Staying cool in the compact city: Vacant land and urban heating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Abstract Urban landscapes have the potential to conserve wildlife. Despite increasing recognition of this potential, there are few collaborative efforts to integrate ecology and conservation principles into context-dependent, spatial and actionable design strategies. To address this issue and to encourage multi-disciplinary research on urban human–wildlife interactions, we ask the following questions. To what extent should design and planning actions be aligned with urban ecology in the context of a compact city? How can wildlife conservation meet the seemingly conflictual demands of urban development and public preference? To answer these questions, we refer to the relevant literature and a number of design projects. Using the compact tropical city of Singapore as a case study, we propose 12 design strategies. We encourage designers and planners to strengthen the links between wildlife and urban dwellers and promote wildlife conservation within cities.

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The projected impacts of smart decline on urban runoff contamination levels

Computational Urban Science ◽

10.1007/s43762-021-00002-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rui Zhu ◽

Galen Newman

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Prediction Models ◽

Stormwater Runoff ◽

Baseline Scenario ◽

Vacant Land ◽

Smart Decline ◽

Contamination Levels ◽

Indirect Impacts

AbstractThere has been mounting interest about how the repurposing of vacant land (VL) through green infrastructure (the most common smart decline strategy) can reduce stormwater runoff and improve runoff quality, especially in legacy cities characterized by excessive industrial land uses and VL amounts. This research examines the long-term impacts of smart decline on both stormwater amounts and pollutants loads through integrating land use prediction models with green infrastructure performance models. Using the City of St. Louis, Missouri, USA as the study area, we simulate 2025 land use change using the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects (CLUE-S) and Markov Chain urban land use prediction models and assess these change’s probable impacts on urban contamination levels under different smart decline scenarios using the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA) performance model. The four different scenarios are: (1) a baseline scenario, (2) a 10% vacant land re-greening (VLRG) scenario, (3) a 20% VLRG scenario, and (4) a 30% VLRG scenario. The results of this study illustrate that smart decline VLRG strategies can have both direct and indirect impacts on urban stormwater runoff and their inherent contamination levels. Direct impacts on urban contamination include the reduction of stormwater runoff and non-point source (NPS) pollutants. In the 30% VLRG scenario, the annual runoff volume decreases by 11%, both physical, chemical, and bacterial pollutants are reduced by an average of 19%, compared to the baseline scenario. Indirect impacts include reduction of the possibility of illegal dumping on VL through mitigation and prevention of future vacancies.

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New Housing Developments in the City Center of Guadalajara (Mexico): An Analysis from the Perspective of Collective and Sustainable Dwelling

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings11040168 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 168

Author(s):

Alessandra Cireddu

Keyword(s):

Point Of View ◽

City Center ◽

Compact City ◽

Housing Developments ◽

Human Scale ◽

Horizontal Growth ◽

Downtown Redevelopment ◽

Mode Of Transport ◽

The City ◽

New Buildings

New vertical housing developments in Guadalajara (Mexico) are reaching the city center as a response for redensification after many years of expansion of the urban area characterized by a suburban, low density and fragmented pattern. This horizontal growth, dominated by use of the automobile as prevailing mode of transport, has proven to be unsustainable not only from an environmental point of view, but also from a social perspective where the “human scale” of the city has been affected, same as the daily life of its inhabitants. On the other hand, vertical housing proposals are by their very nature associated with concepts of redensification, compact city and collective living; the aim of this article is to analyze some new housing developments in Guadalajara downtown in order to evaluate to what extent the new buildings embody a more sustainable, livable and collective dwelling, to discuss findings, successes and failures and thus be able to contribute some conclusions and open a broader reflection about contemporary housing, urban density and downtown redevelopment in Latin America cities through collective and sustainable dwelling.

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