Urban Infrastructure Networks Research Articles

Elemental evolution characteristics and influencing factors of green infrastructure network in karst mountain cities: a case study of Qianzhong urban agglomeration in Southwest China

BackgroundThe urban green infrastructure (GI) network is an important conduit for ecological flows and plays a crucial role in improving regional habitats, especially in karst areas that are highly ecologically fragile and sensitive. However, the existing research only focuses on the construction of GI network in karst mountain cities, and the evolution characteristics of its elements and driving mechanism are not clear, which is of great significance for guiding urban land use planning and comprehensively improving the quality of the ecological environment. In view of this, this study took Qianzhong urban agglomeration as the study area, based on multi-source data, and identified ecological sources through ecological resilience analysis. Considering the special geographic environment, the rock exposure rate factor was added to correct the resistance surface, and the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) and gravity model were coupled to extract the GI network. The complex network topology characterization parameter was introduced to assess the spatial and temporal variations of ecological sources and corridors. Finally, the geographical detector was used to identify the dominant influencing factors and interactions of the spatial distribution of the GI network.ResultsThe results showed that from 2000 to 2020, the condition of GI network elements in the study area presented a decreasing and then an increasing trend. The ecological sources or corridors in highly urbanized areas were critical for ecological flow transport and the overall structural stability of the GI network. The influence of natural factors on the spatial distribution of the GI network gradually weakened, and the influence of human factors continuously increased. The spatial distribution of the GI network was influenced by multiple factors, and the interaction between all the factors was enhanced, which gradually changed from the interaction of natural factors to the interaction of human factors during the study period.ConclusionsThe research results will provide scientific references for the construction of an ecologically safe environment and sustainable development of karst mountain cities.

Minor loss or huge threat? Assessment of potential infrastructure projects reveals drastic landscape degradation in the Atlantic forest

Projects demanding deforestation to expand urban infrastructure and road networks put pressure on the Atlantic Forest − a hyper-fragmented global conservation hotspot known for its high biodiversity and endemism. To support decision-making, we applied a scientific approach to analyse the immediate and long-term impacts of two major planned projects in the most threatened Atlantic Forest region – the Pernambuco Endemism Center, a crucial area for the survival of many endemic species. A Metropolitan Road Arch and a Training School for Career Sergeants are expected in the Environmental Protection Area Aldeia-Beberibe (31,634 ha) in the next few years. The area has 198 protected forest remnants, including one larger than 10,000 ha. Our analysis shows that the projects’ implementation may deforest 189 ha, increase fragment number by 3.5 % and decrease the average patch area by 4 %. The largest fragment will be divided into two. We may lose 335,307 trees and 44,655.59 Mg of carbon. Approximately 112.67 ha of watershed protection will be damaged. Thus, in the medium to long term, habitat quality will worsen, and the probability of connectivity will decrease, restricting forest-dependent species’ mobility considerably. To date, alternative areas have been proposed in meetings, working groups, and environmental advisory bodies for the analysed projects.We strongly oppose further deforestation and suggest that science-based approaches must be immediately considered for any project that requires forest suppression in highly fragmented landscapes. This is crucial to mitigate the alarming scenarios of extreme climate and biodiversity loss that we are currently witnessing in Brazil and worldwide.

Optimize Urban Infrastructure Planning Based on Big Data and Enhance Xi'an's Urban Image

Infrastructure is an important support for urban operation, and city image is directly related to the quality of life of citizens and the construction of city brand. Urban infrastructure distribution, equipment types, network switching, and other issues have always restricted the development of communication in Xi'an city, and the addition of big data technology has further increased the communication pressure in Xi’an city and affected the image of Xi'an city. In this paper, we take Xi'an urban infrastructure as the research object, and combine the phyon method to obtain the big data information in the network and the data in the wireless self-organizing sensor. Then, the incomplete data was eliminated, and the data was mapped to the 0~1 interval in a logarithmic manner, and a standardized processing set was formed. set up wireless ad hoc sensor devices, collect infrastructure-related data, and summarize data through big data analysis. At the same time, based on social urban image data, public demand data, and urban infrastructure evaluation results, the content of urban planning is adjusted to better meet the expectations of the public and provide targeted planning solutions. Finally, according to the data fitting, the matching of wireless ad hoc sensor network and city image improvement is realized, and the reasonable planning of infrastructure is promoted. The results of urban image analysis show that wireless ad hoc sensor network and big data technology can simplify the steps of urban infrastructure planning, reduce urban planning costs, and enhance the functionality of the infrastructure,reduce the public complaint rate, and meet the requirements of Xi'an urban image improvement.

