Search Results (1,711)

Inflation, recognized as a social determinant of health (SDOH), significantly affects the daily lives of individuals through the rising costs of food, housing, and other basic needs, all of which are public health concerns. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation has become a prominent concern in the U.S. and has been linked to increased stress and poor mental health among adults. While data on inflation is tracked routinely, how it is discussed publicly is understudied. Social media platforms provide insights into how inflation is framed and experienced by the public, and these assessments may be used to determine public health needs and policy advocacy. In this study, we conducted a time-bound, platform-specific case study of inflation-related discourse on X (formerly Twitter). Analysis revealed a predominance of negative sentiments (68.5%) including frustration and distrust. Posts primarily concerned monetary policy/government spending (31.6%), Federal Reserve interest rates/financial markets (24.5%), and U.S. presidential politics (12.9%). The users did not explicitly discuss personal-level hardships, and the discussions largely focused on macro-level issues framed in polarized political perspectives. These patterns matter for public health because institutional trust shapes support for social and health policies. Our study findings suggest a fragmented social environment that may exacerbate community-wide anxiety and challenge health promotion efforts and the need for public health surveillance through surveys or personal interviews to identify and address the psychological burden of inflation. Full article

Long-term decarbonization of urban residential buildings in southern China depends on the joint evolution of building stock, end-use efficiency, and electricity carbon intensity. This study develops a dynamic stock-energy-carbon framework for urban residential buildings in China’s hot-summer warm-winter region from 2010 to 2060, using Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Hainan as case provinces. The model links demographic and housing-space change with stock survival, retrofit of the base-year stock, cohort-specific performance levels for post-2022 new construction, and time-varying provincial grid emission factors. EnergyPlus simulations of seven high-rise residential archetypes show that nearly zero-energy performance reduces province-level EUI by 19.2–26.5% relative to the baseline, with cooling-load reductions forming the dominant part of the improvement in the warmer provinces. Across coupled demand-side scenarios, stricter new-build performance standards reduce 2026–2060 cumulative operational energy by 5.3–10.1% relative to the conservative demand-side setting, while increasing retrofit intensity provides a smaller but consistent additional reduction. Carbon outcomes are more sensitive to electricity-sector assumptions: under the main demand-side setting, moving from the conservative to the accelerated grid pathway advances the operational-carbon peak by 8–15 years across the four provinces and lowers 2060 residual emissions by about 71%. A comparison with available observed provincial household-electricity statistics is added as a plausibility check; it confirms the relevant order of magnitude but also indicates that absolute demand estimates should be interpreted cautiously because of boundary and EUI-representation differences. These results suggest that demand-side efficiency policies must be coordinated with rapid provincial power-sector decarbonization if the residential sector in Hot-Summer Warm-Winter Region is to reach earlier carbon peaks and lower residual operational emissions. Full article

With global warming and the increasing frequency of extreme heat events, heat health risk assessment (HHRA) has become a critical topic in climate change studies. However, the study themes, methods, and governance orientation of HHRA vary significantly across spatial scales, limiting the comparability and practical integration of assessment outcomes. This study conducts a review of the HHRA literature from 2007 to 2025, analyzing publication trends and evolving research paradigms. The results indicate the following: (1) rapid growth in the field with a notable shift from identifying static vulnerabilities to adopting “Hazard–Exposure–Vulnerability–Adaptability” (HEVA) frameworks, particularly at the micro-scale; (2) a clear scale-dependent hierarchy in assessment focus, where macro-scale studies identify regional trends, meso-scale research targets urban spatial heterogeneity and green–blue infrastructure, and micro-scale assessments emphasize housing conditions and individual perceptions; and (3) machine learning has been widely applied to capture complex nonlinear mechanisms and threshold effects. Finally, this study further emphasizes the importance of establishing a full-process feedback mechanism from macro-level early warning to meso-scale planning and micro-scale intervention, bridging the gap between regional policy and community-level action and providing a theoretical foundation for building climate-resilient cities. Full article

