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

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

How people pay is critically important to consumers and businesses alike. Many consumers are choosing to pay for goods and services from an increasing number of options. Tech‐savvy urbanites buy coffee by tapping their phone on a reader. Parents returning from a night out use peer‐to‐peer payment apps, such as Venmo, to pay the sitter. The recent explosion of financial innovations promises faster, more efficient, and cheaper transactions. These increasing digital payment options coincide with decreased number and volume of cash transactions. However, vulnerable populations face more constrained payment choices and often rely exclusively on cash. Without experience, devices, or acceptable credit histories, vulnerable populations may have little access to digital transactions. The advantages of falling digital costs and other benefits thus accrue to the digitally connected. At the same time, those who must transact in coins and paper money are likely to find their relative costs increasing. This paper highlights payment trends and the potential impact on vulnerable populations in the United States as we move toward a cashless society. This paper should stimulate discussions of public policy initiatives to mitigate digital payment issues for vulnerable people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste management is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. The amount of solid garbage created by the growing urban population makes it hard to manage with current technologies. Artificial intelligence methods are used in this paper to identify waste. When waste is found, the system uses the camera as the only data source to determine its location. With greater than 95% certainty, the suggested system can discern between assets and waste in real time.The paper concludes by describing a system that can inspect and gather waste much like a human would. Different programs have been launched by the current Indian government to improve cleanliness and hygienic conditions. Megacities in India, for example, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and more noteworthy Mumbai have dynamic monetary development and high wastage per capita. Scratch issues and difficulties such as absence of gathering and isolation at source, shortage of land, dumping of e-Waste, and so on. By using physical labour, the current waste accumulation framework compiles a variety of waste in an unsorted manner. The separation of this waste is a very repetitious, time-consuming, and wasteful task that frequently threatens the safety of the professionals.n order for the junk transfer to be carried out efficiently and productively, a framework that automates the waste isolation process is therefore required. The proposed approach accurately categories the loss into degradable and non-degradable using machine learning techniques like CNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the research community has increasingly embraced topics related to smart cities, recognizing their potential to enhance residents' quality of life and create sustainable, efficient urban environments through the integration of diverse systems and services. Concurrently, recommender systems have demonstrated continued improvement in accuracy, delivering more precise recommendations for items or content and aiding users in decision-making processes. This paper explores the utilization of recommender systems in the context of smart cities by analyzing a dataset comprised of papers indexed in the ISI Web of Science database. Through bibliometric analysis, key themes, trends, prominent authors and institutions, preferred journals, and collaboration networks among authors were extracted. The findings revealed an average annual scientific production growth of 25.85%. Additionally, an n-gram analysis across keywords, abstracts, titles, and keywords plus, along with a review of selected papers, enriched the analysis. The insights gained from these efforts offer valuable perspectives, contribute to identifying pertinent issues, and provide guidance on trends in this evolving field. The importance of recommender systems in the context of smart cities lies in their ability to enhance urban living by providing personalized and efficient recommendations, optimizing resource utilization, improving decision-making processes, and ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and intelligent urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the Air Quality Index (AQI), COVID-19 incidence rates, and population density within Malaysia's ten most populous cities from January 2018 to December 2021. Data were sourced from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the World Air Quality Index Project, and Our World in Statistics. The methodology integrated population-based city classification and AQI assessment, cluster analysis through SPSS, and Generalized Additive Mixed Model (GAMM) analysis using R Studio despite encountering a data gap in AQI for five months in 2019. Cities were organized into three clusters based on their AQI: Cluster One included Ipoh, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Melaka, Cluster Two comprised Kuantan, Seremban, Johor Bahru, and Kota Bharu, Cluster Three featured Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. GAMM analysis revealed prediction accuracies for AQI variations of 58%, 60%, and 41% for the respective clusters, indicating a notable impact of population density on air quality. AQI variations remained unaffected by COVID-19, with a forecasted improvement in air quality across all clusters. The paper presents novel insights into the negligible impact of COVID-19 on AQI variations and underscores the predictive power of population dynamics on urban air quality, offering valuable perspectives for environmental and urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Understanding the intricate relationship between energy and wellbeing in informal urban settlements is essential for developing effective interventions that address the diverse needs of residents. This paper explores this nexus through a multi-dimensional lens, examining the complexities and dynamics involved in off-grid renewable energy interventions, focusing on solar microgrids in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: The paper is based on empirical research analysed through a theoretical framework articulating the pathways through which energy insecurity influences various dimensions of wellbeing, encompassing economic, physical, social, and environmental aspects. By applying this framework to our empirical research, the paper reveals the intricate interplay between neighbourhood factors, housing conditions, social processes, and economic insecurities, shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities associated with off-grid energy interventions. Results: The understanding of wellbeing presented in the paper is based on what we term the energy-wellbeing-informality nexus. Understanding the nexus necessitates: (a) moving past universalist and technocratic understandings of wellbeing, and towards a relational and networked basis for wellbeing analysis; (b) moving beyond conventional narratives of off-grid electrification as mere technical fixes, emphasizing the importance of recognizing informal settlements as sites of innovation and experimentation; (c) understanding the multi-sectoral nature of energy-related wellbeing impacts, extending beyond energy provision to encompass broader dimensions such as education, health, and social cohesion. Discussion: The paper not only advances theoretical understanding but also offers practical insights for policymakers and practitioners. It emphasizes the need for context-sensitive policymaking that acknowledges the complexities of informal settlements