Where am I? Location archetype keyword extraction from urban mobility patterns.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vassilis Kostakos

Full Text Available Can online behaviour be used as a proxy for studying urban mobility? The increasing availability of digital mobility traces has provided new insights into collective human behaviour. Mobility datasets have been shown to be an accurate proxy for daily behaviour and social patterns, and behavioural data from Twitter has been used to predict real world phenomena such as cinema ticket sale volumes, stock prices, and disease outbreaks. In this paper we correlate city-scale urban traffic patterns with online search trends to uncover keywords describing the pedestrian traffic location. By analysing a 3-year mobility dataset we show that our approach, called Location Archetype Keyword Extraction (LAKE, is capable of uncovering semantically relevant keywords for describing a location. Our findings demonstrate an overarching relationship between online and offline collective behaviour, and allow for advancing analysis of community-level behaviour by using online search keywords as a practical behaviour proxy.

Assessment of background particulate matter concentrations in small cities and rural locations--Prince George, Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Veira, Andreas; Jackson, Peter L; Ainslie, Bruce; Fudge, Dennis

2013-07-01

This study investigates the development and application of a simple method to calculate annual and seasonal PM2.5 and PM10 background concentrations in small cities and rural areas. The Low Pollution Sectors and Conditions (LPSC) method is based on existing measured long-term data sets and is designed for locations where particulate matter (PM) monitors are only influenced by local anthropogenic emission sources from particular wind sectors. The LPSC method combines the analysis of measured hourly meteorological data, PM concentrations, and geographical emission source distributions. PM background levels emerge from measured data for specific wind conditions, where air parcel trajectories measured at a monitoring station are assumed to have passed over geographic sectors with negligible local emissions. Seasonal and annual background levels were estimated for two monitoring stations in Prince George, Canada, and the method was also applied to four other small cities (Burns Lake, Houston, Quesnel, Smithers) in northern British Columbia. The analysis showed reasonable background concentrations for both monitoring stations in Prince George, whereas annual PM10 background concentrations at two of the other locations and PM2.5 background concentrations at one other location were implausibly high. For those locations where the LPSC method was successful, annual background levels ranged between 1.8 +/- 0.1 microg/m3 and 2.5 +/- 0.1 microg/m3 for PM2.5 and between 6.3 +/- 0.3 microg/m3 and 8.5 +/- 0.3 microg/m3 for PM10. Precipitation effects and patterns of seasonal variability in the estimated background concentrations were detectable for all locations where the method was successful. Overall the method was dependent on the configuration of local geography and sources with respect to the monitoring location, and may fail at some locations and under some conditions. Where applicable, the LPSC method can provide a fast and cost-efficient way to estimate background PM

Urban Property Taxation: II. Land and Location. Exchange Bibliography 480.

Science.gov (United States)

White, Anthony G.

This is one of three related bibliographies listing publications dealing with the broad topic of property taxation. This particular volume concerns some specialized fields of study, including locational theory, land use and taxation, property markets and valuation, housing, and urban renewal and redevelopment. Citations are listed alphabetically…

Gardening in the desert: a spatial optimization approach to locating gardens in rapidly expanding urban environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Mack, Elizabeth A; Tong, Daoqin; Credit, Kevin

2017-10-16

Food access is a global issue, and for this reason, a wealth of studies are dedicated to understanding the location of food deserts and the benefits of urban gardens. However, few studies have linked these two strands of research together to analyze whether urban gardening activity may be a step forward in addressing issues of access for food desert residents. The Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area is used as a case to demonstrate the utility of spatial optimization models for siting urban gardens near food deserts and on vacant land. The locations of urban gardens are derived from a list obtained from the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension office at the University of Arizona which were geo located and aggregated to Census tracts. Census tracts were then assigned to one of three categories: tracts that contain a garden, tracts that are immediately adjacent to a tract with a garden, and all other non-garden/non-adjacent census tracts. Analysis of variance is first used to ascertain whether there are statistical differences in the demographic, socio-economic, and land use profiles of these three categories of tracts. A maximal covering spatial optimization model is then used to identify potential locations for future gardening activities. A constraint of these models is that gardens be located on vacant land, which is a growing problem in rapidly urbanizing environments worldwide. The spatial analysis of garden locations reveals that they are centrally located in tracts with good food access. Thus, the current distribution of gardens does not provide an alternative food source to occupants of food deserts. The maximal covering spatial optimization model reveals that gardens could be sited in alternative locations to better serve food desert residents. In fact, 53 gardens may be located to cover 96.4% of all food deserts. This is an improvement over the current distribution of gardens where 68 active garden sites provide coverage to a scant 8.4% of food desert

The spatial and urban planning concerns related to nuclear facilities locations: Case study of the Vinča Institute location

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Stefanović Nebojša D.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The spatial and urban planning is one of the key instruments for the planned formation and development of locations for nuclear facilities, especially in terms of meeting the strict spatial conditionality, as well as in terms of the formation of protection zones in their surroundings. This paper systemizes the international criteria and requirements for the locations of nuclear facilities and analyses the spatial distribution of nuclear facilities in the surrounding countries of the Republic of Serbia. The research was conducted on the example of the location of the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, within which the fulfilment of spatial requirements, treatment of the location in the existing spatial and urban plans and relationship between other functions in the surrounding area were analysed. The paper proves the starting hypothesis that the general requirements related to both the spatial development of nuclear facilities locations and the protection from radiation have not been met in the Vinča location and its surroundings. It was determined that the spatial and urban plans encompassing the area of Vinča do not contain sufficiently specific planning solutions and that, as such, they do not provide a sufficient planning basis for meeting the necessary requirements and obligations regarding the protection from radiation. The paper also gives recommendations for further spatial development and protection of the Vinča location and its surroundings. The research condcted in this paper indicates the importance and priority of further research so that the necessary planning solutions for further development of the complex in Vinča and for the formation of protection zones could be defined through creating a new planning documentation. In addition, the paper particularly highlights the need for conducting a research to identify a location for permanent disposal of radioactive waste. It also indicates the necessity of considering the aspects

Location Optimization of Urban Mining Facilities with Maximal Covering Model in GIS: A Case of China

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Xue, Yanyan; Wen, Zongguo; Ji, Xiaoli; Bressers, Johannes T.A.; Zhang, Chenkai

Urban mining offers an efficient supply of resources because of rich mines and low environmental impacts. Location selection and optimization for urban mining facilities is more complicated than for natural mines, given that it may vary according to the urban population, consumption habits, and

The location and recognition of anti-counterfeiting code image with complex background

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Jing; Liu, Quan; Lou, Ping; Han, Ping

2017-07-01

The order of cigarette market is a key issue in the tobacco business system. The anti-counterfeiting code, as a kind of effective anti-counterfeiting technology, can identify counterfeit goods, and effectively maintain the normal order of market and consumers' rights and interests. There are complex backgrounds, light interference and other problems in the anti-counterfeiting code images obtained by the tobacco recognizer. To solve these problems, the paper proposes a locating method based on Susan operator, combined with sliding window and line scanning,. In order to reduce the interference of background and noise, we extract the red component of the image and convert the color image into gray image. For the confusing characters, recognition results correction based on the template matching method has been adopted to improve the recognition rate. In this method, the anti-counterfeiting code can be located and recognized correctly in the image with complex background. The experiment results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the approach.

Joint Urban 2003: Study Overview And Instrument Locations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Allwine, K Jerry; Flaherty, Julia E.

2006-08-16

Quality-assured meteorological and tracer data sets are vital for establishing confidence that indoor and outdoor dispersion models used to simulate dispersal of potential toxic agents in urban atmospheres are giving trustworthy results. The U.S. Department of Defense-Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security joined together to conduct the Joint Urban 2003 atmospheric dispersion study to provide this critically-needed high-resolution dispersion data. This major urban study was conducted from June 28 through July 31, 2003, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with the participation of over 150 scientists and engineers from over 20 U.S. and foreign institutions. The Joint Urban 2003 lead scientist was Jerry Allwine (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) who oversaw study design, logistical arrangements and field operations with the help of Joe Shinn (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Marty Leach (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Ray Hosker (Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division), Leo Stockham (Northrop Grumman Information Technology) and Jim Bowers (Dugway Proving Grounds). This report gives a brief overview of the field campaign, describing the scientific objectives, the dates of the intensive observation periods, and the instruments deployed. The data from this field study is available to the scientific community through an on-line database that is managed by Dugway Proving Ground. This report will be included in the database to provide its users with some general information about the field study, and specific information about the instrument coordinates. Appendix A of this document provides the definitive record of the instrument locations during this field campaign, and Appendix B lists all the study principal investigators and participants.

Seasonal Differences in Determinants of Time Location Patterns in an Urban Population: A Large Population-Based Study in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sewon; Lee, Kiyoung

2017-06-22

Time location patterns are a significant factor for exposure assessment models of air pollutants. Factors associated with time location patterns in urban populations are typically due to high air pollution levels in urban areas. The objective of this study was to determine the seasonal differences in time location patterns in two urban cities. A Time Use Survey of Korean Statistics (KOSTAT) was conducted in the summer, fall, and winter of 2014. Time location data from Seoul and Busan were collected, together with demographic information obtained by diaries and questionnaires. Determinants of the time spent at each location were analyzed by multiple linear regression and the stepwise method. Seoul and Busan participants had similar time location profiles over the three seasons. The time spent at own home, other locations, workplace/school and during walk were similar over the three seasons in both the Seoul and Busan participants. The most significant time location pattern factors were employment status, age, gender, monthly income, and spouse. Season affected the time spent at the workplace/school and other locations in the Seoul participants, but not in the Busan participants. The seasons affected each time location pattern of the urban population slightly differently, but overall there were few differences.

Seasonal Differences in Determinants of Time Location Patterns in an Urban Population: A Large Population-Based Study in Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sewon Lee

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Time location patterns are a significant factor for exposure assessment models of air pollutants. Factors associated with time location patterns in urban populations are typically due to high air pollution levels in urban areas. The objective of this study was to determine the seasonal differences in time location patterns in two urban cities. A Time Use Survey of Korean Statistics (KOSTAT was conducted in the summer, fall, and winter of 2014. Time location data from Seoul and Busan were collected, together with demographic information obtained by diaries and questionnaires. Determinants of the time spent at each location were analyzed by multiple linear regression and the stepwise method. Seoul and Busan participants had similar time location profiles over the three seasons. The time spent at own home, other locations, workplace/school and during walk were similar over the three seasons in both the Seoul and Busan participants. The most significant time location pattern factors were employment status, age, gender, monthly income, and spouse. Season affected the time spent at the workplace/school and other locations in the Seoul participants, but not in the Busan participants. The seasons affected each time location pattern of the urban population slightly differently, but overall there were few differences.

DYNAMIC MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF URBAN SPATIAL PATTERN (RESIDENTIAL CHOICE OF LOCATION: MOBILITY VS EXTERNALITY

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Rahma Fitriani

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Household’s residential choice of location determines urban spatial pattern (e.g sprawl. The static model which assumes that the choice has been affected by distance to the CBD and location specific externality, fails to capture the evoution of the pattern over time. Therefore this study proposes a dynamic version of the model. It analyses the effects of externalities on the optimal solution of development decision as function of time. It also derives the effect of mobility and externality on the rate of change of development pattern through time. When the increasing rate of utility is not as significant as the increasing rate of income, the externalities will delay the change of urban spatial pattern over time. If the mobility costs increase by large amount relative to the increase of income and inflation rate, then the mobility effect dominates the effects of externalities in delaying the urban expansion.

A comparison of methods used to calculate normal background concentrations of potentially toxic elements for urban soil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rothwell, Katherine A., E-mail: k.rothwell@ncl.ac.uk; Cooke, Martin P., E-mail: martin.cooke@ncl.ac.uk

2015-11-01

To meet the requirements of regulation and to provide realistic remedial targets there is a need for the background concentration of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in soils to be considered when assessing contaminated land. In England, normal background concentrations (NBCs) have been published for several priority contaminants for a number of spatial domains however updated regulatory guidance places the responsibility on Local Authorities to set NBCs for their jurisdiction. Due to the unique geochemical nature of urban areas, Local Authorities need to define NBC values specific to their area, which the national data is unable to provide. This study aims to calculate NBC levels for Gateshead, an urban Metropolitan Borough in the North East of England, using freely available data. The ‘median + 2MAD’, boxplot upper whisker and English NBC (according to the method adopted by the British Geological Survey) methods were compared for test PTEs lead, arsenic and cadmium. Due to the lack of systematically collected data for Gateshead in the national soil chemistry database, the use of site investigation (SI) data collected during the planning process was investigated. 12,087 SI soil chemistry data points were incorporated into a database and 27 comparison samples were taken from undisturbed locations across Gateshead. The SI data gave high resolution coverage of the area and Mann–Whitney tests confirmed statistical similarity for the undisturbed comparison samples and the SI data. SI data was successfully used to calculate NBCs for Gateshead and the median + 2MAD method was selected as most appropriate by the Local Authority according to the precautionary principle as it consistently provided the most conservative NBC values. The use of this data set provides a freely available, high resolution source of data that can be used for a range of environmental applications. - Highlights: • The use of site investigation data is proposed for land contamination studies

The Use of Principal Component Analysis for Source Identification of PM2.5 from Selected Urban and Regional Background Sites in Poland

Science.gov (United States)

Błaszczak, Barbara

2018-01-01

The paper reports the results of the measurements of water-soluble ions and carbonaceous matter content in the fine particulate matter (PM2.5), as well as the contributions of major sources in PM2.5. Daily PM2.5 samples were collected during heating and non-heating season of the year 2013 in three different locations in Poland: Szczecin (urban background), Trzebinia (urban background) and Złoty Potok (regional background). The concentrations of PM2.5, and its related components, exhibited clear spatiotemporal variability with higher levels during the heating period. The share of the total carbon (TC) in PM2.5 exceeded 40% and was primarily determined by fluctuations in the share of OC. Sulfates (SO42-), nitrates (NO3-) and ammonium (NH4+) dominated in the ionic composition of PM2.5 and accounted together 34% (Szczecin), 30% (Trzebinia) and 18% (Złoty Potok) of PM2.5 mass. Source apportionment analysis, performed by PCA-MLRA model (Principal Component Analysis - Multilinear Regression Analysis), revealed that secondary aerosol, whose presence is related to oxidation of gaseous precursors emitted from fuel combustion and biomass burning, had the largest contribution in observed PM2.5 concentrations. In addition, the contribution of traffic sources together with road dust resuspension, was observed. The share of natural sources (sea spray, crustal dust) was generally lower.

The Use of Principal Component Analysis for Source Identification of PM2.5 from Selected Urban and Regional Background Sites in Poland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Błaszczak Barbara

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The paper reports the results of the measurements of water-soluble ions and carbonaceous matter content in the fine particulate matter (PM2.5, as well as the contributions of major sources in PM2.5. Daily PM2.5 samples were collected during heating and non-heating season of the year 2013 in three different locations in Poland: Szczecin (urban background, Trzebinia (urban background and Złoty Potok (regional background. The concentrations of PM2.5, and its related components, exhibited clear spatiotemporal variability with higher levels during the heating period. The share of the total carbon (TC in PM2.5 exceeded 40% and was primarily determined by fluctuations in the share of OC. Sulfates (SO42-, nitrates (NO3- and ammonium (NH4+ dominated in the ionic composition of PM2.5 and accounted together ~34% (Szczecin, ~30% (Trzebinia and ~18% (Złoty Potok of PM2.5 mass. Source apportionment analysis, performed by PCA-MLRA model (Principal Component Analysis – Multilinear Regression Analysis, revealed that secondary aerosol, whose presence is related to oxidation of gaseous precursors emitted from fuel combustion and biomass burning, had the largest contribution in observed PM2.5 concentrations. In addition, the contribution of traffic sources together with road dust resuspension, was observed. The share of natural sources (sea spray, crustal dust was generally lower.

