Urban City Environment Research Articles

Data and perspectives on e-scooters use in Greece.

The issue of micromobility has been raised suddenly in recent years and although it includes several transportation modes, in shared or private form, shared e-scooters have become the fastest growing trend. While private e-scooters have been on the market for decades, the phenomenon of the shared e-scooter systems emerged mainly due to the advances of innovative technologies. However, the main question today is how e-scooters could be integrated into the urban environment of cities in terms of environmental, economic, and social performance, especially towards providing better first/last/only-mile connectivity. The answer is not simple because their sustainability in relation to the mobility system is mainly determined by how they are used and what they replace. If an e-scooter trip replaces a motorcycle or a car trip, the environmental and health effects are positive. If it replaces a trip on foot or by bike, the situation gets worse. This paper gives an overview of e-scooters’ use in Mediterranean cities, presents some preliminary results of a relevant ongoing quantitative survey in Greece, and offers a discussion on available data, challenges, and perspectives. The rides of shared e-scooters in several Mediterranean cities have overcome the one (1) million in just 10-12 months after their availability, while private e-scooter market shows also a growing demand. Given that this new mode of transport is still in its infancy, in this paper we examine the first indications in regard to its necessity, attractiveness, safety, cost, people’s attitudes, and integration into the urban environment focusing on Mediterranean cities.

First record of the stump-tailed lizard tick, Amblyomma albolimbatum (Ixodida, Ixodidae) parasitising a human.

Ticks are haematophagous arthropods that parasitise a wide range of vertebrate hosts. In Australia, there are currently 74 tick species described; 22 tick species have been reported parasitising humans. The stump-tailed lizard tick, Amblyomma albolimbatum, feeds on reptiles, most commonly lizards and snakes; however, we report the first case of A. albolimbatum parasitising a human. The nymphal tick was removed while conducting fieldwork on western tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus occidentalis) in an urban city environment near Perth, Western Australia. The tick was identified using morphological descriptions, which was further supported by the abundance of all parasitic stages of A. albolimbatum on the tiger snakes sampled. The number of tick species recorded from humans in Australia is now revised to 23 species. With the increasing incidence of tick-borne illnesses in Australia, this study highlights the need to report cases of new or atypical hosts, particularly humans, and especially when the ticks have been associated with zoonotic pathogens.

Machine learning‐based traffic scheduling techniques for intelligent transportation system: Opportunities and challenges

SummaryThe rise in traffic congestion has become a significant concern in the urban city environment. The conventional traffic control systems with inefficient human resources management fail to control the traffic discipline, leading to increased traffic density and road offenses. However, the intelligent transportation system (ITS) can provide safety, efficiency, and sustainability for large‐scale vehicular traffic dilemmas. ITS unites machine learning with the available traffic control force and performs real‐time police scheduling to ensure the smooth flow of traffic. Many researchers have demonstrated notable work in intelligent traffic police scheduling and deployment using various optimization algorithms. However, the compilation of such praiseworthy work as a whole is still missing. Motivated by these facts, we provide a comprehensive review of the machine learning‐based state‐of‐the‐art technologies that can be used to form a three‐tier solution taxonomy. The first tier describes various tools and technologies that can be utilized to collect traffic data. The second tier highlights the machine learning algorithms and their accuracy, which forms a pattern in the collected data and then yields some crucial information about traffic flow, congestion levels, and so forth. In the third tier, the most vital taxonomy layer, various traffic police scheduling strategies are discussed. The proposed survey also presents the use of cases of traffic police scheduling that elaborates this review's applicability in various domains. Finally, some of the key challenges in the subject being reviewed are discussed, which initiates a further scope of improvement.

Тенденции развития городов в едином региональном пространстве (на примере Челябинской области)

Introduction. The article highlights the role and trends of urban development in a single regional space. The authors consider the industrial region, where the economic centers are the cities of monospecialization (metallurgy, mechanical engineering), which form the settlement framework of the regional economic system. At the same time, the connectivity of the regional space was determined by the contacts of cities in infrastructure areas and the possibilities of agglomeration formations. The authors analyze the urban environment of cities in the region, which revealed common problems for them in organizing urban space. It was shown that the competition of cities for a person can be won by offering the population more comfortable working and living conditions, a variety of social services, and the possibility of using agglomeration effects. Scientific novelty of the research. The peculiarity of the author’s research was a new approach to urbanization as an urban way of life, extended to a set of cities of different status and population in the region. At the same time, the zones of attraction and concentration of business and social activity were connected with large cities and centers of agglomerations of the region, which ensure the joint use of resources, transport, and social infrastructure. The purpose of the article is to Identify constraints and opportunities for developing cities in a single regional space, taking into account their connectivity and interaction. Methods. The authors use the information base: statistical data, scientific literature, and expert assessments to clarify the conceptual tools of the research and to analyze the demographic situation in the cities-centers of agglomeration associations of the region. The authors present the assessment of the state of the urban environment, and reveal the disproportions in its organization. The research approaches are tested on the example of the cities of the Chelyabinsk region.

A Multi-Level Path Analysis of the Relationships between the Momentary Experience Characteristics, Satisfaction with Urban Public Spaces, and Momentary- and Long-Term Subjective Wellbeing.

