Improvement Of Urban Environment Research Articles

Residents’ Perception of Tree Diseases in the Urban Environment

Urban greenspaces are essential for the health and well-being of citizens and the presence of trees is a key element for the improvement of urban environments. But trees may become a factor of risk for the citizen when they are diseased, declining or dead. Common people are usually unaware of the intimate causes of plant diseases. Based on a balanced sample of 944 detailed interviews carried out in a structured format by university students, a survey was performed to monitor the perception of citizens of evergreen ornamental plants (Quercus ilex) killed by a root disease. Most of the interviewed were customary or moderate frequenters of the venue. Most of the respondents were able to recognize the differences between the dead tree and other conspecific normal individuals, and 86.2% were aware of the risks connected with the collapse of unhealthy trees. Differences amongst genders, age groups, educational levels, and occupation were observed concerning the supposed cause of the death (due to a fungal rot disease). Environmental pollution was indicated as the culprit mainly by young people. Surprisingly, 42.9% of respondents were unable (or unavailable) to give suggestions to administrators concerning the management of public greenery.

Application of geophysics to underground space development for improvement of urban environments

The history of human civilisation shows a continuous trend towards urban life as the basis for social organisation. Over the last 50 years, this trend is accelerating with the proportion of the world urban population expected to reach 61% by 2030 (Godard, 2004). Maintaining quality of urban life and creating sustainable urban environments is one the most crucial current human challenges with continuing degradation of urban environments, increasing congestion and lack of green open space of critical concern. Going underground offers solutions to many of these problems. The Epping to Chatswood Rail Line, in Sydney?s northern suburbs, is a local example of a major new shallow underground space development in an urban environment that will be completed during in 2009. This case study demonstrates the benefits of applying geophysics integrated with geotechnics and hydrogeology to a critical river crossing section of this environmentally sensitive underground space development.

도로 포장 기술 개선에 따른 대기 경계층의 열 변화에 관한 연구

In order to clarify the impact of anti-heat insulation pavement on the thermal structure of atmospheric boundary layer, field experiments and numerical simulations were carried out. Field experiment with various pavements were also conducted for 24 hours from 09LST 19 June 2007. And numerical experiment mainly focused on the impact of albedo variation, which is strongly associated with thermal characteristics of insulated pavement materials, on the temporal variation of planterly boundary layer. Numerical model used in this study is one dimension model with Planterly Boundary Layer developed by Oregon State University (OSUPBL). Because anti-heat insulation pavement material shows higher albedo value, not only maximum surface temperature but also maximum surface air temperature on anti-heat insulation pavement is lower than that on asphalt. The maximum value of surface temperature only reach on <TEX>$49.5^{\circ}C$</TEX>. As results of numerical simulations, surface sensible heat flux and the height of mixing layer are also influenced by the values of albedo. Therefore the characteristics of urban surface material and its impact on atmosphere should be clarified before the urban planning including improvement of urban heat environment and air quality.

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with in-audible high frequency components

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with in-audible high frequency components

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with in-audible high frequency components

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with in-audible high frequency components

Urban soundscapes: Experiences and knowledge

The aim of the present work is to understand how the use of the notion of soundscapes can help in conceiving ambient sound environments in cities. From an overview of recent studies concerned with assessments of sound phenomena in everyday-life situations, the relevance of the soundscape concept is discussed as structuring the categorical space of sounds in cities. Urban planners have been interviewed concerning the soundscape concept in relation to urban projects. This allows comparisons between acousticians’, city-users’ and planners’ categorizations of urban soundscapes, and suggests that a simple decrease of noise level or the elimination of noises is insufficient to account for urban environment improvement.