and fosters innovative approaches to energy service provision. By integrating energy interventions into broader development strategies and adopting a multi-sectoral perspective, stakeholders can work towards more equitable and resilient solutions that enhance the overall wellbeing of residents in informal urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting sustainable communities aims at creating both environmentally and socially responsible living environments. This paper explores the role of affordable housing in promoting the long-term sustainability of a community within healthy living conditions by closely examining the relationship between affordable housing, urban development policies, and sustainability, with the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, serving as a case study. The first part of the paper focuses on the current building laws issued in the official newspaper in 2004 using a content analysis methodology to demonstrate the impact of the changes in the laws on the new morphology and social fabric of the city through the creation of a favorable environment for big developers, wealthy property owners, and real estate agencies and, at the expense of old city residents and low-income families. The second part of the paper uses the qualitative analysis methodology to justify the presence of large unused stock of residential units in Beirut, referring to information from multiple data sources selected based on their applicability to sustainable development, affordable housing, and urban planning in areas related to the case study, Beirut. This part then investigates the potential presented by this stock of residential units in Beirut to increase the supply of affordable housing and foster a sustainable community. This paper argues that the promoted vertical expansion of the city weighs heavily on the environment and fails to provide a diverse mix of housing units, excluding a significant portion of the community from the city. Alternative development models aligning with principles of sustainable development and challenging the current building laws can promote social inclusivity, reduce urban sprawl, and minimize environmental impacts associated with new constructions, thus preserving the city's physical and social fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores spatial systems of modularity on the shoreline of Ein el Mrayseh located in Beirut. The modular systems are studied from a contextual lens while observing different modular interventions as design strategies on this shoreline. The Ein el Mrayseh corniche is one of the few remaining public spaces of Beirut, and is considered one of the most important outlet for the city residents. It is used by different types of groups, from different classes and backgrounds. Based on a series of observations, the paper analyses modular interventions by different stakeholders on this stretch. Two terms were coined: rigid and soft modularity, as linguistic and analytical modes to understand the spatial practices of Ein el Mrayseh. The paper argues that the users of this public space have developed soft modular strategies - dynamic and in constant flux, as a mean to tame the rigid modular strategies enforced on the site and to appropriate the space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested if peer-reviewed conservation research output has increased in sub-Saharan African countries over the last 30 years in response to increased development. We carried out a bibliometric analysis to identify the number of conservation research papers published by national authors of 41 sub-Saharan African countries during 1987–2017, to provide an index of national conservation research output. We identified country-specific development factors influencing these totals, using general linear modelling. There were positive relationships between conservation research output and population size, GDP, literacy rate, international tourism receipts and population growth rate, and negative relationships with urban population and agricultural land cover, in total explaining 77% of variation. Thirty-eight per cent of countries contributed < 30 conservation research papers (of 12,701) in 30 years. Analysis of trends in primary authorship in a random subsample of 2,374 of these papers showed that primary authorship by sub-Saharan African authors has increased significantly over time but is now at a lower rate than primary authorship for authors from countries outside the country associated with the search term, usually a European or North American country. Overall, 46% of papers had national primary authors, but 67% of these were South African. The results show that conservation research output in sub-Saharan Africa overall is increasing but only significantly in a few countries, and is still dominated by non-national scientists, probably as a result of a lack of socio-economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research on dairy consumption in China is lacking, however, some evidence has demonstrated significant changes in recent years, with a reported increase in the overall consumption of dairy products. To fully understand these changes, a systematic review was conducted to examine reported dairy intakes and differences between dairy consumption in different population groups in China. Methods: Web of Science, Embase, and PubMed databases were searched for studies published from January 2000 to September 2022. The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) was used to retrieve papers available in Chinese. Papers reporting dietary intakes of dairy consumption across age, sex, and geographical location sub-groups were considered for inclusion in this review. In addition, this review includes the consumption of different types of dairy foods and changes in dairy intake over time. Results: Forty-seven papers were included in the present study. Twelve papers examined dairy consumption across age groups, showing that middle-aged adults tend to consume less dairy than other age groups. Studies comparing across location-specific cohorts reported dairy intakes among urban populations were higher than rural, as well as being higher than the national average. Coastal, Northern and Eastern residents consumed more dairy products than those living in other regions of China, and people in larger cities had higher reported intakes than smaller cities. Milk was the primary dairy product reportedly consumed by Chinese population, followed by yogurt. Concerning sex, evidence showed that females generally reported a greater daily dairy intake than males. Conclusions: This review shows that, in China, several different population groups displayed significant differences in the amount and type of dairy consumed. When considering the incorporation of dairy products into healthy eating guidelines or positioning specific dairy products on the market, it is important to consider the differences and variations in consumption patterns within population groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitization is becoming the key to achieving rural revitalization, and there is a complex inter-active relationship with farmer enrichment, and agriculture development, making it highly valued by governments around the world. Quantitatively evaluating the symbiotic relationship between rural digitization, farmer enrichment, and agricultural development, and reveal the driving mechanism behind them, which can provide evidence for the rural government, agricultural enterprises, and relevant stakeholders. This paper conducts an empirical study of 84 digital village national pilots in China based on coupling coordination model and geographically weighted regression, with focus on the spatial characteristics, symbiotic relationship and driving mechanisms of the pilots. The symbiotic relationship between rural digitization, farmer enrichment, and