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The acceleration of urban imagery data analysis, driven by computer vision (CV), has created noteworthy opportunities for urban studies and planning. Data on street environments with high granularity derived from geo-tagged street views allow urban researchers to obtain geospatial data on greenery, pavement materials, and dimensions, building facades, urban furniture, lighting, vehicle presence, etc. However, how such attributes have been classified and used to address urban studies, planning, or mobility questions remains relatively poorly understood among non-technical researchers. Targeting urban planning and design researchers who do not have a background in CV, this paper reviews planning-relevant attributes that CV approaches of urban streetscapes have delivered to date and examines some of their research applications. We present a systematic analysis of 146 papers scrutinizing 104 street attributes in four groups. By exploring a subcollection of 24 papers, we discuss the effectiveness of those attributes being incorporated into current quantitative urban studies. This study's primary contribution lies in providing a comprehensive summary of CV-driven street attributes, their applications, and the algorithms used, serving as a valuable resource for future urban research. Additionally, we identify key challenges in this field, such as unclear definitions of attributes, a disproportionate emphasis on selecting models and features, and the absence of standardized measurement and definition methods. Furthermore, we offer recommendations for future research directions in this area. • We review 104 street attributes collected with computer vision in urban studies • We summarize 23 chosen attributes' correlations with known urban design measures • We provide a table of CV-driven street attributes with model details, references, and impacts • We highlight challenges in attribute definitions, research focus, and impact clarity • We provide recommendations for standardizing data and future research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When relating to build environments, porosity refers to soft transitions across geographies and to the interpenetration between spaces of a different character. While its importance is recognised, its absence in post-modern urban fabrics has become evident. Therefore, this paper's primary objective is to contribute to the resettling of porosity in its various dimensions. To that end, it questions the circumstances that led to the erosion of porosity in urban environments and how that erosion is visible. To answer, the paper (1) establishes concepts for urban and architectural porosity, the criteria that determine each of those and parameters to evaluate it; (2) revisits modernist principles, indicating those that contradicted porosity; and (3) demonstrates how porosity evolved through a comparative of five Lisbon neighbourhoods. The study attests that the implementation of ideas from the modernist movement resulted in a radical loss of porosity, concluding that, in maintaining modernist principles, Portuguese regulation keeps encouraging impermeable cityscapes. The research withdraws the term porosity from ambiguity. And presents concepts, criteria and evaluation parameters that are applicable in various contexts. Through an understanding of the problem, it also points towards a solution, highlighting the need for a further investigation to improve legal frameworks. • A porous built environment depends on porosity at two scales: urban and architectural. • Urban porosity refers to the easy flow of people across geographies, being related with continuous urban fabrics. • Architectural porosity refers to the gradual transition between spaces of different characters (e.g. between inside and outside, between privade and public) resulting in the natural appropriation of places. • Together, urban and architectural porosity contribute to walkability and increased informal contacts, resulting in better health outcomes, stronger communities and vivid streets. • Current regulation is still trapped in modernists principles that promoted abrupt transitions, segregation and the fragmentation of cities encouraging unporous urban environments; and should, therefore, be amended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population ageing is creating opportunities and challenges for many communities across the globe, as one in six people is expected to be older than 65 by 2050. Initiatives to develop age-friendly communities (AFC) have increased in popularity for more than two decades. While the physical environment and outdoor spaces are recognized as the core domain of the concept of AFC in the literature, most articles are published in the journals of ageing, gerontology, health and social policy and not in mainstream urban planning or design journals. The aim of the paper is to examine the spatial interventions and built-environment related discussions in the scholarly literature in the realm of AFC in the fields of landscape architecture and urban planning and identify gaps in the literature with the focus on spatial interventions. In addition, this paper aims to call urban planners and designers to action to be more engaged in the discussions and implementation of age-friendliness of communities. Findings suggest that urban planners and designers have the ability and power to contribute to the implementation of AFCs by raising awareness, changing attitude towards ageing issues, develop networks and collaboration, increase empathy, initiate and change policies, and put policies into action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphologies of informal settlements constantly change as they undergo processes of incremental adaptations and transformations in relation to emerging circumstances. One of the ways to explore the underlying morphogenic processes governing such adaptations and transformations is to study the morphogenesis of informal settlement. Informal settlements can tell the story of how access networks evolve through incremental processes of change as they generally emerge and where possible become consolidated through forms of adaptations and transformations. Adopting a comparative case study research design approach, this paper explores the incremental transformations of access networks across three emerging settlements located in proximity to Abuja in Nigeria. These settlements are comparatively mapped using historic satellite images illustrating eight temporal stages between 2007 and 2021. Space Syntax is used as an analytical method to study the configurational morphogenesis of the access network with a focus on the measures of connectivity, betweenness, closeness, and intelligibility. The study shows how the flexibility of the early stages of development provides opportunities for the formation of what might be considered irregular elements in the access network. The research findings also suggest that the access network becomes less intelligible as it evolves. The locations of the main local cores of the access networks are found to remain relatively unchanged and somewhat fixed as emerging local cores come about in the newly developed areas. The spatial circumstances of the studied settlements are also found to have impacts on how the incremental adaptations and transformations generate new elements as part of the access networks. The findings of this study can inform the ways the built environment professions can engage with processes of incremental transformation by providing a better understanding of configurational morphogenesis in the context of informal urbanism. • The paper explores the configurational morphogenesis of incremental urbanism through a comparative study. • The study analyses the configurational development of three emerging settlements near Abuja in Nigeria over about 14 years. • A systematic spatio-temporal mapping using GIS and Space Syntax is employed to explore the configurational morphogenesis. • Findings show that flexibility in early development can enable the emergence of irregular elements in the access network. • The study findings also suggest that the access network becomes less intelligible as it expands over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to