same or similar results as the existing metro lines. In this research, an answer was sought to the question of whether a metro line designed with an approach based on swarm intelligence could be compatible with the existing line. The paper aims to develop a model that guides the design processes of metro lines by using swarm intelligence and shortest path finding strategies of slime moulds in a computational model. In the model, slime moulds were represented by multi-agent systems. The metro route was produced by the model using the station locations on an existing metro line selected as the study area. The agent-based simulation model was developed in the Grasshopper Physarealm plug-in environment. In the first stage of the model, a numerical model was created using the data and parameters of an existing metro line. In the second stage, the simulation was carried out to create a new route by preserving only the station locations of the existing metro line. Finally, the existing metro route and the route developed with the simulation model based on the intelligent agent behaviour in the digital environment were compared by overlapping. The results show that the route created by slime moulds only to reach the food is almost the same as the currently designed metro line. Topography data is ignored in the model. It is seen that the model developed by using metro design criteria is an important decision support aid for designers in determining metro routes.

Restored quality of life-based approach (REQUALIFE) for urban seismic resilience assessment: Quantitative method

With rapid urbanization, today's cities are increasingly vulnerable to unpredictable and catastrophic environmental hazards such as earthquakes. A quantitative approach for seismic resilience assessment at the urban scale is still a challenging task because of the extreme complexity of urban systems. This study proposes a Restored Quality of Life-based Approach to evaluate urban seismic resilience. First, extensive literature is reviewed and analyzed to determine the mathematical definition of urban seismic resilience. Performance-based methods are selected, and urban seismic resilience is calculated by comparing desired city performance with actual city performance after an earthquake. Second, the concept of post-disaster quality of life is applied to indicate the city performance. A set of indicators is constructed preliminarily based on literature to measure the quality of life and is then validated by a Delphi survey. Finally, a framework is recommended to apply the proposed approach. The Restored Quality of Life-based Approach offers an effective tool for evaluating and improving the urban seismic resilience of a city and lays a theoretical and methodological foundation for better insights into and analysis of the urban seismic resilience in the future.

ANALISIS PENDAPATAN USAHA COKELAT OLAHAN PADA INDUSTRI UKM SAKAYA DI KOTA PALU

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L) is a cultivated tree originating From South America, from which cocoa beans are produced a processed product known as chocolate when developed throungh the Agro-industry. One of the well-known industries in Palu City today is the Sakaya SME Industry. The Sakaya UKM Industry produces unique chocolate products both in taste, packaging from, in terms of type, and the distinctive aroma of the chocolate. This study aims to determine how much the income level of the chocolate business in the Sakaya BTN Pengawu, West Palu, Palu City in January 2020. The thetermination of respondents in this study was carried out purposively, the selected respondents were owners and employees from both the
 production and marketing departements of the industry. Sakaya UKM. The data used in this research comes from primary data and secondary data. The analysis used is Income analysis. The results showed that the income earned in November and December 2019 was Rp. 16.958.751. For Conventure chocolate. Convecture chocolate is produced every month according to consumer demand. From November to December, Convecture chocolate Demand was made so that the 2019 Sakaya UKM’s Conventure Chocolate income was quite good.

Aberdeen, City of Culture?

Aberdeen, City of Culture?

A comparative analysis of building large-scale projects in developing countries by emphasizing on land value changes: Tehran-Iran Mall versus Istanbul-Third Airport

