Urban Atlas Research Articles

Climate Services to Support Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: The CLARITY Project and the Napoli Case Study

Climate services are emerging worldwide as an essential tool to bridge the advancement in climate science and meteo/earth observations with a variety of operational fields in the domains of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). It is multidisciplinary study area with promising applications in the field of urban microclimate simulations, supporting climate-resilient redevelopment actions at both the city and neighborhood levels. The CLARITY CSIS (Climate Services Information System, available at https://csis.myclimateservice.eu/), developed within the H2020 CLARITY project, is an innovative hazard/impact modeling tool that takes into account short- to long-term climate change scenarios and urban microclimate variability. Disaster risks associated with climate change, such as heat waves and floods, are concentrated in limited periods of the year and therefore not adequately represented by annually averaged values. To this aim, new datasets have been extracted from Regional Climate Models to estimate the frequency of extreme temperatures and precipitation events until 2100, and a novel modeling methodology has been developed to capture the effect on the urban microclimate due to specific built environment features. The wide amount of data generated by satellite earth observations and made available at pan-European level through the Copernicus datasets (e.g., Urban Atlas, European Settlement Map, etc.) has been processed through specific algorithms and GIS spatial analysis tools to extract detailed information related to key parameters linked to urban morphology and surface types. In addition to the “screening service” available at the pan-European level through the CLARITY CSIS, an “expert service” workflow allows increasing the resolution of hazard and impact simulations at 250 m, by exploiting detailed land use datasets provided by local end-users and assessing the DRR/CCA potential of city-wide adaptation plans, as well as of specific district redevelopment projects. This paper will present the features of CLARITY CSIS and the results of Expert Services implemented for the City of Naples, focusing on the methods adopted to implement hazard/impact assessments and how information from climate services is tailored to support the integration of different DRR/CCA strategies within urban plans and projects.

Polycentric vs monocentric urban structure contribution to national development

The debate about polycentricity and subordinacy has always been a critical topic that planners, economists, and socialists argued about for centuries. The idea of concentricity vs decentralization has affected all life metabolic activities. Urban structure has always been declared to be the key factor that affects life metabolism significantly. However, after the pandemic COVID-19, the planning strategies have changed dramatically. The main purpose is to investigate the most appropriate urbanization approach that achieves the best development results. The research methodology is to define and measure the fabric independency as an approach to estimate its self-sufficiency that enables it to stand in front of the pandemic challenges at different circumstances. The paper uses the fabric diversity index as a sensitive indicator of independency and polycentricity of the urban structure. The main conclusion for this paper is that independent polycentric urban agglomerations that are strongly linked achieve much better development results than subordinate cities depending on the main core city. The data used for the analysis are extracted from the Urban Atlas developed by the European Environmental Agency in addition to the UN-Habitat annual report. All calculations, analyses, and deductions are exclusively carried by the author.

Revisiting the ‘southern mood’? Post-crisis Mediterranean urbanities between economic downturns and land-use change

Economic downturns have shaped the intrinsic mechanisms underlying urban expansion worldwide. Despite strength and pervasiveness of recent recessions, empirical results documenting the aggregate effect of economic downturns on urbanization and land-use change in Southern Europe are rather scarce. By considering a sequence of expansion and recession waves in Greece, our study verifies if land-use change differed in entity and spatial direction at two time intervals (2006–2012, 2012–2018) in the Athens’ metropolitan region. Different processes of urban transformation and landscape change were detected analysing Urban Atlas (1:10,000) change maps. The framework proposed in this study integrates a classical approach of landscape ecology grounded on the analysis of land-use metrics with a broader perspective linking regional science to spatial planning. To discriminate morphological from functional urbanization traits typical of expansions and recessions, our study performs a comparative analysis of seven trajectories of land-use change. Results identify a moderate expansion of residential settlements during 2006–2012, and a more evident growth of industrial settlements during 2012–2018. A significant increase in the number and size of forest patches converted to urban use was observed with recession, highlighting the increased vulnerability of relict natural sites with low economic value and high ecological potential. Crisis dynamics have stimulated an intensive use of fringe spaces for small residential settlements. By exalting local-scale specificities toward settlement densification and extensification on both greenfields and brownfields, economic downturns in metropolitan regions made land-use changes largely dependent on the background socioeconomic local context.