significant changes in travel behaviour and public activities, and they might have contributed to changes in residential location choices. However, research examining the relationship between residential location choice and COVID-19 is very limited. To that end, this paper focuses on how pandemic-induced changes in work patterns, travel preferences and daily activity patterns have altered residential preferences and potentially, relocation trends. The main determinants of residential location choice have been established in the literature over the past 30 years: physical attributes of the dwelling; surrounding built environment; affordability; and accessibility to transportation, workplaces, and services. However, each of these determinants are prioritised differently depending on the circumstances. Therefore, exploring how these priorities have shifted after the pandemic can pave the way for understanding how preferences for residential location choice shift as a consequence. From the review, the key findings include the decreasing importance of transport and workplace accessibility in residential location choice after the pandemic. Firstly, teleworking is becoming more prevalent within office jobs than before the pandemic, leading to less frequent trips to conventional workplaces, reducing the need to live within a commutable distance to a workplace. Secondly, trips to other activities have likewise become less frequent due to either remote alternatives (e.g., online shopping) or shifting towards services closer to home, reducing the need to travel in general. Another consequence of the pandemic is people staying at home longer than before, thus increasing the need for more desirable dwelling attributes such as larger house size and wider surrounding green space. Since these attributes are generally more affordable in areas less accessible to transport and services, this may subsequently lead to migrations to areas of lower population density, potentially decentralising urban areas. • Long-term teleworking has reduced the need to live near the workplace post-pandemic. • Residential preferences shift towards desirable dwellings at affordable prices. • Prevalence of online shopping has led to permanent changes in retail destinations. • Transport preference inclines towards car dependency over sustainable modes. • Overall findings suggest a potential shift towards urban decentralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban theorist Jane Jacobs related the presence of people with street safety, coining the expression "eyes on the street" and connecting it with morphological characteristics of architecture and urban space. However, urban studies have usually focused on people's perceptions of fear and social features rather than establishing a connection between where violence takes place and how the built environment looks like. This paper aims to estimate a potential relationship between street safety and urban morphology in a neighborhood of Quito, Ecuador, called la Mariscal. Crime Data was provided by the competent local government and morphological indicators were taken from a recent study of the neighborhood. Both categories were tested using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) econometric model. Results show that five morphological indicators related with the presence of people, non-basic commercial and facility balance, street area, distance to squares and pocket parks, distance to public transport stations, and distance to border vacuums, referring to big urban areas abandoned or with massive single uses, are strongly correlated with the number of robberies. This outcome provides evidence to support that urban planning and design principles may incorporate safety considerations. • The presence of people helps to reduce the number of street robberies. • Morphological urban indicators related to the presence of people are strongly correlated with the number of street robberies. • Jane Jacobs's postulate regarding eyes on the street is still valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing public opposition, megaevents such as the Summer Olympics continue to proliferate both in the Global North and South, thus reshaping the built environment of cities and the living conditions of their inhabitants. This paper presents a novel analytical tool that expands the perspectives from which to explore urban megaevents. Building on the controversy among megaproject scholars around Albert Hirschman's Hiding Hand principle, we study the diverse roles that optimism can play in the justification, planning, implementation, and evaluation of megaevents. This approach has the potential to unveil key urban policy agendas underpinning the hosting of megaevents. It does so by focusing on two key aspects: first, the various types and degrees of power exercised by the involved stakeholders in their attempts to justify and support or oppose an event during the planning phase, and second, the coping mechanisms deployed by the promoters as they face unexpected constraints during the implementation phase. In doing so, the approach can help to develop more nuanced and context-specific criteria for evaluating the success of megaevents. We exemplify the approach by using the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as an illustrative case study. • The Hiding Hand controversy provides a framework for the analysis of urban megaevents. • We use the Barcelona 1992 Olympics as case study to illustrate the framework. • Sincere and strategic overoptimism play diverse roles throughout a megaevent lifecycle. • The analysis exemplifies the context-dependence of the notions of success and failure. • Sincere and strategic overoptimism typically operate in tandem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As our environment becomes increasingly urban, the governance of urban regions faces multifaceted challenges. There is growing recognition that studying the governance of urban regions requires looking beyond individual plans and examining networks of plans. Existing work on plan networks focuses on documents, neglecting the agency of the people and governments who create and implement the plans. To help fill this gap, we develop and test an analytical framework for assessing urban governance within a network of plans, focusing on the alignment of plan content, interactions, and the relative efficacy of the plans. We apply this framework in metropolitan Austin, Texas (USA), studying five strategic plans that address the region's built environments, transportation systems, and natural areas over a 20 year-period. The analysis reveals how voluntary regional scenario-planning conducted decades earlier continues to shape city and regional development goals; how alignment between plans on paper can belie poor cross-jurisdictional coordination in practice; and how plans addressing transportation and natural areas are more efficacious for implementation than plans for the built environment. In addition to making plan dynamics visible, the framework thus allows for rigorous, empirical assessment of regional governance through a network of plans. • A framework is proposed to analyze urban-region governance with a network of plans. • The framework is tested with five strategic plans in Austin, Texas (USA). • Evidence is found of a network consisting of documents and agency. • Network-of-plan research benefits from the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Densification is the key intervention strategy proposed in the urban sustainability planning literature. Nevertheless, the blueprint for action is still vague, and especially so in small cities. Is, for example, the premise for and reward of densification relatively transferable between city scales? In addition, does difference in centre structures and distribution of facilities in small cities have an implication for active travel? By focusing on three Norwegian small cities, this paper addresses how built environment and attitudes influence active travel behaviour in small cities with different centre structures. Using descriptive statistics, ANOVA test and negative binomial regression on survey data, the paper finds that attitude towards active travel as well as accessibility significantly influence walk/bike trip frequency. Moreover, variation