scholarly journals The Restorative Value of the Urban Environment: A Systematic Review of the Existing Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 117863021881280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Maria Weber ◽  
Jörg Trojan
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
Social Components

Background: Stress poses a major issue in our modern society, making restoration an important research focus. Restoration likelihood has mostly been observed in nature, which was compared with urban environments that have little restorative potential, eg, industrial areas. However, many people reside in and need to find restoration in cities. The main aim of this review is to summarize research that has focused on investigating restoration possibilities in urban environments and the environmental elements interacting with the restoration likelihood of an urban environment. Method: This review focuses on studies addressing the topic of restoration possibilities in urban settings in built and human-made natural urban environments. The studies were searched via Google Scholar, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and PSYNDEX. All studies concerned with restoration in urban environments were included. However, studies concerned with nonoriginal data, solely investigating effects of natural environments or treating urban environments as a control for restoration in nature, were excluded from the review. Overall, 39 studies corresponded to the criteria and were included. Results: Natural elements in urban environments have a restorative potential and can increase the restorativeness of urban settings. Furthermore, built urban environments vary in their restorative potential, but promising results have been uncovered as well. Architectural elements, cultural, and leisure areas had a restorative value, whereas the findings on streets and residential areas differ. In sum, many urban locations can have restorative effects, but these effects may be influenced by factors such as cultural background, age, social components, and individual dispositions. Discussion: Certain urban environments hold a restorative potential. However, the literature on restoration in urban environments is still quite scarce and therefore has been of little practical use. Even though applying the findings to real-life environments is desirable, it might prove difficult, considering the overall sparse evidence. More research on the predictors of restoration likelihood (eg, social factors), generational and cultural differences, and comparisons between natural and urban environments is recommended.

Urban Environment Design: New Methodological Approaches Based on the Biosphere Compatibility Paradigm (Part 1)

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-133
Author(s):  
В. А. Ильичев ◽  
В. И. Колчунов ◽  
Г. А. Птичникова ◽  
А. А. Кормина
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Environment Design ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Design Solutions ◽  
Four Blocks ◽  
Architectural Organization

Постановка задачи. Ставится вопрос о необходимости развития методологических подходов градостроительного проектирования на микротерриториальном уровне, направленных на создание комфортной и безопасной среды жизнедеятельности в городах и поселениях. Результаты. Получила развитие методология разработки проектов планировки территории - градостроительной документации элементов планировочной структуры (кварталов, микрорайонов, жилых районов) - на основе разрабатываемой в РААСН парадигмы биосферной совместимости городов и поселений, развивающих человека. Предлагается методика оценки вариантов проектов планировки на основе сравнения четырех блоков индикаторов: экологической безопасности жилых территорий, пространственно-территориальных ресурсов, структурно-планировочной и архитектурной организации территории и обеспеченности городскими функциями. По каждому из этих блоков определен необходимый и достаточный состав индикаторов оценки проектных решений. Показаны перспективы развития количественной оценки проектных решений с использованием принципов парадигмы биосферной совместимости на микротерриториальном уровне. Выводы. Выполненная численная оценка проектных решений жилых кварталов показывает прежде всего социальное с точки зрения предоставления необходимых условий жизнедеятельности и развития человека содержание проектов планировки территории, а также их экологический императив. Statement of the problem. The question is raised about the need to develop methodological approaches to urban planning at the microterritorial level aimed at creating a comfortable and safe environment for life in cities and settlements. Results. The authors propose a methodology development project plan for the area - planning documentation of the town-planning elements of the planning structure (blocks, neighborhoods, residential areas) based on the paradigm developed in RAACS of biosphere compatibility of man-made cities and settlements. The method of evaluating variants of planning projects based on a comparison of four blocks of indicators: environmental safety of residential areas, spatial and territorial resources, structural planning and architectural organization of the territory and provision of urban functions. For each of these blocks, the necessary and sufficient composition of indicators is determined, which are calculated based on the design solutions. The prospects for the development of quantitative evaluation of design solutions using the principles of the biosphere compatibility paradigm at the microterritorial level are shown. Conclusion. The numerical evaluation of the design solutions shows the social content of the territory planning projects and reflects the decisions on the urban environment of the city.

