Towards the Analysis of Urban Livability in China: Spatial-Temporal Changes, Regional Types and Influencing Factors

The increasing drift of urbanization and its impact on urban human settlements are of major concern for China cities. Therefore, demystifying the spatial-temporal patterns, regional types and affecting factors of urban livability in China are beneficial to urban planning and policy making regarding the construction of livable cities. In accordance with its connotation and denotation, this study develops a systematic evaluation and analysis framework for urban livability. Drawing on the panel data of 40 major cities in China from 2005 to 2019, an empirical research was further conducted. The results show that urban livability in China has exhibited a rising trend during the period, but this differs across dimensions. The levels of urban security and environmental health are lower than those of the three other dimensions. Spatially, cities with higher livability are mainly distributed in the first quadrant divided by the Hu Line and Bole-Taipei Line. Cities in the third quadrant are equipped with the lowest livability. In addition, the 40 major cities can be divided into five categories, and obvious differences exist in terms of the geographical distribution, overall livability level and sub-dimensional characteristics of the different types. Furthermore, the results of the System GMM estimator indicate that the overall economic development exerts an inhibiting effect on the improvement of urban livability in present-day China, but this logical effect exhibits obvious heterogeneity in different time periods and diverse city scales. Finally, there are also differences in the influencing direction and degree of specific economic determinants.

Handlungsempfehlungen für Städte mit ‚offenen Drogenszenen‘ und Ausgehvierteln

Im Herbst 2020 endete die Laufzeit des Projektkonsortiums „DRUSEC“ (Drugs and Urban Security), das im Rahmen des BMBF-Programms „Forschung für die zivile Sicherheit“ durchgeführt wurde. Beteiligt waren Projektpartner aus Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen und Freiburg sowie zwei französischen Städten.

Segurança Urbana: Uma Análise a partir das Diferentes Percepções dos Moradores dos bairros da Saúde e Jardim Santo Inácio na Cidade de Salvador/BA / Urban Security: An Analysis from the Different Perceptions of Residents of the neighborhoods Saúde and Jardim Santo Inácio in the City of Salvador/BA

O presente artigo foi elaborado com o objetivo de identificar os principais fatores que impactam a percepção de segurança urbana nos bairros da Saúde e do Jardim Santo Inácio, ambos localizados na cidade do Salvador. Trazendo reflexões no campo da segurança pública e seus desdobramentos para segurança urbana, tal como os fatores influenciadores para a percepção de segurança. A metodologia foi composta por pesquisa de campo com aplicação de questionários, como instrumento de coleta de dados, em cada um dos bairros, sendo parte de uma pesquisa maior denominada QualiSalvador, que tem por objetivo produzir e difundir conhecimento sobre a realidade urbano-ambiental da cidade do Salvador, na escala intraurbana, por bacia hidrográfica e por bairro, tendo como referência o Índice de Qualidade Urbano-Ambiental de Salvador - IQUALISalvador. A Segurança Pública somente não dá conta de analisar a segurança na escala do bairro, por tanto deve se pensar em estudar a segurança urbana, a fim de compreender o impacto disso para a melhoria da segurança no ambiente urbano, e consequentemente, na qualidade urbana ambiental de Salvador.

Urban Security and Counterterrorism: An Approach to Proportionality

As cities and crowded areas increasingly become targets of terrorist plots and attacks, there is ample demand for risk assessment tools that consider proportional measures that reduce the threat, vulnerability, and possible impacts, whilst providing ‘security returns’ for those investments. There is a risk in this process of over- or under-fortifying places based on practitioners’ subjective biases, experiences, dead reckoning and conflicting agendas. Currently, risk assessments rely on qualitative tools that do not consider proportionality that removes these inherent biases. Critiquing well-known urban design strategies and national risk assessments, this article therefore seeks to develop a supplementary assessment tool – an equation for proportionality – that is more objective and is created to help practitioners make good choices, in particular on: (1) reducing the threat, (2) vulnerability, (3) impact, (4) accepting risk, and (5) measuring a security measure’s ability to deter, delay or stop an attack. It concludes that while no assessment is truly objective, the equation works to remove as much subjectivity as possible when assessing proportional urban security.