in small-city centre structure has an important implication for active travel but the effect varies between facility types. • Theoretical premise on the causal mechanism between urban form and travel behaviour in small city context is laid out. • City-scale built environment factors are strong predictors of average accessibility by active modes in small cities. • Attitude towards active modes strongly contributes to the propensity for active travel when alternative modes are available. • Distribution of facilities that optimizes active travel in a small city differs by facility categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration in the historic core of Chinese cities largely follows one of two possibilities – 'demolition-reconstruction,' by tearing down old houses to make room for new development, and 'frozen protection,' designating no-growth areas around certain historical sites and neighborhoods. While these approaches have the potential to preserve recognized cultural values, they can lead to fragmented and uneven built environments as well as limited historic preservation and infrastructure development achievements. In this paper, we discuss the institutional constraints faced by the transformation of regeneration approaches using the cases of Shanghai's historic Old Town area and propose a theoretical framework for analyzing the 'structure-discourse-tools' interactions in the urban regeneration dilemma from the lens of sociological institutionalism. Our analysis reveals that discourse plays the role of problem framing through the operation of the power structure, while institutional tools are responsible for materializing the discourse. We argue that innovative approaches in urban regeneration should step outside of the conventional 'control' and 'design' tools but seek a more inclusive governance structure that prioritizes and materializes new discourse. Our study provides a transferable theoretical framework for better understanding complexity and institutional dilemma in global urban regeneration cases and guiding creative transformation in historical area's regeneration projects. • This paper proposes a theoretical framework to explore the combined relationships among institutional arrangements. • The governance transformation depends on the overall transformation of the power structure, tools, and discourse. • Land, planning, and administration institutions are compatible and constitute the routine approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban management industry has recently shown interest in implementing digital twins in cities to improve urban planning, optimize asset management and create secure, sustainable cities. Built on the knowledge gained with the development of smart cities and the implementation of digital twins in other industries, urban digital twins have experienced a significant expansion in just a few years. However, this rapid growth has led to a fragmented situation where the definition of the concept of urban digital twin is not clear and implementations share few similarities. For this reason, the main objective of this paper was to contribute to the conceptualization of the digital twin in urban management. To do so, existing initiatives were mapped in terms of applications, inputs, processing and outputs. Requirements were elicited and the basic structure of a city digital twin was defined. Benefits, open issues and key challenges were also identified. This paper will be useful for stakeholders within the urban management area as it establishes the basis for the future design, development and widespread adoption of urban digital twins. • Existing approaches on urban digital twins have been reviewed. • The present capability to act on the physical twin is limited. • Standardization is needed to achieve interoperability between digital twins. • Benefits, open issues and key challenges are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although studies have explored the travel behavior of residents in informal housing communities in recent years, few have been conducted in the context of a time series before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. This paper tracks individual-level daily mobility response for three months, using an interrupted time series (ITS) quasi-experimental design to infer daily causal effects of COVID-19 and community close-off management on individuals' daily travel distances. This study compares the mobility response to COVID-19 between people living in urban villages and commodity housing communities in Shenzhen, China. The results reveal that urban village residents reduced their travel less, with slower response and recovery rates after the COVID-19 outbreak. The community close-off management was less effective for urban village residents, with a smaller abrupt reduction in mobility and their recovery rate increasing faster during the post-lockdown period. Therefore, urban village residents may have experienced greater limitations in adjusting travel with higher exposure risks during the pandemic, compared with commodity housing residents. The variations in mobility change are significantly affected by some inherent differences between these two groups, even after controlling for their socioeconomic and built environment features. These results provide important insights for designing mobility restriction policies for different housing groups and planning more resilient neighborhoods in the post-COVID era. • Adopting an interrupted time series quasi-experimental design to infer daily causal effects of COVID-19 • Comparing mobility effects of COVID-19 in urban villages and commodity housing communities • Urban village residents reduced their travel less, with slower response and recovery rates. • The community close-off management was less effective for urban village residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stormwater has been acknowledged as a major concern in cities because of mismanagement of this resource. It has also been underestimated as a resource in climate change actions and policies. Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) is considered as an effective adaptation measure to address these issues while providing many co-benefits. This paper reports the challenges of implementing WSUD in the Australian context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 experts in Australia. The experts are involved in design, research, engineering, and planning policy in both public and private sectors. The qualitative analysis of the interviews involved thematic and content analysis through NVivo12. Analysis of the responses indicated six main challenges including financial, innovation and evaluation tools, capacity, institutional arrangements, and policy. The experts believe that a lack of standardized design and implementation can be addressed through collaborative design processes. They suggest a robust structure of approval process and establishing clarity of roles and responsibilities in all sectors. All respondents confirm the critical role of monitoring and maintenance in these projects. It is suggested that allocating recurrent funding for these ongoing activities from the beginning and setting incentives to engage communities and local councils in maintaining the projects can be helpful. • Provides insights in investigating the impact of social and organisational structure towards achieving WSCs. • Conducted qualitative analysis of interviews and survey questions. • Recommendations to advance stormwater management planning and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Density has gained considerable attention in policy and scientific discourses since the emergence of COVID-19. In the early days, density was blamed as a negative factor that accelerates the transmission of coronavirus in urban areas. Following this, many studies have examined the impact of density on the spread of COVID-19. This offers a good opportunity to examine and synthesize the insights reported in the literature to understand how density affected the spread of the virus. To do so, we have conducted a systematic literature review of 134 papers, which around 58 % of them found density as a positive predictor. However, we found that the relationship between density and the spread of the