agriculture development has significant heterogeneity, with most of the pilots in coordination state. The driving mechanism of rural digitization, farmer enrichment, agriculture development, and symbiotic relationship were complicated, with significant heterogeneity and synergy in the driving forces of different factors, and special attention should be paid to spatial effects (the nature and intensity of regression coefficients in local regions) in the policy design and implementation. It is worth noting that population aging mainly plays a negative role, while industrialization, government support, resident capacity plays a positive role. The other factors play both positive and negative roles. Income gap between urban and rural residents, population aged 65 and above, financial self-sufficiency are the most critical factors. We suggest developing differentiated management policy, accurate management policy, and integrated management policy, which can provide a basis for digital village and smart village planning, construction and management in China. In view of the significant differences in rural digitalization and its driving mechanisms in different pilots as shown in the study, it is necessary to design differentiated spatial policies according to local conditions, to design accurate management policies based on the driving effects of key single factors, and to design integrated development policies by taking into account the interactive effects of multiple factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resident consumption is an important link to smooth the domestic circulation and promote the economy to achieve high-quality development. To stimulate the vitality of residents' consumption and achieve the expansion and quality of consumption, we should not only focus on the scale and willingness of residents to consume, but also consider the motivation of consumption. The paper analyzes the impact of intergenerational income mobility on residents' marginal propensity to consume and consumption altruism motive by expanding the Over Lapping Generation Models and combining the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data. The results of the study show: Intergenerational Income Elasticity has a significant positive effect on residents' marginal propensity to consume. When Intergenerational Income Elasticity increases, the "altruistic motive" of residents' consumption will also increase significantly. Compared with rural residents, Intergenerational Income Elasticity has a stronger positive effect on urban residents' marginal propensity to consume and marginal propensity to consume education. With the effect of intergenerational factors, urban residents' consumption shows stronger altruistic motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different choices of living space for urban residents are concrete reflections of a social class divide. Emerging residential space differentiation is a critical issue in Chinese cities. This paper aims to explore the current situations and mechanisms of residential spatial differentiation, and reveal its social responses in Chinese cities. Taking Wuhan, the largest city in central China, as an example, this research divides the residential space based on social resource structures. It analyzes and compares spatial differentiation and influencing factors of different residential areas and houses with different prices in Wuhan by spatial differentiation indicators and geographic detector. The results show that residential areas are divergent due to differences in urban resource spatial structure, with few and concentrated high-quality residential areas. The spatial differentiation level of different residential areas also varies, with central location, landscape, educational resources, and other dominant scarce resources being the key to residential spatial differentiation in most of China's big cities. In addition, residential spatial differentiation can lead to issues including housing wealth inequality, resource deprivation, and class identity solidification. In the end, this paper puts forward policy implications on alleviating residential spatial differentiation and optimizing allocation of residential resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban outdoor space is an important activity place for residents, and its thermal environment directly affects residents' quality of life and physical and mental health. Due to global climate change and the acceleration of urbanization, the outdoor thermal comfort of urban residents has seriously declined, causing more and more scholars to pay attention to this problem and to carry out research. This paper summarizes the development history and evaluation principles of outdoor thermal comfort evaluation indices and sorts out the methods for achieving outdoor thermal comfort. This paper reviews the effects of urban climate, local microclimate, physiological, psychological, social, and cultural factors on outdoor thermal comfort. In addition, strategies for improving thermal comfort in urban outdoor spaces are discussed from the aspects of urban geometry, vegetation, surface materials, and water bodies. Finally, the existing problems and development directions of current urban outdoor space thermal comfort studies are pointed out. This review paper can provide a reference for the scientific planning and construction of urban outdoor spaces to improve people's thermal comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The significance of biodiversity in the survival of human beings and enhancing the urban quality of life is evident from the empirical measurements and qualitative studies carried out across the globe. Despite its importance and value, burgeoning population and growing urbanization are posing a serious threat to biodiversity leading to biodiversity homogenization and ecosystem fragmentation. Moreover, studies reveal that management practices of biodiversity hardly take into account perception, needs, and knowledge of urban residents regarding biodiversity. Urban green spaces have a major role to play in the conservation of urban biodiversity. However, the triangular relationship between biodiversity, urban green spaces, and public perception is still unexplored. With this aim, the paper attempts to compile, analyze, and synthesize the empirical findings to understand the state-of-the-art knowledge regarding public perception of biodiversity in urban green spaces. The search strategy acquired for the selection of papers resulted in 43 papers from 22 different countries of the world. The paper focuses upon an inclusive definition of urban green spaces, thus encompasses a wide variety of urban and peri-urban green spaces, parks, gardens, and waterfront urban spaces. The analysis of literature pattern reveals a recent increase in studies related to biodiversity perception over the last 10 years. It indicates a strong geographic bias in publications as well. Studies of animals including birds, insects, and reptiles are found scarce compared to plant species. The study could identify potential variables affecting human biodiversity perception which include species literacy, visitation rate, preferences, recreational, health, and restorative benefits, vegetation characteristics, nature connectedness, and conservation support. The paper also proposes a framework for understanding biodiversity perception in urban green spaces that can assist in improving our understanding of the relationship between human interactions and natural environments and framing strategies for urban development, landscape planning, and community health promotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China's economy has been developing rapidly, and people's life and quality of life have been improving; more importantly, people's habits and living habits have also developed from the previous "unhygienic" and "not