Tourism Experience and Construction of Personalized Smart Tourism Program Under Tourist Psychology

The present work aims to boost tourism development in China, grasp the psychology of tourists at any time, and provide personalized tourist services. The research object is the tourism industry in Macau. In particular, tourists' experiences are comprehensively analyzed in terms of dining, living, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, and entertaining as per their psychological changes using approaches including big data analysis, literature analysis, and field investigation. In this case, a model of tourism experience formation path is summarized, and a smart travel solution is proposed based on psychological experience. In the end, specific and feasible suggestions are put forward for the Macau tourism industry. Results demonstrate that the psychology-based smart travel solution exerts a significant impact on tourists' tourism experience. Specifically, the weight of secular tourism experience is 0.523, the weight of aesthetic tourism experience is 0.356, and the weight of stimulating tourism experience is 0.121. Tourists prefer travel destinations with excellent urban security and scenic authenticity. They give the two indexes comprehensive scores of 75.14 points and 73.12 points, respectively. The proposed smart travel solution can grasp the psychology of tourists and enhance their tourism experiences. It has strong practical and guiding significances, which can promote constructing smart travel services in Macau and enhancing tourism experiences.

Order and Disorder

This chapter spotlights the role of the state (via the army) in enforcing urban security and in creating professional policing for the capital city. It begins by describing the greatest building project in Dublin, the Royal Barracks. The creation within a capital city of such a vast military establishment was a consequence of the agreement by the (all Protestant) Irish Parliament to house and maintain on Irish soil the bulk of the English standing army during peacetime. The chapter then turns to study the logic behind the increased concentration of the military in the cities. It argues that the permanent presence of military manpower, albeit in largely open residential barracks, helped make the case for continuing the gradual process of urban de-fortification. The chapter also looks into the three collective threats to urban order: faction fights, scarcity riots and artisan protests. It focuses more on the severe food shortages across Ulster and the food protests in 1729 in which civic authorities turned to the military for help. Finally, the chapter reviews the implications of industrial protest — a collective action by producers taken against their masters, other traders or workers, or even against consumers.

Open Chance and Risk Management Process Supported by a Software Tool for Improving Urban Security

By now the 5-step risk and chance management process according to the generic ISO 31000 standard has been applied to a wide range of domains including organizational risk management, business continuity, safety and IT security management, as well as occupational safety. The paper motivates the context and need for an open, scalable and flexible urban (perceived) security and safety assessment and improvement process, showing that it should be applicable also at local community level. The basic ideas of the process include the division of risk and chance analysis and management (treatment) into defined phases which are addressed iteratively: (1) within a framing context, stakeholders and their objectives are identified; (2) chance events for reaching objectives or, as often more straightforward, risk events opposing objectives are identified; (3) these chances and risks on objectives are quantified in terms of probability and consequences on the identified objectives; (4) they are assessed regarding their context-sensitive societal acceptability; (5) improvement measures are selected and implemented. The process is iterated until all risks on objectives are sufficiently controlled, also the combination of risks. Concerning the methodology, a semi-formal modelling of the static and dynamic requirements of a tailored process based on ISO 31000 is provided, which in addition allows the formulation of minimum consistency and completeness requirements, e.g. for each objective at least one stakeholder and risk should be identified. For the urban domain, a classification of risk assessment techniques regarding their suitability for supporting the process is presented. A further focus is the efficient provision of best practice options for urban security enhancement. Based on the insights gained by the systematic modelling of the risk management process, a software tool was developed to facilitate the application of the process in participatory settings like round table discussions with stakeholders. The paper presents as use case the application of the tool-supported methodology in several discussion rounds within a residential district in a medium sized university town in Germany along with the discussion of the evaluations and findings. Thus, the applicability of the software-supported urban security risk management to the novel urban security domain is demonstrated. In summary, the approach is sufficiently transparent and flexible for fast summaries of round table discussions up to complex iterative decision and participatory scenarios, which have to consider multiple stakeholders and a large variety of possible urban security and safety enhancement options with a given urban context.