Search Results (1,521)

Rapid, state-led urbanization in China often generates socio-spatial vulnerabilities, leaving interstitial “waiting lands” in a state of regulatory and ecological limbo. This paper investigates “nomadic gardens”—spontaneous, resident-led cultivation in Jinan—as a bottom-up strategy for adaptive capacity. Using a mixed-methods approach involving site typologies and community surveys (n = 100), we identify eight distinct garden forms that function as socio-ecological buffers, mitigating the risks of social isolation and psychological distress among elderly residents. Findings reveal a significant resilience gap caused by rigid land-use policies that prioritize ornamental aesthetics over functional productivity. We propose an Adaptive Urbanism framework that utilizes modular design and transitional governance to transform these precarious spaces into managed resilience assets. By shifting the planning focus from enforcement to risk-responsive design, this research provides a scalable model for sustainable urban risk management in rapidly transforming global cities. Full article

Water towers are historically significant hydraulic infrastructures that evolved from simple masonry structures to technologically advanced and architecturally expressive forms. This study presents a typological and material analysis of water towers, focusing on their construction techniques, durability, and potential for adaptive reuse. The research combines visual inspection, archival and bibliographic research, and photographic documentation, of selected European and Italian examples for comparative insights on design and materials choices. Data were collected and organized according to parameters such as construction materials, structural type, tank and roof form, access system, and current function. Assessments were conducted following the UNI EN 16096, providing a structured framework to evaluate heritage value, material conditions, and adaptive reuse potential. Main results demonstrate that water towers, beyond their original hydraulic function, retain significant technical, architectural, and cultural value, offering opportunities for adaptive reuse as cultural, educational, residential, or community spaces. Key findings identify material vulnerabilities, structural challenges (including wind, seismic, and thermo-hygrometric effects), and possibilities for sustainable interventions that respect historical authenticity. The study highlights how systematic typological assessment and documentation can guide evidence-based conservation and support innovative reuse strategies, integrating heritage preservation with urban regeneration and community engagement. Water towers exemplify the intersection of engineering, architecture, and cultural heritage, and their conservation requires a multidisciplinary approach between technical performance, material preservation, and socio-cultural significance. Finally, the implemented procedure is proposed as a methodological framework replicable and scalable for assessing similar infrastructures in other contexts. Full article

In the face of the dual challenges of global climate change and rapid urbanization, optimizing the ecosystem services of urban green spaces has become a key strategy for building resilient and sustainable cities. This is particularly crucial in ecologically fragile arid and semi-arid regions. To accurately assess the thermal regulation function of urban green spaces, this study selected 20 parks in Xi’an, China. Combining remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, we adopted four established cooling indicators—Park Cooling Area (PCA), Park Cooling Efficiency (PCE), Park Cooling Intensity (PCI), and Park Cooling Gradient (PCG)—to systematically evaluate the thermal regulation functions of urban parks and their landscape-driving mechanisms. The results indicated that the average cooling amplitude of the parks was 2.53 °C, with an effective influence distance reaching 323.9 m, exhibiting a significant spatial gradient decay. We found a non-linear trade-off between green space scale and efficiency: while large parks provided a wider absolute cooling range, small and medium-sized parks demonstrated higher efficiency per unit area. Furthermore, a blue-green synergistic configuration significantly enhanced the mitigation of the urban heat island effect. The study confirmed that Park Area (PA), Park Perimeter (PP), and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) significantly promoted cooling effects, whereas landscape fragmentation inhibited ecological benefits. This study elucidates the comprehensive regulation mechanism of urban parks on the urban microclimate, providing planning guidance for implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and achieving climate-adaptive development in arid and semi-arid cities within the context of urban renewal. Full article

Urban blue-green spaces (UBGS) are crucial nature-based solutions for enhancing urban resilience and improving public health. This study examined the experiential relationships linking BGS use to human well-being among users of five urban parks in Delhi, India. Using an integrated experience-centered framework, we collected in-situ survey data (n = 411) to profile usage patterns, assess environmental quality, and quantify restorative outcomes grounded in Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Stress Reduction Theory (SRT). Advanced analytical techniques, including ordinal logistic regression and interpretable machine learning (SHAP), were used to identify the key factors associated with user satisfaction. The results revealed that for these respondents, BGS appeared to function as an essential neighbourhood, with over 40% visiting three or more times per week. Although visual attractiveness was rated positively, deficits in noise buffering and amenities indicated a gap between aesthetic and functional qualities. Restorative benefits, including emotional calmness, mood refreshment, and fatigue recovery, were consistently reported among respondents. Analyses showed that embodied experiences, particularly post-visit relaxation and physical comfort, were more strongly associated with user satisfaction. SHAP interpretation highlighted seating adequacy, routine use, and thermal comfort as prominent contributors, suggesting somatic relief may be particularly salient. This study provides exploratory evidence from a Global South megacity and context-sensitive insights into how restorative processes operate under high-density urban conditions. The findings show that routine accessibility, basic amenities, and thermal comfort are central to the everyday functioning of blue-green spaces as urban infrastructure, underscoring the need for experience-responsive and equity-oriented urban greening policies in high-density cities. Full article

