Research on the Application of Deep Learning Technology Oriented to the Construction and Innovation of Smart City Image Cognition

City image is the observer’s subjective impression of the city image. It is an important content of urban geography and planning research and has important guiding significance for shaping a unique urban space. Cognitive research on traditional urban imagery is mainly by means of questionnaires and image sketches. It has problems such as high cost, low update frequency, and limited data coverage, which cannot meet the needs of quantitative research on smart cities and urban economic development in the information age. With the advent of the era of big data and the development of Internet technology, there are more and more quantitative research results on smart city image cognition with the help of big data and deep learning technology. It will be a feasible way to apply it to urban image research. This article combines the development and transformation of smart cities with the transformation of urban planning and leads to an innovation in the construction of urban image cognition based on urban image, active representation data as the data source, and deep learning as the core technology. The theoretical connotation and cognitive dimension of urban imagery are expanded to establish a cognitive model of urban imagery. The city image is cognitively analyzed from three dimensions: image structure, image type, and image evaluation. Specific cities are taken as examples to verify the applicability and scientificity of the cognitive methods and models, so as to enhance the practicality and applicability of urban imagery in urban planning. At the same time, this research is used to answer the development dilemma of big data, summarize the development trend of big data, and explore the new changes that artificial intelligence brings to urban planning. The experimental results show that the model we designed efficiently evaluates the image of the city and can also effectively recognize the image of the city in the main urban area of Chongqing.

The Urban Image Conservation and Development of Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Old Town Community in Thailand

Nakhon Si Thammarat Old Town Community dated a thousand years old from four eras of settlement development. The community is located on an ancient beach ridge that stands until the present day. It also has an image of a community that is unique to any city. Today the community is rapidly expanding, so the importance of the old town’s various elements has been diminished. The research objectives are to analyze Nakhon Si Thammarat Old Town Community’s image and landscape and provide suggestions to preserve and develop the community’s image. The methodology is theoretical concepts of the image of the city, urban landscape, historic urban landscape, and urban conservation, including field surveys to identify problems and the community’s awareness. Visual assessments and mapping were also undertaken. Based on the study, the urban conceptual framework emphasizes the five elements of physical perception, whereas the cultural landscape concept focuses on the physical perception of the community’s core components and sub-elements that express specificity of the district, including traditional custom, which is intangible culture and a landscape element as well. The analysis of urban image reveals that Nakhon Si Thammarat Old Town Community consists of the path in the area with Ratchadamnoen Road, Karom Road and Pattanakarn Khukwang Road as the main routes, the edge of the community divided by natural boundaries, which are various rivers and by man-made boundaries, which are canals and the old city’s embankments, and the unique district, such as Tha Wang Community, Khaek Market Community, and Nakhon Si Thammarat Old Town. The node or activity center is, for example, business activities in Tha Wang Community, Khaek Market Community and Hua It Market Community, and the tourism activities in the old community area around Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan Temple. The prominent landmark from the past to the present is Phra Borommathat Stupda. In addition, the unique physical elements in the old town are groups of large trees. Suggestions on conservation and development are to create awareness of secondary routes to reduce congestion of the main roads and connect to other attractions; to develop the old town’s border from four eras for clearer perception; to promote the main activities within each district; and to have measures to control the height, billboards, old buildings’ styles, and new buildings representing each district’s uniqueness that will not obscure the perception of the community’s landmarks.

Mainstream digitale e altre immagini urbane. Una ricerca empirica nel sito UNESCO di Palermo

The research deepens the role of new technologies in the construction of geographical imaginaries investigating the dimension of the offer related to the cultural heritage of the city of Palermo. The study was conducted using qualitative methods and provided for the application of two research techniques: participant observation and semi-structured interviews. By interpreting the results produced, the contribution aims to highlight the predominance of an urban image, linked to the UNESCO inclusion of the site in the World Heritage List, which is conveyed through new technologies. Developing a reflection on the alternative capacity of new media to dislocate and challenge shared images, the study will also examine the role of technologies in the production of imaginative counter-geographies.

A Change of Scenery: Does Exposure to Images of Nature Affect Delay Discounting and Food Desirability?

Previous research suggests that exposure to nature may reduce delay discounting (the tendency to discount larger future gains in favor of smaller immediate rewards) and thereby facilitate healthier dietary intake. This pre-registered study examined the impact of online exposure to images of natural scenes on delay discounting and food preferences. It was predicted that exposure to images of natural scenes (vs. images of urban scenes) would be associated with: (i) lower delay discounting; (ii) higher desirability for fruits and vegetables (and lower desirability for more energy-dense foods); and (iii) delay discounting would mediate the effect of nature-image exposure on food desirability. Adult participants (N = 109) were recruited to an online between-subjects experiment in which they viewed a timed sequence of six images either showing natural landscape scenes or urban scenes. They then completed measures of mood, delay discounting (using a five-trial hypothetical monetary discounting task) and rated their momentary desire to eat four fruits and vegetables (F&V), and four energy-dense foods. There was no statistically significant effect of experimental condition (natural vs. urban image exposure) on delay discounting or food desirability. Bayes factors supported the null hypothesis for discounting (BF01 = 4.89), and energy-dense food desirability (BF01 = 7.21), but provided no strong evidence for either hypothesis for F&V desirability (BF01 = 0.78). These findings indicate that brief online exposure to images of nature does not affect momentary impulsivity or energy-dense food preference, whereas for preference for less-energy dense foods, the evidence was inconclusive.

