Urbanization Process Research Articles

Identifying The Factors Of Slums Development In Urban Areas Of Qasimabad, Sindh Pakistan

The term slum is often used to describe hectic settlements with poor facilities and bad living conditions. The majority of city dwellers reside in slums, which are typically deprived of the most basic utilities. According to UN-HABITAT's definition of slum refers to a group of people who live in close residences in urban areas and who require enough living space, long-term housing, access to consumption of water, and a proper sanitation system. Slums developed in Pakistan, like many other third-world nations, are a result of rising urbanization, and the government's incapacity to provide rural migrants in urban centers with housing needs. Hyderabad is one of the fastest-growing cities in the State that has seen significant industrialization. Qasimabad sub-local, being the area most affected by the urbanization process in the Hyderabad region, as a result, 3508 agricultural land parcels were turned into a housing development. The aim of this research is to identify the factors and slum development in urban areas of Qasimabad through the data collection process, specific observation is made, and reports are reviewed. Secondary data is collected in the form of census reports, master plans, and various evaluations, used to examine the issues with slums. However, the results show that the primary cause of the overpopulation of slums and environmental degradation in urban areas is the declination of secondary cities.

Study on China’s Farmland–Grain resource curse: Empirical testing based on 31 Provinces and 2843 Counties

Food security is one of the largest concerns in the country, but in reality, it often presents an abnormal phenomenon of “abundant grain production with the poor economy”. Considering that the existing research on resource curse has hardly touched upon the topic of farmland and grain resources curse, and there is a lack of quantitative empirical analysis on the impact of farmland and grain resources abundance on regional economic development, this study uses an organic combination of provincial and county scales to analyze the spatial differences of the curse in China’s provinces and counties, carry out empirical testing of China’s farmland–grain resource curse based on panel data collected from 31 provinces in 2001–2021 and 2843 counties in 2014–2021, and revealed its influence mechanism by using the econometric model. The results suggest the following: (1) the curse of farmland and grain resources occurs to different degrees in more than 77 % of provinces and about 63 % of counties in China, and about 19 % of counties are at the serious and extremely serious levels. (2) The curse of farmland and grain resources occurs in regions with high grain output, and has a negative influence on regional economic growth. In terms of estimation results at the provincial level, for every 1 % increase in total cultivated land area, grain sowing scale, and total grain output, GDP will decrease by an average of 0.2344 %, 0.1699 %, and 0.1424 %, respectively. In terms of estimation results at the county level, for every 1 % increase in total grain output, GDP will decrease by an average of 0.0824 %. (3) The curse effect mainly comes from the main grain production areas, and the results show that in the county–level studies, for every 1 % increase in total grain output in main grain production areas, GDP will decrease by an average of 0.0889 %. Overall, the regression results of total grain output at the provincial and county scales are relatively similar. (4) The poverty degrees and grain output levels in counties show a superposition trend with the curse effect. (5) The resource curse is caused by the effect of inhibiting the process of urbanization, crowding out the other industries in the main grain production areas, as well as the restrictions on the use of farmland and the reduction of grain price, so the economic development of regions with high grain output is relative slow. Based on these observations, this study proposes countermeasures to break the curse.

Impact of Plant-Microbe Interactions with a Focus on Poorly Investigated Urban Ecosystems-A Review.

The urbanization process, which began with the Industrial Revolution, has undergone a considerable increase over the past few decades. Urbanization strongly affects ecological processes, often deleteriously, because it is associated with a decrease in green spaces (areas of land covered by vegetation), loss of natural habitats, increased rates of species extinction, a greater prevalence of invasive and exotic species, and anthropogenic pollutant accumulation. In urban environments, green spaces play a key role by providing many ecological benefits and contributing to human psychophysical well-being. It is known that interactions between plants and microorganisms that occur in the rhizosphere are of paramount importance for plant health, soil fertility, and the correct functioning of plant ecosystems. The growing diffusion of DNA sequencing technologies and "omics" analyses has provided increasing information about the composition, structure, and function of the rhizomicrobiota. However, despite the considerable amount of data on rhizosphere communities and their interactions with plants in natural/rural contexts, current knowledge on microbial communities associated with plant roots in urban soils is still very scarce. The present review discusses both plant-microbe dynamics and factors that drive the composition of the rhizomicrobiota in poorly investigated urban settings and the potential use of beneficial microbes as an innovative biological tool to face the challenges that anthropized environments and climate change impose. Unravelling urban biodiversity will contribute to green space management, preservation, and development and, ultimately, to public health and safety.