Roles of the physical environment in health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

RationaleMany clinical and psychological factors are known to influence the health-related quality of life (HRQL) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, research on whether environmental factors, such as air pollution, noise, temperature, and blue/green spaces also influence HRQL in COPD has not been systematically investigated. ObjectiveTo assess the relationship between air pollution, road traffic noise, temperature, and distance to blue/green spaces and respiratory-specific HRQL in COPD. MethodsWe used cross-sectional data from a multicenter study in 407 stable mild-to-very severe COPD patients from Barcelona (Catalonia). Patients answered the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ). Individual residential exposure to air pollutants (nitrogen dioxide [NO2] and particulate matters of varying aerodynamic diameters [PM2.5, PM10, and PM2.5absorbance]), road traffic noise (Lden), and land surface temperature were estimated using long-term averages from land-use regression models, 24-h noise maps, and land surface temperature maps, respectively. We measured residential distances to blue/green spaces from the Urban Atlas. We used mixed-effect negative binomial (for CAT) and linear (for CCQ) regression models, adjusted for potential confounders, with a random effect by center. ResultsOf those patients, 85 % were male and had a mean (SD) age of 69 (9) years, CAT score of 12 (7), CCQ-total score of 1.4 (1.0), and post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) of 57 (18) %predicted. We found that NO2 and PM2.5absorbance were associated with worsened CAT and CCQ-mental scores, e.g., 0.15-unit change in CAT score [regression coefficient (β) = 0.15; 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 0.03, 0.26] per interquartile range in NO2 [13.7 μg/m3]. Greater distances to blue/green spaces were associated with worsened CCQ-mental scores [0.08; 0.002, 0.15]. ConclusionsOur study showed that increased air pollution, particularly NO2 and PM2.5absorbance and greater distances to blue/green spaces negatively influence HRQL in COPD patients. These findings have important implications for the WHO promotion to develop healthy cities for our future.

Fractal dimension of European Cities: A comparison of the patterns of built-up areas in the urban core and the peri-urban ring

This study compares the urban form of large European cities using fractal dimensions. Fractal dimensions are computed for built-up areas using data available in the Imperviousness High Resolution Layer dataset (EEA, 2012), and are estimated following two different methodologies; the binary approach which considers only two classes, developed land and non-developed land and the grayscale approach in which the built-up intensity, as expressed by the soil sealing degree is explicitly taken into account. Fractal dimensions are estimated for the 60 European cities with population exceeding one million. Using the boundaries defined in Urban Atlas the functional urban Area (FUA) is divided in two parts, the core of the urban area and the peri-urban ring area. Fractal dimensions are computed for each of these three spatial entities. Results show that the grayscale fractal dimension values at the FUA level are 1.18-1.55 and that the equivalent binary ones are always higher with values between 1.34 and 1.83. There is a high correlation between the two sets of fractal dimensions, as well as between the fractal dimension and the overall percentage of built-up area. Cities are also compared across regions (UK-Ireland, Scandinavia, Central, South, East). Significantly higher fractal values at the FUA level are reported in the cities located on the highly urbanized European corridor spanning from South UK to the Netherlands, Belgium, the Ruhr region and Northern Italy, while East European and Scandinavian cities form a distinct group with lower fractal dimension values. Another group of cities with high FUA fractal dimensions includes the coastal South European cities Porto, Lisbon, Naples and Barcelona. At the CΟRE urban areas, the highest fractal values are observed in the largest cities (London, Paris, Berlin) which are compactly built-up.