Urban green spaces (UGS) are critical regulators of carbon sequestration in industrial cities; however, the configuration mechanisms underlying their carbon dynamics remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates how landscape configuration influences carbon sequestration capacity in Lanzhou and Baotou using multi-temporal datasets from 2000, 2011, and 2022. Net primary productivity (NPP) derived from the CASA model was employed to represent carbon sequestration capacity. An integrated XGBoost-SHAP framework was applied to identify dominant configuration metrics, nonlinear responses, and structural thresholds. The XGBoost model showed stable predictive performance across the three periods, with test-set R² values ranging from 0.470 to 0.510 in Lanzhou and from 0.325 to 0.379 in Baotou. The results reveal systematic and persistent differences in configuration-driven controls between the two cities. In Lanzhou, aggregation-related metrics, particularly COHESION, consistently exert the strongest influence across all three periods, indicating that spatial cohesion and connectivity function as primary stabilizing mechanisms in a mountainous, valley-constrained urban system. Carbon sequestration performance increases once sufficient structural integration is achieved, with aggregation thresholds remaining relatively stable, for example AI values of approximately 0.31–0.34 across 2000–2022, reflecting the importance of maintaining ecological continuity under semi-arid climatic stress. In contrast, Baotou is more strongly regulated by fragmentation-related metrics, especially edge density (ED) and division index (DIVISION), suggesting that its relatively open terrain and industrial spatial structure render carbon sequestration more sensitive to patch separation and edge proliferation. Here, fragmentation acts as a dominant structural constraint, limiting vegetation productivity once spatial disintegration intensifies; for example, ED thresholds shifted from approximately −0.23 in 2000 to −0.56 in 2022. Landscape–carbon relationships exhibit pronounced nonlinear and threshold-dependent behavior in both cities. Rather than responding gradually to structural modification, NPP shifts across identifiable transition points that remain broadly stable over time; for instance, Lanzhou’s AI threshold remains within 0.31–0.34, whereas Baotou’s ED threshold changes from −0.23 to −0.56 across 2000–2022, indicating that these thresholds represent intrinsic structural characteristics of the respective urban ecological systems. However, the magnitude and configuration logic of these thresholds differ between Lanzhou and Baotou, confirming the existence of city-specific nonlinear regimes. These findings demonstrate that urban carbon sequestration operates through context-dependent configuration pathways shaped by terrain, climatic constraints, and long-term spatial organization. The study advances understanding of how structural heterogeneity governs carbon dynamics in arid and semi-arid industrial cities and provides a quantitative basis for configuration-sensitive land planning. Full article

Sustainable urban development increasingly depends on understanding how digital activity is distributed across space and time, yet the spatiotemporal dynamics of the urban digital landscape remain poorly mapped by conventional data sources. This study uses Beijing as an empirical testbed, applying a multi-dimensional analytical framework to massive mobile network traffic data to decode the metabolic rhythms, distributional laws, and functional organization of the urban digital landscape. The results reveal three findings. First, the urban digital landscape exhibits a sleepless trapezoidal temporal rhythm characterized by continuous saturation without a midday trough and a quantifiable weekend activation lag, indicating that digital metabolism is structurally decoupled from physical mobility patterns. Second, digital traffic follows a skew-normal distribution consistent with a 20/70 rule of spatial polarization, in which the top 20% of super-connector nodes sustain approximately 70% of total urban digital flow, yielding a Gini coefficient of 0.68 as a measurable indicator of infrastructure inequality and systemic vulnerability. Third, four distinct functional prototypes are identified—ranging from continuously active metropolitan cores to inverse-tidal ecological peripheries—empirically validating Beijing’s polycentric transformation through the lens of digital flows. These findings demonstrate that large-scale mobile network traffic data offers a replicable and structurally distinct lens for sustainable urban digital governance, supporting resilient network planning, equitable allocation of digital resources, and evidence-based monitoring of urban functional transformation in rapidly growing megacities. Full article