Analysing urban green infrastructure network (GIN) for resilience and ecosystem services: The standards and methods

The widespread spread of COVID-19 in cities has revealed problems with current urban planning. In view of these problems, scholars have looked forward to the development direction of future cities. Through literature review, this study finds that achieving these development goals is highly correlated with urban ecological services (ES). The realization of ES function depends on the green infrastructure (GI), and the actual construction of GI needs the analysis and judgment of its spatial structure, that is, the green infrastructure network (GIN), through urban planning policies. Therefore, this study will analyze the concept and GIN research progress based on a literature review, to clarify the core concerns of current relevant research; Then, the evaluation of GIN is analyzed based on a literature review, including the necessity of evaluation, the criteria followed by evaluation and the methods used in evaluation, to identify the most effective evaluation criteria and methods at present and provide theoretical basis for future specific research. Therefore, GIN construction in the city can be more scientific for the future of urban public health events to play a positive role.

Improving Urban Habitat Connectivity for Native Birds: Using Least-Cost Path Analyses to Design Urban Green Infrastructure Networks

Habitat loss and fragmentation are primary threats to biodiversity in urban areas. Least-cost path analyses are commonly used in ecology to identify and protect wildlife corridors and stepping-stone habitats that minimise the difficulty and risk for species dispersing across human-modified landscapes. However, they are rarely considered or used in the design of urban green infrastructure networks, particularly those that include building-integrated vegetation, such as green walls and green roofs. This study uses Linkage Mapper, an ArcGIS toolbox, to identify the least-cost paths for four native keystone birds (kererū, tūī, korimako, and hihi) in Wellington, New Zealand, to design a network of green roof corridors that ease native bird dispersal. The results identified 27 least-cost paths across the central city that connect existing native forest habitats. Creating 0.7 km2 of green roof corridors along these least-cost paths reduced cost-weighted distances by 8.5–9.3% for the kererū, tūī, and korimako, but there was only a 4.3% reduction for the hihi (a small forest bird). In urban areas with little ground-level space for green infrastructure, this study demonstrates how least-cost path analyses can inform the design of building-integrated vegetation networks and quantify their impacts on corridor quality for target species in cities.

Interconnectedness enhances network resilience of multimodal public transportation systems for Safe-to-Fail urban mobility

The growing interconnectedness of urban infrastructure networks presents challenges to their ability to handle unforeseen disruptions, particularly in the context of extreme weather events resulting from climate change. Understanding the resilience of interconnected infrastructure systems is imperative to effectively manage such disruptions. This study investigates the role of interconnectedness in enhancing the resilience of public transportation systems in Hong Kong, a city heavily reliant on public transit. Our results demonstrate that interconnected transportation systems improve resilience by reducing topological vulnerabilities, increasing attack tolerance, and enhancing post-disruption interoperability. Findings also identify the potential to integrate vulnerable systems for greater robustness and highlight the marginal benefits of enhancing intermodal transfer. Strengthening interconnectedness among modes of urban public transit fosters a safe-to-fail system, presenting a distinct resilience-by-design approach. This complements conventional resilience-by-intervention approaches that focus on improving individual systems or introducing entirely new systems.

SAR Interferometry Data Exploitation for Infrastructure Monitoring Using GIS Application

Monitoring structural stability in urban areas and infrastructure networks is emerging as one of the dominant socio-economic issues for population security. The problem is accentuated by the age of the infrastructure because of increasing risks due to material deterioration and loss of load capacity. In this case, SAR satellite data are crucial to identify and assess the deteriorating conditions of civil infrastructures. The large amount of data available from SAR satellite sensors leads to the exploitation and development of new GIS-based procedures for rapid responses and decision making. In recent decades, the DInSAR technique has been used efficiently for the monitoring of structures, providing measurement points located on structures with millimeter precision. Our study has analyzed the behavior of structures in settlements, attempting to discuss the interactions of soil and structures, and examining the behavior of different types of structures, such as roads and buildings. The method used is based on long-term SAR interferometry data and a semi-automatic procedure to measure the displacement (mm/year) of structures, through a GIS-based application performed in the “Implemented MOnitoring DIsplacement” I.MODI platform. The analysis provides extensive information on long-term spatial and temporal continuity of up to 25 years of record, using satellite SAR multi-sensors from ERS, Envisat, and COSMO-SkyMed. The interpretation uses time series spatial analysis, supported by orthophotos, and layers of the DBTR (regional topographic database), Digital Surface model (DSM), and hydrogeological map to show anomalous areas with a high displacement rate and to observe the correlation of settlements in the sediments. With the satellite information and Geographic Information System (GIS), we were able to observe relevant parameters, such as the velocity of advance in the direction of the slope (deformation profiles), the cumulative displacement, and the trend changes in structures. The results illustrate an innovative procedure that allows the management of DInSAR data to facilitate the effective management of structures in which a monitoring protocol was developed at different spatial scales, integrating the information into a GIS.