New spatial clustering-based models for optimal urban facility location considering geographical obstacles

Science.gov (United States)

Javadi, Maryam; Shahrabi, Jamal

2014-03-01

The problems of facility location and the allocation of demand points to facilities are crucial research issues in spatial data analysis and urban planning. It is very important for an organization or governments to best locate its resources and facilities and efficiently manage resources to ensure that all demand points are covered and all the needs are met. Most of the recent studies, which focused on solving facility location problems by performing spatial clustering, have used the Euclidean distance between two points as the dissimilarity function. Natural obstacles, such as mountains and rivers, can have drastic impacts on the distance that needs to be traveled between two geographical locations. While calculating the distance between various supply chain entities (including facilities and demand points), it is necessary to take such obstacles into account to obtain better and more realistic results regarding location-allocation. In this article, new models were presented for location of urban facilities while considering geographical obstacles at the same time. In these models, three new distance functions were proposed. The first function was based on the analysis of shortest path in linear network, which was called SPD function. The other two functions, namely PD and P2D, were based on the algorithms that deal with robot geometry and route-based robot navigation in the presence of obstacles. The models were implemented in ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 software using the visual basic programming language. These models were evaluated using synthetic and real data sets. The overall performance was evaluated based on the sum of distance from demand points to their corresponding facilities. Because of the distance between the demand points and facilities becoming more realistic in the proposed functions, results indicated desired quality of the proposed models in terms of quality of allocating points to centers and logistic cost. Obtained results show promising

Optimal Locations of Bus Stops Connecting Subways near Urban Intersections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuan Cui

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Unsuitable locations of bus stops which provide feeder transportation connecting subways near urban intersections usually lead to the low efficiency of public transport and level of passenger service. A multiobjective optimization model to distribute such stop locations is proposed to attain the shortest total walk distance of passengers and minimum delay time of cars through intersections and travel time of buses. The Pareto frontier and optimal solutions for the proposed model are given by the distance-based and enumerative methods. The Xizhimen bus stop is selected to implement case studies for verifying the validity of the proposed model. The analysis of sensitivity on possible solutions is also carried out in the case studies. The results show that the proposed model is capable of optimizing the locations of bus stops connecting subways near intersections and helpful to improve the level of passengers service and operational efficiency of public transportation.

Changes in transport behavior during the financial crisis. An analysis of urban form, location and transport behavior in the greater Copenhagen area 2006-2011

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick

2015-01-01

A multitude of studies have focussed on the connections between urban form, location and transport behavior to inform sustainable and resilient urban planning. However, few have studied the stability of urban form and location effects under changing economic conditions. This paper presents...... an analysis of the changes in urban form and location correlates of travel distances in the Danish Zealand/Copenhagen region from before the financial crisis (2006/07) to some years after the financial downturn (2010/11). Significant changes are found in the socio-economic as well as urban form and location....../destinations. It follows that the location pattern, the geographical configuration of the urban region, is a factor in households' adaptive strategies which partly determine the possibilities for reducing travel and the possibilities for adaption and regional resilience....

PM10 concentration levels at an urban and background site in Cyprus: the impact of urban sources and dust storms.

Science.gov (United States)

Achilleos, Souzana; Evans, John S; Yiallouros, Panayiotis K; Kleanthous, Savvas; Schwartz, Joel; Koutrakis, Petros

2014-12-01

Air quality in Cyprus is influenced by both local and transported pollution, including desert dust storms. We examined PM10 concentration data collected in Nicosia (urban representative) from April 1, 1993, through December 11, 2008, and in Ayia Marina (rural background representative) from January 1, 1999, through December 31, 2008. Measurements were conducted using a Tapered Element Oscillating Micro-balance (TEOM). PM10 concentrations, meteorological records, and satellite data were used to identify dust storm days. We investigated long-term trends using a Generalized Additive Model (GAM) after controlling for day of week, month, temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity. In Nicosia, annual PM10 concentrations ranged from 50.4 to 63.8 μg/m3 and exceeded the EU annual standard limit enacted in 2005 of 40 μg/m3 every year A large, statistically significant impact of urban sources (defined as the difference between urban and background levels) was seen in Nicosia over the period 2000-2008, and was highest during traffic hours, weekdays, cold months, and low wind conditions. Our estimate of the mean (standard error) contribution of urban sources to the daily ambient PM10 was 24.0 (0.4) μg/m3. The study of yearly trends showed that PM10 levels in Nicosia decreased from 59.4 μg/m3 in 1993 to 49.0 μg/m3 in 2008, probably in part as a result of traffic emission control policies in Cyprus. In Ayia Marina, annual concentrations ranged from 27.3 to 35.6 μg/m3, and no obvious time trends were observed. The levels measured at the Cyprus background site are comparable to background concentrations reported in other Eastern Mediterranean countries. Average daily PM10 concentrations during desert dust storms were around 100 μg/m3 since 2000 and much higher in earlier years. Despite the large impact ofdust storms and their increasing frequency over time, dust storms were responsible for a small fraction of the exceedances of the daily PM10 limit. Implications: This

Tracking urban activity growth globally with big location data.

Science.gov (United States)

Daggitt, Matthew L; Noulas, Anastasios; Shaw, Blake; Mascolo, Cecilia

2016-04-01

In recent decades, the world has experienced rates of urban growth unparalleled in any other period of history and this growth is shaping the environment in which an increasing proportion of us live. In this paper, we use a longitudinal dataset from Foursquare, a location-based social network, to analyse urban growth across 100 major cities worldwide. Initially, we explore how urban growth differs in cities across the world. We show that there exists a strong spatial correlation, with nearby pairs of cities more likely to share similar growth profiles than remote pairs of cities. Subsequently, we investigate how growth varies inside cities and demonstrate that, given the existing local density of places, higher-than-expected growth is highly localized while lower-than-expected growth is more diffuse. Finally, we attempt to use the dataset to characterize competition between new and existing venues. By defining a measure based on the change in throughput of a venue before and after the opening of a new nearby venue, we demonstrate which venue types have a positive effect on venues of the same type and which have a negative effect. For example, our analysis confirms the hypothesis that there is large degree of competition between bookstores, in the sense that existing bookstores normally experience a notable drop in footfall after a new bookstore opens nearby. Other place types, such as museums, are shown to have a cooperative effect and their presence fosters higher traffic volumes to nearby places of the same type.

Optimal location selection for the installation of urban green roofs considering honeybee habitats along with socio-economic and environmental effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Gwak, Jae Ha; Lee, Bo Kyeong; Lee, Won Kyung; Sohn, So Young

2017-03-15

This study proposes a new framework for the selection of optimal locations for green roofs to achieve a sustainable urban ecosystem. The proposed framework selects building sites that can maximize the benefits of green roofs, based not only on the socio-economic and environmental benefits to urban residents, but also on the provision of urban foraging sites for honeybees. The framework comprises three steps. First, building candidates for green roofs are selected considering the building type. Second, the selected building candidates are ranked in terms of their expected socio-economic and environmental effects. The benefits of green roofs are improved energy efficiency and air quality, reduction of urban flood risk and infrastructure improvement costs, reuse of storm water, and creation of space for education and leisure. Furthermore, the estimated cost of installing green roofs is also considered. We employ spatial data to determine the expected effects of green roofs on each building unit, because the benefits and costs may vary depending on the location of the building. This is due to the heterogeneous spatial conditions. In the third step, the final building sites are proposed by solving the maximal covering location problem (MCLP) to determine the optimal locations for green roofs as urban honeybee foraging sites. As an illustrative example, we apply the proposed framework in Seoul, Korea. This new framework is expected to contribute to sustainable urban ecosystems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are associations between the perceived home and neighbourhood environment and children's physical activity and sedentary behaviour moderated by urban/rural location?

Science.gov (United States)

Salmon, Jo; Veitch, Jenny; Abbott, Gavin; ChinAPaw, Mai; Brug, Johannes J; teVelde, Saskia J; Cleland, Verity; Hume, Clare; Crawford, David; Ball, Kylie

2013-11-01

Associations between parental perceived home and neighbourhood environments and children's physical activity (PA), and sedentary time (ST) and screen time and moderating effects according to urban/rural location were examined. Data were collected (2007-2008) from a cohort of women (aged 18-45 years) and their children (5-12 years) participating in the Resilience for Eating and Activity Despite Inequality (READI) study. A total of 613 children (47% boys; mean age 9.4±2.2 years) and their mothers were included in the study. Urban children had higher screen time than rural children. Mothers in rural areas reported greater access to physical activity equipment in the home, higher levels of descriptive norms for physical activity, greater knowledge of the neighbourhood, a stronger social network, and higher personal safety than urban mothers. There were five significant interactions between the home and neighbourhood environment and PA/ST according to urban/rural location. Among urban children, the importance of doing PA together as a family was positively associated with ST. Interventions targeting PA and ST may need to target different factors according to urban/rural location. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Background radiation in two locations in Deaf Smith and Swisher Counties within the Palo Duro Basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1984-10-01

Data on external background radiation doses resulting from cosmic, terrestrial, and fallout sources and on concentrations of radioactivity in environmental media are presented and discussed. Doses to individuals located at the approximate centers of two locations in Texas, one in Deaf Smith County and the other in Swisher County, are given, as are the population doses to people residing within 50 miles of each of the approximate centers. No adjustments have been made for the effects of buildings on radiation doses - that is, the shielding from external radiation afforded by the buildings and radiation from building materials are not accounted for. Concentrations of radioactivity in air, water, and milk in the region are also given. Because of the lack of specific information on background radiation at the locations, the external-dose rates to people and the radioactivity levels in environmental media for the region have been taken from the literature. A background radiation survey will be conducted in the Palo Duro Basin to obtain additional data. 26 references, 3 figures, 15 tables

Characterizing Changes of Heavy Metals in the Soils from Different Urban Location of Borujerd, Lorestan Province, Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eisa Solgi

2017-09-01

Full Text Available As more people live in cities and urban areas, evaluation of urban environmental quality is nowadays an unavoidable necessity. Urbanization gives off heavy metals into urban soils and threatens the human health. In this study, urban soil samples were acquired from different locations (Public parks, streets, and squares from Borujerd, Iran. The levels of Cd and Pb in the soils, along with soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC, and particle size distribution (texture, were analyzed. Kriging method by Surfer software was employed to create the spatial distribution maps of Cd, Pb, and geoaccumulation index (Igeo. The average Cd and Pb concentrations in the surface soil samples were 2.50±1.14, and 50.37±34.77 mg/kg dry weight, respectively. The highest mean concentration of Cd was found in street soils and as for Pb in square soils. The interpolation maps illustrated the same behavior for Cd and Pb with elevated concentrations located in the southeast. The mean values of geoaccumulation index (Igeo showed that soils are moderately/strongly contaminated with Cd and moderately contaminated with Pb. In this study, traffic emission, textile industries and probably released untreated municipal wastewater into the soil are anthropogenic sources of Pb and Cd.

Instrumental and socioemotional communications in doctor-patient interactions in urban and rural clinics

OpenAIRE

Desjarlais-deKlerk, Kristen; Wallace, Jean E

2013-01-01

Background Location of practice, such as working in a rural or urban clinic, may influence how physicians communicate with their patients. This exploratory pilot study examines the communication styles used during doctor-patient interactions in urban and rural family practice settings in Western Canada. Methods We analyzed observation and interview data from four physicians practicing in these different locations. Using a grounded theory approach, communications were categorized as either ins...

Influence of background particulate matter (PM) on urban air quality in the Pacific Northwest.

Science.gov (United States)

Timonen, H; Wigder, N; Jaffe, D

2013-11-15

Elevated particulate matter concentrations due to Asian long-range transport (LRT) are frequently observed in the free troposphere (FT) above the Pacific Northwest, U.S. Transport of this aerosol from the FT to the boundary layer (BL) and its effect to local air quality remain poorly constrained. We used data collected at the Mount Bachelor observatory (MBO, 2.8 km a.s.l) and from ground stations in the Pacific Northwest to study transport of fine particulate matter (PM) from the FT to the BL. During Asian LRT episodes PM concentrations were clearly elevated above the corresponding monthly averages at MBO as well as at low elevation sites across Washington and Oregon. Also, a clear correlation between MBO and low elevation sites was observed, indicating that LRT episodes are seen in both the FT and BL. In addition, drum impactor measurements show that the chemical composition of PM at MBO was similar to that measured at the BL sites. Using a simple regression model, we estimate that during springtime, when the transport from Asia is most effective, the contribution of Asian sources to PM2.5 in clean background areas of the Pacific Northwest was on average 1.7 μg m(-3) (representing approximately 50-80% of PM). The influence of LRT PM was also seen in measurement stations situated in the urban and urban background areas. However, the fraction of LRT PM was less pronounced (36-50% of PM) due to larger local emissions in the urban areas. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecological sustainability and urban greenspace

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Attwell, K.(red.); Beer, A.(red.)

. The background of the network was to join forces in support of the developing scientific and political interest in urban greenstructure. The point of departure of the seminar was the local approach to sustainable greenspace planning and management and the special focus was the potential role of greenspace...... in relation to urban metabolism and biodiversity. The report includes contributions presented at the seminar. The Danish papers are on the town of Ringkøbing, which was the location of the seminar and the subject of the seminar workshop....

The Variations and Trends of MODIS C5 & C6 Products’ Errors in the Recent Decade over the Background and Urban Areas of North China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qi Zhang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available With ten-year (2004–2013 ground-based observations of Beijing Forest (BJF and Beijing City (BJC sites in North China, we validated the high-quality MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS Collection 5 (C5 and Collection 6 (C6 Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD products’ precision and discussed the sensors degradation issues. The annual mean AOD and Angstrom exponent (α were 0.20 ± 0.02 and 0.83 ± 0.15 in the background over the past ten years, and they were 0.59 ± 0.07 and 1.13 ± 0.08 in the urban, respectively. Ground-based AOD had both slightly declining trends, with variations of 0.023 and 0.057 over the past decade in the background and urban, respectively. There were large differences among the eight kinds of MODIS AOD products (Terra vs. Aqua, C5 vs. C6, DT (Deep Target vs. DB (Deep Blue, and DTDB in the background and urban areas, but all the products’ monthly errors had larger variations in the spring and summer, and smaller ones in the autumn and winter. In the background, more than 62% of DT matchups for C5 and C6 products were within NASA’s expected error (EE envelope. In the urban, 69%~72% of C6 DB retrievals were falling within EE envelope. The new dataset named C6 DTDB had better performance in the background, whereas it overestimated by 37%~41% in the urban caused by surface reflectivity estimation error. The range of monthly average error varied from −0.21 to 0.28 in the background and from −0.63 to 0.48 in the urban. From the background to the urban areas, the retrieval errors of Terra and Aqua had slightly increased by 0.0023~0.0158 and 0.0011~0.0124 per year, respectively, which implied that the two MODIS instruments had degraded slowly.