Accurate urban green space (UGS) mapping is essential for assessing urban ecosystem health and supporting sustainable development planning. However, deep learning-based UGS segmentation from Red–Green–Blue (RGB) remote sensing imagery faces two major challenges. First, the absence of near-infrared (NIR) information in RGB imagery hinders the ability to discriminate spectrally similar classes, such as vegetation and non-vegetation. Second, conventional convolutions with fixed receptive fields struggle to model the complex and irregular boundaries characteristic of UGS. To address these challenges, this study combined the Normalized Green–Red Difference Index with the Deformable Convolutional Network Lab (NGRDI-DCNLab) model, a semantic segmentation model tailored specifically for RGB-only imagery. Based on the DeepLabV3+ framework, the model introduced three core improvements: (1) The Normalized Green–Red Difference Index (NGRDI) was incorporated to compensate for the absence of NIR information, enhancing the spectral separability of vegetation pixels. (2) Standard convolutions in the decoder were replaced with deformable convolutions, enabling the network to more effectively adapt to irregular boundaries of UGS. (3) An NGRDI-weighted loss function was designed to assign higher weights to challenging samples and uncertain boundary regions, guiding the model toward more accurate edge delineation. Comprehensive evaluations on two public high-resolution datasets—the Wuhan Dense Labeling Dataset (WHDLD) and the Beijing subset of the Urban Green Space-1m dataset (UGS-1m_Beijing)—demonstrated that the NGRDI-DCNLab model outperformed existing popular deep learning models (like Unet++, etc.). Specifically, the deformable convolution effectively enhances the feature modeling capability for irregular boundaries; incorporating the NGRDI vegetation index as a fourth channel strengthens spectral feature representation and improves the distinction between vegetation and non-vegetation; and adding the dynamic NGRDI-weighted loss enables targeted learning for challenging samples. Through the synergistic effect of these three modules, the model achieves mean Intersection over Union (MIoU) scores of 84.77% and 77.66%, as well as F1-scores of 91.75% and 87.27%, on the WHDLD and UGS-1m_Beijing datasets, respectively. Furthermore, the model exhibited certain generalization capability on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) dataset, the Urban Drone Dataset 6 (UDD6), attaining an MIoU of 87.43%. Our results confirm that high-precision UGS extraction is achievable using only RGB remote sensing imagery, providing a cost-effective and practical technical solution for refined urban governance and ecological monitoring. Full article

As urban renewal shifts toward inventory optimization, studentification-driven socio-spatial conflicts in university-adjacent communities have intensified. This study examines Changsha Hexi University Town using structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze residential satisfaction and spatial injustice. Findings reveal that university–community interaction and indoor space perception are primary determinants of satisfaction, highlighting the demand for residential dignity under “spatial squeeze”. Conversely, public resources and social capital exhibit a “decoupling effect” caused by infrastructure “functional alienation” and social fragmentation. A profound “perceptual rift” exists between indigenous owners, facing “spatial deprivation” in resource competition, and student tenants, lacking “spatial dignity” in subdivided units. These tensions are exacerbated by “institutional gating”—where physical openness coexists with administrative restrictions. Consequently, renewal strategies must transcend aesthetics to implement systemic “spatial compensation”. We recommend opening institutional assets, regulating informal rental standards, and establishing collaborative platforms. This research facilitates a paradigm shift from “spatial squeeze” toward “university–community symbiosis”, providing a framework for socio-spatial justice in high-density academic enclaves. Full article

Roadside green spaces function as critical ecological barriers in urban environments, and their plant communities play a key role in improving regional air quality. This study investigates typical roadside plant communities in southern Xinjiang, a region characterized by extreme aridity and frequent dust storms. By quantifying indicators such as dust retention capacity at both individual and community levels, together with leaf surface microstructural characteristics, we evaluate the comprehensive dust retention performance of different community configuration patterns. The results show that: (1) Among the studied species, Juniperus chinensis ‘Kaizuca’ exhibited the highest dust retention capacity per unit leaf area, followed by Juniperus chinensis L. and Rosa rugosa Thunb. Among trees, Platanus acerifolia (Aiton) Willd showed the greatest dust retention capacity per individual plant; among shrubs, Rosa rugosa Thunb. performed strongly, and among herbaceous species, Lolium perenne L. exhibited relatively high dust retention capacity. (2) Leaf dust retention is governed by the synergistic effects of multiple traits, including leaf aspect ratio, stomatal aspect ratio, stomatal protrusion, stomatal density, wax layer characteristics, and surface roughness. Leaf aspect ratio exerts a significant positive direct effect on dust retention, whereas stomatal aspect ratio shows a significant negative direct effect. (3) At the community level, the multi-layered tree–shrub–herbaceous configuration dominated by Platanus acerifolia (Aiton) Willd exhibited the strongest dust retention capacity, making it the most effective configuration for roadside green spaces. Overall, this study provides a robust theoretical framework and empirical evidence for the scientific selection and optimized configuration of roadside vegetation in arid regions, thereby supporting the sustainable improvement of urban roadside air quality in southern Xinjiang. Full article

