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This document contains abstracts of papers presented at an academic conference. The papers cover a wide range of topics related to economics, history, and social development. Each paper presents empirical evidence and analysis to shed light on specific phenomena or historical events. The research is conducted using different methodologies and data sources, providing valuable insights into these complex subjects. The summaries provide a brief overview of each paper's main findings and contribute to the understanding of various social and economic phenomena. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Global evidence on psychosis is dominated by studies conducted in Western, high-income countries. The objectives of the Study of Context Of Psychoses to improve outcomes in Ethiopia (SCOPE) are (1) to generate rigorous evidence of psychosis experience, epidemiology and impacts in Ethiopia that will illuminate aetiological understanding and (2) inform development and testing of interventions for earlier identification and improved first contact care that are scalable, inclusive of difficult-to-reach populations and optimise recovery. Methods: The setting is sub-cities of Addis Ababa and rural districts in south-central Ethiopia covering 1.1 million people and including rural, urban and homeless populations. SCOPE comprises (1) formative work to understand care pathways and community resources (resource mapping); examine family context and communication (ethnography); develop valid measures of family communication and personal recovery; and establish platforms for community engagement and involvement of people with lived experience; (2a) a population-based incidence study, (2b) a case-control study and (2c) a cohort study with 12 months follow-up involving 440 people with psychosis (390 rural/Addis Ababa; 50 who are homeless), 390 relatives and 390 controls. We will test hypotheses about incidence rates in rural vs. urban populations and men vs. women; potential aetiological role of khat (a commonly chewed plant with amphetamine-like properties) and traumatic exposures in psychosis; determine profiles of needs at first contact and predictors of outcome; (3) participatory workshops to develop programme theory and inform co-development of interventions, and (4) evaluation of the impact of early identification strategies on engagement with care (interrupted time series study). Findings will inform development of (5) a protocol for (5a) a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial of interventions for people with recent-onset psychosis in rural settings and (5b) two uncontrolled pilot studies to test acceptability, feasibility of co-developed interventions in urban and homeless populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Settler Colonial City: Racism and Inequity in Postwar Minneapolis" by David Hugill examines the history of racism, inequity, and settler-colonial structures in Minneapolis, particularly focusing on the post-World War II era. The book explores the impact of urban change, racialized policing, and American imperialism on marginalized communities, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous peoples. Hugill highlights the structural barriers faced by marginalized groups and the need to dismantle white supremacist and settler-colonial structures. While the book primarily focuses on the violent aspects of settler-colonial urban policy, it also touches on the need to examine more subtle elements such as access to education, healthcare, and legal services. Overall, the book provides a critical perspective on the history of Minneapolis and challenges the perception of the city as progressive and inclusive. [Extracted from the article]

Increased risks of economic policy uncertainty and overexploitation of natural resources exist in China. At the same time, the growth rate of urban residents' consumption has generally declined. The paper analyses the role of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and natural resource exploitation on the urban residents' consumption in China. Based on the data from the first quarter of 2002 to the third quarter of 2021, the paper uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to verify the asymmetric effects. Then the paper constructs a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model with stochastic volatility term to analyze the nonlinear responses. Impulse response analysis was used to further explain the relationship between the three. The negative impact of rising EPU on urban residents' consumption is larger than its reduction. Negative shocks to natural resource development increase the urban residents' consumption. Positive shocks reduce the urban residents' consumption. There is a time-varying non-linear effect of EPU and natural resource development on urban residents' consumption in China. The negative impact of EPU on urban consumption has been further exacerbated by major crises such as the financial crisis, COVID-19 and the post-crisis period. The negative impact of natural resource development diminished after the government introduced industrial upgrading policies and environmental regulations. This study provides constructive suggestions for the optimization of economic policies and the improvement of urban consumption. This study also enriches consumer theory and provides new evidence for the resource curse hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consequences of sustainable and greener mobility have been demonstrated previous year by the pandemic situation. One significant benefit was to reduce the level of noise, dust and air pollution from the traffic in many European countries due to reduced mobility most of the population. Positive phenomena was also recorded in the Slovak Republic. Today's urban mobility offers new, more sustainable ways of transport for residents, especially app-based and shared-ride services, which have become increasingly widespread and very popular. Undoubtedly offer a level of convenience unseen before in the urban mobility systems throughout the world. Although new forms of transport are developed in most Slovak cities, their operation is not very rational and therefore individual car transport still dominates at the expense of sustainable ways of transport. In our paper, we analyze the traffic situation in the city of Nitra, as the large number of trips in the course of the peak-hours often results in severe traffic congestion. Multimodality is one of the solutions to improve the current traffic situation, as it allows urban residents to choose from a range of alternative travel options. The main aim of this paper is to determinate the possibilities of multimodal urban mobility in the city of Nitra in addition to analyze how the potential change in the variability of choice of means of transport affects the urban mobility behaviour. In order to meet stated objectives, a marketing research was conducted. The research findings point to the fact that the current urban infrastructure and overall possibilities are limited, the consequence of which is that travel behaviour of citizens does not demonstrate the features of sustainable urban mobility. Our results point to major differences in attitudes of Nitra´s residents from different urban and sub-urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings into dialogue recent critical scholarship on smart