virus is complex and mediated by factors such as scale, context, methods used for analysis, and other built environment factors. Hence, we assert that the relationship between density and infection rate is not straightforward, and assertions about the effects of density on COVID-19 transmission can only be made with caution. Comprehensive analyses taking into account multiple complex and interrelated factors need to be carried out before any conclusions regarding this issue can be drawn. Therefore, it is advisable to refrain from making premature statements due to their potential adverse effects on efforts toward the development of cities that are resilient to climate change and contribute to achieving sustainable development goals. • The effect of density on the spread of COVID-19 is widely studied in the literature. • We review the literature on the relationship between density and the pandemic. • Contrasting results have been reported in the literature. • We highlight issues related to context, scale, and methods used in the literature. • We argue that premature conclusions about the effect of density should be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profound insights have been gained into which characteristics determine housing prices. These characteristics reflect two different aspects: those which are correlated with the dwelling itself and those which are correlated with the location and the surrounding area. However, few studies precisely looked at the disparities and heterogeneity in these effects across neighborhoods with varied conditions. Also, there lacks studies focusing on the moderate-density cases where housing markets have drawn concerns recently. This study aims to fill this research gap by analyzing these disparities across neighborhoods with different economic and racial/ethnic conditions. Through machine learning approaches, we compare the disparities in the impacts of housing status, public transit services, and surrounding environment factors under seven conditions. Results indicate that the heterogeneity in economic conditions could be more significant than racial/ethnical conditions. Through comparison analysis, we call policymakers to need to adopt differentiated perspectives on housing price analysis, and future studies should consider the disparities in the impacts across neighborhoods. • This paper investigates sociodemographic and economic disparities in the impacts of factors on housing prices through machine learning approaches. • Results indicate that the heterogeneity in economic conditions is more significant than racial/ethnical conditions. • We call on policymakers and researchers to adopt differentiated perspectives on housing price forecasting across neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the rapid global urbanization, providing a better quality of life in cities is becoming an increasingly critical issue for urban planning. However, the links between the built environment and subjective well-being are not sufficiently understood. This paper reviews the evidence on the range of pathways linking the built environment to subjective well-being. Seven potential pathways are identified and reviewed: (1) travel, (2) leisure, (3) work, (4) social relationships, (5) residential well-being, (6) emotional responses, and (7) health. Based on this knowledge, the paper presents an overview of strategies for improving subjective well-being through urban planning. Among others, proposed strategies are to: enhance conditions for active travel; improve public transport while restricting cars; provide easy access to facilities and services; develop or steer technology and emerging mobility options to improve inclusiveness and quality of life for different groups; integrate various forms of urban nature as much as possible; provide accessible, inclusive public spaces and communal spaces; maintain upkeep and order in urban space, vegetation, and transport systems; implement noise reduction strategies; develop aesthetically pleasing buildings and public spaces based on residents' needs and preferences; and reduce socio-spatial inequalities while providing support for housing and transport for vulnerable groups. • Knowledge on cities and quality of life is crucial for present and future development. • Urban planning and policy will benefit from evidence-based knowledge. • Pathways from built environment to subjective well-being can guide urban planning. • The seven pathways are: travel, leisure, work, social relationships, residential well-being, emotional responses, and health. • Urban planning strategies for improving subjective well-being in cities are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household size and its spatial distributions reflect not only the socioeconomic development in a city but also the rationality of urban resource allocation. Most existing studies rely heavily on census data to explore the potentially influential factors using methods such as macro-statistical analysis and socioeconomic analysis, of which the spatial resolutions and geographic scales are constrained. More importantly, the association between the household size distribution and the built environment is oversimplified or even neglected to some extent. In this work, we use massive mobile phone data combined with travel surveys of Beijing inhabitants' data (TSBI) to infer the household size and analyze the effect of spatial heterogeneity in a finer spatial resolution in Beijing, China. First, the machine learning method (i.e., support vector machine (SVM)) is applied to identify the household relationships of mobile users, and there are around 3.44 million households (families) with different sizes are obtained. Second, we analyze the spatial distribution patterns of household size and its association with built environmental indicators (e.g., public service density, public transportation density, etc.). The results exhibit a heterogeneous effect of the regional built environment on average household size (AHS). For instance, "commercial density" and "administrative density" show a negative impact on household size, while "public service density" and "public transportation density" show positive correlations with household size. As a complement to census data, mobile phone data can be used to obtain the household size in real-time. This paper provides quantified evidence for government departments to allocate facilities in a more targeted, balanced, and reasonable way according to the regional differences in household size, which would potentially support the sustainable urban development. • Using phone call characteristics between family members to infer family relationships • Family relationship was determined using SVM algorithm. • MGWR is applied to explore the effects of built environment factors on family size. • House prices and distance to city center have significant effects on household size. • Potential decision-making support is provided for the facility allocation for government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban built environment has been extensively studied as a means to reduce car use, but most of the built environment features that have been examined mostly include so-called 'D-variables', namely, density, (functional) diversity, (road network) design, etc. The influence of the three-dimensional street space, which cannot be directly understood from maps, is much less studied. However, characteristics of the street space are considered to influence people's travel behavior according to urban design and walkability theories. A major reason for this gap is the lack of data providing relevant information. This paper aims to fill the gap by harnessing new urban data to measure these characteristics of the urban environment and analyze their impact on travel behavior, as indicated by the amount of car use. Among the many characteristics of street space, we chose the quality of street buildings, continuity of street walls, and height-width ratio of the street valley as three key characteristics to study. Using Beijing as a case study, we found that the three street space characteristics had a statistically significant relationship with residents' car use, mainly by influencing travel mode choice. The continuity of street walls is the most