Urban Demography Research Articles

Not population density, but city size and per capita income influence the urban forest carbon sequestration: A case of growing cities in Arkansas, USA

While urban trees provides significant ecosystem services, the impact of increasing urbanization and population on their carbon sequestration potential remains relatively underexplored in interior sprawling cities, highlighting a critical research gap amid growing urban environmental challenges. Although existing studies suggest a strongly correlation between urban forest cover and carbon sequestration, this study aims to investigate how the urban demography factors influence land cover and carbon sequestration across cities with low, medium, and high population densities. Using the i-Tree Canopy tool, we sampled 18,814 random points to estimate city land cover and carbon sequestration in Arkansas, interior state of the US. Results from the principal component analysis revealed that 74% of the variation in a city's land cover among population density classes is attributed to tree and soil cover percentages. The mean annual (1.40 ± 0.08 T ha-1) and total carbon sequestration rates (35.30 ± 5.57 T ha-1) were significantly higher in the areas with low population density due to a higher average tree cover percentage (46%). Carbon sequestration rate was negatively associated with land cover types such as impervious surfaces like buildings (r = -0.44), roads (r = -0.28), grass cover (r = -0.46), and impervious other (r = -0.53). The log-linear model with scaled variables suggested that factors such as city's size and tree cover has positive influence urban trees' annual and total carbon sequestration, while spatial distribution and per capita income negatively affect these ecosystem befits in growing cities, regardless of population density. Travel time within city may have negative impact, while decadal population change may positively impact on carbon sequestration alongside management effort. Valuing this potential urban forest carbon sequestration for emerging carbon market could provide monetary benefits to the urban communities, city managers, and policymakers, enabling the development of effective urban forest management strategies in the context of urban climate change.

An assessment of the consumption and disposal of medications home use

In the current scenario, the market society, an economic model consolidated in many parts of the world, faces some social and environmental challenges, such as the solid waste disposal and treatment of different residues generated daily, especially in big cities. In Brazil, 4,540 municipalities provided medical waste collection services, and more than a third (36.2%) sent the MS to landfills, dumps, and septic ditches. This issue faced by municipalities is challenging as they try to promote less damaging management that impacts the environment due to urban demography and fragile socio-environmental conditions. Action as reverse logistics is a strategy that enables the return of after-sales and post-consumption waste to the business environment and the productive sector, promoting the circular economy, the recovery of waste, the life cycle of products, decrease in the use of materials, reduction of environmental impacts, compliance with current regulations and non-contamination of the environment. The assessment of unusual medications and population knowledge allows drawing an overview of the disposal of uncommon medications for home use by an electronic questionnaire addressing different questions, referring to the identification of the user's profile, various forms of consumption, storage, and disposal of medication waste, and knowledge about the local regulation. Most medications consumed by the population are antibiotics, analgesics, fever reducers, and pain relief without medical recommendations, not used to seeing the expiration date, and not reading the drug leaflet. The assessment population could only pay a little for the additional tax for final medication waste disposal. Most of the participants disposed of the unusual medications in the household garbage. Finally, the reverse logistics implementation of medication waste in Brazil will be a significant challenge for decreasing the environmental impacts and pollution because of the culture of the local population.

The Influence of Operations Strategy, Innovation and it Readiness on Smart City Implementation in Serang City and its Impact on Public Organization Performance

Globalization and an increase in population have changed urban demography in various countries in the world, including Banten Province, especially in Serang City as the capital of Banten Province. One of the variables that can drive this performance increase is the implementation of smart cities which are considered as a solution to solving current urban problems. The research was conducted on 15 public apparatus organizations using a purposive sampling technique and using as many as 50 indicators to measure each latent variable. The method of analysis in this study uses descriptive index numbers and SEM PLS as inferential analysis. The results showed that 8 hypotheses were accepted while 2 hypotheses were rejected. The operational strategy has a significant effect on the implementation of smart cities and the performance of public organizations.

