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Abstract: This issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) includes the publication of the scientific papers that won the 3 major open awards at the International Conference on Chiropractic Research (ICCR) held at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel, Montreal, Canada, from April 30 to May 2, 2009. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Building form archetypes for medium-sized net zero energy (NZE) buildings were made. • A roof-integrated building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPV/T) system was used. • Sensitivity analysis ranked/quantified influential early design stage factors for NZE. • Separate sensitivity analyses were run for four different roof tilt angles. • Orientation, window-wall ratio south/north, and plan shape were most influential. This paper is the first of two that examine the influence of building form, including courtyards, on the energy performance of medium-sized institutional solar net zero energy buildings incorporating building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPV/T) roof systems. The inclusion of BIPV/T at the early design stage along with passive design techniques extends to energy flexibility considerations with a smart grid. A two storey 3 000 m2 medium-sized archetype building was considered. Through simulations, different building plan shapes and BIPV/T roof tilt angles supported by a range of related building enclosure variables such as insulation level and window characteristics were analyzed and compared. The design configurations used BIPV/T heat recovery for winter ventilation air preheating in the Montreal region. In this first paper, the methodology is presented. Then, using annual net energy use intensity as the target, a global sensitivity analysis was performed to rank and quantify the most sensitive design variables at different BIPV/T roof slopes. Out of the nine input variables analyzed, the most influential by rank were the orientation, the window to wall ratio for the south and north façades, and the plan shape, for roof tilt angles of 35°, 40°, and 45°. For a roof tilt angle of 30°, the window to wall ratio of the south façade was the most influential, switching rank with the orientation. Although not an input variable to the sensitivity analysis, this indicates as well the influence of the BIPV/T roof tilt angle. Also, there was a significant interaction effect between the plan shape and orientation, highlighting the utility of analyzing interaction effects at the early design stage and the importance of these two factors in solar-enhanced buildings. At the other end of the spectrum, the window type, the wall and roof insulation level, and the window to wall ratios for the east and west facades were the least significant – at least approximately one order of magnitude less sensitive than the first ranked input. In the second paper, the methodology is applied in a case study for early stage design in which relative comparisons are made considering building form, net-zero energy, and extended to the grid considering load matching and energy flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, electric vehicles (EVs) have become a popular mode of individual transportation due to their significant benefits over internal combustion engine vehicles, resulting in significant growth in their penetration rate. However, the current flat electricity charging pricing and rapid diffusion of EVs may impose challenges to both transportation systems and power grids. It is well-accepted that the implementation of charging pricing schemes is a promising solution for changing and controlling EV users' charging behavior. Nevertheless, in most research studies that have examined pricing schemes, the charging logic is defined in a way that agents will charge their vehicles while performing their daily activities. This will make the application of pricing schemes unfeasible, as agents will not have the freedom to unplug their EVs whenever they want, to reduce their billing costs. Accordingly, this paper provides an agent and activity-based framework for charging pricing schemes by decoupling activity and charging start and end times. Following this, three different charging pricing schemes have been introduced, including time of use (TOU), non-linear and zonal pricing and tested on the Montreal scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers three configurations of air source heat pumps and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems in a solar house. This study evaluates energy efficiency and flexibility when interacting with a smart grid. The reference case is a 5 kW BIPV system on the roof with a separate air-source heat pump water heater (HPWH). In the two more novel options we have: first, a 5 kW BIPV/thermal (BIPV/T) roof system where the heated air from the BIPV/T system is ducted to the air source of the HPWH, which also contains integrated thermal storage (hot water); in the second case we have an attached solarium with a 5 kW semi-transparent photovoltaic façade, with the solar heated air in the solarium connected to the air source of the HPWH with integrated water thermal storage. The three cases are modelled with an explicit finite difference thermal network model, and energy performance is determined and compared over a typical heating season in Montreal, Canada. The energy flexibility potential of the options is compared for different scenarios, such as heating the thermal water storage during the daytime (e.g. using the solar heat in the novel options) and using it for space heating during the time that the grid is under stress (and may have price incentives). Results show that the second novel case utilizing the solarium air as the source of the heat pump resulted in an over 80% energy use reduction relative to the reference. In comparison, the BIPV/T configuration had around 20% reduction compared to the reference case. The tank volume and solarium size had the highest impact on the flexibility of the system. Optimal sizes for the tank volume were typically between 300 and 600 L for the house with a floor area of 116 m2. • Analyzed BIPV/T scenarios using solar heat to supply heated air to a heat pump. • Compared the energy and flexibility of a ducted BIPV/T and a solar heated solarium. • Novel passive solar STPV covered solarium had lowest energy consumption. • Maximized energy flexibility using a parametric analysis to size key components. • Integrated thermal storage had highest impact on maximizing energy flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioclimatic design strategies are among the most promising sustainable approaches for improving energy efficiency of buildings. However, their contributions to reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of buildings are largely dependent on the alignment of building design with climatic conditions. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of key bioclimatic design strategies, namely green roof and walls, tree shading, natural ventilation, glazing system, blinds, building orientation and Trombe wall on the energy performance of a typical residential building in the three most dominant climates worldwide. These strategies are analyzed in Riyadh, Tetouan and Montreal cities, selected to represent those climates, viz. arid, temperate and cold climates, respectively. To this end, numerous dynamic thermal simulations were performed using EnergyPlus software. The findings of this research revealed that, individually, green roof and walls, and Trombe wall strategies have the highest performance in terms of energy savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation for all selected locations. Moreover, blinds and tree shading strategies are too recommended for arid and temperate climates, while natural ventilation is advisable only for the last one. Additionally, significant energy saving could be achieved by optimizing the building orientation, especially in arid and cold climates. However, the greatest energy savings and GHG emissions mitigation were achieved (i) by combining green roof and walls, Trombe wall, blinds and tree shading techniques for arid climates, (ii) by adding natural ventilation to the last combination for temperate climates, and (iii) when green roof and walls design is combined with an optimal building orientation for cold climates, with a share of 33%, 58% and 19%, respectively. This work is intended to be a reference to help building designers and engineers to select the appropriate bioclimatic design strategies according to the building's climate. • The main bioclimatic strategies' effect in dominant climates worldwide is examined. • Three locations were selected to represent the dominant climates. • Green roof and walls design is the most energy-efficient bioclimatic strategy. • Significant energy-saving can be achieved by combining key bioclimatic strategies. • Applying the investigated strategies greatly reduces GHG emissions in all climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a heuristic model predictive control (MPC) methodology to activate energy flexibility in fully electric school buildings in cold climates to reduce electricity demand during peak demand periods of the electric grid. To streamline the implementation of MPC, the proposed approach employs grey-box archetypes, a clustering of weather conditions to identify typical scenarios and a limited number of possible setpoint profiles. A data-driven grey-box approach is used to create archetype models for different thermal zones in a typical school building; this approach enables rapid development and requires much less calibration data than black-box models. A third-order resistance-capacitance thermal network for zones with convective heating and a fourth-order model for zones with radiant floor heating are developed and calibrated using measured data from an all-electric school building in Québec, Canada. The weather data are clustered into several categories, representing different weather conditions (6 clusters representing two ambient temperature ranges and three solar radiation ranges). The heuristic MPC strategy uses predefined optimal setpoint profiles for each cluster and weather prediction one day ahead to shift the building load from on-peak to off-peak hours. For each heuristic MPC scenario, the model runs a simulation using forecast weather data to quantify and activate energy flexibility in response to grid requirements. The developed MPC framework was implemented in the school used as the case