influential factor in reducing car use. • We expanded existing research by examining the influence of the street space on urban car use. • The streetscape is measured using street view images, deep learning models and building footprint data. • The continuity of street walls is the most influential streetscape feature in reducing car use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spatial relationship between walkability and air pollution exposure via a spatial vertical equity lens, and discusses the possible bias of healthy spaces with a special focus on age groups and housing prices. The urban centre of Wuhan, China, a rapidly urbanising area, is taken as the study area. The findings obtained are: (i) spatial inequities of the urban-rural gradient are evident in terms of walkability and air pollution exposure, and the combinations of the two measurements divide the study area into high walkability-low pollution exposure spaces ('sweet spot' locations), low walkability-high pollution exposure spaces ('sour spot' locations), high walkability-high pollution exposure spaces ('risky spot' locations) and low walkability-low pollution exposure spaces; (ii) both minors and seniors were inequitably treated in healthy space allocation, but minors are at a more significant disadvantage than seniors; and (iii) the communities with low housing prices exhibit low walkability and high air pollution exposure, suggesting that healthy spaces are more likely observed in economically advantaged communities. The study proposes a spatial lens to investigate the importance of embedding the notion of vertical equity in the built environment, and thus provides a conceptual framework to support sustainable urban planning and public health. • Spatial lens is adopted to investigate the equity embedded in the built environment. • Measurements of walkability and air pollution exposure have both been improved. • Minors, compared to seniors, are at a greater disadvantage in the built environment. • Economically vulnerable groups are being squeezed out of healthy spaces. • The research framework supports policies towards a more equitable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creative industries and the digital economy have become the drivers for the metropolises of China. Despite the rapid transformation towards knowledge production in China, the understanding of the role of informalities (like urban villages) in creative cities is still lacking. This paper examines the following interrelated questions: a) why have urban villages become the cluster/assemblages for a circuit of knowledge production (e.g. , digital work, media, and arts); and b) how is the assemblage of creative communities created by the growing rent-gap seeking regimes with different agency and everyday practices as shown in Beijing's artist and IT worker villages? Our investigations of the Heiqiao and Shigezhuang Villages in Beijing reveal that the Chinese rural land system has shaped the porous and interstitial spaces (e.g. , urban villages as the " semi-commons " for landowners and migrant tenants) in the regime-specific community-making and is distinctive from Western models of creative cluster formation. This study refines Florida's elitist-oriented analysis where the "creative class" prefers the "quality of place," and the city thus needs to enhance the quality of life to attract creative workers. The artist and IT worker villages, as a microcosm of the like-minded creative worker assemblage, are also sites for establishing contacts and fostering interaction in creative production. It is the quality of the public realm and networking (beyond the quality of the built environment) that shapes the assemblage of creative communities in urban villages. The networking and grass-roots alliance (as " semi-commons ") can help cope with the appropriation and provision problems facing " commons." • Urban village as semi-commons is a floating oasis for low-wage creative workers. • We need a relational and negotiated view on temporary land use in semi-commons. • Creative workers can unleash creativity in the Rent Gap Seeking Stage II . • Artist and IT worker villages take varied spatial forms and neighborhood activity. • Urban planning can become "softer" to allow for temporary uses of space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses post-apartheid planning reform in South Africa and identifies the successes and failures thereof, as understood by South African planners. We noted a perception of success regarding the reform of planning legislation; however, the general feeling was that planning had failed to achieve spatial transformation in the post-apartheid era. A variety of reasons were given for this: the failure to achieve reservation of planning work for planners, political interference, weak planning tools, lack of capacity, and planners' lack of key skills. We argue that underlying these failures was a deeper issue, namely that many powerful stakeholders in the built environment seemingly did not ascribe value to the planning process. In other instances, they may accept the value of the process, but not the uniqueness of planners' skills. This divergence of opinion of and power struggle between the legitimacy of planning versus planners shapes both the form that planning reform takes, but also the perceptions of the successes or failures of planning reform. Consequentially, this means that to achieve 'successful' planning reform, it is necessary to account for how the interaction of micro (individual) and macro-meso (organisational, societal) agendas shape these processes. • South African planners perceived planning reform post-apartheid as failed. • The perception of failure related to lack of control over planning by planners. • Individual agendas of planners affected perception and form of planning reforms. • Planners are thus both enablers and limiters of planning reform. • Reform of planning systems needs to be both technical and tactical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has dramatically changed the lifestyle of people, especially in urban environments. This paper investigated the variations of built environments that were measurably associated with the spread of COVID-19 in 150 Wuhan communities. The incidence rate in each community before and after the lockdown (January 23, 2020), as respective dependent variables, represented the situation under normal circumstances and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI). After controlling the population density, floor area ratio (FAR), property age and sociodemographic factors, the built environmental factors in two spatial dimensions, the 15-minute walking life circle and the 10-minute cycling life circle, were brought into the Hierarchical Linear Regression Model and the Ridge Regression Model. The results indicated that before lockdown, the number of markets and schools were positively associated with the incidence rate, while community population density and FAR were negatively associated with COVID-19 transmission. After lockdown, FAR, GDP, the number of hospitals (in the 15-minute walking life circle) and the bus stations (in the 10-minute cycling life circle) became negatively correlated with the incidence rate, while markets remained positive. This study effectively extends the discussions on the association between the urban built environment and the spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, given the limitations of sociodemographic data sources, the conclusions of this study should be interpreted and applied with caution. • Influence of built environment on COVID-19 at the community level was studied. • Hierarchical Linear Regression Model and Ridge Regression Model were utilized. • Before lockdown, markets and schools were positively associated with COVID-19. • FAR, GDP, hospitals and bus stations were negatively associated with COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop an age-friendly society, it is a basic task to deeply understand what and how factors would affect elderly people's daily multiple-activity time-use patterns. In the literature, the impacts of built environments as the physical aspects of living environments have been widely studied. However, the impacts of social environments as the social aspects of living environments