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This study examines the impact of stadium locations on attendance in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). We develop a match-level attendance model incorporating control variables such as market factors and consumer preferences to assess attendance for NWSL games. Our results indicate that attendance drops the further an NWSL stadium is from the city center. Specifically, the coefficients suggest an inverse relationship between attendance at NWSL matches and the distance to the city center, indicating that for every mile further an NWSL team was from the city center, attendance declined by about 6.6%. Our findings show that some of the perceived differences in demand for women's soccer may be due to infrastructural inequalities such as stadium locations. Therefore, one way to boost demand and attendance in professional women's sport, specifically soccer, is to move away from suburban stadiums and toward downtown locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition of the vascular flora in Punta Arenas city, found in the city's public spaces, was studied. The species were identified and recorded in a database, which was supplemented with information on taxonomic classification, growth habit, Raunkiaer's life form, origin status (native or exotic), and original continent-level distribution. These data were compared with studies conducted in five other cities in central Chile, together with an analysis of compositional similarity with these cities, by using the additive complement of Simpson's index (1– βsim). In Punta Arenas, 119 species were identified, showing a higher proportion of Gymnosperms compared to central Chilean cities. The most represented families were Asteraceae (16 species), Fabaceae (14), Rosaceae (14), Poaceae (12), and Pinaceae (10), which together accounted for 55% of the floristic richness. The compositional similarity between Punta Arenas and the other central Chilean cities ranged from 0.187 to 0.315, showing lower similarity than expected by chance (Montecarlo randomization test; P < 0.05). The primary origin distribution of Punta Arenas' vascular flora was European, unlike central Chilean cities where it was Asian. Finally, the proportion of exotic species (91.6%) and the number of exotic species per native species (16 exotics/native) were the highest documented for cities in Chile and higher than in other 114 cities worldwide. These results indicate that Punta Arenas' urban flora differs from the flora in central Chilean cities, not only in taxonomic composition but also in growth habit, biogeographical origin, and high level of exoticism. These differences are likely due to the city's territorial isolation and extreme southern location (53°S), leading to a unique urban flora configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has resulted in the substantial population growth in metropolitan areas. However, existing research on population change of the cities predominantly draws on grid statistical data at the administrative level, overlooking the intra-urban variegation of population change. Particularly, there is a lack of attention given to the spatio-temporal change of population across different urban forms and functions. This paper therefore fills in the lacuna by clarifying the spatio-temporal characteristics of population growth in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) from 2000 to 2020 through the methods of local climate zone (LCZ) scheme and urban–rural gradients. The results showed that: (1) High population density was observed in the compact high-rise (LCZ 1) areas, with a noticeable decline along urban–rural gradients. (2) The city centers of GBA experienced the most significant population growth, while certain urban fringes and rural areas witnessed significant population shrinkage. (3) The rate of growth tended to slow down after 2010, but the uneven development of population-based urbanization was also noticeable, as urbanization and industrialization varied across different LCZ types and cities in GBA. This paper therefore contributes to a deeper understanding of population change and urbanization by clarifying their spatio-temporal contingences at landscape level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world becomes more urbanized, multiple stressors act in complex ways, but their effects remain poorly studied in coastal island streams. Due to the small length and isolation and the limited amount of freshwater available in the islands, these ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. Here, we investigated the effects of urbanization on taxonomic and functional diversity of aquatic invertebrate of a subtropical coastal island. Benthic invertebrate communities were sampled using litter bags (10 mm mesh) containing mixtures of leaf litter that were colonized in the stream bottom over 30 days. We hypothesized that invertebrate communities would show alteration in taxonomic and functional composition over the urbanization gradient. Based on the invertebrate communities and their biological traits, we computed the taxonomic richness and four functional diversity indices. Significant changes in taxonomic, functional richness, evenness, and dispersion were observed. Sites with low urbanization (< 5% urbanized area) had a higher proportion of taxa with gill respiration than sites with high level of urbanization (> 15% urbanized area) had higher proportion of taxa with tegument respiration. Sites with medium (15–5% urbanized area) and high urbanization levels exhibited higher proportions of scrapers and collector–gatherers, whereas sites with low urbanization had higher proportions of shredders and collector–filters. Our results show that urbanization changed the benthic communities and their biological traits. These changes can determine variations in the ecosystem processes and compromise the ecosystem services they supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal areas host a major part of marine biodiversity but are seriously threatened by ever‐increasing human pressures. Transforming natural coastlines into urban seascapes through habitat artificialization may result in loss of biodiversity and key ecosystem functions. Yet, the extent to which seaports differ from nearby natural habitats and marine reserves across the whole Tree of Life is still unknown. This study aimed to assess the level of α and β‐diversity between seaports and reserves, and whether these biodiversity patterns are conserved across taxa and evolutionary lineages. For that, we used environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to survey six seaports on the French Mediterranean coast and four strictly no‐take marine reserves nearby. By targeting four different groups—prokaryotes, eukaryotes, metazoans and fish—with appropriate markers, we provide a holistic view of biodiversity on contrasted habitats. In the absence of comprehensive reference databases, we used bioinformatic pipelines to gather similar sequences into molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). In contrast to our expectations, we obtained no difference in MOTU richness (α‐diversity) between habitats except for prokaryotes and threatened fishes with higher diversity in reserves than in seaports. However, we observed a marked dissimilarity (β‐diversity) between seaports and reserves for all taxa. Surprisingly, this biodiversity signature of seaports was preserved across the Tree of Life, up to the order. This result reveals that seaports and nearby marine reserves share few taxa and evolutionary lineages along urbanized coasts and suggests major differences in terms of ecosystem functioning between both habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding farmers' future residential preferences and the factors affecting these choices is crucial for tackling the issues related to hollow village management and rural planning. Despite limited research on the role of the family life cycle, this study explores how the family life cycle, characteristics of the household head, livelihood strategies, and resource availability shape farmers' future residential preferences. Data were collected from 777 households in China's main grain-producing area. The findings reveal that 52.90% of households prefer to stay in their current rural residences. Other favored options are elderly care facilities (13.90%), living with children in the village (12.36%), and ancestral homes (11.68%). The family life cycle significantly affects these preferences (p < 0.01), with changes in family structure and age leading to different living choices. Specifically, households in the initial (71.29%), burden (70.32%), and stable stages (40.14%) prefer their current rural residences, while those in the maintenance and empty-nest stages opt for living with their children's residences (22.22% and 16.96%, respectively) or in elderly care facilities (30.00% and 33.93%). Meanwhile, age, health, income, livelihood strategies, and land ownership also markedly influence the choice of residence. Recommendations include educational programs for elderly rural residents, improving older individuals' adaptability to rural changes, creating more rural employment