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Context and background: This study argues that government schemes to serve petty traders in Tanzania remain unsustainable mostly due to poor consideration of the impact the socioeconomic linkage has on location determinants. Goal and Objectives: This research aimed to understand how the articulation of petty trading operations with larger traders, directly or indirectly, influences location decisions. Methodology: The core of this research was based on a case study approach that involved surveys of petty traders and interviews with large-scale traders at the Mwenge trading center, along with documents review. Results: Petty traders select locations that maximize functioning as an economic enterprise and moderate survival risks. That is, the location of the trade is selected based on social ties, but the petty traders' success depends on economic links established with larger traders, from whom they get their merchandise, and over which they have very little control. The implications of these findings are: the level of articulation that governs location decisions, drags down the sustainability of government schemes, and gives rise to serious damage to the urban fabric; and two, the analysis of backward linkages combined with other location determinants provides the background against which the petty trading spaces identification, planning and designing could be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Urban Tourism is the property of University of Tehran and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación is the property of Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseno y Comunicacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cities concentrate high percentages of the human population. They have been shaped by processes of urbanization and development, which have led to impacts, both positive and negative, at local, regional and global levels. The aim of this document is to describe the aspects that sustainability in cities implies, in order to understand the challenges and perspectives in Costa Rica. Costa Rican cities are lagging behind in terms of sustainability. These include the development of a broad and integrated approach, to encompass and seek sustainability for the Greater Metropolitan Area. In order to guide the country's cities towards sustainability, it is necessary to leave behind the short-sighted and individualistic vision, to promote integrated and innovative solutions that meet the country's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the main places where creativity and innovation emerge, and this creativity is considered vital and essential for their economic success. The creative development of cities requires various fields, the most important of which are urban branding and the development of citizen participation. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to investigate the impact of Rasht's urban management measures in different areas on the realization of the creative food city brand of this city. The current research is descriptive-quantitative with an applied nature. A questionnaire with a Likert scale was used to collect research data. Using the random sampling method, 500 questionnaires were distributed among the residents and citizens of this city. The data obtained from these questionnaires were quantitatively entered into SPSS software, and then modeling and analysis of research findings were done using Smart PLS3 software. The results of the research showed that the indicators of "economic transformation," "networking and participation," "use of historical and cultural capacities," and "organizational structure in the policy area of the creative city," respectively, have the most significant effect on the realization of Rasht city branding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the connection between Smart Growth and the decolonization of urban growth management in Egypt, examining the impact of former colonial influence on present urban policy and practices. Drawing insights from the urbanization of Egyptian desert areas before and after the New Urban Communities Program (NUCP), it scrutinizes how historical influences adversely affect contemporary approaches, inducing socio-economic impacts. The primary objective is to identify the root causes of misguided urban growth management practices, arguing that mono-institutional and sectoral development is rooted in Egypt's quasi-colonial history preceding the NUCP. The research employs a comprehensive methodological approach, using descriptive qualitative methods to investigate the growth of emerging cities based on Smart Growth principles and quantitative analysis to assess population decongestion resulting from the NUCP. It evaluates the implementation of Smart Growth principles during the NUCP and pre-NUCP, offering insights into adverse management practices. Despite the NUCP's goal to alleviate congestion, only 1.6 percent of the population was decongested by 2017. The research highlights the need for a new municipally guided growth model, emphasizing indigenous and locally validated approaches. This model aims to rectify inefficiencies in current urban management practices, fostering a responsive and sustainable approach aligned with local community needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented 'lockdowns' and stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of infection. Social scientists have analysed mobility during these lockdowns to understand compliance at a population-level, and whether there were systematic barriers to compliance for certain population groups. Much of this analysis has used mobility data from private companies, gathered via smartphones. In this paper, we consider an unexplored source of such data - urban management administrative data - and demonstrate its usefulness for understanding mobility, and what these patterns might reveal about