Creating а Digital Atlas for Heritage Cities and Towns Along the Danube

The traditional meaning of an atlas has changed recently, with the prompt rise of digitalisation. This process has also opened new perspectives to collect and present atlas data; the interconnection of the huge quantities of the different data sets, including the new types of data and introducing atlases with new topics as an innovation. The essential meaning of an atlas has been, however, preserved even in its digitalised version – to present spatially related phenomena and items thorough their mapping. The aim of this paper is to discuss about the structure of a digital urban atlas on the example of the creation a new one – the digital atlas of heritage cities and towns along the Danube, one of the main deliverables of DANUrB+ INTERREG Project. This atlas, planned in both hardcopy and digital versions, is still in progress; hence, the main contribution of the paper is to show the expected structure of the digital DANUrB+ Atlas by comparing the project inputs with several already existing digital urban atlases as role-models.

Urban heat island modelling based on MUKLIMO: examples from Slovakia

Abstract. Cities are generally expected to experience higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The aim of this paper is to document identification and delimitation of land cover/land use (LC/LU) classes based on Urban Atlas data in three cities in Slovakia: the capital Bratislava and two regional centres, Trnava and Žilina, in the years 1998–2016 and their effect on the temperature change. The concept of Local Climate Zones (replaced by LC/LU classes in this study) was used as an input for the UHI modelling by application of the Mikroskaliges Urbanes KLIma MOdell (MUKLIMO). The model MUKLIMO was validated by data taken in five stations in Bratislava, two in Trnava, and one in Žilina, while a good rate of agreement between the modelled and measured data was statistically proved. A single representative day (August 22, 2018) was chosen for which UHI was modelled with three inputs of LC/LU classes: situation in 1998, 2007, and 2016 to assess the effect of change of LC/LU classes on the distribution of temperatures. The spatial manifestation of UHI was assessed in the frame of LC/LU classes for 2016 at 21:00 of Central European Summer Time (CEST). The results indicate that UHI intensity trends are spatially correlated with LC/LU classes and their change pattern. Results of Bratislava show, regarding the size of the city and relief dissection, greater variability than smaller Trnava situated in flat terrain and Žilina situated in the river valley surrounded by the mountain ranges.

Comparing different data sources by examining the associations between surrounding greenspace and children's weight status

BackgroundStudies on the association between surrounding greenspace and being overweight in childhood show inconsistent results, possibly because they differ widely in their definition and measurement of surrounding greenspace. Our aim was to evaluate whether the association of greenspace with being overweight depends on the measurement of greenspace in different data sources.MethodsBased on data from the school entry examinations of 22,678 children in the city of Hannover, Germany, from 2010 to 14, the association between greenspace availability and overweight was examined. Three different sources of greenspace availability were derived for a set of 51 areas of the city: The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the OpenStreetMap (OSM) dataset, and the European Urban Atlas (UA) dataset. Agreement between the indicators on the quantity of greenspace coverage was compared. The association with children's BMI z-score, including potential interaction terms, was assessed using multilevel regression analysis.ResultsGreenspace availability per district area derived by NDVI was on average 42%, by OSM 29% and UA 22%, with OSM and UA being strongly correlated. Only the greenspace availability derived by NDVI showed an association with children's BMI z-score: The higher the greenspace availability was, the lower the BMI. The trend of association was higher for boys and migrant children than for girls and non-migrants and was restricted to the highest levels of greenspace availability.ConclusionsAssociations of greenspace with children's weight status depend on the greenspace measurement chosen. Surrounding greenspace was measured more comprehensively by NDVI. Data sources based on land use categories such as UA and OSM may be less suitable to reflect surrounding greenspace relevant for health outcomes. Potential mechanisms warrant further analysis and investigation.

Biases in morphological landscape features: challenges for environmental purposes in GIScience and related fields

During the last two decades, a wide range of geographical tools including the calculation of landscape metrics were transposed to ecological studies to build models for land-use dynamics. Currently, few studies have evaluated the biases which can occur during the rasterization step which could influence the results. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of dataset rasterization on area and perimeter variables, which are frequently used to calculate landscape indices, according to (i) the rasterization cell size and (ii) the shape of geographic features. The Urban Atlas 2006 dataset focused on Bas-Rhin department (France) was used as a vector reference layer. Rasterization was performed for various cell sizes to evaluate the influence of spatial resolution on the errors injected into shape descriptors. Five morphological metrics were calculated for all geographic features. For the first time, a UMAP algorithm was performed to relate the rasterization relative errors at all spatial resolutions with morphological attributes. Results showed that low values of area errors were obtained for cell sizes lower than 5 m ( 10%) with an overestimation tendency. For cell sizes greater to 10 m, overestimations and underestimations were occurring according to the shape of geographic features. This study showed that sensitivity analyses must be performed before any study carried out on landscape changes estimation to define the best raster cell size as function to the morphological attributes of the geographic features, the predefined error threshold.

