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This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on disadvantaged social groups through an urban citizenship lens. Urban citizenship is conceptualised as being produced in everyday, localised practices and legal arrangements. It is thus constituted as a complex interplay of legal status and opportunities for social, economic and political participation. Building on qualitative data from two larger West-German cities, the paper focusses on how policies implemented in response to the pandemic have affected low-income households in neighbourhoods with a high share of inhabitants with a migration history. The paper elaborates on three main findings. Firstly, it shows that households already facing substantial socio-economic pressures such as overcrowded housing conditions or difficulties to provide educational support for their children were disproportionately affected by the regulations such as home schooling and contact restrictions. Secondly, it highlights that the limited accessibility of key administrations contributed to the increase in household insecurities, especially with regard to residence permits and material livelihood. Thirdly, it shows how the pandemic has reinforced an ongoing process of externalising negotiations around citizenship from state institutions to non-state counselling centres. • Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and implemented policy measures on residents in disadvantaged neighbourhoods • For migrants the legal component of citizenship became key during the pandemic • Households already facing socio-economic pressures were disproportionately affected by regulations such as lockdowns and home schooling. • Limited accessibility of key administrations contributed to the increasing vulnerability of low-income and migrant households • Process of externalising negotiations around citizenship from state institutions to non-state counselling centres reinforced [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses urban walking during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as an object of urban planning in Helsinki. The paper investigates planners' experiences of planning for temporary spatial solutions during a time of exceptionality in urban life. The paper is motivated by the wish to determine the influence of residents' environmental critique on official urban planning processes. Analysis is primarily based on walk-along interviews with urban planners and residents in the densest eastern downtown neighbourhoods of Helsinki. Supplemental data, including a survey, chat group discussions and planning documents, are used to deepen analysis. Results discuss the politicisation of planning and the delicate relationship between public planners and the political steering of planning in a Nordic welfare planning system. The paper discusses how the politicisation of planning imposes barriers to participatory planning by tying planners' time and attention to organisational tensions, but also by not being able to direct public attention to contentious planning topics. To analyse the role of planners in advocating for pedestrian planning and citizen participation, the study incorporates concepts from organisational communication and urban governance: tensions, rational ignorance and guerrilla governance. • Temporary pedestrian planning in Helsinki became a politicised planning topic amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. • An approach of rapid qualitative research utilised multi-method data gathering. • Urban planners experienced tensions in planning which impeded participatory planning processes. • Residents themselves portrayed rational ignorance and scepticism towards their participatory agency. • Planners used hidden tactics of guerrilla governance to advance the pedestrian agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces in the city of Niamey are under the threat of rapid urbanization in the context of climate change. The urban green space management becomes paramount and solicits the stakeholders' participation. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the determinants of the urban green space management practiced by the dwellers in Niamey City. Based on the questionnaire, the multinomial logistic model was applied to the primary data collected from close to 390 randomly selected households. The results show that the variables shade from urban green spaces, gender, household size, education level, monthly income, work status, length of time living in the districts, the status of peripheral areas, status of transitional areas, cost of the management, and plant market are the determinants of the urban green space management practices. These results give a signal to urban managers, and decision-makers on the factors to be addressed for better delivering urban green spaces likely to enhance urban climate resilience. • This paper analyze the determinants of urban green space management practices in the City of Niamey as insight of West African cities, • This paper applied the econometrical modeling namely multinomial logistic model as tool to estimate the determinants of the urban green space management practices; • The analysis shown that the urban green spaces benefits especially shade, gender, household size, education level, monthly income, length of time living in the districts, status of peripheral areas, and plant market are the main drivers of the urban green space management practices in the city of Niamey; • This paper calls for the city authorities to establish and implement a program that facilitates the dwellers' access to plants for their private green that can enhance their climate resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the urban relative poverty and its associated factors is crucial for effective urban management and improving the well-being of urban residents. In this paper, we constructed three indexes (poverty rate, poverty intensity and poverty depth) using urban subsistence allowance and population data. Then, we obtained the spatial patterns of the relative poverty indexes of Wuhan. At last, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) is employed to explore the interaction between urban relative poverty and multidimensional factors. Our findings revealed (1) there are different distributions and spatial patterns for poverty rate, intensity, and depth in the central area of Wuhan. (2) Communities with higher poverty rates are located in high-density residential area with poor natural environment and settlement environment but good transportation environment and living convenience. (3) Poverty intensity was not strongly correlated with any of the factors while most communities with high poverty depth were near urban centers and negatively correlated with location and living convenience. These findings can inform planners and policymakers in urban planning and poverty reduction management. • There are different distributions and spatial patterns for poverty rate, intensity, and depth in the central area of Wuhan. • Most high-poverty-rate communities reside in dense areas with subpar nature & settlements but superior transport & amenities. • Most high-poverty-depth communities were near urban centers and negatively correlated with location and living convenience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wayfinding is one of the most daily activities of peoples in urban spaces which could be facilitated by a set of landmarks to provide a mental map of the environment. Landmark detection in urban spaces is yet one of the great challenges in landmark-based wayfinding. This paper aims to apply new sources of geo-tagged photos derived from social media like Telegram for landmark extraction. This paper proposed a method to extract landmarks automatically through clustering of geo-tagged photos by Density Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) method and object detection by deep artificial neural network (deep belief network) algorithm. The proposed method is implemented in 48 different routes of 3 districts of Tehran, Iran. The accuracy assessment demonstrated the efficiency of the algorithms for landmark extraction from huge geo-tagged photographs. Furthermore, the extracted landmarks are evaluated by 120 wayfinders. The experimental results demonstrated the usability of the proposed landmarks in wayfinding process with 87% of user satisfaction. • This paper introduces a method for automatic landmark extraction from geotagged photos. • The proposed model uses DBSCAN and DNN. • The model is evaluated with regard to accuracy and user satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the fact that China is becoming increasingly urbanised, some Chinese cities have witnessed a loss of urban population. In recent years, with the extensive expansion of the Chinese High-Speed Railway (HSR) network, the reduction in travel time has greatly increased the mobility of people across cities, thus affecting the spatial redistribution of the urban population in China. An important question arises: for cities experiencing population loss, when they were connected to the HSR network, did the HSR further aggravate this urban shrinkage? Using cities experiencing population loss as a sample, the paper provides a quantitative assessment of population loss in HSR-served cities. A Difference-in-Difference (DID) method was adopted to investigate whether the HSR aggravated population loss in shrinking cities. On the whole, empirical results show that the phenomenon of urban shrinkage in China was further aggravated by the HSR. Furthermore, the results unveil the dynamic impact of the HSR on shrinking cities, and multi-stage DID results reveal that the impact of the HSR on urban population may have a certain time lag effect. The HSR has significantly contributed to the population loss of shrinking cities four to five years after it first started operating. The paper highlights