Type Of Urban Development Research Articles

ANALYSIS OF THE WIND REGIME OF LUTSK IN THE CONTEXT OF REGIONAL MANIFESTATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGES

Introduction. Setting objectives. The environment of our life activities, its comfort and favorability largely depend on the parameters of the microclimate. One of these parameters is the wind mode. The scientific study is devoted to the topical issues of studying the wind regime of Lutsk during the last 50 years in the context of global climate changes and microclimatic features of the wind profile in the area of influence of the Beehive House. Purpose of the article. The purpose of the work is to study the wind regime in the city of Lutsk, its ecological impact, bio-ecological impact on humans and changes occurring in the context of global warming processes and restructuring of the typical course of meteorological indicators in the region. Results of the research: Changes in the wind regime of Lutsk during 1971-2020 were determined; three periods with different nature of indicators are highlighted; the peculiarities of the city's influence on the wind regime and the reverse influence of the wind on the city's microclimate were evaluated using the example of studying the wind profile in the area of influence of the Beehive House; a number of graphs, diagrams, tables were built; a number of measures are proposed that will help improve the ecological condition of the city's territory in the context of climate change. The wind regime of the city of Lutsk is formed under the influence of general circulation factors, as well as the nature of the underlying surface, the type of urban development, the topography of the city, available green areas and water bodies. In general, the wind regime of Lutsk is favorable, average wind speeds vary between 3.5-4.0 m/s, maximum gusts reach 16-20 m/s, during the year the prevailing winds are from the west, north-west, south-west directions, which is consistent with the general type of westerly transfer of air masses. The development of the city, its shape, location, configuration of individual buildings has a significant impact on the wind profile, as research in the area adjacent to the Beehive House has shown. The study of the annual dynamics of average wind speeds for 1971-2020 showed that three different periods can be distinguished in this time interval: the first period: 1971-1981, had a wind regime typical of the climatic norm, with average annual speeds of 3-3.3 m/s and increased maximum wind speeds. The second period: 1982-2000, had uneven dynamics of average annual wind speeds, their increase or decrease in individual years by 30-50% compared to the norm; the nature of the maximum values of wind speeds was also uneven. The third period: 2001-2020, which continues, is characterized by a decrease in average annual and average maximum wind speeds by 10-20% below the climatic norm, smoothed nature of the wind regime in the city. This is, in general, a favorable wind regime for human health and well-being and for carrying out economic activities of various kinds. The scientific novelty: for the first time for the city of Lutsk, a comprehensive statistical and graphic analysis of wind regime indicators and their changes over 50 years (1971 - 2020) was carried out, and the features of the impact on the microclimate of a complex architectural structure - the Beehive House, the largest residential building in Europe - were assessed. Practical significance: the results of the conducted research can be used in educational and training activities, to solve the tasks of planning the urban area, planning the construction of new industrial facilities or increasing the capacities of existing ones, building and reconstruction of quarters and microdistricts of the city of Lutsk, to assess the wind energy potential, to assess the spread of pollutants substances from generators, many of which appeared in our city this winter due to the war, from communal and industrial facilities. Keywords: wind, wind regime, average wind speed, repeatability of wind direction, microclimate of the city, environmental impact.

Особенности теплового поля города Ростова-на-Дону по данным дистанционного зондирования Земли

Thermal fields of natural and anthropotechnogenic origin are an integral part of the urban habitat, which influences the functioning of its components, as well as determines the conditions of existence of living organisms including humans. Settlements act as areas of formation of extensive temperature anomalies, mainly positive ones, known as urban heat island. This phenomenon was discovered more than 200 years ago and is currently being investigated in detail. However, the study of smaller anomalies - neighbourhood-scaled and local - is also a subject of scientific and practical interest. These heterogeneities in the distribution of thermal energy are caused by the presence or functioning of individual objects, and therefore, on the one hand, have a direct impact on the state of the environment and human living conditions, and on the other hand, are a promising area for the development of environmental engineering and settlement rational arrangement. As part of the conducted research, the main patterns of spatial distribution of the Earth's surface temperature within the Rostov-on-Don city district were identified, as well as the areas of formation of anomalies of local and neighbourhood scale and objects and processes contributing to their formation were identified. The results and conclusions can be used for further study of ecological and geophysical features of urban landscapes, and also have an applied value in determining the direction and consequences of the impact of the advancement of specific types of urban development of the territory.

