Oceanpiren, Helsingborg, a unique cable-supported footbridge

Author(s):  
Stephen James ◽  
Patrik Thorsson

<p>As part of ambitious development plans to revitalise the city of Helsingborg, an international competition was launched in 2014 for the design of a new Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge linking the main Public Transport hub in the City Centre to the area called Oceanhamnen. <p>Ramboll was ultimately successful in the design competition with an innovative proposal for a unique bridge form, a suspension/cable stayed hybrid, conceived as a gently inclined flowing S form. <p>This paper charts the development of the design focusing primarily on the use of parametric modelling software to determine the bridge's intricate 3-dimensional geometry. This process simultaneously confirmed the final aesthetic form and addressed complex structural and buildability issues to ultimately make this unique bridge both structurally efficient and costeffective.

Author(s):  
Marcos Sanchez Sanchez ◽  
Robert Ryan ◽  
Simon Roberts

<p>Mary Elmes bridge is a new 66m single span pedestrian and cyclist bridge opened in Cork in July 2019. In September 2016, Cork City Council launched a design competition for a single span low level bridge as part of its key objective to encourage greater sustainable travel in the form of walking and cycling within the city Centre. The overriding challenge was to deliver a considered design - sympathetic to the existing fabric of the city and easy to install within the confined urban environment.</p><p>The solution was a visually appealing design; a slender, 66-metre steel shallow arch, establishing a connective dialogue with its surrounds and compliant with challenging flooding and visual requirements. The structural system is a fully integral, single span with variable depth, central steel box girder and variable width cantilevered walkways. The concept adopts a clever strategy to integrate at grade landings with existing footpath levels while making the structure compatible with future city flood defenses.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-238
Author(s):  
Denis Ambruš

The main problem with urban planning of Belgrade's historical city centre lies within the area of the Terazije terrace, which has over the years changed its appearance. Architect Nikola Dobrović laid down its foundations in 1929 in his entry to an international competition. It is precisely this concept which paved the way for the area to be expanded as needed, and gradually to reach the Sava riverbank. Two types of construction would need to take precedence in order for Savska padina to have the uniqueness of the space and better view at Savska padina. The first type of construction is defined by horizontal texture of terraces and esplanades and the second with clusters of buildings and mega-structures concentrated in one zone only. In this way the right balance between the historical centre and the Sava riverbank would be struck, with the focus on Terazije and the Sava amphitheater and the future gravitation towards the Terazije terrace serving as the driving force of the city centre's development. In this scenario, the existing "barrier" between the development and integration is recognised as an instrument of urban planning. Regulating the area around the Terazije terrace as a model for the development of the city centre would in the best way contribute to its concretization and set a good example of spatial organisation, respecting the identity and the context of the city center.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
Wojciech Kiljańczyk

The article concerns the mechanisms of entrepreneurship development in partnership with local government, science and business. The author presents evidence that the sector partnership is crucial for the success of projects developing entrepreneurship in the local and regional perspective. Local government has the resources and capabilities to act as initiators of projects and programs supporting the economic development of the city or voivodeship. At the same time, representatives of local government units must use appropriate operational and management methods in the implementation of the policy of strengthening entrepreneurship. Inter-sectoral collaboration requires the application of organisational solutions allowing for the involvement of units in different fields and basing on various legislation. The author also indicates that the source of the competitive advantage of cities and regions may be the specialisation, as well as the commercialisation of knowledge and technology. In this case, the inter-sectoral partnership is crucial as it conditions the success of economic development programs in its social, economic and political sense. At the same time, the article describes the methods of building the inter-sectoral cooperation. As a basis for the appropriate use of the different potential of the cooperating participants, the authors indicated projects and programs embracing groups of projects. All this is worth being recognised within the framework of strategic documents, such as development plans, strategies, and other records used by local government agencies. The article uses the outcome of the participatory workshops during the preparation of the Rybnik Enterprise Development Program. The aim of the study is the verification of the assumption that the sectoral partnership is crucial to the processes of local and regional entrepreneurship development.


Author(s):  
Rafael Salas ◽  
María José Pérez Villadóniga ◽  
Juan Prieto Rodríguez ◽  
Ana Russo
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Ying Long ◽  
Jianting Zhao

This paper examines how mass ridership data can help describe cities from the bikers' perspective. We explore the possibility of using the data to reveal general bikeability patterns in 202 major Chinese cities. This process is conducted by constructing a bikeability rating system, the Mobike Riding Index (MRI), to measure bikeability in terms of usage frequency and the built environment. We first investigated mass ridership data and relevant supporting data; we then established the MRI framework and calculated MRI scores accordingly. This study finds that people tend to ride shared bikes at speeds close to 10 km/h for an average distance of 2 km roughly three times a day. The MRI results show that at the street level, the weekday and weekend MRI distributions are analogous, with an average score of 49.8 (range 0–100). At the township level, high-scoring townships are those close to the city centre; at the city level, the MRI is unevenly distributed, with high-MRI cities along the southern coastline or in the middle inland area. These patterns have policy implications for urban planners and policy-makers. This is the first and largest-scale study to incorporate mobile bike-share data into bikeability measurements, thus laying the groundwork for further research.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Said Munir ◽  
Martin Mayfield ◽  
Daniel Coca