socio-spatial inequality and local economic activity and suggest greater imagination when analysing such data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant global impacts on human society. With the evolution of cities during this period, urban facilities can rise and fall, showing different spatial patterns and function structures in local areas. Analyzing the change of urban facilities before and after the pandemic can assist to understand the impact of the COVID-19 on cities, which is especially important for the Wuhan city. In this paper, we first characterized the "birth", "death" and "retention" of urban facilities through matching POIs (Points of Interest) before and after the pandemic, and then examined their spatial distribution patterns across the city. In addition, spatial association patterns mining was applied to explore the interactions between the change of urban facilities and the environmental factors. The results revealed that the catering service has decreased the most in the wake of the pandemic, while accommodation service has grown the most. The state changes of catering service, living service and shopping service frequently appear together in the data mining results. During the pandemic, these types of urban facility changes are closely linked to each other. Many regional urban functions have also changed due to the epidemic, which are most obvious in the community. This update can facilitate the management of gated communities after the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of urban landscapes in safeguarding biodiversity is often disregarded, even though a considerable amount of conservation focus is directed toward biodiversity hotspots where urban land conversion is happening at the fastest pace. Maintaining biodiversity in urban areas not only benefits the environment, but along with social, economic, and technological factors can increase the stability of urban systems to disturbance, a concept known as “urban resilience”. In this synthesis paper, we explore the ecological dimension of urban resilience and specifically focus on avian biodiversity because birds are easy to observe, relatively abundant, and can serve as an indicator of the overall health of urban environments. We first examine the concept of ecological resilience and discuss the role of environmental stressors associated with urbanization in the ongoing avian biodiversity crisis. We then provide an overview of characteristics of the urban environment that may promote ecological resilience in birds, and associations between social and economic factors and urban ecological resilience. Finally, we provide recommendations on future research regarding strategies to improve urban ecological resilience and thus, urban resilience as a whole, at the intersections of urban ecology, ecosystem ecology, environmental justice, and urban planning. Since 68% of the world’s population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050, it is imperative that scientists, urban planners, civil engineers, architects, and others consider urban ecological resilience as a dimension of both environmental health and the resilience of cities to future natural and anthropogenic stressors.

Including pedestrians in urban design is vital so that they prefer walking over motorized transport. Motorized mobility, which mainly involves automobiles, has conditioned urban design, pedestrian movement, sustainability, and urban resilience. Studies of walkability in cities have recently been conducted, and they can be classified into those that use a qualitative observer-perception-based approach and a second approach based on the measurement of observable variables. This work aims to develop a tool that allows for walkability in public spaces to be evaluated based on directly observing reality while considering both approaches: those related to perceiving the environment and physical reality. Walking is one of the main ways of moving around and achieving sustainable urban mobility. The conditions of public spaces are fundamental for people in their preference for moving around by walking. A literature review related to walkability revealed that previous works included a variety of viewpoints, scales, tools, variables, and approaches. This study included a developed tool by modeling a definition of working areas, processing walkability data, and determining the Walkability Index (WI). The reliability of the data observed from the walkability variables was verified, and the tool’s usefulness for urban planning was demonstrated. Pedestrian-centered urban design promotes cities’ sustainable mobility, sustainability, and resilience. People’s conduct reveals how the urban environment is perceived. The developed WI evaluates the existing reality and allows for its evolution to be monitored.

Rapid urbanisation and its associated challenges in Global South countries have necessitated the use of digital technologies in urban management. Key to their successful utilisation for urban management is residents' perceptions and utilisation of these technologies. Yet, little attention has been given to this area of research. Using data gathered from a cross-sectional survey in three suburban communities, the study examined residents' perceptions and utilisation of the digital property address system (DPAS) in Accra, Ghana. The findings revealed that residents understand the benefits of the DPAS. However, residents’ perceived benefits, usage and challenges varied by socio-demographic groups. More importantly, the findings revealed that the use of the DPAS is beset with operational difficulties and non-use by government agencies. To ensure that digital technologies such as the DPAS provide opportunities for sustainable, inclusive, and resilient development trajectories in Ghana and Africa, it is imperative that residents' use and challenges of such technologies inform improvements in their design and implementation.