study. Ten classrooms are investigated, with six using the MPC and four as a reference case with the reactive control system and default zone setpoint profiles. Results indicate that the school building can provide between 47% and 95% energy flexibility (load shifting relative to reference) during on-peak hours and up to 44% electricity cost reduction while satisfying acceptable temperature constraints. By implementing the proposed MPC, energy flexibility of 32 W/m2 of floor area for the zones with a convective heating system and 65 W/m2 of floor area for the zones with radiant heating can be achieved during a demand response event. The proposed strategy can be generalized and replicated in other school buildings. • A model predictive control methodology for school buildings was presented. • The methodology was applied to a fully electric school building near Montréal, Canada. • Data-driven grey-box models were developed and calibrated using measured data. • The model predictive control provided between 47% and 95% energy flexibility during on-peak hours. • The model predictive control reduced the cost of electricity by 44%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using location theory as a starting point, this paper aims to understand how coworking spaces (CSs) locate within the city and how they reacted to the stress of COVID-19. Through a case study of the city of Montreal (Canada), we show that most CSs locate in areas of high transit accessibility and in central districts, but there is a trend – possibly accelerated by COVID – towards more suburban locations. These location strategies follow logics similar to those of Knowledge intensive services (KIS), including the tendency of some to agglomerate and of others to disperse. For some CSs, there is also heightened sensitivity to interactions with, and contributions to, the local community. Hence, faced with COVID, CSs in transit-accessible places combine an inward strategy, centralizing their activities around members, with a networking strategy , pooling some services and developing partnerships with local or other nearby CSs. Furthermore, CSs in peri -central neighbourhoods are the most vulnerable and have adopted retraction strategies. In contrast, CSs located in low accessibility districts outside the agglomeration adopt an expansion strategy, opening new branches near suburban residential areas to attract nearby workers. As hybrid work evolves, these results can help urban planners better understand the location rationales of CSs, how they adapt, and to what extent they bring added value to local urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper investigates the impact of highway extension on new building construction. • The investigation focuses on a project that aims to limit land use change. • The infrastructure increases the probability of construction on surrounding parcels. • The impact is spatially concentrated around the access ramp and along the highway. Despite its impact on both sprawl and carbon emissions, developing or expanding highway infrastructure remains the object of strong political support. Highway access provides important advantages for firms and households, generating powerful incentives to develop new built areas through the conversion of vacant land. Based on the case study of the expansion of Highway 30 on Montréal's South Shore region between 2000 and 2019, this paper investigates how new highway infrastructure impacts the construction of new industrial and commercial buildings on individual parcels. Using a panel dataset, an event study model is developed to estimate the impact of the proximity to highway access ramps on the probability of construction. Results show that highway infrastructure increases the probability of construction of new industrial and commercial buildings, even if public authorities aim to limit such possibilities by legal constraints and laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of walkability encompasses a multitude of features of the built and social environments that impact walking behavior, leading to the creation of a wide range of walkability indices. While past studies have compared the research outputs from multiple walkability indices, little research has looked at how relevant each index is across sociodemographic groups and how the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and behavior vary from one index to another. Using trip data from Montréal, Canada, this paper evaluates two commonly used walkability indices at different scales – Walk Score© (meso-scale) and the MAPS-Mini audit tool (micro-scale) – and their interactions with sociodemographic characteristics. Weighted binary logistic regressions are used to model the probability of adults taking a homebased utilitarian walking trip. A total of ten models are generated, including eight models in which one of four socio-demographic variables – gender, age, household income, and presence of children below 13 years old in the household – is interacted with one of the two walkability indices. Sensitivity analyses are then conducted using the interaction variables' outputs by varying the values of the interacted sociodemographic variable. Results show significant interactions for all variables for both indices except from Walk Score©'s interaction with gender. Opposite effects are observed between the two indices in the sensitivity analysis for household income. The differential results observed between the indices and between sociodemographic groups underscore the need to properly test the equity implication of using certain walkability measures in research. • Interactions between sociodemographic characteristics and walkability are tested. • Walkability impacts individuals differently based on their sociodemographics. • Different walkability indices do not interact similarly with all sociodemographics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ransomware presents a significant threat to the security and integrity of cryptocurrency transactions. This research paper explores the intricacies of ransomware detection in cryptocurrency transactions using the Bitcoinheist dataset. The dataset encompasses 28 distinct families classified into three ransomware categories: Princeton, Montreal, and Padua, along with a white category representing legitimate transactions. We propose a novel hybrid supervised and semi-supervised multistage machine learning framework to tackle this challenge. Our framework effectively classifies known ransomware families by leveraging ensemble learning techniques such as Decision Tree, Random Forest, XGBoost, and Stacking. Additionally, we introduce a novel semi-supervised approach to accurately identify previously unseen ransomware instances within the dataset. Through rigorous evaluation employing comprehensive classification metrics, including accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, RoC score, and prediction time, our proposed approach demonstrates promising results in ransomware detection within cryptocurrency transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the attributes of walkable environments from the perspective of seniors in the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The research is based on a combination of statistical analysis of travel diary data and field work to conduct walkability audits. The approach follows a sequence of logical steps. The first step involves the estimation of a travel behavior model walking by seniors (people 65 years or older). The results of this model, in combination with cluster analysis, are used to identify sites where the model systematically under- or over-predicts walking. Subsequently, sites are targeted for walkability audits. It then becomes possible to assess the presence or absence of attributes of built environments where walking is more or less common than other factors would predict. A walkability audit of 403 street segments was used to proof the concept in this paper. The audited items were summarized in contingency tables and tested with the chi-squared test of independence to identify streetscape elements that correlate with walking for transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Data-driven interpretable machine learning for large-scale multiple discrete-continuous data. • Analytical methods for conditional probability, elasticity, latent variables, and fore-casting. • Incorporate variational Bayesian inference into travel behaviour model estimation. • Validation performed on a dataset consisting over 293,330 trip trajectories from Montréal. The emergence of data-driven demand analysis has led to the increased use of generative modelling to learn the probabilistic dependencies between random variables. Although their apparent use has mostly been limited to image recognition and classification in recent years, generative machine learning algorithms can be a powerful tool for travel behaviour research by replicating travel behaviour by the underlying properties of data structures. In this paper, we examine the use of generative machine learning approach for analyzing multiple discrete-continuous (MDC) travel behaviour data. We provide a plausible perspective of how we can exploit the use of machine learning techniques to interpret the underlying heterogeneities in the data. We show that generative models are conceptually similar to the choice selection behaviour process through information entropy and variational Bayesian inference. Without loss of generality, we consider a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) based algorithm with multiple discrete-continuous layers, formulated as a variational Bayesian inference optimization problem. We systematically describe the proposed machine learning algorithm and develop a process of analyzing travel behaviour data from a generative learning perspective. We show parameter stability from model analysis and simulation tests on an open dataset with multiple discrete-continuous dimensions from a data size of 293,330 observations. For interpretability, we derive the conditional probabilities, elasticities and perform statistical analysis on the latent variables. We show that our model can generate statistically similar data distributions for travel forecasting and prediction and performs better than purely discriminative methods in validation. Our results indicate that latent constructs in generative models can accurately represent the joint distribution consistently on MDC data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hierarchical structure allows the use of more sustainable transportation methods. • Increase energy efficiency with four hierarchical levels and transportation methods. • Hierarchical structure of collection is more energy efficient than conventional one. Moving towards sustainability implies a social challenge that entails urban planning and the environmental impact of the transport of waste management. Previous studies assume the use of a unique vehicle, but in this study; many levels of transportation are examined with different transportation methods at each level, allowing the use of greener and smaller transportation methods in urban centres. In this article, the comparison between the use of a unique vehicle and the use of a hierarchical structure for the collection and transportation is analyzed. In the first level of the transportation structure, the transportation method is, a human activity such as walking and carrying 10 kg, in the second level the transportation method was a bicycle carrying 100 kg and for the third and fourth levels the use of motorized vehicles carrying 1 and 10 tons of material. Results support the hierarchical structure with multiple levels and transportation methods to reduce energy consumption, over the most common use of a single level of transportation. The results show that population density has a significant association with reduced transport energy. Results also demonstrate that the loading ratio of each transportation method, the number of stops in each level and the energy spent per stop also affect the transport structure. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework, this paper focuses on a real-life case study of the waste management system in Montreal, Canada. This approach provides insights for city planners or policy-makers regarding flow structures and methods to transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The movement-based safety analysis method is able to identify unsafe maneuvers. • Cyclists perform different maneuvers with varied levels of safety at discontinuities. • Some maneuvers where cyclists follow the discontinuous facility are the most unsafe. The cycling safety research literature has proposed methods to analyse safety and case studies to better understand the factors that lead to cyclist crashes. Surrogate measures of safety (SMoS) are being used as a proactive approach to identify severe interactions that do not result in an accident and interpreting them for a safety diagnosis. While most cyclist studies adopting SMoS have evaluated interactions by counting the total number of severe events per location, only a few have focused on the interactions between general directions of movement e.g. through cyclists and right turning vehicles. However, road users perform maneuvers that are more varied at a high spatiotemporal resolution such as a range of sharp to wide turning movements. These maneuvers (motion patterns) have not been considered in past studies as a basis for analysis to identify, among a range of possible motion patterns in each direction of travel, which ones are safer, and which are more likely to result in a crash. This paper presents a novel movement-based probabilistic SMoS approach to evaluate the safety of road users' trajectories based on clusters of trajectories representing the various movements. This approach is applied to cyclist-vehicle interactions at two locations of cycling network discontinuity and two control sites in Montréal. The Kruskal-Wallis and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests are used to compare the time-to-collision (TTC) distribution between motion patterns in each site and between sites with and without a discontinuity. Results demonstrate the insight provided by the new approach and indicate that cyclist interactions are more severe and less safe at locations with a cycling network discontinuity and that cyclists following different movements have statistically different levels of safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in the international smart city market over the past decade has been tremendous. Fuelled by private vendors and consultants, adoption of smart city technology in many cities has been rapid. How well does the adoption of this technology and the overall design of smart cities align with the needs and preferences of residents? In this paper we examine this question using data from a unique survey of residents in three large Canadian cities: Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. The survey includes perceptions of both the importance and maturity of 23 policy or service areas, grouped along four dimensions (Services, Governance, Social and Economic). The results indicate that there is a misalignment in certain service and policy areas between the types of projects that cities are pursuing and the preferences of residents, indicating the need for broader and deeper engagement with the community in the design and implementation of smart city plans. • Survey results highlight disparities between residents and their municipal governments in smart city development • A gap exists between the preferences that residents place on certain smart city initiatives and where local government direct investment • Cities are aligned with technocratic institutional logic, underpinned by a close collaboration with the private sector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban forests are recognized for their multiple benefits to society, and increasingly so with climate change. However, they too are threatened by increased heat, pollution, and higher risks of pest outbreaks. Increasing the diversity of tree species in urban forests is crucial for enhancing their resilience by reducing the risk of mass tree losses. Yet, we lack the most important ingredient to act: knowledge. Traditionally, urban tree inventories only include trees on public land. This study describes the first urban forest research plot established in Montreal, Canada, encompassing 1567 trees on public and private (residential and institutional) lands from 84 species and 43 genera. Our paper significantly contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical data that enhances our understanding and provides a clearer picture of urban forests, particularly concerning total tree diversity, across public and private lands. We found that tree abundance and diversity differed depending on land ownership: the public urban forest included more trees and was slightly more diverse than the private urban forest. Acer emerged as the most abundant genus, and small trees dominated all ownership categories. Importantly, the species composition of trees in public and private spaces differed, increasing the overall diversity. Of particular interest was the presence of three species on private property that were not recorded in the larger public tree inventory. Developing inventory practices that include private trees can provide insight to strategically enhance tree diversity where needed and maximize the benefits that diverse urban forests provide. • Diversity in the urban forest improves resilience and enhances ecosystem services. • Most urban tree inventories only include trees located on public land. • Focusing on public trees may lead to underestimating diversity and resilience. • Tree abundance and diversity differ depending on land ownership type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Throughout the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, culture has gained increasing importance in strategies designed to deal with new trajectories of urban areas. Post-industrial cities seek to revive former industrial, contaminated and waterfront sites and their city centers, as they are aiming to establish themselves in the new arena of the global market place. This paper looks at the relationships between investments in cultural resources/activities and urban regeneration processes, and in this respect, how culture can be considered a determinant to the accumulation of human and social capital. It examines the transformation of the Saint Michel district located in metropolitan Montreal. The Saint Michel area is experiencing a radical change in its social, economic and environmental profile due to its transition from the industrial-led development model to the post-industrial model in which investments in cultural and creative activities/industries – particularly the headquarters of Cirque du Soleil and TOHU – La Cité des Arts du Cirque – are supplying new opportunities for the local area in a metropolitan dimension. What impacts does such clustering have on the social and human capital of the vast majority of the populations that live within this area? Based on a theoretical review and empirical investigation, the paper presents some clarification of the role of cultural investment in the definition of an emerging sustainable social scheme within the community to promote the development of local social and human capital. We know that cultural habits do not change quickly, and our research shows that organizations need to be proactive and seek very actively the participation of the local community if they want to see changes. Our case study highlights the fact that it is important to invest actively in mobilization, local information and promotion and to do so with the cooperation of local community organizations to attain some form of bonding with the local population, have the positive effects expected in terms of involvement in the community and act as a lever for local socio-economic development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• R744 commercial refrigeration for tropical small island developing states. • Energy consumption and environmental impact of different R744 configurations. • Implications of a shift towards CO 2 for Article 5 countries. The implications of HCFC phase out and coming restrictions on HFCs on the energy efficiency of refrigeration systems for Article 5 countries have to be examined if the issues of global warming and ozone depletion are to be addressed. While the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol is seen as a driving force for the phase out of HFCs, only the low GWP argument cannot be considered as a determining factor for Small Island Developing States (SIDs) with high reliability on imported fossil fuels for their electricity generation. While CO 2 has emerged as a promising refrigerant for the supermarket sector, the shift for such alternative technologies represents a tremendous leap forward for SIDs. The paper discusses the implications of a shift towards CO 2 through an energy analysis of the proposed alternatives and