On Approaches to Organizing Noise Observations in Urban Areas

Introduction: A rapid growth of cities accompanied by the increase in population density and expansion of the road network has been observed recently. When conducting road traffic noise studies, preparation for observations, analysis of the situation, and selection of observation points are of great importance. Speed, volume, and density of the traffic flow, periods of observation, and the measurement interval are taken into account when measuring. At present, there is a need to justify approaches to organizing observations of noise levels and obtaining objective data on the urban territory. Objective: To justify approaches to organizing observations of noise levels in urban residential areas. Materials and methods: Roadway noise was measured on the territory of residential areas to establish equivalent and maximum sound levels. Organization of observations consisted of making a list of control addresses and distributing them by groups of observations with the same and comparable values of indicators. Results: The work was carried out in accordance with the proposed approach to organizing observations with the list of control addresses generated, the addresses grouped, parameter values determined, and the control points selected. The essential parameters included the type of urban development, the type of green spaces, characteristics of traffic flow and road surface. Each group contained at least three control addresses. At each address, average sound levels were determined and control was carried out for their differences in each observation group. Conclusion: Approaches to organizing observations of noise levels in urban areas have been developed, which help establish real-life acoustic conditions with a reduced number of measurements.

Race and the shantytown in a race-less country: negros villeros, whiteness and urban space in Argentina

ABSTRACT In this article, we look at the racialization of the people living in precarious and informal urbanizations known as villas in Argentina. In a country traditionally defined by narratives of whiteness and Europeanness, villeros have functioned as a central figure of racial otherness. Though some studies acknowledge the racism suffered by villeros, how this racialization has unfolded and transformed over time remains a question rarely examined. Here, we look at their racialization focusing on two critical moments. First, the period including the 1950s and 1960s when villeros emerged as racialized figures in need of modernization. Second, the period of neoliberal reforms in the 1990s when villeros shifted from being subjects requiring civilizing to becoming a security threat to be dealt with by police force. By contrasting these two regimes of (hyper)visibility and racialization of villeros, we demonstrate that the villas are not a specific type of urban development but a diversity of urbanizations brought together by a set of approaches to the spatialized production and management of racial and classist exclusion. Finally, we argue that it is mainly in cultural production that the dynamics of racialization materialize and become susceptible to contestation.

Developing pedestrian cities: The contribution of land readjustment projects to street vitality in Seoul, South Korea

This study focuses on the relationship between the type of urban development and street vitality. It empirically analyzes how Land Readjustment (LR) and Housing Site Development (HSD) have generated different outcomes in the pedestrian volume in Seoul. LR is one of the most common urban development techniques in the world, and HSD has been predominant in developing new urban areas in South Korea since the 1980s. The results of an empirical analysis with 9588 pedestrian volume survey sites revealed that the LR areas had smaller blocks and lots, like those advocated by Jacobs (1961), and greater pedestrian volume compared to the sites developed by HSD that has created modernism built environments. Findings illustrate that LR has not only produced the desired design, density, and diversity for pedestrian volume but also possibly contributed to promoting street vitality. The development type for sites should be considered an important factor that will create urban tissues and vitality in the future.