very careful" to the current "Healthier, more hygienic, greener and more sophisticated" direction. In the process of this development, due to the rapid development of the economy and the industrialization of cities, the incidence of heart disease is also increasing year by year. According to relevant studies, China's urbanization process has been unprecedented, the number of urbanized people in China has exploded in recent years, and the ratio of urban to rural population has increased from about 20 percent to about 75 percent today. The effects of the population and the urbanization of urban architecture are affecting people's physical and mental health, both consciously and unconsciously, causing both positive and negative physical and mental effects on the psychological and physical levels. In this paper, the concept of deep learning is fully utilized to train the CNN neural network model and apply it to the ECG abnormality recognition and prediction examination. In order to fully validate the application and significance of deep learning in ECG abnormality identification and prediction, the whole project was completed through subjective and objective experiments. The experimental results show that, from the subjective aspect, the ECG examination has been accepted by most people for different age groups, and the analysis results of the ECG examination with the deep learning model in this paper are more satisfactory; from the objective aspect, the CNN-ECG abnormality recognition prediction network model trained in this paper has high. The accuracy of the model for ECG abnormality recognition prediction can reach 86% when the learning rate is set to 0.0001 and the batch size is set to 120, and the model can reduce the burden of medical personnel to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The province of Cabo Delgado, located in the north of Mozambique, has been inflicted by the conflict and terrorist actions since 2017. The threats they pose, and the unfolding fragility of the security situation have forced over 1.4 million people to flee their homes and communities. While thousands of displaced people are reluctant to risk their lives and return, over five hundred thousand displaced people made their spontaneous way back "home," and the country continues to struggle with such a reality. In the face of violent disruption and displacement, this paper offers an exploratory review of return from the perspective of encountering and giving meaning to places. Leaving culture (reflexivity again) a bit out, the paper closely looks at the (social and economic) experiences people have developed and carried with them through their displacement (and return) narratives as the main factors influencing the decision to or not to return. This article would then have a twofold purpose. On the one hand, it contributes to the existing debate on conflict, displacement, place and place-making. On the other hand, it would be beneficial to enrich the ongoing research further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrepancies between several South-Eastern European (SEE) countries and Nordic countries are investigated in this paper using an econometric analysis. Its aim is to examine the relationship between CO2 emissions, GDP per capita, urban population (URB) and electricity production from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) - EPREN, excluding hydroelectric for the two groups of EU countries located in the North and S-E of Europe. The data covers a period from 1990 to 2022, providing a comprehensive view over three decades. The relationship between the four variables is determined by various causality and cointegration tests. We check the unit root tests and conclude that the analyzed time series are stationary at first difference. Further, we estimate two models: Fully Modified and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares and study causality and cointegration between variables. The results show that CO2 emissions are impacted by GDP, URB and EPREN for both regions. Testing causality, for SEE and Nordic countries, the bidirectional and causalities do exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of the smart city involves embedding Industry 4.0 technologies to improve the lives of inhabitants in urban environments. Within this context, smart city data layers (SCDLs) concern the integration of extra tiers of information for the purposes of improving communication potential. Under the Industry 4.0 technology grouping, advanced communication technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), further the opportunities to model, recreate, evaluate and communicate scenarios that potentially improve citizens lives at multiple SCDL scales in a smart cities context. The use of added contextual information in SCDLs is of special interest for emergency planning situations at the building scale. In this research, a literature review to understand the current approaches for the use, development and evaluation of VR applications in the context of emergency planning was conducted. The results indicated four main categories of relevant challenges for these types of applications, for which recommendations and a roadmap for VR development are presented. In total, the study identified 10 commonly occurring challenges (e.g., optimization and discomfort) and 19 solution directions (e.g., model construction and spatial directions) in related articles when considering the development of VR for spatial planning and emergency situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of electric vehicles (EVs) in Chinese cities, accurately forecasting the number of EVs used by urban residents in the next five years and more long term is beneficial for the government to adjust industrial policies of EVs, guide the rational planning of urban charging facilities and supporting distribution network, and achieve the rational and orderly development of the EV industry. The paper considers the advantages of using the grey GM(1,1) prediction model to predict the short-term ownership of EVs by urban residents. Then, by forecasting the number of EV users in a certain city in the future and predicting the number of private vehicles in the future, the boundary conditions for long-term year ownership of EVs by residents are determined. Combined with historical data and short-term forecast data generated by the grey prediction model, the model parameters that include the innovation coefficient and imitation coefficient of the Bass model are trained using a genetic algorithm. Finally, the Bass model is used for medium- to long-term ownership forecasting from 2023 to 2040. The prediction error for the target year is provided. The simulation results indicate that the ownership of resident EVs in this city will experience rapid growth in the next five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African continent is confronted with interconnected challenges of water, energy, and food insecurity, particularly affecting marginalized urban residents. Decentralized Water-Energy-Food (WEF) systems have emerged as potential solutions to alleviate these issues exacerbated by climate change. Despite scholarly acknowledgment of constraints related to WEF, there is a growing global trend towards trials of innovative decentralized WEF systems. This paper contributes to the body of research aimed at demonstrating the applicability of decentralised WEF systems at local level, by showcasing the potential of such systems to enhance water, energy and food security in informal settlements. Focusing on Diepsloot slums in Johannesburg, South Africa, the paper applied space analysis, least-cost modeling of sack farming, and renewable energy technologies in providing WEF solutions that demonstrate feasibility, sustainability and decentralised solutions for informal settlements, compared to the popular broad-based solutions