cities and geographies of the future by examining how city dwellers encounter normative visions of the future supplied by government actors under smart urbanisation. I focus specifically on the prosaic but significant ways in which people (re)interpret and (re)produce urban futures in and through their everyday affective and material engagements with digital technologies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and semi‐structured interviews, I discuss the extent to which state‐promulgated imaginings of digital urban futures projected by electronic payment infrastructures are negotiated by urban inhabitants in Singapore, at both the levels of the individual and the collective. Although there is a tendency in Urban Studies to read the smart city as depoliticising, the findings in this paper suggest that urban dwellers' lived encounters with digital urban futures are characterised and bound up with politics. Furthermore, this paper casts attention on forms of negotiation that emerge not from grassroots movements and/or democratic activism that have so far attracted social and cultural geographers working on the future, but everyday lived practice around the digital. Such a fine‐grained, practice‐based approach productively foregrounds emancipatory potential for reworking and reimagining normative digital urban futures. Equally importantly, it takes seriously the diverse and uneven future‐making capacities of urban inhabitants in the digitally mediated city, contributing to ongoing projects that seek to develop a globally oriented alternative smart urban agenda for cities and urban spaces in the 21st century. This paper brings into dialogue recent critical scholarship on smart cities and geographies of the future by examining how city dwellers encounter normative visions of the future supplied by government actors under smart urbanisation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and semi‐structured interviews, it discusses the extent to which state‐promulgated imaginings of digital urban futures projected by electronic payment infrastructures are negotiated by urban inhabitants in Singapore, at both the levels of the individual and the collective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twenty-first century, with the development of urbanization, large-scale mine wastelands in peri-urban areas have become increasingly closely related to the daily lives of urban and rural residents. Adopting a reuse method that meets the health needs of these residents, restoration, construction of mine wastelands in the suburbs of cities, and the formation of high-quality healthy environments and service supply are in line with the demands of healthy city construction and sustainable development. In addition, they have received increasing attention from all sectors of society. Based on the main criteria for constructing a healthy urban environment, this paper takes the comprehensive remediation and construction project of mine wastelands in the Taiyuan Xishan Ecological and Cultural Tourism Demonstration Area as a case study. It uses on-site surveys and an open-ended web-based questionnaire. It focuses on researching the perceived health needs of urban and rural residents in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, China concerning the main elements that determine health, such as the natural ecological environment, the construction of facilities and activities, and the local economic and industrial development. The results of 748 questionnaires that were completed by participants who effectively participated in the survey show that most participants preferred a comprehensive development model (86.6%) to reuse these areas. In addition, the specific needs of urban and rural residents for health safety, equity and quality, and healthy low-carbon industries should be considered. The differences in demand among groups of citizens due to different ages, living distances, levels of education, and occupations should be comprehensively considered. This paper demonstrates that a full understanding of the health needs of residents has great practical significance when improving the healthy environment and service supply level in mine wasteland restoration and construction and promoting the development of regional healthy city construction. Recently, the healthy environment and sustainable development of areas that host large-scale mine wastelands on the outskirts of cities have received increasing attention from all sectors of society. This paper suggests that during the reuse and construction of these areas, government management, development, and construction companies, planning and design organizations, and other departments that are involved in policy formulation and construction implementation should give full consideration to the perceived health needs of urban and rural residents in the host city, and to groups of residents of different ages, living distances, occupations, and educational levels, to form a high-quality and equitable health environment and services in the area. In addition, active public participation, on-site research, and interviews are essential for relevant departments to improve their understanding of resident health needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We study the specific impact of the digital economy on the upgrading of urban residents' consumption structure and its mechanism of action. • We analyze the heterogeneity at the level of city development. • The development of the digital economy is conducive to promoting the upgrading of urban residents' consumption structure. • Disposable income and industrial structure upgrading are important internal mechanisms. • Compared to first-tier and second-tier cities, the digital economy has contributed more to upgrading residents' consumption structure in third-tier cities. Based on the panel data of Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020, this paper studies the impact of the digital economy on urban residents' upgrading of their consumption structure. The digital economy promotes the upgrading of urban residents' consumption structure. Moreover, the digital economy has a more significant effect on promoting the upgrading of residents' consumption structure in third-tier cities. The mediation effect proves that increasing disposable income and upgrading the industrial structure are crucial mechanisms. Based on pertinent findings and the development levels of various cities, this paper proposes policies to strengthen the digital infrastructure, improve residents' income, optimize industrial structure, and establish differentiated measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Health literacy (HL) plays a key role in accessing, understanding, appraising, and using health-related information within the healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion areas. Aim of the research: To determine the level of health literacy among primary health care (PHC) patients depending on their place of residence, and to evaluate the impact of individual sociodemographic, family, and health predictors on the level of health literacy within the study group. Material and methods: The cross-sectional study included 566 primary health care (PHC) patients, and it was conducted between January and December 2020. The data was collected using the paper and pencil interview (PAPI) method. The research tools applied were the European Health