Context and background: This study argues that government schemes to serve petty traders in Tanzania remain unsustainable mostly due to poor consideration of the impact the socio-economic linkage has on location determinants. Goal and Objectives: This research aimed to understand how the articulation of petty trading operations with larger traders, directly or indirectly, influences location decisions. Methodology: The core of this research was based on a case study approach that involved surveys of petty traders and interviews with large-scale traders at the Mwenge trading center, along with documents review. Results: Petty traders select locations that maximize functioning as an economic enterprise and moderate survival risks. That is, the location of the trade is selected based on social ties, but the petty traders’ success depends on economic links established with larger traders, from whom they get their merchandise, and over which they have very little control. The implications of these findings are: the level of articulation that governs location decisions, drags down the sustainability of government schemes, and gives rise to serious damage to the urban fabric; and two, the analysis of backward linkages combined with other location determinants provides the background against which the petty trading spaces identification, planning and designing could be analyzed.

In order to cope with the problems and new challenges arising from the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in urban management and to put forward corresponding administrative regulations, this paper explains the concept of IoT technology. And put forward the Internet of Things, radio frequency identification, wireless sensor networks, and other key technologies as the main level of the system architecture. Also, the perception layer, network layer, and application layer are the main levels of the system architecture. At the same time, it explains the specific characteristics of IOT technology and its specific applications in urban planning, transportation, medical care, family, and agricultural management. Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, China is chosen as the research object to analyze the application of IoT technology in urban management. The overall index score of Zhoushan City’s IoT city management construction is mainly concentrated between 60% and 70%, in which the scoring rate of the secondary indexes under the first-level index of the city’s intelligent governance regulations is relatively low, all below the 62% level, with an average value of less than 4. In the problem of information silos and shortage of talent, the mainstream opinions of Zhoushan City’s residents are “IoT applications are numerous and complex” and “lack of IoT applications”, respectively. In the problem of information silo and talent shortage, the mainstream views of Zhoushan residents are “the variety and complexity of IoT applications” and “the lack of protection mechanism for talents”, accounting for 68.64% and 58.12%, respectively, and 68.87% of the residents have not used IoT applications.

This article explores the connection between Smart Growth and the decolonization of urban growth management in Egypt, examining the impact of former colonial influence on present urban policy and practices. Drawing insights from the urbanization of Egyptian desert areas before and after the New Urban Communities Program (NUCP), it scrutinizes how historical influences adversely affect contemporary approaches, inducing socio-economic impacts. The primary objective is to identify the root causes of misguided urban growth management practices, arguing that mono-institutional and sectoral development is rooted in Egypt's quasi-colonial history preceding the NUCP. The research employs a comprehensive methodological approach, using descriptive qualitative methods to investigate the growth of emerging cities based on Smart Growth principles and quantitative analysis to assess population decongestion resulting from the NUCP. It evaluates the implementation of Smart Growth principles during the NUCP and pre-NUCP, offering insights into adverse management practices. Despite the NUCP's goal to alleviate congestion, only 1.6 percent of the population was decongested by 2017. The research highlights the need for a new municipally guided growth model, emphasizing indigenous and locally validated approaches. This model aims to rectify inefficiencies in current urban management practices, fostering a responsive and sustainable approach aligned with local community needs.

Roadside tree planting is sometimes neglected by many Brazilian city councils, as they do not consider trees as part of urban infrastructure. So, this paper aims to analyze the planning of street tree planting in the city of Maringá, located in the Northern State of Paraná. The specific objectives were (i) to identify municipal legislations regarding urban tree planting from 1950 to 2022; and (ii) to analyze the 2020 Maringá Urban Tree Management Plan (PGAU). It analyzed the urban occupation and street tree planting history, as well as the PGAU, by means of bibliographical and documental research. Maringá initially had its tree planting planning carried out by the Companhia de Melhoramentos Norte do Paraná between 1947 and 1982, and later by the Municipal Government, which published its PGAU only in the year 2020. It is concluded that the PGAU is an important planning management document developed by this municipality, but it has some deficiencies that could be further improved

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented ‘lockdowns’ and stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of infection. Social scientists have analysed mobility during these lockdowns to understand compliance at a population-level, and whether there were systematic barriers to compliance for certain population groups. Much of this analysis has used mobility data from private companies, gathered via smartphones. In this paper, we consider an unexplored source of such data – urban management administrative data – and demonstrate its usefulness for understanding mobility, and what these patterns might reveal about socio-spatial inequality and local economic activity and suggest greater imagination when analysing such data.