that the HSR does not always yield growth opportunities; on the contrary, for cities suffering from population decline, the HSR may bring a serious challenge. Highlights • The phenomenon of urban shrinkage in China was further aggravated by the HSR. • The multi-stage DID results reveal that the impact of HSR on urban population may have a certain time lag effect. • The paper highlights that HSR does not always yield growth opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to balance the interests of land finance participants and maintain the stability of their capital chain, this paper combines the two levels of local government debt financing and real estate development, incorporates local governments, real estate developers, urban residents and commercial banks into a unified analytical framework, systematically constructs a behavioral game evolution model of the four core participants to analyze the stability of the equilibrium points and the system stability strategies. Meanwhile, the numerical simulation is used to explore the impact of parameter changes on the behavioral game evolution trend and risk profile of each participant. The results show that: (1) The land transfer revenue and other costs of investing in local development have greater impacts on the strategic choices of local governments than the cost of land-transferring, and excessively low land transfer revenue and high costs of investing in local development will trigger a series of financial risks, which is not conducive to the systemic stability. (2) The rise in commercial banks' lending rate will increase the difficulty of real estate developers' capital turnover, so that they have to bear the risks of loan default, delay in construction and so on, however, improving the autonomous repayment rate of real estate developers can alleviate it. (3) The cost of house purchase and the benefits from quality resources acquired by urban residents from purchasing a house have different degrees of influence on the strategic choices of urban residents and work in opposite directions, so the relationship between the two factors should be adequately balanced to help urban residents avoid risks such as increased pressure in life. (4) The probability of commercial banks choosing the "lending to real estate developers" strategy is positively correlated with real estate developers' autonomous repayment rate and commercial banks' lending rate, and the inappropriate value of the two may lead to credit risk. Finally, from the perspective of the game participants, targeted risk decision-making and policy recommendations are put forward. • Constructed a behavioral game evolution model of the four core participants in land finance. • Combined the risk analysis to make a research on the participants' capital flow stability and their interests balance. • Proposed targeted policy recommendations based on the impacts of different factors on the four core participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the urbanization process in China, issues such as the widening wealth gap, class stratification, and social exclusion influenced residents' decisions to pursue entrepreneurship. Inclusiveness is an inevitable trend in new urbanization, and it is also a key factor in promoting residents' entrepreneurship and stimulating the potential for social innovation. Based on three key principles, "fairness, openness, and sharing, " this paper assesses the relationship, and the internal mechanism driving the relationship, between urban social inclusiveness and resident entrepreneurship. This includes constructing an urban social inclusiveness index, and analyzing data from the 2018 China General Social Survey (CGSS). The key results indicate that urban social inclusiveness has a significant positive effect on resident entrepreneurship. The mechanism analysis shows that urban social inclusiveness can improve the probability of residents being entrepreneurial, by improving risk attitude, promoting class mobility, and expanding social networks. Heterogeneity analysis shows that urban social inclusiveness has a significant impact on the entrepreneurial of local residents, and low-class and high-class residents; urban social inclusiveness has no significant impact on the entrepreneurial choice of transient residents and middle-class residents. Besides, urban social inclusiveness plays a more significant role in promoting residents' choice of survival entrepreneurship, compared with opportunistic entrepreneurship. • Explore the relationship between urban social inclusiveness and resident entrepreneurship in China. • A new method for assessing the social inclusion of cities, which considers "fairness, openness, and sharing." • Examine the mediating role of risk attitudes, class mobility, and social networks. • Understand the heterogeneity of social classes, household registrations, and entrepreneurial types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities today are confronted with pressing issues of mobilities - not only concerning greener movement but also more just movement. This article explores the physical and imaginary aspects of urban mobility injustice and its (re)production through a study of two neighbourhoods in Copenhagen. It examines the interplay between city dwellers' experiences of (im)mobility and the social and spatial structure of neighbourhoods that shape and are simultaneously shaped by images of these places. Through interviews and focus groups, residents' mobility capacity and mobility providers' decision-making are scrutinised. The study demonstrates that residents' experiences of mobility vary remarkably between places in a relatively equal city, and this is intensified by territorial images of being deprived. The paper argues that paying attention to neighbourhoods' sociospatial composition in relation to their internal and external reputation helps to understand experiences of mobility injustice and how such injustice is reproduced in planning decisions. • The paper examines residents' experiences of (im)mobility in socioeconomically different neighbourhoods in Copenhagen. • Investigating experiences of mobility helps to understand sociospatial and imagined inequalities in cities. • The study demonstrates that residents' experiences of mobility vary remarkably between places in a relatively equal city. • Uneven urban mobilities are related to the physical and imagined landscape and is perpetuated in planning decisions. • Knowledge about residents' mobility in different socioeconomic contexts can inform more just sustainable planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bogotá's urban and regional planning has focused on pressing demographic, economic, and urban development needs that can no longer be administered without a comprehensive understanding of its surrounding region. Population growth in municipalities in the vicinity of Bogotá is twice that of the city, which in some cases has led to a functional integration and conurbation as part of the same territory, despite having different governments and uncoordinated urban development plans. This paper revisits the evolution of the governance and regulatory framework of Bogotá and its surrounding region, as contrasted with the spatial and socioeconomic aspects at the larger metropolitan scale, and analyses its effects on the current configuration of the city-region that we identify as the Bogotá Metropolitan Area. The paper draws conclusions from primary and secondary information, providing insights into the recent and future development of the city and its metropolitan area that is yet to be officially constituted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores city dweller aspirations for cities of the future in the context of global commitments to radically reduce carbon emissions by 2050; cities contribute the vast majority of these emissions and a growing bulk of the world's population lives in cities. The particular challenge of creating a carbon reduced future in democratic countries is that the measures proposed must be acceptable to the electorate. Such acceptability is fostered if carbon reduced ways of living are also felt to be wellbeing maximising. Thus the objective of the paper is to explore what kinds of cities people aspire to live in, to ascertain whether these aspirations align with or undermine carbon reduced ways of living, as well as personal wellbeing. Using a novel free associative technique, city aspirations are found to cluster around seven themes, encompassing physical and social aspects. Physically, people aspire to a city with a range of services and facilities , green and blue spaces , efficient transport , beauty and good design . Socially, people aspire to a sense of community and a safe environment . An exploration of these themes reveals that only a minority of the participants' aspirations for cities relate to lowering carbon or environmental wellbeing. Far more consensual is emphasis on, and a particular vision of, aspirations that will bring personal wellbeing. Furthermore, city dweller aspirations align with evidence concerning factors that maximise personal wellbeing but, far less, with those that produce low carbon ways of living. In order to shape a lower carbon future that city dwellers accept the potential convergence between environmental and personal wellbeing will need to be capitalised on: primarily aversion to pollution and enjoyment of communal green space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are championed for providing co-benefits to cities and residents, yet their environmental justice impacts are increasingly debated. In this paper, we explore whether and how hybrid governance approaches, such as Mosaic Governance, may contribute to just transformations and sustainable cities through fostering long-term collaborations between local governments, local communities, and grassroots initiatives. Based on case studies in three major European cities, we