Revenue House - architectural typology to be valorised

This research was carried out on the state of degradation of the historic core of Annaba city, Algeria. This degradation is caused by multiple factors, the most important of which is the absence of shared responsibility of public actors. The number of collapses multiplied which became a source for the creation of large office buildings with modernist tendencies, but without any architectural identity. The real estate park in downtown Annaba brings together urban entities according to various principles and logics of composition, structuring the urban image of the city of Annaba. The objective of this study is to build a complete catalogue summarizing the structures and fundamental characteristics of old buildings. Initially, this study defines all the notions linked to urban morphology and the typologies of housing. Secondly, an architectural study will be carried out on the “income house”, which represents the basic unit for the development of this historic nucleus. The typological analysis was applied to 44 buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries located on the boulevard named “Revolution Square” in order to identify a set of common and specific criteria for the classification of “house income”.

Cultural Politics and Conquest Culture

In this article, the authors explore recent developments in urban regeneration in Istanbul, and specifically in the important historic district of Beyoğlu. In one respect, these developments, which are linked to the promotion of cruise ship tourism, are on the same predictable lines as neoliberal projects in other cities across the world. Significantly, in the Istanbul context, local agency is being sidelined, and projects are being financed and managed through the intervention of the central state. In this Turkish version of urban transformation, however, there is a locally distinctive aspect that merits attention. Istanbul is a city that was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, and the discourse of conquest has remained significant within the urban imaginary. And at the present time, it is being mobilized by the state and its cultural ministry, in the cause of creating a new urban image conforming to its Islamist principles. The key project involves the establishment of what is called the Beyoğlu Cultural Route, which is essentially a touristic itinerary. The authors argue that the state's initiatives, and the route project in particular, involve an erasure—a conquest—of Beyoğlu's legacy of cosmopolitan values. This discussion explores what has been of civic and cultural value in the lifeworld of Beyoğlu, past and present. Resistance to the state's control of resources and institutions, and to its conquest ideology, needs to be grounded in civic principles open to diversity and difference in the city.

A change of scenery: Does exposure to images of nature affect delay discounting and food desirability?

Previous research suggests that exposure to nature may reduce delay discounting (the tendency to discount larger future gains in favour of smaller immediate rewards) and thereby facilitate healthier dietary choices. This study examined the impact of online exposure to images of natural scenes on delay discounting and food preferences. It was predicted that exposure to images of natural scenes (vs. images of urban scenes) would be associated with (i) lower delay discounting; (ii) higher desirability for fruits and vegetables (and lower desirability for more energy-dense foods); and (iii) delay discounting would mediate the effect of nature-image exposure on food desirability. Adult participants (N = 109) were recruited to an online between-subjects experiment in which they viewed a timed sequence of six images either showing natural landscape scenes or urban scenes. They then completed measures of mood, delay discounting (using a 5-trial hypothetical monetary discounting task) and rated their momentary desire to eat four fruits and vegetables (F&V), and four energy-dense foods. There was no statistically significant effect of experimental condition (natural vs. urban image exposure) on delay discounting or food desirability. Bayes factors supported the null hypothesis for discounting (BF01 = 4.89), and energy-dense food desirability (BF01 = 7.21), but provided no strong evidence for either hypothesis for F&V desirability (BF01 = 0.78). These findings indicate that brief online exposure to images of nature does not affect momentary impulsivity or energy-dense food preference, whereas for preference for less-energy dense foods, the evidence was inconclusive.

Monitoring the quality of life in urban area using TDVI- Case study of Kalaburagi city

Many vegetation indices have been proposed over last decades made specialists search for the most suitable vegetation index for a given remote sensing application. Measuring the Quality of Place (QOP) is a hard task since it involves both physical and socio-economic dimensions. Being one of the major land use categories, urban vegetation plays a significant role in one‟s judgment for QOP in a neighborhood. Both quantity and quality of the community parks and recreation areas are major determinants of neighborhood attraction. For these reasons, detection of urban vegetation cover has been one of the important implication areas of urban image classification techniques. “Transformed Difference Vegetation Index (TDVI) developed by Bannari et al. (2002), is tested in a previous work where the index has performed better than NDVI and SAVI. In that work, a comparative study between TDVI, SAVI and NDVI for estimating vegetation cover in urban environment from the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1D) imagery has been conducted. The validation of the obtained results according to the ground truth showed that the TDVI is an excellent tool for vegetation cover monitoring in urban environment. It does not saturate like NDVI or SAVI, it shows an excellent linearity as a function of the rate of vegetation cover. This paper adds on the previous work by analyzing the performance of TDVI in urban image classification. Results indicate that, the performance of TDVI in urban image classification is better than NDVI and SAVI. The new index not only differentiates the urban vegetation cover better but also helps to minimize the error in classifying other unclassified pixels of urban categories.

Architectural dominants of the city of Chisinau built in the first years after the Second World War

The first years after the Second World War are characterized by the reconstruction of the cities of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR). The development of post-war architecture was dependent on political authorities. The regulations in the field led to special urban transformations. The Soviet urban image is a recognizable one, especially in the development of the main arteries, defined by spatial and volumetric greatness. Another impressive thing is the architecture of Stephen the Great boulevard, whose aesthetics promotes Soviet ideology. It had particular regulations regarding the alignment of the buildings, their height, their proportions, the aesthetics of the facades facing the boulevard, the relationship with the neighboring buildings and others, forming a coherent configuration. The established rules ordered the street front; the buildings often formed “parade courts”, increasing the visibility of the massive facades, called “parade facades”, which became recognizable by decorative exuberance. This article aims at observing the development of the constructions on a certain segment of the main artery of the capital of MSSR - one of the priority preoccupations of the authorities in the given period.