Analyzing the impacts of logistics suburbanization on logistics service accessibility: Accessibility modeling approach for urban freight

Analysis of the accessibility impacts of logistics suburbanization is critical for logistics land-use planning practices. To understand these impacts, this paper conceptualizes logistics service accessibility from two perspectives in terms of urban logistics infrastructure networks (ULINs) and logistics land use stakeholders in the network, and proposes a novel quantitative approach for their measurement. We measure the service accessibility of ULINs via solving a bi-objective binary integer program which considers the facility spatial coverage and vehicle path planning. Further, cumulative-opportunity freight accessibility models are proposed to measure the service accessibility of logistics land use stakeholders while accounting for their different logistics demands. The proposed method is capable of measuring the spatiotemporal impacts of logistics suburbanization on the service accessibility of ULINs and the corresponding stakeholders. We use the real data of Beijing as a testbed and our results reveal that (1) there is considerable variation in the service accessibility of ULINs and logistics firms' service accessibility with respect to different logistics facility locations and (2) choosing logistics facilities' locations requires careful consideration of the differences in ULINs’ service accessibility to mitigate uneven service availability on the receiving side. The paper highlights the potential for freight accessibility in urban freight planning and provides effective quantitative evaluation approaches to support better practices in logistics land use and transport planning.

Scaling Up Electric-Vehicle Battery Swapping Services in Cities: A Joint Location and Repairable-Inventory Model

Battery swapping for electric vehicle refueling is reviving and thriving. Despite a captivating sustainable future where swapping batteries will be as convenient as refueling gas today, a tension is mounting in practice (beyond the traditional “range anxiety” issue): On one hand, it is desirable to maximize battery proximity and availability to customers. On the other hand, capacitated urban power grids may curb decentralized charging at a slow speed. To reconcile this tension, some cities are embracing an emerging infrastructure network: Decentralized swapping stations replenish charged batteries from centralized charging stations. It remains unclear how to design such a network or whether pooling charging demands will save costs or batteries. In this paper, we model this new urban infrastructure network. This task is complicated by non-Poisson swaps and by the intertwined stochastic operations of swapping, charging, stocking, and circulating batteries among swapping and charging stations. We tackle these complexities by deriving analytical models, which enrich the classical batched repairable-inventory theory. We next propose a joint location and repairable-inventory model for citywide deployment of hub charging stations, with a nonconvex nonconcave objective function. We solve this problem exactly by exploiting submodularity and combining constraint-generation and parameter-search techniques. Even for solving convexified problems, our algorithm brings a speedup of at least three orders of magnitude relative to the Gurobi solver. The major insight is twofold: The benefit of pooling charging demands alone is not enough to justify the adoption of the “swap-locally, charge-centrally” network; instead, the main justification is that faster charging accessible at centralized charging stations significantly reduces the system-wide battery stock level. In a broader sense, this work deepens our understanding of how mobility and energy are coupled toward enabling smart cities. This paper was accepted by Chung Piaw Teo, optimization. Funding: Y. Zhang acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71871023, 72271029, and 72061127001]. W. Qi acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72272014 and 72188101] and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Grant RGPIN-2019-04769]. N. Zhang acknowledges the support from the China Scholarship Council [202106030140]. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4731 .

Planning of Transportation Infrastructure Networks for Sustainable Development with Case Studies in Chabahar

This article addresses the problem of increasing transport services that intercontinental corridors demand from the urban infrastructure networks along their routes. Yet, attention has not been paid to the coordination between the transportation potentials of a city infrastructure network located on the path of an intercontinental corridor and the sustainable application of the corridor itself. This article discusses solving this problem by increasing the transportation capacities of the cities on the path of the corridor. With field studies in Chabahar, we observe the situation of its transportation infrastructure network to discover shortcomings and suggest required changes. This paper recommends the necessary changes and improvements in the urban transportation system of Chabahar to have a sustainable intercontinental corridor and an effective urban infrastructure network simultaneously. The research methods used include observation of traffic flow and behavior in travel origins, destinations, and paths in Chabahar. Then, this study builds a mathematical model with a graph technique to calculate the traffic capacities on the nodes and streets and determine places that require changes. Analyses show that 13,420 cars enter just the center of Chabahar city due to the increasing pressure of the Chabahar–Milak corridor. This paper recommends a multi-modal transportation system with an urban public transport network. It also suggests physical and geometric corrections in sight distances and longitudinal curves of streets, sidewalks, and squares. We find urban transportation failures in the city and present a comprehensive transportation plan for its improvement. This model is applicable in all cities on the route of corridors and assists their sustainable function and urban transport system simultaneously.