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Informal urban settlements are part of the urban landscape in Latin America. To address this public policy problem, states have implemented diverse strategies that have transitioned between housing settlement and eradication, assuming that the former has significant advantages over the latter. The Chilean case is no different. To discuss these ideas, two Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning projects in the province of Concepción, Chile, are analyzed. The discussion is based on the results of a quantitative study, with a probabilistic design and simple random sampling, with a sample of 1,130 families. The results indicate that, regardless of the project’s operation strategy, families are highly satisfied with their homes. However, they express a negative evaluation of neighbors and a perception of heterogeneity, resulting in social distancing regarding social relations within the neighborhood space. The results open new questions regarding social integration in social housing complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smart city is a modernization effort that enables cities to use their resources more effectively and to provide better services to their residents. In this study, the smart practices of Kashiwanoha City, Japan, one of the best smart city examples in the world, were examined. The study showed that smart environment applications are designed to improve the quality of life of the citizens and ensure the sustainability of the city. The smart environment applications in Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City include smart mobility, smart technology, smart governance, smart economy, smart living, and smart environment based on transport, energy, and environment. The integration of blockchain technology is a potential solution to address the challenges of urbanisation in smart sustainable city development. The development of Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City is an example of how cities are linking their technological policies and development plans to achieve development while linking the objectives and dimensions of sustainable development to provide the best possible benefit from the available technologies. The most important factor behind Kashiwa-no-ha's success is the cooperation of the public and private sectors and universities. For successful smart city practices, it has been proposed to establish an independent organisation similar to the Urban Design Centre Kashiwanoha (UDCK) with a separate budget and decision-making power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies of the Industrial Geography Commission of the Polish Geographical Society / Prace Komisji Geografii Przemyslu Polskiego Towarzystwa Geograficznego is the property of Press of Pedagogical University of Cracow and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The city is considered a source of development, and the position of urban management plays a very important and decisive role in the process of urban development. One of the most successful models in the field of urban management is the model of urban governance, which is actually a management system in a participatory form, which consists of three institutions. Civil society, the private sector, and the government participate in all relevant decision-making. This research is descriptive in terms of its practical purpose and in terms of data collection. To collect data, according to experts, targeted sampling and snowball methods were used. Based on the findings, the accountability index has the highest impact on other indicators and the accountability index has the highest impact on other indicators. After accountability and responsibility and at a very close distance, the factors of effectiveness and efficiency are important for urban governance indicators. Based on the data of the DR column, the rule of law index is one of the other antecedents in cause and effect relationships. On the other hand, other factors have an effective outcome, among which the specialization index is at the top. In this way, it can be concluded that accountability and responsibility indicators are closely related and are considered the most fundamental factor in the system of good governance indicators, and making constructive changes in it can lead to more serious and effective changes in improving urban governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In today's age, having military and war power can no longer be considered as a global power, but global power is achieved through knowledge and ways to achieve it. Due to the increasing development and production of knowledge, a new concept has been created under the title of knowledge city, which has attracted the attention of the world. Today, knowledge city is one of the important issues in urban development. A knowledge city is a city that has encouraged, continuous production of knowledge, continuous creativity, sharing, evaluation, renovation and updating of knowledge in order to develop knowledge. Considering the importance of knowledge in the city of knowledge, the aim of this research is to identify the impact of the key components of the city of knowledge in transferring knowledge. Methodology: The present research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of method. Library and field methods were used to collect information. The data collection tool in this research was a closed questionnaire that consists of 110 questions. In order to determine the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, the method of content validity with the opinion of experts has been used. In this research, two criteria of composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) were used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. The professors of information science and epistemology, who had expertise in the field of knowledge management, formed the statistical community of this research. In the present study, 30 people were selected using the purposeful sampling method. In order to analyze the data, SPSS and PLS software were used. Findings: The findings indicate that the key components identified in Knowledge city include 7 components: social conditions, strategic conditions, technological conditions, political conditions, financial conditions, the component of environmental conditions, and finally the component of urban management. The present study investigated the effect of each of the components on knowledge transfer, which the components of strategic situation, political conditions, financial situation, and environmental conditions have a