propose and then exemplify six possible pathways to increase environmental justice: greening the neighborhood, diversifying values and practices, empowering people, bridging across communities, linking to institutions, and scaling of inclusive discourses and practices. Despite the diversity of environmental justice outcomes across cases, our results consistently show that Mosaic Governance particularly contributes to recognition justice through diversifying NBS practices in alignment with community values and aspirations. The results demonstrate the importance of a wider framing of justice in the development of NBS, sensitive to social, cultural, economic and political inequities as well understanding potential pathways to enhance not only environmental justice, but also social justice at large. Especially in marginalised communities, Mosaic Governance holds much potential to advance social justice by enabling empowering, bridging, and linking pathways across diverse communities and NBS practices. [Display omitted] • Mosaic Governance strengthens collaborations between civil society and governments. • Procedural justice may be better served by participation than by plural valuation. • Case studies illustrate impacts depend on enactment of Mosaic Governance approaches. • Grassroots contribute to empowerment, bridging and linking marginalised communities. • Environmental justice cannot be separated from social justice issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linking the urban spatial structure with residential mobility is a vital yet challenging mission. With a unique dataset tracking changes in individual residential locations in Shanghai from 2014 to 2015, this paper portrays the directional trajectories of Shanghai's spatial structure and rigorously examines the motivations of residents for different spatial preferences with the approach of propensity score matching. By classifying the spatial structure into four typologies, polycentricity, sprawl, dispersed-monocentricity and compact-monocentricity, we find that relocated residents push Shanghai's spatial structure in greater favor of sprawl or compact-monocentricity. Furthermore, the movers towards sprawl, decentralized-monocentricity and compact-monocentricity mainly benefit from housing, jobs, and neighborhood amenities, respectively; and the movers towards the polycentric spatial structure can take the advantage of favorable house prices. These results shed light on the process of shaping the urban spatial structure and offer valuable insights into residents' spatial preferences. • It contributes by linking the urban spatial structure with residential mobility. • Relocated residents push Shanghai's spatial structure in greater favor of sprawl or compact-monocentricity. • The movers that contribute to the shaping of different urban spatial structures can take advantage of various advantages. [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]

Informal settlements constitute a prominent form of urbanization across the world. The rapid growth of Yazd presents an example of informal urbanization in Iran at the nexus of development, poverty, and inequality. While scholarship on urban informality is abundant, a lacuna exists in the literature on systematic quantitative research on informality among urban residents. The present study investigates residents' perceptions regarding informality and captures their responses before and after the expansion of an informal settlement in Yazd. Through this quantitative research, we aim to articulate and highlight specific domains of informality, offering a framework assessing the complexities of informality that extend beyond only Iranian informal settlements. This paper analyzes the status of urban informality and migration in terms of their social, economic, physical, environmental, and urban management characteristics in "Airport Neighborhood", a prominent Yazd neighborhood. This paper seeks to add theoretical and empirical depth to the categorization of distinct yet overlapping domains of informality. Our quantitative approach to migration and informality informs our central research question: How does the complexity of informality affect different groups of people living in one informal settlement? We find that recent migrants to the settlement are less involved in urban governance, women experience improved work opportunities after moving to the informal settlement but remain marginalized, and insufficient and poorly maintained infrastructure operates as a significant barrier to socio-economic stability and mobility. We also find that urban settlement results in increased debt among residents in Airport Neighborhood, and that youth unemployment is a significant issue that did not improve for recent migrants to the neighborhood despite young people citing employment as a key motivating factor for migration. Our empirical work highlights the theoretical complexity of informality, as subgroups of people face varying challenges that correlate with their age, gender, and time spent in a particular informal settlement. • Living in an informal settlement affects Iranian residents differently, depending on their age, gender, and time spent in the neighborhood. • We highlight residents' most pressing concerns associated with living in Yazd's informal settlement known as the "Airport Neighborhood." • High-impact interventions would include a focus on gender equality, improved urban infrastructure and governance, and youth employment. • Our quantitative approach highlights the local and global complexity and heterogeneity of informality and urban life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive sentiments towards urban green spaces (UGS) unequivocally increased worldwide amid COVID-19. In contrast, this paper documents that views on mobility restrictions applicable to UGS are of a contested nature. That is, while residents unambiguously report positive sentiments towards UGS, they do not share views on how to administer access to UGS—which is a matter of public policy. These contesting views reflect opposite demands that managers of UGS had to balance during the pandemic as they faced the challenge of reducing risk of spread while providing services that support physical and mental health of residents. The empirical analysis in this paper relies on views inferred through a text classification algorithm implemented on Twitter messages posted from January to October 2020, by urban residents in three Latin American countries—Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico—and Spain. The focus on Latin America is motivated by the documented lack of compliance with mobility restrictions; Spain works as a comparison point to learn differences with respect to other regions. Understanding and following in real-time the evolution of contesting views amid a pandemic is useful for managers and city planners to inform adaptation measures—e.g. communication strategies can be tailored to residents with specific views. • Amid COVID-19, social media showcased contesting views on mobility restrictions applicable to UGS. • Contesting views on regulation of access hold together with unambiguous increase in positive sentiments towards UGS. • These views reflect residents' stands with respect to how UGS should be used during a pandemic event. • Social media provides unstructured information to design and communicate adaptation measures in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a shift in attention from urban vitality to urban vitalisation as a process that reflects ongoing interactions between residents, communities, and urban government agencies. To explore urban vitalisation, we offer a conceptual framework connecting two theoretical terms, trust/distrust and citizenship regimes, and we ask in what ways relations between trust/distrust (of residents in their municipality) and citizenship regimes explain residents' engagement in smart urban vitalisation. To answer this question, we present a case study of a group of Haifa residents who used a digital platform to push for improvement in the ways the local government accommodated their needs. Based on our analysis, we make two arguments of potential interest to scholars and stakeholders involved in smart city initiatives. First, both trust and distrust can motivate residents' involvement in smart city initiatives. Second, examining trust and distrust in light of the relevant citizenship regime (individual-liberal and civic-republican) sheds light on relational and dynamic configurations of residents' involvement in the process of smart urban vitalisation. • The paper presents a shift from urban vitality to urban vitalisation as a process of ongoing interactions between residents and urban government. • We offer a conceptualization connecting trust/distrust and citizenship regimes to explain residents' engagement in urban vitalisation. • Both trust and distrust can motivate residents' involvement in smart city initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population migration, social check-in, vehicle navigation, and other spatial behavior big data have become vital carriers characterizing users' spatial behavior. "Tencent Migration" big data can real-timely, dynamically, completely and systematically record population flow routs using LBS device. Through gathering residents daily mobility among 299 cities in China during the period of "National Day–Mid-Autumn Festival" (NDMAF) vacation (from September 30 to October 8) in 2017 in "Tencent Migration" and defining three periods with "travel period, journey period, return period", this paper is designed to analyze and explore the characteristics and spatial patterns of daily flow mobility cities from the perspective of population daily mobility distribution levels, flow distribution layers network aggregation, spatial patterns and characteristics of the complex structure of the flow network. Results show that "Tencent migration" big data