Predicting Detached Housing Vacancy: A Multilevel Analysis

Urban shrinkage is a critical issue in local small- and medium-sized cities in Korea. While there have been several studies to analyze the causes and consequences of vacancy increases, most have only focused on socioeconomic associations at larger scale and failed to consider individual housing level characteristics, primarily due to a lack of appropriate data. Based on data including 52,400 individual parcels, this study analyzes the primary contributors to vacant properties and their spatial distribution through a multilevel model design based on data for each parcel. Then, we identify areas at high risk of vacancy in the future to provide evidence to establish policies for improving the local environment. Results indicate that construction year, building structure, and road access conditions have a significant effect on vacant properties at the individual parcel level, and the presence of schools and hypermarket within 500 m are found to decrease vacant properties. Further, prediction outcomes show that the aged city center and areas with strict regulations on land use are expected to have a higher vacancy rate. These findings are used to provide a set of data-based revitalization strategies through the development of a vacancy prediction model.

Organic carbon in atmospheric precipitation in the urbanized territory of the South of Western Siberia, Russia

This paper presents the results of studying the contents of total (TOC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon in atmospheric precipitation and their deposition fluxes on the territory of the city of Barnaul. Samples of atmospheric precipitation (rain and snow) were collected from May 2016 to December 2020 in the city center, additionally at the end of winter 2018–2019 samples of snow cover were taken in the territory of the city and its environs. The studies showed a significant content of organic carbon (OC) in atmospheric precipitation: the weighted average concentrations for the study period were 7.2 ± 0.6 and 4.2 ± 0.4 mg/L for TOC and DOC, respectively. The annual flux of OC deposition with atmospheric precipitation on the territory of Barnaul over the past three years has varied within 2.4–3.9 t/km2 for TOC and 1.4–2.1 t/km2 for DOC. To visualize the spatial distribution of organic matter over the territory of Barnaul, simple kriging was used, implemented in the Geostatistical Analyst module (ArcGIS® Desktop). The flow of organic carbon input into the snow cover during the winter period was used as data for the geostatistical model. According to the model, the deposition of OC from the atmosphere occurs unevenly throughout the urban area and depends on the location and intensity of pollution sources.

Probabilistic Minimum Night Flow Estimation in Water Distribution Networks and Comparison with the Water Balance Approach: Large-Scale Application to the City Center of Patras in Western Greece

Quantification of water losses (WL) in water distribution networks (WDNs) is a crucial task towards the development of proper strategies to reduce them. Currently, WL estimation methods rely on semi-empirical assumptions and different implementation strategies that increase the uncertainty of the obtained estimates. In this work, we compare the effectiveness and robustness of two widely applied WL estimation approaches found in the international literature: (a) the water balance, or top-down, approach introduced by the International Water Association (IWA), and (b) the bottom-up or minimum night flow (MNF) approach, based on a recently proposed probabilistic MNF estimation method. In doing so, we use users’ consumption and flow-pressure data from the 4 largest pressure management areas (PMAs) of the WDN of the city of Patras (the third largest city in Greece), which consist of more than 200 km of pipeline, cover the entire city center of Patras, and serve approximately 58,000 consumers. The obtained results show that: (a) when MNF estimation is done in a rigorous statistical setting from high resolution flow-pressure timeseries, and (b) there is sufficient understanding of the consumption types and patterns during day and night hours, the two approaches effectively converge, allowing for more reliable estimation of the individual WL components. In addition, when high resolution flow-pressure timeseries are available at the inlets of PMAs, the suggested version of the bottom-up approach with probabilistic estimation of MNF should be preferred as less sensitive, while allowing for confidence interval estimation of the individual components of water losses and development of proper strategies to reduce them.

Metaphoric Perceptions of Adolescents towards the Concept of Corona Virus (COVID-19)

This research was carried out to examine the metaphoric perceptions of adolescents regarding the concept of coronavirus (COVID-19).For this purpose, 60 adolescents (33 girls, 27 boys) studying at different grade levels of three high schools at different socio-economic levels determined by maximum diversity sampling from high schools in Erzincan city center were included in the research.With the questionnaireform developed for adolescents, “Coronavirus (COVID-19) ……is similar. Because………." was asked.The data obtained were analyzed by content analysis method. In this context, categories suitable for metaphors were created and the consistency of the categories with metaphors and descriptions was determined. Eight metaphors that are not suitable for the subject of the study are excluded from the study. In line with the results obtained, it was determined that adolescents developed 49 different metaphors and these metaphors were collected under eight categories. It can be said that the metaphoric perceptions of adolescents regarding the concept of coronavirus (COVID-19) are generally negative.