their implementation is discussed with special focus on the unique socio-economic context of SIDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using data from a regional survey carried out in Montreal, this paper shows empirical evidence that modal shift from car to transit contributes to the volume of daily physical activity. First, the paper presents a method to calculate the walking distance related to transit trips, and a totally disaggregate trip assignment model. The walking distance involved in every transit trip is then associated to the individuals'' characteristics to estimate the number of steps made by the population in the whole transit system. Results show that, in average, a transit trip involves 1250 steps, required to access and egress the network as well as to transfer between routes or modes. Thus, a round trip represents 2500 steps, which account for 25% of the recommended volume of physical activity per day. Hence, analysis shows that the volume of walking varies according to attributes of the traveler (general decrease with age, higher for men) and of the trip (study and work trip involve more steps, the use of train generates more steps). A regression model confirms that these variables significantly affect the number of steps involved in transit trips. Such positive outcome, for the traveler himself, is an innovative argument to promote the use of transit that is also aligned with current sustainable transportation goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The roof over the Montreal Stadium is composed of a pre-tensioned membrane combined with an eccentric cable-stayed system, i.e. the structure is non-symmetric, which leads to a non-uniform structural response under variable static loads. The Montreal Stadium roof is modelled by finite element method as a three-dimensional structure, accounting for geometrically non linear behaviour. The paper begins by analyzing the free vibrations of the structure, then goes on to consider the static as well as the dynamic effects of wind and snow. The loads induced by wind are simulated as deformation-dependent forces, i.e. follower loads. These analyses enable the structural mechanisms that caused the failure of the roof membrane to be described and better understood. In particular, the paper deals with the first failure, which occurred in an apparently unexceptional condition of wind velocity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the Northern hemisphere, low-income transit users typically take shorter trips and use buses in a greater proportion, but there is limited knowledge on inequalities in the detailed characteristics of public transit trips. In this paper, we seek to understand and explain differences in segment components of transit trips across socio-economic groups. Trip components include access time, wait time, total travel time, overall trip speed and percent of trip time spent in access and wait (off-vehicle time). Using the Montreal metropolitan region travel survey (2013), we focus on the 46,186 transit trips made by 20,138 individuals for which household income was available. This data is augmented by time estimations of the aforementioned trip components, and combined with trips specific transit service measures calculated using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS). We first assess the relationship between trip components and income using descriptive statistics. OLS regressions are then conducted to identify which individual and transport-based factors contribute to variations in trip component outcomes. Low-income transit users take more transit trips (especially bus and Metro) than their higher income counterparts and combine multiple transit modes through more frequent transfers. While average access and wait time are individually lower than those for trips of wealthier respondents, low-income total trip time is similar but trip speed is considerably lower. Lower-income populations also spend a greater share of their trips in access and wait time due to service and trip discrepancies including trip timing, proximity to metro stations and requirement for transfers. When controlling for other factors, the conditions under which trips by low-income individuals are taken mainly drive income differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the literature on urban forestry and urban sustainability by filling gaps in the knowledge on viable business, financing, and governance models for nature-based solutions. Through two case studies, we provide empirical illustrations for business models based on nature-based solutions that are both viable and scalable. We confront the financial and governance challenges identified in the literature with empirical evidence that is grounded in a specific urban territory (the cities of Montreal and Brussels) and a well-identified type of nature-based solutions (the sourcing of sustainable materials from natural local ecosystems). Given the relative novelty and absence of comprehensive scientific accounts about the emergence, current state and future potential of the local wood movement, another important contribution of this paper is to characterize local wood businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a number of environmental studies, relationships between nat4ural processes are often assessed through regression analyses, using time series data. Such data are often multi-scale and non-stationary, leading to a poor accuracy of the resulting regression models and therefore to results with moderate reliability. To deal with this issue, the present paper introduces the EMD-regression methodology consisting in applying the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) algorithm on data series and then using the resulting components in regression models. The proposed methodology presents a number of advantages. First, it accounts of the issues of non-stationarity associated to the data series. Second, this approach acts as a scan for the relationship between a response variable and the predictors at different time scales, providing new insights about this relationship. To illustrate the proposed methodology it is applied to study the relationship between weather and cardiovascular mortality in Montreal, Canada. The results shed new knowledge concerning the studied relationship. For instance, they show that the humidity can cause excess mortality at the monthly time scale, which is a scale not visible in classical models. A comparison is also conducted with state of the art methods which are the generalized additive models and distributed lag models, both widely used in weather-related health studies. The comparison shows that EMD-regression achieves better prediction performances and provides more details than classical models concerning the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the transferability of a composite walkability index, the Pedestrian Index of the Environment (PIE), to the Greater Montréal Area (GMA). The PIE was developed in Portland, Oregon, and is based on proprietary data. It combines six urban form variables into a score ranging from 20 to 100. The measure introduces several methodological refinements which have not been applied concurrently in previous efforts: a wide coverage of the different dimensions of the urban form, together with the use of a distance-based decay function and modelling-based weighing of the variables. This measure is applied to the GMA using local data in order to evaluate the feasibility of its transfer (the possibility of locally replicating the measure). It is then included in a series of mode choice models to assess its transferability (the capacity of the measure to describe walkability and predict mode choice in another urban area). The models, segmented by trip distance or trip purpose, are estimated and validated against observed trip data from the 2013 Origin-Destination survey. Significant positive correlation is found between the PIE and the choice of walking for short trips, for all purposes as well as for four specific trip purposes. The inclusion of the PIE also improves the accuracy of the modelling process as well as the prediction of the choice of walking for short trips. The PIE can therefore be used in the GMA, and potentially in other metropolitan areas, to improve the modelling of travel behavior for short trips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The distribution of safer crack-smoking equipment has been implemented in several Canadian cities to reduce potential health risks such as transmission of blood borne viruses (BBV). Little is known about the perspectives of persons who smoke crack (PWSC) on sharing crack-smoking materials or using in settings where safer crack-smoking equipment is provided. This paper presents data from the perspective of PWSC in Montréal on their experiences of, and rationales for, sharing crack-smoking equipment, in light of the risks of BBV transmission.Methods: This qualitative study is based on analyses of BBV risk behaviours among people who use cocaine. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted in low-threshold community centres for persons who use drugs. Twenty-six interviewees who used cocaine also smoked crack, and constitute a subsample for analyses. Interview transcripts were coded inductively and analyzed thematically from a symbolic interactionist perspective.Results: Participants demonstrated personal agency by adopting strategies to minimise sharing of smoking equipment. These included being firm in refusal to share, smoking alone, and keeping an extra pipe to give to others. Nonetheless, sharing seemed to be commonplace and was attributed to contextual and personal factors. These were linked to the social dynamics among smokers; economic reasons such as wanting to keep the accumulated crack resin; practical reasons such as lacking own smoking equipment; being ashamed to purchase or acquire crack pipes; fatalism; poor personal agency; and ambivalence or scepticism towards BBV transmission risks.Conclusion: To reinforce harm reduction for PWSC, interventions aimed at reducing barriers to safer smoking practices should be developed at both structural and individual levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Subway ridership is modeled at the station level with a mixed-effects growth model. • Several passive data streams are combined to examine intermodal relationships. • Subway use depends on temporal context, station locations and neighborhood features. • Urban mobility services may be used to access stations in the network periphery. • Planning strategies to better integrate modes around subway stations are suggested. Subway systems are an example of how underground space can contribute to developing more sustainable cities. Their use can be encouraged by integrating other urban transportation modes to provide easy access to the stations, thus facilitating intermodal connectivity. However, few studies have addressed data and modeling issues with multiple modes. This gap, mainly due to the lack of appropriate methods, explains why relationships between traditional and emerging modes remain poorly understood; there is still debate about whether they are complementary or competitive. This paper investigates this question by examining interactions between three alternative modes (bikesharing, free-floating carsharing and taxi) and the Montreal (Quebec, Canada) subway over two months. To this end, several operational passive datasets are merged. A two-level growth model, including both fixed and random effects, is then developed based on time series of daily numbers of boardings at subway stations. This longitudinal model quantifies the effect of various variables (calendar, weather, socio-demographic and economic, network connectivity, land use and built environment attributes) on each station use. The correlations between subway boardings and alternative mode destinations are also measured to detect potential intermodal relations. Finally, a further categorical analysis is conducted by period and station type to specify these interactions in time and space. Results reveal that alternative modes tend to complement the subway in the network periphery (as possible access mode to the subway stations), but may compete with the subway in areas closer to the city center. Such findings could help policymakers determine the location of the mobility services to enhance first-mile subway access, as well as the best mode integration around subway stations in planning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research introduces a novel integrated model with a comprehensive approach to develop and characterize smart cities. Strategic planning for sustainable and resilient cities has become an urgent necessity, given the global challenges around the environment and sustainable development. This paper answers the questions of what does a smart city look like and which parameters to prioritize in developing smart cities. This model incorporates important domains such as energy, environmental, social, governance and pandemic resilience domains in addition to other domains, carefully selected to ensure a wholistic approach. Each domain is assessed using four primary performance indicators, totaling 32 indicators, which are used to evaluate the smartness of a city. This conceptual framework is deployed and applied to 20 cities worldwide. Principal component analysis and further statistical assessments are used to determine the interrelationship and intrarelationships between the indicators of the various domains in order to determine a causal-effect matrix. The results show that the governance domain is strongly correlated with the energy and environment domains with the correlation coefficient (R) values of 0.86 and 0.87 respectively. There is a mild positive relationship between smart governance and smart society indexes. In fact, the R value of 0.7 highlights that smart governance does positively correlate and lead to smarter societies. The average smart energy index ratio is 0.26, which reflects immense opportunities for improvements in this sector. The half of the cities in the study are below average, while the other half exceed the average smart index ratio for the energy index. The smart governance index ratio is 0.44, and the cities vary on this front between 0.17 and 0.59. Montreal is the city with the highest smart governance index ratio, whereas Cairo has the lowest. This study provides the concept of smart city in a quantitative, empirical and comprehensive manner, highlighting that smart governance, smart society and pandemic resilience are critical aspects to the development of smart cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Formulation of airport taxiing operations in consideration with collision and conflict avoidance. • Electric powered towing vehicle consideration for taxiing. • Economic analysis of aircraft towing option between gates and runways. • Case study on Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport. Among several crucial objectives of the air transportation system, minimization of fuel consumption has a profound impact on the economic viability of airline companies and their effect on the environment. Given that many large airports around the world are located in the heart of residential areas such as Chicago's O'Hare, New York's JFK, and Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGE) released by aircraft flying through such urban airports directly impacts the health of nearby residents. In this paper, we propose a hybrid taxiing solution to reduce the airports' impact on GGE where part of the taxiing operations is handled by tow-trucks powered by renewable energy while some other aircraft continue using their engines to complete taxiing. The main contribution of the work presented in this paper is the inclusion of collision of conflict avoidance in the formulation of taxiing operations planning with an objective to minimize fuel consumption and to maximize the desired service quality. The conflict-free taxing operations planning model is tested on Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport. Furthermore, the detailed economic analysis on the adoption of electric-powered tow-trucks is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the development of an intersectional life course perspective that is capable of exploring the links between structural inequalities and the lived experience of aging among racialized older people. Merging key concepts from intersectionality and life course perspectives, the authors suggest an analytic approach to better account for the connections between individual narratives and systems of domination that impinge upon the everyday lives of racialized older people. Our proposed intersectional life course perspective includes four dimensions: 1) identifying key events and their timing, 2) examining locally and globally linked lives, 3) exploring categories of difference and how they shape identities, 4) and assessing how processes of differentiation, and systems of domination shape the lives, agency and resistance among older people. Although applicable to various forms of marginalization, we examine the interplay of racialization, immigration, labour and care in later life to highlight relationships between systems, events, trajectories, and linked lives. The illustrative case example used in this paper emerged from a larger critical ethnographic study of aging in the Filipino community in Montreal, Canada. We suggest that an intersectional life course perspective has the potential to facilitate a deeper understanding of the nexus of structural, personal and relational processes that are experienced by diverse groups of older people across the life course and into late life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shading devices, particularly louvers, if chosen and designed correctly, reduce excessive uncontrolled solar gains and daylight in interior space, consequently improving building energy performance and occupants' visual comfort. However, various questions related to their adaptation to different climates, their designs, and optimized methods are unanswered. This paper aims to show that even in geographical areas with similar climate conditions, different louver designs are required.To this end, louver designs in three Canadian cities with almost similar climates are investigated. Objective functions are defined as minimizing energy use intensity and maximizing daylight use. Through a sensitivity analysis, louver parameters have been examined to determine which ones have a significant or insignificant effect on energy performance and visual comfort. Based on the results obtained from the sensitivity analysis, the proper range of each parameter was determined, and a metaheuristic algorithm was applied to reduce time and cost of optimization. Two algorithms (SPEA-2 and NSGA-II) are compared to understand which performs better in this problem. The results show that NSGA-II performs slightly better, and, using louvers in all case study cities positively affects visual comfort and energy performance. Second, louver depth and count are the most critical parameters in all three cities, and other parameters have a different effect based on the city latitude. The research contribution is to propose a workflow to integrate parametric design, sensitivity analysis, and NSGA-II to optimize louver design with various parameters and ranges. Also, the research proposes a guideline for designing louver in the three investigated cities. [Display omitted] • An approach is proposed by integrating parametric tools, sensitivity analysis, and metaheuristic algorithms. • SPEA-2 and NSGA-II are compared by Hyper Volume index (HV). • Louver characteristics for three Canadian cities – Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton, are proposed. • The results confirm that even in similar climates, different louver designs are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built environment interventions have the potential to improve population health and reduce health inequities. The objective of this paper is to present the first wave of the INTErventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT) cohort studies in Victoria, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Montreal, Canada. We examine how our cohorts compared to Canadian census data and present summary data for our outcomes of interest (physical activity, well-being, and social connectedness). We also compare location data and activity spaces from survey data, research-grade GPS and accelerometer devices, and a smartphone app, and compile measures of proximity to select built environment interventions. • The INTERACT study is evaluating four natural built environment experiments in Canada. • Wave 1 results for physical activity, well-being, and social participation are presented. • Comparisons between location data collected using two different methods is discussed. • Samples recruited are not representative of the population. • Methodological advancements are needed analyze data from smartphone apps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar thermal systems for domestic hot water and space heating, referred to as solar combisystems, can significantly reduce primary energy consumption for residential buildings. In most studies, single-objective optimization algorithms are used for the design and operation strategies of such complex systems. This paper presents the use of two conflicting objective functions, the life cycle cost and life cycle energy, for the optimization of a residential solar combisystem in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Since the design the solar combisystem is treated as a multi-objective optimization problem, two different approaches for solving such problems are presented and compared: the weighted sum method (WSM) using a hybrid particle swarm optimization/Hooke-Jeeves (PSO/HJ) algorithm, and a multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). Finally, a hybrid (MOPSO/HJ) is proposed to enhance the local search of MOPSO. The results show that the WSM was time-consuming for such an optimization problem. MOPSO/HJ was more than six times faster than the WSM. Compared with the base case combisystem, MOPSO/HJ found different design options, where the life cycle cost and life cycle energy were reduced by up to 88.6% and 63.9%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need to compare wind tunnel results with field measurement wind data in order to examine the validity of wind tunnel data in providing realistic estimates of urban wind energy potential and assess the probable errors involved. The paper refers to and discusses two Montreal building cases with different upstream roughness homogeneity. In the first case, field wind speed measurements are used to calculate the wind energy potential for a building with upstream rather homogeneous suburban type of terrain. In the second case, the building upstream terrain is very rough and highly nonhomogeneous. The calculated wind energy potential based on the field measurements was compared with the estimated value based on respective boundary layer wind tunnel data. In the first case, where the upstream terrain is homogeneous, the difference between the estimation of wind energy potential and the calculation using the field measurements is less than 5%. However, in the second case with the nonhomogeneous upstream terrain conditions, the difference between the estimation of the wind energy potential and the calculation using the field measurements is increased by up to 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that urban vegetation is unevenly distributed across numerous North American cities: neighbourhoods predominantly inhabited by low-income populations and/or by certain ethnic groups have less vegetation cover. The goal of this paper is to examine the existence of environmental inequities related to access to urban vegetation on the Island of Montreal for four population groups (low-income people, visible minorities, individuals 0–14 years old and persons 65 years old and over). Six indicators of vegetation in and around residential city blocks (within 250 m and 500 m) are computed by using QuickBird satellite images. These indicators are then related to socioeconomic data by using different statistical analyses (T-test, seemingly unrelated regression and multinomial logistic regression). The results show that low-income people and, to a lesser degree, visible minorities reside in areas where vegetation is less abundant. On the other hand, the opposite situation is found for children and the elderly. The use of indicators computed in and around city blocks leads to the finding of a double inequity in certain neighbourhoods. This points to the need to target vegetation-deprived areas for urgent greening in order to improve vegetation cover within city blocks (in residential yards or through alternatives such as green walls and green roofs) and around these blocks (along streets and in parks). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of climate change and Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomena have raised the attention for monitoring and evaluating the outdoor thermal comfort. The urban vegetation system is playing a significant role for UHI mitigation and adaption. The fraction of the ground covered by trees and other vegetation is smaller and contains less biomass than in nonurban areas. The absence of vegetation impacts the UHI in several ways, since vegetation, and in particular trees, intercept solar energy, and their shade reduces the temperature of surfaces below while increasing the latent heat exchange for the evapotranspiration process. In this paper, the common tree types and the size of trees in Montreal are investigated; and the effect of tree size and space between trees on outdoor comfort are compared by using environmental simulation. It’s demonstrated that, the correlation (R 2 ) between tree cover (SVF) and urban Ta is about 0.64 at summer mid-night. In the daytime, tree cover could reduce air temperature at the tree level (4 °C at 20 m height from the ground), as well as higher level (2 °C at 60 m from the ground). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In Canada, during the autumn of 1942, a group of physicists, chemists and engineers were assembled to work on what was to become the Canadian atomic energy project. The base for this work was Montreal. This paper concentrates on the contributions of a sub-group of those scientists, namely those working on the development of nuclear reactor theory. The members of that group comprised an international mix of Canadians, Britons and Americans. A few already had international reputations as theoretical physicists, but the majority were young men and women, generally under the age of 30, who were very talented but not yet famous. They worked under conditions of the utmost secrecy, initially with little help from the United States, and developed virtually from first principles most of the important aspects of modern reactor theory. The results of their work were issued as Canadian National Research Council reports with the prefix MT (Montreal Theory), and between 1943 and 1946 about 80 such reports were written. The theory described therein was fundamental to the later design and construction of the Canadian NRX reactor, which was a very successful research tool. Soon after the end of World War II, a few of the MT reports were written up and published in either the Physical Review or the Canadian Journal of Research. However, more than 80% of the work was not published and therefore did not receive the formal recognition that it deserved. A few of the reports that went unpublished were so important that one wonders why they never appeared in the learned journals. To be sure, the work they contained was certainly used world-wide and the reports cited. However, human nature being what it is, after some years the original sources were forgotten and only the published papers which cited them were quoted. After a while those classic, early MT reports seem to have faded from memory. Thus it was that, when I recently tried to find one of them to check on a particular matter (in fact it was a paper by George Volkoff on the Wiener–Hopf technique) I found extreme difficulty in locating it. The work presented here describes the problems I met in tracking down, not only the Volkoff paper, but many of the others too. It was this difficulty which persuaded me that the MT reports should, after nearly 60 years, receive their due recognition. I am doing that by reprinting here the abstracts of all of the relevant reports, with some personal comments regarding their importance or historical value. In addition, where possible, I am publishing short biographies of the major players in Montreal during the period 1943–1946, thereby demonstrating how those young people’s careers developed in the post-war years. Many went on to receive high scientific honours and academic prestige. In order to put the articles in context, I have also reproduced the abstracts of some British Ministry of Supply reports which were written in the early part of the war (1940–1942), and which are relevant because several of the British scientists involved subsequently found themselves in Montreal. To give some background to the early Canadian work, I have reprinted part of an article by George Laurence (First Head of the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board) who was an early contributor to research in neutron chain reactors, and whose enthusiasm and talent undoubtedly contributed to the decision to start the atomic energy project in Canada. Over the next few years, this journal or its companion, Annals of Nuclear Energy, will publish a selection of the more important MT reports so that they will be readily accessible to scholars and to practising nuclear engineers. One of these reports, written in 1944 by Boris Davison and which is of seminal value, is reproduced in this issue with kind permission of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• This paper models the effects of exposure, geometry, and signalization on pedestrian injuries at signalized intersections. • Full Bayes spatial models were estimated using the INLA technique on a rich database of intersections in Montreal, Quebec. • Traffic exposure, curb extensions, raised medians, and exclusive left turn lanes were associated with pedestrian injuries. • Total lanes and commercial entrances increased injuries, while pedestrian priority phases reduced injuries. • Hotspot analysis identified dangerous sites based on total crashes and crash rates. Intersections represent the most dangerous sites in the road network for pedestrians: not only is modal separation often impossible, but elements of geometry, traffic control, and built environment further exacerbate crash risk. Evaluating the safety impact of intersection features requires methods to quantify relationships between different factors and pedestrian injuries. The purpose of this paper is to model the effects of exposure, geometry, and signalization on pedestrian injuries at urban signalized intersections using a Full Bayes spatial Poisson Log-Normal model that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity and spatial correlation. Using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) technique, this work leverages a rich database of geometric and signalization variables for 1864 intersections in Montreal, Quebec. To collect exposure data, short-term pedestrian and vehicle counts were extrapolated to AADT using developed expansion factors. Results of the model confirmed the positive relationship