clearly discovers the temporal-spatial pattern of population mobility in China during the period of NDMAF. The net inflow of population showed a diamond shaped with cross frame support in each period, the four nodes of the diamond contain Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi'an. Main mobility assembling centers are distributed in the urban agglomerations of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing, and those centers have strong coherence with those urban hierarchies. Most cities are in a state of "relative equilibrium" in the population flow, and clear hierarchical structure and level distinction can be identified. Spatial patterns of population mobility present obvious core-periphery structures. The Dali-Hegang line exhibits a significant network of spatial differences in terms of boundary divisions. In this context, the spatial distribution of urban network could be summarized as "dense in the East and sparse in the West", and the core linkages of urban network could be characterized as "parallel in the East and series in the West". The whole network exhibits a typical "small world" network characteristic, which shows that China's urban population flow network has high connectivity and accessibility during the period of NDMAF. The network has a distinct "community" structure in the local area, including 2 national communities, 2 regional communities and 3 local-level communities. • "Tencent migration" big data clearly discovers the temporal-spatial pattern of population mobility in China. • The net inflow of population showed a diamond shaped with cross frame support in each period. • Spatial patterns of urban population mobility present obvious core-periphery structures. • The whole network of urban population mobility exhibits a typical "small world" network characteristic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 50 % of the world's population lives in cities. Since this proportion is expected to increase enormously, especially in African and Asian cities, the question of the impact on the development of a city arises. This paper proposes a method for determining the net mobility of slum dwellers within cities and examines it in inter- and intra-urban settings on three continents. The derived metrics are defined by taking into account the current insufficient availability of uniform slum data in cities of the Global South. The study shows differences in the mobility of slum populations in diverse cities on the different continents, as well as intra-urban differences. These could provide a building block for infrastructure planning. Thus, the suitability of the approach for estimating the future infrastructure needs of the slum population is discussed as an example application. [Display omitted] • Deriving a uniform method to analyse slum population mobility • Providing robust mobility metrics for the analysis of spatio-temporal mobility • Applying these methods reveals different slum population mobilities in the inter-urban and intra-urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the strategies of resistance articulated by residents of informal settlements response to urban exclusion. Building upon resistance and urban social movements literature the paper is informed by the case of the Villa Rodrigo Bueno in Buenos Aires, a self-constructed villa miseria , and its residents' stories of resistance to attempts of evictions and upgrading programs. In the paper we show how resistance is mobilized, first through its simultaneous disconnection, due to its remoteness and isolation; and reconnection to local and global supportive networks. While disconnection facilitated self-construction, densification and the blooming of informal entrepreneurship; reconnection through relational and multiscalar sites enabled unexpected encounters with distant actors that contributed to resist evictions. Second, the long-term learning and development of self-knowledge (i.e. construction, or housing law), embedded in the remoteness of the informal settlement, contributed to shift expertise from city officers to residents; redefining the role of informal residents into active citizens and experts in policy making, and turning informal settlements into settings of wider social change. • The paper examines the collective resistance of residents of informal settlements to evictions. • Densification and urban compactness supported quiet encroachment strategies to resist. • Isolation facilitated spaces for experimentation, knowledge and innovation and thus resistance. • Reconnection to local and global actors and networks also enabled resistance. • Long-term self-learning contributed to expertise shift from city officers to residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During the past decades, the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia has witnessed dramatic changes in its urban area, population and transportation. To better understand the relationship between urban growth and transportation, this paper aims to quantify and analyze the spatial–temporal relationship between urban growth and transportation for Jeddah using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) approaches. In this paper, eight urban growth and transportation indices were developed to analyze the relationship between spatial–temporal urban growth and transportation changes: (1) annual urban spatial expansion index, (2) land use change index, (3) population density index, (4) transportation infrastructure expansion index, (5) road density index, (6) road area density index, (7) urban trips density index, and (8) modal split change index. The results show that in the past four decades (1964–2007), Jeddah has experienced a rapid population growth, a large spatial expansion, rapidly changing land use and expanding transportation infrastructure. As transportation infrastructure expands with population growth, this expansion has not been able to accommodate increases in travel demand. This has led to an increase in urban congestion. The analysis further shows that transportation infrastructure expansion has stimulated Jeddah’s urban spatial expansion and residential area growth. The enormous spatial expansion has also caused significant changes in the daily share of travel modes. The developed indicators in the paper bridge the knowledge gap between urban growth and transportation research, as the results of this study provide a rich understanding of the relationship between urban growth and transportation in rapidly growing cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The emergence of gated communities for foreign residents in large Chinese cities is the result of economic globalisation, local institutional changes, social relations and cultural globalisation. Using a case study performed in Beijing, this paper seeks to analyse the complex dynamics of foreign gated communities through a critical examination of their key actors. The history of the gated community studied here is divided into two phases: development and localisation. During the development phase, the property developer not only attracted foreign residents through building an international community but also lured Hong Kong investors through the promise of soaring rental returns fuelled by strong demand. During the localisation phase, Chinese residents gradually replaced the developer as the project’s key actors. While the Chinese residents were attracted by the idea of international community, their arrival significantly transformed the community. This paper demonstrates how the survival, character and appearance of a foreign gated community was influenced by temporally and geographically dispersed actors who were subjected to a number of economic, social and cultural forces on a global and a local scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper aims to deepen current understandings of the ways in which historical power differentials and stigmatization shape the injustices faced by urban Roma populations. It argues, firstly that spatial segregation cannot be analytically separated from social and environmental factors that marginalize and disempower this vulnerable community; and secondly, that a multi-scalar approach is necessary to capture the ways in which stigmatization acts both within the affected community, and at the levels of local policy, national policy, and wider culture. The authors then consider the advantages and the pitfalls of using participatory processes to empower Roma segregated communities, drawing on the experience of a participatory action research process carried out over an eight-year period in the city of Szeged, Hungary. The findings suggest that it is necessary to be attentive to the paradoxes, dilemmas, and conflicts that surround the attempt to empower a highly stigmatized group as citizens, in a culture where exclusion and racism still dominate. The conclusions call for a comprehensive raft of policy measures to tackle Roma stigmatization, and for a continuous process of reflection on the moral and practical problems associated with participation in a context where power differentials still dominate. • Environmental and social disadvantage in the lives of segregated urban Roma are closely interrelated and multi-scalar. • Integrated, multi-scalar, politically empowering, and long-term policies, including anti-stigma policies, are needed to overcome Roma marginalization. • Participation is not automatically empowering; in practice, participatory development processes are characterized by moral and practical dilemmas and trade-offs between forms of empowerment and marginalization. • There are no pre-defined paths to the empowerment of urban segregated Roma; significant uncertainty is unavoidable in the practical realization of participatory empowerment policies. • Participatory development is no panacea for solving all moral and practical dilemmas of power, empowerment and development concerning marginalized urban Roma (and even other marginal social groups). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urban population growth promotes the outward expansion of cities and strengthens demand for outer metropolitan infrastructure. In a practical sense, creating sustainable greenfield communities is problematic given the expensive, multidimensional nature of infrastructure. Inwardly-looking metropolitan imaginaries can result. Although urban political economy perspectives acknowledge variability in local public-private sector relations, thereby raising the prospect of developer obligations, the latter are not without limited. To further strengthen understanding of sub-national government capacities and outer metropolitan infrastructure policy, additional institutionalist interpretations are necessary. Alongside or in between the limits of developer contributions and ad hoc public funding streams, this paper confirms the importance of extended policy perspectives by identifying and evaluating three state level policy responses on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia: spatially designated funding, public private partnerships (PPPs) and community infrastructure brokers. • Large scale expansion on Melbourne's edge, plus multidimensional infrastructure deficits as identified by council officers • The importance of institutionally sensitive urban political economy perspectives for interpreting infrastructure deficits • The importance of investigating outer metropolitan policy dynamics beyond developer contributions • Three emerging policies: spatially designated funding, public private partnerships and infrastructure community brokers • The need to further investigate sub-national local–state government relations given partial responses [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the predicted world population growth of 83 million people per year (increasing 1.09% year on year) compounded with a strong trend for migration to urban centres, there is a developing interest by academics, industry and government to the digitalisation of the built environment and its potential impact on private enterprises, public services and the broader context of society. The governments around the world and others are aiming to guide and standardise this process by developing an array of standards to support this digitalisation, most notably on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Smart Cities Framework. Furthermore, the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating a highly flexible, dynamic and accessible platform for the exchange capture and of information. There is a risk that this information on the built environment is quickly becoming unmanageable, and the value of that information is quickly becoming lost. This paper presents a smart asset alignment framework that creates an alignment between the information captured at the infrastructure asset level and citizen requirements within a Smart City framework. The framework contributes to the debate on designing and developing Smart City solutions in a way that will deliver value to the citizens. • Smart cities frameworks alone in isolation will not address the citizen requirements. • Citizens currently interact with city services in isolated transitions. • A smart cities framework, alignment of citizen requirements to infrastructure asset performance. • Classification of infrastructure assets as per the functional output provides to the city service. • Classification of citizen functions and alignment to city services [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The liberalization of the Chilean economy since 1974 has generated important modifications on its urban development policies. However, little attention has been paid to estimate how urban amenities are capitalized in housing prices under this new scenario. In this paper, we explore this relationship through a hedonic pricing model and 27 urban amenities for the Chilean main urban agglomeration, the Metropolitan Region of Santiago (MR). We recognize that the capitalization of urban amenities into housing prices is spatially heterogeneous, therefore we study this relationship by using the geographically weighted regression (GWR). The main results suggest that urban amenities play an important role in determining housing prices with a significant spatial heterogeneity, where notably differences between public and private local services are found. Particularly, private services such as schools, shopping centers, healthcare centers or restaurants have positive capitalizations on housing prices. In contrast, public schools, public hospitals and public kindergartens have negative valuations in housing prices, suggesting that living closer to these services reduces housing values. Our results provide policy makers with valuable elements when designing urban policies in terms of the importance of heterogeneous valuations of urban amenities across neighborhoods, how to allocate resources more efficiently to foster the quality of life on new urban residents and the need of considering the economic segregation triggered by heterogeneous preferences to amenities across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The increasing dependence on street vending as a source of livelihood for people across urban spaces in countries like Cambodia and India continues to promote exciting areas of research in social sciences. Our study captures the narratives of street vendors (seen as the 'invisible' entrepreneurs), working in markets across Delhi (India) and Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and analyzes the inventory logistics of products sold by them, thereby, reflecting the complex nature of an inter-twined, existential relationship between what's classified as 'informal' and 'formal' in urban economies. The mutual interdependence seen in the governing dynamics of economic exchange (for example, in selling commodities and services across identified markets in Phnom Penh and Delhi), argues for a need to inclusively study urban ecosystems while addressing the needs of street vendors. This paper does so by incorporating ethnographic methods with a specific reference to street vending (as a commercial urban activity). Further, we emphasize on an epistemic need to cross-fertilize thought(s) and method(s) across social science disciplines to produce more of such urban narratives, exploring the inter-twined relationship between the 'informal' and 'formal' aspects of urban ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper discusses the housing situation of urban dwellers in Hanoi in the transition period from state housing provision to privatisation and market-driven housing. Based on field studies in a residential area of Hanoi with Soviet-style apartment blocks, the paper shows how new housing policies are contributing to strengthening inequality as ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ emerge. The entrepreneurial, the better off, and those of higher social status have encountered greater opportunities to improve their economy and housing situation. The less well-off residents, who typically have a lower social status, are losing out under the new housing policy. Unable to rely on state provision of housing, and at times denied the possibility of buying their apartments, they face an uncertain future as plans to upgrade the areas may well force them out. The youth are increasingly facing differentiated opportunities mainly dependent on the extent of parental financial support. Youth from better off households have access to housing purchased for them by their parents whereas youth from poorer families have to settle for long-term living in overcrowded parental homes. The paper shows how despite moving towards a more market-oriented economy, the new housing system is still built on old ideologies and supports the old hierarchy. Inequality is not just emerging between different housing areas but also within them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates the impact of city shape variation on residents' happiness in Chinese cities. We first measure the city shape index of Chinese cities between 2000 and 2015 using matched data from the European Space Agency Global Land Cover dataset and the Chinese administrative map to delineate the changes in city shape in China's urbanization. Then we use a reduced-form estimation strategy to examine the causality between city shape variation and urban residents' happiness using our city shape dataset and the microsurvey data of CHIP (Chinese Household Income Project). We find that city shape exerts a negative influence on the happiness of urban residents. Such an effect is more pronounced in large cities. However, well-developed public transportation infrastructure can mitigate the negative impact of a non-compact city shape. Turning to the mechanism, commute time to the workplace and amenities is the main channel through which city shape works. We find that bad shape significantly increases the commute time between residential, workplace, and commercial amenities and therefore makes urban residents unhappy. • Non-compact city shape has significant negative effects on the subjective happiness of residents. • The impacts of city shape has a greater impact on highly educated individuals. • Residents in large cities suffer more from bad city shape than anyone else. • Residents in cities constructing subways and dense bus networks are less impacted. • Non-compact city shape significantly extends the commuting time of residents or eliminates their accessibility to amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is an important part of the modernization of traditional societies, and the growth of major cities is a prominent manifestation of urbanization. This paper uses historical maps and demographic data to measure the urban population and construction land growth of 47 major cities in China during 1900–1978, and examines the influence factors with