that often neglect these marginalised communities. Utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), AquaCrop crop modeling, financial analysis, and linear optimization modelling urbs, the study provides a comprehensive analysis of past climate trends, water sources, spatial plant arrangements, and a proposed community centre. The proposed Phezulu 'Up' growers' model and the positive return on investment further demonstrate the feasibility of decentralized WEF systems. Policymakers are encouraged to promote these WEF systems to bolster urban livelihoods and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 2, 6, and 7, in marginalized African urban areas. Recommendations and areas of further research include looking into issues of community engagement, partnerships, risk mitigation, strategies for equity and inclusivity and local knowledge integration during WEF implementation, and robust critique of WEF practical interventions and comparative analysis with other WEF models. Overall, the study provides a blueprint for inclusive and sustainable urban development, emphasizing the importance of localized WEF solutions and community empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Limited resident's participation in the stock market has become a key constraint to the capital market development. Utilizing the 2019 China Household Financial Survey (CHFS) data, our paper designs probit models to examine the peer effects of residents' stock market participation and explore the intermediary mechanisms with a multiple intermediary model. We find that: (1) Resident involvement in stock market decision-making exhibits significant peer effects. (2) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that males and rural residents display more pronounced peer effects than females and urban residents. Additionally, middle-aged residents demonstrate more potent peer effects than their younger and older counterparts, with the intensity of peer effects correlating with education levels. (3)We observe that the peer effects of market participation operate by altering economic expectations and enhancing residents' financial literacy. (4) Further investigation establishes that individuals engaging in stock market investments manifest peer effects when deciding whether to diversify their stock portfolio. This study holds reference value for analyzing the impact of social interaction on financial behaviors and regulating individuals' financial conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationally relieving the population of urban centers in large cities, such as megacities and supercities, is one of the current goals of population development in China. The fringe area of a large city is a potential area to undertake the population of the central area. Studying the relationship between the population and the built environment in this area can help urban planners formulate targeted construction strategies to attract the population of the city center to move to the fringe areas. This paper takes the fringe areas of Wuhan in 2010 and 2020 as its specific research object and puts forward the "5D" index system of built environments that affects the spatial distribution of population based on population data and built environment data. The OLS model is used to screen the influencing factors. This paper analyzes the correlation between population and built environment using a multi-scale geographic weighted regression model as well. According to the results of the regression analysis combined with the development and construction of the fringe areas of remote urban areas in Wuhan over the past 20 years, some suggestions are put forward for the planning and construction of remote urban areas. The results show that the "5D" index system of the built environment covers the influencing factors of the spatial distribution of the population. MGWR reveals the correlation between the influencing factors and the spatial distribution of population in the marginal areas on the global scale and the local scale, respectively, which provides a clear direction for the development of planning and construction to improve the attractiveness of the non-central areas to the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The booming development of digital technology has promoted economic growth and a new round of growth in the income levels of residents. However, the uneven development of digital technology and the existence of the digital divide have led to the fact that urban and rural residents do not enjoy the dividends of income growth brought by digital technology equally. This paper analyzes the relationship between digital technology and the urban-rural income gap and finds that the development of digital technology will narrow the urban-rural income gap, but it shows a non-linear "inverted U-shaped" trend. At the same time, the current level of digital technology is still low and has not yet crossed the inflection point of the "inverted U-shaped" curve. With the continued development of digital technology at its current level, the urban-rural income gap will further widen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study utilises the ‘natural experiment’ of COVID-19 to explore how disruption affected individuals’ perceptions and experiences of cycling, through semistructured interviews with eight cycle-shop owners and 30 residents in the Liverpool City Region, UK. It provides an account of the rapidly changing conditions that helped to support greater participation in cycling. Primarily this was due to reduced conflict between cyclists and others for road space. This was supported, though less significantly, by the provision of temporary cycling infrastructure as well as diminished competition for an individual’s time and energy from alternative leisure activities which were outlawed through COVID-19-related regulations. By disrupting car-dominated environments, the change in infrastructure and reduction in traffic flows contributed towards reducing the skills and confidence required to begin cycling. Nevertheless, as traffic rebounded to pre-pandemic volumes it was evident that the opportunity offered by disruption failed to be fully realised within the region. Despite this, the period has illustrated the potential for broader participation in cycling, though the paper finds that significant disruption to the infrastructures and traffic flows within the urban environment is required if a long-term modal shift is to occur following the surge in participation in cycling observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, the paper identifies several interventions that can be implemented to imitate the disruption observed in our study, and in doing so support a transition towards a low-carbon mobility system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the distribution of food loss and food waste of the main food categories related to the food supply chain respectively cereals, roots and tubers, oilseeds and pulses, fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and seafood and milk, in Europe including Russia, North America and Oceania, Industrialized Asia, SubSaharan Africa, North Africa, West and Central Asia and South and Southeast Asia. An estimated 30 % of the food produced globally for human sustenance is lost or squandered along the food supply chain. In the meantime, the global population is estimated to reach 9.1 billion by 2050, necessitating a 70% increase in food availability. A significant portion of this growth will occur in developing countries, where growing urban populations persist to create complex and lengthy food supply chains involving numerous actors, facing challenges for the delivery of secure, nutrient-rich, high-quality food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing computational power and improving deep learning methods have made computer vision technologies