Landsenses ecology approach for comprehensive assessment of cultural ecosystem services: preferences of students at Ankara University of Turkey

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate and spatially represent university students’ perception of cultural ecosystem services in the urban public space of Ankara, Turkey in relation to the ‘landsenses ecology’ framework. A questionnaire survey was administered to randomly selected students studying landscape architecture at Ankara University via the Google Forms electronic survey. For mapping, the Urban Atlas Project 2018 data were used to show the connection between CES and the land-use types. A hot-spot map was created for spatial assessment of CES using Kernel density estimation. Within the study area, the students marked 87 favourite places. The city centre (Kızılay) was marked as the most significant place to visit by the students. Yet, the majority (63%) of the participants marked an urban green space as their favourite place. Spending time with family and friends was the most selected activity in the rankings with a mean score of 4.90 (SD = 4.10). The hot-spot map indicated that grey infrastructure areas generate CES values as well. Within the perspective of landsenses ecology – where psychological and cultural perception is emphasized – understanding and identifying these values and their specific localizations can be useful in urban landscape management, especially to encourage young people’s involvement in daily urban space.

Geographical stratification of urban green areas in European cities

Abstract This article studies the provision of urban green areas in cities where residents have preferences for the size of and access to those areas. At the optimum, the number of urban green spaces is a nonmonotone function of distance to the city center, while the sizes and distances to other urban green areas increase as one moves to the urban fringe. This article empirically investigates those properties for the 300 largest European cities by using the Global Monitoring Environment Services Urban Atlas database (European Environmental Agency). The empirical analysis confirms the nonmonotone relationship between the number of urban green spaces and the distance to the city center. The distance between two parks also increases as one moves toward the urban fringe.

Introducing Transversal Connectivity Index (TCI) as a method to evaluate the effectiveness of the blue-green infrastructure at metropolitan scale

This study introduces the Transversal Connectivity Index (TCI) as an ecological indicator for classifying the natural landscape patches by their effective transversal connectivity to the water surfaces. The method applies specifically to urban areas at which the quality of blue-green infrastructure (BGI) is of fundamental importance in reducing the climate change consequences. Effective transversal connectivity among the BGI at the metropolitan scale supplies various ecosystem services in support of nature-based solutions for emerging urban challenges. The TCI value is computed (determined) by integrating a variety of existing and novel landscape indicators into an equation. The connectivity indicators belong to two categories: the intra-patch consists of the isoperimetric quotient, and patch ecological indicator, and the inter-patch ones listed as the band level, the shared border ratio, and the transport fragmentation buffer. The method is tested on the metropolitan zone of Berlin, and the results reveal unconventional findings of the effectiveness of BGI in urbanized landscapes. Despite the abundant green surfaces present in Berlin, only 50% of them have direct access to freshwater surfaces, based on Urban Atlas land use land cover data. The proposed indexing method is reproducible for other metropolitan areas, leading to comparative evaluation of effective BGI, having direct implications with emerging agendas of metropolitan management and policy making like the City Biodiversity Index, the concept of Sponge City, and Sustainable Development Goals.