Alcohol consumption and binge drinking in adolescents: comparison of different migration backgrounds and rural vs. urban residence - a representative study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bleich Stefan

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Binge drinking is a constant problem behavior in adolescents across Europe. Epidemiological investigations have been reported. However, epidemiological data on alcohol consumption of adolescents with different migration backgrounds are rare. Furthermore representative data on rural-urban comparison concerning alcohol consumption and binge drinking are lacking. The aims of the study are the investigation of alcohol consumption patterns with respect to a urban-rural differences and b differences according to migration background. Methods In the years 2007/2008, a representative written survey of N = 44,610 students in the 9th. grade of different school types in Germany was carried out (net sample. The return rate of questionnaires was 88% regarding all students whose teachers respectively school directors had agreed to participate in the study. Weighting factors were specified and used to make up for regional and school-type specific differences in return rates. 27.4% of the adolescents surveyed have a migration background, whereby the Turkish culture is the largest group followed by adolescents who emigrated from former Soviet Union states. The sample includes seven large cities (over 500,000 inhabitants (12.2%, independent smaller cities ("urban districts" (19.0% and rural areas ("rural districts" (68.8%. Results Life-time prevalence for alcohol consumption differs significantly between rural (93.7% and urban areas (86.6% large cities; 89.1% smaller cities with a higher prevalence in rural areas. The same accounts for 12-month prevalence for alcohol consumption. 57.3% of the rural, re-spectively 45.9% of the urban adolescents engaged in binge drinking in the 4 weeks prior to the survey. Students with migration background of the former Soviet Union showed mainly drinking behavior similar to that of German adolescents. Adolescents with Turkish roots had engaged in binge drinking in the last four weeks less frequently than

An empirical model for predicting urban roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the UK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stedman, J.R.; Goodwin, J.W.L.; King, K.; Murrells, T.P.; Bush, T.J.

2001-01-01

An annual mean concentration of 40μgm -3 has been proposed as a limit value within the European Union Air Quality Directives and as a provisional objective within the UK National Air Quality Strategy for 2010 and 2005, respectively. Emissions reduction measures resulting from current national and international policies are likely to deliver significant reductions in emissions of oxides of nitrogen from road traffic in the near future. It is likely that there will still be exceedances of this target value in 2005 and in 2009 if national measures are considered in isolation, particularly at the roadside. It is envisaged that this 'policy gap' will be addressed by implementing local air quality management to reduce concentrations in locations that are at risk of exceeding the objective. Maps of estimated annual mean NO 2 concentrations in both urban background and roadside locations are a valuable resource for the development of UK air quality policy and for the identification of locations at which local air quality management measures may be required. Maps of annual mean NO 2 concentrations at both background and roadside locations for 1998 have been calculated using modelling methods, which make use of four mathematically straightforward, empirically derived linear relationships. Maps of projected concentrations in 2005 and 2009 have also been calculated using an illustrative emissions scenario. For this emissions scenario, annual mean urban background NO 2 concentrations in 2005 are likely to be below 40μgm -3 , in all areas except for inner London, where current national and international policies are expected to lead to concentrations in the range 40-41μgm -3 . Reductions in NO x emissions between 2005 and 2009 are expected to reduce background concentrations to the extent that our modelling results indicate that 40μgm -3 is unlikely to be exceeded in background locations by 2009. Roadside NO 2 concentrations in urban areas in 2005 and 2009 are expected to be

Using a noise monitoring station in a small quarry located in an urban area.

Science.gov (United States)

Wichers, Michiel; Iramina, Wilson Siguemasa; de Eston, Sérgio Médici; Ayres da Silva, Anna Luiza Marques

2017-12-22

Mining plays an important role in Brazilian exports. On the other hand, large urban centers like São Paulo, with approximately 21 million inhabitants, also demand an increasing domestic consumption of natural resources, such as construction aggregate. There are many quarries located in the surroundings of urban centers in Brazil, competing with the growth of urbanized areas. Such proximity leads to a series of conflicts involving quarries and surrounding communities, where the increase in noise levels is highlighted. Operations in quarries, in general, are intermittent. Noisier equipment, such as drilling rigs and primary crushers, operates only a few hours during the day, while other operations, such as screening and secondary and tertiary crushing, are more constant. This paper presents a study carried out in a quarry located near São Paulo, where in addition to conventional short term noise measurements at surrounding receptors, one noise monitoring station was installed, allowing to identify the noisiest moments during the quarry operating time. Through data transmitted by wireless technology, it was possible to follow the noise variations emitted from mining activities in real time and observe the noisiest events that were recorded for events that exceeded the established standards. A mobile application associated to this monitoring station facilitated the quarry's manager and employees to access immediately the monitoring information. Therefore, by using this system, it was possible to evaluate the effectiveness of noise reduction measures already taken and indicate what steps still need to be held.

Why rapid urbanization process cannot improve employment absorption capacity of service industry in China – also on the interactive mode innovation between service industry development with urbanization under the background of transformation and upgrading

OpenAIRE

Zeng, Shi-hong; Xia, Jie-chang

2016-01-01

Background: China is experiencing rapid urbanization and service industrial developement. Methods: In this paper, the relationship between urbanization and service employment is studied by using mathematical model and econometric test method. Results: This paper documents that there is a significant positive correlation between rapid urbanization process and services absorbing employment ability by the regression result using time-series data since China's reform and opening up. China's urban...

The quest for synergy when developing the urban fringe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Jesper Rohr; Engberg, Lars A.

How can planning policies related to urban fringe development and disadvantaged neighbourhoods create synergy? This question is approached and answered by various research fields and explored on various urban-planning levels, displaying case-studies related to urban regeneration, post......-industrial and suburban development and urban fringe literature. The present paper adds to these discussions by analysing two case-studies in Denmark in which local government pursue traditional urban-growth strategies in urban-fringe development - a post-industrial harbour and a large suburb, located just outside...... analyses this synergy by first describing the legislative, interventionist and financial context for urban-growth strategies deployed in the cases. On this background, the paper explores synergy potential related to policy as well as private-sector actors (local businesses, social housing organizations...

Fast food restaurant locations according to socioeconomic disadvantage, urban-regional locality, and schools within Victoria, Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Thornton, Lukar E; Lamb, Karen E; Ball, Kylie

2016-12-01

Features of the built environment provide opportunities to engage in both healthy and unhealthy behaviours. Access to a high number of fast food restaurants may encourage greater consumption of fast food products. The distribution of fast food restaurants at a state-level has not previously been reported in Australia. Using the location of 537 fast food restaurants from four major chains (McDonald׳s, KFC, Hungry Jacks, and Red Rooster), this study examined fast food restaurant locations across the state of Victoria relative to area-level disadvantage, urban-regional locality (classified as Major Cities, Inner Regional, or Outer Regional), and around schools. Findings revealed greater locational access to fast food restaurants in more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas (compared to areas with lower levels of disadvantage), nearby to secondary schools (compared to primary schools), and nearby to primary and secondary schools within the most disadvantaged areas of the major city region (compared to primary and secondary schools in areas with lower levels of disadvantage). Adjusted models showed no significant difference in location according to urban-regional locality. Knowledge of the distribution of fast food restaurants in Australia will assist local authorities to target potential policy mechanisms, such as planning regulations, where they are most needed.

Learning through Creating an Urban Waldorf Elementary School Background

Science.gov (United States)

Prager, Dana R.

2004-01-01

The purpose of this article is to profile an exemplary model of an urban public school. The Urban Waldorf School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a successful school based on a school level and within the context of traditional assessments. At Urban Waldorf learning through an arts-based curriculum engages the students in education in a meaningful…

Source contributions to carbonaceous species in PM2.5 and their uncertainty analysis at typical urban, peri-urban and background sites in southeast China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niu, Zhenchuan; Wang, Sen; Chen, Jinsheng; Zhang, Fuwang; Chen, Xiaoqiu; He, Chi; Lin, Lifeng; Yin, Liqian; Xu, Lingling

2013-01-01

Determination of 14 C and levoglucosan can provide insights into the quantification of source contributions to carbonaceous aerosols, yet there is still uncertainty on the partitioning of organic carbon (OC) into biomass burning OC (OC bb ) and biogenic emission OC (OC bio ). Carbonaceous species, levoglucosan and 14 C in PM 2.5 were measured at three types of site in southeast China combined with Latin hypercube sampling, with the objectives to study source contributions to total carbon (TC) and their uncertainties, and to evaluate the influence of levoglucosan/OC bb ratios on OC bb and OC bio partitioning. It was found reliably that fossil fuel combustion is the main contributor (62.90–72.23%) to TC at urban and peri-urban sites. Biogenic emissions have important contribution (winter, 52.98%; summer, 45.71%) to TC at background site. With the increase in levoglucosan/OC bb ratios, the contribution of OC bio is increased while OC bb is decreased in a pattern of approximate natural logarithm at a given range. -- Highlights: •Source contributions to OC and EC were quantified by levoglucosan and 14 C. •Fossil fuel combustion is the main contributor to TC for urban and peri-urban sites. •Biogenic emissions have important contribution to TC for the background site. •Biomass burning is a minor contributor to TC and has high contribution in winter. •Ratios of OC bio and OC bb to TC have a natural logarithmic relation with lev/OC bb . -- The contributions of OC bio and OC bb to TC have a natural logarithmic relationship with the levoglucosan/OC bb ratios

Do slums matter? Location and early childhood preventive care choices among urban residents of Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Heller, Lauren R

2013-10-01

Upward trends in the relative proportions of slum residents in developing countries have led to widespread concern regarding the impact of slum residency on health behaviors. Measurement of these impacts requires recognizing that unobservable household characteristics that affect the location decision may also affect health care choices and outcomes. To address the potential for bias, this paper models the location decision and the household's demand for maternal and child health services simultaneously using a flexible, semi-parametric approach. It uses a unique urban data set from Bangladesh that incorporates sophisticated geographical mapping techniques to carefully delineate between slum and non-slum areas at a particular point in time. The results suggest that accounting for the endogenous location decision of a family substantially reduces bias in estimated marginal effects of slum residence on preventive care demand. While community infrastructure variables appear correlated with preventive care demand, the causal effect of the availability of primary health care facilities is indistinguishable from zero when unobserved heterogeneity is taken into account. The findings suggest that improvements in community infrastructure in urban areas of developing countries are a more favorable health policy solution at the margin than the construction of additional health care facilities. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oxidized Nitrogen Balance over 15 Months at Rural and Urban New York State Locations

Science.gov (United States)

Schwab, J. J.; Ninneman, M.; Marto, J.; Edgerton, E. S.; Blanchard, C. L.; Shaw, S. L.

2017-12-01

Continuous measurements of oxidized nitrogen species (NO, NO2, and HNO3), families of species (NOy, alkyl nitrates [or ANs], and peroxyacetyl nitrates [or PANs]), and particle nitrate (pNO3) were carried out for a fifteen-month period from August 2016 through October 2017 at two locations in New York State. The two sites were a rural research station at Pinnacle State Park in Addison, NY and an urban research station at Queens College in New York City. Four different chemiluminescence analyzers with various converters and denuders were employed to make these measurements. Instrumentation used for the study will be described, as well as some of the challenges created by combining data from these independent analyzers to address the oxidized nitrogen budget at the two sites. The Pinnacle State Park site often experiences quite clean air with low ppb levels of total NOy and a greater fraction of oxidized nitrogen products (NOz species). This contrasts with the urban Queens College location, which experiences stronger NOx sources. Seasonal differences in the NOx/NOy and NOz/NOy ratios, and the makeup of the NOz species, are also significant and will be explored in the presentation.

Urban amenities and agglomeration economies? : the locational behaviour and economic success of Dutch fashion design entrepreneurs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wenting, R.; Atzema, O.A.L.C.; Frenken, K.

2011-01-01

The spatial clustering of industries is traditionally explained by agglomeration economies benefiting co-located firms. The focus on firms rather than people has been challenged by Florida arguing that urban amenities attract creative people to certain cities. On the basis of a questionnaire, an

Sub-micron particle number size distribution characteristics at two urban locations in Leicester

Science.gov (United States)

Hama, Sarkawt M. L.; Cordell, Rebecca L.; Kos, Gerard P. A.; Weijers, E. P.; Monks, Paul S.

2017-09-01

The particle number size distribution (PNSD) of atmospheric particles not only provides information about sources and atmospheric processing of particles, but also plays an important role in determining regional lung dose. Owing to the importance of PNSD in understanding particulate pollution two short-term campaigns (March-June 2014) measurements of sub-micron PNSD were conducted at two urban background locations in Leicester, UK. At the first site, Leicester Automatic Urban Rural Network (AURN), the mean number concentrations of nucleation, Aitken, accumulation modes, the total particles, equivalent black carbon (eBC) mass concentrations were 2002, 3258, 1576, 6837 # cm-3, 1.7 μg m-3, respectively, and at the second site, Brookfield (BF), were 1455, 2407, 874, 4737 # cm-3, 0.77 μg m-3, respectively. The total particle number was dominated by the nucleation and Aitken modes, with both consisting of 77%, and 81% of total number concentrations at AURN and BF sites, respectively. This behaviour could be attributed to primary emissions (traffic) of ultrafine particles and the temporal evolution of mixing layer. The size distribution at the AURN site shows bimodal distribution at 22 nm with a minor peak at 70 nm. The size distribution at BF site, however, exhibits unimodal distribution at 35 nm. This study has for the first time investigated the effect of Easter holiday on PNSD in UK. The temporal variation of PNSD demonstrated a good degree of correlation with traffic-related pollutants (NOX, and eBC at both sites). The meteorological conditions, also had an impact on the PNSD and eBC at both sites. During the measurement period, the frequency of NPF events was calculated to be 13.3%, and 22.2% at AURN and BF sites, respectively. The average value of formation and growth rates of nucleation mode particles were 1.3, and 1.17 cm-3 s-1 and 7.42, and 5.3 nm h-1 at AURN, and BF sites, respectively. It can suggested that aerosol particles in Leicester originate mainly

A multiobjective modeling approach to locate multi-compartment containers for urban-sorted waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tralhao, Lino; Coutinho-Rodrigues, Joao; Alcada-Almeida, Luis

2010-01-01

The location of multi-compartment sorted waste containers for recycling purposes in cities is an important problem in the context of urban waste management. The costs associated with those facilities and the impacts placed on populations are important concerns. This paper introduces a mixed-integer, multiobjective programming approach to identify the locations and capacities of such facilities. The approach incorporates an optimization model in a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based interactive decision support system that includes four objectives. The first objective minimizes the total investment cost; the second one minimizes the average distance from dwellings to the respective multi-compartment container; the last two objectives address the 'pull' and 'push' characteristics of the decision problem, one by minimizing the number of individuals too close to any container, and the other by minimizing the number of dwellings too far from the respective multi-compartment container. The model determines the number of facilities to be opened, the respective container capacities, their locations, their respective shares of the total waste of each type to be collected, and the dwellings assigned to each facility. The approach proposed was tested with a case study for the historical center of Coimbra city, Portugal, where a large urban renovation project, addressing about 800 buildings, is being undertaken. This paper demonstrates that the models and techniques incorporated in the interactive decision support system (IDSS) can be used to assist a decision maker (DM) in analyzing this complex problem in a realistically sized urban application. Ten solutions consisting of different combinations of underground containers for the disposal of four types of sorted waste in 12 candidate sites, were generated. These solutions and tradeoffs among the objectives are presented to the DM via tables, graphs, color-coded maps and other graphics. The DM can then use this

Decisions of hypermarkets location in dense urban area – effects on streets network congestion in the Bucharest case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eugen ROSCA

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The paper represents some partial results of the research carried out by the Transportation, Traffic and Logistics Department - University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, funded by the Romanian Ministry of Research and Education through the National University Research Council. In this paper we provide: a brief description of the interrelation between the life style changes of Romanian people during the last decades and the car traffic congestion in large cities; the streets network modelling of a radial-circular urban structure (the characteristic of a historically developed city as Bucharest city is, in case of car traffic congestion; the assessment model of the additional car traffic congestion for certain locations with large attractivity. Having an important effect on the entire lifestyle of urban people, the decision of a hypermarket location might be a complex one, taking into consideration the new leisure and shopping tendencies but also the additional car traffic congestion caused by the chosen location.