opportunities, and enhancing medical and infrastructural services for the sustainable rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some versions of secularization theory propose that existential security, education, and urbanicity exert directly measurable negative effects on religiosity cross‐culturally. However, few studies have tested this using longitudinal data. Nor have researchers adequately examined how much the relationship between these modern social conditions (MSCs) and religiosity varies society‐to‐society. This study addresses these limitations in a series of new analyses, using 1989–2020 World/European Values Survey data from approximately 100 countries. Results suggest that the three MSCs do not exert independent, negative effects on religiosity in general, at least not in the short or medium term. Indeed, national‐average increases in these MSCs were not found to predict decreased religiosity. And, interestingly and unexpectedly, the direction of individual‐level relationships between each MSC and religiosity varied greatly between countries and world regions. These findings suggest scholars should probably look elsewhere to explain why average religiosity has decreased in some world locations over recent decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of colour, including physical properties and patterns, is an essential step in comprehensively understanding the role, evolution and diversification of this trait involved in functions like survival, performance, reproductive success and communication. While quantitative studies on colour have primarily focused on colour attributes, such as hue or brightness, the quantitative assessment of how colours are distributed across an organism's body (i.e. pattern) has received less attention despite its high functionality irrespective and together with colour. This gap is particularly noticeable in amphibians, especially in highly polymorphic, continuously variable species. In this study, we use the urodele Salamandra salamandra as a study model to apply an analytical approach for extracting and quantifying colour proportions and patterns variation using the recently developed R packages patternize and recolorize to precisely describe and compare colour distribution at both taxonomic and habitat levels. We first assessed the potential application of this workflow in taxonomic studies by examining its accuracy and sensitivity in differentiating morphs, using S. s. bernardezi and S. s. gallaica subspecies. Subsequently, we applied the same analytical approach to compare colour and colour pattern shifts among population of S. s. bernardezi within an urban–forest system. Our results demonstrated that this methodological workflow effectively detects differences in colour patterns at the taxonomic and habitat levels, confirming its utility in different fields, from systematics to eco‐evolutionary studies. Furthermore, our results revealed an increased prevalence of melanistic colouration and a less homogeneous colour pattern within urban settings, contributing to the limited number of studies about amphibian colouration in anthropic habitats. We outline and discuss alternative hypotheses to explain these patterns, although further investigation is necessary to address several new questions that arise from our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New urbanization (NU) and ecological welfare performance (EWP) play pivotal roles in achieving sustainable urban development, with both emphasizing social equity and environmental management. Exploring the coordinated relationship between EWP and NU is invaluable for understanding the symbiotic interplay between humans and nature. We constructed a framework to elucidate the coupling mechanism of EWP and NU from the perspective of systems theory. We quantified the levels of NU and EWP utilizing the entropy weighting method and the super-efficient SBM method, respectively. Furthermore, we assessed the degree of coupling coordination between the two using the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM). Spatial and temporal evolution analysis was conducted, and factors influencing the degree of coupling coordination between EWP and NU were explored through a spatial–temporal geographically-weighted regression model (GTWR). The results indicate: (1) During the study period, the average annual increase in EWP in the study area was 2.59%, with a narrowing relative gap between cities. Conversely, the average annual increase in the level of NU was 7.6%, with demographic and economic dimensions carrying the highest weights. (2) The type of coupling coordination between EWP and NU transitions from basic coordination to moderate coordination, with the development of EWP lagging behind that of NU. (3) City size demonstrates a positive yet diminishing trend on the coupling coordination level, with economic development exerting the greatest influence and exhibiting a "V" trend, while the impact of green technology innovation diminishes negatively. Additionally, regional disparities are significant, with city size exhibiting a negative impact in areas of high population density and low economic levels, and green technology innovation showing notable polarization characteristics in core cities. These findings serve as a foundation for fostering coordinated ecological development amid the rapid urbanization process of the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the spatial coupling relationship and interaction mechanism between green urbanization (GU) and tourism competitiveness (TC) is of great significance for promoting urban sustainable development. However, the lack of research on the interaction mechanism between GU and TC limits the formulation of effective environmental management policy and urban planning. Taking 734 counties in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) as the study area, this paper analyzes the spatial coupling relationship between GU and TC on the basis of comprehensive evaluation of GU and TC. Then, the interactive mechanism between GU and TC is systematically discussed, and the synergistic development strategy of the two is proposed. The results show that the GU level presents a multicore circle structure, with provincial capitals, prefecture-level urban districts and economically developed counties in east-central regions as high-value centers. The TC at county scale presents a multi-center spatial structure. Additionally, there is a significant positive spatial coupling between GU and TC in the YRB. The analysis further reveals that green urbanization level, social progress, population development, infrastructure construction, economic development quality, and eco-environmental protection has a observably influence on TC. Tourism competitiveness, service competitiveness, location competitiveness, resource competitiveness, market competitiveness, environmental influence, and talent competitiveness has a observably influence on GU. TC can promote GU, and the improvement of green urbanization level can support the development of tourism competitiveness. According to the spatial zoning method, 734 counties are divided into 6 categories, and the coordinated development strategy of GU and TC for each type of district is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theme-based book review considers four recent titles related to governments? role in development and public finance: Sustainable Urban Futures in Africa, edited by Patrick Brandful Cobbinah and Michael Addaney; Research Handbook on Public Financial Management, edited by Komla D. Dzigbede and W. Bartley Hildreth; Decisions, Preferences, and Heuristics: An Introduction to Economic Psychology and Behavioral Economics, by Pere Mir-Artigues; and China?s Economic Development: Implications for the World, by Cai Fang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an attempt to understand a mesh of complex relationships among tangible and intangible socio-economic factors that turned a desert city into the headquarters of one of the mighty polities in the Middle East in the fourteenth century CE. This paper argues that proto-industrialization led to the growth of 'virtual water' that helped the city of Yazd, in central Iran, to break free from its water limitation for the first time in its history. Yazd was almost absent in history until the twelfth century, as a peripheral oasis whose sparse population lived off subsistence agriculture irrigated by qanat systems (groundwater-mining subterranean channels). Following the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, the influx of landless refugees changed the relations of production and paved the way for proto-industrialization whose development hinged on skill and capital rather than water and land. Sufism and waqf (endowment tradition) contributed to the expansion of trading routes that facilitated the mobility of goods and people. The qanats were urbanized, and Yazd became an industrial hub where raw materials were processed into tradable products with considerable value added. This paper contributes to a broader understanding of the historical geography of the arid Middle East. • The Iranian city of Yazd rode out the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century. • A