Predictive Analytics of Energy Usage by IoT-Based Smart Home Appliances for Green Urban Development

Green IoT primarily focuses on increasing IoT sustainability by reducing the large amount of energy required by IoT devices. Whether increasing the efficiency of these devices or conserving energy, predictive analytics is the cornerstone for creating value and insight from large IoT data. This work aims at providing predictive models driven by data collected from various sensors to model the energy usage of appliances in an IoT-based smart home environment. Specifically, we address the prediction problem from two perspectives. Firstly, an overall energy consumption model is developed using both linear and non-linear regression techniques to identify the most relevant features in predicting the energy consumption of appliances. The performances of the proposed models are assessed using a publicly available dataset comprising historical measurements from various humidity and temperature sensors, along with total energy consumption data from appliances in an IoT-based smart home setup. The prediction results comparison show that LSTM regression outperforms other linear and ensemble regression models by showing high variability ( R 2 ) with the training (96.2%) and test (96.1%) data for selected features. Secondly, we develop a multi-step time-series model using the auto regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) technique to effectively forecast future energy consumption based on past energy usage history. Overall, the proposed predictive models will enable consumers to minimize the energy usage of home appliances and the energy providers to better plan and forecast future energy demand to facilitate green urban development.

Urban Andes

Climate change in the Andes is affecting the relation between urban development and the landscape. Design-led explorations are reframing landscape logics and urbanisation patterns within the Cachi River Basin of Ayacucho, Peru. A co-production of students, researchers and designers, the book suggests alternative futures, crossing scales of landscape systems to new settlement typologies. Urban Andes marks the start of the new series LAP on innovative design research in architecture, urbanism, and landscape. It is the result of a two-year collaboration (2018–2020), initiated by the CCA in cooperation with KU Leuven and various partners, including local organisations and the VLIR-UOS.

Urban Land and Development Management in a Challenged Developing World: An Overview of New Reflections

The urban development and management challenges of the developing world are well documented in the literature. However, the global built environment landscape is undergoing rapid changes. These changes are steeped in three fundamental imperatives, which have serious implications for the developing world. These imperatives are population growth and rising urbanisation; environmental challenges, particularly climate change and the quest to embrace sustainability as a panacea; and advances in technological development. This paper discusses these three imperatives with the view to teasing out their implications for urban development and management in the developing world. Consistent with the literature, the paper establishes that most of the population growth and rising urbanisation are occurring in the developing world, particularly Africa and Asia, and although these phenomena have the tendency to increase economic density and promote both private and public investment in urban development, especially construction/housing and related infrastructure activities, there are and will be several problems with them. These include land tenure insecurity, lack of access to decent affordable housing and the threat of destruction to heritage sites. Furthermore, environmental challenges such as poor waste management, and climate change are and will remain pressing issues requiring the adoption of sustainability credentials because of legislative requirements, moral suasion, and value addition. Despite the potential disruptive nature of technology with respect to some aspects of the built environment, it is recognised that advances in technology are essential to the achievement of optimal urban development and management outcomes in the developing world. The paper, therefore, recommends better understanding of the socio-economic, cultural, and political forces underlying urban growth in the developing world, factoring in technology and sustainability in urban development and management, and collaboration among relevant actors, particularly government and the private sector, for optimal outcomes.

Towards a More-than-Human Approach to Smart and Sustainable Urban Development: Designing for Multispecies Justice

The term ‘sustainability’ has become an overused umbrella term that encompasses a range of climate actions and environmental infrastructure investments; however, there is still an urgent need for transformative reform work. Scholars of urban studies have made compelling cases for a more-than-human conceptualisation of urban and environmental planning and also share a common interest in translating theory into practical approaches and implications that recognise (i) our ecological entanglements with planetary systems and (ii) the urgent need for multispecies justice in the reconceptualisation of genuinely sustainable cities. More-than-human sensibility draws on a range of disciplines and encompasses conventional and non-conventional research methods and design approaches. In this article, we offer a horizon scan type of review of key posthuman and more-than-human literature sources at the intersection of urban studies and environmental humanities. The aim of this review is to (i) contribute to the emerging discourse that is starting to operationalise a more-than-human approach to smart and sustainable urban development, and; (ii) to articulate a nascent framework for more-than-human spatial planning policy and practice.