pervasively common in urban environments. Their applications in policing, traffic management, and documenting public spaces are increasingly common (Ridgeway 2018, Coifman et al. 1998, Sun et al. 2020). Despite the often-discussed biases in the algorithms' training and unequally borne benefits (Khosla et al. 2012), almost all applications similarly reduce urban experiences to simplistic, reductive, and mechanistic measures. There is a lack of context, depth, and specificity in these practices that enables semantic knowledge or analysis within urban contexts, especially within the context of using and occupying urban space. This paper will critique existing uses of artificial intelligence and computer vision in urban practices to propose a new framework for understanding people, action, and public space. This paper revisits Geertz's (1973) use of thick descriptions in generating interpretive theories of culture and activity and uses this lens to establish a framework to approach evaluating the varied uses of computer vision technologies that weigh meaning. By discussing cases of implemented examples of urban computer vision—from LinkNYC and Numina's urban measurements to the Detroit Police's use of DataWorks Plus's facial recognition technology—it proposes a framework for evaluating the thickness of the algorithm's conclusions against the computational method's complexity required to produce that outcome. Further, we discuss how the framework's positioning may differ (and conflict) between different users of the technology, from engineer to urban planner and policymaker, to citizen. This paper also discusses how the current use and training of deep learning algorithms and how this process limits semantic learning and proposes three potential methodologies toward gaining a more contextually specific, urban-semantic, description of urban space relevant to urbanists. This paper contributes to the critical conversations regarding the proliferation of artificial intelligence by challenging the current applications of these technologies in the urban environment by highlighting their failures within this context while also proposing an evolution of these algorithms that may ultimately make them sensitive and useful within this spatial and cultural milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of society and the improvement of people's living standards, ecotourism based on forest ecological environment has become an urgent need of urban and rural people. Forest leisure tourism is different from traditional sightseeing tourism. The differences between them are not only reflected in consumption purpose, consumption behavior, consumption grade and consumption form, but also reflected in the differences between tourism products, service system and service quality demand. Therefore, in order to develop forest leisure tourism, we must first fully understand the objective status quo of the leisure tourism market and the real needs of the market, and correctly judge the basic characteristics of the current forest leisure tourism market. At present, the competition of tourism market is upgraded from the competition of tourism price and tourism product to the competition of tourism brand. However, the resource utilization efficiency of forest park tourism is insufficient, and the internal management and external marketing are difficult to adapt to the changes of the market, thus the image and attraction of forest park tourism need to be improved urgently. Therefore, based on remote sensing image analysis and neural computing model, this paper constructs a forest ecotourism evaluation scheme. We designed the novel cloud-based mobile edge computing model to construct the efficient scenario for the prediction. The experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper can effectively evaluate the development plan of forest eco-tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the main urban area of Yangzhou City and conducts a quantitative comparative analysis of traffic accessibility during normal weather and extreme precipitation conditions (typhoon) based on GPS trajectories of buses. From both temporal and spatial dimensions, it comprehensively examines the impact of extreme precipitation on bus travel speed, travel time, and the commuting range of residents in the main urban area of Yangzhou City. (1) Through the mining and analysis of multi-source heterogeneous big data (bus GPS trajectory data, bus network data, rainfall remote sensing data, and road network data), it is found that the rainstorm weather greatly affects the average speed and travel time of buses. In addition, when the intensity of heavy rainfall increases (decreases), the average bus speed and travel time exhibit varying degrees of spatio-temporal change. During the morning and evening rush hour commuting period of rainstorm weather, there are obvious differences in the accessibility change in each typical traffic community in the main urban area of Yangzhou city. In total, 90% of the overall accessibility change value is concentrated around −5 min~5 min, and the change range is concentrated around −25~10%. (2) To extract the four primary traffic districts (Lotus Pond, Slender West Lake, Jinghua City, and Wanda Plaza), we collected Points of Interest (POI) data from Amap and Baidu heat map, and a combination analysis of the employment–residence ratio model and proximity methods was employed. The result show that the rainstorm weather superimposed on the morning peak hour has different degrees of impact on the average speed of the above-mentioned traffic zones, with the most obvious impact on the Lotus Pond and the smallest impact on Wanda Plaza. Under the rainstorm weather, the traffic commute in the main urban area of Yangzhou in the morning and evening peak hour is basically normal. The results of this paper can help to quantify the impact of typhoon-rainstorm weather events on traffic commuting in order to provide a scientific basis for the traffic management department to effectively prevent traffic jams, ensure the reliability of the road network, and allow the traffic management department to more effectively manage urban traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connotation and measurement standard of "fairness" in parkland planning is closely related to the level of urban development and residents' needs, with solid realism and dynamics, and it is still a complex problem to control accurately in planning. Therefore, to conduct a more comprehensive study, taking the main urban area of Harbin as an example, this paper combined urban development background and practical problems at different stages and, based on POI and AOI data, divided the connotation of "equity" in park green space planning into two levels: "spatial equity" and "social equity". Based on these two levels of fairness, the research framework of urban park green space layout is constructed. Kernel density estimation and GIS-based network analysis were used to study the spatial layout and accessibility of urban parkland. The ability to match supply and demand for parkland in the study area as a whole was analyzed using a gridded two-step moving search method, as well as the degree of equity in the enjoyment of urban parkland by vulnerable groups including the elderly and children using the Lorenz curve with the Gini coefficient, the share index, and the entropy of the locality. The results show that: (1) the parkland is concentrated in the seven main urban areas of the two–two junctions, and the cohesion distribution trend is outside the distribution. (2) Motorized vehicles have the best 15-min accessibility for travel, but it still does not cover all the parkland. (3) Supply and demand within the region are unsatisfactory, with the area with the strongest supply and demand capacity for parkland accounting for only 3.19% of the total area. (4) The Gini coefficient