The Urban Mask Layer as Reference Geometry for Spatial Planning: Moving from German to European Geodata

In view of rising urbanisation around the world, it is vital to improve the analysis and evaluation of spatial settlement structures in order to ensure the sustainable design of associated transformation processes. Geodata and the maps derived from urban datasets can contribute significantly to understanding the characteristics of settlement structures. In this context, urban areas with a concentration of settlement elements form an important reference geometry. In Germany, such an urban mask is termed Ortslage and is included as an object type in the official topographical basic geodata (ATKIS). It would be useful to have a similar urban mask at European level, especially as a layer of the Urban Atlas within the framework of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. Here we present a GIS-supported algorithm to generate such a layer from Urban Atlas data. The method is demonstrated on 30 European cities showing a wide range of urban structures. Further, we compare the physical shape of the Ortslage with the urban mask, here illustrated by the city of Leipzig, Germany. As a basic example of the planning relevance of this method, we consider and discuss the metric shape complexity of the urban space for the cartographic comparison of cities. Furthermore, we address the question of a mixed automated-manual technology in the delineation of the urban mask. The regular updating of the Urban Atlas data within the framework of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service opens up the possibility of integrating analyses based on the urban masks into the European Spatial Observation.

Residing in urban areas with higher green space is associated with lower mortality risk: A census-based cohort study with ten years of follow-up

BackgroundEpidemiological studies suggest that residing close to green space reduce mortality rates. We investigated the relationship between long-term exposure to residential green space and non-accidental and cardio-respiratory mortality. MethodsWe linked the Belgian 2001 census to population and mortality register follow-up data (2001–2011) among adults aged 30 years and older residing in the five largest urban areas in Belgium (n = 2,185,170 and mean follow-up time 9.4 years). Residential addresses were available at baseline. Exposure to green space was defined as 1) surrounding greenness (2006) [normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and modified soil-adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI2)] within buffers of 300 m, 500 m, and 1000 m; 2) surrounding green space (2006) [Urban Atlas (UA) and CORINE Land Cover (CLC)] within buffers of 300 m, 500 m, and 1000 m; and 3) perceived neighborhood green space (2001). Cox proportional hazards models with age as the underlying time scale were used to probe into cause-specific mortality (non-accidental, respiratory, COPD, cardiovascular, ischemic heart disease (IHD), and cerebrovascular). Models were adjusted for several sociodemographic variables (age, sex, marital status, country of birth, education level, employment status, and area mean income). We further adjusted our main models for annual mean (2010) values of ambient air pollution (PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and BC, one at a time), and we additionally explored potential mediation with the aforementioned pollutants. ResultsHigher degrees of residential green space were associated with lower rates of non-accidental and respiratory mortality. In fully adjusted models, hazard ratios (HR) per interquartile range (IQR) increase in NDVI 500 m buffer (IQR: 0.24) and UA 500 m buffer (IQR: 0.31) were 0.97 (95%CI 0.96–0.98) and 0.99 (95%CI 0.98–0.99) for non-accidental mortality, and 0.95 (95%CI 0.93–0.98) and 0.97 (95%CI 0.96–0.99) for respiratory mortality. For perceived neighborhood green space, HRs were 0.93 (95%CI 0.92–0.94) and 0.94 (95%CI 0.91–0.98) for non-accidental and respiratory mortality, respectively. The observed lower mortality risks associated with residential exposure to green space were largely independent from exposure to ambient air pollutants. ConclusionWe observed evidence for lower mortality risk in associations with long-term residential exposure to green space in most but not all studied causes of death in a large representative cohort for the five largest urban areas in Belgium. These findings support the importance of the availability of residential green space in urban areas.

National Level Land-Use Changes in Functional Urban Areas in Poland, Slovakia, and Czechia

Land-use and cover change (LUCC) impacts global environmental changes. Therefore, it is crucial to obtain cross-national level LUCC data that represents past and actual LUCC. As urban areas exhibit the most significant dynamics of the changes, accompanied by such processes as urban sprawl, it seems desirable to take into account LUCC information from such areas to acquire national level information. The paper analyses land-use changes (LUCs) in urban areas in Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia. The analysis is based on functional urban area (FUA) data from the European Urban Atlas project for 2006 and 2012. The area of urbanised land grew at the expense of agricultural areas, semi-natural areas, and wetlands over the investigated period in all three countries. The authors determined LUC direction models in urban areas based on the identified land-use change. The proposed LUC direction models for the investigated period and area should offer national level LUC data for such purposes as modelling of future changes or can be the point of reference for planning analyses. The paper proposes the following models: mean model, median model, weighted mean model where the weight is the urbanised to vegetated area ratio, and weighted mean model where the weight is the share of urbanised areas. According to the proposed LUC models, areas considered as urbanised grow in FUAs on average in six years by 5.5900‰ in Czechia, 7.5936‰ in Poland, and 4.0769‰ in Slovakia. Additionally, the change models facilitated determination of a LUC dynamics ratio in each country. It reached the highest values in Poland and the lowest in Slovakia.