Competence Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16), the Family APGAR Questionnaire, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), and the authors' own questionnaire. Results: The mean age in the study group was 49.28 ±18.39 years. The respondents were mostly women (63.3%; n = 358) and came from rural areas (52.5%; n = 297). The mean HL score (HLS-EU-Q16) of urban residents was slightly higher (12.19 ±3.5) than that of the rural residents (11.91 ±4.1). Age, financial capabilities, family function (Family Apgar), and mental health condition (GHQ-28) were found to be significantly associated with HL levels in both urban and rural residents (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In a multivariate analysis, HL levels in urban residents were positively related to family function but negatively associated with financial capability and mental condition. Financial situation, source of income, and family function were positively associated with HL among rural residents, while gender and mental health condition were negatively associated with HL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social impacts of COVID-19 on migrants living in three major African cities: Accra, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. Given the importance of social support networks to mobile populations, particularly in areas with limited access to essential services, understanding how the pandemic disrupted social relations underscores the broader health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on migrant communities. Using a large scale 2021 survey of nine migrant neighborhoods located across three African mega-cities, we comparatively analyze migrant social interactions during the first year of the pandemic. We find that while migrant social interactions decreased in Accra and Nairobi, living in Johannesburg was significantly associated with unchanged or increased social interactions in the first year of the pandemic. We situate these findings with municipal and country-level variation of COVID-19 policy responses within each city. In particular, we illuminate how the severity of the pandemic and response in South Africa may have catalyzed opportunities for migrants to increase social engagements within their everyday lives. By understanding how compound challenges impacted migrant life, this paper contributes to the emerging area of comparative studies on the effects of COVID-19 on migrant populations, and urban populations within the Global South more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prolonged presence of Syrian refugees in Jordan has highlighted the need for sustainable health service delivery models for refugees. In 2012, the Jordanian government adopted a policy that granted Syrian refugees access, free of charge, to the national health system. However since 2012, successive policy revisions have limited refugee access. This paper seeks to understand factors that initially put refugee integration into the health system on the policy agenda, as well as how these same factors later affected commitment to sustain the policy. Methods: This paper draws on data from a document review of 197 peer-reviewed and grey literature publications, a media analysis of newspaper articles retrieved from four officially recognized newspapers in Jordan, and 33 semi-structured key informant interviews. We used Kingdon's Multiple Streams Model – a well-established tool for analyzing policy adoption – to understand how political priority developed for integration of refugees into the health system. Results: We find that several factors helped bring attention to the issue, namely concerns over infectious disease transmission to host communities, high rates of chronic conditions among the refugee population and the increasingly urban and dispersed nature of refugees. At the outset of the conflict, the national mood was receptive to refugees. Politicians and government officials quickly recognized the crisis as an opportunity to secure material and technical support from the international humanitarian community. At the same time, global pressures for integrating refugees into national health systems helped move the integration agenda forward in Jordan and the region more broadly. Since 2012, there were several modifications to the policy that signal profound changes in national views around the continued presence of Syrian refugees in the country, as well as reduced external financial support which has undermined the sustainability of the policy. Conclusion: This case study underscores the dynamic nature of policymaking and the challenge of sustaining government commitment to the right to health among refugees. Our analysis has important implications for advocates seeking to advance and maintain momentum for the integration of refugees into national health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have identified vital urban spaces through the concentration of people, the diversity of land uses and buildings, accessibility, and the existence of a compact urban fabric. However, the relationship between urban vitality and social sustainability has not been studied in these terms. This paper seeks to analyse the social implications of the vital city model for residents in the context of a Latin American city: Santiago de Chile. To do so, we use the JANE index to measure the formal conditions of the built environment for urban vitality, and the Longitudinal Social Study of Chile to measure urban social sustainability. We first use a PCA technique to reveal six core components of urban social sustainability: Sense of belonging, Safety, Sociability, Well-being, Satisfaction with housing, and Conservation of the neighbourhood. We then test the associations between the strength of these six core components and the conditions for urban vitality by means of a multiple linear regression model. Significant associations between urban vitality conditions and urban social sustainability suggest that socially sustainable neighbourhoods are found in sectors with the presence of old buildings, accessibility to public transportation, and far from mega infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility and security issues pertaining to people with disabilities in Zimbabwe’s urban areas have so far received limited priority in scholarship and social policy. This is a major deviation from the prerequisites for disability inclusion, rights-based governance and development, and transformative social policy. Using qualitative research methodology, the paper addresses this compelling lacuna by exploring selected germane issues affecting people with disabilities, and advances policy options that Zimbabwe and other countries can implement to transform the well-being of this often excluded and trivialized group. The article acknowledges current effort for improving accessibility and security in and of urban areas but more importantly shows that people with disabilities are experiencing multiple problems due to glaring deficiencies in urban policy, amenities, and services. Transformative disability policy buttressed by a multi-stakeholder approach is indispensable in improving the situation of people with disabilities in relation to accessibility and security in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of cities follows distinct patterns that connect to the cultural and socioeconomic aspects of their populations and can be understood by studying