Inclusion has become a central concept in disability policy, education, and welfare state reform, yet its practical implementation remains ambivalent. While inclusion is promoted as a rights-based ideal grounded in equality, it can also function as an administrative label that obscures persistent exclusion. Drawing on critical disability studies, this article analyses inclusion as a contested, power-laden concept and develops a three-stage framework—access, participation, and agency—to distinguish formal inclusion from substantive belonging and influence. The framework is applied to key domains of disabled people’s lives—education, housing, service systems, working life, crises, and digitalised everyday life—showing how ableist norms, managerial governance, and institutional logics can reproduce exclusion within ‘inclusive’ reforms, including forms of transformed institutionalisation. The article argues that meaningful inclusion requires dismantling ableist norms, addressing structural power relations, resourcing supports, and strengthening disabled people’s agency in decision-making. Full article

Post-disaster reconstruction programmes create an irreversible window for embedding or foreclosing residential energy efficiency at scale. This study examines the structural determinants of per capita residential electricity consumption (K_MES) across all 81 provinces of Türkiye over 2013–2022 using a balanced province-year panel. We develop two complementary panel models, both estimated by two-way fixed effects (province + year) with cluster-robust standard errors, and supported by GLS-AR(1) and random-effects GLS robustness checks. Note that K_MES measures the electricity component of residential energy use only; we, therefore, also estimate the building-stock model with a constructed total-energy dependent variable that combines residential electricity (H_MES) and natural-gas consumption (X_DG) in kWh-equivalent units. Model 1 isolates the macroeconomic transmission channel through which exchange-rate volatility shapes residential electricity demand. Because the USD/TRY rate has no cross-sectional variation, its identifying power in two-way fixed effects comes from its interaction with province-level natural-gas-heating exposure (sh_gas × EV_DA). The interaction is robustly negative across all full-sample specifications (β ≈ −0.022, p < 0.01), indicating that provinces with greater gas-heating penetration are buffered against currency-depreciation pass-through into electricity demand. Provincial GDP carries the dominant direct macro coefficient (β ≈ 0.27–0.29, p < 0.01), establishing income elasticity rather than the exchange rate as the headline aggregate driver. Model 2 decomposes the building stock by structural system, filler material, heating system, and heating fuel. The dominant predictors are the share of electric heating (β ≈ 1.16–1.27, p < 0.01) and the share of AC-only heating (β ≈ −1.0 to −1.13, p < 0.05), with a total-energy specification reaching R² = 0.92. In the comparative subsample of the eleven Kahramanmaraş-affected provinces, masonry construction emerges as the dominant pre-disaster predictor of per capita electricity consumption (β = 14.04, p < 0.05), revealing structurally distinct stock characteristics that pre-date the February 2023 earthquake. Two re-framings are required. First, since the panel covers 2013–2022, the disaster-province estimates capture pre-disaster structural heterogeneity rather than post-disaster market rupture. Second, the macroeconomic mechanism that prior work attributed to the exchange-rate level is more accurately understood as a fuel-mix-mediated exposure channel. The combined evidence implies that mandatory building-code enforcement and natural-gas grid extension are complementary policy levers in the 488,000-unit Turkish Housing Development Administration reconstruction programme: gas grid expansion reduces the macroeconomic vulnerability of residential energy demand, while masonry-replacement construction standards address the largest pre-disaster structural determinant of energy intensity in the affected region. Full article

The construction sector accounts for approximately 36% of global final energy consumption and close to 40% of total CO₂ emissions, making it a primary target of international climate policy. Despite this growing attention, the indigenous building traditions of the Ecuadorian Andes remain virtually absent from the international scientific literature on vernacular sustainability. This study presents a systematic field documentation and bioclimatic assessment of vernacular bahareque dwellings in the Kichwa-Saraguro community of Ilincho, canton of Saraguro, province of Loja, Ecuador (2700 m a.s.l.). A field survey of 30 dwellings identified five morphological typologies—I-1P, I-2P, 2B, L, and C—with typology C, a compact C-shaped block with a three-sided portal, accounting for 53.3% of the sample. A structured multi-criteria framework of 48 bioclimatic indicators distributed across eight categories, adapted to the cold-temperate mountain climate of the study area, was applied to quantify each typology’s bioclimatic performance. All typologies exceeded 75% overall compliance on the global Bioclimatic Performance Index (BPI), with typology C achieving the highest value (88.5%). Categories F (Materials and construction) and H (Cultural and social aspects) scored 100% across all typologies, reflecting system-level properties of the bahareque constructive system rather than morphological differences between typological variants; a supplementary morphological BPI restricted to Categories A–E and G is reported. An exploratory, uncalibrated energy simulation of typology C provided indicative evidence consistent with the expected thermal behavior of a high-thermal-mass bahareque envelope, with simulated minimum temperatures in the sleeping area within the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 55-2013 comfort range (T-min 18.80 °C). Collectively, these findings contribute quantified bioclimatic documentation of vernacular bahareque architecture in Ilincho, identifying attributes—encompassing solar control, spatial compactness, high-thermal-mass envelope performance, and use of locally sourced low-embodied-energy materials—that may inform sustainable rural housing discussions in the Ecuadorian Andes and comparable high-altitude mountain contexts. Its documentation in the indexed scientific literature constitutes a step toward recognizing this constructive heritage as a practical resource for low-carbon building policy. Full article