Monitoring the Change in Urban Vegetation in 13 Chilean Cities Located in a Rainfall Gradient. What is the Contribution of the Widespread Creation of New Urban Parks?

Science.gov (United States)

de la Barrera, Francisco; Henríquez, Cristian

2017-10-01

The well-being of people living in cities is strongly dependent on the existence of urban vegetation because of the ecosystem services or benefits it provides. This is why governments develop plans to create green spaces, plant trees, promote the maintenance of vegetation in private spaces and also monitor their status over time. In Latin America, and particularly in Chile, the increase of urban vegetation has been stimulated through different initiatives and regulations. However, development of monitoring programs at the national level is scarce, so it is yet unknown if these initiatives and regulations have had positive effects. In this article, we monitor the change in urban vegetation in 13 Chilean cities located in a latitudinal gradient of practically zero to almost 1800 mm of annual rainfall. We calculated the trends in NDVI (2000-2016) as an indicator of change in urban greenery using data from the MODIS Subsets platform. Likewise, to assess whether the initiatives have had an effect we quantified the number of urban parks existing at the beginning of the period and how many were created during the study period. For this, we analysed official databases and high spatial resolution satellite images. Armed with said data, we assessed whether these new parks had impacted the tendency toward change in urban greenery. The results indicate that, in general, Chilean cities vary greatly inter-annually in urban greenery and have lost urban vegetation in the last 16 years, with significant losses in four of those cities. Two cities located in desert ecosystems represent an exception and showed positive trends in their urban vegetation. The rainfall in cities has an impact on the amount of vegetation, but not on their tendency to change, i.e. there are cities with loss of vegetation at all levels of precipitation. The creation of parks has not been able to reverse negative trends, which indicates the prevalence of other drivers of change that are not sufficiently

Landscape scale assessment of ecosystem goods and services and the extent, location, and magnitude of urban-suburban expansion

Science.gov (United States)

Human development adjoining coastal cities is the prevalent force changing the Anthropocene landscape. The extent, location, and magnitude of urban-suburban expansion can drastically modify how important features of ecosystems are effected. These effects are best summarized usin...

Response of Stream Chemistry During Base Flow to Gradients of Urbanization in Selected Locations Across the Conterminous United States, 2002-04

Science.gov (United States)

Sprague, Lori A.; Harned, Douglas A.; Hall, David W.; Nowell, Lisa H.; Bauch, Nancy J.; Richards, Kevin D.

2007-01-01

During 2002-2004, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program conducted a study to determine the effects of urbanization on stream water quality and aquatic communities in six environmentally heterogeneous areas of the conterminous United States--Atlanta, Georgia; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wisconsin; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon. This report compares and contrasts the response of stream chemistry during base flow to urbanization in different environmental settings and examines the relation between the exceedance of water-quality benchmarks and the level of urbanization in these areas. Chemical characteristics studied included concentrations of nutrients, dissolved pesticides, suspended sediment, sulfate, and chloride in base flow. In three study areas where the background land cover in minimally urbanized basins was predominantly forested (Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, and Portland), urban development was associated with increased concentrations of nitrogen and total herbicides in streams. In Portland, there was evidence of mixed agricultural and urban influences at sites with 20 to 50 percent urban land cover. In two study areas where agriculture was the predominant background land cover (Milwaukee-Green Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth), concentrations of nitrogen and herbicides were flat or decreasing as urbanization increased. In Denver, which had predominantly shrub/grass as background land cover, nitrogen concentrations were only weakly related to urbanization, and total herbicide concentrations did not show any clear pattern relative to land cover - perhaps because of extensive water management in the study area. In contrast, total insecticide concentrations increased with increasing urbanization in all six study areas, likely due to high use of insecticides in urban applications and, for some study areas, the proximity of urban land cover to the sampling sites. Phosphorus

Modelling a suitable location for Urban Solid Waste Management using AHP method and GIS -A geospatial approach and MCDM Model

Science.gov (United States)

Iqbal, M.; Islam, A.; Hossain, A.; Mustaque, S.

2016-12-01

Multi-Criteria Decision Making(MCDM) is advanced analytical method to evaluate appropriate result or decision from multiple criterion environment. Present time in advanced research, MCDM technique is progressive analytical process to evaluate a logical decision from various conflict. In addition, Present day Geospatial approach (e.g. Remote sensing and GIS) also another advanced technical approach in a research to collect, process and analyze various spatial data at a time. GIS and Remote sensing together with the MCDM technique could be the best platform to solve a complex decision making process. These two latest process combined very effectively used in site selection for solid waste management in urban policy. The most popular MCDM technique is Weighted Linear Method (WLC) where Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is another popular and consistent techniques used in worldwide as dependable decision making. Consequently, the main objective of this study is improving a AHP model as MCDM technique with Geographic Information System (GIS) to select a suitable landfill site for urban solid waste management. Here AHP technique used as a MCDM tool to select the best suitable landfill location for urban solid waste management. To protect the urban environment in a sustainable way municipal waste needs an appropriate landfill site considering environmental, geological, social and technical aspect of the region. A MCDM model generate from five class related which related to environmental, geological, social and technical using AHP method and input the result set in GIS for final model location for urban solid waste management. The final suitable location comes out that 12.2% of the area corresponds to 22.89 km2 considering the total study area. In this study, Keraniganj sub-district of Dhaka district in Bangladesh is consider as study area which is densely populated city currently undergoes an unmanaged waste management system especially the suitable landfill sites for

Current Use of E-Cigarettes and Conventional Cigarettes Among US High School Students in Urban and Rural Locations: 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Noland, Melody; Rayens, Mary Kay; Wiggins, Amanda T; Huntington-Moskos, Luz; Rayens, Emily A; Howard, Tiffany; Hahn, Ellen J

2017-01-01

Adolescent tobacco use is higher in rural than in urban areas. While e-cigarette use is increasing rapidly among this age group, differences in prevalence between rural versus urban populations for this relatively novel product have not been explored. The purpose is to investigate whether location of school (rural-urban) is associated with e-cigarette use and dual use (defined as the use of both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes) among high school students. Cross-sectional survey obtained using a stratified, 3-stage cluster sample design. United States. A nationally representative sample of US high school students (N = 11 053) who completed the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS); slightly more than half were urban (54%). The NYTS measures tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and use behavior and demographics of students in the United States. Weighted logistic regression assessed the relationships of urban-rural location with current e-cigarette use and dual use, adjusting for demographic factors, perceived risk, and social norms. There were clear differences in patterns of adolescent e-cigarette and cigarette use in rural versus urban areas. Social norms and perceptions may play a role in understanding these differences. Urban youth current cigarette smokers were nearly twice as likely as rural cigarette smokers to also use e-cigarettes. Reasons for urban-rural differences need to be taken into account when designing prevention programs and policy changes.

Planning Emergency Shelters for Urban Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Location-Allocation Modeling Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laijun Zhao

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In recent years, extreme natural hazards threaten cities more than ever due to contemporary society’s high vulnerability in cities. Hence, local governments need to implement risk mitigation and disaster operation management to enhance disaster resilience in cities. Transforming existing open spaces within cities into emergency shelters is an effective method of providing essential life support and an agent of recovery in the wake of disasters. Emergency shelters planning must identify suitable locations for shelters and reasonably allocate evacuees to those shelters. In this paper, we first consider both the buildings’ post-disaster condition and the human choice factor that affect evacuees’ decision, and propose a forecasting method to estimate the time-varying shelter demand. Then we formulate an integrated location-allocation model that is used sequentially: an emergency shelter location model to satisfy the time-varying shelter demand in a given urban area with a goal of minimizing the total setup cost of locating the shelters and an allocation model that allocates the evacuees to shelters with a goal of minimizing their total evacuation distance. We also develop an efficient algorithm to solve the model. Finally, we propose an emergency shelters planning based on a case study of Shanghai, China.

Urban design against the background of biosphere and social processes

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Ivanova Zinaida

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this article, the co-authors tackle the problem of the social sense and mission of the projects developed by urban planners and architects. The co-authors address the key issue of the present-day architectonics, that is, the ability and willingness of urban designers to give consideration to the environment, or the local landscape, to assure the harmonious co-existence of the biosphere and the needs of the society in Smart city. The co-authors compare the spatial organization principles of eastern and western cultures; they also track the patterns of their implementation in the present-day architectonics. The co-authors provide the findings of the public opinion pollabout the urban environment layout. Students of the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (Russia acted as the respondents. The co-authors employed the findings of the document analysis and the opinion poll to develop recommendations for architects and urban designers in respect of social and ecological needs of urban residents.

24 CFR 110.15 - Location of posters.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Location of posters. 110.15 Section 110.15 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban Development OFFICE OF... HOUSING POSTER Requirements for Display of Posters § 110.15 Location of posters. All fair housing posters...

Detailed Comparison of OC/EC Aerosol at an Urban and a Rural Czech Background Site during Summer and Winter

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vodička, Petr; Schwarz, Jaroslav; Cusack, Michael; Ždímal, Vladimír

518-519, JUN 15 (2015), s. 424-433 ISSN 0048-9697 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP209/11/1342 Institutional support: RVO:67985858 Keywords : carbonaceous aerosol * urban and rural background * organic carbon fractions Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry Impact factor: 3.976, year: 2015

A rural/urban comparison of privacy and confidentiality concerns associated with providing sensitive location information in epidemiologic research involving persons who use drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudolph, Abby E; Young, April M; Havens, Jennifer R

2017-11-01

Analyses that link contextual factors with individual-level data can improve our understanding of the "risk environment"; however, the accuracy of information provided by participants about locations where illegal/stigmatized behaviors occur may be influenced by privacy/confidentiality concerns that may vary by setting and/or data collection approach. We recruited thirty-five persons who use drugs from a rural Appalachian town and a Mid-Atlantic city to participate in in-depth interviews. Through thematic analyses, we identified and compared privacy/confidentiality concerns associated with two survey methods that (1) collect self-reported addresses/cross-streets and (2) use an interactive web-based map to find/confirm locations in rural and urban settings. Concerns differed more by setting than between methods. For example, (1) rural participants valued interviewer rapport and protections provided by the Certificate of Confidentiality more; (2) locations considered to be sensitive differed in rural (i.e., others' homes) and urban (i.e., where drugs were used) settings; and (3) urban participants were more likely to view providing cross-streets as an acceptable alternative to providing exact addresses for sensitive locations and to prefer the web-based map approach. Rural-urban differences in privacy/confidentiality concerns reflect contextual differences (i.e., where drugs are used/purchased, population density, and prior drug-related arrests). Strategies to alleviate concerns include: (1) obtain a Certificate of Confidentiality, (2) collect geographic data at the scale necessary for proposed analyses, and (3) permit participants to provide intersections/landmarks in close proximity to actual locations rather than exact addresses or to skip questions where providing an intersection/landmark would not obfuscate the actual address. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Background noise analysis in urban airport surroundings of Brazilian cities, Congonhas Airport, São Paulo

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Fabio Scatolini

Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To perform a quantitative analysis of the background noise at Congonhas Airport surroundings based on large sampling and measurements with no interruption. METHODS Measuring sites were chosen from 62 and 72 DNL (day-night-level noise contours, in urban sites compatible with residential use. Fifteen sites were monitored for at least 168 hours without interruption or seven consecutive days. Data compilation was based on cross-reference between noise measurements and air traffic control records, and results were validated by airport meteorological reports. Preliminary diagnoses were established using the standard NBR-13368. Background noise values were calculated based on the Sound Exposure Level (SEL. Statistic parameters were calculated in one-hour intervals. RESULTS Only four of the fifteen sites assessed presented aircraft operations as a clear cause for the noise annoyance. Even so, it is possible to detect background noise levels above regulation limits during periods of low airport activity or when it closes at night. CONCLUSIONS All the sites monitored showed background noise levels above regulation limits between 7:00 and 21:00. In the intervals between 6:00-6:59 and 21:00-22:59 the noise data, when analyzed with the current airport operational characteristics, still allow the development of additional mitigating measures.

Multisite study of particle number concentrations in urban air.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, Roy M; Jones, Alan M

2005-08-15

Particle number concentration data are reported from a total of eight urban site locations in the United Kingdom. Of these, six are central urban background sites, while one is an urban street canyon (Marylebone Road) and another is influenced by both a motorway and a steelworks (Port Talbot). The concentrations are generally of a similar order to those reported in the literature, although higher than those in some of the other studies. Highest concentrations are at the Marylebone Road site and lowest are at the Port Talbot site. The central urban background locations lie somewhere between with concentrations typically around 20 000 cm(-3). A seasonal pattern affects all sites, with highest concentrations in the winter months and lowest concentrations in the summer. Data from all sites show a diurnal variation with a morning rush hour peak typical of an anthropogenic pollutant. When the dilution effects of windspeed are accounted for, the data show little directionality at the central urban background sites indicating the influence of sources from all directions as might be expected if the major source were road traffic. At the London Marylebone Road site there is high directionality driven by the air circulation in the street canyon, and at the Port Talbot site different diurnal patterns are seen for particle number count and PM10 influenced by emissions from road traffic (particle number count) and the steelworks (PM10) and local meteorological factors. Hourly particle number concentrations are generally only weakly correlated to NO(x) and PM10, with the former showing a slightly closer relationship. Correlations between daily average particle number count and PM10 were also weak. Episodes of high PM10 concentration in summer typically show low particle number concentrations consistent with transport of accumulation mode secondary aerosol, while winter episodes are frequently associated with high PM10 and particle number count arising from poor dispersion of

Patient’s expectation on communication performances community of Dental Health Services providers located in urban and rural area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taufan Bramantoro

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The quality of dentist’s communication skills is considered as one of important aspects on the quality of dental health services assessment. During the initial interview conducted at Ketabang, Dupak, and Kepadangan community dental health services at Surabaya and Sidoarjo, Indonesia, it appeared that eighty percent of initial respondents were not satisfied with the communication aspect. Community Dental Health Services (CDHS need to assess the communication performances based on community characteristics in effort to promote the quality and effectiveness of the denta health services. Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyze patient’s expectation values priorities on dentists' communication performances in CDHS that located in urban and rural area. Methods: The study was conducted in Ketabang Surabaya, Dupak Surabaya and Kepadangan Sidoarjo CDHSs. The participants were 400 patients above 18 years old. Participants were assessed their expectation value using the communication performances of dental health services questionnaire. Results: Patients in urban CDHS appeared that there were two priority aspects which had high values, namely the clarity of instructions and the dentist’s ability of active listening to the patient, while patients in rural CDHS revealed that the clarity of instructions and dentist-patient relationship were the aspects with high values. Conclusion: Patients in CDHS that located in rural area expect more dentist-patient interpersonal relationship performance than patients in CDHS located in urban area. This finding becomes a valuable information for CDHS to develop communication strategies based on community characteristics.Latar belakang: Kualitas komunikasi dari dokter gigi merupakan salah satu aspek penting dalam penilaian kualitas layanan suatu sarana pelayanan kesehatan. Pada wawancara pendahuluan yang dilaksanakan di puskesmas Ketabang, Dupak dan Kepadangan di Surabaya dan Sidoarjo

Trend analysis of urban NO2 concentrations and the importance of direct NO2 emissions versus ozone/NOx equilibrium

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keuken, M.; Roemer, M.; Elshout, S. van den

2009-01-01

The annual air quality standard of NO2 is often exceeded in urban areas near heavy traffic locations. Despite significant decrease of NOx emissions in 1986-2005 in the industrial and harbour area near Rotterdam, NO2 concentrations at the urban background remain at the same level since the end of the

Environmental perspective of Location Based Services and Light Goods Vehicles in urban areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The article looks at the underexplored area of light goods vehicle (LGV operation. Specifically, it is investigated to what extent various location based services (LBS can be applied in the context of LGV operation in order to improve their environmental friendliness in urban areas. In doing so, LBS applied in real time navigation, dynamic fleet management, freight tracking and monitoring, hazardous materials transport, location-specific tolls and taxes and geo-eco-driving are described in relation to their usefulness in LGV operation as well as the potential in reducing LGV-originating pollution. Where available, real world examples of such applications are given. The discussion reveals particular significance in that context of real time navigation and dynamic fleet management, which are widely applicable solutions in LGVs operation. Freight monitoring and tracking, including hazardous materials transport, have been also found to be of an importance due, yet with a more limited applicability. As regards location-specific tolls and taxes, and geo-eco-driving, significant potential of these LBS has been identified, yet due to their very limited applicability in general, no robust conclusions could be drawn. Last but not least, a significant gap in the detailed knowledge regarding the area has been revealed and directions for further research have been suggested.

