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Drawing on the recent advances in complex network theory, urban mobility flow patterns, typically encoded as origin-destination (OD) matrices, can be represented as weighted directed graphs, with nodes denoting city locations and weighted edges the number of trips between them. Such a graph can further be augmented by node attributes denoting the various socio-economic characteristics at a particular location in the city. In this paper, we study the spatio-temporal characteristics of "hotspots" of different types of socio-economic activities as characterized by recently developed attribute-augmented network centrality measures within the urban OD network. The workflow of the proposed paper comprises the construction of temporal OD networks using two custom data sets on urban mobility in Rome and London, the addition of socio-economic activity attributes to the OD network nodes, the computation of network centrality measures, the identification of "hotspots" and, finally, the visualization and analysis of measures of their spatio-temporal heterogeneity. Our results show structural similarities and distinctions between the spatial patterns of different types of human activity in the two cities. Our approach produces simple indicators thus opening up opportunities for practitioners to develop tools for real-time monitoring and visualization of interactions between mobility and economic activity in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at introducing some critical views on 'multicultural quarters', reflecting on the cases of Spitalfields in London and Torpignattara in Rome. Urban practices and policies that led these places to be recognised as 'Banglatowns' are explored, disentangling two major narratives of multicultural quarters, respectively, commodification of diversity and everyday multiculturalism. Whether literature tends to establish an opposition between these interpretative frameworks, the paper argues that context-based research shows how both categories are interlaced. The coexisting aspects of commodification of ethnicity and encounter are explored, focusing on the human and spatial agents supporting the construction of the image of the (multi)ethnic quarters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban heat island has significant impacts on buildings' energy consumption. The phenomenon is associated with increased urban air temperatures compared to the air temperature of the surrounding rural or suburban areas. The ambient air temperature growth due to climate changes and the urban heat island phenomenon are dramatically increasing the cooling demand in buildings. This is worsened by irradiation conditions, construction technologies, and subjective comfort expectations. This paper examines the impact of the urban environment on the energy demand of buildings, considering the case of two districts of the city of Rome, Italy: one is representative of a central zone, the other of a rural zone. Weather data were then used to calculate the thermal demand of a typical Italian building, ideally located in the monitored areas of the city. Standalone building with modified weather file was modeled in TRNSYS. Results show that urban heat island intensity causes an increase in cooling demand up to +33% for the urban area (+20% for the rural area) compared to the demand calculated using weather data from airportual areas. On the other hand, urban heat island intensity has a positive effect on heating demand which turns out to decrease up to -32% for the urban area (-14% for the rural area). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]