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with inaudible high frequency components

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with inaudible high frequency components

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with inaudible high frequency components

Study on the improvement of urban sound environment by the sound with inaudible high frequency components

한국의 공동체 도시환경 개선사업 평가: 대구광역시 담장허물기사업을 사례로

The main objectives of this research are to analyse and evaluate the demolishing walls initiative in Daegu city as the collaborative urban environment improvement initiative in South Korea using the actor network theory concept. Local authorities are unable to effectively and efficiently improve urban environment because of their limited statutory and financial powers. This inability crucially led to the formation of the demolishing walls initiative in Daegu city with building a coalition of the local people, interest groups and public and non-governmental organisations in the operational processes in order to improve the physical and social urban environments. Furthermore, co-ordination between local authorities and landscape architecture specialists not only to change the way in which they tackle urban environmental problems but also to make the local people aware of their potential ability in positively improving the urban environment.

Caractéristiques hédoniques et changement environnemental : la couverture de l'autoroute A1

Résumé L’objectif de ce texte est d’identifier l’impact éventuel de la couverture de l’autoroute A1 à Saint-Denis sur les prix des logements. Cette couverture induit une réduction notable des nuisances et une amélioration manifeste du cadre urbain. La méthode utilisée est celle des caractéristiques hédoniques : elle consiste à quantifier la contribution des différentes caractéristiques d’un logement à la valeur de celui-ci. La couverture de l’A1 représente une nouvelle caractéristique des logements situés à proximité, et non la variation du volume d’une caractéristique existante. Pour tenir compte de cette caractéristique nouvelle et de son caractère commun à tous les logements de la zone, on a développé deux stratégies d’estimation différentes. La première considère l’impact global à l’aide de variables dichotomiques ; l’impact est alors chiffré à environ 16 % de la valeur moyenne des appartements dans la zone directement concernée. La seconde stratégie intègre la seule amélioration phonique mesurée par la réduction des décibels pour chaque appartement. Dans ce cas, la valorisation apportée est estimée entre 7 % et 8 % de la valeur d’un appartement directement situé sur l’autoroute couverte, et se réduit à 4 % de la valeur dans la proche périphérie de l’autoroute. L’impact est donc significatif, même s’il ne transforme pas radicalement le marché des logements existants.

東京都江戸川区における河川・水路機能の変化と親水事業の展開に関する考察

In this research, a case study was conducted in Edogawa-ward in order to identify the change of river and waterway functions and water activity projects as a result of urbanization in Tokyo metropolitan area. Recently some agricultural irrigation canals have been either filled in or converted into drainage ditches, other canals have been reconsidered as a precious natural resources to be utilized for the improvement of urban environment. In this research, first, historical changes for the water supply are examined in relation to agricultural activities. Second, the transition of agricultural irrigation canals, which at first was covered to an urban sewage drainage after the dissolution of irrigation associations examined to identify how the Edogawa-ward municipality re-converted the canals into the water activity facilities, based on the background of city planning process. The canals were once severely polluted due to the construction delay of sewage lines, however, the municipality has made and effort to improve the canals to be utilized as water activity facilities, recommended by the municipality's master plan. There have been much activities going on at the canals since then, and several groups have been organized to protect the canals' environment.

Improvement of urban thermal environment by managing heat discharge sources and surface modification in Tokyo

This paper analyzes the implications of anthropogenic heat discharges into the urban thermal environment of Tokyo. Heat discharges by the representative office, commercial and residential buildings were simulated with the help of the DOE-2 building energy simulation model. The approach used in this paper also takes into account the heat storage within building structures. The geographical information system based technique was used to estimate the heat discharge distribution all over Tokyo. The mesoscale analyses of the urban climate were carried out with a model that was based on the Colorado State University Mesoscale Model. The improvements in the urban thermal environment via the various measures were analyzed for two types of scenarios, namely, scenarios related to the management of heat discharge sources and urban surface modifications. The maximum improvement in average temperature for daytime was found to be 0.47°C (at noon) as a result of greening the areas around the buildings of Tokyo. Similarly, the maximum improvement in average temperature for the evening was found to be 0.11°C by discharging all heat to the ground.