Traditional and novel approaches to studying the human thermal environment in urban areas: A critical review of the current state of the art

Traditional approaches to researching the urban thermal environment focus on identifying the specific manifestations of the local climate and microclimate within urban structures and various types of urban development, and on detecting urban heat islands using meteorological station data, mobile measurements, remote sensing, and (micro)climatic modelling. Nonetheless, current manifestations of climate change and its projections into the future bring the need for the effective climatic adaptation of urban environments. Current research focuses on approaches allowing for a more complex assessment of both the thermal and overall environment of people in towns and cities. This requires numerical modelling in high spatial resolution and large questionnaire surveys. Despite many unanswered theoretical and methodological questions, the approaches to and knowledge of the human urban thermal environment demonstrate growing application potential.

Systematic review of critical success factors for developing an Afro-centric neighbourhood sustainability assessment framework

Cities across South Africa are predominantly characterised by multiple forms of poverty, growing inequality, environmental degradation, slums and informal settlements, social and economic exclusion, and spatial segregation. These challenges present significant hurdles in planning for and coping with rapid population growth, urbanisation and protecting communities against natural and human-made disasters. This project aims to address the lack of local neighbourhood sustainability assessment (NSA) frameworks to improve the inclusivity, sustainability and connectivity of communities in South Africa. The existing NSA tools promote a specific type of urban development that effectively excludes marginalised communities and is not entirely suited to South African communities’ economic, socio-cultural, and environmental context. To achieve this, seven major assessment tools across the global North and South are selected and scrutinised using content analysis to identify and catalogue the critical success factors (CSFs) for enabling inclusive, smart, sustainable communities in South Africa using existing knowledge on neighbourhood assessment tools and relevant literature. The result is a proposed structure of four categories and 86 CSFs for the Afro-centric NSA framework that can address the challenges encountered in South African marginalised communities.

FEATURES OF THE SOCIO-GEOGRAPHIC SPACE OF NELIDOVO, TVER REGION

Статья посвящена крупномасштабному исследованию пространства малого города. Объектом исследования стал город Нелидово Тверской области. Для дательного и всестороннего анализа была использована концепция социально-географического пространства. В работе проанализировано размещение разных типов городской застройки. Проанализировано взаиморасположение ареалов повышенной концентрации населения и объектов обслуживания. Выявлено, что в отличии от исторических городов, в Нелидово, как молодом городе, эти ареалы накладываются друг на друга. Для более дательного анализа городского пространства была проведена социально-географическая оценка качества городской среды. Для этого были рассмотрена обеспеченность основными видами услуг: образованием, здравоохранением, торговлей, общественным транспортом и парковыми зонами. Наивысшую оценку обеспеченности рассмотренными видами услуг получили центральные улицы города. Особое внимание в работе уделено исследованию ментального пространства города. Выделены вернакулярные районы и оценена их престижность. The article is devoted to a large scale study of the space of a small city. The object of the study was the city of Nelidovo, Tver region. For a dative and comprehensive analysis, the concept of socio-geographical space was used. The paper analyzes the placement of different types of urban development. The interposition of the areas of increased concentration of the population and service facilities is analyzed. It was revealed that, unlike historical cities, in Nelidovo, as a young city, these areas overlap each other. For a more detailed analysis of the urban space, a socio-geographical assessment of the quality of the urban environment was carried out. To do this, the provision of the main types of services was considered: education, health care, trade, public transport and park areas. The highest assessment of the availability of the considered types of services was received by the central streets of the city. Particular attention is paid to the study of the mental space of the city. Vernacular areas are identified and their prestige is assessed.

Urban contraction in Liaoning Province

With the development of social economy, the current changes in the flow of people in the three eastern provinces and the development of cities show the trend of GDP reduction and population loss, which can be called urban contraction. Based on the changes of the population and GDP of 30 cities in Liaoning Province, this paper discriminates the types of urban development, further classifies the shrinking cities, explores the factors that affect their shrinking degree, summarizes different urban types and puts forward corresponding improvement strategies, and finally forecasts the future development and evolution of these cities.