of parkland enjoyed by the residents of Harbin city center is 0.407, with a massive gap in the overall distribution. In addition, the share index of vulnerable groups of the elderly and children all have share indices below 1, and the results of the analysis of locational entropy indicate that the level of street park green space resources enjoyed by these two groups belongs to the low socio-spatial equity pattern, which is not balanced. This study investigates the spatial layout of urban parkland from two equity levels, which can provide new ideas for the equity study of urban green space planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent technological developments in aviation, such as vertical take-off and landing and electric engines, are bringing the development of integrated urban air transport systems closer and are generally helping to promote the concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM). UAM makes it possible to provide integrated air transport services for people and goods in urban areas, reducing travel time initially and leading to cost reductions in the future. The development of UAM will allow urban airspace to be used for short and medium range operations, potentially connecting larger urban areas or neighbouring cities. However, the operation of UAM requires, on the one hand, the development of appropriate urban infrastructure to provide full and vertical support for aircraft, such as vertical landing and take-off areas, specially designed intermediate areas for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers and cargo, as well as areas with operational technical bases for loading, parking and maintenance of aircraft. All this is the concept of the VertiPorts/Voloports/Vertistops. However, the development of a VertiPorts/Voloports/ Vertistops in the dense and complex modern urban environment can be challenging, as on the one hand specific rules for aviation safety have to be followed, and on the other hand their integration into the urban environment requires compliance with the rules of urban planning, land use and protection of private property.This paper presents the challenges that researchers have to face in order to integrate Voloports into an already formed and dense urban environment, such as that of the city Athens, the metropolitan centre and capital of Greece, in respect to various constitutional, institutional and spatial restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Urban poverty is a complex phenomenon and people experiencing poverty suffer from various deprivations. Multidimensional poverty measurement has been one of the best indicators of this deprivation. In general, slum dwellers are considered homogenous groups, but it is not valid in multidimensional deprivation. This paper aims to find out the correlates of multidimensional poverty in slums. Spatiality and correlates of poverty in Varanasi City have been tapped using statistical modelling. The paper is based on primary data collected from 384 households through an interview schedule from 12 slums across three geographical zones of the city. The MPI index for slums, based on global MPI, was used to compute MPI for each geographical zone. Further ANOVA and hierarchical regression analysis were performed to find spatiality and correlates of multidimensional deprivation. The paper reveals that socio-religious categories, occupation and geographical location are significant determinants or at least correlates of multidimensional poverty in slums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Green sustainable development is an important part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and China's ecological civilization construction. Methods: This paper combines the characteristics of the development of lakeside cities, gives full play to the advantages of modern remote sensing technology to collect the indicators related to the green sustainable development of lakeside cities, adopts the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the CRiteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation (CRITIC) subjective and objective weighting methods and the difference coefficient method to determine the weights of the indicators, evaluates the green sustainable development of a typical lakeside city of Kunming for more than 30 years, and analyzes the influencing factors using the gray degree of correlation. Results: The results show the following: (1) From 1990 to 2021, the level of green sustainable development in the urban area around Dianchi Lake fluctuated in stages, with an overall upward trend, and the green development index increased from 0.25 in 1990 to 0.5 in 2021. (2) The coefficient of variance determined by the optimization model can be a better compromise between the objective and subjective weights of the indicators, and the massive occupation of wetlands and arable land around the lake in the urban expansion has become a major factor in the development of the city, with a combined weight of 10.30% and 8.79%, respectively. (3) The urban population and economic scale are currently the main drivers of the green and sustainable development of a lakeside city, with a correlation of 0.843 and 0.769, respectively. Discussion: The growth of urban population and economic scale plays a pivotal role in driving the green and sustainable development of lakeside cities, while the potential impact of tourism development should also be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I advocate for a radical expansion of computational urban science to encompass a multidisciplinary, human-centered approach, addressing the inadequacies of traditional methodologies in capturing the complexities of urban life. Building on insights from Jane M. Jacobs and others, I argue that integrating computational tools with disciplines like sociology, anthropology, and urban planning can significantly enhance our understanding and management of urban environments. This integration facilitates a deeper analysis of cultural phenomena, improves urban policy design, and promotes more sustainable, inclusive urban development. By embracing qualitative research methods—such as ethnography and participatory observations—alongside computational analysis, I highlight the importance of capturing the nuanced social fabrics and subjective experiences that define urban areas. I also stress the necessity of including community stakeholders in the research process to ensure that urban science not only analyzes but also improves the lived experiences of urban populations. Furthermore, I underscore the need for ethical governance and the mitigation of biases inherent in computational tools, proposing rigorous model auditing and the inclusion of diverse perspectives in model development. Overall, this work champions a holistic approach to urban science, aiming to make cities smarter, more equitable, and responsive to their residents' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventing food waste is important. Analyzing the effects of food waste attitudes on urban residents' waste production behaviors is necessary to reduce food waste. As Shanghai is a mega-city with a population of 24 million people, once food is adequately supplied, more attention is paid to the safety of food in terms of quantity, quality, and nutrition. COVID-19 gave a shock to the food supply in Shanghai, which in turn resulted in food waste behavior. The moderating effect of pandemic during the COVID-19 is one that has rarely been mentioned in previous studies. An investigation of urban residents was conducted in Shanghai. A total of 1030 valid questionnaires were collected in October 2020. This study examined the influence of food waste attitudes on food waste behavior under the moderating effects of pandemic expectations, quantity safety, quality safety, and price stability using a multivariate ordered probit model. The