Urban design and the tracking of secondary school students in the urban landscape

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harder, Henrik; Bro, Peter; Knudsen, Anne-Marie Sanvig

2012-01-01

Recent developments in the global positioning system (GPS) and the global system for mobile communications have enabled an increasingly simple and cost-effective tracking of human activity in urban areas through the use of mobile telephony for the collection of vast amounts of location-based data....... From an urban design perspective, location-based datasets concerning collective or individual spatial behaviour in urban areas are highly interesting. By combining the data with existing information on urban elements such as the location of plazas, shops, etc., infinitely detailed mappings...... of the interplay between users’ individual behaviours and urban elements can be gathered, but this requires accessible ways of representation. Further questions should address other, value-based choices concerning urban design. In the following we demonstrate a number of ways in which the collected data enable...

Synthetic musk fragrances in urban and rural air of Iowa and the Great Lakes

Science.gov (United States)

Peck, Aaron M.; Hornbuckle, Keri C.

Synthetic musk fragrances are semivolatile organic compounds used to scent a variety of household and personal care products. In this study, six polycyclic musk fragrances (HHCB, AHTN, ATII, AHMI, ADBI, and DPMI) and two nitro musk fragrances (musk xylene and musk ketone) were evaluated in 181 air samples collected at urban, suburban, and rural sites in Iowa and the Great Lakes. This is the largest reported study of the compounds in ambient air and reveals the ubiquitous nature of these environmental contaminants. HHCB and AHTN were detected most frequently and at the highest concentrations at all sites. Synthetic musk fragrance concentrations were highest in urban locations, including Milwaukee, WI (previously reported) and an urban location in Cedar Rapids, IA. Urban concentrations of HHCB and AHTN are on the order of 1-5 ng m -3 and background terrestrial concentrations are about an order of magnitude less. In rural Iowa, the concentrations and frequency of detection of the synthetic musk fragrances are comparable to (and often greater than) gas-phase pesticide concentrations. The concentrations measured at the suburban location in Iowa City, IA and over the Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Michigan were generally intermediate of those measured at the rural and urban locations. Concentrations of HHCB and AHTN were correlated with temperature at the sampling sites in Iowa.

Spatial Linkage and Urban Expansion: AN Urban Agglomeration View

Science.gov (United States)

Jiao, L. M.; Tang, X.; Liu, X. P.

2017-09-01

Urban expansion displays different characteristics in each period. From the perspective of the urban agglomeration, studying the spatial and temporal characteristics of urban expansion plays an important role in understanding the complex relationship between urban expansion and network structure of urban agglomeration. We analyze urban expansion in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRD) through accessibility to and spatial interaction intensity from core cities as well as accessibility of road network. Results show that: (1) Correlation between urban expansion intensity and spatial indicators such as location and space syntax variables is remarkable and positive, while it decreases after rapid expansion. (2) Urban expansion velocity displays a positive correlation with spatial indicators mentioned above in the first (1980-1990) and second (1990-2000) period. However, it exhibits a negative relationship in the third period (2000-2010), i.e., cities located in the periphery of urban agglomeration developing more quickly. Consequently, the hypothesis of convergence of urban expansion in rapid expansion stage is put forward. (3) Results of Zipf's law and Gibrat's law show urban expansion in YRD displays a convergent trend in rapid expansion stage, small and medium-sized cities growing faster. This study shows that spatial linkage plays an important but evolving role in urban expansion within the urban agglomeration. In addition, it serves as a reference to the planning of Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration and regulation of urban expansion of other urban agglomerations.

Establishing an air pollution monitoring network for intra-urban population exposure assessment : a location-allocation approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kanaroglou, P.S. [McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). School of Geography and Geology; Jerrett, M.; Beckerman, B.; Arain, M.A. [McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). School of Geography and Geology]|[McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). McMaster Inst. of Environment and Health; Morrison, J. [Carleton Univ., Ottawa, ON (Canada). School of Computer Science; Gilbert, N.L. [Health Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada). Air Health Effects Div; Brook, J.R. [Meteorological Service of Canada, Toronto, ON (Canada)

2004-10-01

A study was conducted to assess the relation between traffic-generated air pollution and health reactions ranging from childhood asthma to mortality from lung cancer. In particular, it developed a formal method of optimally locating a dense network of air pollution monitoring stations in order to derive an exposure assessment model based on the data obtained from the monitoring stations and related land use, population and biophysical information. The method for determining the locations of 100 nitrogen dioxide monitors in Toronto, Ontario focused on land use, transportation infrastructure and the distribution of at-risk populations. The exposure assessment produced reasonable estimates at the intra-urban scale. This method for locating air pollution monitors effectively maximizes sampling coverage in relation to important socio-demographic characteristics and likely pollution variability. The location-allocation approach integrates many variables into the demand surface to reconfigure a monitoring network and is especially useful for measuring traffic pollutants with fine-scale spatial variability. The method also shows great promise for improving the assessment of exposure to ambient air pollution in epidemiologic studies. 19 refs., 3 tabs., 4 figs.

Diurnal cycling of urban aerosols under different weather regimes

Science.gov (United States)

Gregorič, Asta; Drinovec, Luka; Močnik, Griša; Remškar, Maja; Vaupotič, Janja; Stanič, Samo

2016-04-01

A one month measurement campaign was performed in summer 2014 in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia (population 280,000), aiming to study temporal and spatial distribution of urban aerosols and the mixing state of primary and secondary aerosols. Two background locations were chosen for this purpose, the first one in the city center (urban background - KIS) and the second one in the suburban background (Brezovica). Simultaneous measurements of black carbon (BC) and particle number size distribution of submicron aerosols (PM1) were conducted at both locations. In the summer season emission from traffic related sources is expected to be the main local contribution to BC concentration. Concentrations of aerosol species and gaseous pollutants within the planetary boundary layer are controlled by the balance between emission sources of primary aerosols and gases, production of secondary aerosols, chemical reactions of precursor gases under solar radiation and the rate of dilution by mixing within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) as well as with tropospheric air. Only local emission sources contribute to BC concentration during the stable PBL with low mixing layer height, whereas during the time of fully mixed PBL, regionally transported BC and other aerosols can contribute to the surface measurements. The study describes the diurnal behaviour of the submicron aerosol at the urban and suburban background location under different weather regimes. Particles in three size modes - nucleation (humidity, wind speed and direction), diurnal profile differs for sunny, cloudy and rainy days. Nucleation mode particles were found to be subjected to lower daily variation and only slightly influenced by weather, as opposed to Aitken and accumulation mode particles. The highest correlation between BC and particle number concentration is observed during stable atmospheric conditions in the night and morning hours and is attributed to different particle size modes, depending on the

Time-resolved measurements of black carbon light absorption enhancement in urban and near-urban locations of southern Ontario, Canada

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. W. Chan

2011-10-01

Full Text Available In this study a photoacoustic spectrometer (PA, a laser-induced incandescence instrument system (LII and an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer were operated in parallel for in-situ measurements of black carbon (BC light absorption enhancement. Results of a thermodenuder experiment using ambient particles in Toronto are presented first to show that LII measurements of BC are not influenced by the presence of non-refractory material thus providing true atmospheric BC mass concentrations. In contrast, the PA response is enhanced when the non-refractory material is internally mixed with the BC particles. Through concurrent measurements using the LII and PA the specific absorption cross-section (SAC can be quantified with high time resolution (1 min. Comparisons of ambient PA and LII measurements from four different locations (suburban Toronto; a street canyon with diesel bus traffic in Ottawa; adjacent to a commuter highway in Ottawa and; regional background air in and around Windsor, Ontario, show that different impacts from emission sources and/or atmospheric processes result in different particle light absorption enhancements and hence variations in the SAC. The diversity of measurements obtained, including those with the thermodenuder, demonstrated that it is possible to identify measurements where the presence of externally-mixed non-refractory particles obscures direct observation of the effect of coating material on the SAC, thus allowing this effect to be measured with more confidence. Depending upon the time and location of measurement (urban, rural, close to and within a lake breeze frontal zone, 30 min average SAC varies between 9 ± 2 and 43 ± 4 m² g⁻¹. Causes of this variation, which were determined through the use of meteorological and gaseous measurements (CO, SO₂, O₃, include the particle emission source, airmass source region, the degree of atmospheric processing. Observations from this study

Participatory urbanism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ejsing-Duun, Stine

2016-01-01

cannot directly influence their structures, they can influence their contours through such leisure practices. In this chapter focus will be on how citizens’ engagement in locative leisure activities may allow them to co-create urban space. This participatory urbanism is a form of everyday democracy......Urban areas are planned structures that cannot easily be changed. Urban areas do however still afford physical spaces for various types of leisure expression and participation, from street art to parkour and from urban gaming to artistic happenings. Thus, while citizens who inhabit the urban areas...

Planning Urban Development from an Outsider’s Perspective: Siem Reap, the Backdrop of Changing Urban Representations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adele Esposito

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This article explores the internationalization of urban planning in Siem Reap, the town situated as the gateway to the Archaeological Park of Angkor. After Angkor was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1992, international donors and consultants have been involved in the management of Siem Reap Province, where the archaeological park is located. Not only have they been engaged in the conservation and the enhancement of the  archaeological heritage, but they have also planned the future development of nearby Siem Reap. Foreign consultants, coming from Europe and East Asia, have tried to determine what the best suitable models and tools for the urban development of Siem Reap should be, while tourism development and foreign investments were constantly growing. No planning proposal implemented has been completely successful but, several teams of international consultants have carried out new plans that acknowledged the evolution of the urban context. In this article, I question the representation of urban space formulated by these plans and the way they were constructed by consultants coming from different cultural backgrounds and having specific objectives. The article describes how Siem Reap’s built heritage and recent urban phenomena are perceived and analyzes how internationally shared notions and principles (e.g., the discourse of “sustainable development” influence the imagination of future urban development. Faced with the failure of this series of plans, Siem Reap appears to be the backdrop to where evolving urban imagination takes place.

Natural indoor gamma background in an urban environment of Southern Poland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koperski, J.

1984-01-01

A regional survey of indoor exposure to natural gamma background from terrestrial sources was performed in the urban environment of six administrative provinces of Southern Poland. 1351 dwelling houses at 144 localities were monitored using of LiF:Mg,Ti thermoluminescence dosemeters. The dose rates observed indoors were between 32 and 185 nGy.h -1 and were strongly dependent on the types of building materials used in the dwellings monitored. The highest mean provincial values were found in slag and fly-ash dwellings (77-123 nGy.h -1 ), while in wooden dwellings these values were the lowest (42-51 nGy.h -1 ). Intermediate values occurred in clay brick dwellings (57-102 nGy.h -1 ), in dwellings of mixed, wooden-brick construction (60-79 nGy,h -1 ) and in dwellings made of gravel-sand prefabricates (52-68 nGy.h -1 ). The calculated mean annual per capita effective dose equivalent rates ranged between 0.2 mSv.y -1 , for the inhabitants of wooden houses, and 0.6 mSv.y -1 for those living in houses made of coal by-product prefabricates. (author)

Aromatic hydrocarbons at urban, sub-urban, rural (8°52'N; 67°19'W) and remote sites in Venezuela

Science.gov (United States)

Holzinger, R.; Kleiss, B.; Donoso, L.; Sanhueza, E.

Using the novel on-line proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) technique, atmospheric concentrations of benzene, toluene, xylenes, and C 9-benzenes were measured in Caracas (urban), Altos de Pipe (sub-urban), Calabozo (rural) and Parupa (remote), during various campaigns in 1999 and 2000. Average daytime mixing ratios measured in Caracas are 1.1, 3.2, 3.7, and 2.7 nmol/mol for benzene, toluene, xylenes, and C 9-benzenes. At the sub-urban site, located only few km from Caracas, relatively low levels (˜20% of the levels measured in Caracas) of these aromatic hydrocarbons were observed. At the rural site during the dry season, higher concentrations of benzene (0.15 nmol/mol) were recorded, whereas those of toluene (0.08 nmol/mol) were lower during that time. The aromatic hydrocarbon ratios in the wet season (benzene: 0.08 nmol/mol; toluene: 0.09 nmol/mol) are consistent with an aged urban plume, whereas biomass burning emissions dominate during the dry season. From rural and urban [benzene]/[toluene] ratios a mean HO concentration of 2.6×10 6 molecules/cm 3 was estimated during the wet season. This value must be considered an overestimate because it does not account for background concentrations which are likely for benzene and toluene. At the remote "La Gran Sabana" region (Parupa) very low mixing ratios (0.031 and 0.015 nmol/mol for benzene and toluene) are showing the pristine region to be unaffected by local sources. From the [benzene]/[toluene] ratio we deduced, that "urban" air arriving from the coastline (350 km) is likely mixed with air containing some background of benzene and toluene. Urban emissions (automobiles) should be the major source of aromatic compounds, however, during the dry season biomass burning seems to make an important contribution.

A new model to understand the career choice and practice location decisions of medical graduates.

Science.gov (United States)

Stagg, P; Greenhill, J; Worley, P S

2009-01-01

Australian medical education is increasingly influenced by rural workforce policy. Therefore, understanding the influences on medical graduates' practice location and specialty choice is crucial for medical educators and medical workforce planners. The South Australian Flinders University Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC) was funded by the Australian Government to help address the rural doctor workforce shortage. The PRCC was the first community based medical education program in Australia to teach a full academic year of medicine in South Australian rural general practices. The aim of this research was to identify what factors influence the career choices of PRCC graduates. A retrospective survey of all contactable graduates of the PRCC was undertaken. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS 14.0 for Windows. Qualitative data were entered into NVIVO 7 software for coding, and analysed using content analysis. Usable data were collected from 46 of the 86 contactable graduates (53%). More than half of the respondents (54%) reported being on a rural career path. A significant relationship exists between being on a rural career pathway and making the decision prior to or during medical school (p = 0.027), and between graduates in vocational training who are on an urban career path and making a decision on career specialty after graduation from medical school (p = .004). Graduates in a general practice vocational training program are more likely to be on a rural career pathway than graduates in a specialty other than general practice (p = .003). A key influence on graduates' practice location is geographic location prior to entering medical school. Key influences on graduates choosing a rural career pathway are: having a spouse/partner with a rural background; clinical teachers and mentors; the extended rural based undergraduate learning experience; and a specialty preference for general practice. A lack of rural based internships and specialist training

Carbon dioxide and methane measurements from the Los Angeles Megacity Carbon Project - Part 1: calibration, urban enhancements, and uncertainty estimates

Science.gov (United States)

Verhulst, Kristal R.; Karion, Anna; Kim, Jooil; Salameh, Peter K.; Keeling, Ralph F.; Newman, Sally; Miller, John; Sloop, Christopher; Pongetti, Thomas; Rao, Preeti; Wong, Clare; Hopkins, Francesca M.; Yadav, Vineet; Weiss, Ray F.; Duren, Riley M.; Miller, Charles E.