surge of refugees upset the balance between population and agricultural resources. • Abundance of skilled workers led to a Middle Eastern mode of proto-industrialization. • Proto-industrialization engendered virtual water as an adaptation strategy. • Virtual water made a transition to a non-hydraulic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban development is a key driver of global biodiversity loss. "Green" infrastructure is integrated to offset some impacts of development on ecosystem quality by supporting urban biodiversity, a prominent example being green roofs. The effects of green infrastructures on urban biodiversity are not well understood and poorly included in life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Here, we present a novel methodology that quantifies the local impact of green infrastructures on terrestrial biodiversity—demonstrated here for sedum roofs in London, UK—and integrates within LCA. It relates energy provision by plants to the metabolic requirements of animals to determine what species richness (number of species) and species abundance (number of individuals) are supported. We demonstrate this methodology using a case study, comparing the life cycle impact of developing 18 buildings, with either asphalt concrete or sedum roofs, on ecosystem quality. We found the sedum roofs (0.018 km2) support 53 species (673 individuals), equivalent to 1.3% of the development's life cycle impacts on ecosystem quality. Complete offsetting requires considerable reduction in transport use throughout the development's lifetime, and lower environmental impact material selection during construction (contributing 98% and 2%, respectively). The results indicate sedum roofs offer minor impact mitigation capacities in the context of urban development, and this capacity is limited for all green infrastructures by species richness in local species pools. This paper demonstrates the potential and limitations of quantifying terrestrial biodiversity offsets offered by green infrastructures alongside urbanization, and the need for realistic expectations of what role it might play in sustainable urban design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction materials accumulate in the built environment forming material stocks (MS) of buildings and infrastructure, providing various services to society that result in a nexus of human development and environmental impact. Meanwhile, unprecedented urbanization in the Global South is set to put significant demand on the resources required to ensure adequate standards of living in new and existing urban areas. This is particularly important within India; however, no study has yet explored MS within cities in India or within master‐planned urban areas designed to accommodate urbanization and a high standard of living. The present study begins to fill these gaps and aims to investigate patterns of built‐environment MS accumulation in Chandigarh, an exceptionally quickly developed city master planned to ensure universally high standards of living through a unique urban form. We adopt a bottom‐up approach to quantify the residential building and road MS at the city and sub‐city scale. The results reveal that the master plan, while enabling high standards of living, has resulted in a relative accumulation of road‐to‐building stock that is significantly larger than in other cities. This is shown to be environmentally detrimental as future urban development is limited and promotes the demolition of existing stocks, whose composition severely limits their potential as secondary resources. The study therefore provides empirical evidence to support the integration of material stock assessments into urban planning and development to ensure resource‐efficient provisioning of key services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding changes of soil organic carbon (SOC) in top layers of croplands and their driving factors is a vital prerequisite in decision-making for maintaining sustainable agriculture. However, high-precision estimation of SOC of croplands at regional scale is still an issue to be solved. Based on soil samples, synthetic image of bare soil and geographical data, this paper predicted SOC density of croplands using Random Forest model in the Black Soil Region of Jilin Province, China in 2005 and 2020, and analyzed its influencing factors. Results showed that random forest model that integrates bare soil composite images improve the accuracy and robustness of SOC density prediction. From 2005 to 2020, the total SOC storage in croplands decreased from 89.96 to 82.79 Tg C with an annual decrease of 0.48 Tg C yr−1. The mean value of SOC density of croplands decreased from 3.42 to 3.32 kg/m2, and high values are distributed in middle parts. Changes of SOC represented significant heterogeneity spatially. 62.14% of croplands with SOC density greater than 4.0 kg/m2 decreased significantly, and 38.60% of croplands with SOC density between 2.5 and 3.0 kg/m2 significantly increased. Climatic factors made great contributions to SOC density, however, their relative importance (RI) to SOC density decreased from 44.65% to 37.26% during the study period. Synthetic images of bare soil constituted 23.54% and 26.29% of RI in the SOC density prediction, respectively, and the contribution of each band was quite different. The RIs of topographic and vegetation factors were low but increased significantly from 2005 to 2020. This study can aid local land managers and governmental agencies in assessing carbon sequestration potential and carbon credits, thus contributing to the protection and sustainable use of black soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bird feeding by people is one of the most popular human-wildlife interactions globally. Urban ecology studies generally recognize that cities offer a more favourable habitat for many wintering birds compared to natural areas, primarily due to the increased availability of the winter food sources provided by people. However, actual field surveys about the residents' bird feeding activity are rare. Here we surveyed bird feeders during the winter of 2021–2022 at 5-5 locations in two cities in Hungary. We recorded the number and type of bird feeders, the type of food offered, the number of bird species and individuals visiting the feeders. The density of feeders was higher in Veszprém, a middle-sized city (range: 60.1–206.1 bird feeders/km2) compared to Budapest, the capital city of Hungary (23.3–83.0 bird feeders/km2). The most frequent food types were fat balls, seed mix, and sunflower seeds in both cities. We registered a total of 516 individuals of 24 species on the feeders, and found that the type of the feeder, but not the city, significantly affected both the number of individuals and species visiting bird feeders. These results help to get a more complete picture of how the winter food supplies of birds are shaped by urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In landscape ecology, it has become increasingly essential to understand the consequences of past, current, and future human land use patterns for biodiversity and ecosystem function. The most significant factor affecting biodiversity loss is land-use and land-cover change (LULCC). We examine here the impact of long-term changes in LULCC from 2000–2020 on the biodiversity of Marghazar valley in Swat District. Information was also gathered on the perceptions of the surrounding communities based on the flow of ecosystem services (ES), historical changes, and the causes of those changes. Satellite imagery data were used to map LULCC, identify possible causes, and assess the impact of LULCC on the population of partridges. In the last 20 years, forest area has reduced by 23 km2 (33%) and the seasonal water body has declined by 1.015 km2 (2.15%). There was a 38.5 km2 decrease in agricultural land. In contrast, the built-up area increased by 384%, resulting in a total growth of 26.3 km2 and an expansion of 41.1 km2 grassland. Deforestation, agricultural expansions, urbanization, economic considerations and changes in land tenure policy were identified to be the main drivers of LULCC. The primary impact of LULCC on partridges in the studied area are land degradation, population declines, habitat disruption, displacement of partridges by livestock and increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Despite ongoing human pressure, the Marghazar valley still provides extensive habitat for wildlife. Interventions may be needed to maintain biodiversity and ensure long-term ecological services in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increasing urbanization across the planet, understanding how urbanization affects biodiversity and whether or not species will be able to adapt quickly enough to urban environments is critical to conserving biodiversity. We studied the effects of urbanization on genetic diversity, genetic structure, and local adaptation in Tillandsia aeranthos , an epiphytic self-incompatible bromeliad with a high ability to colonize urban habitats. We sampled T. aeranthos along two transects comprising urbanization gradients in South Brazil. We used AFLP markers to genotype 200 individuals and we