Stakeholders’ partnership approach to infrastructure provision and management in developing world cities: lessons from the Sustainable Ibadan project

In recent decades unprecedented urbanization has constituted a huge challenge to urban infrastructure development and management in most developing countries. Meanwhile, the appropriateness of conventional urban planning approaches to the improvement of urban environmental conditions in the face of deteriorating urban environment have often been questioned. It became inevitable to search for new approaches particularly in the context of low-income urban communities. International organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) have subsequently initiated strategies to evolve a participatory approach to the development and management of the urban environment. One of such strategies is the Sustainable City Programme (SCP) which aims to provide municipal authorities and city stakeholders in the public, private and community sectors with an enhanced capacity for environmental planning and management. The programme is being implemented in several cities in parts of the developing world, including Ibadan – the Sustainable Ibadan Project (SIP) – in Nigeria. This paper examines the partnership approach to urban environmental infrastructure improvement, development and management as represented by the SIP. The relevance of the participatory partnership approach of the SIP for cities in parts of developing regions is examined. The paper implicitly stresses that bottom-up participatory stakeholder partnership is a strategy capable of enlisting the financial, material resources and expertise of various sectors of the urban community towards the improvement of urban environmental infrastructure. The paper presents preliminary findings of a study. Although traditional appraisal techniques were not employed, nonetheless, the paper presents a discussion of the processes and dynamics of the SIP on the basis of which some useful lessons may be drawn.

ESTIMATION SYSTEM OF LIFE CYCLE ENVIRONMENTAL EMISSIONS FOR URBAN RENOVATION ALTERNATIVES

It is presumed that the estimation of the urban renovation by strategic urban environmental improvement policies on districts and cities that precedes the estimation of individual products and structures will be questioned, so that environmental emissions estimation methods to lead such policies and supporting tools will be needed. This paper supplies a basic scheme of estimation system for life cycle environmental emissions caused by different planning scenarios and environmental improvement methods on the urban renovation process as its prototype system for preliminary simulation analysis. The system of high utility for mainly urban planners is developed to enable simple estimation on urban renovation projects. It is composed of four basic sub-systems, and life cycle estimation processes consist of seven stages from material production to demolition. As life cycle estimation indexes, CO2 emissions and solid wastes, etc. that are most important as global andregional problems are taken up. The ultimate purpose of efforts in the future is to develop the system that be capable of making specific proposals for sustainable urban redevelopment projects and that can be applied to preparation of guidelines on urban environmental master plans and strategic environmental assessment, etc. inmunicipalities.

Planning support system for an urban environment improvement project

A hundred or more techniques are used for urban environment improvement projects in Japan. The planner must therefore choose the most suitable one for the specific area to be improved. Our system is constructed to support planners who work on complicated problems. It integrates four software programs—Delphi, ArcView, KBMS-3 (an expert system), and Paradox—and utilizes a user-friendly unified interface.

An Urban Environment Improvement Planning Support System: The Second Stage System

An Urban Environment Improvement Planning Support System: The Second Stage System

Urban Environmental Evaluation and Improvement: Application of Multiattribute Utility and Compromise Programming

A technique for the evaluation of the urban environment using multiattribute utility is presented in this paper. Data collected from citizen consciousness and physical environment surveys are used to obtain comprehensive environmental indices for each individual district by using an additive multiattribute utility function. Three kinds of indices, i.e. civic minimum, aspiration level, and the present comprehensive environmental indices, are estimated for districts with different living standards in an urban area. Through this study, the people in a district may gradually become conscious of their welfare by self-exposure to the information provided by the evaluation of the multiattribute utility of the urban environment. Besides, the local government can determine the strategies of urban environmental improvement based on these results by using compromise programming.