2017-07-01

We report continuous surface observations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from the Los Angeles (LA) Megacity Carbon Project during 2015. We devised a calibration strategy, methods for selection of background air masses, calculation of urban enhancements, and a detailed algorithm for estimating uncertainties in urban-scale CO2 and CH4 measurements. These methods are essential for understanding carbon fluxes from the LA megacity and other complex urban environments globally. We estimate background mole fractions entering LA using observations from four extra-urban sites including two marine sites located south of LA in La Jolla (LJO) and offshore on San Clemente Island (SCI), one continental site located in Victorville (VIC), in the high desert northeast of LA, and one continental/mid-troposphere site located on Mount Wilson (MWO) in the San Gabriel Mountains. We find that a local marine background can be established to within ˜ 1 ppm CO2 and ˜ 10 ppb CH4 using these local measurement sites. Overall, atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane levels are highly variable across Los Angeles. Urban and suburban sites show moderate to large CO2 and CH4 enhancements relative to a marine background estimate. The USC (University of Southern California) site near downtown LA exhibits median hourly enhancements of ˜ 20 ppm CO2 and ˜ 150 ppb CH4 during 2015 as well as ˜ 15 ppm CO2 and ˜ 80 ppb CH4 during mid-afternoon hours (12:00-16:00 LT, local time), which is the typical period of focus for flux inversions. The estimated measurement uncertainty is typically better than 0.1 ppm CO2 and 1 ppb CH4 based on the repeated standard gas measurements from the LA sites during the last 2 years, similar to Andrews et al. (2014). The largest component of the measurement uncertainty is due to the single-point calibration method; however, the uncertainty in the background mole fraction is much larger than the measurement uncertainty. The background uncertainty for the marine

Urban Poverty in Asia

OpenAIRE

Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB)

2014-01-01

This report provides an overview of important urban poverty questions. What defines urban poverty and how is urban poverty being measured? What other factors beyond consumption poverty need to be tackled? Who are the urban poor? What relations exist between urban poverty and city size? What linkages exist between urbanization, income, and urban poverty? What policy responses to urban poverty are implemented in selected Asian countries? The report served as a background study for the Internati...

Are associations between the perceived home and neighbourhood environment and children's physical activity and sedentary behaviour moderated by urban/rural location?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salmon, J.; Veitch, J.; Abbott, G.; Chin A Paw, M.J.M.; Brug, J.; te Velde, S.J.; Cleland, V.; Hume, C.; Crawford, D.; Ball, K.

2013-01-01

Associations between parental perceived home and neighbourhood environments and children's physical activity (PA), and sedentary time (ST) and screen time and moderating effects according to urban/rural location were examined. Data were collected (2007-2008) from a cohort of women (aged 18-45 years)

Urban scale air quality modelling using detailed traffic emissions estimates

Science.gov (United States)

Borrego, C.; Amorim, J. H.; Tchepel, O.; Dias, D.; Rafael, S.; Sá, E.; Pimentel, C.; Fontes, T.; Fernandes, P.; Pereira, S. R.; Bandeira, J. M.; Coelho, M. C.

2016-04-01

The atmospheric dispersion of NOx and PM10 was simulated with a second generation Gaussian model over a medium-size south-European city. Microscopic traffic models calibrated with GPS data were used to derive typical driving cycles for each road link, while instantaneous emissions were estimated applying a combined Vehicle Specific Power/Co-operative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (VSP/EMEP) methodology. Site-specific background concentrations were estimated using time series analysis and a low-pass filter applied to local observations. Air quality modelling results are compared against measurements at two locations for a 1 week period. 78% of the results are within a factor of two of the observations for 1-h average concentrations, increasing to 94% for daily averages. Correlation significantly improves when background is added, with an average of 0.89 for the 24 h record. The results highlight the potential of detailed traffic and instantaneous exhaust emissions estimates, together with filtered urban background, to provide accurate input data to Gaussian models applied at the urban scale.

An inter-comparison of PM2.5 at urban and urban background sites: Chemical characterization and source apportionment

Science.gov (United States)

Cesari, D.; Donateo, A.; Conte, M.; Merico, E.; Giangreco, A.; Giangreco, F.; Contini, D.

2016-06-01

A measurement campaign was performed between 04/03/2013 and 17/07/2013 for simultaneous collection of PM2.5 samples in two nearby sites in southeastern Italy: an urban site and an urban background site. PM2.5 at the two sites were similar; however, the chemical composition and the contributions of the main sources were significantly different. The coefficients of divergence (CODs) showed spatial heterogeneity of EC (higher at the urban site because of traffic emissions) and of all metals. Major ions (NH4+, Na+, and SO42 -) and OC had low CODs, suggesting a homogeneous distribution of sea spray, secondary sulfate, and secondary organic matter (SOM = 1.6*OCsec, where OCsec is the secondary OC). The strong correlations between Na+ and Cl-, and the low Cl-/Na+ ratios, suggested the presence of aged sea spray with chloride depletion (about 79% of Cl-) and formation of sodium nitrate at both sites. In both sites, the non-sea-salt sulfate was about 97% of sulfate, and the strong correlation between SO42 - and NH4+ indicated that ammonium was present as ammonium sulfate. However, during advection of Saharan Dust, calcium sulfate was present rather than ammonium sulfate. The source apportionment was performed using the Positive Matrix Factorization comparing outputs of model EPA PMF 3.0 and 5.0 version. Six aerosol sources were identified at both sites: traffic, biomass burning, crustal-resuspended dust, secondary nitrate, marine aerosol, and secondary sulfate. The PMF3.0 model was not completely able, in these sites, to separate marine contribution from secondary nitrate and secondary sulfate from OC, underestimating the marine contribution and overestimating the secondary sulfate with respect to stoichiometric calculations. The application of specific constraints on PMF5.0 provided cleaner profiles, improving the comparison with stoichiometric calculations. The seasonal trends revealed larger biomass burning contributions during the cold period at both sites due to

Location-aware mobile media and urban sociability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sutko, Daniel; de Souza e Silva, Adriana Araujo

2011-01-01

Location-aware mobile media allow users to see their locations on a map on their mobile phone screens. These applications either disclose the physical positions of known friends, or represent the locations of groups of unknown people. We call these interfaces eponymous and anonymous, respectively...... location-aware mobile media, namely their ability to increase one’s spatial awareness and to encourage one to meet more people in public spaces, might be fallacious due to pre-existing practices of sociability in the city. We explore these issues in the light of three bodies of theory: Goffman......’s presentation of self in everyday life, Simmel’s ideas on sociability, and Lehtonen and Mäenpää’s concept of street sociability....

Future Climate Prediction of Urban Atmosphere in A Tropical Megacity: Utilization of RCP/SSP Scenarios with an Urban Growth Model

Science.gov (United States)

Darmanto, N. S.; Varquez, A. C. G.; Kanda, M.; Takakuwa, S.

2016-12-01

Economic development in Southeast Asia megacities leads to rapid transformation into more complicated urban configurations. These configurations, including building geometry, enhance aerodynamic drag thus reducing near-surface wind speeds. Roughness parameters representing building geometry, along with anthropogenic heat emissions, contribute to the formation of urban heat islands (UHI). All these have been reproduced successfully in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model coupled with an improved single-layer urban canopy model incorporating a realistic distribution of urban parameters and anthropogenic heat emission in the Jakarta Greater Area. We apply this technology to climate change studies by introducing future urbanization defined by urban sprawl, vertical rise in buildings, and increase anthropogenic heat emission (AHE) due to population changes, into futuristic climate modelling. To simulate 2050s future climate, pseudo-global warming method was used which relied on current and ensembles of 5 CMIP5 GCMs for 2 representative concentration pathways (RCP), 2.6 and 8.5. To determine future urbanization level, 2050 population growth and energy consumption were estimated from shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP). This allows the estimation of future urban sprawl, building geometry, and AHE using the SLEUTH urban growth model and spatial growth assumptions. Two cases representing combinations of RCP and SSP were simulated in WRF: RCP2.6-SSP1 and RCP8.5-SSP3. Each case corresponds to best and worst-case scenarios of implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies, respectively. It was found that 2-m temperature of Jakarta will increase by 0.62°C (RCP2.6) and 1.44°C (RCP8.5) solely from background climate change; almost on the same magnitude as the background temperature increase of RCP2.6 (0.5°C) and RCP8.5 (1.2°C). Compared with previous studies, the result indicates that the effect of climate change on UHI in tropical cities may be lesser than

Characteristics of particulate matter collected at an urban background site and a roadside site in Birmingham, United Kingdom

OpenAIRE

Taiwo, Adewale M.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the compositional characteristics of particulate matter (PM) collected both at an urban background site (Elms Road observational site, EROS) and a roadside site (Bristol Road observational site, BROS). PM samples were collected at the receptor sites between March 28 and April 11, 2012. Observed parameters included water-soluble ions (Cl-, NO- 3, SO4 2-, Na+, NH4 +, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+) and trace metals (V, Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, Sb, Ba, Pb). Result...

OLBS: Offline location based services

OpenAIRE

Coelho, P; Ana Aguiar; João Correia Lopes

2011-01-01

Most existing location-based services rely on ubiquitous connectivity to deliver location-based contents to the users. However, connectivity is not available anywhere at anytime even in urban centres. Underground, indoors, remote areas, and foreign countries are examples situations where users commonly do not have guaranteed connectivity but could profit from location-based contents. In this work, we propose an open platform for publishing, distributing and maintaining location-based contents...

Urban Waters Partnership

Science.gov (United States)

Includes information on 14 Federal member agencies for the Urban Waters Federal Partnership and 19 designated urban waters locations and the local stakeholder groups and activities. Content was formerly at www.epa.gov/urbanwaters/

Atmospheric impacts of a natural gas development within the urban context of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Philip J; Reeder, Matthew; Pekney, Natalie J; Risk, David; Osborne, John; McCawley, Michael

2018-05-21

The Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL) in West Virginia provides a unique opportunity in the field of unconventional energy research. By studying near-surface atmospheric chemistry over several phases of a hydraulic fracturing event, the project will help evaluate the impact of current practices, as well as new techniques and mitigation technologies. A total of 10 mobile surveys covering a distance of approximately 1500 km were conducted through Morgantown. Our surveying technique involved using a vehicle-mounted Los Gatos Research gas analyzer to provide geo-located measurements of methane (CH 4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The ratios of super-ambient concentrations of CO 2 and CH 4 were used to separate well-pad emissions from the natural background concentrations over the various stages of well-pad development, as well as for comparisons to other urban sources of CH 4 . We found that regional background methane concentrations were elevated in all surveys, with a mean concentration of 2.699 ± 0.006 ppmv, which simply reflected the complexity of this riverine urban location. Emissions at the site were the greatest during the flow-back phase, with an estimated CH 4 volume output of 20.62 ± 7.07 g/s, which was significantly higher than other identified urban emitters. Our study was able to successfully identify and quantify MSEEL emissions within this complex urban environment. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of river health variation under the background of urbanization based on entropy weight and matter-element model: A case study in Huzhou City in the Yangtze River Delta, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Guangbo; Xu, Youpeng; Yu, Zhihui; Song, Song; Zhang, Yuan

2015-05-01

Maintaining the health of the river ecosystem is an essential ecological and environmental guarantee for regional sustainable development and one of the basic objectives in water resource management. With the rapid development of urbanization, the river health situation is deteriorating, especially in urban areas. The river health evaluation is a complex process that involves various natural and social components; eight eco-hydrological indicators were selected to establish an evaluation system, and the variation of river health status under the background of urbanization was explored based on entropy weight and matter-element model. The comprehensive correlative degrees of urban river health of Huzhou City in 2001, 2006 and 2010 were then calculated. The results indicated that river health status of the study area was in the direction of pathological trend, and the impact of limiting factors (such as Shannon's diversity index and agroforestry output growth rate) played an important role in river health. The variation of maximum correlative degree could be classified into stationary status, deterioration status, deterioration-to-improvement status, and improvement-to-deterioration status. There was a severe deterioration situation of river health under the background of urbanization. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Location and Lifestyle: The Comparative Explanatory Ability of Urbanism and Rurality

Science.gov (United States)

Lowe, George D.; Peek, Charles W.

1974-01-01

The article focuses on 2 questions pivotal to the issue of rural-urban differences: 1) "Do attitudinal differences remain among the rural and urban residents independent of differences generated by other potent variables?"; and 2) "Will any increase in the predictive utility of rurality be generated by use of a composite definition (residence plus…

Combining Facility Location and Routing Decisions in Sustainable Urban Freight Distribution under Horizontal Collaboration: How Can Shippers Be Benefited?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanan Ouhader

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the potential economic, environmental, and social effects of combining depot location and vehicle routing decisions in urban road freight transportation under horizontal collaboration. We consider a city in which several suppliers decide to joint deliveries to their customers and goods are delivered via intermediate depots. We study a transportation optimization problem from the perspective of sustainability development. This quantitative approach is based on three-objective mathematical model for strategic, tactical, and operational decision-making as a two-echelon location routing problem (2E-LRP. The objectives are to minimize cost and CO2 emissions of the transportation and maximize the created job opportunities. The model was solved with the ε-constraint method using extended known instances reflecting the real distribution in urban area to evaluate several goods’ delivery strategies. The obtained results by comparing collaborative and noncollaborative scenarios show that collaboration leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions, transportation cost, used vehicles, and travelled distances in addition to the improvement of the vehicles load rate but collaboration affects negatively social impact. To evaluate the effect of the method used to allocate the total gains to the different partners, we suggest to decision makers a comparison between well-known allocation methods.

Urbanization in contemporary Arab Gulf states.

Science.gov (United States)

Qutub, I Y

1983-01-01

Urbanization in the Arab Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates is analyzed. Topics discussed include the historical background to urbanization; current demographic trends in the region; urban characteristics and growth; socioeconomic factors influencing urbanization, with an emphasis on labor force structure; future urban strategy; and the need for urban research.

Lost in Location

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lone Koefoed

2009-01-01

traversed. While becoming destination aware, the individual loses her location awareness. The article proposes that the reason people get lost when using sat-nav is due to a wrong location-performative paradigm. As an alternative, the article introduces and analyzes two performance-related examples...... that illustrate an alternative location-performative paradigm: Meredith Warner's Lost/Found knitting series and Etter and Schecht's Melodious Walkabout. In both examples, the artist's hand becomes the intermediary between alien and location. Thus, by exploring how wayfinding can be a poetically situated...... performance, the article examines how the growing locative media industry can learn from the location-aware performative strategies employed by artists who create situated and urban performances for the curious participant. The academic frames employed in the analysis draw on psychogeography, site...