results show that food waste attitudes had a significant negative effect on food waste behavior at a p < 0.01 level of significance, which means that the more people feel shame about food waste, the less food waste they will have. The interaction coefficient between food waste attitudes and pandemic expectations was positive at a p < 0.1 level of significance. This paper concludes with strategies for dealing with food waste in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of post-mining reservoirs as part of urban blue infrastructure is linked to the implementation of pro-environmental policies at different levels (from local–municipal to European). Local communities, as beneficiaries of measures taken by city authorities, recognise the need for active participation in decision-making processes. They engage in making decisions on blue spaces in urban areas. These include public and natural watercourses and their surroundings, but also water-filled basins of various origins, including post-mining pits. This paper strives to answer how local communities are involved in activities for developing and managing post-mine areas filled with water within city limits. The methods used (including field observation, spatial analyses, and desk research) allowed us to classify post-mining pits according to their functions and the degree of social participation in their development process. The analysed post-mining pits were divided into three groups. The first group consisted of pit reservoirs transformed with the participation of local inhabitants into recreational grounds. The second comprised reservoirs transformed under local zoning plans (with residents consulted) expected to ultimately prop up the city's green infrastructure. In turn, the third group consists of quasi-natural reservoirs deemed natural enclaves by city residents. The environmental analysis showed that pits were naturalised. One of them was subject to legal protection on account of biodiversity. Post-mine areas in Bydgoszcz play an important environmental role, and some are integral recreational sites, e.g., the Balaton reservoir. They materially affect the inhabitants' daily contact with nature, which improves life quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper constructs and elaborates a theoretical model of urban economic efficiency (UEE) from the perspective of urban scaling law. A framework of urban economic analysis is established with urban population agglomeration capacity (UPAC) as the explanatory factor. Taking the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) as a case study, explore the influence of UPAC on UEE. The results show that the gap between the UEE in the YRDUA gradually decreases, the spatial agglomeration characteristic weakens, and the UEE among cities leads to a balanced tendency. However, the spatial agglomeration pattern of UPAC becomes more and more significant. (Mega/super) large cities are mostly advanced types, while small cities are lagging types. The influence of UPAC on UEE gradually decreases and diverges from significant positive influence to insignificant influence in advanced cities and significant positive influence in lagging cities. The framework of UEE research provides a more objective way to understand and compare the economic performance of cities of different scales. The empirical study findings provide a basis for decision-making on developing different types of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As major carriers of modern economy and population, cities and towns are vortex centers of pollution migration, and the environmental effects brought about by China's unprecedented urbanization can be imagined, although the specific scale is still a mystery. This paper focuses on the nonlinear response mechanism of urban PM2.5 concentration to the urbanization population scale, considering that China's urbanization development path is dominated by large- and medium-sized cities. The panel data of PM2.5 concentration of Chinese cities observed by satellite during 1998–2016 are used to capture the nonlinear characteristics of panel threshold model (PTM). The estimation results of the double-threshold PTM including the quadratic term of urbanization population show that the U-shaped relationship between urbanization population and PM2.5 concentration is nonlinear adjusted by urban GDP per capita with the two thresholds of 6777 Yuan and 10,296 Yuan at 2010 constant price. When the urban GDP per capita exceeds 10,296 Yuan, the urbanized population at the turning point of the U-shaped curve is 12.967 million people, which only appears in a few super-large cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. The size matching of urban economy and population is an important follow-up of environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guwahati, the largest city in India's northeast, characterized by rapid increase in population and urban functions during the last few decades, is confronted with alarming challenges in water insecurity due to the widening gap between supply and demand and the slow development of associated infrastructures. An attempt is made in this paper to examine the changing status of the WS (water supply) system in Guwahati city and to explore the challenges faced by the city dwellers in ensuring water security based on both primary and secondary data. Despite having a massive water source in the form of Brahmaputra river near the city, more than 70 per cent of its population is still deprived of urban water supply. The water quality, which has been assessed through the water quality index, is found to vary among different schemes of WS systems in the city. On the other hand, the water accessibility index at the household level is indicative of a discouraging picture. Given the lack of adequate water security, city dwellers are compelled to adopt various strategies to overcome diverse challenges in accessing water, looking at quantity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

Nowadays, emerging industries are emerging, and the sports industry has become a remarkable new economic growth point. Vigorously tapping the potential of residents' sports consumption has important theoretical and practical significance for promoting the development of the sports industry, improving people's living standards, and stimulating economic growth. In this paper, a deep learning model is constructed, and the random forest and random network models in the deep learning network are used to analyze the pulling effect of urban residents' sports consumption on economic growth. Since the consumption level of urban residents is much higher than that of rural residents, urban residents are in a dominant position in sports consumption, so this paper takes urban residents' sports consumption as the core to explore the pulling effect of urban residents' sports consumption on economic growth. The research theme of this paper is the pulling effect of urban residents' sports consumption on economic growth, so this paper sets the explanatory variable as the added value of GDP, expressed by GDP. Sports consumption has the characteristics of inevitability, gradualness, and diversity. With the continuous change of people's living standards, sports consumption also presents several stages of relative consumption pattern changes. Research shows that sports consumption has a positive role in promoting economic growth and the transformation and upgrading of economic development mode. Every one percentage point change in sports consumption leads to an economic growth of 0.186 percentage points, and with the increase of the lag period, urban residents' sports consumption will gradually increase the driving effect of economic growth. This effect can be analyzed at the micro- and macrolevels and enhanced by a causal cumulative cycle mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]