their urban stocks. This paper examines the evolution of construction materials stocks (MS) in the building sector in five urban areas in Peru. The study employed a bottom‐up methodology and focused on the city of Abancay in the Peruvian Andes, comparing it to the coastal cities of Chiclayo, Tacna, and San Isidro, as well as Lince. Additionally, regression models were employed to examine the influence of socioeconomic factors associated with urban stock. The research highlights a transition from residential building stock to distinct patterns of socioeconomic development, with urban population and economic growth emerging as pivotal drivers of material stock variation. Notably, large coastal cities like Chiclayo, Tacna, San Isidro, and Lince exhibit significantly higher concrete MS per capita, albeit with varying growth rates. In contrast, Abancay, with lower income levels, displays a higher per capita level of adobe MS, reflecting its historical connection to Peru's heartland. The correlation of urban stock components with the human development index (HDI) emphasizes the latter's significance in understanding the trends of the stocks of the different construction materials that constitute a city. By examining MS in various locations, unique Peruvian traits are unveiled, offering insights for urban development in the Global South. These findings provide valuable guidance for aligning urban stock growth and related environmental burdens with socioeconomic development, fostering sustainability, and promoting rational planning for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of importance to enhance the urban areas' capacity for population aggregation in underdeveloped regions, aiming to rectify the imbalanced and insufficient pattern of economic development in China. Taking the Taiyuan Metropolitan Area (TMA) in central China as a case study, this paper examines the evolutionary process and characteristics of population agglomeration from 2000 to 2020, and identifies factors associated with agglomeration and their spatial effects. The findings indicated that: 1) against the background of sustained population shrinkage in the provincial area, the TMA showed a demographic trend of steady increase, albeit with a decelerated growth rate. In the metropolitan area, urban population size continued to grow rapidly, whereas the rural areas endured sustained losses. Disparities in city size continued to widen, and the polarization of concentrated population in the core cities kept increasing. 2) Agglomerations in both secondary and service industries had significant positive effects on local population agglomeration, with the former effect being stronger. Regional economic development, government fiscal expenditure, and financial advancement all contributed to facilitating local population clustering. From a spatial spillover perspective, service agglomeration and financial development promoted population agglomeration in surrounding areas. Conversely, fiscal expenditure inhibited such agglomeration. As for industrial agglomeration and regional economic development, their spatial spillover effects were non-significant. The results obtained reveal several policy implications aimed at enhancing the population agglomeration capacity of the metropolitan area in underdeveloped regions during the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the support of big data mining techniques, utilizing social media data containing location information and rich semantic text information can construct large-scale daily activity OD flows for urban populations, providing new data resources and research perspectives for studying urban spatiotemporal structures. This paper employs the ST-DBSCAN algorithm to identify the residential locations of Weibo users in four communities and then uses the BERT model for activity-type classification of Weibo texts. Combined with the TF-IDF method, the results are analyzed from three aspects: temporal features, spatial features, and semantic features. The research findings indicate: ① Spatially, residents' daily activities are mainly centered around their residential locations, but there are significant differences in the radius and direction of activity among residents of different communities; ② In the temporal dimension, the activity intensities of residents from different communities exhibit uniformity during different time periods on weekdays and weekends; ③ Based on semantic analysis, the differences in activities and venue choices among residents of different communities are deeply influenced by the comprehensive characteristics of the communities. This study explores methods for OD information mining based on social media data, which is of great significance for expanding the mining methods of residents' spatiotemporal behavior characteristics and enriching research on the configuration of public service facilities based on community residents' activity spaces and facility demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial clustering of life satisfaction scores noted in recent empirical research suggests that 'happier' people may live in specific neighbourhoods or regions. This prompts the questions: Do 'happier' people choose to move to specific places? Does living in specific places make people 'happier'? To answer these questions, this paper explores possible occurrences of selective mobility, and social and ecological influence. Using panel data collected in Australia from 2013 to 2021, we examine the association between life satisfaction scores and selective geographic mobility, and the possible influence that living at specific locations may have on individual life satisfaction trajectory, while controlling for individual personality traits and socio-demographic factors. Our results indicate that urban residents reporting lower life satisfaction scores before the move have a higher probability of moving to a rural area. Similarly, lower life satisfaction scores are associated with a higher probability of moving to a region with a different climate. We also find evidence that moving from the city to the country is associated with an uplift of the life satisfaction trajectory for the individual. A similar conclusion is reached for people who moved to a warmer climate, but not for a move to a cooler climate. To our knowledge, this is the first time the concepts of selective mobility and social and ecological influence have been applied in life satisfaction research. Our work provides an indicator that can be important to demographers predicting population movements. It can also inform policy development around assisting regional and rural areas attract/ retain residents to support regional sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have called for increased attention to the practices through which residents of southern cities create and use infrastructure. The failures and disruptions of many particular artefacts have meant that people often develop multiple ways to access water, electricity, or transportation, even if all of them have limitations. For sanitation, thinking through heterogeneous infrastructure configurations can help us to see connections between toilets, and the reasons for maintaining access to different types of toilets, given their different risks and benefits. In this paper, we focus on plots in Lilongwe with both indoor flush-toilets and backyard latrines, and the lived experiences of people as they