on multiple activity participation and duration constrained by time budgets have not been found. To fill this gap, this paper makes efforts to propose various social environmental indicators and incorporate them into a multiple discrete-continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model to test the significance of each variable and to explore the impacts of living environments on elderly people's daily multiple-activity time-use behaviours. In addition to socio-economic compositions, the social environmental indicators are extended to social ties of people, living pressure, social resources distribution, social safety and policy. Then a joint elasticity analysis for multiple activity participation and duration with constraints is proposed for deriving policy and practice implications. The specifications and joint elasticity analysis in Beijing of China which is a representative city affected by Confucian culture and faced with aging problem in Eastern and South-eastern Asia help find out significant factors and their impacts on elderly people's multiple-activity time-use patterns. Policy and practice implications are suggested to improve elderly people's out-of-home activity participation and duration so that an age-friendly society is expected. • Propose social environments indicators. • Integrate living environments into a MDCEV model. • Integrate living environments into a MDCEV model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars, practitioners and policymakers view urban health based on their foundational ontologies, or paradigms, which provide a framework of norms that specifies the policy goals or research questions, the preferred policy instruments or research methodologies, and defines the nature of the urban health issue. This paper identifies four paradigms in current research and practice that address the links between the urban built environment and human health: the ' medical-industrial city ', 'urban health science', ' healthy built environment ' and ' health social movement ' paradigms. We argue that scholars, practitioners and policymakers must recognise their diverse and sometimes contradictory views in order to create an opportunity for coherence in understanding knowledge generated from different paradigms. • A paradigmatic lens is applied to identify the diverse approaches applied to urban health. • Urban health paradigms differ in how the priority issues and the methodologies to address those issues are conceptualised. • Understanding the multiple views creates an opportunity for coherence among the approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the politics of shelter provision in three African cities, focusing on the needs of, and provision for, the low- and middle-income residents. The significance of housing to citizen well-being means that governments influence multiple facets of land and shelter, affecting the shelter options realizable for urban residents. The framework of political settlements is increasingly used to understand national political outcomes. In this paper it is used to analyse shelter outcomes at the city scale. In all three cities, national political elites have influenced housing outcomes. In the two capital cities, elites use clientelism (backed up by violence) to advantage themselves and influential local groups. Approaches to housing are used to gain political legitimacy (both through the ideas that the built environment can encapsulate and through improved access to housing). In all three cities, territorial controls are used to influence electoral outcomes (with consequences for housing outcomes). The findings reinforce the importance of understanding the political context within which shelter outcomes emerge. They also highlight that more needs to be understood about the relation of sub-national politics to national-level political settlements. • National elites are a significant influence on shelter outcomes in all three cities. • Shelter offers political elites both rents and legitimacy. • Residential areas are controlled – sometimes violently - by elites to win elections. • Non-elites are able to have some influence and elites have introduced shelter programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architectural styles and their evolution are central to architecture history. However, traditional approaches to understand styles and their evolution require domain expertise, fieldwork and extensive manual processes. Recent research in deep learning and computer vision has highlighted the great potential in analyzing urban environments from images. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based framework for understanding architectural styles and age epochs by deciphering building façades based on street-level imagery. The framework is composed of two stages: Deep 'Learning' the architecture and Deep 'Interpreting' the architecture age epochs and styles. In Deep 'Learning', a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model is designed to automatically learn about the age characteristics of building façades from street view images. In Deep 'Interpreting' stage, three components are proposed to understand the different perspectives regarding building ages and styles. In the experiment, a building age epoch dataset is compiled for the city of Amsterdam and Stockholm to understand the evolution of architectural element styles and the relationship between building ages and styles spatially and temporally. This research illustrates how publicly available data and deep learning could be used to trace the evolution of architectural styles in the spatial-temporal domain. • A deep learning-based framework for architectural history research • Instance-level building age epoch inference with street view image • Interpreting deep neural network to trace underlying architectural styles evolution • Modern architecture styles are increasingly homogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban transportation systems, taxis are regarded as flexible, convenient, and time-saving. Taxi demand is affected by various built-environment factors and by the time of the day. Although many studies have investigated correlations between taxi demand and the built environment, the direct and spillover effects of built environment factors on taxi demand have not been examined at a fine spatial scale. To address this gap in the literature, this paper employs spatial econometric models using GPS-tracked taxi trips, mobile signaling data, and points of interest (POIs) to study taxi demand in Beijing at a 1-kilometer square grid resolution. The results show that, in the morning and evening peak hours, road network density has the strongest (positive) direct and indirect impact on taxi ridership. A relationship is also found between public transportation and taxi ridership: bus coverage has positive direct effects and insignificant indirect effects on taxi pick-ups and drop-offs, while subway coverage has negative indirect effects, suggesting that it may absorb taxi demand from surrounding grids. Results also indicate that various built-environment factors affect taxi demand differently at morning and evening peak times. This study reveals the complex nature of taxi ridership and has important implications for policymakers, transport planners, and other stakeholders in megacities around the world. • Use spatial autoregressive models to investigate the relation between built environment, socioeconomics and taxi ridership. • Conduct the analysis for morning and evening peak hours. • Built environment characteristics and socioeconomics influence taxi ridership via both local and spillover effects. • Offer a framework to incorporate various types of big data, including taxi data, mobile signaling data, points of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2018, as a result of a program known as " Villes Sans Bidonvilles " (VSB) or "Cities without Slums," the Kingdom of Morocco declared 58 of 85 cities across the country as slum-free. This paper analyzes the "pockets of resistance" that the Kingdom of Morocco has faced in the implementation of the VSB program. I assert that the contestations and acts of resistance pursued by slum-dwellers are an art of presence – "the ability of the subaltern subjects to assert their