Spatially distributed atmospheric boundary layer properties in Houston – A value-added observational dataset

In 2022, Houston, TX became a nexus for field campaigns aiming to further our understanding of the feedbacks between convective clouds, aerosols and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) properties. Houston’s proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay motivated the collection of spatially distributed observations to disentangle coastal and urban processes. This paper presents a value-added ABL dataset derived from observations collected by eight research teams over 46 days between 2 June - 18 September 2022. The dataset spans 14 sites distributed within a ~80-km radius around Houston. Measurements from three types of instruments are analyzed to objectively provide estimates of nine ABL parameters, both thermodynamic (potential temperature, and relative humidity profiles and thermodynamic ABL depth) and dynamic (horizontal wind speed and direction, mean vertical velocity, updraft and downdraft speed profiles, and dynamical ABL depth). Contextual information about cloud occurrence is also provided. The dataset is prepared on a uniform time-height grid of 1 h and 30 m resolution to facilitate its use as a benchmark for forthcoming numerical simulations and the fundamental study of atmospheric processes.

Optimizing Solar Power Generation in Urban Industrial Blocks: The Impact of Block Typology and PV Material Performance

The block-scale application of photovoltaic technology in cities is becoming a viable solution for renewable energy utilization. The rapid urbanization process has provided urban buildings with a colossal development potential for solar energy in China, especially in industrial areas that provide more space for the integration of PV equipment. In developing solar energy resources, the block layout and the PV materials are two critical factors affecting the distribution of solar radiation and generation. However, few studies have analyzed how to select the most suitable PV materials for different layouts of industrial blocks to obtain the best generation. This study considered the layout of industrial blocks and PV materials simultaneously, and the generation yield was calculated when combined. A total of 40 real industrial block cases were constructed, and radiation distribution data on building surfaces of different block cases were calculated. Data on both were combined to calculate the generation of different PV materials for each block type. The findings indicated that single-story industrial blocks possessed the highest potential for solar radiation, primarily due to the higher percentage of roof area. The influence of PV materials on the installation rate of different building facades varied, with the installation rate of the west facade being the most impacted by PV performance and the roof being the least impacted. Using different PV materials in industrial blocks could lead to a 59.2% difference in solar generation capacity. For single-layer industrial blocks, mono crystalline and poly crystalline silicon were preferable to achieve higher power generation. In contrast, multi-story and high-rise industrial blocks were best suited for a-Si and CIGS to attain higher cost performance. The methods and results of this study guided the selection and installation of PV equipment in various block typologies, thereby improving the refinement of solar resource development, maximizing solar resource utilization, and promoting the development of energy conservation and carbon reduction in cities.

The territorial nature and power of human capital in urban development processes from the perspective of the path dependence concept

Knowledge and human capital are gaining importance as determinants of urban and regional development on a global scale. We can observe a simultaneous increase in the mobility of human capital, the availability of knowledge, and an increase in the importance of location. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as glocalisation. Mobile and highly valuable human capital are being territorialised. From the city’s point of view, is this an opportunity or a threat? The question can be asked whether the territorialisation of human capital has an impact on the durability of urban development. It is not obvious whether it helps to develop competitive potential and competitive advantages of an area only temporarily or in the long term. An analysis using elements of the path dependency theory can provide answers to these questions. It considers both the complexity of the research subject and the evolutionary nature of development processes. Therefore, the fundamental question of this article is whether the territorialisation of human capital affects the durability of urban development. The main findings of the study show that both the size of a city and the rate of demographic growth affect the choice of the type of development path. Cities with high demographic growth rates and complex development strategies enter reactive paths. This type of path guarantees the durability of development processes.