obtained 971 fragments, of which 100% were polymorphic. We found high levels of genetic diversity and a greater proportion of genetic variation found within populations. We did not find a decrease in genetic diversity with increasing urbanization, as expected if the effects of genetic drift were greater in those urbanized habitats. In each transect, the urban populations were genetically clustered with the non-urban populations, indicating that dispersion by pollen or seed may occur between urban and non-urban populations. The lack of correlation between the outlier loci detected and the index of urbanization found in our study corroborates with other indices of genetic diversity not being affected by urbanization. Our results suggest that gene flow via pollen and seed, combined with high rates of outcrossing, are major determinants of the maintenance of genetic diversity in urban populations of T. aeranthos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and/or land use change were repeatedly reported as important for both range expansion of alien bee species and range shrinking for native bee species. However, environmental changes may also positively affect native species that may expand across contiguous areas to their native ones. Here, we focused on Halictus scabiosae (Rossi, 1790) (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), a ground-nesting, primitively eusocial wild bee that has its primary distribution in Western-Southern Europe but that was recently recorded in Eastern-Central Europe. In particular, we studied the range expansion patterns of H. scabiosae, and we hypothesized that previously unsuitable areas may be currently colonized because of environmental changes. In the last 5 years, H. scabiosae moved its densest record areas to North-Eastern Europe, but its ecological niche remained almost unchanged from 1970 to date, suggesting that this bee species is following its preferred conditions (high temperature, high temperature seasonality, and low precipitation seasonality). Potential distribution models revealed high suitability in still unoccupied North-Eastern areas, with urbanization increasingly important as potential stepping stones towards the expansion. The relevant role of urbanization is confirmed by the increase in the number of urban records through time and by the fact that cities with greater population density and greater fragmentation are more likely associated with this species’ occurrence. Halictus scabiosae is thus expanding its range because climate change is producing—and urban environment is offering—suitable conditions in areas previously inadequate for its establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, Guangdong province initiated a programme of regenerating its blighted urban neighbourhoods, outdated industrial plants and dilapidated villages (also known as "three-old redevelopment"), which continues today. While the academic attention focuses mainly on the city and project levels, few studies give a full and up-to-date account of the overall programme. This paper documents the background, purpose, scope, policy framework, project types, implementation modalities and initial outcomes of the programme. Unlike most urban regeneration projects around the world, the Guangdong programme – the largest coordinated effort in the global history of urban regeneration – is primarily driven not by the potential increases of land value but by an urgent need to find solutions to the conflict between the local demand for urban land and the rigid national land use control. The expected land value increases are harnessed to attract the participation of market players at the project level. The Guangdong experience opens up a new way for urban spatial development in China, especially at a time when China further strengthens national land use control under the newly established national territorial planning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can the expansion of a prosperous middle class help China to rebalance to consumption-led growth? We address this question through analysis of macro- and micro-level data. Using macro statistics, we examine trends in national aggregate consumption and GDP growth from 2000 through 2019. We observe growth in aggregate consumption but do not find convincing evidence of consumption-led growth. Using micro-level household survey data from 2002, 2007, 2013 and 2018, we estimate the size of China's prosperous middle class and its contribution to aggregate consumption growth. We find that the prosperous middle class expanded rapidly but contributed less to aggregate consumption growth than expected. We discuss features of this class that diminished its contribution to consumption-led growth, including its low propensity to consume out of income and its limited expansion beyond urban subgroups. We conclude that the expansion of the prosperous middle class is necessary but not sufficient to bring about rebalancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on twenty months of fieldwork conducted with Emberá Dobidá women in the city of Medellín, Colombia, this article aims to examine the detailed components of their recent urbanization. I trace how "weaving beads" in the city affects the ways in which Emberá Dobidá women imagine and live their urban experience. I suggest that specific movements, produced in the weaving practice, generate specific transformations, both desired and uncontrolled. I show how new aspirations have led women to desire "to sit at home" and to rely on weaving to find a certain stillness. Stillness is then active, ideally transformative and transitory, and potentially allows women to build a future outside the house. I also examine how women's aspirations are broken by the reality of the weaving industry in Medellín which effectively makes them stuck. Repetitive, painful, unhalted movements generate disappointing urban experiences and prevent desired transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from the market‐led urbanization in western countries, China's urbanization process has the characteristics of being state‐led, in which county‐to‐district conversion (CTDC) policy plays a key role in promoting urbanization. Our study uses the data of 279 cities as a simple to explore the effect of the state‐led urbanization of CTDC on technological innovation. We find that CTDC significantly promote innovation, and this promoting effect is enhanced with the improvement of urban innovation ability. The mechanism test shows that financial expenditure on education and science, population agglomeration, information and communication technology industry are three channels for CTDC to boost technological innovation. We also find that this promotion effect is more obvious in eastern cities and the cities with higher administrative hierarchy, and is weakest in western cities, however, CTDC adjustment in northeastern cities significantly inhibited technological innovation. Further research shows that when the distance between merged county and city administrative center within 20 km, the effect is negative, after the distance is more than 20 km, with the increase of distance, the promoting effect of CTDC increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased temperatures associated with urbanization (the "urban heat island" effect) have been shown to impact a wide range of traits across diverse taxa. At the same time, climatic conditions vary at fine spatial scales within habitats due to factors including shade from shrubs, trees, and built structures. Patches of shade may function as microclimate refugia that allow species to occur in habitats where high temperatures and/or exposure to ultraviolet radiation would otherwise be prohibitive. However, the importance of shaded microhabitats for interactions between species across urbanized landscapes remains poorly understood. Weedy plants and their foliar pathogens are a tractable system for studying how multiple scales of climatic variation influence infection prevalence. Powdery mildew pathogens are particularly well suited to this work, as these fungi can be visibly diagnosed on leaf surfaces. We studied the effects of shaded microclimates on rates of powdery mildew infection on Plantago host species in (1) "pandemic pivot" surveys in which undergraduate students recorded shade and infection status of thousands of plants along road verges in urban and suburban residential neighborhoods, (2) monthly surveys of plant populations in 22 parks along an urbanization gradient, and (3) a manipulative field experiment directly testing the effects of shade on the growth and transmission of powdery mildew. Together, our field survey results show strong positive effects of shade on mildew infection in wild Plantago populations across urban, suburban, and rural habitats. Our experiment suggests that this relationship is causal, where microclimate conditions associated with shade promote pathogen growth. Overall, infection prevalence increased with urbanization despite a negative association between urbanization and tree cover at the landscape scale. These findings highlight the importance of taking microclimate heterogeneity into account when establishing links between macroclimate or land