Variation in Hematological Indices, Oxidative Stress, and Immune Function Among Male Song Sparrows From Rural and Low-Density Urban Habitats

A central theme in the field of ecology is understanding how environmental variables influence a species’ distribution. In the last 20 years, there has been particular attention given to understanding adaptive physiological traits that allow some species to persist in urban environments. However, there is no clear consensus on how urbanization influences physiology, and it is unclear whether physiological differences in urban birds are directly linked to adverse outcomes or are representative of urban birds adaptively responding to novel environmental variables. Moreover, though low-density suburban development is the fastest advancing form of urbanization, most studies have focused on animals inhabiting high intensity urban habitats. In this study, we measured a suite of physiological variables that reflect condition and immune function in male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) from rural and suburban habitats. Specifically, we measured hematological indices [packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC)], circulating glutathione (total, reduced, and oxidized), oxidative damage (d-ROM concentration), antioxidant capacity, and components of the innate immune system [bacteria killing ability (BKA), white blood cell counts]. We also measured whole-animal indices of health, including body condition (scaled mass index length) and furcular fat. Song sparrows inhabiting suburban environments exhibited lower hemoglobin and MCHC, but higher body condition and furcular fat scores. Additionally, suburban birds had higher heterophil counts and lower lymphocyte counts, but there were no differences in heterophil:lymphocyte ratio or BKA between suburban and rural birds. PCV, glutathione concentrations, and oxidative damage did not differ between suburban and rural sparrows. Overall, suburban birds did not exhibit physiological responses suggestive of adverse outcomes. Rather, there is some evidence that sparrows from rural and suburban habitats exhibit phenotypic differences in energy storage and metabolic demand, which may be related to behavioral differences previously observed in sparrows from these populations. Furthermore, this study highlights the need for measuring multiple markers of physiology across different types of urban development to accurately assess the effects of urbanization on wildlife.

Modelling urban sprawl and assessing its costs in the planning process: A case study in Flanders, Belgium

In scientific literature there is a wide agreement on the negative consequences of urban sprawl for some decades. Quantifying these negative consequences of urban sprawl can be extremely helpful for local and regional decision making. Numerous methods have been developed to quantify urban sprawl and its consequences and land use models have been used to study possible effects in the future. The results of these studies, however, do not always find their way to policy makers because they are often too abstract for them. In order to bridge this science-policy gap, this study proposes a participatory approach to make existing methods and models more fit for policy purposes. The study focuses on three policy questions: (1) how to quantify urban sprawl in a way that is more intuitive for policy makers to use in their communication, (2) how to quantify the costs of infrastructure and mobility related to urban sprawl and (3) how will these costs evolve towards the future? Three urban growth scenarios were simulated using a land use model and the outputs of the model were translated to an urban sprawl typology and corresponding costs for infrastructure and mobility. This allows to evaluate potential monetary savings of alternative urban development patterns. The results show that costs for infrastructure and mobility are much higher for patterns dominated by dispersed buildings and ribbon development than in more dense types of urban development in Flanders. The scenarios show that gradually bringing back urban growth could lead to annual savings of 246–383 million euros in terms of reduced investments and maintenance costs for infrastructure and annual savings of 1156–1965 million euros in terms of costs for mobility. Quantifying the potential savings of alternative scenarios of urban growth offers planners and policy makers insight into practical consequences of strategic decisions for development plans that are critical to implement sustainable urban development.

Using community surveys with participatory mapping to monitor comprehensive plan implementation

Comprehensive or general plans are long-range documents intended to guide future urban or regional land use, growth, and development. Structured and periodic monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation is important to identifying when plans should be revised or updated based on changed planning assumptions or conditions, but such monitoring is uncommon. In this study we present and illustrate a research-based method to evaluate general plan implementation for a case-study community located in central California. A community survey was combined with participatory mapping to assess continued public approval of key elements of the general plan: 1) residential growth, 2) community development needs, 3) preferred locations for development (spatial), 4) consistency of resident land use preferences with general plan categories (spatial), and 5) areas with the greatest potential for land use conflict (spatial). Over the five-year period following plan adoption, there was relatively little change in general resident preferences for residential growth or the perceived need for new types of urban development, with the exception of affordable housing; however, city approval of three large, mixed-use development projects, while nominally conforming to the plan, generated community conflict based on development scale and location. As a novel plan monitoring and evaluation method, a community survey combined with participatory mapping provides a means to assess consistency with plan assumptions, desired conditions, and goals and can proactively identify the potential for place-based conflicts among various interests to identify optimized community land use outcomes.