different politic backgrounds. (1) China's cities were generally experiencing rapid growth. The growth rate of urban land was higher and more stable than urban population. (2) The growth rate of city size was negatively correlated with initial sizes, deviating Gibrat's law; the population's rank-size structure converged the Zipf's model during 1910–1949, but deviated during 1949–1978. The spatial pattern of urban system gradually shifted from regionalized core-periphery to a nationally-integrated, regional-egalitarian structures. (3) The patterns and mechanisms of urban population growth and land growth are not identical, reflected in the change of the distribution of urban construction land per capita. Urban land growth is more correlated with capital investment. (4) China was in a typical preconditions for take-off phase before 1949, but did not fit into the take-off phase as Rostow argues in 1949–1978. This period is crucial in comprehending China's rapid take-off after 1978, as it established the industrial foundation at the expense of urbanization. The previous process has left indelible traces and highlights the problem of the abnormal growth of urban land in recent years, thereby prompting a reflection on the role of land finance in China. • The changes of political background significantly influenced the industrialization and urbanization. • The two-dimensional measurements of land and population accurately portray urban growth. • The urban growth rate in China has undergone significant fluctuations. • The urban system shifted from a regionalized core-periphery to nationally-integrated, and regional-egalitarian pattern. • The mechanism of urban population growth and land expansion is not identical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large amount of population moved from countryside to cities in China during its urbanization in the past two decades. The majority of these people have no formal qualifications for city residency, and they are so-called ‘floating population’. The increase of this group of people has induced the pressure of land use in cities, and the contradiction between the demand and the supply of urban land has been intensifying particularly in those developed regions in China. This paper examines the impacts of floating population on urban land by presenting the interrelations between floating population and urban land expansion from the perspective of production land and living land. Structural equation model (SEM) is employed in conducting the analysis. The result shows that the floating population alone does not have direct effect on urban land expansion, but have indirect impacts through engaging in the production or living process. It is particularly interesting that floating people's living conditions have no direct positive effect on the increase of construction land. Based on the research results, suggestions are offered for improvements in government policy towards a more sustainable and integrated urbanization, including the provision of housing support, the formation of more urbanized society and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of slums or informal settlements is common to most cities of developing countries. In India, slums contain a wealth of diversity that is masked by a high level of poverty and rather insufficient access to resources. Recent studies have identified that the conventional perception of slums as distinctive homogeneous settlements is incorrect, rather slums are diverse and complex systems that cannot be addressed through one-size fits all approaches. In this paper we investigate Tilly's theory on group segregation and how it reproduces or reinforces inequality within the slums of Bengaluru. We apply statistical techniques (correspondence analysis and regression) to novel field data from 37 slums in Bengaluru. First, we find high levels of spatial and group segregation by religion across the slums of Bengaluru. Second, we find that segregation leads to opportunity bias among slum dwellers, which inhibits equitable access to jobs in the labour market. Finally, the results show that insufficient access to resources constrain the income generation and leads to emerging coping strategies. The results indicate that group identity is key to addressing disparity and how solving inequality can drastically impact group identity. Our results show that targeting horizontal inequality (as compared to vertical inequality ) may increase the rate of successful interventions for each of the segregated groups of slum dwellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most urban network studies, advanced producer service firms and transportation carriers are regarded as the main agents building intercity connections. With rising global incomes and increasing mobility of people worldwide, however, flows consisting of ordinary consumers have become a new way for cities to be connected to the globe. Using transaction data from China UnionPay, this paper explores the spatial network pattern of emerging Chinese overseas consumption by tracing the origins, destinations, and volumes of spending flows. We find that a global network built on consumption flows originating from mainland China improves the global-ness of countries and regions that have historically been peripheral in the financial networks created by multinational firms or inter-port transportation. Given the soaring consumption capacity of urban Chinese residents and the re-orientation of urban policies in China, it is expected that Chinese consumption will keep re-shaping the global-ness of both Chinese cities and numerous destinations worldwide. • This paper analyzed Chinese overseas consumption by tracking the origins and destinations of consumer flows. • This paper showed a more inclusive map of consumption that differs from conventional analyses of production global-ness. • The consumption network improves the status of some places that have historically been peripheral in the production network. • It reveals that China not only joins the world as a producer, but also exerts its influence through rising consumer power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recognition that the coming century will see a substantial majority of the world's population living in urban areas, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations have developed policy frameworks and guidance which promote the increased provision of urban green space for population health. However, these undertakings do not provide specific guidance for urban policy in terms of the particular design attributes required to tackle lifestyle illnesses and to promote well-being in urban populations. Furthermore, green spaces have generally been treated as a homogenous environment type. In order to address these weaknesses, this paper collates and reviews the evidence linking health, well-being and green space using a life-course approach. The literature generally endorses the view that urban green spaces, as part of the wider environmental context, promote health and well-being across the life course. Based on the evidence, cohort-specific and cross-cutting design interventions are identified and a general integrated green space framework for health and well-being is proposed. This analytical lens facilitates distillation of a vast quantum of research and the formulation of specific planning and design guidance for the provision of more inclusive green spaces that respond to the varying needs of people across all life-course stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal land and housing markets operating in the slums of Raipur give further evidence about what was already known: that, slums do not consist of homogeneous households and that some households are capable and willing to pay for their dwelling in the formal market if the institutional constraints are addressed. Then, what are the demand constraints they face? The existing literature about creating an affordable housing market focusses on the constraints in getting credit and mortgages. In our opinion, this is too narrow, for it ignores the institutional setting and the political context in which the slum dwellers are operating. This paper presents the perspective of the slum dwellers, and the barriers they face in accessing formal affordable housing. The constraints have been classified as those relating to housing as a commodity and those related to the process of acquiring the commodity. It uses descriptive statistics from a survey of 211 households conducted in the slums of Raipur, India, along with anecdotal and personal accounts of the slum dwellers gathered through the informal discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning authorities worldwide are increasingly employing e-participation to facilitate and strengthen public engagement in decision-making processes. However, little is known about the prospects of using Information and Communication Technology to foster public participation in urban planning in conservative Arab societies. This study investigates public willingness to participate in the urban planning process through the Internet and smartphones in Saudi Arabia. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of residents of Dammam city and analyzed using descriptive (frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (z-tests and Chi-square). The study finds that most participants across all social and demographic groups are aware of e-participation in urban planning and have a significantly positive attitude towards it. Furthermore, they indicate more willingness to e-participate in planning at the local level or on issues that directly affect them. Also, in all stages of preparing urban plans, most participants preferred e-participation over the traditional mode through public hearings and seminars. The paper sheds light on the diffusion of ICT and its potential to facilitate public participation in urban planning in conservative and patriarchal developing countries. Integrating e-participation in urban planning can facilitate public engagement and collaboration with planning authorities to better serve the competing public interests and ensure inclusive urban development. • E-participation can facilitate and strengthen public engagement in decision-making processes • Understanding public willingness to e-participate in urban development is important • There is good prospect of public e-participation in urban planning in Saudi Arabia • The public is more willing to e-participate in planning at local level or issues directly affecting them • E-participation can facilitate public engagement and collaboration with planning authorities to foster inclusive development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban development and planning challenges facing Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone are typical of the significant issues which face most cities in Africa, including rapid growth, resource constraints, burgeoning informal settlements and inadequate planning regimes. In parallel with many African cities, colonial neglect and racial bias in planning the urban form created a city which is ill-prepared to cope with post-independence growth. This paper examines how these trends have played themselves out in the case of Freetown, and also draws attention to particular issues which have exacerbated urban development, and the environmental and planning challenges facing the city. Notably, the effects of the devastating civil war and Ebola outbreak in 2014/15 are discussed. While the city council and local NGOs are attempting to address local development challenges, significantly more needs to be done to improve the well-being of Freetown's population and this paper provides an indication of how urban planning might contribute to this. Unlabelled Image • We explore the colonial, early independence and postcolonial planning and management approaches, discussing their challenges and shortcomings. • We analyse the evidence of planning and urban management in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 1787 to the present day. • We Illustrate the manifestation of the colonial and postcolonial legacies in the structure of the city. • We show how the imprint of history has left the city vulnerable during a series of humanitarian crises. • There is an urgent need to build planning and urban management capacity, to devolve power to the city and to update policies and legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper makes up for the deficiency related to population inflow and social infrastructure in the urban vitality literature by using empirical data. • This paper provides a new method reference for the quantitative representation of urban vitality by using NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data. • With the inflow population increasing, the educational financial expenditure's positive effect on urban vitality will be enhanced. • However, with the inflow population increasing, the medical and health financial expenditure's positive effect on urban vitality will be suppressed. Maintaining urban vitality and promoting sustainable urban development is a critical concern because global urbanisation continues to accelerate. This study creates a model to measure urban vitality by means of NPP-visible infrared imager radiometer sensor (VIIRS) nighttime light data and observes that urban vitality and NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data are highly positively correlated, which greatly expands the application of nighttime light data in urban research. This paper further researches the impact of population inflow and social infrastructure on urban vitality by establishing a panel fixed effect model based on the data of 35 large- and medium-sized cities in China to provide new ideas to understand urban vitality from the perspective of public service. The results illustrate that increasing the financial investment of social infrastructure can effectively improve urban vitality, and population inflow influences urban vitality through the interaction effect with social infrastructure. With the inflow population increasing, the educational financial expenditure's positive effect on urban vitality will be enhanced, and the medical and health financial expenditure's positive effect on urban vitality will be suppressed. This paper provides guidance regarding reasonable population inflow and urban vitality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat offers humans several qualities such as comfort, but its qualities can go further. The role of heat has improving human well-being such as thermal pleasure has not been well-discussed and investigated. This paper been merely regarded from a thermal comfort perspective and the other perceptual and qualitative roles, we have studied people's real experiences in urban spaces to discover real outcomes in their social life contexts. We used Grounded Theory as a methodological approach in this study–we interviewed 33 participants and made direct observations to collect data on people's perceptions of thermal-scape. Overall, twelve sub-categories and six main categories were generated. Two categories are rooted in people's urban thermal pleasure perception as the causal and contextual conditions: "thermal sources properties" and "spatial condition." 'Thermal Distinction' was identified to be the core category that influenced urban thermal pleasure. The association between these categories leads to physiological, psychological, and behavioral thermal pleasure as a consequence. This process occurs due to necessity (physiological and behavioral perception) or beyond necessity (psychological and behavioral perception). Experience of urban thermal pleasure can be used by the urban planning and design fields to enhance people's well-being and their social life qualities. • High-quality urban outdoor spaces can improve public thermal pleasure and activities. • The perception of thermal pleasure begins specifically with thermal distinction in a space. • Spatial condition as thermal source properties, provide the premise for the process of perceiving thermal pleasure. • Thermal pleasure occurs at two levels: thermal needs as the necessity and adaptive actions for pleasure beyond the necessity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities worldwide have declared aspirations to become "10, 15, or 20-minute cities." This goal is often part of a strategy to reduce emissions and achieve sustainable and healthy urban design by encouraging walking and cycling. The 10, 15, or 20-minute city or neighbourhood — which, for generality, we refer to as the x-minute city — is a type of design aimed at reducing car dependence by enabling urban residents to walk or cycle to essential amenities within x minutes from their home. Due to the benefits which include sustainability, health, and social cohesion, the concept has been promoted by the international C40 Cities as part of their post-pandemic Green and Just Recovery Agenda. However, missing from the current rhetoric around these "cities of proximity" is clear guidance on evaluating progress towards this goal. In this paper, we contrast measurement approaches and discuss important considerations for planners adopting the x -minute city goal. To do this, we measure the proximity of the 500 largest cities in the USA and 43 urban areas of New Zealand. We also present an interactive tool to visualise and explore proximity within the urban areas. • Compare approaches to measure the 10, 15, 20-minute (aka. x-minute) city • Critical examination of the concept of an x-minute city • Assess 543 urban areas across the USA and New Zealand • Present an interactive visualisation of the x-minute city in NZ urban areas • Instead of setting arbitrary targets, seek to minimise X by improving accessibility [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three decades, festivals and events staged in public spaces have been an important element in the neoliberal regeneration of cities. However, so-called festivalisation strategies have been subject to criticism for their focus on economic imperatives to the detriment of the lives of urban residents. In many cities of the Global North, in particular, these debates have been accompanied by increasing calls for forms of urban governance that give more weight to local democratic processes and practices. This paper analyses these debates, focusing on the Scottish city of Glasgow, where the staging of festivals and events has long been a key factor in the city's rebranding. In recent years, city leaders have created processes designed to ensure that the voices of local people are heard. We analyse to what extent this turn towards more inclusive rhetoric is translated into practice when policy and planning processes are still governed by economic growth logics. We show how citizen participation and engagement processes to consult residents about the use of public spaces for festivals and events reinforce narratives of neoliberal citizenship, primarily acting to assimilate and neutralize opposition, rather than sharing power and decision-making with local citizens. The implementation of these policies in Glasgow represents an emblematic illustration of the neoliberal governance logics which prevent the local state from granting an increased role to citizens and local organizations, particularly in cities of the Global North. However, we conclude by highlighting some potentially fruitful new avenues to support greater transparency and accountability in public space governance. • In many cities, the use of festivalisation strategies has been criticized for being overly focused on economic imperatives. • As the case of Glasgow illustrates, some cities have reframed their event policies to put more emphasis on local citizens. • Despite a change in rhetoric, new policy commitments merely extend neoliberal urban logics to the realm