How can the urban landscape affect urban vitality at the street block level? A case study of 15 metropolises in China

Author(s):  
Anqi Zhang ◽  
Weifeng Li ◽  
Jiayu Wu ◽  
Jian Lin ◽  
Jianqun Chu ◽  
...  

Urban vitality, as a metric, measures the attractiveness and competitiveness of a city and is a driver of development. As the physical and social space of human activities, the urban landscape has close connections with urban vitality according to classical theories. However, limited quantitative criteria for the urban landscape and gaps between macro urban planning and micro design create difficulties when constructing a vibrant city. In this study, we quantitatively examined the relationship between the urban landscape and urban vitality at the street block level using geospatial open data to discover where, how, and to what extent we could improve urban vitality, taking 15 Chinese metropolises as a case study. Results indicate that, among the three aspects of the urban landscape considered, the city plan pattern has the highest effect on stimulating vitality, followed by the land use and the patterns of building form. Specifically, the three-dimensional form of buildings has a greater effect than a two-dimensional form. In addition, convenient transportation, a compact block form, diverse buildings, mixed land use, and high buildings are the main characteristics of vibrant blocks. The results also show that the effects of the urban landscape have spatial variations and obvious diurnal discrepancies. Furthermore, over 20 and 33% of the blocks in these cities are identified as low-vitality blocks during the day and night, respectively, and are then categorized into six different types. The identification of the common characteristics of these low-vitality blocks can be taken as references for designing a vibrant urbanity.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Yin ◽  
Jiangang Xu ◽  
Zhongyuan Yang

The urban planning industry has always been concerned about conserving and developing historic cities in a sustainable and balanced way. However, unreasonable planning and accumulative effects brought by rapid urbanization prevent the conservation of small-scale famous historic and cultural cities. Taking Tingchow county as an example, this paper focused on sustainable development and the Historic Urban Landscape Approach, and determined the urban functions and specific tasks of various planning of its ancient town with the help of public opinions. This paper mainly aimed at providing guidance on urban decentralization from two perspectives. Firstly, it compared the types of land use and its ratio among famous cities of similar scales, and results showed that it is advisable to reduce three-class residential land use and unnecessary administrative functions. Secondly, it estimated the moderate resident population in different degrees of development, and calculated the upper limit of resource space bearing capacity (REBC) of scenic spots under the guidance of sustainable tourism. Results showed that it is recommended to decentralize and resettle 20%~30% of the resident population, and to control the tourist population below 12,000 per day. As the preliminary work of planning, this paper focused on the scientific planning and availability of decentralization, and reflected an expectation for the mode of public participation and quantitative planning.


Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauliina Krigsholm ◽  
Kirsikka Riekkinen ◽  
Pirjo Ståhle

Cadastral information and land administration systems are central to effective land markets, land use and sustainable development. This paper focuses on one aspect of land administration dynamism: the changing uses of cadastral information. We follow a qualitative approach and offer an overview of why, how, and in what form user groups use cadastre and land register data in Finland. We then explore different user groups’ perceptions of emerging changes and discuss their implications for the future land administration system. We identify six major changes that potentially have such implications: the streamlining of environmental permit procedures, the integration of public services, three-dimensional land use planning, tightening banking regulations, digital services, and e-government, and coordination among public data agencies. The paper addresses the relatively unexplored customer side of cadastral information and reiterates the need for an interoperable, accurate and reliable land administration system.


