scholarly journals Mapping resource effectiveness across urban systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Min Tan ◽  
Hadi Arbabi ◽  
Danielle Densley Tingley ◽  
Paul E. Brockway ◽  
Martin Mayfield
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Resource Utilisation ◽  
Mapping Resource ◽  
City System ◽  
Clustering Patterns ◽  
High Utilisation ◽  
Resource Security

AbstractCities and their growing resource demands threaten global resource security. This study identifies the hotspots of imports in cities to redirect resources to where they are most needed, based on the system overall resource effectiveness to maximise the use of all resources available. This paper develops a taxonomy of resource-use behaviour based on the clustering patterns of resource utilisation and conversion across interconnected urban systems. We find high tendencies of consumer-like behaviour in a multi-city system because tertiary sectors are concentrated in urban areas while the producing sectors are located outside and hence, results in high utilisation but low output. The clustering taxonomy emphasises that the absence of producers in the system causes cities to rely on the imported resources for growth. Cities can be resource-effective by having a more diversified industrial structure to extend the pathways of resource flows, closing the circularity gap between the suppliers and consumers.

Engineering in the time of cholera: overcoming institutional and political challenges to rebuild Zimbabwe's water and sanitation infrastructure in the aftermath of the 2008 cholera epidemic

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa Brocklehurst ◽  
Murtaza Malik ◽  
Kiwe Sebunya ◽  
Peter Salama
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Rapid Improvement ◽  
Cholera Epidemic ◽  
Rapid Action ◽  
Water And Sanitation Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Rehabilitation

A devastating cholera epidemic swept Zimbabwe in 2008, causing over 90,000 cases, and leaving more than 4,000 dead. The epidemic raged predominantly in urban areas, and the cause could be traced to the slow deterioration of Zimbabwe's water and sewerage utilities during the economic and political crisis that had gripped the country since the late 1990s. Rapid improvement was needed if the country was to avoid another cholera outbreak. In this context, donors, development agencies and government departments joined forces to work in a unique partnership, and to implement a programme of swift improvements that went beyond emergency humanitarian aid but did not require the time or massive investment associated with full-scale urban rehabilitation. The interventions ranged from supply of water treatment chemicals and sewer rods to advocacy and policy advice. The authors analyse the factors that made the programme effective and the challenges that partners faced. The case of Zimbabwe offers valuable lessons for other countries transitioning from emergency to development, and particularly those that need to take rapid action to upgrade failing urban systems. It illustrates that there is a ‘middle path’ between short-term humanitarian aid delivered in urban areas and large-scale urban rehabilitation, which can provide timely and highly effective results.

scholarly journals Community Preferences for Urban Systems Transformation in Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4749
Author(s):  
Milo Costanza-van den Belt ◽  
Tayanah O’Donnell ◽  
Robert Webb ◽  
Eleanor Robson ◽  
Robert Costanza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
National Workshop ◽  
Systems Transformation

Civil society engagement is important for enabling urban systems transformations that meet community needs. The development of Future Earth Australia’s Sustainable Cities and Regions: A 10-Year Strategy for Urban Systems was underpinned by cross-sectoral workshops in 7 Australian urban areas and interviews with key stakeholders to create a shared vision of both current and desired future urban structure and policy. We then created an online survey to gauge broader community feedback on the vision which emerged from these workshops and interviews, to compare their outcomes with the views of community members who could be directly impacted by urban decision-making. The survey consisted of 35 questions, which were shaped by the issues emerging from the workshops and interviews. The sample was self-selected, and the 641 respondents represented a cross-section of individuals interested in sustainable cities. Our survey results supported and expanded on the major conclusions of FEA’s National workshop and interview processes, including the need to develop transparent and responsive decision-making processes, limit waste and pollution and develop effective housing and transport alternatives with mixed-use neighborhoods and adequate green space.