Relationships

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip James
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
Domestic Animals ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Select Group ◽  
Exotic Pets

Relationships between organisms within urban environments are many and varied. Plants are found in many households, and in addition to the benefits derived from their decorative properties, they also purify the air by removing pollutants. Over the course of history some animals have become domesticated: cows, horses, goats, providing food and transport. Of these, a select group have become companions (cats, dogs, and more exotic pets). Such domesticated and companion animals are an important part of the overall biology of urban environments and these relationships are explored and discussed. Some former companion or domestic animals have become feral, and other animals have never been domesticated and live freely in the urban environment. Some of these animals have beneficial relationships with humans whereas others are parasitic or are considered pests. These relationships are the focus for the later part of the exploration set out in this chapter.

What is the urban environment and what is biology?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip James
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
First Century ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Genes To Ecosystems ◽  
Micro Organisms ◽  
Initial Focus

The two main themes contained within the title The Biology of Urban Environments are explored. The initial focus is on urban environments. A discussion of the origins of cities and the global spread of urbanization leads on to a consideration of urban environments in the twenty-first century. In the second section, the focus switches to biology. The scope of the discipline is set out in terms of both the range of sub-disciplines and of biological scales. It is established from this discussion that in this book the topics considered span from genes to ecosystems and will be illustrated by examples of the biology of micro-organisms, plants, and animals. Importantly humans will be included within this consideration: our biology is affected by urban environments. The final part presents the structure of the book.

scholarly journals Effects of exposure to immersive videos and photo slideshows of forest and urban environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariba Mostajeran ◽  
Jessica Krzikawski ◽  
Frank Steinicke ◽  
Simone Kühn
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Jail Inmates ◽  
Forest Environment ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
Sense Of Presence ◽  
Hospital Patients

AbstractA large number of studies have demonstrated the benefits of natural environments on people’s health and well-being. For people who have limited access to nature (e.g., elderly in nursing homes, hospital patients, or jail inmates), virtual representations may provide an alternative to benefit from the illusion of a natural environment. For this purpose and in most previous studies, conventional photos of nature have been used. Immersive virtual reality (VR) environments, however, can induce a higher sense of presence compared to conventional photos. Whether this higher sense of presence leads to increased positive impacts of virtual nature exposure is the main research question of this study. Therefore, we compared exposure to a forest and an urban virtual environment in terms of their respective impact on mood, stress, physiological reactions, and cognition. The environments were presented via a head-mounted display as (1) conventional photo slideshows or (2) 360$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ videos. The results show that the forest environment had a positive effect on cognition and the urban environment disturbed mood regardless of the mode of presentation. In addition, photos of either urban or forest environment were both more effective in reducing physiological arousal compared to immersive 360$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ videos.

scholarly journals The Effects of Urban Natural Environments on Preference and Self-Reported Psychological Restoration of the Elderly

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 509
Author(s):  
Ling Qiu ◽  
Qujing Chen ◽  
Tian Gao
Keyword(s):  
Green Space ◽  
Environmental Design ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Aging Populations

The world is facing the challenge of aging populations. Urban natural environments, including green spaces and blue spaces, have been demonstrated to have great benefits to the mental restoration of the elderly. However, the study of the specific characteristics of urban environments that are popular and the most restorative for the elderly is still lacking. Photo elicitation as visual stimuli was utilized to explore the differences in preference and psychological restoration of the elderly through the perception of the eight perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) in different types of urban environments. The results showed that: (1) The respondents had different perceptions of the eight PSDs in the different urban natural environments. Blue space and partly-closed green space were more preferred by the elderly, and also had more psychological restorative effects on the elderly. (2) There was no significant correlation between the number of highly perceived PSDs and preference, as well as between the number of highly perceived PSDs and psychological restoration. However, there was a significant correlation between preference and psychological restoration. (3) Partly-closed green space with more Serene and Refuge qualities, and blue space with more Serene, Refuge and Prospect properties were optimal characteristics for psychological restoration of the elderly. In addition, open green space with more Prospect, Serene and Social qualities, and closed green space with more Space, Refuge and less Nature properties could also increase psychological restoration of older adults. These findings can provide useful guidelines for restorative environmental design for the elderly in the future.