Urban expansion of the largest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the period 2000-2018

The paper analyses the databases Urban Atlas (UA), Imperviousness, and CORINE Land Cover (CLC) for the largest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The UA database contains information for five functional urban zones with more than 100,000 inhabitants: Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar, and Zenica. The Imperviousness database is related to the subclasses of the urban atlas because the impermeability percentage has been used for a more detailed classification within the discontinuous urban area. The CLC database provides insight into the intensity of expansion of these cities during three six-year periods: 2000-2006, 2006-2012, and 2012-2018. The research has been used to analyse the expansion of urban zones, the structure, and form of cities, and the impact of urban expansion on the surrounding area. The results of the research show that, despite the negative demographic trends, there is a trend of urban expansion in B&H, mainly over the agricultural land. According to the CLC database in the period 2000-2018, artificial areas increased in spatial coverage from 1.35% to 1.7%, and urban fabric from 0.99% to 1.27%. The Imperviousness database shows that in 2018sealed areas covered 1.59% and built-up areas 0.8% of the territory of B&H. The 2013 census showed that the number of inhabitants in all five functional urban areas decreased compared to 1991, but despite that fact, the expansion of urban zones continues with a weaker or stronger intensity. So far, there has been no research on urban development based on the high-resolution layers UA and Imperviousness database in B&H, so that such research is the most significant contribution of this article.

Testing the limitations of buffer zones and Urban atlas population data in urban green space provision analyses through the case study of Szeged, Hungary

A liveable city requires urban green spaces (UGS) in many locations, since such spaces have a direct impact on the quality of life and overall well-being of city dwellers. UGS provision analyses therefore have been attracting a number of researchers, practitioners and decision makers for recent years using various methodologies. In this study, we conduct reference UGS provision analysis using accurate input data, calculating the population with access to a UGS within fifteen minutes of walking, with a one-minute resolution. These results are employed as reference for quantifying the spatial accuracy of buffer zone-based isochrone maps and the overall (thematic and scale) accuracy of the European Environmental Agency’s Urban Atlas population database in UGS provision estimation. The estimated differences between the Urban Atlas and the reference data in UGS provision assessment are 11.8 % (6861 people) within 10 min and 11.8 % (7050 people) within 15 min of walking. The difference between estimates from buffer zone-based isochrone maps and the reference is 2.1 % (1479 people) within 10 min and 0.1 % (77 people) within 15 min of walking. Further statistical analyses reveal that the spatial accuracy (correlation coefficient with reference = 0.7878) of the buffer zone-based map’s impact on the result of UGS provision estimation is more than the overall accuracy of the Urban Atlas’ population database (correlation coefficient with reference = 0.9798). These results may potentially enhance the knowledge about the limitations, usefulness and reliability of the buffer zone-based isochrone maps and the European-scale land cover and population dataset in spatial analyses of UGS provision. The results of this study can be used for improving the accuracy of buffer zone- and Urban Atlas-based UGS provision mapping estimates at local and regional scales.