Reviving the consumption of insects in Japan: a promising case of hebo (Vespula spp., wasps) by high school club activities

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Nonaka ◽  
H. Yanagihara
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
New Development ◽  
School Research ◽  
Recent Initiative

For people who hunt and eat hebo (Vespula spp., wasps) it is more about culture than it is about food production or environmental sustainability in mountainous central Japan. Individuals who currently semi-cultivate hebo do not intend to industrialize hebo semi-cultivation. Semi-cultivation of hebo is a seasonal activity and it is a hobby for them. This paper focuses on the declining number of wasp hunters. The number declined because younger generations did not take up the hobby or moved to urban areas in search of jobs. Hebo hunters thus consisted of seniors only. The number further declined as those who reached old age were no longer able to practice hebo hunting. Very recently, initiated a promising new development at Ena Agricultural High School. The support to the Hebo Club initiative was quickly expanded and now covers the members belonging to the Japan Vespula Association, and academics involved in edible insect research. We present an overview of the efforts of hebo hunters to maintain and promote the use of Vespula spp. as food and we describe the Hebo Club, a promising recent initiative spearheaded by the students of Ena Agricultural High School. The information was collected between fiscal 2015 and 2017 (namely from September 2015 to March 2018) by participant observation and semi-structured interviews with hebo hunters collaborating with the Hebo Club activities. The Hebo Club uses a hands-on approach: students gain knowledge on edible wasps and their semi-cultivation by actively engaging in the semi-cultivation of the wasps. The club thus teaches the students about resource use by engaging in resource use. The students are taught by experienced wasp hunters how to find, collect, house, and raise hebo. The Hebo Club’s colonies are housed in a shed in the school research forest. By cooperating with the members belonging to various Hebo Associations of south-eastern Gifu and northern Aichi, the students experience the variation in employed techniques and equipment, and make observations of hebo biology and ecology in different environments. Other than the hebo season, the club practice develops their idea for local development and applying it to tourism according to the evaluation of their activities. The successful beginning of the Hebo Club, a well-organized cultural initiative spearheaded by youngsters who are backed by seniors, is indicative of how people caring about hebo culture in central mountainous Japan maintains and preserves its culture and identity.

A Theoretical Foundation for the Concept of Differential Urbanization

1993 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermanus S. Geyer ◽  
Thomas Kontuly
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Development Spectrum ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
Net Migration ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
Clean Break

This paper develops a theoretical foundation for the notion of differential urbanization, in which groups of large, intermediate-sized, and small cities go through successive periods of fast and slow growth in a continuum of development that spans the evolution of urban systems in developed and less developed countries. A model depicting net migration patterns over time for major metropolitan, intermediate-sized, and small urban areas identifies six stages of differential urbanization. Data from three countries that span the development spectrum are used to test the accuracy of this model. A distinction between mainstream and substream migration flows provides an indicator of the concurrent concentration and deconcentration forces shaping urban systems. Counterurbanization represents the final phase in the first cycle of urban development, and is followed by a second cycle in which urbanization and spatial concentration dominate once again. At advanced levels of urbanization, the model can be used to characterize the degree of development within regions or subregions of a country. Also, precise definitions are suggested for the “clean break,” the end of urbanization, and the beginnings and ends of polarization reversal and counterurbanization.

scholarly journals Transitional Ecology: embedding ecological experiments into temporary urban public art

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D Kay ◽  
Elizabeth Scherber ◽  
Hunter Gaitan ◽  
Amanda Lovelee
Keyword(s):  
Public Art ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Community Benefits ◽  
Ecological Experiments ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

AbstractUnderstanding the environmental consequences of urbanization is a pressing objective, and more experimental ecology in urban areas would be useful in meeting this goal. Here we introduce the concept of Transitional Ecology, which involves incorporating ecological field research into temporary public art on vacant urban land. Ecological experiments can yield useful results about urban systems over short time periods. Incorporating such experiments into temporary public art allows the space to provide diverse community benefits. Although this fusion introduces challenges for both ecologists and artists, it can also create formal and informal science training activities while raising public awareness of environmental science. We illustrate these challenges and opportunities with the Urban Flower Field, a phytoremediation project in a temporary urban park.