As a multi-functional systemic carrier, rural tourism integrates diverse rural resources and serves as a key endogenous driver for sustainable rural development and the enhancement of rural residents’ livelihoods. However, excessive tourism development may lead to environmental pressures and exacerbate inequities in benefit distribution, rendering well-being gains uncertain. This study aims to explore the multidimensional mechanisms through which rural tourism influences rural residents’ well-being by utilizing national data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS). The results indicate that village-level tourism development exerts a positive effect on material and psychological well-being. Effects are particularly strong in eastern and hilly regions and in villages where the party secretary also serves as committee director. Further analysis identifies four channels through which rural tourism enhances well-being: fostering digital financial inclusion, advancing empowerment reforms, reallocating resources, and optimizing governance frameworks. Additionally, tourism development leads to improvements in indicators such as road quality, living environment, and satisfaction with village committee performance—while highlighting policy attention to social security, housing, and income satisfaction. Full article

Background/Objectives: Food and nutritional insecurity (FNI) is a major social determinant of health that disproportionately affects older adults, with significant implications for their health, nutrition, and well-being. In this context, this scoping review aims to map and synthesize the available scientific evidence on the main determinants of FNI among older adults, considering socioeconomic, health-related, functional, psychosocial, and structural factors. Methods: A scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and reported following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A comprehensive search was performed across eight databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, LILACS, ProQuest, and Google Scholar), up to November 2024. Original studies addressing FNI in individuals aged ≥60 years were included. Study selection and data extraction were conducted independently by two reviewers, with disagreements resolved by consensus. Results: Of 5897 records identified, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. FNI in older adults was described as a multifactorial phenomenon associated with low income, limited education, social isolation, widowhood, chronic diseases, functional limitations, depressive symptoms, and poor housing conditions. Structural determinants, including institutional racism, gaps in social protection systems, and barriers to accessing food assistance programs, were also reported. Considerable heterogeneity in measurement instruments highlights the complexity of assessing FNI in this population. Conclusions: Addressing FNI in older adults requires moving beyond isolated interventions toward integrated, intersectoral strategies that tackle its underlying social and structural drivers. Strengthening social protection systems, reducing access barriers, and promoting equity-oriented policies are essential to ensure adequate nutrition and support healthy and dignified aging. Full article

The change in learning methods to online/distance learning, catalyzed by recent health pandemics/social distancing requirements, has significantly changed how teaching occurs and what students experience in their learning spaces in regard to interference. New forms of interference exist, and they are related to the domestic setting of the student’s life. This study examined how factors of domestic life influence what students find in regard to interference in their online learning spaces through a Likert-scale defined answer process to a 29-question predictor variable inventory that also includes two outcome variables that address the amount of acoustic interference experienced in learning spaces. Moreover, through regression models and various applications of machine learning science, this research aims to reveal crucial indicators that influence student experiences regarding disturbances. In this respect, these findings highlight crucial roles that housing density and internal interactive actions within residential contexts have on disturbances. Furthermore, this research reveals critical understandings of perceptual inequalities present within distance learning student populations and indicates significant cultural and social consequences related to digital technologies. This is crucial, understood within foundational perspectives that are necessary to address psychosocial challenges and human–building interaction present within distance learning science and policies aimed at reducing noise. Full article