collective will in spite of all odds, to circumvent the constraints, utilizing what is possible, and discover new spaces within which to make themselves heard, seen, felt and realized" (Bayat, 2017:111). The art of presence is "the fundamental movement in the life of nonmovements," therefore I combine the two concepts to argue that slum-dwellers responded to the VSB in incremental/spontaneous and organized/strategic ways, and in doing so they forced the authorities to change their approach against all odds. Using two case studies, I demonstrate how slum dwellers' responses to the rehousing scheme delayed the VSB process by a number of years, and in fact made the authorities offer a resettlement option (recasement) that was preferable to the residents. As slum dwellers resisted the intervention of the state and used tactics of refusal, protest, and grassroots organizing, they turned urban space into a site of contention, and made claims to that space despite being "dispersed, unorganized and atomized" (Bayat, 2017:106). The social 'nonmovement' of the slum-dwellers led to tangible benefits for them, and led to the "socialization of the state" through the replacement of the government rehousing program with a resettlement scheme that they preferred. They therein resisted the state's attempt to make them invisible, eradicate their built environment and inculcate them into proper neoliberal development subjects. Their resistance was not a form of radical, insurgent citizenship, but rather a form of "deradicalized dissent" that amended the existing order instead of producing a new one. Against all odds, the art of presence of the slum-dwellers induced a dramatic change in housing policy in their favor. • In June 2018 the Kingdom of Morocco declared 58 of 85 cities as slum-free. • Slum residents resisted the intervention of the state through tactics of refusal, protest, and grassroots organizing. • Resettlement replaced rehousing in response to the slum residents' resistance. • Slum residents preferred resettlement because it was affordable and had income-generating potential. • Slum-dwellers incremental/spontaneous and organized/strategic responses turned urban space into a site of contention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The previous arguments in respect to the COVID-19 pandemic tend to support the lockdown and closure policy in order to prevent widespread infection of the epidemic within urban spaces. Using semi-structured interviews, the present study identifies that there are some serious consequences by adopting this policy due to the indispensable social interactions and uncooperative attitude of the general public to the harsh isolation approaches. These negative impacts on people's psychological health are partly caused by the inflexible urban design of the built environment in the pre-pandemic period. To create a balance between social distancing and social interactions within urban spaces, the paper proposes a general framework of post-pandemic street furniture design. It provides an innovative approach using a grid-based method, which can be applied to other cities across the world in order to deal with the potential analogous pandemic perils in the future. [Display omitted] • A logical social distance must be observed within the resilient urban furniture. • Social distancing and social interaction can be balanced through innovative urban design. • Plants provide an opportunity for mediating psychological abnormalities. • Resilient transparent partitions can be considered for street furniture. • The proportion of 2 × 1 can be adopted for designing post-pandemic street furniture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Port regions are hubs connecting a nation and its hinterland to the rest of the world. Port cities' authorities and actors have always dealt with pressures and compromises in the sharing of space between agriculture, tourism, industry, and urban developments. The limited availability of land created conflicting uses over time especially when industrial sites disappear from the built environment to leave a polluted soil and water. The current literature discusses in detail changes in industrial land use, pollution of industries, and urban sanitary issues. Yet, only a few studies investigate the consequences of past industrial and urban developments on the health of citizens. This paper thus asks: How have authorities considered historical industrial activities in spatial planning policies and what are their consequences on public health in port cities? Of all pollutants, oil appears to be the widest spread with long term risks to human health. Oil industrial development in the port city of Dunkirk in the north of France can demonstrate this influence of past land uses. The objective is to highlight the impacts of past polluting activities over current populations' health in port city regions and the potential consequences of historically contaminated sites on public health. • Past industrial activities are still affecting the health of inhabitants in port cities, thus the efficiency of planning strategies. • The literature extensively discuss pollution of industrial activities but authors do not link it to sanitary consequences. • Records of public institutions lack complete data on past industrial activities. • New multi-disciplinary methods and studies are needed to understand the origin and extent of polluting activities on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theories of Jane Jacobs have gained momentum as a framework to address the challenges faced by present-day cities. Of special relevance is the concept of urban vitality as an indicator of street vibrancy and quality of life among city residents. This study aims to revisit her principles from an applied perspective by developing an updated index that measures the conditions for urban vitality as described in her most celebrated book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), and by also incorporating contemporary contributions made by recent literature on the topic. We develop a composite measure of 22 variables of the built and social environment, and we test it in the urban context of a peripherical and low-income district in Barcelona (Spain). Results show that urban vitality can be found in a wide variety of urban spaces such as compact fabrics and even housing projects, only when population density is combined with physical features that promote intense and diverse human activity. The methodological tool developed in this paper is intended to serve as a basis for future research as well as to guide public policies that aim to address some of the key challenges of contemporary urban agenda. • We present an updated version of Jane Jacobs urban vitality index. • Peripheral and low-income enclaves are able to foster the conditions for vitality. • Keys for vitality: population density, everyday facilities, dense network of local business and accessibility. • An index of urban vitality is a useful and replicable tool for urban practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities must transform in order to address the challenge of climate change and to achieve societal ambitions such as the sustainable development goals. However, a key impediment to achieving transformation is underdeveloped understandings of how key actors and sectors within the built environment work together to achieve goals. This paper addresses these gaps by developing and visually presenting a process map to describe: the key processes involved in producing the built environment across its life stages; key sectors of the built environment, their key actors, and the activities coordinated between them. The process map was peer reviewed by an expert reference group of built environment professionals active in Australia and the UK. The motivation for developing this process map is to facilitate future research to identify and expedite opportunities for coordinated action to address significant societal challenges such as climate change action, and the sustainable development goals – which require transformative action in cities. • Cities must transform to address climate change • We develop a process map to describe the production of the built environment • Process map describes fundamental activities for