Re-engineering cities: a framework for adaptation to global change

2007 ◽  
Vol 365 (1861) ◽  
pp. 3085-3098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Greenhouse Gases Emissions ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Future Challenges

Urban areas are expected to continue their rapid growth in the twenty-first century. Globally, cities are major sources of greenhouse gases emissions and their high population densities make them potential focal points of vulnerability to global environmental change. Moreover, their reach, in terms of flows of materials and resources, extends far outside their borders. Evidently, it is no longer tenable to consider urban systems to be static artefacts constructed in a stable environment, nor continue to divorce them from the global context that influences many of the climatic and socio-economic changes within cities. Furthermore, the uncertainty in the future climatic and socio-economic conditions poses significant challenges for planners. A framework is proposed for analysing urban systems with evidence-based tools over extended time scales. This forms the basis of a manifesto for future challenges and research directions for this critical subject area, which ultimately will help engineers and urban planners to better understand the areas for which they are responsible and to develop adaptation strategies that can tackle the challenges posed by long-term global change and lead to more sustainable cities.

scholarly journals Smart Urban Planning: Evaluating Urban Logistics Performance of Innovative Solutions and Sustainable Policies in the Venice Lagoon—the Results of a Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Mazzarino ◽  
Lucio Rubini
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Venice Lagoon ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Transport Capacity ◽  
Urban Network ◽  
Urban Freight

Currently, remarkable gaps of operational, social and environmental efficiency and overall sub-optimization of the logistics and mobility systems exist in urban areas. There is then the need to promote and assess innovative transport solutions and policy-making within SUMPs (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans) to deal with such critical issues in order to improve urban sustainability. The paper focuses on the case study of the Venice Lagoon, where islands—despite representing a relevant feature of urban planning—face a tremendous lack of accessibility, depopulation, social cohesion and they turn out to be poorly connected. By developing an original scenario-building methodological framework and performing data collection activities, the purpose of the paper consists of assessing the feasibility of a mixed passenger and freight transport system —sometimes called cargo hitching. Mixed passenger and freight systems/cargo hitching are considered as an innovative framework based on the integration of freight and passenger urban systems and resources to optimize the existing transport capacity, and thus, urban sustainability. Results show that the overall existing urban transport capacity can accommodate urban freight flows on main connections in the Lagoon. The reduction in spare public transport capacity, as well as in the number (and type) of circulating freight boats show—in various scenarios—the degree of optimization of the resulting urban network configuration and the positive impacts on urban sustainability. This paves the way for the regulatory framework to adopt proposed solutions.

scholarly journals Measuring Functional Urban Shrinkage with Multi-Source Geospatial Big Data: A Case Study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Megaregion

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 2513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiwei Ma ◽  
Zhaoya Gong ◽  
Jing Kang ◽  
Ran Tao ◽  
Anrong Dang
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Clustering ◽  
Landscape Fragmentation ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Clustering Methods

Most of the shrinking cities experience an unbalanced deurbanization across different urban areas in cities. However, traditional ways of measuring urban shrinkage are focused on tracking population loss at the city level and are unable to capture the spatially heterogeneous shrinking patterns inside a city. Consequently, the spatial mechanism and patterns of urban shrinkage inside a city remain less understood, which is unhelpful for developing accommodation strategies for shrinkage. The smart city initiatives and practices have provided a rich pool of geospatial big data resources and technologies to tackle the complexity of urban systems. Given this context, we propose a new measure for the delineation of shrinking areas within cities by introducing a new concept of functional urban shrinkage, which aims to capture the mismatch between urban built-up areas and the areas where significantly intensive human activities take place. Taking advantage of a data fusion approach to integrating multi-source geospatial big data and survey data, a general analytical framework is developed to construct functional shrinkage measures. Specifically, Landsat-8 remote sensing images were used for extracting urban built-up areas by supervised neural network classifications and Geographic Information System tools, while cellular signaling data from China Unicom Inc. was used to depict human activity areas generated by spatial clustering methods. Combining geospatial big data with urban land-use functions obtained from land surveys and Points-Of-Interests data, the framework further enables the comparison between cities from dimensions characterized by indices of spatial and urban functional characteristics and the landscape fragmentation; thus, it has the capacity to facilitate an in-depth investigation of fundamental causes and internal mechanisms of urban shrinkage. With a case study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei megaregion using data from various sources collected for the year of 2018, we demonstrate the validity of this approach and its potential generalizability for other spatial contexts in facilitating timely and better-informed planning decision support.