Against the backdrop of population aging, community parks are important spaces for older adults’ daily activities, and perceived safety plays a key role in shaping their use and spatial satisfaction. This study selected six typical community parks in central Beijing, constructed an indicator system for safety perception needs, and applied an analytical KANO–IPA (Integrated Kano and Importance-Performance Analysis) approach to identify the demand attributes and optimization priorities of safety elements. The results reveal a clear hierarchy in older adults’ safety perception needs. Basic environmental and facility safety factors, such as pavement conditions and facility reliability, function as must-be needs. Elements related to spatial visibility, circulation, lighting, and wayfinding act as one-dimensional needs that steadily influence satisfaction, whereas features including natural surveillance, spatial enclosure, and activity atmosphere mainly enhance spatial experience as attractive needs. Priority analysis further indicates that circulation conditions and facility safety constitute the most critical aspects for improvement. Overall, older adults’ safety perception in community parks results from the combined effects of multiple spatial factors. Hierarchical spatial optimization can enhance user experience and improve resource allocation efficiency. The findings provide theoretical support and decision-making guidance for safety-oriented planning and age-friendly renewal of urban community parks in aging societies. Full article

As a typical example of a high-density city, Macau’s medical resource allocation system, a key component of the city’s complex socio-technical system, suffers from significant spatial imbalances, which restricts the overall effectiveness of the medical service system. Based on the perspective of systems science theory, regards the allocation of medical resources as a dynamic system with multiple coupled factors. It comprehensively utilizes systems research methods such as POI data mining and space syntax analysis and employs techniques such as kernel density analysis and spatial structure coupling models to systematically evaluate the spatial structure, resource accessibility, and service balance of Macau’s medical service system. It found that (1) the Macau Peninsula has concentrated core medical resources, such as the Conde de São Januário Hospital (CHCSJ) and Kiang Wu Hospital, which form a core subsystem with high service saturation. Excessive concentration of resources has led to high concentration of a certain type of facility. (2) Taipa Island and the Cotai Reclamation Area have created an extended subsystem of medical resources along with urban development. However, the northern area does not have enough facilities, and its internal structure is not balanced. (3) Coloane Island has only basic health stations remaining, forming a marginal subsystem with scarce medical resources, which has a significant hierarchical gap with the core and extended subsystems. This spatial pattern of “saturated Macau peninsula, expanded Taipa Island, and sparse Coloane Island” is essentially a concrete manifestation of the imbalance between the medical resource allocation system and the urban spatial development system. Therefore, based on system optimization theory, it proposes constructing a multi-level, networked spatial system for medical facilities to promote the coordinated operation of various regional medical subsystems and achieve overall functional optimization and a balanced layout for Macau’s medical service system. This research analyzes the imbalance mechanism of high-density urban public service systems using systems science methods, providing not only a scientific basis for the precise optimization of Macau’s medical resource allocation system but also a practical reference for the planning and governance of similar high-density urban public service systems under a systems thinking framework. Full article

Against the backdrop of accelerating urbanization and population aging, urban parks have emerged as significant venues for enhancing the physical and mental well-being of older adults. The age-friendly quality of these spaces is directly linked to health equity and urban inclusiveness. Using the high-density historic district of Beilin in Xi’an as a case study, we developed an innovative assessment tool to evaluate the age-friendliness of park walking environments. Guided by the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) framework, this tool integrates subjective perceptions and objective data to diagnose environmental strengths and weaknesses across four dimensions: accessibility, safety, comfort, and health-related interactivity. Based on multi-source data and quantitative analysis, the study revealed key variations in the age-friendly attributes of different parks. Our field assessment focused on three representative park types: urban comprehensive, historic–cultural, and community leisure parks. The key findings are: (1) Safety was perceived by experts as the most critical dimension for older adults’ health experience, with a weight of 0.49, accounting for nearly half of the total. However, significant variations exist in safety quality across different types of parks. (2) Age-friendly performance differed profoundly among park types. Benefiting from systematic management, the urban comprehensive park achieved balanced performance and a total score of 84.87. In contrast, the historic–cultural park, constrained by its linear morphology and historical functions, scored the lowest at 66.03, exhibiting notable deficits in safety and comfort. The community leisure park, while vibrant in community activity, attained an intermediate score of 74.76 due to insufficient attention to safety details. (3) The assessment outcomes highlight the association of park typology, site selection, and design sophistication with the lived experience and potential health benefits for older adults. This study provides a refined evaluation tool and tailored optimization strategies for the age-friendly renovation of diverse park types. Full article