From ‘Orthogonal’ Sprawl to ‘Curvilinear’ Dense: Assessing Accessibility Indices for Urban Networks of Social Housing in UAE

The shift towards designing more dense urban social housing neighbourhoods has started with the embracing of urban sustainability principles by the UAE government since the beginning of the 21st century. The assessment of the recent neighbourhoods designs still lacks concrete evidence about their expected performance especially for pedestrian mobility networks. This concern is gaining further significance with the noticeable tendency of most of the recent urban designs towards developing organic and curvilinear networks instead of the conventional orthogonal grids of the mobility networks that distinguished the traditionally designed neighbourhoods in the country. To bridge this gap, the research comparatively and quantitively analysed the accessibility performance indicators of both of the traditional and the modern urban network designs. The research adopted the Case Study method with quantitative investigation tools that are fundamental to Urban Network Analysis, especially in relation to Accessibility. The simulation of the urban networks of two selected urban social housing neighbourhood forms, representing the networks of both the traditional urban orthogonal sprawl and the recent curvilinear dense one, were utilized employing the UNA toolbox. Three complementary Accessibility Indices were analysed including: Reach, Gravity and Straightness. Through this analysis, the aspects that affected the accessibility performance of the two urban form paradigms and the problems that have been associated with the designs of the urban networks of the new social housing projects, have been revealed. It became evident that the denser urban form was not sufficient in enabling more accessible facilities in the recent neighbourhoods designs. The orthogonal grid, even with its very low Floor Area Ratio showed better performance of in the three accessibility indices especially the Straightness index, if compared with the much denser curvilinear grid with it ‘naturally longer’ pattern. The inefficient number and the inappropriate distribution locally provided facilities in relation to the pedestrian mobility networks have contributed to these disappointing results. So, it is essential to include this and/or similar urban network quantitative simulation tools to help develop genuinely sustainable urban forms for this significant type of urban development in the UAE cities.

Clustering the built form at LAU2 level for addressing sustainable policies: Insights from the Belgium case study

Population growth has determined two different types of urban development: the vertical growth, tending to compactness, and the horizontal one which privileges a more dispersed and sprawled expansion. Those two urban forms have different impacts on environmental sustainability influencing, among others, the microclimate conditions of a city, the energy demand and its economic cost, and the provision of Ecosystem Services. European policies are oriented towards sustainable development of urban areas reducing the environmental footprint and restoring degraded ecosystem through a Green infrastructure deployment. Understanding the urban form, and specifically, the typology of the building form is crucial for policymakers and urban planners to define strategies for a higher degree of sustainability. The lack of data and the heterogeneity of information across Europe on the built form have hindered the operationalisation of European strategies and their downscaling into national or regional policies. The paper aims to fill this gap proposing a methodology based on a cluster analysis that estimates the built form of Belgium at LAU2 level for addressing single specific actions towards environmental sustainability goals. The cluster analysis uses data traditionally surveyed by national censuses, ensuring the replicability of the method for the upcoming 2021 census, and also the opportunity to update it continuously.