Today's cities are competitive in the process of globalization. Their survival depends on attracting as much capital as possible for the various productive, infrastructure, economic, political and social sectors. The more capital raised, the parts that use it also get improved in number and scale. The process of raising capital depends on the circumstances of each city. So that, in some cities, high demand leads to increase the capacity of economic infrastructure sectors, in others, they make demand by creating economic, social, infrastructure capacity and opportunities on a large scale. This is even more important for cities in developing countries as it helps them reach the development thresholds. Meanwhile, the Tehran (Iran) and Istanbul (Turkey) cities, due to their location, economic and political conditions, have always been challenged to attract capital. Therefore, in recent decades, they have started to make investment capacities by developing large-scale projects. This study aims to verify two of the most challenging large-scale projects in these two cities. To achieve the study’s goal, the projects and their types are first discussed. Also, the impact on the lands values in the neighboring area is evaluated as one of the existing effects on the host environment. The rate of impacts varies depending on the type of projects. According to the research findings, the essences of the two projects and the purposes of their constructions are different from each other. One attempts to attract as much capital as possible in order to show off its social and cultural capitals (Iran mall- Tehran), and the other aims at economic and political benefits in competition with similar projects. Regarding land prices, in addition to the fact that these two projects have caused significant increases in land values of the host districts, they have also transformed the social structure of the residents living there.

The Salt Lake City Asylum and Hospital, 1870–1886: Mental Illness in Early Utah

The Salt Lake City Asylum and Hospital, 1870–1886: Mental Illness in Early Utah

Traffic safety education activities for universities students in Ho Chi Minh City

Over the years, traffic safety education has been included in many educational programs of many universities. However, the actual survey shows that the awareness of managers, teachers, and students about this activity is still not high; the planning of traffic safety education activities at schools is not consistent with the overall and comprehensive educational plan of schools; the strengthening of direction and implementation of traffic safety education through educational activities outside of class time has not been continuous, there is a lack of supervision; there has not been close coordination with forces inside and outside the school in traffic safety education activities. Therefore, the educational effectiveness is still not high and has not achieved the desired results. On the basis of the actual survey, analyze the collected data to assess the actual situation; studying state documents on traffic safety education, this study proposes solutions to improve the quality of traffic safety education in a number of universities in Ho Chi Minh City today.

Active learning metamodelling for survival rate analysis of simulated emergency medical systems

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) constitute a crucial pillar of today's cities by providing urgent medical responses to their citizens. Their study is often conducted via simulation, as the assessment of planning decisions is generally unfeasible in the existing systems. However, such models can become computationally expensive to run. Thus, metamodels can be used to approximate the simulation results. In this work, a simulation metamodelling strategy supported on an active learning scheme is proposed to analyse the survival rate of a simulated EMS. The exploration process is guided through a series of grids towards simulation input regions whose output results match a specific survival rate defined a priori. This provides an efficient way of exploring the search space by channelling the computational effort to the most important input values, supporting the advantages of these methodologies in the EMS field, where their application is still seldom to the best of our knowledge.

Noise Pollution is One of the Main Health Impacts in Big Cities Today

Noise Pollution is One of the Main Health Impacts in Big Cities Today

Ground motion simulations in Quito (Ecuador) due to major earthquakes from the subduction zone

SUMMARY In 1906, an earthquake with a magnitude estimated between Mw 8.4 and 8.8 occurred in the subduction zone along the coast of Ecuador and Colombia. This earthquake caused extensive damage on the coast but had a rather small impact on the capital city of Quito, situated 180 km away. At that time, the city of Quito extended over a small area with a few thousand inhabitants, while today it stretches over 40 km and has a population of over 3 million, with most of the city built without paraseismic regulations. The aim of this study is to obtain new insights on the impact that large earthquakes from the subduction zone would have on the city today. This question is crucial since we know that the city of Quito is prone to site effects and that the southern part of the city amplifies seismic waves at low frequencies, around 0.3–0.4 Hz. In April 2016, an Mw 7.8 earthquake occurred on the subduction interface in the Pedernales area. This event was the first large earthquake in the city of Quito to be well recorded by 13 stations of the permanent accelerometric network (RENAC). In this study, we take advantage of this data set (main shock and large aftershock recordings) to (1) test an empirical Green's function blind simulation approach where the input stress drop is taken from a global catalogue of source time functions, (2) compare the synthetic accelerograms and ground motion values we obtain for an Mw 7.8 earthquake with the actual recordings of the Pedernales earthquake and then (3) simulate larger earthquakes of Mw 8.2 and 8.5 from the subduction zone. For Mw 7.8 simulations, our approach allows a good reproduction of the ground motions in the whole frequency bands and properly takes into account site effects. For Mw 8.2 and 8.5 simulations, we obtain for the stations in the southern part of the basin, larger values at low frequencies than the predicted motion given by ground motion models. These values, although high, should be supported by new or recent buildings if they are constructed respecting the building code that applies in Quito. Therefore, for this type of strong but distant earthquake, the seismic standards appear to be well suited and it is imperative to ensure that they are well considered in the design of the new buildings to be constructed, especially in the southern part of the expanding city.