ჰიდრომელიორაციის ინსტიტუციური მოწყობის საერთაშორისო მოდელები და საქართველო

At the current stage of development, special attention should be focused on maximum realization of the country's food potential. It is important for Georgia to overcome food shortage, to provide the population with affordable, diverse, harmless, high-quality and sufficient food. Industrialization of agriculture and its transformation into a high-tech industry stand as guarantee that the country will meet its food requirements. In addition, it is important to take into account that not only expansion of agricultural land is limited, but on the contrary, it is even decreasing due to escalation of urbanization process. The solution lies in the high-performance use of agricultural lands and increasing of per hectare yield. There is only one way to achieve this goal – land use efficiency. In order to make full use of land and secure high yields of agricultural crops, additional human labor and agro-cultural measures are often required to give a specific soil the properties that other soils possess under the best natural conditions. Such lands require significant improvement (melioration). The proposed paper provides an analysis of the current state of agricultural hydromelioration in Georgia. Economic innovative proposals for the use of agromelioration have been developed on the basis of generalization of international best practices. This research dwells upon the experience of foreign countries from the point of view of institutional arrangement. We tried to select the countries based on the principle that the best practices of all continents should be represented. From Latin American countries, we studied the institutional arrangement of Mexico in the field of irrigation, from the European countries – the experience of Portugal, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine; on the Eurasian continent target country was Russia, in the Caucasus - Armenia, in Asia Minor - Turkey, in the Middle East - Israel, in Asia - China, South Korea and Japan, on the Australian continent – Australia proper. Such variegated selection showed us the specifics of institutional structures in different countries, despite their varying development histories and paths taken in the field of irrigation and drainage. From the point of view of institutional arrangement, several distinct classification markers have been identified, highlighting similarities between specific countries and allowing to group them according to these markers. In particular, we can group countries according to the type of institutional arrangement in terms of management - centralized or decentralized.

Rural Self-Organizing Resilience: Village Collective Strategies and Negotiation Paths in Urbanization Process in the TPSNT Framework: A Case Study of the Hongren Village, China

Studies on rural transformation in the context of urbanization have always analyzed it from a single linear perspective, either top-down or bottom-up. This leads to simplistic generalizations of rural transformation models and the standardization of policy implementation. Based on the TPSN analytical framework, this study adds the temporality dimension to form a more comprehensive TPSNT framework. This paper explores the complex construction of rural space in rural transformation from the five dimensions of “territory, place, scale, network and temporality“ and takes the urban village, Hongren, in Kunming City, China, as a case study to analyze the specific transformation process of a village. The research revealed the following: First, in the face of land loss caused by government land acquisition, traditional rural autonomous organizations that have been hidden under the modern governance system have been revived under the influence of traditional elites and completed bottom-up territorialization by using some “maneuver spaces “to form a spatial base for negotiation with the government. Second, the cohesion of traditional rural autonomous organizations has increased during this process, and with the help of mobile capital such as media and personal connections, they have developed social networks that transcend the spatial boundaries of villages. Third, these newly constructed social networks are used to carry out various political strategies at various scales and finally negotiated with the government to rewrite the planning plan so that the village can continue to develop and integrate into the city. Finally, the analysis of the temporal dimensions of Hongren village revealed that even within the same village, changes in the other four dimensions develop dynamically, and rural transformation is an ongoing process. Therefore, when the government deals with rural issues in the process of urbanization, it should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. Unified policy implementation standards will have an irreversible negative impact on rural autonomous organizations.

Impact of Urbanization Processes on Vegetation Cover in the Cities Over the Last Two Decades

Background: The process of urbanization serves as a prominent factor leading to the vegetation cover decline in major cities worldwide. This issue has significant consequences for the living environment on a global scale. Methods: Leveraging the latest advancements in remote sensing techniques (RSTs) and utilizing high-resolution satellite imagery, this study aims to assess the vegetation cover alteration (VCA) in correlation with the urbanization process in Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam. Landsat 5 TM and Sentinel 2A satellite imagery were used to analyze the VCA in Thai Nguyen City during the period from 2001 to 2023. Thai Nguyen city is recognized as the third largest in Northern Vietnam, following the capital city of Hanoi and Hai Phong City and ranks as the tenth most populous city in Vietnam. Result: The results obtained from this study demonstrate a substantial overall expansion, with the total urban land increasing from 386 hectares in 2001 to 1045 hectares in 2010 and experiencing a rapid surge in 2023, reaching a remarkable 4409 hectares. In general, analyzed results based on VCA maps indicated an overall vegetation cover reduction across the study area. This indicates that the study area has reached a critically high level of degradation in terms of vegetation cover. These findings emphasize the escalating risks associated with the diminishing vegetation cover detected across the study area.

