Vibrancy Of Communities Research Articles

How to build vibrant communities by utilizing functional zones? A community-detection-based approach for revealing the association between land use and community vibrancy

Investigating the association between land use and urban vibrancy is crucial for sustainable urban development. To that end, according to the four conditions proposed by Jacobs (1962), suitable units should be identified before investigating this association. In this study, we consider spatial-temporal human activity patterns and propose a novel community-detection approach integrating graph neural network (GNN) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) to identify suitable geographic units. Then, the impact of land-use-relevance variables on community vibrancy is measured by the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. Using the cell phone signaling data from Beijing, we initially identify 66 communities, primarily comprising intra-travel (the origin and destination are in the same community) and a small proportion of inter-community travel, showing distinct vibrancy patterns and different land use characteristics. Then, we develop a GTWR model to reveal the associations between land use and community vibrancy, revealing that land-use-based variables, such as mixed land use and densities of points of interest (POIs), have spatial-temporal-heterogeneous impacts on community vibrancy, implying the heterogeneity among the development focus of communities, such as population density and functional zone structure. Consequently, we propose heterogeneous development strategies for communities, which could offer valuable suggestions for enhancing urban vibrancy.

Who Do We Think We Are: The Question of Identity!

Who do we think we are? What is our identity? The PIDE-BASICS Survey shows that these seemingly straightforward questions elicit very complex responses. The perception of identity cross-cuts many of the factors we are focussing in BASICS. It is a self-image that is both the cause and the consequence of a person’s beliefs, attitudes and social capital. It is the ‘feeling of we’, the feeling of in-group with those having the same characteristic(s) that we think define us. Identity “refers to the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities” (Jenkins, 1996). * How we socially interact, the people we trust, the vibrancy of communities and the way they are formed and function draw a lot on our sense of identity. So what is the identity of those living within the boundaries of Pakistan? The PIDE-BASICS Survey shows that identity is a social construct, as it does not merely stem from the ascribed characteristics. Identity, the findings show, is based on some distinguishable characteristic(s) which are socially consequential as well. Social capital’s notions of binding and bonding (see BASICS Notes 2) are linked to how the idea of identity is constructed.

Industrial Transitions in Michigan: Stakeholder Perspectives on Water Resources Restoration and Community Vibrancy

Surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes, Michigan is characterized by water. Historically, much of the state’s industry was situated along the water, often preventing public access to waterfronts and negatively impacting the quality of water resources. Economic shifts, paired with a growing interest in revitalizing waterfronts, have led many Michigan communities to invest in water-based restoration projects. This paper investigates the experiences and perceptions of key stakeholders in four waterfront towns where water restoration projects have been implemented as communities shift toward recreation and tourism-based economies. Twenty interviews were conducted with key stakeholders to explore the factors that lead to successful implementation of water restoration and in turn, how these projects impact community vibrancy. Results suggest that community vibrancy related to water restoration can be characterized by a series of reinforcing feedback loops between local leadership, access to water resources, socio-economic and environmental opportunities, and relationships with water.

A decision support tool for measuring and tracking the social benefits of water resources in Michigan coastal communities

This Research Study was conducted to demonstrate and measure social wellbeing in Michigan coastal communities resulting from investments in local water-related projects and resource development that can lead to community vibrancy and to provide a model for communities throughout Michigan and the Great Lakes Basin. The primary goal of the study was to develop and implement an online Community Vibrancy Dashboard that would assist planners, decision makers, business leaders, and residents in defining, reviewing, and tracking community vibrancy. The study was supported by the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes under the 2016 Michigan Water Strategy and funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.Four coastal communities in Michigan – Alpena, Manistee, Port Huron, and Sault Ste. Marie – participated in the study. These communities were selected because of their long economic and cultural histories with the Great Lakes, all are similar in size, and all have conducted relatively recent water-related resource restoration projects and were willing to participate.This study demonstrates how community engagement can result in measurable social indicators of community vibrancy that focus on the use of and connectedness to water resources in the Great Lakes Region. The study resulted in an innovative online visualization toolkit that provides opportunities for public review of local water projects and their resultant contributions to community vibrancy. The Community Vibrancy Dashboard provides timely and visible feedback to local leaders, planners, and decision makers on past and future projects and a means of tracking progress in meeting community vibrancy goals.