producing the built environment • Process map spans built environment life stages; identifying activities and interactions of key sectors and actors • Can be applied to inform transformative action targeted at challenges such as climate change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have investigated the travel effects of online purchases. However, compared to tangible goods (e.g., books, electronics, and clothes), very limited attention has been paid to online purchases of intangible services (e.g., hairdressing, dining out, and visits to movie theatres, zoos, and local theme parks). Utilizing data obtained from 733 structured interviews in Beijing, China, this paper aims to examine the influence of buying intangible services online on trip frequency. The results indicate that – because of buying intangible services online – 52% of respondents indicated an increase in travel frequency to use these services, while only 7% indicated a decrease in the frequency. More importantly, those who indicate an increase in travel frequency are inclined to travel longer distances to use these services. Therefore, purchasing intangible services online may impose additional pressure on transportation systems. Applying a multinomial logistic regression method, we additionally reveal the influential factors of changes in travel frequency. The results show that – due to buying intangible services online – people with lower accessibility to shopping centers and bus stops are less likely to increase and even more likely to decrease the frequency of travel to use these services. • Purchasing intangible services online makes consumers travel more frequently to use these services. • The built environment plays a role in travel frequency changes caused by buying intangible services online. • Physical retailers for intangible services can benefit from online purchases. • Purchasing intangible services online seems to be a challenge for transportation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City characteristics and transport policies influence individuals' decisions to own and use private vehicles, thereby impacting on externalities and quality of life. This research explores to what extent car ownership is influenced by the implementation of transport policies aimed at improving urban sustainability in the city of Madrid. Through the calibration of a Multilevel Ordered Logit Model, household car ownership is explained in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, city built-environment variables, transport network attributes, and policy-related variables. The results indicate that built environment factors play a key role in explaining car ownership trends. Moreover, ceteris paribus policies aimed at deterring private vehicles' use seem to discourage households from purchasing cars. • Madrid implemented on-street parking regulation and a LEZ intended to reduce the use of private vehicles in the city center • This paper conducts a multilevel ordered logit model to identify the explanatory factors for car ownership trends in Madrid • These policies lead to lower car ownership rates in the households located inside the area where they are implemented [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to spatial heterogeneity worldwide, results from studies examining the effect of residential self-selection on travel behavior vary substantially. As a result of housing reform, the unique housing allocation system in China is a prime example of a context where the self-selection effect may conflict with international knowledge. Using a sample of 3836 residents, whom are living in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and non-TOD neighborhoods in Shanghai, this study untangles the effects that the built environment and residential self-selection have on travel behavior, in the context of diversified housing types in urban China. Specifically, this paper employs propensity score matching (PSM) to quantitate the relative importance of the built environment itself , verses residential self-selection, in influencing travel behavior for each of the housing types. The results show that the residential self-selection effect in the four types of housing (work-unit, commodity, public, and replacement) accounts for 15.2%, 30.7%, 18.5%, and 5.9% of the total impact on vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT), respectively. These findings expand the international database of point estimates in the relative contribution of self-selection toward the impact on travel behavior across global contexts, providing a comprehensive framework for similar studies on self-selection in other parts of the world. • Different types of housing in urban China hold different magnitudes of the residential self-selection effect. • Self-selection effect in the four housing accounts for 15.2%, 30.7%, 18.5%, and 5.9% of the total impact, respectively. • Policies on land-use should respond accordingly to the differences in self-selection effect across the housing types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the gendered impacts of job-housing balance and neighborhood environments on mental health in the context of urban China. Using data of suburban commuters derived from a 2017 activity-travel survey in Shanghai, we employ ordered logistic regression models to test the effects of job-housing distance, commuting mode and neighborhood-scale environments on self-rated mental health status, and explore whether such effects vary between men and women. Model results indicate that, while longer job-housing distance generally predicts a lower level of self-reported mental health evaluations, this correlation is not significant among women. Compared with other travel modes, commuting by public transit is positively correlated with self-rated mental health, especially for women. Furthermore, whereas both men and women report better mental health status if living in a neighborhood with outdoor facilities and lower noise pollution, proximity to public space is negatively associated with mental health for men but not significant for women. Our findings entail the complexity of gendered mechanisms through which the physical environment – including the job-housing spatial relationship and neighborhood environment affects mental health among suburban commuters in rapidly urbanizing China. • Rapid suburbanization creates significant spatial imbalances between residential location and workplace. • Activity-travel survey in Shanghai was used to assess job-housing distance and perceived mental health. • Long commutes are associated with poorer mental health outcomes among residents. • Gender differences are associated with variable outcomes due to family roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers highlight the importance of urban form and sprawling development patterns as determinants of economic mobility in the United States. However, the relationship is complex because sprawl affects other variables too, which themselves may affect upward mobility. This study uses a structural equation model to estimate the direct and indirect effects of urban sprawl, and related components of the built environment, on mobility at the census tract level. The results suggest that compactness has a positive direct effect on mobility, but an overall negative indirect effect on mobility through the tested mediating factors. Hence, there are both positive and negative side-effects associated with compactness in regards to economic mobility. In light of these findings, this paper recommends policies, programs, and procedures for the planning community to aid in alleviating the negative consequences of sprawl on economic mobility, while maintaining the positive ones. • Urban sprawl directly and indirectly effects upward economic mobility at the census tract level in the United States. • The direct effect of compactness on mobility is positive, though the total indirect effect is negative. • More compact census tracts have higher rates of upward mobility than more sprawling ones. • Indirect effects through social capital, poverty, job access, housing stock, and education quality are negative. • Indirect effects through concentrations of non-white minorities and food deserts are positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]