Evaluating the impact of landscape configuration, patterns and composition on land surface temperature: an urban heat island study in the Megacity Lahore, Pakistan.

The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is negatively impacted by rapid urbanization, which significantly affects people's everyday lives, socioeconomic activities, and the urban thermal environment. This study focuses on the impact of composition, configuration, and landscape patterns on land surface temperature (LST) in Lahore, Pakistan. The study uses Landsat 5-TM and Landsat 8-OLI/TIRS data acquired over the years 2000, 2010 and 2020 to derive detailed information on land use, normalized difference vegetation index, LST, urban cooling islands (UCI), green cooling islands (GCI) and landscape metrics at the class and landscape level such as percentage of the landscape (PLAND), patch density (PD), class area (CA), largest patch index (LPI), number of patches (NP), aggregation index (AI), Landscape Shape Index (LSI), patch richness (PR), and mean patch shape index (SHAPE_MN). The study's results show that from the years 2000 to 2020, the built-up area increased by 17.57%, whereas vacant land, vegetation, and water bodies declined by 03.79%, 13.32% and 0.4% respectively. Furthermore, landscape metrics at the class level (PLAND, LSI, LPI, PD, AI, and NP) show that the landscape of Lahore is becoming increasingly heterogeneous and fragmented over time. The mean LST in the study area exhibited an increasing trend i.e. 18.87°C in 2000, 20.93°C in 2010, and 22.54°C in 2020. The significant contribution of green spaces is vital for reducing the effects of UHI and is highlighted by the fact that the mean LST of impervious surfaces is, on average, roughly 3°C higher than that of urban green spaces. The findings also demonstrate that there is a strong correlation between mean LST and both the amount of green space (which is negative) and impermeable surface (which is positive). The increasing trend of fragmentation and shape complexity highlighted a positive correlation with LST, while all area-related matrices including PLAND, CA and LPI displayed a negative correlation with LST. The mean LST was significantly correlated with the size, complexity of the shape, and aggregation of the patches of impervious surface and green space, although aggregation demonstrated the most constant and robust correlation. The results indicate that to create healthier and more comfortable environments in cities, the configuration and composition of urban impermeable surfaces and green spaces should be important considerations during the landscape planning and urban design processes.

Evaluating and Comparing Human Perceptions of Streets in Two Megacities by Integrating Street-View Images, Deep Learning, and Space Syntax

Street quality plays a crucial role in promoting urban development. There is still no consensus on how to quantify human street quality perception on a large scale or explore the relationship between street quality and street composition elements. This study investigates a new approach for evaluating and comparing street quality perception and accessibility in Shanghai and Chengdu, two megacities with distinct geographic characteristics, using street-view images, deep learning, and space syntax. The result indicates significant differences in street quality perception between Shanghai and Chengdu. In Chengdu, there is a curvilinear distribution of the highest positive perceptions along the riverfront space and a radioactive spatial distribution of the highest negative perceptions along the ring road and main roads. Shanghai displays a fragmented cross-aggregation and polycentric distribution of the streets with the highest positive and negative perceptions. Thus, it is reasonable to hypothesize that street quality perception closely correlates with the urban planning and construction process of streets. Moreover, we used multiple linear regression to explain the relationship between street quality perception and street elements. The results show that buildings in Shanghai and trees, pavement, and grass in Chengdu were positively associated with positive perceptions. Walls in both Shanghai and Chengdu show a consistent positive correlation with negative perceptions and a consistent negative correlation with other positive perceptions, and are most likely to contribute to the perception of low street quality. Ceilings were positively associated with negative perceptions in Shanghai but are not the major street elements in Chengdu, while the grass is the opposite of the above results. Our research can provide a cost-effective and rapid solution for large-scale, highly detailed urban street quality perception assessments to inform human-scale urban planning.