use context and prevalence of disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and under what conditions do ideologically similar nationalist parties adopt different positions and discourses about refugees and immigrants? We address this question by examining nationalist parties' approaches toward Syrian refugees in Turkey. Documenting these differences based on an original Twitter dataset and party manifestos, we argue that electoral dynamics under the new presidential system have shaped nationalist parties' discourses about refugees in the country. In particular, we explore how pre-electoral alliances and a strategic opening in the political space have motivated nationalist parties to amplify, ambiguate, or silence their otherwise conservative and nativist refugee discourses. Additionally, we maintain that urbanization has influenced the discursive strategies of nationalist party elites toward immigrants and refugees, giving rise to contradictory forms of nationalism in urban areas, including both far-right and liberal nationalisms. Overall, this study offers valuable insights into the complex interactions between refugee politics, electoral dynamics, nationalism, and urbanization in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suburbanization and suburban sprawl are natural processes in a certain period of development of the city and its hinterland. According to studies devoted to suburban sprawl, this sprawl has many negative impacts on the environment. But if suburban sprawl creates compact and mutually separated suburban settlements based on the original villages, suburban localities with a high population density and suburban localities on poor land, then these impacts are relatively small, acceptable in the period of suburbanization development. This paper focuses on (1) the acceptability of the location of suburban localities in terms of the required compactness of suburban settlements, (2) the acceptability of population density in suburban localities in relation to the population density in city neighbourhoods with detached single-family houses and (3) the acceptability of agricultural land occupations for suburban localities in terms of the lowest land quality in these occupations. The analyzes were carried out in suburban settlements around Prague and the regional city of České Budějovice. Acceptable locations of suburban localities prevail there, but population densities are usually lower in suburban localities than in mentioned city neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, the most valuable agricultural land is located in the immediate vicinity of settlements, where suburban localities are developing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization can adversely impact animal populations through factors such as loss of natural habitat, introduction of nonnative competitors and predators, pollution, and increased exposure to pathogens. Because they are top predators, raptors are considered good indicators of ecosystem health. However, there is limited information about how environmental factors associated with urbanization can alter raptors' susceptibility to pathogens. We evaluated exposure to selected pathogens of the Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango), a generalist and opportunistic species endemic to South America. This species is distributed over a wide range of environments, including urban areas, and often takes advantage of human-generated resources such as domestic waste, urban garbage, and carrion, potentially increasing its exposure to pathogens. We captured adult Chimango Caracaras in three areas that varied in level of urbanization, in the southeastern region of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Captured individuals were tested for exposure to Bacillus anthracis, Salmonella spp., and Trichomonas spp. All individuals tested were negative for these pathogens. Whether this represents a true lack of exposure to these microorganisms, the ability of this raptor to effectively inhibit the colonization of the gastrointestinal tract by these microorganisms, or an inability of the pathogen to colonize the Chimango Caracara's gastrointestinal tract remains to be determined. This is the first study to assess the prevalence of selected pathogens in Chimango Caracaras inhabiting areas with different levels of urbanization. La urbanización puede afectar negativamente a las poblaciones animales debido a factores tales como la pérdida de hábitats naturales, la introducción de competidores y depredadores exóticos, la contaminación y una elevada exposición a patógenos. Las aves rapaces, por su condición de depredadores tope, son consideradas buenos indicadores de la salud de los ecosistemas. Sin embargo, hay poca información sobre cómo los factores ambientales asociados a la urbanización pueden alterar la susceptibilidad de las rapaces a los patógenos. Evaluamos la exposición a patógenos seleccionados en Milvago chimango, una especie generalista y oportunista endémica de Sudamérica. Esta especie se distribuye en una amplia gama de ambientes, incluyendo zonas urbanas, y a menudo aprovecha los recursos generados por los humanos, tales como los residuos domésticos, la basura urbana y la carroña, lo que aumenta potencialmente su exposición a patógenos. Capturamos individuos adultos de M. chimango en tres áreas con diferentes niveles de urbanización en la región sudeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Se investigó la prevalencia de exposición a Bacillus anthracis, Salmonella spp. y Trichomonas spp. en los individuos capturados, resultando todas negativas. Queda por determinar si esto representa una verdadera falta de exposición a estos microorganismos, si se debe a la capacidad de Milvago chimango para inhibir eficazmente la colonización del tracto gastrointestinal por estos microorganismos, o, alternativamente, si es el resultado de la incapacidad de estos patógenos para colonizar el tracto gastrointestinal de M. chimango. Este es el primer estudio que evalúa la prevalencia de patógenos seleccionados en individuos de M. chimango que habitan en zonas con diferentes niveles de urbanización. [Traducción de los autores editada] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, school choice has become a characteristic feature of urban school systems and, like students, teachers must choose among schools with various characteristics. Such decisions become new sites for teachers to enact their professional identity. This study uses qualitative data to explore the identity negotiations of 26 teachers employed in six choice high schools in Preston, a large Northeastern city. Sample teachers worked in schools that varied based on sector (public vs. charter), enrollment mechanism (neighborhood, lottery, selective), and model (progressive, highly structured). Drawing on the concept of a role identity standard—a goal against which a person judges themselves—we found that teachers in our sample held themselves to a standard that either emphasized instruction or social justice. Some viewed their school as conducive to enacting their role identity standard. These teachers were generally satisfied with their school and conceptually supportive of school choice. However, most teachers in our sample adhering to a justice-based teacher identity standard described incongruence between some aspect of their chosen school and their professional identity. This conflict created stress and drove teachers to re-frame aspects of their chosen school so that remaining there felt more consistent with their professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the effects of the sizes of communities on the social and economic conditions of settlements, drawing on theoretical and empirical work on complex systems. However, although it is clear that there is a series of relationships between the sizes of sites and their various attributes in a range of modern and non-modern contexts, it is not yet known whether these relationships extend to life within settlements, between different neighbourhoods, blocks, or individual households. In this article, I investigate whether this is the case by focusing on one site, Pompeii. The results show that there is indeed a series of relationships between the sizes of structures, the numbers and different kinds of rooms within them, and the numbers and different kinds of artefacts associated with them, which increase at a similar rate to those from other contexts. This demonstrates, for the first time, that the same scaling phenomena that have been identified across both contemporary and non-modern urban systems can also be found within the built environment of a single, well-documented ancient settlement. This suggests that the same, or similar, social network effects exist at multiple social, spatial, and temporal scales, from individual houses to entire cities, opening up the possibility of building a series of much more ambitious theoretical and empirical models of urbanism in future, which trace the variation both within and across settlements back to the net socio-economic and infrastructural consequences of embedding social networks within built environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geography of economic