Author(s):  
Lei Zhou ◽  
Liyang Xiong

Village resettlement communities (VRCs) are a special type of urban community that the government has promoted considerably during China’s rapid urbanization. This study uses the theory of the production of space as a basis to explore the processes and mechanisms of the physical and social space evolution of VRCs through a case study of Qunyi Community, one of the largest VRCs in Kunshan. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed in this study. Results indicate that the coupling relationship between local government power and diversified capital is the fundamental reason that promotes the production of macrophysical space. Moreover, the economic and social relationships among residents promote the reproduction of microsocial space. Landless farmers are the most important spatial producers in the microsocial space. The individual needs and cultural differences of immigrant workers also have significant effects on microspatial production. Furthermore, the production and reproduction of the physical and social spaces, respectively, of VRCs deduce the adjustment relationship among the urbanization processes of land, population, and individuals. Results also indicate that the urbanization of individuals appears to lag behind the previous two processes. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the spatial renovation and management optimization of VRCs, as well as the promotion of a new type of “people-centered” urbanization.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gara Villalba ◽  
Sergi Ventura ◽  
Joan Gilabert ◽  
Alberto Martilli ◽  
Alba Badia

<p>Currently, around 54% of the world's population is living in urban areas and this number is projected to increase by 66% by 2050. In the past years, cities have been experiencing heat wave episodes that affect the population. As the modern urban landscape is continually evolving, with green spaces and parks becoming a more integral component and with suburbs expanding outward from city centres into previously rural, agricultural, and natural areas, we need tools to learn how to best implement planning strategies that minimize heat waves.  In this study we use the Weather and Research Forecasting model (WRF) with a multi-layer layer scheme, the Building Effect Parameterization (BEP) coupled with the Building Energy Model (BEP+BEM, Salamanca and Martilli, 2010) to take into account the energy consumption of buildings and anthropogenic heat generated by air conditioning systems. The urban canopy scheme takes into account city morphology (e.g. building and street canyon geometry) and surface characteristics (e.g. albedo, heat capacity, emissivity, urban/vegetation fraction). The Community Land Surface Model (CLM) is used in WRF that uses 16 different plant functional types (PFTs) as the basis for land-use differentiation.  Furthermore, we use the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) classification which has 11 urban land use categories with specific thermal, radiative and geometric parameters of the buildings and ground to compute the heat and momentum fluxes in the urban areas.  The objective is to validate the model and establish relationships between urban morphology and land use with temperature, so that the model can be used to simulate land use scenarios to investigate the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies to lower urban temperatures during the summer months.</p><p> </p><p>We test the methods with the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) as a case study. The AMB is representative of the Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and hot summers. With a heterogeneous urban landscape, the AMB covers 636 km<sup>2 </sup>(34% built, 23% agricultural, and 31% vegetation) and has more than five million habitants. We simulate the heat wave that occurred in August 2018, during which temperatures stayed between 30 and 40ºC for five consecutive days and compare results with observed data from five different weather stations. We then simulate a potential scenario changing land surface from built to vegetation, in accordance with Barcelona´s strategic climate plan, and the potential impact the land use change has on reducing heat wave episodes.</p>


Author(s):  
Yen-Ling Teresa Ting

This chapter addresses academic disciplinary literacy, the ability to use disciplinary discourse to formulate and learn discipline-specific ideas correctly, and also use condoned ways of languaging to share disciplinary knowledge eloquently. Disciplinary literacy also concerns L1 content education; however, the existence of “foreign language” within the EMI/CLIL instructional milieu further amplifies this challenge. This chapter addresses this challenge by evolving traditional EFL-models of language-learning into an “EMI/CLIL-concept-language-complexity model,” which correlates complex disciplinary concepts with complex disciplinary discourse with complex foreign disciplinary discourse. Using this three-dimensional model, translanguaging materials were designed so to make “foreign language” a conduit that seamlessly chaperones students through disciplinary knowledge coded in L1-BICS, L1-CALP, FL-BICS, and FL-CALP. Translanguaging materials are presented plus case-study results confirming not only students' comprehension of disciplinary concepts but also their assimilation of complex disciplinary discourses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seula Park ◽  
Ahram Song