Opportunities to improve road traffic on short-length road connections by correlating intersection traffic lights

The paper aims to explore the possibilities of improving road traffic in the central area of cities characterized by a longitudinal arrangement of the street network, with application for the case of Pitesti, where the road network in the central area consists of two main roads arranged longitudinally, having one-way regulated traffic, interconnected by several streets. A special traffic problem is reported in the city center: on the main road connecting the two boulevards, the vehicle storage space is insufficient - because the distance between the two road intersections is too small and there is no correlation between the Green phases of traffic lights in the two intersections. The research, based on traffic measurements performed with DataFromSky software and micro-simulation traffic analyses performed with Vissim PTV software, indicated that the best solution is the partial or total correlation of the green time from the traffic light intersections that delimit the connecting road artery. As, almost exclusively, the works dedicated to the correlation of green light of traffic lights treat the problem only along the road arteries, this paper raises a special issue and reveals the possibility of simple solutions, by correlating the traffic lights at the intersections connecting the main arteries.

Analysis of the Jelawat Park roles based on space use for community education towards river functions sustainability

Jelawat Park of Sampit City is a city park located in the city center and in a river bank area. Utilizing the river as one of the main views of the area, Mentaya River and the icon of Jelawat fish statue are the vocal points of Jelawat Park that attract visitors to pay a visit. The river which is the viewpoint of the area has attracted many visitors to Jelawat Park, but a question may rise: whether Jelawat Park gives an effect on Mentaya River. This study aims to analyze the roles of Jelawat Park based on space use for community education towards the sustainability of Mentaya river functions. The Jelawat Park space use consists of 4 spaces, namely the core-park, river view, playground and supporting spaces. A quantitative methodology was used and assisted by frequency distribution analysis to give meaning cluster results in each space. The result of this study is that the river view space provides the highest cognitive and affective aspects to the community regarding the river functions. The conclusion is that the closer a space is to the river, the higher cognitive and affective effects on the river will be, but the proximity of a space to the river will decrease the cognitive and affective effects if the activity in that space is unrelated to the river.

Urban Management of City Centers the Road to The Sustainable Development (Sustainable Land Use Management)

The urban management, municipal councils and their local committees, in addition to the laws, and regulations enacting them, play an important role in defining economic, social and environmental scenarios, and directing them towards achieving sustainable development. Sustainability in all its forms. The research seeks to identify the mechanisms and concepts of urban management in general and the management of urban land uses in city centers in particular, and how to use them optimally and achieve the best distribution of their uses in order to be sustainable and achieve sustainable development in the city center by integrating the principles of sustainability in the urban management process to become As a result, we have a vibrant sustainable center. In the theoretical framework, concepts related to the city center, its importance, characteristics, components and limits were presented. The concepts of sustainability and sustainable development were also presented, and what are its objectives, dimensions, standards, and approaches, in addition to defining the sustainable city center and its components and how, and through the theoretical framework, indicators of sustainable urban management were extracted. On the practical side, the researcher used the field surveys of the study area (the old Rusafa Center) in addition to distributing the questionnaire form to the specialists from the planning and executive departments of the study area to show the extent of their agreement and disagreement about the extent of the application of sustainable urban management indicators within the context of the work of the current urban management system. The results of the research showed a shortcoming in the adoption of the principles of sustainability within the context of the work of the current urban management, as the results of the questionnaire showed the non-conformity of most of the indicators that were applied to the current urban management system.

Subways and Urban Air Pollution

We investigate the effect of subway system openings on urban air pollution. On average, particulate concentrations are unchanged by subway openings. For cities with higher initial pollution levels, subway openings reduce particulates by 4 percent in the area surrounding a city center. The effect decays with distance to city center and persists over the longest time horizon that we can measure with our data, about four years. For highly polluted cities, we estimate that a new subway system provides an external mortality benefit of about $1 billion per year. For less polluted cities, the effect is indistinguishable from zero. Back of the envelope cost estimates suggest that reduced mortality due to lower air pollution offsets a substantial share of the construction costs of subways. (JEL I12, L92, O13, O18, Q51, Q53, R41)

Car Free Zone as Planning Vision to Enhancements Transportation in City Centers (Holy Najaf City Center-Iraq)

The idea of a car-free city represents a solution to the problem of fuel consumption and air pollution caused by the use of cars and replaces the idea of owning and using private cars with an efficient transportation system, and it doesn’t mean living without cars, because cars have become an integral part of a modern city. On the contrary, people can still drive in city but will not park their cars at home. Instead, they park elsewhere on their way home. Research problem: Weak regulation of the movement of vehicles in the center of the holy city of Najaf, which leads to the danger of pedestrian movement in the city center. The aim of the research: to provide a safe and effective movement for pedestrians in the center of the holy city of Najaf. Research hypothesis: The use of the car-free zone strategy in the city center transportation system achieves security for the population in the old city. The research examines reasons behind suggesting free-of-vehicle areas It gives a number of policies to achieve the strategy in the center of the holy city of Najaf, including the provision of public transportation, furniture and comfort for pedestrians in the streets, as well as easy access for the residents of the area. Thus, it is possible to draw the conclusion that there is a possibility to achieve this strategy in religious centers according to a number of policies that suit the specificity of the area.