opportunity and residential segregation are important factors driving racial disparities in employment outcomes. We present here the changing landscape of opportunity in large metropolitan areas in the United States to describe how the spatial structure of opportunity is evolving. Using decomposable inequality indices, we break down the spatial inequality of opportunity into two components: inequality within subareas (inner cities, inner suburbs, and outer suburbs) and inequality between subareas. According to our findings, economic opportunity is primarily driven by inequality within subareas. The situation is particularly evident in metropolitan areas where suburban employment is growing concurrently with the suburbanization of Black and Hispanic populations. Our findings suggest that the geography of metropolitan opportunity in the U.S. is changing in ways that will alter our traditional understanding of the relationship between race, space, and economic opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spillover effect of government locations on economic growth by exploring more than 180 relocation events of city governments in China. Empirical results demonstrate that government relocations improve regional economic growth measured by night lights. This positive effect decreases with the distance to city governments' new locations. Government relocations are also found to accelerate urbanization. Potential mechanisms include the changes in land conversion and firm birth patterns in the move-in areas. These results indicate that the relocation of local governments can be an effective place-based policy to improve economic growth and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization imposes significant challenges upon wildlife worldwide, highlighting the need to understand how species and individuals respond to urban environments. Because animal behaviour is not fully plastic, these behavioural responses may also reflect consistent differences between individuals (behavioural types, BTs), or affect the covariation of different BTs in the population (behavioural syndromes, BSs). Here, we focused on the spur-winged lapwing, Vanellus spinosus , a common resident occupying diverse habitats. We caught breeding lapwings from sites throughout central and northern Israel and calculated their urbanization scores (built-up area around the nest). In an aviary, we subsequently performed three commonly used behavioural assays: (1) 'latency to emerge', (2) 'open-field' test and (3) respond to conspecific model. We repeated the sequence three times at weekly intervals. After determining that behaviours were indeed repeatable (i.e. they establish BTs), and reducing dimensions through principle component analyses, we found that the behaviours observed during both the 'open-field' and the 'response to conspecific' assays were affected by the interaction between an individual's sex, body condition and urbanization score. Lapwings from more urban areas displayed stronger sex-dependent behaviours (with urban males being calmer in the 'open-field' test and more tolerant of the conspecific threat compared to urban females). Finally, urban lapwings showed stronger BSs than nonurban ones, with stronger covariation between their latency to emerge and calmness BTs during the two subsequent assays. Overall, our study sheds light on the patterns of behavioural changes associated with urbanization, demonstrating how both the behaviours themselves (BTs) and their dependencies (BSs) may be influenced, while also highlighting the potential interaction of behavioural changes with individuals' physiological condition and sex. Such detailed knowledge can inform mitigation strategies of the issues encountered by wild animals inhabiting urban areas, and to understand why some species are more resilient to urbanization than others. • Lapwings tested repeatedly in an aviary showed consistent behaviour on five axes. • Lapwing behaviours during assays were affected by their urbanization score. • Urban lapwings showed a stronger effect of sex and body condition on behaviour. • Urban birds showed a behavioural syndrome between boldness and calmness behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a collection of papers that explore the concept of Olympic urbanism, which refers to the close relationship between city planning and the Olympic Games. The papers discuss various cities that have hosted the Olympics and cover topics such as the impact of the Games on urban form and planning culture, the sustainability and legacy of the Games, and the role of security in Olympic city planning. The papers emphasize the need for historical awareness when analyzing the Olympic experience of a city and highlight the complex and unpredictable nature of urban planning for the Games. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines the growth of the Olympic Games against that of former host cities to understand whether this mega-event may have 'outgrown' its hosts. The increasing hosting requirements and governments' expansive use of mega-events as tools for urban development would suggest that the 'Olympic city' – a term we use for describing the size of the Olympics as hosted in different cities over the decades – has grown at a faster rate than former host cities. The analysis contrasts historical indicators that capture the evolving size of planning for the event based on four dimensions – sport, spectators, marketing and costs – as well as the urban dimension of hosting experiences (venues and infrastructure) with city trajectories based on demographic and economic indicators. This is done through a longitudinal analysis of former Olympic host cities from the 1960s and 1970s and from which continuous longitudinal data are available: Tokyo, Munich, and Montreal. The findings indicate that the Olympic city has grown more strongly than these former host cities, although not uniformly across trajectories. This gives evidence for the need to review the size of mega-event impacts if they ought to continue to generate interest in hosting them in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs an Olympic urbanism perspective on the transformation of Beijing's planning and development. For Beijing, holding the Olympic Games was not just about staging the city – and the nation – to the world as commonly understood. It was also about transforming the city through megaprojectification – the use of megaprojects like the Olympic Games to boost urban growth. The 2008 Summer Olympics played a critical role in growing Beijing in terms of the economy, population, fixed assets investment, infrastructure provision, and real estate development. Rapid but ill-planned growth within a decade exacerbated many pre-existing problems of the megacity. In the post-Olympic years, big city syndrome became Beijing's calling card: pollution, congestion, unliveability, and unsustainability. Since then, a post-growth discourse has been emerging, reimagining the capital's future in the context of balanced, coordinated development of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. These include the construction of a new city Xiong'an to decentralize Beijing. This post-growth discourse that influenced the 2022 Winter Olympics was a contrast to the growth discourse that had underpinned the 2008 Summer Olympics. Beijing presents an unusual case of holding two Olympics within a short timeframe but under two contrasting urbanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to investigate how natural resources rents impact environmental sustainability measured by CO2 emissions and PM2.5 air pollution in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) economies from 1995 to 2019. To enhance robust policy implications, natural resources are decomposed into disaggregated (coal, gas, oil, forest, and mineral rents) and aggregated (total natural resources rents) indicators. Besides, the intervening roles of affluence, urbanization, and green policies vectoring green technological innovation, green finance, green energy, and waste management within the theoretical underpinning of STIRPAT model are considered. The empirical verification is anchored on second-generation estimators entailing Common Correlated Effects Mean Group, Augmented Mean Group, and Panel Quantile Regression. Similarly, Fully Modified OLS is employed to gauge the country-specific effects amidst varying robustness analyses. The fallouts from the analyses reveal that natural resources rents inhibit the attainments of environmental sustainability in BRICS economies by positively driving CO2 emissions and PM2.5 air pollution. Conversely, green policies are observed to substantially drive environmental sustainability by mitigating both pollutants whereas affluence and urbanization escalate them. The distributional effects from Panel Quantile Regression and Fully Modified OLS corroborate the main findings divergently. Additionally, two channels of causality, including unidirectional and bidirectional nexuses, are apparent from the estimated models. Policy measures are suggested based on the empirical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has become urban; cities increasingly shape our worldviews, relation to other species, and