Search Results (194)

In recent decades, residential mobility has emerged as a fundamental interpretative key lens for understanding contemporary urban transformations, particularly in polycentric and fragmented urban contexts. Movements between different residential settings reflect economic, social and cultural changes, impacting the organisation of urban spaces, the demand for services and mobility systems. In territories characterised by dispersed settlement patterns and strong functional polarisation, these dynamics tend to promote the intensive use of private means, with consequent negative impacts on environmental sustainability, social equity and economic efficiency. In response to these critical issues, there is growing interest in sustainable mobility models based on proximity and on the integration between daily travel, access to services and the quality of public space. Within this perspective, greenways are configured as hybrid infrastructures, capable of reorganising mobility while contributing to the regeneration of urban spaces. In the Caserta area, in the Campania region, the disused route of the former Alifana railway represents a topic of great interest, both for research and planning. Its potential strategic conversion into a greenway opens a broader perspective than that so far considered at the regional level, which has mainly focused on the infrastructure dimension. The paper analyses the strengths and weaknesses of an approach limited to infrastructural mobility, proposing a comparative evaluation of project scenarios—including the non-intervention hypothesis—both through the application of the MACBETH approach and preliminary parametric estimation of construction costs, in order to emphasise the importance of integrating social and environmental benefits, as well as quality of life, into decision-making processes. Full article

The role of pedestrian movement in urban environments is often overlooked, despite its critical importance in supporting effective city functioning and long-term sustainability. While there has been growing scholarly interest in this area, research on pedestrian mobility remains fragmented across various disciplines and lacks a unified framework. For urban planners and designers to collaborate more effectively, a clearer understanding of the key themes shaping pedestrian mobility is needed. This paper addresses that gap by organizing and analysing existing research through a bibliometric review of 1934 articles published between 1994 and 2023 in the Web of Science database. This article explores the evolution of pedestrian mobility research between 1994 and 2023, highlighting key topics and potential future directions. The bibliometric analysis draws on a range of indicators, including published papers, citation data, journal impact factors, h-index scores, top-cited authors and papers, and regional trends in research output. Most importantly, science mapping was conducted using the SciMAT software, with co-occurrence networks helping to reveal how research themes have evolved over time. The extensive body of work on pedestrian mobility made it possible to develop a conceptual map that traces the field’s intellectual development. From this analysis, five key thematic areas were identified: health, methods, environmental–social, city, and mobility. Full article

Public spaces in informal settlements are often viewed as congested, unregulated, or residual areas, yet they play a central role in everyday urban life. This paper examines how public spaces are socially produced through everyday appropriation, interaction, and routine use in two informal settlements in Lahore, Pakistan. Using a qualitative comparative case-study design, the study draws on field observations, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, activity mapping, photographic documentation, and spatial interpretation. The findings show that streets function as multifunctional public spaces rather than simple movement corridors. They support livelihood activities, children’s play, domestic extension, informal mobility, social gathering, and community visibility. The results also show that public space use varies by gender, age, time of day, and settlement morphology, with everyday practices shaped by the interaction between street layouts, housing forms, public–private thresholds, and local socio-cultural routines. The paper concludes that informal public spaces should not be understood only as signs of disorder or planning failure. They are adaptive socio-spatial systems that support livelihood, belonging, and everyday resilience. Recognizing these resident-led spatial practices can inform more sensitive upgrading approaches that improve physical conditions without erasing the social relations and everyday uses through which public space is produced. Full article

A neighborhood’s built environment can challenge the mobility of older mobility-challenged adults (due to knee osteoarthritis and falls), reducing their participation and quality of life. The Built Environment in Falls and arthrITis (BE-FIT) study aims to understand the neighborhood influence on the mobility, participation, and psychosocial health of older adults with knee osteoarthritis and/or falls. BE-FIT comprises four work packages (WPs). WP1 quantitatively explores relationships among environmental-, social-, and person-related factors and participation outcomes of its intended population. WP2 employs qualitative methods to comprehend the relationships among WP1’s variables. Via a combination of wearable sensor technology and qualitative geospatial methods, WP3 aims to characterize its population’s movement behavior, mobility, functional activity of daily living, and lived experiences of residing in a mature neighborhood. Finally, WP4 engages crucial stakeholders to co-develop evidence-based recommendations to inform public health, urban planning, and aging policies and implementation. BE-FIT could benefit societies with rising incidence of knee osteoarthritis and falls by improving neighborhoods and lives of older mobility-challenged residents. Full article