significant effect on knowledge transfer, and in contrast to the social conditions, the conditions Technological and urban management components have no effect on knowledge transfer. Conclusion: Based on the investigations, some components of knowledge city can be effective in knowledge transfer. It seems that there is a need to strengthen the foundation of the components of the strategic situation, the political situation, the financial situation, and the environmental conditions that have a positive and significant effect on knowledge transfer, because knowledge transfer can contribute to the development and the productivity of knowledge city has an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of EURE is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Public spaces in cities have been conceived as leisure and tourism destinations due to their social and civic roles. Due to economic, political, and managerial factors, many of these spaces in Tehran have become passive and non-social in recent years. Although institutions such as the government and urban management argue that the objective of constructing spaces is to improve social life and tourism, in places such as Valiasr Square, the stagnation of social life is problematic. It seems that one-sided political tendencies toward space as a platform for the government to show its power position have frequently resulted in the elimination or diminution of the share and interest of groups of stakeholders in public space. Social inequality in space efficiency as a result of a biased approach calls into question the meaning of public space as a place belonging to the public. The reasons for the failure of government public spaces such as Valiasr Square can be the lack of full-fledged and inclusive processes to create a common place with an unexpected nature and accessibility to different groups of society. Therefore, social and tourism approaches to public spaces should not be atomistic and need to stay away from partiality. Space should be used as both an object and a tool to dominate and display power. Adopting a holistic approach to space as a common property of power institutions and members of the public and society can provide the possibility of forming citizenship and social life.

Abstract High-resolution, dynamic assessments of the spatiotemporal distributions of populations are critical for urban planning and disaster management. Mobile phone big data have real-time collection, wide coverage, and high resolution advantages and can thus be used to characterize human activities and population distributions at fine spatiotemporal scales. Based on six days of mobile phone user-location signal (MPLS) data, we assessed the dynamic spatiotemporal distribution of the population of Xining City, Qinghai Province, China. The results show that strong temporal regularity exists in the daily activities of local residents. The spatiotemporal distribution of the local population showed a significant downtown-suburban attenuation pattern. Factors such as land use types, holidays, and seasons significantly affect the spatiotemporal patterns of the local population. By combining other spatiotemporal trajectory data, high-resolution and dynamic real-time population distribution evaluations based on mobile phone location signals could be better developed and improved for use in urban management and disaster assessment research.

Digital twins have great potential for improving urban management. However, the way that they are formulated seems to vary according to the aims of the urban management taking place. For instance, digital twins are made sophisticated and innovative when the urban manager wants to demonstrate technological prowess; they contribute to generating useful interventionist strategies if social engineering is occurring; they emphasize exploratory and collaborative mechanisms if the urban manager wants to uncover people's attitudes; and they tend to focus upon citizen engagement and mechanisms for social improvements when societal reform is the main aim. Yet those who build digital twins seldom declare their worldviews or specify why they are doing so, and this leads to two problems. Firstly, it becomes difficult to evaluate and compare different digital twins. Secondly, since urban management projects often have several contrasting aims, many researchers construct seemingly pluralistic digital twins which are, in fact, severely afflicted with inconsistency and poorly measured priorities as to what needs to be included and addressed. In order to clarify the situation, this paper comprehensively analyses the research literature to conceptualize different approaches to implementing digital twins. It then assesses three alternative, theoretical paradigms upon which a pluralistic digital twin might be grounded and evaluated, and it concludes that ''critical realism'', rather than ''post-modernism'' or ''ontological flexibility' is the most appropriate.

Cities will face increasing challenges due to the impacts of global climate change, particularly in the form of cyclonic events, necessitating a deeper understanding and the establishment of effective response mechanisms at both institutional and citizen levels. In this research, we tested the efficiency of crowdsourcing in fostering participatory resilience and improving urban management. The main aim was to design novel and accurate proactive response strategies and mitigate the adverse effects of cyclonic wind events through volunteerism, citizen science, and urban science. To achieve this goal, as a case study, the municipality of Soledad, Colombia was used. This research employed a two-phase methodological approach: (i) initially evaluating the spatial distribution of emergency response resources, and (ii) developing a geo-referenced survey to map, systematize, and categorize data and outcomes. A total of three hundred and seventy-eight residents across five neighborhoods in Soledad, which have experienced a high frequency of atmospheric wind phenomena over the past two decades, were surveyed. The results indicate that the crowdsourcing mechanism effectively enhanced the empirical understanding of atmospheric wind events in Soledad, facilitating the establishment of a geo-referenced volunteer network for real-time responses. Additionally, this study shed light on previously undocumented challenges, in terms of reducing the number of people affected, and the actions that would lead to improved urban development to reduce the impacts of cyclonic events, emphasizing the significance of citizen science in the social construction of risk and disaster risk reduction (DDR) efforts.