of citizenship. • To counter neoliberal logics, inclusive urban policies should contain significant reflection on the distribution of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how transport access affects the land values in peripheral regions, by exploiting the recent expansion of China's high-speed rail (HSR) network. Based on a nation-wide land transaction dataset and applying a DID-hedonic approach, we find that industrial parcels in distant peripheries benefit from the HSR-induced growth spillover, while residential parcels in the immediate vicinity of a high-tier core experience larger price appreciation after HSR connection. Based on comprehensive firm-level datasets, additional tests of the HSR impact on the location choice and performance of firms in peripheral regions show much similar patterns. These findings add to the understanding of the impact of HSR on the spatial distribution of economic activity. By accelerating the growth spillovers from the highly agglomerated urban core to remote peripheries, transport access can play an essential role in reducing spatial inequality. By contrast, peripheries neighboring highly agglomerated urban cores may benefit more from the relocation of residents from urban core, at the expense of a shrinking manufacturing sector due to agglomeration shadow effect. • We examine how access to high-speed rail affects land values in China's peripheral regions. • Industrial parcels in distant peripheries benefit from the HSR-induced growth spillover. • HSR effect on residential parcel prices diminishes monotonously with the distance to high-tier cores. • The HSR effects on the location choice and the performance of firms in peripheral regions show much similar patterns to that of land prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A focus on the ‘mega’ aspect of hallmark events can divert attention from the micro – those local communities who are most impacted by the event. Similarly, attention to the ‘event’ aspect underplays the long process of bidding and preparation before any putative legacy of urban transformation for local people. This paper uses qualitative data to unpack the complex and multi-layered views of local residents, living in a deprived neighbourhood beside the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games site in Scotland. They reflect on five years of intensive urban regeneration, evaluate the experience of ‘lockdown’ at Games time, and consider their hopes and fears for the future of the community. Interviewing a mixture of lifelong, established, new and returning residents, we found considerable common ground across the different groups in terms of hopes for a new, mixed community in the area. However, findings also highlight concerns around urban governance practices and the limitations of a market-led approach to regeneration. [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]

Sustainable development remains one of the most advocated development concepts worldwide, yet, there continues to be limited signs of progress towards its achievement in Africa. Recent studies identify rapid and unplanned urbanisation as a major threat. With Africa expected to become a home to nearly quarter (1.3 billion) of the world’s urban population in 2050, research into the ramifications of urbanisation on the functionality of the region’s urban environment is urgent and tenable. This paper fleshes out and teases apart the implications of rapid urbanisation on sustainable development of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street vending is an important part of the urban informal economy, especially in developing countries. How to control its negative externalities while augmenting its positive roles in the urban socio-economic system poses challenges to urban planning and governance. Existing studies have insufficiently addressed the issue largely due to the lack of high-frequent observation data for street vending events. By introducing socially sensed big data from the smart urban governance platform, as well as records from the "12345" urban problem complaint hotline of Jiangbei District, Ningbo, China, this paper examines and compares the spatiotemporal patterns and occurrence mechanisms of street vending events from both the urban managers' "top-down" and the urban residents' "bottom-up" points of view. Statistical and machine learning models show that the distribution of street vending activities as sensed by the two subjects does not overlap. The former concentrates in central urban areas and work times, while the latter is scattered distributed in everyday life-related places and times. The findings reaffirm the existence of perception bias in social sensing data and show the potential for utilizing such bias to nudge better urban governance practices. Theoretically and empirically, this research has contributed to promoting the people-oriented transformation of urban governance. • Social sensing data are introduced as new sources for street vending observation. • Street vending sensed by authorities and residents do not overlap spatiotemporally. • Different mechanisms of sensing street vending by different subjects are revealed. • Existence and forms of self-sorting bias in social sensing big data are verified. [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]

The material fabric of a city is never neutral. It speaks to the opportunities of access and usage that some are given at the exclusion of others. Scholars of the everyday have analyzed how city residents counter oppression by appropriating and transforming spaces. Less attention, however, has been given to how not only people, but also material things have agency in producing opportunities for insurgency. This paper examines how people and materialities imbricate, co-producing geographies of survival on Ponte Sant'Angelo, a bridge in Rome where diverse immigrants eke out a living by selling trinkets. Interviews and observations revealed that both seniority on the street and immigration status divide vendors into three groups, each with a different degree of power over other users of the bridge. At the same time, Ponte Sant'Angelo, a physical entity made by permanent built forms as well as contingent elements such as water levels and car traffic, generate five distinct areas, each with a different degree of attractiveness in the eyes of diverse vendors. Differences across vendors and material elements intertwine with one another. The nitty-gritty of the city, its seemingly banal materialities, partner with vendors as they negotiate power and counter exclusion. These circumstances call for expanding scholarship of the everyday , exploring how multiple, interdependent agencies shape urban patterns of oppression and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the structure of a city influence how its residents feel about migrants? Jane Jacobs railed against modernist planners who sought to replace the complex fabric of cities with suburbanized designs that prioritized sunshine and greenery. She theorized that this design trend had resulted in few opportunities for neighbours to interact with each other. In today's diverse cities, neighbourly interaction may be one key to enhancing social cohesion. Intergroup contact has been shown to reduce prejudice, and recent studies have found that even "mere-exposure" may have a positive effect. Taken together, the work of urban theorists and contact theorists implies that residents of compact cities should be more likely to hold positive attitudes toward their neighbours—including migrants. Recent research, however, casts doubt on how well contact theory applies to the lived diversity of modern cities. This paper uses data from 22 European cities to identify a relationship between one's attitude toward migrants and the design of the city in which they live. It finds that, when controlling for individual- and city-level factors, residents of cities high in "continuous urban fabric" are more likely to agree that migrants are good for their city. • Urban theory and contact theory imply a link between urban design and tolerance. • Those living in cities high in continuous urban fabric view migrants more positively. • In this data, the positive influence is particularly strong among manual workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is a need to create sustainable urban development and quality living environments for the growing urban populations of high-density cities. Sustainable urban planning of high-density cities from the urban climatic point of view is a topical issue for city planners and policy makers. However, the application of urban climatic knowledge has only led to low-impact urban planning decision-making. This is especially true in high-density cities in developing countries. Thus, there is an urgent need to seek ways to quickly collate urban climatic information for planning in a format that is user-friendly for planners. This study has identified ways to promote the use of urban climatic knowledge in planning. By utilizing readily-available data, the paper introduces a method that focuses on urban planning using an urban climatic map (UCMap). A UCMap provides a visual and spatial information platform for the planner-friendly Geographical Information System (GIS). By focusing on Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the study first defines the urban climatic issues in the area. It then introduces the key methodology of urban climatic mapping and elaborates on general urban-climatic-based planning advice for planners using a UCMap. Lastly, it identifies sensitive areas and provides planning recommendations that can be easily tested and applied by city planners. The critical importance of urban greenery and coverage, urban air paths and open spaces, water bodies and rivers, and building morphology and layout have been highlighted visually and spatially for planners. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]