Rapid urbanization has intensified the need for vibrant, walkable, and socially sustainable urban environments, particularly within mixed-use and commercial districts. The way buildings and streets are spatially configured in these districts plays a critical role in shaping pedestrian movement, spatial accessibility, commercial vitality, and social interaction within these environments. This paper investigates the role of spatial configuration in shaping the resilience and sustainability of urban commercial districts through a comprehensive review of recent space syntax applications. The review synthesizes methodological approaches for examining spatial structures, urban morphology, spatial accessibility, and urban activity patterns, including segment-based spatial analysis, visibility graph analysis, agent-based modeling, and predictive spatial simulation. This study consolidates recent methodological developments in spatial analytics and identifies key analytical trends that clarify how spatial configuration contributes to urban vitality and sustainability in commercial districts. Particular attention is given to the methodological evolution of space syntax research and its increasing integration with complementary datasets and analytical frameworks for evaluating urban vitality. Across the reviewed studies, highly integrated and spatially accessible street networks were consistently associated with higher pedestrian flow, greater commercial density, stronger land-use clustering, and improved walkability, particularly within compact, mixed-use urban districts. Movement-based metrics such as integration and Normalized Angular Choice (NACH) repeatedly emerged as dominant predictors of pedestrian movement, land-use intensity, and commercial concentration. Despite significant methodological advances in spatial analysis, a persistent gap remains in linking configurational metrics with lived human experience and broader social sustainability outcomes. Overall, the findings demonstrate that spatial configuration is a fundamental driver of walkability, commercial vitality, and socio-spatial interaction, reinforcing the growing role of space syntax as a framework for evidence-based and sustainable urban design. Full article

Solitary living is an evolutionarily widespread yet comparatively under-theorized social system, despite its occurrence across diverse animal taxa. Shrikes (family Laniidae) are small predatory passerines that combine raptorial behavior, strong territoriality, and predominantly solitary space use, making them a powerful model for examining the ecology and evolution of solitary living. Here, I synthesize published work on shrike behavioral ecology and explicitly link these traits to the costs and benefits of a solitary lifestyle. I argue that shrikes exemplify how solitary species can offset the absence of social buffering through cognitive innovation, finetuned habitat selection, and flexible yet tightly bounded sociality. I then compare shrike ecology to solitary mammals and reptiles, highlighting convergent patterns in resource dispersion, spatial memory, risk management, and juvenile dispersal. I further examine how anthropogenic pressures, such as habitat fragmentation, climatic instability, and urbanization, interact with solitary life histories and review evidence from management interventions in both European farmland and North American systems that demographic recovery is achievable but remains contingent on addressing broader land-use conflicts and sources of adult mortality. Finally, I outline five interconnected research priorities—spanning cognitive ecology, trophic interactions, movement ecology, genomics, and formal comparative analyses—that would move shrike research from its current observational foundation toward a more experimental, mechanistic, and phylogenetically informed programme. By reframing shrikes as a model taxon for solitary living, this review aims to integrate avian behavioral ecology into broader comparative frameworks of social organization, cognition, and resilience under global change. Full article

Urban mobility is a central challenge for sustainable and inclusive cities, as climate change, congestion, and spatial inequality increasingly reveal mobility patterns as expressions of deeper social and spatial structures. Inclusive urban mobility examines whether transport systems equitably support the everyday movements and accessibility needs of historically marginalized and underserved populations. The integration of artificial intelligence with geographic information science, combined with multimodal geospatial data fusion, provides powerful tools to diagnose and address these disparities by integrating heterogeneous data sources such as satellite imagery, GPS trajectories, transit records, volunteered geographic information, and social sensing data into scalable, high-resolution urban mobility analytics. This paper presents a systematic survey of recent GeoAI studies that fuse multiple geospatial data modalities for key urban mobility tasks, including accessibility mapping, demand forecasting, and origin–destination flow prediction, with particular emphasis on inclusive and equity-oriented applications. The review examines 18 multimodal GeoAI studies identified through a PRISMA-ScR screening process from 57 candidate publications between 2019 and 2025. The survey synthesizes methodological trends across data-, feature-, and decision-level fusion strategies, highlights the growing use of deep learning architectures, and examines emerging techniques such as knowledge graphs, federated learning, and explainable AI that support equity-relevant insights across diverse urban contexts. Building on this synthesis, the review identifies persistent gaps in population coverage, multimodal integration, equity optimization, explainability, validation, and governance, which currently constrain the inclusiveness and robustness of GeoAI applications in urban mobility research. To address these challenges, the paper proposes a structured research roadmap linking these gaps to concrete methodological and governance directions including equity-aware loss functions, adaptive multimodal fusion pipelines, participatory and human-in-the-loop workflows, and urban data trusts to better align multimodal GeoAI with the goals of inclusive, just, and sustainable urban mobility systems. Full article