between pedestrian and vehicle volumes and pedestrian injuries. Curb extensions, raised medians, and exclusive left turn lanes were all found to reduce pedestrian injuries, while the total number of lanes and the number of commercial entrances were found to increase them. Pedestrian priority phases reduced injuries while the green straight arrow increased injuries. Lastly, the posterior expected number of crashes was used to identify hotspots. The proposed ranking criteria identified many intersections close to the city centre where the expected number of crashes is highest and intersections along arterials with lower pedestrian volumes where individual pedestrian risk is elevated. Understanding the effects of intersection geometry and pedestrian signalization will aid in ensuring the safety of pedestrians at signalized intersections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load forecasting plays an important role in energy management in smart buildings. It is expected that precise prediction of loads can bring significant economic benefits to smart buildings by enabling accurate demand response strategies for peak load reduction, reducing electricity use and integrating distributed energy resources. The complexity increases for load prediction in case of a district of buildings having much functional diversity and including several heterogenous buildings-blocks. The main goal of this paper is to present a comprehensive and detailed study for very-short term and short-term load forecasting in a district building using artificial neural network (ANN). The main objectives of this paper are: (a) Evaluate the performance of the ANN considering two back-propagation learning algorithms, namely Bayesian regularization (BR) and Levenberg-Marquardt (LM); (b) Analyse the relative performance of the model for hour-ahead and day-ahead load forecasting for different types of buildings; (c) Investigate how the network design parameters such as number of hidden layers, hidden neurons, number of inputs and training data affect the model's ability to accurately forecast loads. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach, it is examined on real-world data of a Campus in downtown Montreal that includes many types of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the evolution of urban cycling in Montreal, Canada and its link to both built environment indicators and bicycle infrastructure accessibility. The effect of new cycling infrastructure on transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is then explored. More specifically, we aim at investigating how commuting cycling modal share has evolved across neighborhood built-environment typologies and over time in Montreal, Canada. For this purpose, automobile and bicycle trip information from origin–destination surveys for the years 1998, 2003 and 2008 are used. Neighborhood typologies are generated from different built environment indicators (population and employment density, land use diversity, etc.). Furthermore, to represent the commuter mode choice (bicycle vs automobile), a standard binary logit and simultaneous equation modeling approach are adopted to represent the mode choice and the household location. Among other things, we observe an important increase in the likelihood to cycle across built environment types and over time in the study region. In particular, urban and urban-suburb neighborhoods have experienced an important growth over the 10 years, going from a modal split of 2.8–5.3% and 1.4–3.0%, respectively. After controlling for other factors, the model regression analysis also confirms the important increase across years as well as the significant differences of bicycle ridership across neighborhoods. A statistically significant association is also found between the index of bicycle infrastructure accessibility and bike mode choice – an increase of 10% in the accessibility index results in a 3.7% increase in the ridership. Based on the estimated models and in combination with a GHG inventory at the trip level, the potential impact of planned cycling infrastructure is explored using a basic scenario. A reduction of close to 2% in GHG emissions is observed for an increase of 7% in the length of the bicycle network. Results show the important benefits of bicycle infrastructure to reduce commuting automobile usage and GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite remote sensing offers the opportunity to determine the spatial distribution of aerosol properties and could fill the gap of ground-level observations. Various algorithms have recently been developed in order to retrieve the aerosol optical depth (AOD) at continental scales. However, they are, to some extent, subject to coarse spatial resolutions which are not appropriate for intraurban scales as usually needed in health studies. This paper presents an improved AOD retrieval algorithm for satellite instrument MODIS at 1-km resolution for intraurban scales. The MODIS-retrieved AODs are used to derive the ground-level PM 2.5 concentrations using the aerosol vertical profiles and local scale factors obtained from the GEOS-Chem model simulation. The developed method has been applied to retrieve the AODs and to evaluate the ground-level PM 2.5 over the city of Montreal, Canada for 2009 on daily, monthly and annual scales. The daily and monthly results are compared with the monitoring values with correlations R 2 ranging from 0.86 to 0.93. Especially, the annual mean PM 2.5 concentrations are in good agreement with the measurement values at all monitoring stations ( r = 0.96, slope = 1.0132 ± 0.0025, intercept = 0.5739 ± 0.0013). This illustrates that the developed AOD retrieval algorithm can be used to retrieve AODs at a higher spatial resolution than previous studies to further derive the regional full coverage PM 2.5 results at finer spatial and temporal scales. The study results are useful in health risk assessment across this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fall 2009, a new speed limit of 40 km/h was introduced on local streets in Montreal (previous speed limit: 50 km/h). This paper proposes a methodology to efficiently estimate the effect of such reduction on speeding behaviors. We employ a full Bayes before–after approach, which overcomes the limitations of the empirical Bayes method. The proposed methodology allows for the analysis of speed data using hourly observations. Therefore, the entire daily profile of speed is considered. Furthermore, it accounts for the entire distribution of speed in contrast to the traditional approach of considering only a point estimate such as 85th percentile speed. Different reference speeds were used to examine variations in the treatment effectiveness in terms of speeding rate and frequency. In addition to comparing rates of vehicles exceeding reference speeds of 40 km/h and 50 km/h (speeding), we verified how the implemented treatment affected “excessive speeding” behaviors (exceeding 80 km/h). To model operating speeds, two Bayesian generalized mixed linear models were utilized. These models have the advantage of addressing the heterogeneity problem in observations and efficiently capturing potential intra-site correlations. A variety of site characteristics, temporal variables, and environmental factors were considered. The analyses indicated that variables such as lane width and night hour had an increasing effect on speeding. Conversely, roadside parking had a decreasing effect on speeding. One-way and lane width had an increasing effect on excessive speeding, whereas evening hour had a decreasing effect. This study concluded that although the treatment was effective with respect to speed references of 40 km/h and 50 km/h, its effectiveness was not significant with respect to excessive speeding-which carries a great risk to pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas. Therefore, caution must be taken in drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of speed limit reduction. This study also points out the importance of using a comparison group to capture underlying trends caused by unknown factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From an environmental equity perspective, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, we want to verify to what extent vulnerable population groups resided in areas exposed to high levels of aircraft noise before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2019 and 2020) in the Montréal census metropolitan area. Second, we want to identify whether the use of an aircraft noise indicator rather than another generates significant variations in the results and consequently in terms of affected areas and populations. With the IMPACT web-application, we model aircraft noise contours from three cumulative (L den , L dn , L aeq ,24h) and a single-event (L Amax) metrics. The model's input data are retrieved by a website for flight tracking. Next, four variables are extracted from the 2016 Statistics Canada census at a fine scale level (dissemination areas): that is, the percentages of low-income individuals, visible minorities, children under 15 years old, and individuals aged 65 and over. The results show a significant drop in population exposed to aircraft noise in 2020 compared to 2019. In addition, the estimates of populations impacted by aircraft noise differ from one indicator to the next. The logistic regression models indicate that the inequities are inconsistent between cumulative and single-event metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving automation is happening at a rapid pace, with different driver assistance systems already available in mass-market cars. However, this rapid development in driving automation leads to concerns and questions about their impact on safety. While previous studies have been restricted to incident reports and simulation tools, the safety of automated vehicles (AVs) has not been clearly demonstrated independently from their developers and proponents. Instead of crashes, which are extremely rare events, this study uses surrogate measures of safety (SMoS) to analyze the interactions between road users and low-speed automated shuttles that circulated in Montreal and Candiac, in Canada, during two pilot projects in mid and late 2019. Cameras were placed at seven intersections along the routes of the shuttles. More than 70 hours of footage were processed to extract the road user trajectories using computer vision techniques and compute various safety indicators: speed and acceleration at the road user level, time headway, time-to-collision (TTC), post-encroachment time (PET) and the speed difference at the interaction level. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to compare the distributions of these indicators for interactions involving automated shuttles or motorized vehicles following similar paths. Multivariate regression was used to identify the relationship between the safety indicators and various factors. The results indicate that these automated shuttles behave generally more safely: their speeds and accelerations are lower and their interactions are characterized by higher TTC and PET values, and lower speed differences. However, small headway times at one site with high-speed differences between the shuttles and other following vehicles raise concerns that warrant further research into the suitable context for these vehicles. • This paper presents the first study of automated shuttles in real traffic conditions. • User trajectories were obtained using video analysis. • Shuttle interactions with other road users are analyzed using surrogate measures of safety. • Shuttles are compared to human drivers with the same trajectories. • Shuttles have safer interactions with lower speeds and higher time to collision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] This paper aims at estimating the effect of implementing a commuter train service. [•] A difference-in-differences estimator is proposed to capture the proximity effect. [•] The overall market premium on mean house price is estimated to be 2.6%. [•] The premium generate a yearly fiscal increase of revenue of 11 million dollars. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Understanding the underlying relationship between pedestrian injury severity outcomes and factors leading to more severe injuries is very important in addressing the problem of pedestrian safety. This research combines data mining and statistical regression methods to identify the main factors associated with the levels of pedestrian injury severity outcomes. This work relies on the analysis of two unique pedestrian injury severity datasets from New York City, US (2002–2006) and the City of Montreal, Canada (2003–2006). General injury severity models were estimated for each dataset and for sub-populations obtained through clustering analysis. This paper shows how the segmentation of the accident datasets helps to better understand the complex relationship between the injury severity outcomes and the contribution of geometric, built environment and socio-demographic factors. While using the same methodology for the two datasets, different techniques were tested. Within the New York dataset, a latent class with ordered probit method provides the best results. However, for Montreal, K-means with a multinomial logit model proves most appropriate. Among other results, it was found that pedestrian age, location type, driver age, vehicle type, driver alcohol involvement, lighting conditions, and several built environment characteristics influence the likelihood of fatal crashes. Finally, the research provides recommendations for policy makers, traffic engineers, and law enforcement in order to reduce the severity of pedestrian–vehicle collisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Urban vegetation is shown to be unevenly distributed across cities and there is evidence of disparities in benefits provided by vegetation and of public health problems induced by urban heat islands. In order to improve vegetation cover, it remains crucial to understand the underpinning of such unevenness. In this paper, we investigate in Montreal (Canada) how the built environment, sociodemographic factors and administrative boroughs influence tree and lawn cover in public and residential land. The analysis was conducted at the dissemination area (DA) level, a Canadian census unit containing about 400–700 people. Six vegetation indicators were used as dependent variables: the proportion of a DA covered by trees/shrubs, lawn and total vegetation; the proportion of streets covered by trees/shrubs and the proportion of residential yards covered by trees/shrubs and total vegetation. Three sets of independent variables were studied: the built environment, sociodemographics and borough names. We used spatial autoregressive models to control for dependence and the spatial autoregressive term explained a large amount of variability in vegetation cover. The built-environment variables tend to have higher effects than the socio-demographic variables when predicting the three DA vegetation indicators, backyard vegetation, and to a lesser degree, street tree/shrub cover. In particular, population density is associated negatively to all indicators but positively to street tree cover. Socio-demographics are substantial in the explanation of the distribution of street trees, especially the presence of recent immigrants (negative effect) and of university degree holders (positive effect). These findings call for appropriate greening programs adapted to the local socio-demographic profile. The significance of boroughs also suggests the need for further research on the impact of within-city administrative hierarchies on the unevenness of urban vegetation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents an assessment of two solar assisted heat pump systems integrated into an air distribution system in three different 210 m2 single detached residential houses in Montreal, Canada. The housing types considered are a 1980''s house, an energy efficient house and a “net zero ready” house. The advanced heat pump systems considered in the analysis focused on coupling solar energy on the evaporator side of an air source and water source heat pumps to improve performance compared to a standard air source heat pump and provide an alternative to a costly ground source heat pump system. The annual energy consumption and utility cost of the solar assisted heat pump systems were compared to a market available air source heat pump, a ground source heat pump system as well as the typical reference housing heating and cooling system. The results predicted that a solar assisted air source heat pump has a comparable capital cost to a ground source heat pump system in all housing types and the highest energy savings for a “net zero ready” house of 34% compared to the base case. The solar assisted water source heat pump did not yield interesting results, as the solar assisted air source heat pump demonstrated improved energy savings and lower capital costs in all housing types considered. Comparing the 20 year life cycle costs of the solar assisted heat pump systems to the base case, only in the 1980''s housing archetype did the solar assisted air source heat pump system demonstrate a lower life cycle cost than the base case. A standard air source heat pump yielded the lowest life cycle cost in the 1980''s and energy efficient house considered and the reference base case system had the lowest life cycle cost in the net zero ready house considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we explore the air pollution levels along types of bicycle facilities using a NO2 land use model previously developed for Montreal. We explore potential associations between bicycle volumes through signalized intersections and pollution levels at those intersections. We further investigate this relationship through the comparison of over thirty cycling corridors as well as an evaluation of the potential exposure of cyclists to air pollution along five routes. We observe NO2 concentrations to be positively correlated with bicycle flows at the intersection level. We also observe that corridors with either a bicycle path or cycle track generally rank higher in terms of bicycle volume and also have higher NO2 concentrations than corridors without bicycle facilities. This indicates that intersections and bicycle facilities with a large number of cyclists are also those characterized with the highest air pollution levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Transit operators face a difficult fiscal environment and an imperative to contribute to urban sustainability. Under these circumstances, operators must find innovative ways to make public transportation attractive to broader segments of the public, while simultaneously trying to raise revenue to reduce reliance on public subsidies. Development of commercial partnerships is seen as a promising way to achieve these goals. Previous research has examined the potential of using geodemographics to assist transit agencies in the task of identifying potential partners for developing mutually beneficial commercial agreements. In this paper we describe an approach to model isoexposure to transit users as a tool to assess market potential. The approach is based on the analysis of walking behavior of transit users, and specifically distance walked at the end of their transit trip. Spatial modeling is used to geographically project estimates of walking distance for a desired demographic profile at a specific transit facility. After expanding the estimates using sample weights, overlays of these estimates can be used to generate variations in exposure to transit travelers at different locations in space. The approach is demonstrated using the case of Metro users in Montreal, Canada. The case study demonstrates the use of isoexposure profiles as a novel approach to generate marketing intelligence. This should be of interest to transit agencies and businesses interested in developing partnerships. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Longitudinal analysis is rarely leveraged in the field of geography to understand neighbourhood change despite many studies documenting important transformations within metropolitan areas (e.g. gentrification, impoverishment of inner suburbs, etc.). This paper aims to identify and model trajectories of neighbourhood poverty in Montreal over five consecutive census years (1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006), using Latent Class Growth Modelling. Neighbourhoods are classified in eight groups, identifying those with stable, increasing or declining trajectories of poverty. Multinomial logistic regression analysis shows that the proportion of residents with low levels of education, unemployment rate, proportion of recent immigrants and the proportion of renters measured at the beginning of the period (1986) are important predictors of poverty trajectories, as are variations throughout the study period (1986–2006) in the proportions of recent immigrants and of residents with low levels of education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]