The structural dimensions and community vibrancy: An exploratory analysis in Guangzhou, China

Most of the existing studies captured the social and ambient elements of urban built environment, but rarely have the structural elements that influence community vibrancy been addressed. In this paper, we composed indices to assess community vibrancy in Guangzhou, China using population density, social- intensity, and economic activity intensity. We then utilized the Local Entropy Map and Random Forest Regression to investigate the spatial-temporal variation of vibrancy and how it relates to the communities' structural and social & ambient elements using social and remote sensing data. We found their relationships to be spatially dependent and contrasting between functionally different regions. Our analysis at the wholistic level revealed that the vibrancy of the city was influenced more by the social & ambient elements, while analysis at the functional-region level showed this to be also true for the commercial regions of the city, that of residential regions was influenced more by the structural elements. We argue that urban vibrancy should be treated at the functional- region level, and that the importance of structural elements and social and ambient elements should both be recognized in urban research and the policy-making process.

Nature-Based Placemaking: A Natural Asset Focused Community Vibrancy Roadmap

This paper explores opportunities for outdoor recreation and education programs to support communities working to sustain or increase community vibrancy. Vibrancy is necessarily linked to our natural environment and the quality of and access to natural environments can impact community vibrancy outcomes. Outdoor recreation access and experiences support relationships with place via natural assets. A community’s natural assets and associated recreation, ecosystem services, economic, and broader wellbeing benefits collectively serve to elevate community vibrancy. Nature-based Placemaking (NBP) is an emerging community development framework that builds on a community’s natural assets to bolster community vibrancy. NBP could serve as a roadmap for nature-based community vibrancy efforts, providing direction and considerations for navigating vibrancy related challenges and opportunities. This work provides an NBP overview, outlines embedded concepts that informed development of the framework, explores its initial application, and poses questions and pathways for expanding and refining the NBP framework for broader applicability.

Community vibrancy and its relationship with safety in Philadelphia.

To what extent can the strength of a local urban community impact neighborhood safety? We construct measures of community vibrancy based on a unique dataset of block party permit approvals from the City of Philadelphia. Our first measure captures the overall volume of block party events in a neighborhood whereas our second measure captures differences in the type (regular versus spontaneous) of block party activities. We use both regression modeling and propensity score matching to control for the economic, demographic and land use characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood when examining the relationship between crime and our two measures of community vibrancy. We conduct our analysis on aggregate levels of crime and community vibrancy from 2006 to 2015 as well as the trends in community vibrancy and crime over this time period. We find that neighborhoods with a higher number of block parties have a significantly higher crime rate, while those holding a greater proportion of spontaneous block party events have a significantly lower crime rate. We also find that neighborhoods which have an increase in the proportion of spontaneous block parties over time are significantly more likely to have a decreasing trend in total crime incidence over that same time period.

Measuring Urban Vibrancy of Residential Communities Using Big Crowdsourced Geotagged Data.

The pervasiveness of mobile and sensing technologies today has facilitated the creation of Big Crowdsourced Geotagged Data (BCGD) from individual users in real time and at different locations in the city. Such ubiquitous user-generated data allow us to infer various patterns of human behavior, which helps us understand the interactions between humans and cities. In this article, we aim to analyze BCGD, including mobile consumption check-ins, urban geography data, and human mobility data, to learn a model that can unveil the impact of urban geography and human mobility on the vibrancy of residential communities. Vibrant communities are defined as places that show diverse and frequent consumer activities. To effectively identify such vibrant communities, we propose a supervised data mining system to learn and mimic the unique spatial configuration patterns and social interaction patterns of vibrant communities using urban geography and human mobility data. Specifically, to prepare the benchmark vibrancy scores of communities for training, we first propose a fused scoring method by fusing the frequency and the diversity of consumer activities using mobile check-in data. Besides, we define and extract the features of spatial configuration and social interaction for each community by mining urban geography and human mobility data. In addition, we strategically combine a pairwise ranking objective with a sparsity regularization to learn a predictor of community vibrancy. And we develop an effective solution for the optimization problem. Finally, our experiment is instantiated on BCGD including real estate, point of interests, taxi and bus GPS trajectories, and mobile check-ins in Beijing. The experimental results demonstrate the competitive performances of both the extracted features and the proposed model. Our results suggest that a structurally diverse community usually shows higher social interaction and better business performance, and incompatible land uses may decrease the vibrancy of a community. Our studies demonstrate the potential of how to best make use of BCGD to create local economic matrices and sustain urban vibrancy in a fast, cheap, and meaningful way.