Abstract The socio-economic-environmental performance indicators have proved to be an important tool for monitoring and deciding in the management of cities, aiming at a more sustainable urban development. ISO 37120 represents a milestone in the standardization of sustainability indicators, enabling the comparison between different locations. The purpose of this study is to apply ISO 37120 to Rio de Janeiro and to analize both this process and the city’s performance in the Latin American scenario. There was an extensive documentary research to calculate the indicators of Rio de Janeiro. The comparison was made among Latin American cities that already had applied the standard and was based on standardized core indicators grouped according to sustainability axes. The application of the standard revealed weaknesses in obtaining data for Rio de Janeiro and managed to identify the city’s strengths and weaknesses in comparison with the others.

Recent urbanization and human activities have led to the fragmentation of natural landscape patches and reduced the connectivity and degradation of urban ecosystems and biodiversity. Urban plant richness affects social functions and the well-being of urban residents and is driven by land use, local wealth, and urban green space management. Among these drivers, it remains unclear which factors play a more important role in driving the relative diversity of cultivated and spontaneous plant species richness in cities. Therefore, we investigated the spatial patterns and the drivers of cultivated and spontaneous plant species richness within 190 urban functional units (UFUs) in the tropical coastal city of Haikou, China, based on remote sensing data, fieldwork, and surveys of socioeconomic and greening management practices. Using multiple linear regression, we found that the most cultivated plants were located at colleges and universities, public affair service districts, and around hospitals, while the most spontaneous plants were found in transportation districts. The spatial organization of these plants was influenced by factors such as patchiness, connectivity, maintenance frequency and fertilizing frequency. Cultivated plants, conversely, were found to increase with patchiness and connectivity, and their presence was positively related to fertilizing and maintenance frequency. The richness of both spontaneous and cultivated plants was found to be influenced by various factors among different urban functional units (UFUs). The proximity to freshwater resources was found to increase the number of spontaneous plant species. Our findings underscore the significant impact of human activities on urban plant richness and highlight the importance of understanding these dynamics for urban planning and biodiversity conservation. Our work contributes to the scarce literature on the drivers of cultivated and spontaneous plant richness in recently developed tropical cities.

Scientific evaluation is one of the significant factors that influence the effectiveness of urban management. Jiroft, like many other cities in Iran, doesn't have a written history of planning based on scientific evaluations. This matter has led to deficiencies in the full recognition and understanding of the citizens' needs and their satisfaction by managers. In response to this need, with a systematic approach and field method using an electronic questionnaire, this research studied and explained the current pattern of urban management in Jiroft with the ultimate goal of providing an optimal model of urban governance within this city. The research findings showed that the urban management model in Jiroft is inefficient with low effectiveness. Analytical findings also showed that the evaluation of the urban management model is influenced by three factors such as problems related to services and facilities in the living area, safety and feeling of security in urban areas, and citizens' participation in urban management. Citizens' assessment of the urban management model has positively affected their desire to migrate from the neighborhood/city, with the opposite effect, on the sense of belonging and pride in the neighborhood and the desire to invest in the neighborhood/city. According to the findings, the following measures should be taken to achieve the optimal model of urban governance in Jiroft through the plans, views, and approaches should be ongoing in charge of commitment to the principles such as "fair distribution and provision of services and facilities in urban areas," "cooperation with entrepreneurs," "financial clarification," "creative plan for urban development," "interaction and empathy of city managers," "responding to people's problems and needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban decline refers to the sustained deterioration of cities in terms of their economy, population, and social aspects. The outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2019 objectively affected the trajectory of this phenomenon. A comprehensive analysis of scientific research on urban decline and its practical implications was conducted using bibliometric methods, data acquired from 2019 to 2023 and the Web of Science. Since COVID-19, research on urban decline has been predominantly led by traditional developed countries such as the United States and England, with a high degree of regional collaboration. Keyword clusters have focused on urban regeneration, growth, decay, family planning, resource dependency theory, public art, etc. Keyword co-occurrence has focused on shrinking cities, gentrification policy, land use, etc. Based on previous analyses and the contemporary context, the intrinsic logic behind the urban decline