As urbanization accelerates in China, the protection and renewal of historical and cultural districts have become key issues. The Beiyuanmen Historical and Cultural District in Xi’an, with its long history and cultural significance, is a prime example. This study uses Beiyuanmen as a case study, employing Baidu heatmap data, Point of Interest (POI) data, and space syntax theory to examine the district’s spatial layout, crowd activity distribution, and functional structure. The purpose is to quantify its vitality and spatial characteristics, providing a basis for scientific planning. The methods involve analyzing spatiotemporal crowd activity intensity via heatmaps, assessing street network configuration through integration and choice values, and comparing POI data from 2014 and 2024 to track functional evolution. The research identifies the distinctive spatiotemporal patterns of crowd activity, revealing not only a southeast concentration correlated with urban functions but also distinct diurnal rhythms—a bimodal pattern on weekdays versus a sustained leisure-oriented pattern on weekends, underscoring a functional shift. It also explores the directed permeability of the spatial structure, identifying streets like Miaohou Street that form a highly integrated “cross-shaped backbone”. Analysis of POI data shows that commercial services dominate and have expanded outward, with the growth rate of POI density in the control area surpassing that of the core, indicating a trend of functional diffusion. Finally, the study highlights Miaohou Street, Beiguangji Street, Damai Market Street, Beiyuanmen, and Sajinqiao as key areas, and it concludes by proposing integrated planning recommendations that focus on four strategic aspects—spatial and crowd activity distribution management, functional zoning guidance, enhancement of public services and cultural displays, and alignment with broader urban policies—for prioritized landscape enhancement and tourism. Full article

University campus green spaces function as critical microcosms of urban building environments, directly advancing Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) through evidence-based landscape design. Taking a large university in China as the research object, this study integrates virtual reality (VR) simulations with synchronized psychophysiological measurements and perceptual scales to quantify how three planting modes—clustered, scattered, and regular—influence restorative experiences across teaching, living, and administrative areas. Rigorous data processing ensured robustness. The results revealed functional-area-specific restoration pathways: clustered planting enhanced relaxation in living zones, scattered planting elevated vitality in teaching areas, and regular planting reinforced security perception in administrative spaces. A path model was used to elucidate how four-dimensional (4D) landscape indicators (openness, pleasantness, diversity, focus) mediate psychological and physiological responses. Theoretically, this 4D framework translates abstract restorative experiences into operable design dimensions; methodologically, VR-based multi-source measurement offers a replicable technical pathway for scheme verification; practically, it serves as a quantitative tool for planting optimization. Critically, these campus-derived insights offer transferable design principles for enhancing well-being across urban building environments, delivering a replicable VR-assisted framework that directly contributes to sustainable cities through human-centered, evidence-based landscape solutions. Full article

Urban flood frequency analysis faces unique challenges as land development alters watershed hydrology, producing nonstationary flood records. This study demonstrates nonstationary flood frequency analysis (NSFFA) using RMC-BestFit, an open-source Bayesian software, through two Texas case studies. Brays Bayou at Houston (96 years of record) exemplifies an urbanized watershed with increasing flood trends; a step-logistic model captures both the abrupt increase in mean flood magnitude around 1968 and the progressive decrease in log-space variance as urbanization homogenized runoff response. O.C. Fisher Reservoir (169 years of record) exhibits decreasing trends attributed to brush encroachment and groundwater extraction; despite a sinusoidal model achieving best information criteria, a step function was selected based on physical reasoning, demonstrating that statistical fit alone should not dictate model selection. Results reveal contrasting frequency curve patterns: at O.C. Fisher, stationary and nonstationary curves differ uniformly (53% reduction in 100-year flood), while at Brays Bayou, curves differ substantially for frequent events (48% increase in 2-year flood) but converge in the extreme tail due to opposing trends in location and scale parameters. These findings underscore that NSFFA relevance depends on decision context. Bayesian methods offer key advantages including flexible integration of diverse data sources, comprehensive uncertainty quantification, and principled model comparison. Open-source software democratizes access to these methods, promoting transparency and reproducibility. Full article