Random Forest Variable Importance Measures for Spatial Dynamics: Case Studies from Urban Demography

Population growth in urban centres and the intensification of segregation phenomena associated with international mobility require improved urban planning and decision-making. More effective planning in turn requires better analysis and geospatial modelling of residential locations, along with a deeper understanding of the factors that drive the spatial distribution of various migrant groups. This study examines the factors that influence the distribution of migrants at the local level and evaluates their importance using machine learning, specifically the variable importance measures produced by the random forest algorithm. It is conducted on high spatial resolution (100×100 grid cells) register data in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, using demographic, housing and neighbourhood attributes for 2018. The results distinguish the ethnic and demographic composition of a location as an important factor in the residential distribution of migrants in both cities. We also examine whether certain migrant groups pay higher prices in the most attractive areas, using spatial statistics and mapping for 2008 and 2018. We find evidence of segregation in both cities, with Western migrants having higher purchasing power than non-Western migrants in both years. The method sheds light on the determinants of migrant distribution in destination cities and advances our understanding of the application of geospatial artificial intelligence to urban dynamics and population movements.

Spillover effect of the oil palm boom on the growth of surrounding towns in the eastern Amazon

Although oil palm production has been suggested as a driver of development in some countries, this relationship has yet to be established in Brazilian territory. In Brazil, 90% of oil palm production is concentrated in the eastern Amazon, where socioenvironmental costs associated with medium and large agro industries have already been demonstrated. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the contribution of this production to the economic growth of surrounding towns and of how this activity influences nonagricultural sectors. This study investigated the spillover effects of the value of oil palm fruit bunch production in the largest Brazilian producing region, located in the northeast of the state of Pará, and analysed the impact on economic growth, demographics and the labour market from 2002 to 2017. The results of an econometric analysis of fixed effects panel including dummy variables with individual, temporal and two-way effects show a relation between the oil palm fruit bunch production value and nonagricultural sectors (e.g., service sectors). This may have contributed to the formal nonagricultural labour market, population growth and tax generation of the surrounding towns and industrial dynamization, mainly since 2010, coinciding with the period of incentive policies. However, the growth of the economy and urban demography was concentrated in one microregion (Tomé-Açu). We argue that oil palm agribusiness may play an important role in urban growth by providing economic improvement, increasing the value added to services, contributing to urbanization, and promoting intersectoral links. On the other hand, towns dependent on the production of a commodity may be susceptible to market fluctuations with an impact on their economic growth. For greater benefits, socioenvironmental externalities also need to be monitored and controlled.

“You Don’t Have A History”: Passion as the Counter-Narrative of Heritage, History, and Archives

This paper describes my lifelong journey as a historian, heritage activist and librarian-archivist focused on recovering and sharing the history of Quebec and Canada’s English-speaking Black communities. This paper yet again contends that this community faces silence and invisibility. I share personal and professional examples of how I became passionate about Black history and I reveal the real-life consequences of its erasure. From this context, I provide detail on how this passion fueled decades of research, storytelling, and the building of collections and historical and archival materials. Over three decades ago, I responded with groundbreaking books: Blacks in Montreal 1628-1986: An Urban Demography (1989), and The Road to Now: A History of Blacks in Montreal (1997). Since that time, I have written extensively on the need to reshape Canada’s narrative so that it may embrace the diversity we boast about. I share how my efforts to address our cultural ignorance have led to the recent creation of the ABC’s of Canadian Black History Kit. Finally, my article concludes with an underscoring of how that very passion was rooted in my life’s mission to counter my own invisibility in Canada’s narrative.