in recent years can be summarized as inadequate economic development, lagging infrastructure construction, the siphoning effect of core regional cities, and unique institutional factors leading to specific urban decline patterns. Comprehensive urban recovery plans have been proposed, including reshaping urban spatial layouts and planning and strengthening strategies for social and economic revival, with correspondence-specific samples. Studying the impact of COVID-19 on urban decline from the perspectives of city development and strategies can help us better understand the repercussions of global health crises on cities, providing a more scientific basis for urban planning and management to build resilient, sustainable, and equitable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution, dynamic assessments of the spatiotemporal distributions of populations are critical for urban planning and disaster management. Mobile phone big data have real-time collection, wide coverage, and high resolution advantages and can thus be used to characterize human activities and population distributions at fine spatiotemporal scales. Based on six days of mobile phone user-location signal (MPLS) data, we assessed the dynamic spatiotemporal distribution of the population of Xining City, Qinghai Province, China. The results show that strong temporal regularity exists in the daily activities of local residents. The spatiotemporal distribution of the local population showed a significant downtown-suburban attenuation pattern. Factors such as land use types, holidays, and seasons significantly affect the spatiotemporal patterns of the local population. By combining other spatiotemporal trajectory data, high-resolution and dynamic real-time population distribution evaluations based on mobile phone location signals could be better developed and improved for use in urban management and disaster assessment research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mismatch between the supply and demand of ecosystem services has become a critical cause of the decline of urban ecological security. Studying the supply–demand matching of ecosystem services and exploring its association with urban spatial governance are imperative for ensuring sustainable urbanization. Taking Suzhou City as a case, the supply and demand values and matching degrees of five selected ecosystem services were assessed. Additionally, we explored the relationship between ecosystem services and urban spatial governance, with a focus on urban functional zoning. The findings indicate that first, the supply value of water production, food production, carbon sequestration, and tourism and leisure fall short of the demand value, while the supply value of air purification exceeds the demand value. The spatial matching of supply and demand shows a typical circular structure, with areas in short supply predominantly located in the downtown area and its vicinity. Second, the degree of coupling coordination between the supply–demand ratio of selected ecosystem services and the intensity of ecological control is low. Urban functional zoning can affect the supply–demand relationship of selected ecosystem services, and intensified development efforts can exacerbate the mismatch between supply and demand. Third, research on the supply–demand matching of selected ecosystem services can facilitate the assessment and regulation of urban functional zoning. Urban spatial governance can be regulated based on land use, industry, and population, with a focus on achieving a better supply–demand matching of ecosystem services. Through the analysis, this paper is aimed to provide reference for mitigating urban environmental problems and formulating sustainable urban development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Use of vegetation in urban areas for climate change adaptation is becoming increasingly important; however, urban vegetation is itself vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Better understanding of which species will survive and thrive in urban areas with projected climate change will increase confidence in choosing climate-ready species for resilient urban greening outcomes. Plant selector tools based on the suitability of species for future climates, however, are lacking. Methods: The Which Plant Where plant selector webtool (www.whichplantwhere.com.au) was created by combining sophisticated species distribution models and trait and environmental tolerance data from a variety of sources to allow users to select appropriate species which are climatically suitable for Australian urban environments for 3 different time periods (2030, 2050, and 2070). The tool allows users to calculate co-benefits afforded by planting palettes and offers suggestions for alternative species based on climate suitability to help diversify plantings and provide options where substitutions may have to be made. Results: The tool contains information for over 2,500 unique plant entries (encompassing species, subspecies, cultivars, varieties, and hybrids) from 9 different growth forms (trees, shrubs, palms, ferns, cycads, climbers, succulents, grass, and herbs). The tool contains many resources to design and maintain resilient urban green spaces, from the planning stage up to monitoring and maintenance. Conclusion: Which Plant Where was designed to allow practitioners and urban forest managers to confidently identify climate-ready species now to ensure urban green spaces remain diverse and resilient into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to show how appropriate can be an approach as heritage landscapes in order to understanding public spaces, and specifically unique public