Halfway to Everywhere: What Churches can learn about Community Vibrancy From its Professional & Entrepreneurial Women

Halfway to Everywhere: What Churches can learn about Community Vibrancy From its Professional & Entrepreneurial Women

Using the Healthy Community Assessment Tool: Applicability and Adaptation in the Midwest of Western Australia.

Population-based studies have associated poor living conditions with the persistent disparity in the health of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. This project assesses the applicability of the Health Community Assessment Tool and its role in improving the environment of a small community in the Midwest of Western Australia (WA). The action research cycles started with the initial reflection on the suitability of the HCAT version 2 for the local community context and whether it was fit-for-purpose. The researcher provided ‘critical companionship’, while the participants of the study were invited to be co-researchers (the Assessors) who critically examined the HCAT and assess the community. The relevant domains to the serviced town (an outer regional community) were pest control and animal management; healthy housing; food supply; community vibrancy, pride and safety; reducing environmental tobacco smoke; and promoting physical activity. The Assessors found the HCAT descriptors mostly aligned with their community context but found some of the items difficult to apply. Based on participant’s suggestions, some of the original scoring scales were reformatted. School attendance and illicit drug use were identified as a key outcome indicator for youth but were missing from the HCAT. The HCAT domains applied helped streamlining core business of agencies in the local community. The face validity of HCAT items were confirmed in this research with minor adjustments to reflect local context. Youth engagement to education is of high community concern and the development of an item would create similar interagency collaborative dialogues.

Active Neighbourhoods Canada Project: Bridging Community and Municipal Decision-Making to Impact the Built Environment ( breakout presentation )

Active Neighbourhoods Canada consists of 12 community-based projects in Quebec, Alberta and Ontario. Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Innovation Strategy, these projects use participatory planning activities to develop a community vision and plan for the future of local streets and public spaces. The ultimate goal is to work alongside community members to identify local strengths, weakness and opportunities for active transportation and community vibrancy. Through engaged events and mapping activities out in the community, residents describe their experiences and also access opportunities to learn about how the built form can influence how public spaces are used. Building on this information, these projects engage local municipal staff and professionals in urban planning, engineering, architecture and community development to begin developing potential interventions that can address the concerns and desires of local residents. By linking residents, experts in their community, with professionals, experts in the built form and municipal decision-making/standards, we bridge these two groups to raise community voices and develop options for the future of neighbourhoods that reflect residents’ desires. This presentation will discuss the Peterborough, Ontario based Active Neighbourhoods Project in the Stewart St. Neighbourhood as a case study. It will illustrate the progression of our three-phased project process, the engagement tools used and the strategic touch points created for bridging community voices with decision-makers.

Co-Creating Neighbourhoods for Health: An Inverted Socio-Ecological Approach

The Active Neighbourhoods Canada (ANC) project employs a participatory urban planning process to aid communities in articulating local strengths, weaknesses and future desires for streets and public spaces. Each project results in a community-driven plan for increasing active transportation and community vibrancy by intervening in the public realm. Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Innovation Strategy, ANC recognizes the unequal distribution of both power and public realm investment between communities with high or medium incomes, compared to those experiencing poverty and a higher burden of chronic illness. ANC provides a framework for supporting low-income communities by partnering with local organizations and developing resident engagement methods to assess qualitatively how people experience their community and quantitatively how they travel. Throughout, emphasis is placed on providing opportunities for engaged residents to develop their understanding of public participation, active transportation and urban planning and empower them as local advocates through engaged project governance. Much attention has been brought to the issue of implementing public health interventions that successfully engage different levels of the socio-ecological model to facilitate healthy behaviour; particularly the neglected and complex higher levels of this nested hierarchy (the institutional, community and policy/environment levels). Through our three-phased participatory process, ANC intervenes at the individual and interpersonal levels by empowering local residents and engaging marginalized voices to build a consolidated report on local knowledge, community assets, issue areas and future goals; at the community level by supporting a collaborative inter-sector project governance structure that links diverse organizations and people; and finally at the policy or environmental level through professional engagement with municipal staff in planning, engineering and local city councilors to implement elements of community-driven neighbourhood plans. A highlight of the ANC process is how this multi-pronged intervention attends to the interaction that exists between levels of this model. Specifically how our process builds momentum at lower levels of the hierarchy to create capacity in intervening at the more distal levels of local environments and policy. This presentation will link practice with theory by describing our process and outcomes in varied municipal contexts while making overt links to the theoretical knowledge base of an inverted social ecological model. Through these links we will provide real world examples of the role community action research can play when negotiating the challenging goal of attending to individual/interpersonal, community, environment and policy impacts within a single public health intervention to increase active transportation.