This study proposes a method for evaluating accessibility to neighborhood parks within pedestrian sheds in environments where pedestrian network data are limited and aims to analyze the effects of residential development period and housing type on park accessibility. The study area is Daegu, South Korea. In residentially dense areas, residential activity blocks were delineated using roads with four or more lanes in consideration of pedestrian safety. This approach was intended to establish residential activity areas that account for pedestrian discontinuities. Residential activity areas are classified into five categories of park accessibility, based on whether a neighborhood park lies within walking distance, the number of parks available, and their proportional relationship to the total block area. In addition, periods of residential development are defined according to the year of building approval, and their associations with park accessibility are analyzed in relation to housing type. The analysis identified 464 residential activity blocks within the study area, of which 253 contained parks within pedestrian sheds. The actual distribution of parks within the blocks differed from the results of the conventional buffer-based accessibility analysis conducted for parks within pedestrian sheds. For example, although some blocks included parks within the statutory maximum walking distance of 1 km under the conventional buffer criterion, residents were in practice required to cross roads with four or more lanes to access the parks, indicating that the parks were not effectively located within the residential activity area. In terms of the relationship with the period of residential development, areas densely occupied by residential buildings established before 1980 exhibited relatively low park accessibility, whereas those established since 1990 demonstrated relatively favorable park accessibility. These findings suggest that spatial disparities in park accessibility are structurally shaped by the timing of urban development and patterns of residential formation, rather than by population density alone. This study presents an approach to evaluating accessibility that is applicable even in the absence of pedestrian network data and provides policy implications by identifying priority areas for neighborhood park provision to improve park equity in older residential areas. Full article

Depopulation and urban–rural population redistribution are challenges that reshape settlement patterns, landscapes, and local economies in many regions, from Europe to China and from Japan to North America. This study examines spatial and demographic transformations in the Baltic States (Europe), using Lithuania as a detailed case study. The analysis is based on high-resolution GIS population data derived from official population registers and linked to georeferenced settlement polygons for the years 2011 and 2021, combined with a linear projection of population change to 2026 (five-year period). The results reveal that population decline, which appears modest at the aggregated statistical level (approximately −1.1% to −1.5% per year), is territorially concentrated and reaches 45–48% in the most affected areas, which can only be identified through fine-scale spatial analysis. The most pronounced decline (−46%) is observed in the population of detached rural dwellings between 2011 and 2021, with trend-based estimation indicating that vacant rural houses may exceed 50% by 2026. At the same time, peri-urban zones surrounding the largest cities show clear population growth, largely driven by internal migration from ageing urban districts, smaller towns, and peripheral rural areas, compensating aggregated values and masking underlying processes. The findings reveal a dual process of rural shrinkage and suburban expansion, increasing pressures on territorial cohesion, service provision, infrastructure planning, and the preservation of cultural landscapes. The application of high-resolution spatial data allows the detection of localized demographic processes that remain insufficiently captured in conventional municipality-level statistics and that have rarely been analyzed at this level of spatial detail. Based on these results, this study emphasizes policy approaches such as adaptive rural regeneration and managed shrinkage. Although the empirical analysis is focused on Lithuania, the identified trends are relevant to many shrinking regions worldwide and may be reproduced using local population register data in other countries to support evidence-based regional planning. Full article

The urban housing sector plays a significant role in global energy consumption and carbon emissions, making the sustainable transformation of domestic buildings essential to achieving climate goals. Urban housing is also linked to the energy transition, social equity, public health, and environmental resilience. The UK’s Warm Homes Plan (WHP) is seen as a key policy initiative that aims to improve energy efficiency and living conditions, and to promote the transition to a low-carbon future. This study provides an integrated review of retrofit assessment, policy mechanisms, and socio-environmental factors in the context of urban housing decarbonization. This study adopts a structured critical review approach to analyze retrofit strategies, low-carbon heating systems, renewable energy integration, and smart control technologies. The study highlights that retrofit assessment is not limited to technical performance but also includes social acceptability, affordability, and urban infrastructure compatibility. Furthermore, case study comparisons show that decarbonization outcomes are improved when technical measures are integrated with effective governance, stakeholder engagement, and local policy support. This study presents an integrated conceptual framework that links technical retrofit measures, policy coordination, and socio-environmental indicators. The results show that isolated technical solutions are insufficient for decarbonizing urban housing. Rather, a multi-dimensional planning approach is necessary to enable a sustainable, resilient, and socially inclusive housing transition. Full article