Next City: Learning from Cities during COVID-19 to Tackle Climate Change

Fundamental principles of modern cities and urban planning are challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the advantages of large city size, high density, mass transport, free use of public space, unrestricted individual mobility in cities. These principles shaped the development of cities and metropolitan areas for more than a century, but currently, there are signs that they have turned from advantage to liability. Cities Public authorities and private organisations responded to the COVID-19 crisis with a variety of policies and business practices. These countermeasures codify a valuable experience and can offer lessons about how cities can tackle another grand challenge, this of climate change. Do the measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis represent a temporal adjustment to the current health crisis? Or do they open new ways towards a new type of urban development more effective in times of environmental and health crises? We address these questions through literature review and three case studies that review policies and practices for the transformation of city ecosystems mostly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: (a) the central business district, (b) the transport ecosystem, and (c) the tourism–hospitality ecosystem. We assess whether the measures implemented in these ecosystems shape new policy and planning models for higher readiness of cities towards grand challenges, and how, based on this experience, cities should be organized to tackle the grand challenge of environmental sustainability and climate change.

Environmental and economic impacts of rising sea levels: A case study in Kuwait's coastal zone

From an environmental and economic perspective, Kuwait's coastal zone is highly vulnerable to sea level rise (SLR). This paper aims to assess SLR's impact on Kuwait's coastal zone at both the local and national level. The economic and environmental assessments focused on inundation of land, the population at risk, residential sector losses, and affected infrastructure under four SLR scenarios (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 m sea rise). Several spatial datasets comprising a digital elevation model, satellite images, and land use map were processed using ArcGIS 10. In addition, the rate of beach erosion from SLR was calculated by applying the Bruun rule. The results revealed that the governorates expected to be the most severely impacted were Hawalli and Kuwait Capital, in terms of both the number of affected people and the residential sector's economic losses. Although the Ahmadi governorate would experience a lower risk of inundation, its coastal area is home to the oil industry, including refineries, harbors, and several power and desalination plants. On a national scale, applying the Bruun rule revealed that the beaches investigated would be eroded entirely by a 1 m increase in sea level. Furthermore, if sea levels rose from 0.5 m to 2 m, 1.4%–4.8% of Kuwait's coastal zone would be inundated, forcing 0.28%–1% of residents to abandon their homes, causing residential losses of $3,463 to $11,142 million. In the same scenarios, the transportation sector would suffer damage to around 1.5%–5% of its road network. The impact of SLR would also extend to the natural environment of Kuwait Bay and caused damage to its ecosystems. The predicted consequences of SLR would vary from one area to another based on natural barriers, shoreline type, coastal structures, and the type of urban development. Therefore, national and local governments' response should consider the long-term consequences of SLR and initiate a proactive adaptation strategy.

Planning the reorganization of territories with dilapidated housing stock for social infrastructure: case study of Perm, Russia

Multi-storey residential development is rapidly developing in Russian cities, both point-by-point, through the consolidation of existing buildings, and through the organization of new residential neighborhoods due to the integrated development of territories. Complex development of the territory involves the construction of not only residential buildings, but also objects of social and engineering infrastructure: kindergartens, schools, shops, sports facilities, parking lots, landscaping of yard spaces with the use of landscape architecture objects. At the same time, the architectural appearance of the development area is being worked out, and a favorable ecological and aesthetically attractive urban environment is being created [1]. However, the presence of old dilapidated buildings causes a number of problems that require a comprehensive analysis, covering the economic, social, regulatory and legal aspects to solve them. The article deals with the problems of placing social infrastructure objects in different types of urban development. It is proposed to use the territory with a dilapidated housing stock for the development of social infrastructure. Its expediency is justified.

Does removal of federal subsidies discourage urban development? An evaluation of the US Coastal Barrier Resources Act.