Integration of Instruments for the Protection of Natural Protected Areas in Urban and Biodiversity Strategies and in Urban Planning Regulations

Approximately 75% of the urban settlements in Romania are superimposed or are tangent to at least one natural protected area, these not being integrated from the point of view of their regulation in the urban strategies and in the urban planning regulations. From a spatial point of view, this type of relationship often represents a contrast between the urban fabric and the quasi-natural fabric. However, in the regulatory or strategy instruments for the development of urban settlements, where such contrasts exist, they are only integrated at the border level. The ecotone is, in most cases, the only element mentioned in urban planning instruments and is approached as a land that can only function in isolation and that in no way can support urban development. This reluctance and fear of approaching natural protected areas, also negatively influences the conception of the community, investors and the administration. Urban actors are not informed and therefore not motivated, but neither do they have the opportunity to get involved in the conservation and protection process. The purpose of this article is to research urban and biodiversity strategies at E.U level, to identify gaps in the formulation of urban planning tools, what are the reasons behind generating these gaps and how they can be eliminated, or at least mitigated. The analysis will focus on some models of urban strategies which address natural protected areas, but will also consider related elements, directly related to their conservation, urban ecology and the involvement in the process of urban actors.

Research on the Matching Relationship between the Supply of Urban Ecological Recreational Space and the Demand of Residents—A Case Study of an Urban Development Area in Wuhan

An urban ecological recreational space (UERS), which connects the natural environment with urban residents, is an important guarantee for developing a livable city and improving the well-being of residents. However, there is a serious imbalance between the supply of UERSs and the demand of residents in many big, rapidly developing cities. Previous studies usually used indicators such as scale or quantity to measure the supply level of UERS enjoyed by residents, ignoring its own quality differences. Therefore, taking the urban development area of Wuhan as the research object, we measured the quality of UERS from four dimensions using the entropy method and designed a method to measure the supply service level under the hierarchical travel threshold to analyze the supply level of UERSs based on a community unit. Finally, combined with the demand characteristics of different groups, the matching relationship between supply and demand of UERSs in each community is quantitatively analyzed. The results show the following: (1) The quality of UERS in urban development area of Wuhan varies greatly and its distribution is extremely uneven. (2) The level of supply services and the demand level vary greatly, and the overall performance has a trend of decreasing from the city center to the periphery. (3) The overall matching relationship between supply and demand of UERS is not ideal, and more than half of the communities are in supply deficit or without services. Our study provides a novel perspective on quantifying the supply–demand relationship of UERS. It can more accurately guide decision-makers and planners in determining areas with mismatches between the supply and demand of UERSs and in making targeted layouts of UERSs and relevant policies.

Land Take and Value Capture: Towards More Efficient Land Use

The paper aims to explore the possibilities to enhance the efficiency of land use, considering the evolution of land take (LT), and proposes the use of public value capture (PVC) instruments in selected differently experienced countries. This answers two fundamental questions. How is the concept of LT positioned in relation to the environmental policy of Europe? Which PVC instruments could stimulate more efficient land use? The aim of this article is to identify which tools can guide the transformations of the urban environment by promoting more efficient land use. These tools have been identified in the mechanisms for capturing value as they can pursue the goal of a more attractive net LT. For these reasons, the article initially analyzes the spread of the problem of land consumption, at a European level, showing how this phenomenon is very diversified not only between individual states, but also within each nation. In addition, the knowledge system to define the main initiatives and actions aimed at orienting urban development in the direction of reducing land consumption is highlighted. Subsequently, the theoretical framework concerning the issues relating to the capture of public value in urban planning operations is illustrated. The case studies representing the various European contexts are then introduced, and for each case the dynamics of urban development were analyzed. It has been done in relation to the evolution of the regulatory apparatus of territorial governance and its transformations. On the basis of this analysis, indicators have been defined. Their goal is to allow comparing the results that emerged from the case study analysis, which would otherwise have been inconsistent. In this way, it is possible to demonstrate how land use is more efficient in countries where PVC tools are used systemically and how these tools make it easier to guide urban transformations in line with the principles of sustainable development.

São Paulo’s strategic master plan and the challenges of sustainable urban transformation

Cities play an essential role in the challenge of sustainability, and urban planning is one of the main tools for guiding urban transformation processes. This paper analyses the São Paulo Master Plan 2014, considering the principles and guidelines on compact cities, sustainable adaptation and ecosystem-based adaptation. An urban development model within sustainable parameters, however, involves conflict dynamics. In this sense, the views and demands of the main stakeholders seeking to influence the regulatory arena of São Paulo's urban policy are mapped. The analysis focuses on attempts to change the zoning law that would affect several of the definitions agreed in the Master Plan, prioritising mainly the interests of real estate developers.