navigate choices about the use of these toilets. The presence of on and off-grid toilets is rooted in colonial urban form, yet is perpetuated – and proliferates in new places – as residents face a number of constraints, including most recently recurrent water shortages due to droughts. We consider both how this configuration challenges official imaginaries of urban sanitation, and how it helps residents to address different risks and sanitation needs. Drawing on the experience of Lilongwe, we reflect on what can be learnt from this heterogeneous infrastructural configuration in terms of planning for more resilient water and sanitation services in Global South cities and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2022, the dynamic zero-COVID control policy came to an end, marking the conclusion of a three-year pandemic that affected 1.4 billion Chinese people. The pandemic and related policies created a unique, temporary, and historic social ecosystem where walking became more crucial than ever before. The pandemic not only severely restricted people's movement in public spaces but also exposed the longstanding contradictions between human bodies, modern mobility, and urban space. Over the three years of the pandemic, walking became an aesthetic survival attempt by Chinese people to cope with their limited freedoms under the pandemic. As the pandemic stagnated and worsened over time, walking-dominant activities gradually became a widespread social phenomenon that encouraged urban residents to participate in rebuilding society across various fields such as politics, art, nature, etc. The development of walking as an artistic form during this period represents a new aesthetic strategy and political awakening while reflecting humans' need to reconnect with land, social space, and their own bodies. This paper reviews how walking art has evolved historically through three periods – before, during, and after the pandemic – aiming to highlight both the public value of walking art and challenges within China's social ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urban population increases, integrated underground–aboveground complexes are being constructed at growing paces in major cities. The seismic analysis of such complexes is crucial for the safety and functionality in the threat of potential earthquake disasters. However, fine‐grained numerical modeling and analysis of such large and complex structures are still inefficient due to the consideration of the soil–structure interaction (SSI). To address this challenge, an efficient approach for numerical modeling of large‐scale seismic SSI analysis is presented in this paper to overcome the limitations of existing finite element analysis (FEA) software. Moreover, a multi‐graphic processing unit (GPU) parallel explicit algorithm is implemented for the nonlinear dynamic SSI problems to further increase the computational efficiency. A large underground–aboveground complex project in China is used as an example to demonstrate the capability of the integrated method. The accuracy and reliability of the multi‐GPU parallel explicit finite element algorithm for SSI analysis (GFEA‐SSIA) are verified through a comparative analysis of the linear‐elastic and nonlinear dynamic response of the building calculated by GFEA‐SSIA and common FEA software. Finally, the structural response and structural damage of the underground–aboveground complex are analyzed under multidirectional seismic motions, and the damage distributions of the structures are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of new towns is one of the main measures to evacuate urban populations and promote regional coordination and urban–rural integration in China. Mining the spatio-temporal pattern of new town hot spots based on multivariate data and analyzing the influencing factors of new town construction hot spots can provide a strategic basis for new town construction, but few researchers have extracted and analyzed the influencing factors of new town internal hot spots and their classification. In order to define the key points of Wuhan's new town construction and promote the construction of new cities in an orderly and efficient manner, this paper first constructs a space-time cube based on the luminous remote sensing data from 2010 to 2019, extracts hot spots and emerging hot spots in Wuhan New City, selects 14 influencing factor indicators such as population density, and uses bivariate Moran's index to analyze the influencing factors of hot spots, indicating that the number of bus stops and vegetation coverage rate are the most significant. Secondly, the disorderly multivariate logistic regression model is used to analyze the influencing factors of emerging hot spots. The results show that population density, vegetation coverage, road density, distance to water bodies, and distance to train stations are the most significant factors. Finally, based on the analysis results, some relevant suggestions for the construction of Wuhan New City are proposed, providing theoretical support for the planning and policy guidance of new cities, and offering reference for the construction of new towns in other cities, promoting the construction of high-quality cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definition: There is a growing interest in sustainable urban transport solutions in cities around the world. These changes, known as "smart urban mobility", aim to reduce the negative effects of transport on the natural environment and enhance the standard of living for urban dwellers. It should be noted that in addition to this transformation's technological aspects, modifying the city's structure and architecture also has a social dimension. The transformation of urban mobility has a significant impact on social relations. Introducing new modes of transport, such as city bikes and electric scooters, creates new ways of moving around the city and can impact social interactions. This can increase social integration and a community's sense of belonging. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the differences between social groups to ensure equal access to the benefits of these changes in addition to deeper social elements, such as changing the habits and expectations of residents and adapting solutions to the specific needs of each city. This paper aims to look at the social aspects of smart urban mobility, including the impact of these changes on the lives and relationships of city residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal settlements in major urban areas are often derided through discourses as pockets of poverty, disorder, and marginalisation. Consequently, city planning officials often seek to eliminate or reduce such settlements for more ordered planned settlements. Yet, informal urban settlements continue to remain a part of urban life and have, in many places, increased in size and density. This paper provides an ethnographic account of the place-making activities deployed by informal settlement dwellers in Abuja, Nigeria, who face constant threats of displacement and eviction. We use place-making as an analytic lens with which to explore the discursive, political, and material strategies used by individuals and communities to resist the threats of displacement. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Mabushi and Mpape, we identify, on the one hand, the key material strategies of place-making to include incremental improvement to dwellings, planting of economic trees, and physical confrontations. On the other hand, the formation of settlement associations and active involvement in local politics with its attendant alliance-making have contributed to place-making strategies through the development of meanings, senses of togetherness, and belonging to the settlements. Our findings show the agency of informal settlement dwellers and how they use both material processes and discursive narratives to generate new meanings of place, tenure security, and the right to the city. This enables them to resist displacement from the urban environment. We conclude that a place-making approach to exploring informal settlements is fruitful for understanding the complexity of urban change processes in the Nigerian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the design feasibility and economic advantage of photovoltaic (PV)-diesel generator (DG)-battery, PV-wind-battery, and PV-biogas (BG)-battery hybrid systems. The objective of this study is to investigate the performance of the three hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) for sustainable electricity supply in remote areas of Afghanistan. Hybrid optimization model for multiple energy resources (HOMER) software was utilized to perform modeling, optimization, economic, sensitivity, and multi-year analysis of the hybrid systems. The findings indicates that the PV-biomass-battery hybrid system with $175,938 net present cost (NPC) and $0.29/kWh cost of energy (COE) is the most appropriate approach than the PV-DG-battery, PV-wind-battery and diesel-only system. However, the COE in optimal HRES is higher than the COE supplied by Afghanistan's national grid to the household resident in large cities, but COE in the hybrid system is about 37% lower than the cost of energy in the study area and some provinces of Afghanistan. The multi-year analysis was performed on the PV-biogas-battery hybrid system with considering a 0.8% yearly degradation of PV panels and a 2% load increase annually. The results show about an 11.2% increase in NPC and a 6.2% decrease in COE compare to the system without multi-year consideration. Moreover, the outputs from HOMER were evaluated using the Simplex algorithm. The results indicate that there were no significant variations in the results from HOMER and Simplex algorithms. Therefore, this illustrates that the simulations were consistent. The study's findings are anticipated to be helpful to stakeholders, decision-makers, and investors to achieve the goals and increase the electricity access rate in remote areas of Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural observations were used to investigate the temporal dynamics events and associated variation in the daily activities of a sedentary population of mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) inhabiting an urban park in northern Portugal. Data was collected at Porto City Park from December to April, during the species' courtship and early nesting periods. The most frequent activities for this population were locomotion, resting and feeding. Statistical analysis revealed that male and female behaviours differed significantly throughout the courtship period, as males exhibited more displays and aggressive behaviour while females were more prone to feed in order to meet their increased nutritional and energetic needs. Temporal analyses showed that courtship reached a peak in intensity in February, since it was in this month that the highest values for mating, aggressive behaviour in males and defensive behaviour in females were observed. Behavioural differences were found for this population, with higher feeding rates compared to those of wild populations as well as lower defensive behaviour rates. This paper sheds light on how synanthropized populations, as well as those from Southwestern Europe, show different behavioural responses from other populations. Additional extensive monitoring of population dynamics and factors such as latitudinal differences, habituation to humans and climate change will help to predict future growth and expansion rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, ride-hailing services have emerged as a popular means of transportation for the residents of urban areas. There is an inequality in the spatio-temporal distribution of demand and supply, which requires the proper recommendation of routes to drivers in order to guide them towards riders optimally. This paper provides a review of different route recommendation strategies that have been applied in ride-hailing platforms with the main focus on fairness, and environmental issues. It is important to consider the environmental aspects of route recommendation systems as the transportation sector is one of the major sources of air pollution and has reduced the life expectancy of people around the globe. Moreover, there is an unfair distribution of resources and opportunities among the drivers and riders of the platform which has affected their long-term sustainability in the market. In this paper, we highlight the critical challenges and opportunities inherent in the design of green and fair route recommendation systems and indicate some possible directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how armed conflict impacts the recalibration of Aleppo's historic urban and cultural fabric, using the Al-Jdeideh quarter as a case study. This article critically reflects on the ongoing (post-)conflict, top-down (post-)reconstruction activities in Aleppo's historic core, drawing on ethnographic research of visual mapping and semi-structured interviews with current Aleppo dwellers in the city and former dwellers displaced across Europe. Our findings highlight that the current reconstruction activities lack locals' values and needs, and amplify the altered socio-economic dynamics between the (former) communities' absence and presence. Therefore, these activities are resulting in a skewed representation of what once was a major hub of culture, commerce, heritage, and everyday life. As such, the paper argues that the current reconstruction attempts lack a comprehensive and context-specific approach, and need to explore more inclusive pathways of human-centered and sustainable recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid economic development and high concentration of urban population, people's income level and quality of life continue to improve, resulting in more and more crowded scenes caused by people going out. Especially in urban commercial centers, transportation hubs, sports venues during important events, tourist attractions, etc., crowd gatherings occur frequently. However, accidents involving crowd gatherings in public places occur frequently, causing heavy casualties and property losses. Therefore, for crowd recognition, this paper proposes a new method to accurately estimate the number of dense crowds. In this method, a density map with accurate pedestrian locations is first generated using the focal inverse distance transform and used as ground truth labels for network training. Then, a multi-scale feature fusion algorithm based on residual network is designed, combining spatial and channel attention mechanisms to improve the accuracy and stability of crowd density estimation. In dense crowds, the phenomenon of overlapping and occlusion of people is very common and serious, making it difficult for existing pedestrian detection methods to distinguish each individual and accurately count the flow of people. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a density map-based method that uses a local maximum detection strategy and a K-nearest neighbor algorithm to convert the density map into the corresponding dense head bounding box. This method can effectively reduce the impact of occlusion and improve the accuracy of people counting. In order to further improve the estimation accuracy, a pattern recognition density peak clustering algorithm is introduced to study the clustered crowds. By treating the head bounding box as an element point, the distance between each element point is calculated, and the density of each point is calculated. Then perform clustering to find the cluster center with the highest density in each class. Finally, by comparing the density of each cluster center with the corresponding density threshold and adopting the corresponding decision-making method, the accuracy of people counting is further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-events like the Olympics and the Football World Cup routinely harm host cities and societies, largely due to their linkages with ambitious urban development agendas. Concurrently, resident protest has had only limited success in mitigating mega-event-related damages, notwithstanding the growth of resistance networks at local, national, and transnational scales. Contextualised within the broader processes of the Agenda 2020 and New Norm Olympic reforms, this paper explores the tactics of protest against the Summer Olympics in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028. In so doing, the paper demonstrates how the reforms have moderated some of the more egregious aspects of mega-event harm, while nevertheless preserving some fundamental problems with hosting, albeit in more diffuse or disguised forms. The paper makes sense of these processes through the notion of Potemkinism, conceptualised as a dynamic between the superficial and the substantive, and predicated on obfuscation or concealment. The paper also presents a taxonomy of tactics adopted by host city residents to counter the problems that persist in these processes of Potemkin reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects upon the aftermath of the eviction of working-class communities from the core locations of Delhi to Narela, over 42 kilometres from Delhi's centre. The evictees were previously residing in 'informal settlements', which are colloquially known as bastis or labelled as 'slums' in policy documents. Drawing on interviews and focused group discussions, the paper examines the impact of displacement as experienced by the basti residents. I highlight the struggles that residents faced while making 'home' in their new area. Familiarity, repetition, networks, and safety are the few aspects I engage with to explain the process of placemaking in the city. I argue that displacement should be understood beyond the idea of physical dislocation. It should be seen through the lens of 'place' and how a place is constructed over a period of time against the larger spatial order that is produced in the cities. The paper contributes to academic understanding of the varying experiences of displacement within the affected communities and the contestations which produce spaces on the margins of cities in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the conceptual and theoretical framework propounded by Ankhi Mukherjee. Her framework is developed through rigorous analyses of literary texts from diverse genres. It is philosophically underpinned in psychoanalysis and postcolonial studies. The interdisciplinary framework is eclectic in nature and it can be used in trauma studies, ageing population, mental health, health communication, and urban studies. This paper delineates the development of the framework and its application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of internet use on entrepreneurship activities. This is based on 2014 survey data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The results show that internet use promotes the entrepreneurial tendency of Chinese entrepreneurs and affects their income levels. Moreover, such influences are moderated by the location of individuals; the impact is higher for the entrepreneurial tendency and income levels of rural residents than that of urban ones. In addition, this paper also finds that internet use stimulates entrepreneurship by promoting social networks. Furthermore, social networks bring more salient impacts to rural residents as compared to those of urban ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data of urban residents' consumption in Jiangsu Province, this paper looks for the Statistical Yearbook of Jiangsu Province from Jiangsu Statistics Bureau, collects the required data of residents' consumption structure, and defines the components of residents' consumption structure in Jiangsu Province from eight aspects: clothing, food, housing, transportation and communication, medical care, culture, education, entertainment and other miscellaneous commodities. First, make a systematic theoretical explanation of these eight factors, so as to help us better understand how these eight factors are pieced together into a whole of residents' consumption structure. Then it analyzes the present situation of consumption structure. Secondly, based on the relevant theories of residents' consumption structure, in order to know the changes of the components of residents' consumption structure in Jiangsu Province over the years, this paper analyzes the relevant data of the collected structural factors by using factor analysis and ELES model, based on the data from 2009 to 2018. In the last part, according to the previous analysis results, the characteristics of urban residents' consumption structure in Jiangsu Province are summarized, and some suggestions and opinions are given. Finally, the future consumption structure is predicted according to the historical data, and some suggestions are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a questionnaire survey and semistructured interviews, this paper adopts a structural equation model to analyze the impact of official hospital WeChat accounts on urban residents' spatial perceptions and interactions with technology in Guangzhou, China. We find that official hospital WeChat accounts have a significant remodeling effect on urban residents' spatial behaviors and perceptions, mainly affecting the improvement in medical efficiency and the expansion of medical scope and convenience. Such accounts also reduce the psychological distance between urban residents and hospitals. Furthermore, online medical service platforms restructure urban residents' physical spatial movement, which is characterized by spatiotemporal compression and technical interaction. Spatiotemporal compression is manifested in the reduction in invalid time for residents in urban medical spaces and the expansion of the scope of medical treatment. Technical interaction is reflected in the mutual consultation and promotion between urban residents and technology. This paper aims to improve our understanding of the influence of technology on urban medical space and residents, and provides a reference for the optimization of urban space governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of urban built-up areas, accurately extracting the urban