Superlinear urban scaling by functional organization: A metabolic interpretation of sectoral water consumption

Prevailing view asserts that the disproportionately greater productivities of larger cities, or superlinear urban scaling, are the result of human interactions channeled by urban networks. But this view was established by considering the spatial organization of urban infrastructure and social networks-the urban "arteries" effects-but neglecting the functional organization of urban production and consumption entities-the urban "organs" effects. Here, adopting a metabolic view and using water consumption as a proxy for metabolism, we empirically quantify the scaling of entity number, size, and metabolic rate for the functionally specific urban residential, commercial, public or institutional, and industrial sectors. Sectoral urban metabolic scaling is highlighted by a disproportionate coordination between residential and enterprise metabolic rates, attributable to the functional mechanisms of mutualism, specialization, and entity size effect. The resultant whole-city metabolic scaling exhibits a constant superlinear exponent for water-abundant regions in numerical agreement with superlinear urban productivity, with varying exponent deviations for water-deficient regions explainable as adaptations to climate-driven resource constraints. These results present a functional organizational, non-social-network explanation of superlinear urban scaling.

Involvement To Reduce Slum Settlements

The array of problems originating from slum settlements not only result in unwholesome environments, unlawful land utilization, and various internal challenges within the vicinity but also exert an impact on the surrounding regions and the overall urban infrastructure network. In pursuit of Indonesia's 2045 Vision, which emphasizes "Equitable and Integrated Infrastructure Development," the Zero Slums constitutes a pivotal component of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing's overarching vision. Nonetheless, a disparity has been identified in addressing slum settlements in West Kalimantan, hindering the achievement of this objective. This research aims to identify the stakeholders and the priority factors in determining the priority setting for slum area management in West Kalimantan. The method used in this research is semi-structured interview to identify and map stakeholders involved in priority setting, and geometric mean to identify influential factors which will then be analyzed by Interpretative Structural Modeling. The results found are that there are 24 stakeholders who are considered involved. Quadrant D (Manage Closely) stakeholders and primary stakeholders are members of the Supervisory Team, namely the Head of the Housing and Settlement Area Office (DPRKP), and the Head of the Regional Development Planning Agency (BAPPEDA). However, the highest level of influence is held by the Steering Committee and the highest level of interest is held by DPRKP. Ten categories with 22 factors were identified, and there are 9 ranking levels that influenced the decision to prioritize slum upgrading. The most influential factor is the difference in knowledge and experience of new and former Team Members.

The Interpretative Structural Modeling for Stakeholder Involvement to Reduce Slum Settlements

The array of problems originating from slum settlements not only results in unwholesome environment, unlawful land utilization, and various internal challenges within the vicinity but also impacts the surrounding regions and the overall urban infrastructure network. In pursuit of Indonesia's 2045 Vision, which emphasizes on "equitable and integrated infrastructure development", the zero slums constitutes a pivotal component of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing's overarching vision. Nonetheless, a disparity has been identified in addressing slum settlements in West Kalimantan, hindering the achievement of this objective. This research aims to identify the stakeholders and the priority factors in determining the priority setting for slum area management in West Kalimantan. The method used in this research is semi-structured interview to identify and map stakeholders involved in priority setting, and geometric mean to identify influential factors which will then be analyzed using Interpretative Structural Modeling. The results found are that there are 24 stakeholders who are considered to be involved. Quadrant D (Manage Closely) stakeholders and primary stakeholders are members of the supervisory team, namely the Head of the Housing and Settlement Area Office, and the Head of the Regional Development Planning Agency. However, the highest level of influence is held by the steering committee while the highest level of interest is held by Housing and Settlement Area Office. In addition, ten categories with 22 factors are identified with nine ranking levels found to influence the decision to prioritize slum upgrading. The most influential factor is the difference in knowledge and experience between the new and the former team members.