Rapid urbanization-induced extreme rainstorms severely disrupt social functions. Previous research often focused on “de-densification” strategies, which are difficult to adapt to high-density Sponge City Stormwater Management Units (SMUs) that carry core development functions. This study uses Shenzhen as a case study, utilizing Keep movement big data as a “social sensor” for system function perception and introducing the Socio-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) theory to construct a “recovery (RCN)–resistance (MI)” binary assessment framework. Through systematic clustering and hierarchical regression models, the driving mechanisms of blue landscape patterns, topography, road networks, and the built environment on social behavioral resilience are systematically parsed. The results show: (1) Road network morphology dominates resistance, while multi-dimensional elements collaborate for recovery. Resistance (MI) is primarily dominated by macro road network detour resistance (TPD2000, β = 0.956), while recovery depends on the synergistic support of blue space interspersion (Blue_IJI), topography, and micro-circulation road networks. (2) Green infrastructure fails in the model due to efficiency bottlenecks, empirical evidence of weakened regulation caused by green space fragmentation in ultra-high-density environments. (3) Low-density, eco-centric built environments provide dual synergistic gains for resilience. Based on this, a “Bidirectional Socio-Ecological Resilience Needs Pyramid” model is constructed, identifying four governance types such as the “Synergistic Balanced Type”. This study provides a quantitative basis for the transition from administrative control to precise morphological governance in high-density cities. Full article

This article analyses the Museo de los Desplazados (Museum of the Displaced), a collaborative platform conceived by the Left Hand Rotation collective to foster shared reflection on gentrification processes. This project takes the form of a collective and decentralised digital archive, functioning as an open, ‘in-process’ collaborative tool. Within the context of the proliferation of self-organised digital archives, this study explores how the Museum acts as a dynamic social object that articulates dispersed narratives. Drawing on Derrida’s concept of the ‘anarchive’, the research validates the hypothesis that there is a direct relationship between the profiles of autonomous collectives and their specific epistemic practices. The findings reveal that activists utilise the archive as a tool for legal defence, ‘heat-of-the-moment’ ethnography, and networking, thereby resisting ‘archival violence’ and constructing collective counter-memory. Ultimately, the Museum demonstrates that memory is not a guarded site, but a living network built through horizontal and rhizomatic collaboration. Full article

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is an essential component of China’s outstanding traditional culture, serving as a living testament to the continuity of Chinese civilization and as a crucial foundation for fostering national identity and maintaining social cohesion. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region is one of the areas in China with the highest concentration and the most comprehensive range of traditional ICH. However, its spatiotemporal patterns and influencing factors have not yet been systematically examined. In this study, 593 national-level ICH items in the YRD were selected as the research objects. Based on geographic information systems (GIS), spatiotemporal analyses were conducted using the nearest neighbor index, geographic concentration index, imbalance index, kernel density analysis, standard deviation ellipse, and geographic detector methods. The spatial characteristics of ICH were investigated from three perspectives: spatial structure, spatiotemporal evolution, and driving factors. The results indicate that: (1) Shanghai serves as the core agglomeration area of ICH and exhibits the highest kernel density; (2) from a spatiotemporal perspective, the spatial center of ICH distribution shows an overall movement trajectory that first shifts southward and then northward; and (3) driving factor analysis reveals that sociocultural factors exert the most significant influence on the spatial distribution of ICH, followed by economic factors. Natural geographic factors show the weakest explanatory power, but their influence is significantly enhanced through interactions with sociocultural and economic factors. This study develops an integrated analytical framework to examine the spatial patterns and driving mechanisms of ICH in the YRD. It enriches the quantitative methodological system of cultural geography and heritage studies, provides a scientific basis for the protection, transmission, and governance of cultural heritage against the background of regional integration in the YRD, and offers a transferable analytical approach for ICH studies in other urban agglomerations. Full article

Rapid economic development in the past four decades in China has brought about significant consequences for people’s livelihoods. Healthy social mobility is fundamental for equality of opportunity, economic vitality, and socioeconomic sustainability. This paper examines the intragenerational livelihood mobility of urban residents in recent decades based on a case study in Guangzhou City and Foshan City, Guangdong Province, Southeast China. Longitudinal livelihood trajectory surveys have been investigated to gain research data. The primary determinants of livelihood mobility were also elucidated through analysis of muti-logistic regression. The results show that five livelihood trajectories are summarized based on their vertical movements in social status. The results further indicate that class polarization exists in urban residents’ mobility. 48.2% of respondents have experienced upward mobility, and 33.6% of them have even stepped over social classes. Meanwhile, the livelihoods of the others remained unchanged or suffered downward mobility. Respondents with male gender, better educational attainments, positive personality, and lower hierarchies of first occupations are associated with a higher probability of upward mobility. These results suggest that wealth redistribution among different social groups should be implemented to promote the benefits of economic growth being shared more broadly, and ultimately to boost socioeconomic sustainability. Full article