An interactive method for generating and evaluating urban design alternatives in early design stages

The field of generative design strives to enable the automated generation of multiple suitable urban design alternatives. However, quantitative analysis is typically conducted in the later design stages, when options are limited, and modifications are costly. Generative methods enable the creating of designs that bridge traditional methods, through systematic examination of numerous options during the early design stages. Yet their utilization in architectural practices is limited, partly due to antagonism that stems from the perceived lack of involvement of urban designers in such methods (which often behave like black boxes). The objective of this study was to develop a generative design process that combines rule-based automated algorithmic processes with the active involvement of urban designers, thereby offering a wide range of design alternatives during the planning phase. Additionally, the study aims at ensuring the key involvement of urban designers throughout the design process. The methodology employed in this study is comprised of both quantitative and subjective evaluations that the urban designers can conduct themselves. This result is an interactive process that utilizes generative tools and computerized analytical measures for creating, evaluating, and screening multiple urban design options at the urban neighborhood level, with an emphasis on residents’ well-being, and based on the designers’ preferred parameters. This parametric workflow could assist designers in the early decision-making process and may be integrated into current urban design processes.

Identifying the possible driving mechanisms in Precipitation-Runoff relationships with nonstationary and nonlinear theory approaches

Climate change and complex anthropogenic activities have raised significant concerns regarding Precipitation-Runoff Relationships (PRR). Traditional methods, assuming stationary and linear conditions, often fail to adequately capture these intricate links. To address the limitations, we proposed an integrated framework, employing the Driving indices for Precipitation-Runoff relationships within the nonStationary and nonLinear theory approaches (DPRS and DPRL) to identify the possible driving mechanisms in PRR. The framework is validated across five sub-basins (WRB1-WRB5) within the Wei River Basin, known for its high spatiotemporal variability and intense anthropogenic activities. Spatiotemporal dynamics, nonstationary processes, and nonlinear interactions among various factors are assessed, including climate forcing, groundwater, vegetation dynamics, and anthropogenic influences. DPRS and DPRL assessments revealed that baseflow significantly influences PRR but with high uncertainty. Potential evapotranspiration plays a dominant role in driving negative PRR changes in WRB5 (weakening the correlation between precipitation and runoff), while vegetation dynamics negatively affect PRR with lower uncertainty. Anthropogenic influences represented by Impervious Surface Ratio (ISR), Night-Time Light (NTL), and population density (POP) exhibit varying driving levels, with ISR having the strongest and direct impact, closely linked to urbanization processes and scale within the study cases. The mutual validation of DPRS and DPRL confirms the dominance of baseflow in the Wei River Basin, with urbanization contributing to high ISR, NTL, and POP driving levels in WRB2 and WRB3. Afforestation policies intensify vegetation dynamics’ impact in WRB4 and WRB5. This framework extends its utility to analyze various land evapotranspiration and soil moisture content at different depths in the PRR, supported by a physically-based hydrological model. Basin complexity is further employed to validate the reliability of the assessment outcomes. These insights contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of hydrological processes and facilitate informed decisions for sustainable water resource management within the basin.

Precipitation-induced landslide risk escalation in China’s urbanization with high-resolution soil moisture and multi-source precipitation product