spaces. The squares of the bourgeois fabric of Cadiz are treated as a case study. Although each of these squares has its own entity as a place their joint character is highlighted. A character that is the result of shared socio-urban meanings, dynamism, opportunities and challenges. To this end, the suggested methodology analyses this system of places as a heritage landscape. It is been shown how it synthesises natural contexts, urban models, historical processes or recent dynamics and, furthermore, how it is endowed with meaning on the basis of its vitality and recognition. As a result, arguments and vectors that support its character and basic keys to the management of its authenticity and integrity are specified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This systematic study aims to analyze qualitative research related to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in urban management. The study seeks to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the current state of AI policy experiences in cities. By systematically reviewing and synthesizing prior findings in this domain, this research aims to contribute to the development of more effective policies for the responsible and efficient use of AI in urban management. Methods In this study, a meta synthesis approach was employed, relying on the seven-step framework proposed by Sandelowski and Barroso (2007). Thematic analysis was used as the tool for qualitative data analysis. To assess research quality, inter-coder agreement, provision of coded text samples, reporting of research process steps, and iterative reviewer discussions were utilized. Results Relevant articles were identified and analyzed. The findings from the coding process were categorized twice, first within a contextual framework following PESTLE’s analysis, and secondly into 27 proposed thematic categories. Furthermore, three dimensions of sustainability (data-driven, algorithmic, and ethical) in AI systems relevant to urban management were identified. Conclusion As a final outcome of this research, we propose a metaphorical framework called the "AI Policy Staircase for Cities." This framework comprises five steps: World view, Sociey, Legal system, Urban Governance, and Technology Management. Researchers of this metaphorical framework take a cross-disciplinary approach to prioritize among these five high-level concepts and introduce key dimensions within each, providing guidance to stakeholders involved in AI policy-making for urban management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study was to analyze the biodegradable transformation by environmental treatment with minerals in the Huacachina lagoon, Ica-Peru. Between May and August 2023, two sampling points were selected probabilistically at shore level and with a distance of approximately 80 m for the measurement of BOD5,20 and COD before and after treating the available water by means of a mineral system with two layers for the removal of BOD5,20 and COD: 1st) silicate sand, and 2nd) granulometric activated carbon. The percentage of removal for the parameters were: BOD5,20 (point 1 = 22.31%; point 2 = 23.97%) and COD (point 1 = 23.0%; point 2 = 20.28%). The transformation coefficient indicated that the waters are biodegradable (point 1 = 0.44; point 2 = 0.5 / biodegradable condition = 0.2-0.7). Although the BOD5,20 and COD values decreased with the mineral treatment system, the final concentration indicated non-compliance with the regulatory level. It is concluded that the biodegradable transformation through environmental treatment with minerals in the Huacachina lagoon decreased the organic matter content, although it was not sufficient to consider the quality of the water removed as adequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, waste sorting has gradually entered "compulsory times". The beginning of the compulsory times of waste sorting is marked by the implementation of the policy to remove trash cans in residential building hallways. Since then, this policy has been controversial. Based on the theory of planned behavior and the public's perspective as well as using the Delphi method and entropy weight method, we investigated Longhua District in Shenzhen and designed an evaluation index system for the effect of the policy to remove trash cans from the following three dimensions: the policy cognitive level, the policy admissive degree, and the awareness of waste sorting. The data were supplemented by observations and interview methods as well as questionnaire surveys that were distributed in residential sub-districts in Longhua District. According to the quantitative research and variance analysis of the data, the policy promotes waste sorting. This paper provides a new idea on how to evaluate environmental policies such as the garbage-classification policy from the perspective of the public based on rigorous evaluation methods and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Informal settlements in Latin America express pandemic idiosyncrasies, calling global attention to historical problems related to a specific urbanization pattern. This article stresses COVID19 implications in the main urban planning canon: the notion of densification as an urban solution. Traditionally invisible social groups and territories acquire relevance, but now as a source of biological risk. Urban density appears as a contradictory trigger point, outlining new debates about informal settlements and their metrics. Evidence shows that trends in health discourse are striving to legitimize and enhance "urbicides" in this scenario, already underway through State action or inaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]