Correlation between Internet Literacy and Vocabulary Level

In-depth research on reading comprehension receives less attention in basic education, despite the fact that the problem is just as critical, if not more so, in this pandemic era. This study aims to learn the dynamics of reading comprehension to draw a conclusion on the phenomenon. Terry (2022) observed a strong connection between vocabulary and reading comprehension. However, meager studies have correlated two variables – Internet Literacy (IV) and Vocabulary Level (DV) – with combined implications for Reading Comprehension. With the globalization of online learning, urban demography's visibility was catered with 83 Senior High School students as respondents. The data revealed a low correlation. Generally, the high mean for online literacy and high mean in the performed evaluation showed the participants' awareness of how to use the digital side of learning and a decent vocabulary level. Null Hypothesis II was accepted in this research. Interestingly, this low correlation could be affected by the students' internal and external strategies, which created an impetus for their reading comprehension aside from digital utilization.

Redressing urban isolation: A multi-city case study in India

Urbanization has brought in expeditious changing world trends from dispersed rural settlements to denser urban centers. Higher frequent economic activities have attracted a large in-flow of job seekers, migrant laborers, and foreign investors to urban centers, furthering the complexity. Contrary to beliefs, urban demography has not brought people together; instead, it has created a new concern, Urban Isolation. The paper tries to explain issues related to urban isolation from examples of cities experiencing it. Results from a survey to determine factors leading to urban isolation for three major cities in India, namely, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Kochi, are also presented. The study includes sensitivity analysis using ANOVA for gender, age group, and household sizes. Factor analysis resulted in two prominent factors, “Sociability” and “Acceptability.” The paper provides probable solutions to counter the adverse effects of Urban Isolation. The findings from this study may be highly demographic-centric, catering to the Indian scenario.

Demographic Changes in the Cities of Lower Silesia in the Perspective of Sustainable Development

The article discusses and evaluates, against the background of selected issues in the theory of urban demography concerning sustainable development, changes in the number of inhabitants in Lower Silesian cities, and to indicate possible development paths for individual categories of cities. All Lower Silesian cities are the subject of the study. The research covered the period 2000-2020. The cities are categorised into small, medium, and large, and their specific characteristics are primarily related to their location. The article uses a descriptive method, simple statistical methods, comparative analysis, and an expert method. The latter proposed the division of cities into categories in terms of demographic changes and sustainable development paths for individual city categories. The results show that Lower Silesian cities (as a group) are ageing, regardless of their size, yet a detailed case study indicated a relatively large group of cities (mainly small) with a growing population and growth potential.

Migração : Reflexos de um Espelho

A dissertação de mestrado de Rodrigo Lefèvre, Projeto de acampamento de obras: uma utopia, oferece um modelo de produção de moradias para migrantes na periferia de São Paulo com base em colaborações enriquecedoras entre migrantes que constroem suas moradias e a assessoria técnica. Esta parceria, uma evolução das teorias anteriores sobre a eliminação de relações hierárquicas entre arquitetos e operários, lembra os princípios fundamentais que sustentam as colaborações anteriores de Lefèvre com Sérgio Ferro e Flávio Império no Grupo Arquitetura Nova. Em sua proposta de acampamento, essas interações tornam-se um mecanismo para equilibrar a transmissão cultural da herança deslegitimadora dos migrantes na perspectiva de um equilíbrio e de uma diversidade demográfica. Embora sugerida como uma utopia, essa proposta também pode ser entendida como uma heterotopia - um paradigma alternativo, mas plausível, para a construção de moradias para migrantes. Como uma heterotopia, a proposta de Lefèvre, assim como de outros textos publicados pelos membros da Arquitetura Nova, é ao mesmo tempo uma crítica às condições vigentes e uma aspiração de solução. E, como crítica e expectativa, o projeto de Lefèvre ilustra as importantes contribuições feitas pelos migrantes no desenvolvimento da sociedade e nos convida a avaliar e redescobrir nossa empatia por eles.