On the simultaneous deployment of two single-particle mass spectrometers at an urban background and a roadside site during SAPUSS

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M. Dall'Osto

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS provides size-resolved information on the chemical composition of single particles with high time resolution. Within SAPUSS (Solving Aerosol Problems by Using Synergistic Strategies, continuous ATOFMS measurements of ambient particles were made simultaneously at two urban locations: urban background (UB site and roadside (RS site in the city of Barcelona (Spain from 17 September to 18 October 2010. Two different instrumental configurations were used: ATOFMS (TSI 3800 with a converging nozzle inlet (high efficiency at about 800–2000 nm at the UB site and ATOFMS (TSI 3800-100 with an aerodynamic lens inlet (high efficiency at about 300–700 nm at the RS site. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that two ATOFMS instruments have been deployed in the same field study. The different instrument configurations had an impact on the observed particle types at the two sites. Nevertheless, 10 particle types were detected at both locations, including local and regional elemental carbon (22.7–58.9 % of total particles, fresh and aged sea salt (1.0–14.6 %, local and regional nitrate-containing aerosols (3–11.6 %, local lead-containing metallic particles (0.1–0.2 %, and transported Fe-nitrate particles (0.8–2.5 %. The ATOFMS at the UB also characterized four particle types: calcium-containing dust (0.9 %, Saharan dust (1.3 %, vanadium-containing particles (0.9 %, and vegetative debris (1.7 %. By contrast, the high statistical counts of fine particles detected at the RS allowed identification of eight particle types. Four of these contained organic nitrogen of primary and secondary origin, which highlights the complex nature of the sources and processes that contribute to this aerosol chemical component. Aminium salts were found related to coarse sulfate-rich particle types, suggesting heterogeneous reaction mechanisms for their formation. The other four particle

Spatial analysis of falls in an urban community of Hong Kong

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Wong Wing C

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Falls are an issue of great public health concern. This study focuses on outdoor falls within an urban community in Hong Kong. Urban environmental hazards are often place-specific and dependent upon the built features, landscape characteristics, and habitual activities. Therefore, falls must be examined with respect to local situations. Results This paper uses spatial analysis methods to map fall occurrences and examine possible environmental attributes of falls in an urban community of Hong Kong. The Nearest neighbour hierarchical (Nnh and Standard Deviational Ellipse (SDE techniques can offer additional insights about the circumstances and environmental factors that contribute to falls. The results affirm the multi-factorial nature of falls at specific locations and for selected groups of the population. Conclusion The techniques to detect hot spots of falls yield meaningful results that enable the identification of high risk locations. The combined use of descriptive and spatial analyses can be beneficial to policy makers because different preventive measures can be devised based on the types of environmental risk factors identified. The analyses are also important preludes to establishing research hypotheses for more focused studies.

Spatial analysis of falls in an urban community of Hong Kong

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Poh C; Low, Chien T; Wong, Martin; Wong, Wing C; Chan, Ming H

2009-01-01

Background Falls are an issue of great public health concern. This study focuses on outdoor falls within an urban community in Hong Kong. Urban environmental hazards are often place-specific and dependent upon the built features, landscape characteristics, and habitual activities. Therefore, falls must be examined with respect to local situations. Results This paper uses spatial analysis methods to map fall occurrences and examine possible environmental attributes of falls in an urban community of Hong Kong. The Nearest neighbour hierarchical (Nnh) and Standard Deviational Ellipse (SDE) techniques can offer additional insights about the circumstances and environmental factors that contribute to falls. The results affirm the multi-factorial nature of falls at specific locations and for selected groups of the population. Conclusion The techniques to detect hot spots of falls yield meaningful results that enable the identification of high risk locations. The combined use of descriptive and spatial analyses can be beneficial to policy makers because different preventive measures can be devised based on the types of environmental risk factors identified. The analyses are also important preludes to establishing research hypotheses for more focused studies. PMID:19291326

Air ion concentrations in various urban outdoor environments

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, Xuan; Jayaratne, Rohan; Morawska, Lidia

2010-06-01

Atmospheric ions are produced by many natural and anthropogenic sources and their concentrations vary widely between different environments. There is very little information on their concentrations in different types of urban environments, how they compare across these environments and their dominant sources. In this study, we measured airborne concentrations of small ions, particles and net particle charge at 32 different outdoor sites in and around a major city in Australia and identified the main ion sources. Sites were classified into seven groups as follows: park, woodland, city centre, residential, freeway, power lines and power substation. Generally, parks were situated away from ion sources and represented the urban background value of about 270 ions cm -3. Median concentrations at all other groups were significantly higher than in the parks. We show that motor vehicles and power transmission systems are two major ion sources in urban areas. Power lines and substations constituted strong unipolar sources, while motor vehicle exhaust constituted strong bipolar sources. The small ion concentration in urban residential areas was about 960 cm -3. At sites where ion sources were co-located with particle sources, ion concentrations were inhibited due to the ion-particle attachment process. These results improved our understanding on air ion distribution and its interaction with particles in the urban outdoor environment.

Atmospheric carbon tetrachloride in rural background and industry surrounded urban areas in Northern Iberian Peninsula: Mixing ratios, trends, and potential sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blas, Maite de; Uria-Tellaetxe, Iratxe; Gomez, Maria Carmen; Navazo, Marino; Alonso, Lucio; García, Jose Antonio; Durana, Nieves; Iza, Jon; Ramón, Jarol Derley

2016-01-01

Latest investigations on atmospheric carbon tetrachloride (CTC) are focused on its ozone depleting potential, adverse effects on the human health, and radiative efficiency and Global Warming Potential as a greenhouse gas. CTC mixing ratios have been thoroughly studied since its restriction under the Montreal Protocol, mostly in remote areas with the aim of reporting long-term trends after its banning. The observed decrease of the CTC background mixing ratio, however, was not as strong as expected. In order to explain this behavior CTC lifetime should be adjusted by estimating the relative significance of its sinks and by identifying ongoing potential sources. Looking for possible sources, CTC was measured with high-time resolution in two sites in Northern Spain, using auto-GC systems and specifically developed acquisition and processing methodologies. The first site, Bilbao, is an urban area influenced by the surrounding industry, where measurements were performed with GC–MSD for a one-year period (2007–2008). The second site, at Valderejo Natural Park (VNP), is a rural background area where measurements were carried out with GC-FID and covering CTC data a nonsuccessive five-year period (2003–2005, 2010–2011, and 2014–2015 years). Median yearly CTC mixing ratios were slightly higher in the urban area (120 pptv) than in VNP (80–100 pptv). CTC was reported to be well mixed in the atmosphere and no sources were noticed to impact the rural site. The observed long-term trend in VNP was in agreement with the estimated global CTC emissions. In the urban site, apart from industrial and commercial CTC sources, chlorine-bleach products used as cleaning agents were reported as promotors of indoor sources. - Highlights: • A methodology was developed to measure CTC using GC-MSD and GC-FID. • CTC ongoing sources were noticed in an industry surrounded urban area. • No noticeable nearby CTC sources impacted the rural site. • Long-term CTC trend in agreement

Atmospheric carbon tetrachloride in rural background and industry surrounded urban areas in Northern Iberian Peninsula: Mixing ratios, trends, and potential sources

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blas, Maite de, E-mail: maite.deblas@ehu.eus [School of Engineering of Bilbao, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (Spain); Uria-Tellaetxe, Iratxe; Gomez, Maria Carmen [School of Engineering of Bilbao, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (Spain); Navazo, Marino [University College of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (Spain); Alonso, Lucio; García, Jose Antonio; Durana, Nieves; Iza, Jon; Ramón, Jarol Derley [School of Engineering of Bilbao, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (Spain)

2016-08-15

Latest investigations on atmospheric carbon tetrachloride (CTC) are focused on its ozone depleting potential, adverse effects on the human health, and radiative efficiency and Global Warming Potential as a greenhouse gas. CTC mixing ratios have been thoroughly studied since its restriction under the Montreal Protocol, mostly in remote areas with the aim of reporting long-term trends after its banning. The observed decrease of the CTC background mixing ratio, however, was not as strong as expected. In order to explain this behavior CTC lifetime should be adjusted by estimating the relative significance of its sinks and by identifying ongoing potential sources. Looking for possible sources, CTC was measured with high-time resolution in two sites in Northern Spain, using auto-GC systems and specifically developed acquisition and processing methodologies. The first site, Bilbao, is an urban area influenced by the surrounding industry, where measurements were performed with GC–MSD for a one-year period (2007–2008). The second site, at Valderejo Natural Park (VNP), is a rural background area where measurements were carried out with GC-FID and covering CTC data a nonsuccessive five-year period (2003–2005, 2010–2011, and 2014–2015 years). Median yearly CTC mixing ratios were slightly higher in the urban area (120 pptv) than in VNP (80–100 pptv). CTC was reported to be well mixed in the atmosphere and no sources were noticed to impact the rural site. The observed long-term trend in VNP was in agreement with the estimated global CTC emissions. In the urban site, apart from industrial and commercial CTC sources, chlorine-bleach products used as cleaning agents were reported as promotors of indoor sources. - Highlights: • A methodology was developed to measure CTC using GC-MSD and GC-FID. • CTC ongoing sources were noticed in an industry surrounded urban area. • No noticeable nearby CTC sources impacted the rural site. • Long-term CTC trend in agreement

Rural-urban comparisons of dengue seroprevalence in Malaysia

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Cheng Hoon Chew

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Each year an estimated 390 million dengue infections occur worldwide. In Malaysia, dengue is a growing public health concern but estimate of its disease burden remains uncertain. We compared the urban-rural difference of dengue seroprevalence and determined age-specific dengue seroprevalence in Malaysia. Methods We undertook analysis on 11,821 subjects from six seroprevalence surveys conducted in Malaysia between 2001 and 2013, which composed of five urban and two rural series. Results Prevalence of dengue increased with age in both urban and rural locations in Malaysia, which exceeded 90 % among those aged 70 years or beyond. The age-specific rates of the 5 urban surveys overlapped without clear separation among them, while prevalence was lower in younger subjects in rural series than in urban series, the trend reversed in older subjects. There were no differences in the seroprevalence by gender, ethnicity or region. Poisson regression model confirmed the prevalence have not changed in urban areas since 2001 but in rural areas, there was a significant positive time trend such that by year 2008, rural prevalence was as high as in urban areas. Conclusion Dengue seroprevalence has stabilized but persisted at a high level in urban areas since 2001, and is fast stabilizing in rural areas at the same high urban levels by 2008. The cumulative seroprevalence of dengue exceeds 90 % by the age of 70 years, which translates into 16.5 million people or 55 % of the total population in Malaysia, being infected by dengue by 2013.

Urban air pollution in school-related microenvironments in Bogota, Colombia

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Juan Felipe Franco

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Particle-related pollution (PM10, PM2.5 and soot was measured in both indoor and outdoor microenvironments at four public elementary schools in Bogota, Colombia. Three of these schools were located alongside major urban roads in which different types of public transit systems are used (bus rapid transit system and conventional transit buses. The fourth school was located on a non-congested road (background school. Pollutant levels at schools situated on major-roads were higher than those found at the low-congestion-road school. Outdoor black carbon daily mean concentrations at the schools located near major roads were up to six times higher than those recorded at the background school. Mean particulate matter concentrations at schools near major roads were above international standards, suggesting that school-age children in Bogota are exposed to pollution levels that are considered to be harmful by environmental and public health authorities. Elevated indoor and outdoor pollutant concentrations documented in this study suggested that traffic has a direct impact on air quality regarding the schools’ characterised microenvironments.

Locative media and data-driven computing experiments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sung-Yueh Perng

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Over the past two decades urban social life has undergone a rapid and pervasive geocoding, becoming mediated, augmented and anticipated by location-sensitive technologies and services that generate and utilise big, personal, locative data. The production of these data has prompted the development of exploratory data-driven computing experiments that seek to find ways to extract value and insight from them. These projects often start from the data, rather than from a question or theory, and try to imagine and identify their potential utility. In this paper, we explore the desires and mechanics of data-driven computing experiments. We demonstrate how both locative media data and computing experiments are ‘staged’ to create new values and computing techniques, which in turn are used to try and derive possible futures that are ridden with unintended consequences. We argue that using computing experiments to imagine potential urban futures produces effects that often have little to do with creating new urban practices. Instead, these experiments promote Big Data science and the prospect that data produced for one purpose can be recast for another and act as alternative mechanisms of envisioning urban futures.

Locating Automated External Defibrillators in a Complicated Urban Environment Considering a Pedestrian-Accessible Network that Focuses on Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pil Kwon

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Automated external defibrillators (AEDs are portable devices that defibrillate and diagnose sudden-cardiac-arrest patients. Therefore, AEDs are widely installed in public places such as airports, schools, sport complexes, etc., and the installation of AEDs is required by law in these places. However, despite their usefulness, AEDs are mostly installed indoors with limited coverage outdoors. Hence, this study conducts research in the placement of AEDs in outdoor locations. This study considers a complicated urban environment using a pedestrian network dataset and network barriers. We draw on the Teitz and Bart’s (1968 heuristic method that was built in the location-allocation solver in ArcMap. The results of this study found that a total of 455 AEDs, including 227 pre-installed AEDs, could be placed in the study area, thus providing an additional 228 devices. Compared with 10 different installation methods that were set as experimental groups, our test results found that additional installations were able to cover 10% to 30% more actual out-of-hospital cardiac-arrest cases. The main contribution of this study is the proposal of a new method in locating AEDs in optimal areas while considering complicated urban environments. We predict that the cardiac-arrest-related mortality rate would be reduced through implementing the findings of this study.

Protected urban planet

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pereira Roders, A.R.; Veldpaus, L.; Verbruggen, R.C.

2012-01-01

PUP, abbreviation to Protected Urban Planet, is the first tool developed for visualizing, mapping and contributing to information exchange on the evolution of protected urban areas worldwide. Besides locating them, it also provides communities with means to disseminate and raise awareness for their

Commuting behaviour and urban form: a longitudinal study of a polycentric urban region in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunfelder, Julien; Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick

2012-01-01

is a polycentric urban region in Denmark. Data from the National Transport Survey of Denmark were used for this quantitative analysis and two time periods were selected to highlight any potential changes over time. Empirical findings indicate that urban form and location variables help to explain the three......This paper is an empirical investigation of the relation between urban form and commuting behaviour in a polycentric urban region. It explores to what extent urban form and location variables help to explain commuting time, distance and mode based on an empirical case, East Jutland, which...... selected aspects of commuting. However, urban form variables have greater explanatory power in explaining commuting modes than commuting time and commuting distance. No general trends in commuting were detectable from the data. Finally, the empirical findings revealed specificities of the case study...

