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This study examines the influence of different construction methods on the lateral displacement of diaphragm walls in large-scale, unsupported deep excavations. Using the three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) with PLAXIS 3D 2017 software, the research assesses how varying construction techniques impact wall stability, particularly in proximity to sensitive structures like metro systems. The project uniquely integrates peripheral top-down and central bottom-up approaches to minimize environmental disruption. Key focus areas include the roles of back-pull slabs, zoned excavation, and cross walls in reducing wall deformation. Findings reveal that zoned excavation significantly controls lateral displacement on longer site sides, enhancing adjacent structure safety and overall construction integrity. Back-pull slabs are shown to effectively decrease top wall deformation, thereby increasing structural stiffness. Moreover, despite their considerable length (nearly 60 m), cross walls play a crucial role in controlling lateral deformation along the excavation's length. These insights offer valuable guidance for future projects, especially in regions like Taiwan, where experience with such large-scale, unsupported excavations is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a sound urban green infrastructure system is critical for addressing climate change. Green infrastructure (GI) also plays an essential role in the urban system by providing ecosystem services for urban residents. Although some research on GI has been published in Taiwan, there is a lack of understanding of how changes in land use and GI affect the landscape patterns in urban fringe areas. This study explores the impact of changes in GI on the landscape pattern of the urban fringe and urban core areas in the Taipei metropolitan area (TMA). We used intensity analysis to investigate changes in land area and land use intensity between 1981 and 2015 at three levels: interval, category, and transition. Landscape metrics were employed to analyze changes in GI patterns. We found, firstly, that although the rate of change in the urban core area of the TMA was faster than the rate of change in the urban fringe area during 1981–1995 and 1995–2006, changes in the urban fringe area nevertheless maintained a state of rapid change in 1995–2006 and 2006–2015. Secondly, forest and agricultural lands in urban fringe areas were the GI categories with the greatest changes in area from 1981 to 2015. Thirdly, transition areas among forest, agricultural, and built-up areas in urban fringe areas were larger during 1995–2015 than 1981–1995. Finally, the results of landscape pattern analysis indicate that the urban fringe area of the TMA is experiencing landscape fragmentation. Although forest land remained the main category in the urban fringe from 1981 to 2015, the integrity of its patch area decreased over time, and the prevalence of small and complex patches of built-up and agricultural land increased. Spatial planning should therefore consider how to build a GI system to promote ecosystem services in urban fringe areas so as to enhance the ability to respond to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The distal relationship between Taipei's resource inflows and nonrenewable resource production in Taiwan was investigated. • Cross-scale emergy synthesis revealed the reliance of Taipei's resource inflows on Taiwan. • The demand of construction materials in Taipei's peri-urbanization is the underlying driving force of the development in Taipei's remote areas. Urbanization not only causes environmental changes in metropolitan regions but also influences the ecological and socioeconomic changes of distant land areas due to increasing demands on resource use and waste emissions. Previous studies on the assessment of urban systems have focused on the city or metropolitan areas under study. There is a need to incorporate urban land teleconnections to investigate the relationship between a city and distant land areas during the process of urbanization. This paper analyzes the teleconnection of the energy and material flows associated with Taipei's peri-urbanization and remote areas in Taiwan. The cross-scale emergy synthesis of Taipei and Taiwan was examined first to investigate the relationships of the material and energy flows between Taipei and Taiwan. The exploitation of non-renewable resources in Taiwan during the 1990s was driven mainly by the construction and development taking place in Taipei. Furthermore, compared with Taiwan, the Taipei area relies heavily on external resources. The results of the emergy evaluation of materials flows in Taipei indicated that 85% of the construction materials used were imported from other remote areas during the past 30 years. The use of construction materials in Taipei had a higher intensity in the city center during 1982–1992 and in the peri-urban area during 2002−2014. The results of the emergy synthesis indicated that urban land teleconnections exist between peri-urban areas of Taipei and other distant areas in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate information provided by reliable models is essential for identifying hotspots and mitigating roadkill. However, existing methods, such as kernel density estimation (KDE) and maximum entropy modeling (ME) may individually identify only a subset of the suitable locations for mitigation, because KDE cannot detect hotspots once local abundances are depressed, and ME may only partially identify current hotspots due to imperfect discrimination skill. Here, we propose a hybrid consensus modeling (HCM) approach that leverages the strengths of both KDE and ME by using their consensus to identify the core subset of hotspots. We collected herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) roadkill data (N = 839) along four roads in Taiwan (R.O.C.) to evaluate the statistical performance and theoretical mitigation efficiency of HCM, KDE and ME, and to compare the allocation among roads, spatial clustering, and environmental conditions in the identified hotspots. HCM was applied on the herpetofauna dataset as well as separately on amphibians and reptiles. Although the discrimination skill of KDE and ME models for both target clades together was good to excellent (AUC KDE = 0.944, AUC ME = 0.822), the highest theoretical mitigation efficiency, was displayed by HCM Consensus (2.89), followed by KDE (2.58), and ME (1.91). Furthermore, we show that theoretical mitigation efficiency increases with decreasing spatial clustering (Moran's I). Given pervasive budget constraints, we recommend to limit permanent mitigation measures such as fenced culverts to HCM Consensus hotspots, temporary measures to KDE hotspots, and to target additional monitoring at ME hotspots. [Display omitted] • We propose hybrid consensus modeling (HCM) to identify roadkill hotspots based on kernel density estimation (KDE) and maximum entropy (ME). • HCM identifies and differentiates hotspots, and thence enables differential management. • We evaluate HCM using herpetofauna roadkill data and show that it improves theoretical mitigation efficiency compared to both KDE and ME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]