In the heart of the city: Trypanosoma cruzi infection prevalence in rodents across New Orleans

BackgroundTrypanosoma cruzi - the causative agent of Chagas disease - is known to circulate in commensal pests, but its occurrence in urban environments is not well understood. We addressed this deficit by determining the distribution and prevalence of T. cruzi infection in urban populations of commensal and wild rodents across New Orleans (Louisiana, USA). We assessed whether T. cruzi prevalence varies according to host species identity and species co-occurrences, and whether T. cruzi prevalence varies across mosaics of abandonment that shape urban rodent demography and assemblage structure in the city.MethodsLeveraging city-wide population and assemblage surveys, we tested 1428 rodents comprising 5 species (cotton rats, house mice, Norway rats, rice rats and roof rats) captured at 98 trapping sites in 11 study areas across New Orleans including nine residential neighborhoods and a natural area in Orleans Parish and a neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish. We also assayed Norway rats at one site in Baton Rouge (Louisiana, USA). We used chi-square tests to determine whether infection prevalence differed among host species, among study areas, and among trapping sites according to the number of host species present. We used generalized linear mixed models to identify predictors of T. cruzi infection for all rodents and each host species, respectively.ResultsWe detected T. cruzi in all host species in all study areas in New Orleans, but not in Baton Rouge. Though overall infection prevalence was 11%, it varied by study area and trapping site. There was no difference in prevalence by species, but roof rats exhibited the broadest geographical distribution of infection across the city. Infected rodents were trapped in densely populated neighborhoods like the French Quarter. Infection prevalence seasonally varied with abandonment, increasing with greater abandonment during the summer and declining with greater abandonment during the winter.ConclusionsOur findings illustrate that T. cruzi can be widespread in urban landscapes, suggesting that transmission and disease risk is greater than is currently recognized. Our findings also suggest that there is disproportionate risk of transmission in historically underserved communities, which could reinforce long-standing socioecological disparities in New Orleans and elsewhere.Graphical

Inhabitants of heritage: the dwellers of an Italian Renaissance palace and their problematic eviction in Ferrara, 1900–1940

AbstractThis article examines the eviction of tenants and squatters from a Renaissance palace in Ferrara, purchased by the Italian state in 1920. The case stands at the crossroads of three processes in European history between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the social and material ‘decadence’ of aristocratic residences, the birth of ‘national heritage’ and preservation policies and the explosion of the ‘housing problem’, following changes in urban demography and social structure. Considering a large range of sources, the article offers new insight into the conflict between different urban bureaucracies and inside them. It also explores the different forms of agency of working-class dwellers against the background of troubled post-war years followed by the advent of fascism.

Strategizing Public Sector Hospitals In Megacity Karachi: A Case Study On Gender Based Healthcare Facility Selection Criteria And Concerns (From Demand And Supply Perspective)

Karachi is the most populous city in Pakistan and it plays an important role in urban demography of Pakistan. It is growing rapidly, as every fifth urban citizen lives here. This urbanization creates serious challenges for all sectors of Karachi. Especially the health sector, from demand and supply view point is facing serious challenges in terms of non-availability of qualified doctors, specifically female doctors, medicines, latest equipment, poor infrastructure, and patient’s queues belonging to other rural areas because of the lack of quality healthcare facilities, makes the public hospitals crowded and overburdened. Like all over Pakistan, public sector hospitals are very much neglected in Karachi also and needs special consideration. The focus should be on developing patient oriented supply chains for efficient patient’s care and healthcare facilities. Moreover, the case study of Qatar hospital a part of our basic research study also highlighted the depriving condition for women patients’ in Emergency Department, because only male doctors are there but female doctors are not available. Although we observed that the gender wise daily patient flow was consist of 65% females, whereas only 35% male patients. The study suggests that there is an urgent need of women doctors and paramedics staff in the public sector hospitals of suburbs of Karachi. This paper presents a synoptic view of concerns of the residents of Karachi, and identification of their selection criteria of health care facilities. The study also aimed to provide solutions and recommendations for the improvement of these facilities. Cross sectional questionnaire and random sampling with two stage clusters sampling was used to record the responses of 1991 households, 46% respondents were female and 54% were male. Among the total of 11127 respondents, only 580, (5.2 %) sought treatment in public health hospitals and, 2440 (21.9 %) visited private hospitals. Research results shows that Cost is the only significant factor because of which people opt for treatment at public healthcare facility.