Previous research has shown that the urban environment could influence people’s behavior and wellbeing. However, little is still known about how the objective and subjective measures of the momentary experience of urban public spaces could contribute to the satisfaction with the urban environment of cities, which eventually could influence the momentary and long-term subjective wellbeing (SWB) of citizens. Therefore, the aim of this research is to gain insight into how momentary experience and satisfaction with the urban public space could contribute to the SWB of citizens, and thereby control for personal, contextual characteristics. Relationships were simultaneously analyzed using a multi-level path analysis approach based on a sample of 1056 momentary experiences of urban public spaces reported by 161 citizens of the urban area Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The results showed that personality and personal characteristics are highly important for explaining long-term SWB and subsequently long-term SWB positively influences momentary SWB (the degree of feeling secure, comfortable, happy and annoyed) together with the momentary satisfaction of urban public space characteristics. In addition, contextual characteristics, such as time/day and distance to facilities are important for explaining people’s momentary SWB. Policy makers and urban planners can use these results when developing policy and designing a healthy, attractive, livable and safe living environment for citizens.

Green city as approach to Conservatism the Resources and Protection the Environment from the Pollution

The evolution of new concepts for sustainable planning and development of cities in the world and use these concepts and their practical application and success significantly especially in the developed countries and applied in some developing countries leads us to search for new mechanisms that could be used in Iraq and pave the way for sustainable development of the urban environment of cities.
 The urban environment of the city of Karrada need rise include social, economic, urban, environmental, and this only by using new methods of management and planning are different from those that dealt with the city, focusing on the urban side only. And based on the nature and aesthetic achievement of the principles and objectives of the city of Wuxi, which represent the privacy of Baghdad and Iraq at large is not a simple process, but need to share all of the State, individuals and non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

Green city as approach to Conservatism the Resources and Protection the Environment from the Pollution

The evolution of new concepts for sustainable planning and development of cities in the world and use these concepts and their practical application and success significantly especially in the developed countries and applied in some developing countries leads us to search for new mechanisms that could be used in Iraq and pave the way for sustainable development of the urban environment of cities.
 The urban environment of the city of Karrada need rise include social, economic, urban, environmental, and this only by using new methods of management and planning are different from those that dealt with the city, focusing on the urban side only. And based on the nature and aesthetic achievement of the principles and objectives of the city of Wuxi, which represent the privacy of Baghdad and Iraq at large is not a simple process, but need to share all of the State, individuals and non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

Methodological Contribution to the Planning of Urban Passenger Transport in the Perspective of Environmental Sustainability

This study aims to present the results of a systematic literature research developed to identify methodologies, models and scientific planning methods, and valuation of environmental costs in transport, which should serve as theoretical and technical basis for the development of a specific methodological contribution, for sustainable planning, reduction of energy consumption, low pollutant emissions, the urban environment of cities, and for the transport of people. The research carefully selected articles that have demonstrated the potential application of the concepts of sustainable logistics, green logistics and low-carbon logistics in public transport of people. In the second stage, applications directed to transport planning and valuation of environmental costs in transport were identified in these articles, such as pollutant emissions and energy consumption to standardize the concepts, understand them and use them to build a model. It was possible to identify 20 different methods with common objectives of transport sustainability and to build a methodological proposal of sustainable urban transport planning (MPTS-URB), whose contribution is a joint approach of sustainability, economic study, demand and transportation capacity factors, in which all work in harmony. Following this research, it is intended to apply the methodology built - MPTS-URB in the sample environment and to analyze its results.

Chlorophyl Fluorescence and Its Induction Changes in the Leaves of Woody Plants in the Conditions of Urban Environment of Lutsk

The functional status of woody plants leaves in an urban environment is affected by a large variety of urban factors. One of the most popular diagnosis methods of environmental factors influence, for the purpose of rapid assessment of the functional state of plants, is the method of chlorophyll fluorescence induction. As objects of research we have selected the nine most common species of woody plants in urban landscaping of Lutsk. The samples of leaves were collected from three parts of the city depending on the level of transformation ecotypes. The assessment of leaves' functional status was carried by a portable device Flora-test developed by V.N. Glushkov State Scientific and Engineering Center of Microelectronics Institute of Cybernetics. The samples of leaves were collected from three parts of Lutsk city depending on the level of transformation ecotypes. Many woody plants of urban city environment are characterized using the method of IFH by photosynthetic apparatus of plants, due to its close feedback with the intensity of chlorophyll fluorescence. According to the survey results it is clear that the performance of the functional state of investigated leaves of plants in the park environment is higher than in researched plants situated at the areas of transport routes and residential developments. In addition, data analysis shows the dependence of performance on chlorophyll fluorescence induction curves from injuries and lesions in experimental samples. When analyzing the curves Kautsky had identified a number of IFH key indicators and ratios that allow evaluating the impact of environmental factors and specific features on the condition of the plant. The effect of different intensity of adverse anthropogenic factors caused the different for intensity and direction changes IFH depending on the type of research. The study revealed a slight worsening of leaves functional status of woody plants at transport routes compared with the plants of residential development zones and parks. To summarize, all test plants are revealed to be free from virus infection. The analysis shows that the obtained chlorophyll fluorescence induction ratios (Fp-Ft) / Fp indicates normal physiological state of research types regardless of transformation ecotypes.

Towards a Comprehensive Ray-Tracing Modeling of an Urban City With Open-Trench Drains for Mobile Communications

This paper investigates the impacts that open-trench drains make on the accuracy of radio propagation prediction in an urban city environment. Compared with conventional prediction styles that assume the ground to be flat, in this paper, we have considered for the first time the real scenario in many Asian cities to make open-trench drains inclusive in radio propagation modeling. The aims of this paper are twofold. First, to scrutinize one narrow L-shaped structure, modeled after an open-trench drain, by means of comparing ray-tracing simulation results with the actual field measurement results at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz. Second, to compare one city model built without and with the inclusion of open-trench drains for running ray-tracing simulation in yielding radio propagation prediction results. The findings from this paper are especially beneficial to the improvement of mobile communications in extraordinary environments such as open-trench drains, caves, coal mines, underground passageway, and others. Besides, they provide a unique insight into how the presence of the open-trench drains may affect radio wave propagation in an urban city environment.