Collaborative research partnerships inform monitoring and management of aquatic ecosystems by Indigenous rangers

Aquatic ecosystems are critical to the long-term viability and vibrancy of communities and economies across northern Australia. In a region that supports significant cultural and ecological water values, partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders can benefit aquatic ecosystem management. We present, as a case study from the Kimberley region of Western Australia, a collaborative research program that successfully documented Indigenous and Western Scientific knowledge of remote wetlands, using a variety of field-based activities, questionnaires, interviews and workshops. The sharing of knowledge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous research partners facilitated a comprehensive understanding of ecosystem values, threats, processes, management priorities and aspirations. These formed the basis of a management plan and monitoring tools, designed to build the capacity of an Indigenous ranger group to engage in research, monitoring and management of wetlands. The project provides a useful example of the benefits of collaborations in the context of remote-area management where local communities are responsible for environmental management and monitoring, such as is the case in northern Australia and presumably other areas of the world.

School Closures as a Driver of Rural Decline in Scotland: A Problem in Pursuit of Some Evidence?

ABSTRACTClosure of small schools has been a contentious policy issue, addressed most recently in the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 2010. Local authorities are currently delivering public service under great financial pressure and, given the high per capita costs of running small schools, have often sought to close them. One of the arguments for retaining small schools is the purported contribution that they make in maintaining rural community vibrancy. However, the evidence base for retaining small schools as ‘the heart of the rural community’ is largely untested, and such evidence as there is suggests that school closures have a modest effect on community vibrancy. School catchment studies show a long-term pattern of adjustment to demographic changes but this process may be curtailed by government policy in Scotland. A solid employment base and affordable housing are deemed by many to be more important factors in rural socio-economic wellbeing than the presence or absence of a primary school.

Arts Incubators as Policy Tools: Outputs, Outcomes, and Policy Targets

Literature suggests that arts incubators serve cultural, economic, and community development functions by supporting individual artists, nonprofit arts organizations, and creative industries entrepreneurs. The outputs of arts incubators include new arts-based businesses, showings of incubated artwork, individual artists with enhanced business planning capacity, and more. When arts incubators are used as policy tools, the desired outcomes include community economic development, increased community vibrancy, community cultural development, and individual artist economic stability and sustainability. Tracking the targets of arts incubator enterprises provides insight into their use as policy tools. This essay explores the arts incubator landscape in the US and provides examples of outputs and policy outcomes (both desired and realized) for arts incubators.

Sport and communities: an introduction

While there has been considerable academic and popular coverage of the perceived importance of community identity in the lives of ordinary citizens, such analysis is problematical due to a conceptual and theoretical deficiency around the very use and understanding of the term. There has been a failure to fully operationalize and thus objectify (for measurement) some of the contributing elements of this term, which is of concern to sports scholars as it is often sport that is used as a proxy measurement of the precise strength of a community's vibrancy and connectedness. The latter part of this introductory piece details common themes and issues of note that emerge throughout the course of the ensuing compendium of published works, which essentially cohere around issues of sport in society, volunteerism and identity.

Policy Preceding Possibility? Examining Headline Composite Sustainability Indicators in the United Kingdom

Environmental equality, social justice and well-being are national headline indicators for the United Kingdom (UK), and community vibrancy is a rural headline indicator. All four of these indicators were designated as headline indicators prior to any robust definition or methodology for their measurement was articulated. Prior to the establishment of social justice and environmental equality as headline indicators, research commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs indicated that, at least in the foreseeable future, it would not be possible to operationalise these concepts as indicators of sustainable development. Research into well-being and community vibrancy also illustrated significant problems with their measurement, but in terms of these two indicators that research was carried out after their establishment as headline indicators. These findings illustrate problems with dialogue between the government and relevant experts: difficult to measure concepts have been erroneously designated as headline indicators for the UK.