CJ90-26. An analysis of mechanical structural optimization problems and a new method—Generalized constrained quasi-Newton method : By Sun Jingmin and Liang Yingchun (Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China). Chinese J. Mech. Engng26, No. 2 (April, 1990), pp. 65–71

There is an increasing need to understand the dynamics in urbanization not only temporally but also spatially for the improvement of urban environments. In spite of an enormous number of previous studies in urban remote sensing applications, only a few studies have been conducted on the techniques in the quantification, qualification, and visualization of the changes in time-series urban land cover fractions (LCFs) derived through spectral unmixing. To examine the urbanization process in four major cities around the Poyang Lake area in Jiangxi Province, China – Nanchang, Jingdezhen, Yingtan, and Poyang – using a time-series Landsat-5 TM dataset in 1987, 1993, 1999, 2004, and 2009, we investigated: (1) the approach to the derivation of LCFs in urban areas using multi-temporal remotely-sensed data set; and (2) the approach to the summarization and cartographic manipulation of the changes in time-series LCFs. To account for the complex spectral confusion among different land cover materials in built-up areas, the Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) was used for unmixing the pixels. The Land Cover Change Intensity (LCCI) was proposed to derive the average daily change rate in terms of the area within a pixel for the land cover classes of green vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation and soil, and built-up areas between two consecutive TM observation dates. The dominant LCCI (DLCCI) was proposed to determine in which period the urban areas were developed most rapidly and how intense the urbanization process was in each pixel of the time-series LCCI maps. Our results showed that MESMA could accurately model the pixels in urban areas with complex spectral confusion of different land cover materials. The comparison of derived land cover fractions with socioeconomic statistics disclosed the strong positive correlation between built-up fractions and urban population as well as gross GDP and GDPs in secondary and tertiary industries. LCCI and DLCCI revealed two mechanisms of urbanization, which are new land developments and redevelopments of built-up areas. Consequently, we found that the four cities around the Poyang Lake were urbanized through different mechanisms.

CJ90-22. Controlling gas carburization by electrical resistance using a microcomputer : By Zhou Zhiyuanet al. (Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China) and Yang Fuhaiet al. (Baoji Fork Lift Manufacturing Co., Baoji, Shaanxi, China). Chinese J. Mech. Engng26, No. 2 (April, 1990), pp. 40–44

There is an increasing need to understand the dynamics in urbanization not only temporally but also spatially for the improvement of urban environments. In spite of an enormous number of previous studies in urban remote sensing applications, only a few studies have been conducted on the techniques in the quantification, qualification, and visualization of the changes in time-series urban land cover fractions (LCFs) derived through spectral unmixing. To examine the urbanization process in four major cities around the Poyang Lake area in Jiangxi Province, China – Nanchang, Jingdezhen, Yingtan, and Poyang – using a time-series Landsat-5 TM dataset in 1987, 1993, 1999, 2004, and 2009, we investigated: (1) the approach to the derivation of LCFs in urban areas using multi-temporal remotely-sensed data set; and (2) the approach to the summarization and cartographic manipulation of the changes in time-series LCFs. To account for the complex spectral confusion among different land cover materials in built-up areas, the Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) was used for unmixing the pixels. The Land Cover Change Intensity (LCCI) was proposed to derive the average daily change rate in terms of the area within a pixel for the land cover classes of green vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation and soil, and built-up areas between two consecutive TM observation dates. The dominant LCCI (DLCCI) was proposed to determine in which period the urban areas were developed most rapidly and how intense the urbanization process was in each pixel of the time-series LCCI maps. Our results showed that MESMA could accurately model the pixels in urban areas with complex spectral confusion of different land cover materials. The comparison of derived land cover fractions with socioeconomic statistics disclosed the strong positive correlation between built-up fractions and urban population as well as gross GDP and GDPs in secondary and tertiary industries. LCCI and DLCCI revealed two mechanisms of urbanization, which are new land developments and redevelopments of built-up areas. Consequently, we found that the four cities around the Poyang Lake were urbanized through different mechanisms.