Urban development relies on many factors to remain viable, including infrastructure, services, and government provisions and subsidies. However, in situations involving federal or state level policy, development responds not just to one regulatory signal, but also to multiple signals from overlapping and competing jurisdictions. The 1982 U.S. Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CoBRA) offers an opportunity to study when and how development restrictions and economic disincentives protect natural resources by stopping or slowing urban development in management regimes with distributed authority and responsibility. CoBRA prohibits federal financial assistance for infrastructure, post-storm disaster relief, and flood insurance in designated sections (CoBRA units) of coastal barriers. How has CoBRA’s removal of these subsidies affected rates and types of urban development? Using building footprint and real estate data (n = 1,385,552 parcels), we compare density of built structures, land use types, residential house size, and land values within and outside of CoBRA units in eight Southeast and Gulf Coast states. We show that CoBRA is associated with reduced development rates in designated coastal barriers. We also demonstrate how local responses may counteract withdrawal of federal subsidies. As attention increases towards improving urban resilience in high hazard areas, this work contributes to understanding how limitations on infrastructure and insurance subsidies can affect outcomes where overlapping jurisdictions have competing goals.

Legal Mechanisms of Ensuring Environmental Rights in the Implementation of Urban Planning: Theoretical and Practical Aspects

Adoption of environmentally unreasonable urban planning decisions leads to significant environmental problems in certain territories causing massive violations of the right of citizens to favorable environment as a result of deterioration of environment or certain natural objects. The author has investigated the legal mechanisms of ensuring environmental rights in the implementation of urban planning activities in the context of their effectiveness. The paper has demonstrated the connection between town-planning and relations regulated under environmental law, analyzed objective and subjective environmental factors of town-planning, elucidated the necessity of taking into account ecological factors at the stage of territorial planning, determined the place and importance of urban planning activities in the mechanism of ensuring environmental rights of the man and citizen.The author has examined constitutional foundations of ensuring environmental human rights in the implementation of urban planning activities, implementation of human rights in the principles of urban planning legislation. The author has determined an environmental component of the legal regulation of urban planning, the correlation between such basic concepts of town-planning and environmental legislation as “the right of citizens to a favorable environment,” “favorable conditions of life,” “sustainable development of territories.” The paper has also analyzed legal mechanisms enshrined in the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation for the consideration of environmental factors and requirements in the process of territorial planning as a fundamental type of urban development at the stage of substantiation and preparation of draft documents of territorial planning of public entities of the Russian Federation and at the stage of coordination of projects between bodies of public administration and local self-government. The paper reveals a declarative and formal nature of the relevant procedures, substantiates the absence of effective legal mechanisms of taking into account environmental factors and requirements in the current town-planning legislation. The author suggests ways of improving the legal regulation of enforcement of environmental rights in the implementation of urban planning.

Biodiversity within the city: Effects of land sharing and land sparing urban development on avian diversity

Urbanization, one of the most extreme human-induced environmental changes, is negatively affecting biodiversity worldwide, strongly suggesting that we should reconcile urban development with conservation. Urbanization can follow two extreme types of development within a continuum: land sharing (buildings mixed with dispersed green space) or land sparing (buildings interspersed with green patches that concentrate biodiversity-supporting vegetation). Recent local-scale studies indicate that biodiversity is typically favored by land sparing. We investigated which of these two types of urbanization is associated with a higher taxonomic (i.e. species richness), functional, and phylogenetic diversity of birds. To do so, we collected information on breeding and wintering bird assemblages in 45 land-sharing and 45 land-sparing areas in nine European cities, which provide the first attempt to explore this question using a large geographical scale and temporal replication. We found that land-sharing urban areas were significantly associated with a higher taxonomic and functional diversity of birds during winter, but not during the breeding season (with only a marginally significant effect for functional diversity). We found no association between the type of urban development and phylogenetic diversity. Our findings indicate that not all components of avian diversity are similarly affected by these two means of urban planning and highlight the importance of integrating the temporal perspective into this kind of studies. Our results also offer useful information to the current debate about the trade-off between biodiversity conservation and human well-being in the context of land sharing and sparing urban practices. In addition, we found that certain small-scale urban landscape characteristics (i.e. few impervious surfaces, high water or tree cover) and human practices (i.e. bird feeders or plants with berries) can help maintaining more diverse urban bird assemblages. We provide specific suggestions for both policymakers and citizens that hopefully will help to create more biodiversity-friendly cities in the future.