scholarly journals Robust TOA-Based UAS Navigation under Model Mismatch in GNSS-Denied Harsh Environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 2928
Author(s):  
Jan Mortier ◽  
Gaël Pagès ◽  
Jordi Vilà-Valls
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽  
Autonomous Systems ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Ultra Wideband ◽  
Time Of Arrival ◽  
Navigation Systems ◽  
Satellite Systems

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is the technology of choice for outdoor positioning purposes but has many limitations when used in safety-critical applications such Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS). Namely, its performance clearly degrades in harsh propagation conditions and is not reliable due to possible attacks or interference. Moreover, GNSS signals may not be available in the so-called GNSS-denied environments, such as deep urban canyons or indoors, and standard GNSS architectures do not provide the precision needed in ITS. Among the different alternatives, cellular signals (LTE/5G) may provide coverage in constrained urban environments and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) ranging is a promising solution to achieve high positioning accuracy. The key points impacting any time-of-arrival (TOA)-based navigation system are (i) the transmitters’ geometry, (ii) a perfectly known transmitters’ position, and (iii) the environment. In this contribution, we analyze the performance loss of alternative TOA-based navigation systems in real-life applications where we may have both transmitters’ position mismatch, harsh propagation environments, and GNSS-denied conditions. In addition, we propose new robust filtering methods able to cope with both effects up to a certain extent. Illustrative results in realistic scenarios are provided to support the discussion and show the performance improvement brought by the new methodologies with respect to the state-of-the-art.

scholarly journals Interlocking Networks and the Sacred Landscape of Hellenistic Northern Etruria: Capturing Social and Geographic Entanglement Through Social Network Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 505-518
Author(s):  
Raffaella Da Vela
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Social Components

AbstractThe late Hellenistic period is a time of deep entanglement, interconnectedness and complexity. The breakdown of local political systems and the unification of economic spaces had strong repercussions on the perception and expression of several aspects of the cultural identities of local communities. Rapid waves of change can be observed in local religious identities and in the Etruscan sacred landscape: cult buildings were destroyed, sacred places abandoned or replaced by residential areas, and new organisational forms of managing cults appeared; Latin names and new iconographies were given to traditional deities in public religious buildings dedicated to the official religion, while private and popular worshipping polarized around salvation cults. Changes in the sacred landscape regarded both topographic aspects, such as the visibility of cult sites and their connections to settlements, as well as social aspects, such as the patronage of sacred buildings. This paper proposes to employ a relational approach in order to understand changes in the sacred landscape. It analyzes the geographic and social components of the Etruscan sacred landscape by means of Social Network Analysis (SNA), and it does so by looking at the landscape in its entanglement to the archaeological and epigraphic record between 350 and 80 BCE.

scholarly journals Diversity of Listeria Species in Urban and Natural Environments

2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (12) ◽  
pp. 4420-4433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Sauders ◽  
Jon Overdevest ◽  
Esther Fortes ◽  
Katy Windham ◽  
Ynte Schukken ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Environmental Samples ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Allelic Diversity ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Source Tracking ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Molecular Source ◽  
Listeria Seeligeri