the large-scale, long-term decisions we make. Cities are nature, but they need to align better with other ecosystems to avoid accelerating climate change and loss of biodiversity. We need a science to guide urban development across the diverse realities of global cities. This need can be met, in part, by shifts in urban ecology and its linkages to related sciences. This perspective is a "synthesis of syntheses", consolidating ideas from the other articles in the Special Section. It re-examines the role of urban ecology, and explores its integration with other disciplines that study cities. We conclude by summarizing the next steps in the ongoing shift in urban ecology, which is fast becoming an integral part of urban studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective emerged from ongoing dialogue among ecologists initiated by a virtual workshop in 2021. A transdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners conclude that urban ecology as a science can better contribute to positive futures by focusing on relationships, rather than prioritizing urban structures. Insights from other relational disciplines, such as political ecology, governance, urban design, and conservation also contribute. Relationality is especially powerful given the need to rapidly adapt to the changing social and biophysical drivers of global urban systems. These unprecedented dynamics are better understood through a relational lens than traditional structural questions. We use three kinds of coproduction—of the social-ecological world, of science, and of actionable knowledge—to identify key processes of coproduction within urban places. Connectivity is crucial to relational urban ecology. Eight themes emerge from the joint explorations of the paper and point toward social action for improving life and environment in urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on the expansion of urban ecology from a biologically based discipline—ecology in the city—to an increasingly interdisciplinary field—ecology of the city—to a transdisciplinary, knowledge to action endeavor—an ecology for and with the city. We build on this "prepositional journey" by proposing a transformative shift in urban ecology, and we present a framework for how the field may continue this shift. We conceptualize that urban ecology is in a state of flux, and that this shift is needed to transform urban ecology into a more engaged and action based field, and one that includes a diversity of actors willing to participate in the future of their cities. In this transformative shift, these actors will engage, collaborate, and participate in a continuous spiral of knowledge → action → knowledge spiral and back to knowledge loop, with the goal of co producing sustainable and resilient solutions to myriad urban challenges. Our framework for this transformative shift includes three pathways: (1) a repeating knowledge → action → knowledge spiral of ideas, information, and solutions produced by a diverse community of agents of urban change working together in an "urban sandbox"; (2) incorporation of a social–ecological–technological systems framework in this spiral and expanding the spiral temporally to include the "deep future," where future scenarios are based on a visioning of seemingly unimaginable or plausible future states of cities that are sustainable and resilient; and (3) the expansion of the spiral in space, to include rural areas and places that are not yet cities. The three interrelated pathways that define the transformative shift demonstrate the power of an urban ecology that has moved beyond urban systems science and into a realm where collaborations among diverse knowledges and voices are working together to understand cities and what is urban while producing sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges and envisioning futures of socially, ecologically, and technologically resilient cities. We present case study examples of each of the three pathways that make up this transformative shift in urban ecology and discuss both limitations and opportunities for future research and action with this transdisciplinary broadening of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream urban theory fails to encompass urbanization in Africa. Among its many drivers, armed conflicts displace rural populations to cities, accelerating urban processes and impacting sustainability and governance — the phenomenon of conflict-induced urbanization. In the province of Cabo Delgado, a violent insurgency has been displacing thousands of civilians since 2017; many of whom have fled to the provincial capital Pemba, doubling its population in just 5 years. This article presents the theoretical framework and methodological design for an inquiry located within a contemporary critique of mainstream urban studies; the goal is to analyse conflict-induced urbanization in Pemba with a comparative case study, using participatory visual methods, for which a pilot study took place in September 2022. With this, the author aims to contribute to engaged urban studies in Mozambique and Portugal and to transform the trauma of war into opportunities for sustainable development and prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jakarta is widely lauded by global consultancies, technology giants and critical scholars as an increasingly important 'smart' city. One of the reasons for this is the attempted use by state, corporate and individual actors of smart technologies, discourses and practices to solve the urban challenges of flooding, traffic and waste management in the context of climate change and urbanisation. In this paper, we examine the efforts of the Jakarta Smart City programme and office to govern these challenges. Where smart cities are often described as offering speed and real‐time efficiency, we instead find that the technologies and practices mobilised by the Jakarta Smart City programme govern by projecting, delaying and hypothesising into the future. We describe these governance strategies and outline three of their key forms: keeping track of objects and people, calculating and projecting state savings, and mundane watching but not acting. Rather than facilitating exacting and real‐time policy responses to address these urban problems, these practices instead produce temporal relations of delay that push action further into the future. Building on existing research about futuring and anticipation, and the tempos and rhythms of smart cities, our contribution is to highlight slowness and delay as a key mode of governing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to extend the core ideas of social reproduction theory (SRT), an increasingly influential strand of scholarship within and beyond critical geopolitical economy. It suggests that while SRT productively addresses longstanding debates within Marxist feminism, it has yet to adequately theorize the shifting spatialities of reproductive work and the relationship between social reproduction and the state. To address this relative weakness, this article stages a dialogue between SRT and the emergent neo-Lefebvrian literature on state space and the multiscalar geographies of capitalist urbanization. The primary claim at stake in this context is that reproductive work is periodically and systematically reorganized and re-spatialized in relation to the broader crisis dynamics of capital, and the reweaving of the urban fabric; and, moreover, that this process of reorganization and re-spatialization is profoundly mediated, managed, and canalized by state spatial practices. To concretize this theorization, this article closes with a brief historical reading of US imperial expansion and urbanization between roughly 1898 and 1925. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines early twentieth-century Japanese writer Kajii Motojirō's short story 'Remon' ('The Lemon,' 1925) and explores the intersection of Kajii's descriptions and an emerging urbanscape in Kyoto. Turn-of-the-century Kyoto undertook a massive scale of urbanization, remaking itself as a resurgent imperial capital. Instead of taking note of transformations of the scenery or the frenzies of new experiences, 'Remon' illustrates the narrator's movement unintelligibly suspended in Kyoto's back alleys. The repeated juxtaposing of different forms of representational media in the narrative also creates intermedial confusion, intensifying the sense of perceptual uncertainty. The article contends that reading the descriptions of ambiguous in-betweenness in the text reveals Kajii's writerly engagement with the urbanization of Kyoto and leads us to a reevaluation of Kajii's investment in literary modernism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning researchers often engage in international comparative research oriented to improving domestic planning practices. However, policy transfer is seldom sucsessful because the identified 'best practices' are insufficiently applicable or transferable. To address this, we employed a reflexive action-oriented methodology valorise the results of an ESPON project on sustainable urbanisation in two specific contexts: Lithuania's national strategic plan and Croatia's post-earthquake reconstruction. In collaboration