Bristol Fashion: Reclaiming Cary Grant for Bristol – Film Heritage, Screen Tourism and Curating the Cary Comes Home Festival

This article re-examines Cary Grant’s star persona arguing that the importance of his Bristolian identity has been under-appreciated. Through a detailed discussion of attempts to promote his Bristolian roots including the biennial Cary Comes Home Festival (established 2014), the article argues that these activities have encouraged a re-evaluation of Cary Grant’s star identity, increased understanding of his importance to Bristol’s screen heritage, and helped promote film tourism to the city. The article outlines the history and development of the festival, critically reflecting on the curatorial practices that underpinned them. It is informed by three main interlinked theoretical areas: star studies; the literature on fan practices of cinematic tourism and pilgrimage, and festival studies. It analyses the ways in which expanded cinema programming provides opportunities for decentering the understanding of Grant’s persona as a Hollywood star, by exploring the festival’s programming of immersive cinematic experiences in locations that were significant to his Bristolian identity. The article also examines the impact of the festival’s role in relocating Grant within Bristol, the ways in which it has enhanced the city’s sense of its cinematic heritage – including achieving UNESCO City of Film status in October 2017 – and the ways in which Bristol has become a living archive through which and in which Cary Grant’s star persona is constructed and circulates, which has helped promote film tourism to the city today.

Doświadczenie migracji jako element tożsamości miasta

The Experience of Migration as an Element of City’s Identity: The Example of Berlin The modern Federal Republic of Germany is a migrant country. It has been de facto from the beginning of its existence, but as a political declaration this statement was adopted only at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, when it began to formulate a long-term migration policy – at the central, federal and local level. The case of Berlin is interesting for several reasons – the city as a separate federal state is a compact research object (it has a small space, but a separate administrative structure and a clear identity resulting, inter alia, from past experiences). In addition, a significant percentage of foreigners, migrants and their descendants live in the city today, which forces the authorities of the Bundesland to define their own immigration and integration policy. The phenomenon of migration is also an inherent part of the city’s history, it was an impulse for its development and building its present position. The subject of the article is the influence of the experience of migration on the contemporary identity of the city and the policy of the Bundesland’s authorities.

TOURISM-RELATED URBAN REGENERATION OF HISTORIC CITIES: A REGENERATION STRATEGIES FOR KOCHI, KERALA

The process of reinducing life into decaying assets and developing future potential with the growing tourism of a historic city is known as tourism-related urban regeneration. The assets and potential for such heritage cities consist of built heritage, traditional industries, or cultural resources. The research is based on a study of a historic city in southern India called Kochi in Kerala state, which is famous for its built heritage, cultural evolution, and traditional economic industries. It is globally known for its historical spice trade. However, at present these assets are degenerating due to their low interest in public participation in conservation and regeneration. From the 12th to 17th century, the city Kochi (Cochin-Travancore) achieved global prosperity because of its sea-trade route, linkages with major continents, political patronage, and its existing natural resources. After independence, the city growth gets affected by inadequate development policies and low participation. With the passage of time, the city retained the built heritage and multi-shaded culture with its historical settlement patterns. The city today has shown a strong potential for tourism as there are plenty of heritage buildings, heritage settlements, and the traditional culture of the region. The city’s socio-economy is dominated by traditional industries of skilled craftsmanship and service providers. But at present, this traditional economic potential and cultural heritage of the city are struggling to grow with maximum potential due to the high rate of urbanization and participation failure. Therefore, the research looks into the city’s assets and its economic turbulence that could be a potential for the tourism-related urban regeneration of the region.