Small-scale spatial variability in NO2 concentrations is analysed with the help of pollution maps. Maps of NO2 estimated by the Airviro dispersion model and land use regression (LUR) model are fused with measured NO2 concentrations from low-cost sensors (LCS), reference sensors and diffusion tubes. In this study, geostatistical universal kriging was employed for fusing (integrating) model estimations with measured NO2 concentrations. The results showed that the data fusion approach was capable of estimating realistic NO2 concentration maps that inherited spatial patterns of the pollutant from the model estimations and adjusted the modelled values using the measured concentrations. Maps produced by the fusion of NO2-LCS with NO2-LUR produced better results, with r-value 0.96 and RMSE 9.09. Data fusion adds value to both measured and estimated concentrations: the measured data are improved by predicting spatiotemporal gaps, whereas the modelled data are improved by constraining them with observed data. Hotspots of NO2 were shown in the city centre, eastern parts of the city towards the motorway (M1) and on some major roads. Air quality standards were exceeded at several locations in Sheffield, where annual mean NO2 levels were higher than 40 µg/m3. Road traffic was considered to be the dominant emission source of NO2 in Sheffield.


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Jaworek-Jakubska ◽  
Maciej Filipiak ◽  
Adam Michalski ◽  
Anna Napierała-Filipiak

Knowledge about urban forests in Poland is still limited, as it is primarily based on aggregate, formal data relating to the general area, ignoring the spatial dimension and informal green areas. This article describes and analyses spatio-temporal changes in the actual urban forest resources in Wrocław in 1944–2017, which covers the first period of the city’s rebuilding after its destruction during World War II and its development during the nationalised, centrally-planned socialist economy, as well as the second period of intensive and only partly controlled growth under conditions of market economy. The study is based on current and historical orthophotomaps, which were confronted with cartographic data, as well as planning documents. We found that between 1944 and 2017, the percentage contribution of informal woodlands increased tenfold (from 0.5 to 4.9% of the present total area of the city). The area occupied by such forests has grown particularly during the most recent years of the city’s intensive development. However, the forests have been increasingly fragmented. During the first period, new forest areas were also created in the immediate vicinity of the city centre, while during the second one, only in its peripheral sections. The post-war plans regarding the urban green spaces (UGS), including the current plan, are very conservative in nature. On the one hand, this means no interference with the oldest, biggest, and most valuable forest complexes, but on the other hand, insufficient consideration of the intensive built-up area expansion on former agriculture areas. Only to a limited extent did the above-mentioned plans take into account the informal woodlands, which provide an opportunity for strengthening the functional connectivity of landscape.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2323
Author(s):  
Constantin Nistor ◽  
Marina Vîrghileanu ◽  
Irina Cârlan ◽  
Bogdan-Andrei Mihai ◽  
Liviu Toma ◽  
...  

The paper investigates the urban landscape changes for the last 50 years in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. Bucharest shows a complex structural transformation driven by the socialist urban policy, followed by an intensive real-estate market development. Our analysis is based on a diachronic set of high-resolution satellite imagery: declassified CORONA KH-4B from 1968, SPOT-1 from 1989, and multisensor stacked layers from Sentinel-1 SAR together with Sentinel-2MSI from 2018. Three different datasets of land cover/use are extracted for the reference years. Each dataset reveals its own urban structure pattern. The first one illustrates a radiography of the city in the second part of the 20th century, where rural patterns meet the modern ones, while the second one reveals the frame of a city in a full process of transformation with multiple constructions sites, based on the socialist model. The third one presents an image of a cosmopolitan city during an expansion process, with a high degree of landscape heterogeneity. All the datasets are included in a built-up change analysis in order to map and assess the spatial transformations of the city pattern over 5 decades. In order to quantify and map the changes, the Built-up Change Index (BCI) is introduced. The results highlight a particular situation linked to the policy development visions for each decade, with major changes of about 50% for different built-up classes. The GIS analysis illustrates two major landscape transformations: from the old semirural structures with houses surrounded by gardens from 1968, to a compact pattern with large districts of blocks of flats in 1989, and a contemporary city defined by an uncontrolled urban sprawl process in 2018.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belén Mª Castro Fernández ◽  
Rubén Camilo Lois González ◽  
Lucrezia Lopez

Santiago de Compostela is an iconic place. From the 9th century through to the present day the city has acted as the final destination of a major pilgrimage route named after it. In the article we ask ourselves how the contemporary reinvention of the pilgrimage and pilgrimages on the Way of St. James has boosted tourism development in the city. Development has been concentrated in the historic city centre and in the area around the cathedral. The importance of tourism has transformed the significance of the city itself, which acquires a magical component as a place of arrival and encounter for all kinds of visitors. The historic city has been set up in the 20th century as a destination for the Way and for cultural tourism. The buildings, particularly those connected with the pilgrimage route, become highly attractive and symbolic places and tourists carry out a number of rituals in them. They travel and enjoy Santiago as a unique experience. The study of tourism and of the tourist transformation of Santiago de Compostela is undertaken using a qualitative and quantitative method. The article analyses the heritage and symbolic value of the historic centre, together with the growth of its tourism activities. Numerical data are also provided on the perceptions and behaviour of visitors using surveys carried out by the city's Tourism Observatory.


Urban History ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENS TOFTGAARD

ABSTRACTThe traditional open-air markets on the central squares of Danish cities were thriving in the middle of the nineteenth century. However, the markets were soon challenged by new urban ideals of the city centre as a place for shopping and capital investment. At the same time, urban reformers made efforts to improve the market trade to meet modern standards. The rivalling interests struggled over the question of modernization or relocation of the central square markets and ultimately the definition and use of the central urban space. In particular, this article will examine the struggle over the construction of a fish market hall in Odense as it serves to reveal the different conceptions of the central urban space that affected the fate of the street markets.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document