Urban Development and Civic Community: A Comparative Analysis

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McKay
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Central City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Economic Market ◽  
Explanatory Factors ◽  
Civic Community

This article attempts to explain why it is that in spite of being exposed to similar economic and social forces, cities in Europe and the United States have followed distinctive patterns of development. In continental Europe core urban areas have remained relatively resilient compared with equivalent areas in Britain and the United States. While economic and demographic factors are important explanatory factors, they cannot account for all of the important differences characteristic of the three urban systems, whether measured in quantitative or qualitative terms. It is argued that Continental cities are better protected because of a long-established elite commitment to specific urban areas which has its roots in the development of the modern state. This commitment is labelled ‘civic community’ which finds political expression through complex representational networks at the local, regional and national levels. In Britain no equivalent networks exist and civic community is low. As a result, elites have little commitment to core urban areas. In the United States, complex representational networks do exist, but they are not linked to a historically established elite commitment to core city areas. Instead, the economic market place determines the fortunes of central cities. It is concluded that these contrasting paths of development place considerable constraints on public policies designed to regenerate central city areas.

Non-linear interactions of urban and freshwater systems: Exploring implications for sustainability and water planning and management

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Angarita ◽  
Vishal Mehta ◽  
Efraín Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Urban Population ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Freshwater Systems ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Freshwater System

<p>Human population is progressing into a predominantly urban configuration. Currently, 3.5 billion people – 55% of the total human population – live in urban areas, with an increase to 6.68 billion (68%) projected by 2050. In this progressively more populated world, a central issue of sustainability assessments is understanding the role of cities as entities that, despite their comparatively small physical footprint (less than 0.5% of the global area) demand resources at regional and global scales.</p><p>Many of the resources that sustain urban population directly depend on the freshwater system: from direct fluxes from/to the immediate environment of cities for water supply or waste elimination, to water-dependent activities like biomass (food, biofuels, fibers) and energy production. Urban and freshwater system interactions are subject to multiple sources of non-linearity. Factors like the patterns of size or spatial distribution and interconnection of groups of cities; or the nested and hierarchical character of freshwater systems, can vastly influence the amount of resources required to sustain and grow urban population; likewise, equivalent resource demands can be met through different management strategies that vary substantially in their cumulative pressure exerted on the freshwater system.</p><p>Here we explore the non-linear character of those interactions, to i. identify water management options to avoid, minimize or offset regional impacts of growing urban populations, and ii. explore long term implications of such non-linearities in sustained resource base of urban areas. We propose a framework integrating three elements: 1. properties of the size and spatial distribution of urban center sizes, 2. scaling regime of urban energy resource dependencies, and 3. scaling regime of associated physical and ecological impacts in freshwater systems.</p><p>An example of this approach is presented in a case study in the Magdalena River Basin – MRB (Colombia). The basin covers nearly one quarter of Colombia’s national territory and provides sustenance to 36 million people, with three quarters of basin inhabitants living in medium to large urban settlements of populations of 12 000 or more inhabitants and 50% concentrated in the 15 largest cities. The case study results indicate that freshwater-mediated resource dependencies of urban population are described by a linear or super-linear regime that indicates a lack of scale economies, however, freshwater systems’ capacity to assimilate those resource demands is characterized by a sublinear regime. As a result, current practices and technological approaches to couple freshwater and urban systems will not be able to withstand the resource demands of mid-term future population scenarios.  Our approach allows to quantify the projected gaps to achieve a sustained resource base for urban systems in MRB.</p>

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