Smart grid systems infrastructures and distributed solar power generation in urban slums–A case study and energy policy in <i>Rio de Janeiro</i>

<abstract> <p>This article discusses the relationship between urban slums and the management of the urban infrastructure network (electrification). An extensive survey of the scientific literature on the subject points out the main challenges and possible solutions for fixing precarious electrical infrastructure in urban slums through the promotion of public policies and the establishment of new arrangements based on distributed generation technologies and smart grid. A dialogue was also developed involving topics such as sustainable development and electrification of slums; relationship between communities and modernization of electrification; and emerging and sustainable technologies in the context of urban slums. Thus, a design was constructed that triggered a discussion of the relationship between this work and several other works found in the literature. This research indicates the need to strengthen local governance and the participation of urban slums for the technological modernization of the local electrical network, mainly with the implementation of smart grid and photovoltaic generation systems.</p> </abstract>

Urban Biomimicry for Flood Mitigation Using an Ecosystem Service Assessment Tool in Central Wellington, New Zealand

Many cities are vulnerable to flooding due to their high proportion of impervious surfaces and lack of vegetated land cover. This vulnerability will often be exacerbated by changing rainfall and storm patterns due to climate change. Using the principles of urban biomimicry, this study aims to show an ecosystem service-based approach to designing an urban green infrastructure network for stormwater management in densely built areas that more closely emulates natural hydrology processes. Nature Braid (next-generation LUCI) is an ecosystem services assessment tool that was used to simulate flood mitigation ecosystem services in a 13.7 km2 urban water catchment in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. The simulation results revealed that 59% of the catchment does not contain or benefit from flood-mitigating land cover features. Adding 0.6 km2 (4% of the catchment) of green roofs alongside major stormwater flow paths resulted in a nearly three-fold decrease (11%) in the unmitigated flooding area. These results suggest that green roofs could help manage stormwater and mitigate flooding in the densely built areas of the catchment. Using ecosystem service assessment tools, like Nature Braid, can inform the design of more regenerative and resilient urban green infrastructure networks that help mitigate climate change impacts on urban residents.

InfraRisk: An open-source simulation platform for resilience analysis in interconnected power–water–transport networks

Integrated simulation models are emerging as an alternative for analyzing large-scale interdependent infrastructure networks due to their modeling advantages over traditional interdependency models. This paper presents an open-source integrated simulation package for the asset-level analysis of interdependent infrastructure systems. The simulation platform, named 'InfraRisk' and developed in Python, can simulate disaster-induced infrastructure failures and subsequent post-disaster restoration in interconnected water-, power-, and road networks. InfraRisk consists of an infrastructure module, a hazard module, a recovery module, a simulation module, and a resilience quantification module. The infrastructure module integrates existing infrastructure network packages (wntr for water networks, pandapower for power systems, and a static traffic assignment model for transportation networks) through an interface that facilitates the network-level simulation of interdependent failures. The hazard module generates infrastructure component failure sequences based on various disaster characteristics. The recovery module determines repair sequences and assigns repair crews based on predefined heuristics-based recovery strategies or model predictive control (MPC) based optimization. Based on the schedule, the simulation module implements the network-wide simulation of the consequences of the disaster impacts and the recovery actions. The resilience quantification module offers system-level and consumer-level metrics to quantify both the risks and resilience of the integrated infrastructure networks against disaster events. InfraRisk provides a virtual platform for decision-makers to experiment and develop region-specific pre-disaster and post-disaster policies to enhance the overall resilience of interdependent urban infrastructure networks.

The Construction of Urban Park Green Infrastructure Network Based on Genetic Algorithm

In order to build a scientific and reasonable urban park green infrastructure network. Genetic Tabu hybrid algorithm is introduced into the field of urban park green infrastructure network construction, using ENVI5.5, ArcGIS10.2, Conefor2.6, and other software to construct the comprehensive green infrastructure network model and corresponding algorithm of a city park and improve and compare the genetic algorithm and Tabu search algorithm. Firstly, the ecological sensitivity of urban parks was evaluated, and 58 ecological source patches with high ecological value were selected. With the help of GIS platform, 71 potential corridors are simulated and generated by using the minimum cost path model. Then, select the index that can evaluate the importance of source patches in the ecological network to determine the importance ranking of source patches. Finally, according to the principles of clustering and network connectivity, select the ecological source with high patch importance, analyze the potential ecological corridor and current corridor, and combine and screen the factors of green infrastructure network. The results show that a city park green infrastructure network composed of 38 ecological source patches and 19 corridors is finally formed. Genetic algorithm has a potential application prospect in the construction of urban park green infrastructure network. By introducing genetic Tabu hybrid algorithm into the field of urban park green infrastructure network construction, it will change the mode of traditional urban park green infrastructure network construction.