ABSTRACTA total of 442Listeriaisolates, including 234Listeria seeligeri, 80L. monocytogenes, 74L. welshimeri, 50L. innocua, and 4L. marthiiisolates, were obtained from 1,805 soil, water, and other environmental samples collected over 2 years from four urban areas and four areas representing natural environments.Listeriaspp. showed similar prevalences in samples from natural (23.4%) and urban (22.3%) environments. WhileL. seeligeriandL. welshimeriwere significantly associated with natural environments (P≤ 0.0001),L. innocuaandL. monocytogeneswere significantly associated with urban environments (P≤ 0.0001). Sequencing ofsigBfor all isolates revealed 67 allelic types with a higher level of allelic diversity among isolates from urban environments. SomeListeriaspp. andsigBallelic types showed significant associations with specific urban and natural areas. Nearest-neighbor analyses also showed that certainListeriaspp. andsigBallelic types were spatially clustered within both natural and urban environments, and there was evidence that these species and allelic types persisted over time in specific areas. Our data show that members of the genusListerianot only are common in urban and natural environments but also show species- and subtype-specific associations with different environments and areas. This indicates thatListeriaspecies and subtypes within these species may show distinct ecological preferences, which suggests (i) that molecular source-tracking approaches can be developed forListeriaand (ii) that detection of someListeriaspecies may not be a good indicator forL. monocytogenes.

scholarly journals FEATURES OF ASSESSMENT OF ANTHROPOGENIC LOADS ON NATURAL COMPLEXES

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
P. Evdokimov
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Regulatory Documents ◽  
Dialectical Approach ◽  
The Impact

the article describes the problems of assessing the anthropogenic impact of human activity on natural com-plexes surrounding urbanized territories. Among the main research tasks are development of methodological foundations for assessing the quanti-tative and qualitative composition at anthropogenic impact on natural complexes surrounding urban areas. The main method of this research include a dialectical approach that focuses on generally accepted logi-cal research methods (analysis, systematic approach, generalization) and their synthesis using relevant in-formation materials. The author considered various methods of assessing the impact of various factors on the environment, and also carried out the examination of urban decisions related to the appointment of a category (status) the natural resources included in the urban environment in Moscow. The Russian capital is a European metropolis, the largest city-millionaire in Europe and a typical object of research to identify the effects of various anthropogenic factors. The implementation at economic activity in the metropolis is accompanied by the emergence of problems, the solution of which has not been found yet. Analysis of methods for assessing the impact at the various factors on the environment was carried out taking into account the provisions in regulatory documents governing the appointment for protected areas urban environment. Provisions of regulatory documents and decisions of executive authorities designed to use natural (forest) resources in urban environments. The absence of approved methods for assessing certain types of land plots with a protected status was identified. The main factors affecting the quality of biogeocenosis were identified. The main features of the applica-tion methods for assessing the status and possibility in recreational development in territories of varying de-grees at development are considered.

scholarly journals PARAMETERS OF INTEREST FOR THE DESIGN OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

2019 ◽  
pp. 92-101
Author(s):  
Marija Šperac ◽  
Dino Obradović
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Selection Of

The urbanization process significantly reduced the permeability of land surfaces, which affected the changes of runoff characteristics and the relations in the hydrological cycle. In urban environments, the relationships within the hydrological cycle have changed in quantity, in particular: precipitation, air temperature, evaporation, and infiltration. By applying the green infrastructure (GI) to urban environments is beneficial for the water resources and the social community. GI has an effect on the improvement of ecological, economic, and social conditions. Using GI into urban areas increases the permeability of land surfaces, whereby decreasing surface runoff, and thus the frequency of urban floods. It also has a significant influence on the regulation of air quality, water purification, climate change impact, and the changes in the appearance of the urban environment. When planning and designing the GI, it is necessary to identify the type of GI and determine the size and location of the selected GI. Since each urban environment has its own characteristics, it is necessary to analyze them before deciding on the GI. The paper analyzed meteorological parameters (precipitation, air temperature, insolation, air humidity) affecting the selection of GI types, using the specific example of an urban environment – the City of Osijek, Croatia. Significant parameters when designing GI are operation and maintenance These parameters directly affect the efficiency of GI. The proper selection of GI and its location results in maximum gains: the reduction of land surface drainage - drainage of the sewage system, purification and retention of precipitation at the place of production, the improvement of air quality, and the improvement of living conditions in urban environments

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