URBAN MAGNETISM IN THE GLOBAL CITY FRAMEWORK: EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN URBAN FUNCTIONS AND POPULATION GROWTH

Dynamics in global processes have led to a number of political, economic and cultural changes that have resulted in the emergence of global cities. In the hierarchy of global cities, those who successfully use the limited available resources and offer an adaptable and flexible living environment, represent the most competitive global cities. Nonetheless, accelerated globalization has conditioned direct competition of global cities for different resources, and one of the most desirable being highly-skilled, talented and creative residents. In such conditions, city leaders face the need to understand the concept and factors of urban magnetism. The analysis of the determinants of urban magnetism can facilitate the formulation of concrete actions aimed at increasing the attractiveness of the city, which ultimately leads to the preservation of long-term socio-economic development of cities. Although financial wellbeing and incentives were considered to be a key factor of urban magnetism, contemporary research approaches have emphasized other factors that may influence urban attractiveness. Starting from that point of view, this paper aims to identify the main urban functions that influence the cities’ size with an analysis focusing on global cities worldwide. The panel regression analysis is applied to the sample of 39 global cities over the period from 2013 until 2019 and the data on urban functions are obtained from the Global Power City Index (GPCI). The results indicate that the size of the global cities population is positively affected by urban functions related to the cultural interaction and accessibility, while research and development function influences negatively on the size of the urban population. Results of the paper led to the conclusion that contemporary urban management strategies need to be defined and implemented aimed at improving the urban magnetism beyond economic performance of the city, focusing on sustainability and urban quality of life.

Study on Function Transformation and Spatial Reconstructuring of Small Towns in China’s South of the Yangtze River From 1840 to 1949: Case on Changzhou

Taking Changzhou as a case, this paper studies on the functional transformation and spatial reconstructuring of small towns in the south of the Yangtze River in China from 1840 to 1949. Then, the article analyzes its adaptability and mechanism. During this period, there were three significant transformations of urban functions in Changzhou. The political status of Changzhou declined from the Changzhou Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty to the county of the Republic of China; the transportation function reduced from the regional transportation hub city to the local transportation hub city; and the economic function was transformed from the traditional agricultural city to the light industrial city. Functional transformations have driven the spatial reconstructuring. Urban construction has transformed from urban internal transformation to a composite expansion mode, a ring-layer and axial-type composite model. Finally, a lute-shaped urban form was formed, and the internal facilities of the city were more modern.Although there are some regrets, Changzhou's urban spatial reconstructuring has changed the original material framework of the city. This adapted and promoted the transformation of urban functions during this period. In terms of mechanism, first, this is a passive transformation model. Changzhou mainly promotes urban functions through local private forces and relies on the role of the market. Second, industrialization is the fundamental driving force.In the political and economic context of this period, these changes in function and space manifested self-organizing and progressive characteristics.

Smart City and Crisis Management: Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 shocked cities around the world and revealed the vulnerability of urban lives and functions. Most cities experienced a catastrophic disturbance that has lasted for a long time. Planning plays a critical role in responding efficiently to this crisis and enabling rapid functional recovery in the post-disaster era. Cities that have implemented digitalization initiatives and programs are likely to have more capacity to react appropriately. Specifically, digitalized cities could ensure the well-being of their residents and maintain continuity of urban functions. This research aims to analyze the role of technology in crisis management in the last two decades and provide appropriate policy recommendations for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Systematic literature review and subjective content analysis are employed to investigate the effects of technology on community well-being and making cities more resilient in past crises. This study shows that different technology-driven policies and actions enable crisis management, enhance community well-being, and increase urban resilience. Technology has enhanced coping and recovery capacities by increasing participation and social connectedness, enhancing physical and mental health and maintaining the functionality of education and economic systems. These have been achieved through various solutions and technologies such as social media, telehealth, tracking and monitoring systems, sensors and locational applications, teleworking systems, etc. These solutions and technologies have also been used during the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance community well-being and sustain urban functions. However, technology deployment might have adverse effects such as social exclusion, digital divide, privacy and confidentiality violation, political bias and misinformation dissemination, and inefficient remote working and education. It is suggested that to mitigate these side effects, policymakers should liberate the process of digitalization, increase the accessibility to digital services, and enhance digital literacy.

Understanding the Impact of Street Patterns on Pedestrian Distribution: A Case Study in Tianjin, China

This paper investigates the impact of street pattern, metro stations, and density of urban functions on pedestrian distribution in Tianjin, China. Thirteen neighborhoods are selected from the city center and suburbs. Pedestrian and vehicle volumes are observed through detailed gate count from 703 street segments in these neighborhoods. Regression models are constructed to analyze the impact of the street pattern, points of interest (POIs), and vehicle and metro accessibility on pedestrian volumes in each neighborhood and across the city. The results show that when analyzing all neighborhoods together, local street connectivity and POIs had a strong influence on pedestrian distribution. Proximity to metro stations and vehicle accessibility had a minor impact. When analyzing each neighborhood separately, both local- and city-scale street patterns affect pedestrian distributions. These findings suggest that the street pattern provides a base layer for metro stations to attract both the emergence of active urban functions and pedestrian movement.