Multiple scenario simulation and optimization of an urban green infrastructure network based on complex network theory: a case study in Harbin City, China

BackgroundUrban green infrastructure (GI) networks play a significant role in ensuring regional ecological security; however, they are highly vulnerable to the influence of urban development, and the optimization of GI networks with better connectivity and resilience under different development scenarios has become a practical problem that urgently needs to be solved. Taking Harbin, a megacity in Northeast China, as the case study, we set five simulation scenarios by adjusting the economic growth rate and extracted the GI network in multiple scenarios by integrating the minimal cumulative resistance model and the gravity model. The low-degree-first (LDF) strategy of complex network theory was introduced to optimize the GI network, and the optimization effect was verified by robustness analysis.ResultsThe results showed that in the 5% economic growth scenario, the GI network structure was more complex, and the connectivity of the network was better, while in the other scenarios, the network structure gradually degraded with economic growth. After optimization by the LDF strategy, the average degree of the GI network in multiple scenarios increased from 2.368, 2.651, 2.189, 1.972, and 1.847 to 2.783, 3.125, 2.643, 2.414, and 2.322, respectively, and the GI network structure connectivity and resilience were significantly enhanced in all scenarios.ConclusionsEconomic growth did not necessarily lead to degradation of the GI network; there was still room for economic development in the study area, but it was limited under existing GI conditions, and the LDF strategy was an effective method to optimize the GI network. The research results provide a new perspective for the study of GI network protection with urban economic growth and serve as a methodological reference for urban GI network optimization.

A method of linking functional and structural connectivity analysis in urban green infrastructure network construction

Accelerated urbanization and population growth lead to the fragmentation of urban green space and loss of biodiversity. There are few studies on the integration of structural and functional connectivity to solve this problem. Our study aims to draw up a methodology to synthesize two methods of connectivity evaluation, accordingly, to construct an urban green infrastructure (UGI) network which is of great significance to maintain the stability of the urban ecosystem. Taking Beijing as a study area, we first used Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) to identify the source patches, then combined with the graph theory-based landscape metrics to discuss the effect of different diffusion distances on the regional landscape connectivity and classify the importance level of the source patches. Finally, we used both least-cost path (LCP) and circuit theory to construct network and identify pinch areas in corridors for network optimization. The results show that (1) the landscape connectivity of the study area is obviously polarized. Source patches in mountain and hilly areas have good ecological bases and large areas, and the density of corridors is relatively high, which makes a large contribution to the overall landscape connectivity; Source patches in plain areas are severely fragmented, and there are only a small number of potential corridors connecting urban areas and suburban areas. (2) The UGI network is composed of 70 source patches and 148 potential corridors. The diffusion distance that is most beneficial to improve landscape connectivity is 20–25 km. (3) 6 pinch areas that are of great significance for improving the connectivity of the landscape present the coexistence of high migration resistance and large optimization potential, and urgently need to be restored first. This study provides a method to combine the structural and the functional analysis to construct a UGI network and formulate more scientifical protection strategies for planning departments.

Industrial Infrastructure: Translocal Planning for Global Production in Ethiopia and Argentina

Current development and re-development of industrial areas cannot be adequately understood without taking into account the organisational structures and logistics of commodity production on a planetary scale. Global production networks contribute not only to the reconfiguration of urban spatial and economic structures in many places, but they also give rise to novel transnational actor constellations, thus reconfiguring planning processes. This article explores such constellations and their urban outcomes by investigating two current cases of industrial development linked with multilateral transport-infrastructure provisioning in Ethiopia and Argentina. In both cases, international partners are involved, in particular with stakeholders based in China playing significant roles. In Mekelle, Ethiopia, we focus on the establishment of a commodity hub through the implementation of new industry parks for global garment production and road and rail connections to international seaports. In the Rosario metropolitan area in Argentina, major cargo rail and port facilities are under development to expand the country’s most important ports for soybean export. By mapping the physical architectures of the industrial and infrastructure complexes and their urban contexts and tracing the translocal actor constellations involved in infrastructure provisioning and operation, we analyse the spatial impacts of the projects as well as the related implications for planning governance. The article contributes to emergent scholarship and theorisations of urban infrastructure and global production networks, as well as policy mobility and the transnational constitution of planning knowledge and practices.