Housing inequalities remain a major challenge for contemporary urban governance, as they combine economic, social, spatial, and demographic dynamics that are difficult to capture through single indicators. This paper develops a data-driven assessment of housing inequalities in Portugal between 2015 and 2025, drawing on official national and European statistics and applying a Business Intelligence (BI) and urban analytics framework oriented towards policy monitoring. Official data from Statistics Portugal and Eurostat are integrated through an analytical pipeline including automated extraction via public APIs, data enrichment, and visual analytics. The workflow follows a CRISP-DM-inspired structure, creating a set of normalized indicators to capture different dimensions of housing conditions. The results point to a structurally polarized housing market. Housing valuations increased across all regions, but at uneven rates, reinforcing territorial disparities rather than convergence. Metropolitan and tourism-oriented regions experienced faster appreciation and indirect effects, while year-over-year growth in completed dwellings slowed after 2021–2022, indicating an uneven supply response. Beyond its empirical findings, the primary contribution of this study lies in demonstrating how BI and data science methodologies can be operationalized to monitor housing inequalities using official statistics. The proposed framework is replicable and can be adapted to other territorial and policy contexts. Full article

As a policy-driven land use transition initiative bridging poverty eradication and sustainable development, China’s Poverty Alleviation Relocation (PAR) program exemplifies how state-led resettlement can reconfigure land use patterns while balancing immediate livelihood security with long-term community capacity development. The integration of large-scale PAR communities into new urbanization is a critical postrelocation task that is essential for consolidating poverty eradication achievements and enhancing endogenous development capacity. This study examined how the configuration of policy instruments shapes the endogenous development capacity of PAR communities during their transition to new urbanization. Employing a “tool–goal” analytical framework, we conducted a content analysis of 38 provincial-level policy documents (2021–present) using NVivo 20 software. The findings reveal that while local governments have established a preliminary policy system, structural imbalances persist: (1) uneven deployment of policy tools, (2) underutilization of demand-based policy tools, (3) tool–goal misalignment, and (4) insufficient market/societal participation in government-led measures. The discussion further reveals that the land use transition in the PAR program emphasizes the “living mode” (housing and public services) over the “livelihood mode” (productive resources and nonagricultural employment), creating structural dependency and leaving industrial land underutilized—as evidenced by weak policy support for industrial development (14.83%) and labour outmigration from resettlement areas. Drawing on the sustainable livelihoods framework, we further demonstrate how this exogenous-dominated policy mix disproportionately enhances physical and financial capital while constraining the accumulation of human and social capital—the very foundations of endogenous development capacity. To address these issues, we propose three key recommendations: (1) optimizing the policy mix to strengthen the endogenous development capacity of PAR communities; (2) realigning policy tools with objectives to achieve diversified yet coordinated goals; and (3) addressing implementation gaps to better leverage market mechanisms and social forces in promoting the sustainable urban integration of resettlement areas. Full article

As global urban centers transition into “Super-Aged Societies,” the paradigm of urban sustainability has shifted from mere housing provision to the development of Sustainable Care Retirement Communities (SCRCs). This study addresses a critical gap in the urban aging literature: the lack of culturally sensitive frameworks for social resilience in non-Western contexts. By integrating Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory, this research investigates how national culture influences the prioritization of community attributes within the “15 min city” framework. Methodologically, a hierarchical evaluation framework comprising 4 dimensions and 26 indicators was established. It employed the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) to achieve expert consensus among stakeholders in Taiwan’s Long-term Care 3.0 ecosystem. Analysis using Double Triangular Fuzzy Numbers identified the “Charging Model,” “Staff-to-Resident Ratio,” and “Zoning with Care Continuity” as the highest-priority factors ($G^i$ ≥ 7.8). These results indicate that in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance, institutional financial stability and human-centric staffing are perceived as the structural bedrock of social resilience. Furthermore, the study highlights the emergence of AI-driven “Active Sensing” environments as a pivotal component of technical resilience, mitigating the loneliness epidemic while maintaining institutional efficiency. The findings suggest that social resilience in SCRCs is not merely a product of physical accessibility but is theoretically inferred by experts to be deeply rooted in the synergy of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital, rather than being a directly measured outcome. This research provides urban planners and policy-makers with a robust, evidence-based toolkit to design inclusive, resilient, and culturally aligned aging-in-place environments in the face of unprecedented demographic challenges. Full article