The non-spatial information of cadastral maps must be repeatedly updated to monitor recent changes in land property and to detect illegal land registrations by tax evaders. Since non-spatial information, such as land category, is usually updated by field-based surveys, it is time-consuming and only a limited area can be updated at a time. Although land categories can be updated by remote sensing techniques, the update is typically performed through manual analysis, namely through a visually interpreted comparison between the newly generated land information and the existing cadastral maps. A cost-effective, fast alternative to the current surveying methods would improve the efficiency of land management. For this purpose, the present study analyzes the discrepancy between the existing cadastral map and the actual land use. Our proposed method operates in two steps. First, an up-to-date land cover map is generated from hyperspectral unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images. These images are effectively classified by a hybrid two- and three-dimensional convolutional neural network. Second, a discrepancy map, which contains the ratio of the area that is being used differently from the registered land use in each parcel, is constructed through a three-stage inconsistency comparison. As a case study, the proposed method was evaluated using hyperspectral UAV images acquired at two sites of Jeonju in South Korea. The overall classification accuracies of six land classes at Sites 1 and 2 were 99.93% and 99.75% and those at Sites 1 and 2 are 39.4% and 34.4%, respectively, which had discrepancy ratios of 50% or higher. Finally, discrepancy maps between the land cover maps and existing cadastral maps were generated and visualized. The method automatically reveals the inconsistent parcels requiring updates of their land category. Although the performance of the proposed method depends on the classification results obtained from UAV imagery, the method allows a flexible modification of the matching criteria between the land categories and land coverage. Therefore, it is generalizable to various cadastral systems and the discrepancy ratios will provide practical information and significantly reduce the time and effort for land monitoring and field surveying.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-212
Author(s):  
Ophylia Vinodhini ◽  
A. Meenatchi Sundaram

In 1947, during the year of independence, India’s national highway network was approximately 23,000 km. In 1997, national highways had a total length of 34,298 km. As of July 2013 India has multiplied thrice the distance covered by national highways (NH) connecting all the major cities and state capitals. By end of 2017, it is planned that the national highway network should be at 85000 km (12th Five Year Plan, 2012-17). Though it is an improvement in the infrastructure, we have to agree that there are many cons in the process. The highways have brought concentric expansion and appearance of sub-centers all along major road intersections. The land-use changes caused by these highways have converted the metropolises to megalopolises, hamlets emerging to bigger cities. The highways are aimed to provide better transport and to link one place to another in a fast mode. “You can start with land use, or you can start with transportation; in either case, the basic feedback leads inevitably to a hierarchy of central places and transportation links connecting them” [Moore and Thorsnes, 1994]. Land-use being the first to impact cities, eventually causes impacts on natural resources and also communities, livelihood, health, safety, etc. The progression of the urban landscape can be considered from a hybrid perception where diverse paradigms were focused in different periods. It is the need of the hour to integrate all the essential paradigms. This paper provides an overview of the issues and challenges caused by development of highways in India. Rather than covering every aspect of highways, it primarily focuses on those areas that are important from the users’ point of view. The paper first reviews the changes in Indian cities due to increasing coverage of highways, followed by a discussion on issues such as Land use split, settlement isolation, identity loss, to mention a few. Building on this background, the paper proposes further researches for the betterment of life in cities affected by Highways.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Huan Yu ◽  
Shi-Jun Ni ◽  
Bo Kong ◽  
Zheng-Wei He ◽  
Cheng-Jiang Zhang ◽  
...  

Land-use planning has triggered debates on social and environmental values, in which two key questions will be faced: one is how to see different planning simulation results instantaneously and apply the results back to interactively assist planning work; the other is how to ensure that the planning simulation result is scientific and accurate. To answer these questions, the objective of this paper is to analyze whether and how a bridge can be built between qualitative and quantitative approaches for land-use planning work and to find out a way to overcome the gap that exists between the ability to construct computer simulation models to aid integrated land-use plan making and the demand for them by planning professionals. The study presented a theoretical framework of land-use planning based on scenario analysis (SA) method and multiagent system (MAS) simulation integration and selected freshwater wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain of China as a case study area. Study results showed that MAS simulation technique emphasizing quantitative process effectively compensated for the SA method emphasizing qualitative process, which realized the organic combination of qualitative and quantitative land-use planning work, and then provided a new idea and method for the land-use planning and sustainable managements of land resources.


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