Challenges to the health and wellbeing of youth refugees in Kenya are well documented, particularly in refugee camps. However, amid protracted crises in the region, changes in refugee camp legislation and reduced funding are driving the further urbanization of refugees, necessitating a greater focus on understanding the hardships, movements, and challenges young urban refugees face. The focus of this paper is to document research on mapping the food supply chains, including points of intersection for young South Sudanese urban refugees in Kenya, and to identify barriers, constraints, and opportunities for procuring, growing, and selling food. This youth-led study, a follow-up to previous findings, included 40 participants aged 19 to 32. Youth food-resilience stories highlight critical areas for strategic intervention and provide insights into the design of spatially just and economically inclusive urban spaces. Applying a multimethod approach, including food diaries, food maps, and survey tools embedded in a learning platform, the paper weaves a narrative that highlights youth ingenuity in food security and provides insights for governments, policymakers, community leaders, and donors to support responsive, economically inclusive community design in addressing social challenges. Our findings indicate that improving the quality of life and food security of refugee youth is complex and requires a holistic approach. Without education and improvements in livelihoods, including urban agricultural opportunities, refugee youth’s health and wellbeing will continue to be affected. Full article

Soaring housing prices worldwide are compromising housing affordability, potentially leading to significant economic, social, and health repercussions. Understanding the price discovery process within the real estate market is therefore crucial for policymakers. While the relationship between land and housing prices in urban residential markets has been widely examined in the literature, the results are often context-specific, leaving the question of whether the land market leads the housing market or vice versa open to debate. Saudi Arabia, with its rapidly growing real estate market, evolving demographics and urbanization trends, and transformative regulatory reforms, presents a compelling context for revisiting the land–housing nexus. This study examines the long-term relationship between land and housing markets and investigates the short-term price dynamics with the ultimate goal of understanding the price formation in the housing market. The study dataset comprises quarterly time-series price indices published by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) in Saudi, representing the nation-wide price movements of residential lands and villas from 2014Q1 to 2025Q1. The study employs the Johansen cointegration method and the Granger causality testing. The results of cointegration analysis confirm a significant long-run equilibrium relationship between the two markets, while the error correction model reveals that both land and housing prices adjust to restore this equilibrium. Granger causality test results show a unidirectional relationship, where land prices predict future housing prices, consistent with the neoclassical rent theory. These findings reinforce the long-term, intrinsic link between land and housing markets observed in prior studies. The dynamics in the Saudi market are likely shaped by rapid urbanization that intensified speculation in the land market, and also the prevalence of self-building enabled by government-supported financing. This study underscores the importance of striking a delicate balance between supply and demand side policies in the real estate market while monitoring the impact of these policies on housing affordability. Full article

Amid growing demands for heritage conservation and precision urban governance, this study proposes a multimodal framework to analyze tourist perception and behavior in Macau’s Historic Centre. We integrate geotagged social media images and text, ultra-wideband (UWB) pedestrian trajectories, and a LiDAR-derived 3D digital twin to examine the interplay among spatial configuration, movement, and affect. Visual content in tourist photos is classified with You Only Look Once (YOLOv8), and sentiment polarity in Weibo posts is estimated with a fine-tuned Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) model. UWB data provide fine-grained trajectories, and all modalities are georeferenced within the digital twin. Results indicate that iconic landmarks concentrate visual attention, pedestrian density, and positive sentiment, whereas peripheral sites show lower footfall yet strong emotional resonance. We further identify three coupling typologies that differentiate tourist experiences across spatial contexts. The study advances multimodal research on historic urban centers by delivering a reproducible framework that aligns image, text, and trajectory data to extract microscale patterns. Theoretically, it elucidates how spatial configuration, movement intensity, and affective expression co-produce experiential quality. Using Macau’s Historic Centre as an empirical testbed, the findings inform heritage revitalization, wayfinding, and crowd-management strategies. Full article

Pedestrian flow simulations play a pivotal role in urban planning, transportation engineering, and disaster response by enabling the detailed analysis of crowd dynamics and walking behavior. While physical models such as the Social Force model and Boids have been widely used, they often struggle to replicate complex inter-agent interactions. On the other hand, reinforcement learning (RL) methods, although adaptive, suffer from limited interpretability due to their opaque policy structures. To address these limitations, this study proposes a pedestrian simulation framework based on the Anticipatory Classifier System 2 (ACS2), a rule-based evolutionary learning model capable of extracting explicit behavior rules through trial-and-error learning. The proposed model captures the interactions between agents and environmental features while preserving the interpretability of the acquired strategies. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the ACS2-based agents reproduce realistic pedestrian dynamics and achieve comparable adaptability to conventional reinforcement learning approaches such as tabular Q-learning. Moreover, the extracted behavior rules enable systematic analysis of movement patterns, including the effects of obstacles and crowd composition on flow efficiency and group alignment. The results suggest that the ACS2 provides a promising approach to constructing interpretable multi-agent simulations for real-world pedestrian environments. Full article