built-up area and spatiotemporal pattern evolution trends could be valuable for understanding urban sprawl and human activities. Considering the coarse spatial resolution of nighttime light (NTL) data and the inaccurate regional boundary reflection on point of interest (POI) data, land surface temperature (LST) data were introduced. A composite index method (LJ–POI–LST) was proposed based on the positive relationship for extracting the boundary and reflecting the spatial-temporal evolution of urban built-up areas involving the NTL, POIs, and LST data from 1993 to 2018 in this paper. This paper yielded the following results: (1) There was a spatial-temporal pattern evolution from north-east to south-west with a primary quadrant orientation of IV, V, and VI in the Hefei urban area from 1993–2018. The medium-speed expansion rate, with an average value of 14.3 km2/a, was much faster than the population growth rate. The elasticity expansion coefficient of urbanization of 1.93 indicated the incongruous growth rate between the urban area and population, leading to an incoordinate and unreasonable development trend in Hefei City. (2) The detailed extraction accuracy for urban and rural junctions, urban forest parks, and other error-prone areas was improved, and the landscape connectivity and fragmentation were optimized according to the LJ–POI–LST composite index based on a high-resolution remote sensing validation image in the internal spatial structure. (3) Compared to the conventional NTL data and the LJ–POI index, the LJ–POI–LST composite index method displayed an extraction accuracy greater than 85%, with a similar statistical and landscape pattern index result. This paper provides a suitable method for the positive relationship among these LST, NTL, and POI data for accurately extracting the boundary and reflecting the spatial-temporal evolution of urban built-up areas by the fusion data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the visual representation of "the urban people" by the Spanish leftwing populist party Unidas Podemos (UP) during the campaign for regional elections in Madrid in 2021. The political environment was characterised by increasing polarisation and the hyper-leadership of two candidates, right-wing Isabel Díaz Ayuso and UP's national leader Pablo Iglesias. In this context, UP employed a diverse range of images and audiovisual material with a specific focus on the urban dimension. This paper explores how the populist logic and societal split--the people vs. the elite--deployed by UP are visually represented and connected with the urban space. Drawing on the central role of images in politics, this paper contributes to the emerging scholarship on the visual and spatial dimensions of populism by (a) exploring the connections between populist imaginary, space, and the visual; (b) advancing an empirical analysis of the image of "the people" in a left-wing political party; and (c) connecting the imaginary of populism to its geo-graphical dimension, stressing both the urban and class divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles in this special issue extend research on urban space and politics in Istanbul with approaches that explorate the relationships between urban form, urban change, and political processes as assemblages of things, beliefs, institutions, and landscapes. They share a commitment to extended ethnography and thick description in urban studies, and contribute to research that destabilizes universalizing urban theory produced in Europe and America. The dramatic state-led project of neoliberal urban transformation in Istanbul has generated an important body of work that focuses on the consequences of creative destruction, urban displacement, and urban social and political exclusion. These papers contribute to that research with additional questions that incorporate understudied material and cultural elements of the urban political economy. What role do material elements (concrete, plexiglass, signs, maps) play in the practices that propel urban dynamics: that justify, for example, the rebuilding of some properties and the destruction of others? How do the subjective dimensions of human life (memory, belief, emotion, art, suspicion, and imagination) propel particular forms of urban development? Istanbulites' theories of why, where, and to whom destruction or fortune happens – and of what particular material things mean, or what they're meant to be used for – are crucial elements of the total urban situation. Istanbulites' theories cohere disparate elements into assemblages which, in turn, work to transform the city's material realities and social worlds. These papers invite us, as scholars, to resituate our urban theories and to bring urban residents' theories into assemblage with our own. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the smallest spatial unit in the city, the community should be an important space for healing the urban population. This paper presents a systematic review summarizing studies on community healing environments. The study identified 75 publications. The research findings are as follows: the main intervening variables include restorativeness, emotions and mood, stress, and well‐being. Little attention has been paid to the intervening variables including social support, environmental preferences and satisfaction, place attachment, behavior types that respond to personal will, self‐fulfillment, and the spirit of personal culture. The various types of natural environments in communities have been given focused attention for a long time. However, the superiority of the natural environment should not be a reason to underestimate the healing benefits of community spaces. The mechanisms by which environmental characteristics are transformed into positive individual influences through intervening variables should be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses whether governmental mechanisms developed in the context of the constitutional duty to consult with aboriginal peoples in Canada should be mobilized to improve awareness about urban aboriginal populations and governmental responsiveness to their needs and aspirations. Topics include the legal framework of the duty to consult, and the Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network (UAKN) which promotes knowledge and research about urban Aboriginal populations in Canada.

Demographic changes, associated with longer life expectancy and a lower birth rate, have led to population ageing in societies. There is also a high rate of unemployment linked to job insecurity, temporary employment, school drop-out rates and overqualification, among others. These phenomena have generated a new social challenge. This research paper, based on a sample of 259 people, aims to analyse the extent to which socio-occupational status influences the use of public spaces (parks and squares) and users' perceptions about the possibilities of contact promoted by different public spaces and the quality of relationships with other users. Findings indicate that there are differences depending on socio-occupational status with regard to the perception of social relations and frequency of use. In particular, unemployed and retired people use urban public spaces to a greater extent, and they also show a more positive perception of the possibilities of contact in public spaces and the quality of relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]