Statistical relationships between indicators of favourable living environments in biosphere compatible cities

Introduction. National goals and strategic objectives of the Russian Federation encompass the development of comfortable and safe urban environments. Pursuant to the goals and objectives, set by the state, the comfort of urban environments must be improved and the value of its quality index must go up, while the number of cities having unfavorable living environments must go down in the short term. Environmental deterioration, which is underway in many cities, sets the task of developing new urban living principles that regulate the biosphere compatibility of cities and the development of human capital. Materials and methods. The theoretical basis of this research project is the paradigm of life activities — biosphere-compatible cities and settlements capable of developing humans, as well as its fundamental provisions concerning the assessment of social standing, the pace of human development, and the application of social standards to public relations. Practical tools, that may be used to solve this problem, include the correlation and regression analysis that serves to identify the statistical relationships between dependent/independent variables of interacting factors and social and demographic indicators of residential areas (micro-districts/blocks) in municipalities. Results. The co-authors propose a new system of indicators, that will be used to assess the condition of the living environment. It expands the traditional notions of urban planning and quality of life in urbanized territories following the principle of urban functions employed to satisfy rational human needs. Statistical data on the availability of urban functions in 17 residential districts of the 15 cities of the Russian Federation was analyzed to choose the type of the regression model and perform the numerical evaluation of its parameters. The results of the correlation and regression analysis of dependent and independent variables, performed in this paper, substantiate the choice of the most significant interacting factors and their rightful contribution to statistical models used to forecast most favorable living conditions. Conclusions. Statistical patterns, identified by the co-authors, are indicative of the level of services provided to the population of residential areas (micro-districts/blocks); they will be the subject matter of further scientific discussions to be focused on the substantiation of indicators of comfort and safety of urban environments and multifactorial processes of life activities in biosphere-compatible cities.

Road network vulnerability and city-level characteristics: A nationwide comparative analysis of Japanese cities

Climate change is making our cities more vulnerable, increasing the needs for further policy actions to make them more resilient. In particular, the transport network is critical in the first phase of disaster response. This study presents the epirical findings of a large scale, nationwide analysis of the road network vulnerability in 69 Japanese cities. We (1) identify the level of network efficiency using topological elements in its undisturbed normal state; (2) evaluate the level of network robustness under different random and targeted attack scenarios; and (3) analyze the relationship of the identified network efficiency and robustness indicators with city-level characteristics. The main findings include: (1) cities with a higher population and a higher infrastructure investment tend to be more robust under random attacks; (2) larger cities tend to be less robust to targeted attacks, presumably due to their high agglomeration of urban functions; (3) car dependency tends to make cities more vulnerable toward random attacks and less vulnerable toward targeted attacks as it indicates a weaker concentration in urban functions; and (4) a high modal share for trains tends to make cities less vulnerable toward random events as it indicates a high agglomeration of urban functions. These findings will help policymakers to prioritize their budget allocations to improve nationwide disaster resilience.

Impact of the mixed degree of urban functions on the taxi travel demand

As an important service industry in cities, taxis provide people with an all-weather travel mode. And its demand is greatly affected by the internal functions of the city. It is very important to understand the relationship between the mixed degree of urban internal functions and the residents’ taxi travel demand to alleviate traffic congestion and formulate corresponding urban traffic strategies. This paper combined two heterogeneous data in the main urban area of Xi’an, urban points of interest (POIs) and taxi GPS. Firstly, a spatial information entropy model was constructed to quantitatively evaluate the mixed degree of functions in different spaces within the city. Secondly, the kernel density estimation method was used to analyze the spatial distribution evolution characteristics of residents’ taxi travel demand. A geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was further used to study the spatial and temporal influences of the mixed degree of urban internal functions on taxi travel demand. Results indicate that there is an obvious spatiotemporal pattern in the impact of the mixed degree of urban functions on taxi travel demand. And the GWR model is used to study the impact is superior to the ordinary least squares (OLS). In more developed areas, improving the mixed degree of urban functions will be more attractive than backward areas. It is also found that although the single function of the city has an impact on the taxi travel demand, the result of the single function is not ideal. This study can provide a reference for the optimal combination of basic units of urban space in urban planning, promote the balance of supply and demand of urban taxis, rationalize urban taxis’ operation and allocation, and solve the problems of urban transportation systems.

15-Minute City: Decomposing the New Urban Planning Eutopia

As cities are struggling to cope with the second wave of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the idea of 15-min cities seem to have sparked planners’ imagination and politicians’ willingness for providing us with a new urban planning eutopia. This paper explores the “15-min city” concept as a structural and functional element for redesigning contemporary cities. Methodologically, a study of three case cities that have adopted this new model of city vision, is carried out. The analysis focus on understanding how the idea of 15-min cities fits the legacies of different cities as described by traditional planning principles in the context of three evaluation pillars: inclusion, safety and health. The paper argues that the 15-min city approach is not a radical new idea since it utilizes long established planning principles. Nevertheless, it uses these principles to achieve the bottom-up promotion of wellbeing while it proposes an alternative way to think about optimal resource allocation in a citywide scale. Hence, application of 15-min city implies a shift in the emphasis of planning from the accessibility of neighborhood to urban functions to the proximity of urban functions within neighborhoods, along with large systemic changes in resource allocation patterns and governance schemes citywide.