Landslides pose a formidable natural hazard. Accurate risk assessment of landslides triggered by precipitation heavily relies on hydrometeorological factors, specifically precipitation and soil moisture. However, the insufficient ground-based observations and the coarse spatio-temporal resolution hinder the performance of landslide prediction. It is not clear what hydrometeorological thresholds and triggering mechanisms are more likely to trigger landslides in China, particularly in the context of rapid urbanization. To address these questions, this study investigated 1504 shallow landslide events in Chinese urban and non-urban areas from 2007 to 2019. It utilized daily 1 km soil moisture at various depths (20–100 cm) and multi-source precipitation datasets, including gauge-based gridded dataset, in conjunction with three multi-source fusion precipitation products (Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation − MSWEP, the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station dataset − CHIRPS, and the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement − GPM-IMERG), along with dynamic urban impervious area datasets. It aims to determine the optimal multi-source precipitation predictor, the critical soil moisture depth that triggers landslides, and to establish the hydrometeorological thresholds for landslides. Additionally, the impact of urbanization on landslide occurrences was estimated by comparing antecedent precipitation accumulation, soil moisture, and impervious surface ratio dynamics between urban and non-urban areas. The results indicated that a combination of 2-day cumulative CHIRPS precipitation and 100 cm soil moisture provided the most accurate predictions for landslides in urban regions of China (accuracy = 88.5 %), outperforming interpolated ground-based observations and other fusion products. Specifically, landslides become more prone when antecedent cumulative rainfall surpasses 97.42 mm in 2 days and soil moisture exceeds 39.6 % m3/m3 saturation in China. Urban areas experienced high antecedent precipitation levels, lower precipitation (64.40 mm) threshold and soil moisture threshold (38.9 %), and shorter durations at landslide sites compared to non-urban areas (71.90 mm, 41.4 %, and 7 days, respectively). The process of urbanization is observed to decrease soil moisture levels while concurrently elevating rainfall amounts. This phenomenon, combined with anthropogenic activities, including distance from roads and urban impervious surface expansion, contributes to 44.6 % of the causes of landslides by reducing slope stability and increasing the presence of loose material. These findings have implications for landslide warnings in urban areas with limited measurements and contribute to understanding urbanization’s impact on landslide risks in developing nations.

Recent Progress on the Adsorption of Heavy Metal Ions Pb(II) and Cu(II) from Wastewater.

With the processes of industrialization and urbanization, heavy metal ion pollution has become a thorny problem in water systems. Among the various technologies developed for the removal of heavy metal ions, the adsorption method is widely studied by researchers and various nanomaterials with good adsorption performances have been prepared during the past decades. In this paper, a variety of novel nanomaterials with excellent adsorption performances for Pb(II) and Cu(II) reported in recent years are reviewed, such as carbon-based materials, clay mineral materials, zero-valent iron and their derivatives, MOFs, nanocomposites, etc. The novel nanomaterials with extremely high adsorption capacity, selectivity and particular nanostructures are summarized and introduced, along with their advantages and disadvantages. And, some future research priorities for the treatment of wastewater are also prospected.

“County-to-City Upgrading” Policy and Firm Innovation—Evidence from China

The “County-to-City Upgrading” policy represents a typical tool for central and local governments to promote the urbanization process through administrative empowerment. Do local governments’ policies promote innovation-driven high-quality and sustainable development? Under the context of the high-quality development of China’s economy, this paper examines the quantitative impact of the local governments’ “County-to-City Upgrading” policy on enterprises’ innovation. Using a staggered-DID model and the data from the Chinese Patent Database and the Industrial Enterprise Database from 2000 to 2013, the baseline results indicate that the policy not only increases the quantity of innovation but also improves the quality of innovation. The key findings of the research are the following: (1) The policy primarily promotes innovation activities among local enterprises through the cost reduction effect and resource accumulation effect. (2) The policy has a more significant impact on boosting innovation in the eastern regions as well as areas with stronger intellectual property protection. (3) The policy not only can advance technological and practical innovation but can also help enterprises overcome the problem of technological containment. (4) The policy has a prominent impact on green and low-carbon patents, which implies that it has become a significant drive pushing forward local green and sustainable development.