Strategizing Public Sector Hospitals In Megacity Karachi: A Case Study On Gender Based Healthcare Facility Selection Criteria And Concerns (From Demand And Supply Perspective)


 Karachi is the most populous city in Pakistan and it plays an important role in urban demography of Pakistan. It is growing rapidly, as every fifth urban citizen lives here. This urbanization creates serious challenges for all sectors of Karachi. Especially the health sector, from demand and supply view point is facing serious challenges in terms of non-availability of qualified doctors, specifically female doctors, medicines, latest equipment, poor infrastructure, and patient’s queues belonging to other rural areas because of the lack of quality healthcare facilities, makes the public hospitals crowded and overburdened. Like all over Pakistan, public sector hospitals are very much neglected in Karachi also and needs special consideration. The focus should be on developing patient oriented supply chains for efficient patient’s care and healthcare facilities. Moreover, the case study of Qatar hospital a part of our basic research study also highlighted the depriving condition for women patients’ in Emergency Department, because only male doctors are there but female doctors are not available. Although we observed that the gender wise daily patient flow was consist of 65% females, whereas only 35% male patients. The study suggests that there is an urgent need of women doctors and paramedics staff in the public sector hospitals of suburbs of Karachi. This paper presents a synoptic view of concerns of the residents of Karachi, and identification of their selection criteria of health care facilities. The study also aimed to provide solutions and recommendations for the improvement of these facilities. Cross sectional questionnaire and random sampling with two stage clusters sampling was used to record the responses of 1991 households, 46% respondents were female and 54% were male. Among the total of 11127 respondents, only 580, (5.2 %) sought treatment in public health hospitals and, 2440 (21.9 %) visited private hospitals. Research results shows that Cost is the only significant factor because of which people opt for treatment at public healthcare facility.

More Real Than Ideal: Household and Community Diversity at Metapontum, South Italy

Empirical studies of ancient cities must break down communities into their component parts, but frequently encounter difficulty with the scarcity of excavated domestic structures (e.g. Kramer 1982, 673). I introduce to the archaeological literature the entropy estimating statistical bootstrap (EESB), a tool developed in information theory and computational social science by DeDeo et al. (2013) which provides a way to assess how representative a small dataset is of a parent population, categorized according to some useful typology. This method can be used to decide when small datasets can add further detail to our quantitative studies of archaeological settlements or when they need to be rejected as too small. I then illustrate its uses within the context of urban demography by examining the distribution of house forms to calculate household characteristics specific to Metapontum, an ancient Greek city. Future applications will include building larger urban datasets that are empirically grounded in the specific evidence for each community, facilitating the work of research programs such as urban scaling.

The Embodied Impact of Immigrant Guest Workers on the Urban Demography of Dubai City

The Embodied Impact of Immigrant Guest Workers on the Urban Demography of Dubai City

A Reproducible Framework for Visualizing Demographic Distance Profiles in US Metropolitan Areas

Distance profiles have long been used in urban demography to explore how demographic characteristics of metropolitan areas vary by distance from their urban cores. Distance profile visualizations graphically illustrate these relationships and are useful in exploratory demographic data analysis of urban areas. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how to build distance profile visualizations reproducibly within R, a free and open-source programming language and data analysis environment. The approach to distance profile visualization in this article involves the graphical display of a smoothed relationship between the location quotient of a demographic group for a metropolitan Census tract and the distance between the tract centroid and its respective urban core. Data acquisition, analysis, and visualization are all handled in R. The tidycensus, sf, and ggplot2 R packages are featured in this framework. Distance profile visualizations for educational attainment are used as illustrative examples, and reveal how the geography of metropolitan educational attainment varies both over time and across different types of metropolitan areas.