with stakeholders, we assessed the local context and then used the European knowledge as a means for reflection. The results are encouraging, suggesting that this method could improve the impact of planning research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is one of the biggest challenges in the world today. Sixty-eight percent of the world's population will reside in cities and urban areas by 2050. Transitioning to a smart city is the key to overcoming the urbanization challenges. This study aimed to develop a smart city rating system that determines the overall smartness score of Riyadh City. A mixed method approach was used: qualitative research involved interviews, whereas quantitative analysis utilized the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to determine city smartness scores using main pillars and subfactors. The findings showed that Riyadh's smart city development is influenced by several factors. The smart economy carries a weight of 17.8% and a smartness score of 74.15%, while smart people holds a weight of 8.1% and a score of 59.79%. Culture diversity, education, and the Human Development Index emerge as the most dominant subfactors. Smart living carries a weight of 8.2% and a smartness score of 51.86%, with health and security being crucial aspects of human life. Smart governance carries a weight of 17.8% and a smartness score of 81.451%, with smart business services, transparency, open communication, and collaboration being the most important factors. Smart urban services hold a weight of 17.9% and a score of 43%, with transport, logistics, urban planning, infrastructure, smart parking, digital monitoring, and safety being the most dominant subfactors. Smart construction carries a weight of 3.9% and a smartness score of 43.83%, with sustainable houses and smart buildings being the most dominant subfactors. Smart mobility holds a weight of 18% and a smartness score of 52.34%, with congestion, accidents, transport efficiency, and a sustainable transportation system being the most dominant subfactors. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Riyadh smart city from the current research will help developers improve and maintain areas aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 while also providing a foundation for future research on similar cities or varying factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialization and urbanization are significant facets of modernization. The asynchronous development of the two is closely related to the agglomeration of producer services. This paper constructed an asynchrony index to describe the development gap between industrialization and urbanization. Various spatial weight matrices were introduced to test the spatial autocorrelation of the asynchrony index. Applying spatial econometric models, we explored the impact of agglomeration of producer services on the asynchrony index from two aspects: diversified agglomeration (DA) and specialized agglomeration (SA). The following conclusions are drawn from the empirical findings, which are based on data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2008 and 2019: (1) the asynchrony of industrialization and urbanization exhibits the spatial autocorrelation increasing over time; (2) SA exacerbates the asynchrony, while DA alleviates the asynchrony; (3) SA exerts greater impacts in highly industrialized and urbanized regions, while DA exerts greater effects in lowly industrialized and urbanized regions; and (4) agricultural dependence and infrastructure level weaken the impacts of SA and strengthen the impacts of DA. Income level weakens the impacts of both SA and DA. The results of this study provide a reference for policymakers to adjust the industrial layout in a targeted manner to regulate the asynchronous nature of modernization development. Peace and development are the themes of the world today. Most developing countries are experiencing or about to experience industrialization and urbanization. The world reality indicates that the two are not always synchronized in countries due to resource and cultural differences. Producer services not only improve agricultural and industrial production efficiency but also bring population agglomeration effects like other industries. In the era of informatization, the producer services exert a profound impact on industrialization and urbanization through two agglomeration modes. This technical paper quantifies the asynchrony between industrialization and urbanization using data from 31 provinces in China and verifies the opposite effects of two agglomeration modes on asynchrony. In cities with different levels of industrialization and urbanization, cities with higher or lower agricultural dependence, and cities with higher or lower infrastructure levels, the impact direction of the two agglomeration modes shows stability, while the magnitude varies. Cities with higher per capita income tend to develop into consumer cities, where industrialization should lag behind urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the acceleration of urbanization, there has been rapid expansion in urban areas, the associated intense human activity exerting serious impacts on urban environments. Clarifying the interaction between urbanization and the urban environment is important for promoting high-quality sustainable regional development. In this work, a decoupling model is introduced that was used to measure the interaction between (demographic, economic, spatial, and social) urbanization and the urban environment (environmental status, pressure, and response) in the Shanghai–Hangzhou Bay urban agglomeration (SHBUA) from 2003 to 2018. The results showed that: (1) the development level of the four urbanization subsystems improved to different degrees, but overall, the speed of the economic and spatial urbanization (builtup land sprawl) was faster than the social and demographic urbanization; (2) from 2015 to 2018, the relationship between urbanization and the environment in Huzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo, and Shaoxing was strongly decoupling, indicating negative growth in the urban environment and a trend of environmental deterioration, with increased urbanization coming at the cost of environmental damage; and (3) except for Shanghai, the growth rate of the four subsystems of urbanization in the cities was higher than that of the overall environmental level. Cities with higher urbanization levels were found to be more likely to achieve harmony between urbanization and the urban environment. This study provides a basis for analyzing the relationship between urbanization and the urban environment in urban agglomerations, along with decision-making support for a more harmonious integration of man with nature in the SHBUA. China is currently undergoing a dramatic urbanization process, with populations exploding and construction land expanding in the cities. In addition, ecological cities have been proposed that would increase the area of urban ecological space, causing a negative impact on the urban environment. Despite this process taking place in China, it is unclear how urbanization affects the urban environment, which is of great significance for avoiding the wrong development mode and for realizing sustainable development. From our analysis, we found that, for cities with low levels of urbanization, such as Huzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo, and Shaoxing, increasing urbanization accompanied a deterioration in the urban environment. Contrastingly, in the more developed cities, such as Shanghai, greater development of the economic and social environment meant more attention could be paid to the construction of the urban environment. Thus, urban environmental improvement and urbanization complement each other. By exploring the relationship between the degree of urbanization and the urban environment, it is possible to inform urban development and environmental management plans in order to mitigate the negative impact of urbanization and improve the urban environment to achieve sustainable urban development for the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study assessed the effectiveness of infiltration-based Low Impact Development (LID) techniques and augmented infiltration LIDs (such as recharge shaft) in a coastal urban catchment in India using a semi-coupled approach between numerical models VS2DI and Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). Site specific VS2DI modelling indicated that the infiltration LIDs resulted in more saturation excess runoff due to the soil's insufficient hydraulic conductivity and increased lateral flow. Catchment-scale modeling indicated that LIDs significantly improved water retention (p ≪ 0.05), with a 35% reduction in total runoff volume. The recharge shafts were shown to be more efficient in reducing runoff volume and peak runoff, particularly for high runoff rates (more than 22 mm/hr). The study suggests that direct recharge to the aquifer through recharge shafts could be a suitable solution to manage runoff and meet the demand for domestic water supply during times of water scarcity in coastal urban catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]