ЭСТЕТИЧЕСКИЕ МОДЕЛИ ВХОЖДЕНИЯ ВОССТАНАВЛИВАЕМЫХ ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫХ ОБЪЕКТОВ В СТРУКТУРУ ОКРУЖАЮЩЕЙ ЗАСТРОЙКИ

The article presents models of aesthetic formation of reconstructed industrial objects of the Soviet period in the surrounding development in the context of sustainability at the level of the city structure, taking into account the growth of the urban fabric. The industrial enterprises in question, as a rule, initially located on the outskirts of the city. Due to the dynamics of urbanization processes, they have become tightly integrated into the urban fabric, and are currently so-called exclusion zones, since they are large-sized relative to the surrounding development objects, including residential buildings and elements of the infrastructure of its social and domestic services. It is also necessary to note the enterprises that are city-forming and located in the structure of the historical center of the urban settlement, where it is especially important to preserve the authenticity of the historical development: to introduce reconstructed industrial facilities as delicately as possible (to select the aesthetic model of the reconstructed enterprise) into the historically established visual and aesthetic code of the city. Thus, two models of aesthetic inclusion of existing industrial enterprises being restored into the city structure have been identified: mimicry, related to objects located in the historical part of the city, and accentual – forming a visual center of attraction outside the historical part of the city, on the periphery and outside the city. The article also examines options for aesthetic inclusion of industrial objects being reconstructed depending on their urban development features: the presence of buffer zones and sanitary protection zones, the presence of external railway routes adjacent to the objects

Local planning scenario for shading from trees as an urban nature-based solution

With more than 75% of the European Union’s population living in urban areas covering 21.5% of the EU territory, the importance of climate-resilient cities, towns and suburbs has increased dramatically. However, the rising impact of human-induced land-use changes on ecosystem services (ES) poses a major challenge to the urban environment. This study focuses on scenario development for nature-based solutions (NbS) in a European town with its intense development area. The concept is exemplified in a town in Croatia, Grad Velika Gorica (GVG), that like many others cities undergoes urbanisation processes with limited resources. It serves as a showpiece for the influence of NbS, in particular street trees along various paths.Using spatial analysis and modelling, the approach explores NbS for future urbanisation. The results, supported by quantitative analysis, show that 49% of cycle lanes and footpaths in GVG can be shaded by strategically planted street trees. The shading scenario analysis provides a nuanced perspective on the potential of NbS, offering insights into the key tasks for a climate-resilient city and opportunities towards equitable, green and healthy urban areas.In the context of urbanisation processes and climate adaptation, the study is in line with the overarching objectives of the European Commission which emphasises the need for sustainable NbS alternatives to address environmental challenges. The findings contribute to the framework of informed decision-making towards urban climate resilience. It also supports the pursuit of a sustainable local governance for climate-adjusted environmental quality in urban planning. As towns and cities grapple with the imperative of balancing urban development with environmental protection, this research highlights the central role of NbS, particularly street trees, in shaping climate-resilient and more sustainable urban environments for human well-being in cities.

Analysis of Art Museum Design under the Concept of Sustainable Development

With the rapid growth of economy and urbanization, the development of cities has gradually focused on promoting the culture and image of cities and meeting the spiritual needs of the people. Therefore, cultural public buildings play an important role in urban development. However, the process of urbanization has led to the gradual saturation of urban architectural space. Cultural public buildings must not only meet the development requirements of cities, but also have the sustainability of development advocated by society and the diversity of use functions. On this basis, this article takes spatialism as a design approach and urban art gallery space as a design carrier to summarize the characteristics of green, low-carbon and sustainable development pursued by urban development under the spatialism design idea. This article discusses the overall situation from large to small, from far to near, summarizes the corresponding design ideas, and uses a large number of cases to support the relevant design ideas, aiming to explore the research on the architectural space design of art galleries that is both in line with the sustainability of urban development and in line with the aesthetics of modern people in architectural space.

Research on the early warning indicator system for public safety risks in county areas of the Yangtze River Delta region during urbanization process

China’s intense urbanization has profoundly impacted county-level societies, leading to increased diversity and contradictions, and pushing these communities towards a risk society. This is especially pronounced in the Yangtze River Delta, a region of peak urbanization. The stability and progress of these local societies are vital for the region’s overall high-quality development. Yet, with ongoing urbanization, these areas face numerous challenges. To effectively tackle these issues, a robust system encompassing pre-evaluation, early warning, and emergency preparedness is essential. This study explores the relationships and structures among various risk factors using grounded theory analysis. Furthermore, it applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop a comprehensive risk early warning index system, significantly enhancing the response capabilities to public security challenges in the Yangtze River Delta’s county-level societies.