Urban Green Spaces—An Underestimated Resource in Third-Tier Towns in Poland

Urban green spaces are frequently presented as being important for urban quality of life and urban development in general, but more detailed interpretations and discussions are typically confined to large urban centers, the so-called first- and second-tier cities. Not enough attention has been paid to smaller urban units, the third-tier towns. The main goal of this article is to investigate the share and types of urban green spaces in five selected towns in Poland. We compare different sources of data based on satellite imagery and land-use maps with those used in public statistics, to check whether town authorities are managing all potential green spaces or only a selected part of them. We find that the predominantly used data, based on what is classified as “urban green space” for the purposes of public statistics, obscure the complexity of urban green spaces and focus on the narrowly understood formally managed public green spaces (which occupy 3.5–5.7% of town areas). Meanwhile, based on other sources, such as the national land-use map (BDOT10k), Urban Atlas, and satellite imagery (Landsat 8), what is considered to be green space turns out to cover 50–80% of the town area. The latter large numbers are associated with the predominance of arable land, grasslands, and forests, overlooked in any green space management practices based on data and definitions adopted for the purposes of public statistics. The situation found in our five case study towns resembles that identified in larger cities in Poland, and it exhibits the inadequacy of public statistics definitions and the related management practices, hindering the management of urban green spaces as an interconnected system of urban green infrastructures.

Living near greener spaces is associated with lower risk of diabetes-related mortality in Brussels, Belgium: a 13-year mortality follow-up study

Background/Aim: Living in greener areas has been related to a lower risk of diabetes disease, but few studies have explored its association with diabetes-related mortality. This study examined the relationship between objective and subjective indicators of residential urban green spaces (UGS) and diabetes-related mortality in Brussels.Methods: We used data from the 2001 Belgian census linked to migration and mortality register data during 2001-2014. We included objective indicators of UGS within 300m buffers from the residential address (surrounding greenness -NDVI-; surrounding green spaces -Urban Atlas-) and an area-level subjective indicator of perceived neighbourhood greenness. We considered the full causal chain of events leading to death, i.e. we included deaths from diabetes as both the original cause of death and as any cause of death (immediate, intermediate, original or additional). Cox proportional hazards models were conducted to obtain hazard ratios (HR) for diabetes-related mortality. Models were adjusted for age, gender, migrant background, education, housing tenure, PM2.5, night noise levels and area-level socioeconomic status (percentage of unemployed). Effect modification by gender, education and migrant background was assessed.Results: We included 734,806 individuals aged 16-80 in 2001. We observed 1,318 (1.5%) deaths from diabetes as the original cause and 5,268 (6.1%) deaths from diabetes as any cause. IQR increases of both surrounding and perceived neighbourhood greenness were inversely associated with diabetes-related mortality. Associations were stronger for diabetes as the original cause of death (e.g. with surrounding greenness: aHR:0.83, 95%CI:0.74-0.93). No associations were found for surrounding green spaces after adjusting by area-level SES. We observed a significant interaction between perceived neighbourhood greenness and gender with diabetes-related mortality: beneficial associations were stronger among women (for diabetes as original cause of death: aHR:0.80, 95%CI:0.69-0.94).Conclusions: Our findings suggest that living near UGS in Brussels might reduce diabetes-related mortality risk. The perception of neighbourhood greenness might be crucial among women.

Estimation of the NO2 population exposure in the Northern Harbour district of Malta

This study presents an estimate of the total NO2 exposure in a polluted and densely populated region in Malta, the Northern Harbour district. To estimate the population mobility, we follow a dynamic approach whereby four microenvironments are mapped onto defined Copernicus Urban Atlas 2012 land use classifications. These include the home (ME_home), work (ME_work), traffic (ME_traffic), and other outdoor activities (ME_other) microenvironments. In addition, generic time-activity profiles are used to estimate the hourly mobility in the different microenvironments depending on weekday or weekend profiles. Measured hourly NO2 ambient concentrations from the air quality network run by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) are used in conjunction with the estimated time-activity profiles to calculate the total exposure.The highest NO2 population exposure is estimated for ME_home (71%) as people spend the majority of the time in this microenvironment followed by ME_other (15%), ME_work (10%) and ME_traffic (4%), respectively. In addition, we test the sensitivity of the total NO2 exposure to changes in NO2 concentrations for different microenvironments. The total NO2 exposure using infiltration rates to estimate infiltrated outdoor NO2 concentrations in indoor microenvironments, is up to 25% lower compared to the NO2 exposure estimated using outdoor NO2 concentrations for all microenvironments. Results also suggest a decrease of 3% in the estimated NO2 exposure if a static population is assumed for each microenvironment as opposed to a dynamic one. Exposure assessments such as that presented in this study are essential to aid the development of targeted policies to limit such exposures.