Development of small Russian towns in the 19th–21st centuries: socioeconomic factors

This research is focused on small Russian towns and the socioeconomic aspects of their development in the 19th through 21st centuries. Several towns, including Mytischi, Yuzovka, Naro-Fominsk, Myshkin, etc., serve as examples employed to assess the practice of founding townships, to analyze the economic, social, cultural, and political conditions of their functioning, and to make projections for their future development. The methods, employed by this research project, consist in the look-back analysis of sources and the analysis of statistics, including the relevant urban demography. The main conclusion, made by the author, is the need for the revival of small Russian towns in the post-industrial era through their assumption of supplementary administrative functions against the background of continuing de-industrialization and the shutdown of the township-forming production facilities. The author believes that the conversion of small towns into tourist resort areas is a debatable practice. The author addresses this issue in the Discussion section of the article. He offers his pros and cons in respect of these actions. The academic novelty of the article consists in the provision of the novel data concerning the development of small towns as the urban districts of major megalopolises.

Water Resources and Management under Increasing Urban Demography: A Kenyan Perspective—A Review

The United Nations classifies Kenya as a water-scarce country since it has less than 1000 m3 per capita of renewable freshwater supplies. Numerous factors including global warming, contamination of drinking water, and a lack of investment in water resources have aggravated the water crisis in Kenya. Estimates indicate that only about 56% of its population has access to safe water supply. Like many developing countries, Kenya recognizes the crucial role of water in realizing its development goals. Its economic performance and poverty reduction are critically dependent on clean water availability for agriculture, industrialization, energy production and tourism among others. Similar to most developing countries, Kenya suffers from lack of human, monetary and institutional capabilities to efficiently provide clean and sufficient water to its citizens. The water shortage in the major cities is acute and chronic and has continued to worsen with increasing urbanization, water pollution and encroachment of water catchment areas by humans and invasive plant species. Despite the water challenges facing the urban populations, Kenya possesses sufficient water resources to meet demand if the available resources are properly managed. Several initiatives are being put in place in Kenya to mitigate the water challenges and protect water resources in Kenya. These include enacting of water policies to protect water catchment areas, reduce pollution and enhance access to clean water.

A Stochastic Approach to Estimate Distribution of Built-Up Area in Regions with Thick Tree Cover

Buildings and other human-made constructions have been accepted as an indicator of human habitation and are identified as built-up area. Identification of built-up area in a region and its subsequent measurement is a key step in many fields of studies like urban planning, environmental studies, and population demography. Remote sensing techniques utilising medium resolution images (e.g. LISS III, Landsat) are extensively used for the extraction of the built-up area as high-resolution images are expensive, and its processing is difficult. Extraction of built land use from medium resolution images poses a challenge in regions like Western-Ghats, North-East regions of India, and countries in tropical region, due to the thick evergreen tree cover. The spectral signature of individual houses with a small footprint are easily overpowered by the overlapping tree canopy in a medium resolution image when the buildings are not clustered. Kerala is a typical case for this scenario. The research presented here proposes a stochastic-dasymetric process to aid in the built-up area recognition process by taking Kerala as a case study. The method utilises a set of ancillary information to derive a probability surface. The ancillary information used here includes distance from road junctions, distance from road network, population density, built-up space visible in the LISS III image, the population of the region, and the household size. The methodology employs logistic regression and Monte Carlo simulation in two sub processes. The algorithm estimates the built-up area expected in the region and distributes the estimated built-up area among pixels according to the probability estimated from the ancillary information. The output of the algorithm has two components. The first component is an example scenario of the built-up area distribution. The second component is a probability surface, where the value of each pixel denotes the probability of that pixel to have a significant built-up area within it. The algorithm is validated for regions in Kerala and found to be significant. The model correctly predicted the built-up pixel count count over a validation grid of 900 m in 95.2% of the cases. The algorithm is implemented using Python and ArcGIS.