Carbon dioxide and methane measurements from the Los Angeles Megacity Carbon Project – Part 1: calibration, urban enhancements, and uncertainty estimates

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K. R. Verhulst

2017-07-01

Full Text Available We report continuous surface observations of carbon dioxide (CO2 and methane (CH4 from the Los Angeles (LA Megacity Carbon Project during 2015. We devised a calibration strategy, methods for selection of background air masses, calculation of urban enhancements, and a detailed algorithm for estimating uncertainties in urban-scale CO2 and CH4 measurements. These methods are essential for understanding carbon fluxes from the LA megacity and other complex urban environments globally. We estimate background mole fractions entering LA using observations from four extra-urban sites including two marine sites located south of LA in La Jolla (LJO and offshore on San Clemente Island (SCI, one continental site located in Victorville (VIC, in the high desert northeast of LA, and one continental/mid-troposphere site located on Mount Wilson (MWO in the San Gabriel Mountains. We find that a local marine background can be established to within  ∼  1 ppm CO2 and  ∼  10 ppb CH4 using these local measurement sites. Overall, atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane levels are highly variable across Los Angeles. Urban and suburban sites show moderate to large CO2 and CH4 enhancements relative to a marine background estimate. The USC (University of Southern California site near downtown LA exhibits median hourly enhancements of  ∼  20 ppm CO2 and  ∼  150 ppb CH4 during 2015 as well as  ∼  15 ppm CO2 and  ∼  80 ppb CH4 during mid-afternoon hours (12:00–16:00 LT, local time, which is the typical period of focus for flux inversions. The estimated measurement uncertainty is typically better than 0.1 ppm CO2 and 1 ppb CH4 based on the repeated standard gas measurements from the LA sites during the last 2 years, similar to Andrews et al. (2014. The largest component of the measurement uncertainty is due to the single-point calibration method; however, the uncertainty in the background mole fraction is much

What factors influence the choice of urban or rural location for future practice of Nepalese medical students? A cross-sectional descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sapkota, Bhim Prasad; Amatya, Archana

2015-11-10

Nepal is experiencing a public health issue similar to the rest of the world, i.e., the geographical maldistribution of physicians. Although there is some documentation about the reasons physicians elect to leave Nepal to work abroad, very little is known about the salient factors that influence the choice of an urban versus rural practice setting for those physicians who do not migrate. In recent years, around 1000 medical students became doctors within Nepal, but their distribution in rural locations is not adequate. The purpose of this study was to explore what factors influence the choice of urban or rural location for the future clinical practice of Nepalese medical students in the final year of their program A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used for this study involving Nepalese medical students in their final year of study and currently doing an internship in a medical college. The sample consisted of 393 medical students from four medical colleges in Nepal that were selected randomly. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. To determine the association with rural location choice for their future practice setting, a comparison was done that involved demographic, socio-economic, and educational factors. Data were entered in EpiData and analyzed by using SPSS version 16. Among the 393 respondents, two thirds were male (66.9%) and more than half were below 25 years of age. Almost all (93%) respondents were single and about two thirds (63.4%) were of Brahmin and Chhetri ethnic origin. About two thirds (64.1%) of the respondents were born in a rural setting, and 58.8% and 53.3% had a place of rearing and permanent address in a rural location, respectively. The predictors of future rural location choice for their clinical practice (based on the bivariate analysis) included: (a) Rural (versus urban) place of birth, place of rearing, and permanent address (b) Source of family income (service, business, and agriculture

Assessing rear-end crash potential in urban locations based on vehicle-by-vehicle interactions, geometric characteristics and operational conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Dimitriou, Loukas; Stylianou, Katerina; Abdel-Aty, Mohamed A

2018-03-01

Rear-end crashes are one of the most frequently occurring crash types, especially in urban networks. An understanding of the contributing factors and their significant association with rear-end crashes is of practical importance and will help in the development of effective countermeasures. The objective of this study is to assess rear-end crash potential at a microscopic level in an urban environment, by investigating vehicle-by-vehicle interactions. To do so, several traffic parameters at the individual vehicle level have been taken into consideration, for capturing car-following characteristics and vehicle interactions, and to investigate their effect on potential rear-end crashes. In this study rear-end crash potential was estimated based on stopping distance between two consecutive vehicles, and four rear-end crash potential cases were developed. The results indicated that 66.4% of the observations were estimated as rear-end crash potentials. It was also shown that rear-end crash potential was presented when traffic flow and speed standard deviation were higher. Also, locational characteristics such as lane of travel and location in the network were found to affect drivers' car following decisions and additionally, it was shown that speeds were lower and headways higher when Heavy Goods Vehicles lead. Finally, a model-based behavioral analysis based on Multinomial Logit regression was conducted to systematically identify the statistically significant variables in explaining rear-end risk potential. The modeling results highlighted the significance of the explanatory variables associated with rear-end crash potential, however it was shown that their effect varied among different model configurations. The outcome of the results can be of significant value for several purposes, such as real-time monitoring of risk potential, allocating enforcement units in urban networks and designing targeted proactive safety policies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

DMBLC: An Indirect Urban Impervious Surface Area Extraction Approach by Detecting and Masking Background Land Cover on Google Earth Image

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Min Huang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Implying the prosperity and development of the city, impervious surface area (ISA is playing an increasingly important role in ecological processes, microclimate, material and energy flows, and urban flood. The free sub-meter resolution Google Earth image, which is integrated by several high spatial resolution data, appears to have potential for high-resolution ISA extraction, where present study is rare and performances remain to be improved. Due to the high spatial and spectral variation of the urban environment as well as confusion between ISA and soil, the accurate delineating of ISA with traditional (direct methods can be costly and time-consuming, which is in a word resource-intensive. However, this paper presents a novel indirect ISA extraction conceptual model and a new detecting and masking background land cover (DMBLC approach that: uses a freely available, high-resolution dataset; requires a reduced set of training samples; and consists of relatively simple, common, and feasible image processing steps. The key characteristic of DMBLC is to detect the background of ISA (vegetation, soil, and water accurately and obtain the ISA by masking the background. The approach relies on background detection to avoid the predicaments of direct ISA extraction. Water can be directly gained by water body vector data, in DMBLC; mixture tuned matched filtering (MTMF is exploited to detect vegetation and soil, image segmentation is used to mitigate the spectral variation problem within the same land cover, and segment rectangularity reduces the confusion between ISA and soil. From experiments in a core area of Fuzhou, China, the DMBLC approach reached high performance and outperformed the powerful traditional support vector machines (SVM method (overall accuracy of 94.45% and Kappa coefficient of 0.8885, compared to 86.44% and 0.7329, respectively. From the comparison of different levels of complexity within the inner processing steps, it is confirmed

Biodiversity, Urban Areas, and Agriculture: Locating Priority Ecoregions for Conservation

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Taylor Ricketts

2003-12-01

Full Text Available Urbanization and agriculture are two of the most important threats to biodiversity worldwide. The intensities of these land-use phenomena, however, as well as levels of biodiversity itself, differ widely among regions. Thus, there is a need to develop a quick but rigorous method of identifying where high levels of human threats and biodiversity coincide. These areas are clear priorities for biodiversity conservation. In this study, we combine distribution data for eight major plant and animal taxa (comprising over 20,000 species with remotely sensed measures of urban and agricultural land use to assess conservation priorities among 76 terrestrial ecoregions in North America. We combine the species data into overall indices of richness and endemism. We then plot each of these indices against the percent cover of urban and agricultural land in each ecoregion, resulting in four separate comparisons. For each comparison, ecoregions that fall above the 66th quantile on both axes are identified as priorities for conservation. These analyses yield four "priority sets" of 6-16 ecoregions (8-21% of the total number where high levels of biodiversity and human land use coincide. These ecoregions tend to be concentrated in the southeastern United States, California, and, to a lesser extent, the Atlantic coast, southern Texas, and the U.S. Midwest. Importantly, several ecoregions are members of more than one priority set and two ecoregions are members of all four sets. Across all 76 ecoregions, urban cover is positively correlated with both species richness and endemism. Conservation efforts in densely populated areas therefore may be equally important (if not more so as preserving remote parks in relatively pristine regions.

Real-Time Location-Based Rendering of Urban Underground Pipelines

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Wei Li

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The concealment and complex spatial relationships of urban underground pipelines present challenges in managing them. Recently, augmented reality (AR has been a hot topic around the world, because it can enhance our perception of reality by overlaying information about the environment and its objects onto the real world. Using AR, underground pipelines can be displayed accurately, intuitively, and in real time. We analyzed the characteristics of AR and their application in underground pipeline management. We mainly focused on the AR pipeline rendering procedure based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM technology. First, in aiming to improve the spatial accuracy of pipeline rendering, we used differential corrections received from the Ground-Based Augmentation System to compute the precise coordinates of users in real time, which helped us accurately retrieve and draw pipelines near the users, and by scene recognition the accuracy can be further improved. Second, in terms of pipeline rendering, we used Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO to track the rendered objects and made some improvements to visual effects, which can provide steady dynamic tracking of pipelines even in relatively markerless environments and outdoors. Finally, we used the occlusion method based on real-time 3D reconstruction to realistically express the immersion effect of underground pipelines. We compared our methods to the existing methods and concluded that the method proposed in this research improves the spatial accuracy of pipeline rendering and the portability of the equipment. Moreover, the updating of our rendering procedure corresponded with the moving of the user’s location, thus we achieved a dynamic rendering of pipelines in the real environment.

Source origin of trace elements in PM from regional background, urban and industrial sites of Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Querol, X.; Viana, M.; Alastuey, A.; Amato, F.; Moreno, T.; Castillo, S.; Pey, J.; de la Rosa, J.; Sánchez de la Campa, A.; Artíñano, B.; Salvador, P.; García Dos Santos, S.; Fernández-Patier, R.; Moreno-Grau, S.; Negral, L.; Minguillón, M. C.; Monfort, E.; Gil, J. I.; Inza, A.; Ortega, L. A.; Santamaría, J. M.; Zabalza, J.

Despite their significant role in source apportionment analysis, studies dedicated to the identification of tracer elements of emission sources of atmospheric particulate matter based on air quality data are relatively scarce. The studies describing tracer elements of specific sources currently available in the literature mostly focus on emissions from traffic or large-scale combustion processes (e.g. power plants), but not on specific industrial processes. Furthermore, marker elements are not usually determined at receptor sites, but during emission. In our study, trace element concentrations in PM 10 and PM 2.5 were determined at 33 monitoring stations in Spain throughout the period 1995-2006. Industrial emissions from different forms of metallurgy (steel, stainless steel, copper, zinc), ceramic and petrochemical industries were evaluated. Results obtained at sites with no significant industrial development allowed us to define usual concentration ranges for a number of trace elements in rural and urban background environments. At industrial and traffic hotspots, average trace metal concentrations were highest, exceeding rural background levels by even one order of magnitude in the cases of Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, As, Sn, W, V, Ni, Cs and Pb. Steel production emissions were linked to high levels of Cr, Mn, Ni, Zn, Mo, Cd, Se and Sn (and probably Pb). Copper metallurgy areas showed high levels of As, Bi, Ga and Cu. Zinc metallurgy was characterised by high levels of Zn and Cd. Glazed ceramic production areas were linked to high levels of Zn, As, Se, Zr, Cs, Tl, Li, Co and Pb. High levels of Ni and V (in association) were tracers of petrochemical plants and/or fuel-oil combustion. At one site under the influence of heavy vessel traffic these elements could be considered tracers (although not exclusively) of shipping emissions. Levels of Zn-Ba and Cu-Sb were relatively high in urban areas when compared with industrialised regions due to tyre and brake abrasion, respectively.

Childhood trauma and childhood urbanicity in relation to psychotic disorder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frissen, Aleida; Lieverse, Ritsaert; Drukker, Marjan; van Winkel, Ruud; Delespaul, Philippe; Cahn, W

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Urban upbringing and childhood trauma are both associated with psychotic disorders. However, the association between childhood urbanicity and childhood trauma in psychosis is poorly understood. The urban environment could occasion a background of social adversity against which any effect

Characterization of PM10 and PM2.5 and associated heavy metals at the crossroads and urban background site in Zabrze, Upper Silesia, Poland, during the smog episodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pastuszka, Jozef S; Rogula-Kozłowska, Wioletta; Zajusz-Zubek, Elwira

2010-09-01

The concentrations of seven heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Pb) associated with PM10 and PM2.5 at the crossroads and the background sites have been studied in Zabrze, Poland, during smog episodes. Although the background level was unusually elevated due to both high particulate emission from the industrial and municipal sources and smog favorable meteorological conditions, significant increase of the concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 as well as associated heavy metals in the roadside air compared to the urban background has been documented. The average daily difference between the roadside and corresponding urban background aerosol concentration was equal to 39.5 microg m(-3) for PM10 and 41.2 microg m(-3) for PM2.5. The highest levels of the studied metals in Zabrze appeared for iron carried by PM10 particles: 1,706 (background) and 28,557 ng m(-3) (crossroads). The lowest concentration level (in PM10) has been found for cadmium: 7 and 77 ng m(-3) in the background and crossroads site, respectively. Also the concentrations of heavy metals carried by the fine particles (PM2.5) were very high in Zabrze during the smog episodes. Concentrations of all studied metals associated with PM10 increased at the roadside compared to the background about ten times (one order) while metals contained in PM2.5 showed two to three times elevated concentrations (except Fe-five times and Cr-no increase).

Urban wetlands: restoration or designed rehabilitation?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beth Ravit

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The continuing loss of urban wetlands due to an expanding human population and urban development pressures makes restoration or creation of urban wetlands a high priority. However, urban wetland restorations are particularly challenging due to altered hydrologic patterns, a high proportion of impervious surface and stormwater runoff, degraded urban soils, historic contamination, and competitive pressure from non-native species. Urban wetland projects must also consider human-desired socio-economic benefits. We argue that using current wetland restoration approaches and existing regulatory “success” criteria, such as meeting restoration targets for vegetation structure based on reference sites in non-urban locations, will result in “failed” urban restorations. Using three wetland Case Studies in highly urbanized locations, we describe geophysical tools, stormwater management methods, and design approaches useful in addressing urban challenges and in supporting “successful” urban rehabilitation outcomes. We suggest that in human-dominated landscapes, the current paradigm of “restoration” to a previous state must shift to a paradigm of “rehabilitation”, which prioritizes wetland functions and values rather than vegetation structure in order to provide increased ecological benefits and much needed urban open space amenities.

Disparities in Prevalence of Cardiometablic Risk Factors in Rural, Urban-Poor, and Urban-Middle Class Women in India.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Indu Mohan

Full Text Available Urbanization is an important determinant of cardiovascular disease (CVD risk. To determine location-based differences in CVD risk factors in India we performed studies among women in rural, urban-poor and urban middle-class locations.Population-based cross-sectional studies in rural, urban-poor, and urban-middle class women (35-70 y were performed at multiple sites. We evaluated 6853 women (rural 2616, 5 sites; urban-poor 2008, 4 sites; urban middle-class 2229, 11 sites for socioeconomic, lifestyle, anthropometric and biochemical risk factors. Descriptive statistics are reported.Mean levels of body mass index (BMI, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio (WHR, systolic BP, fasting glucose and cholesterol in rural, urban-poor and urban-middle class women showed significantly increasing trends (ANOVAtrend, p 80 cm (28.3, 63.4, 61.9%, waist >90 cm (8.4, 31.4, 38.2%, waist hip ratio (WHR >0.8 (60.4, 90.7, 88.5, WHR>0.9 (13.0, 44.3, 56.1%, hypertension (31.6, 48.2, 59.0% and hypercholesterolemia (13.5, 27.7, 37.4% (Mantel Haenszel X2 ptrend <0.01. Inverse trend was observed for tobacco use (41.6, 19.6, 9.4%. There was significant association of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes with overweight and obesity (adjusted R2 0.89-0.99.There are significant location based differences in cardiometabolic risk factors in India. The urban-middle class women have the highest risk compared to urban-poor and rural.

Efficiency of the human observer for detecting a Gaussian signal at a known location in non-Gaussian distributed lumpy backgrounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Subok; Gallas, Bradon D; Badano, Aldo; Petrick, Nicholas A; Myers, Kyle J

2007-04-01

A previous study [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A22, 3 (2005)] has shown that human efficiency for detecting a Gaussian signal at a known location in non-Gaussian distributed lumpy backgrounds is approximately 4%. This human efficiency is much less than the reported 40% efficiency that has been documented for Gaussian-distributed lumpy backgrounds [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A16, 694 (1999) and J. Opt. Soc. Am. A18, 473 (2001)]. We conducted a psychophysical study with a number of changes, specifically in display-device calibration and data scaling, from the design of the aforementioned study. Human efficiency relative to the ideal observer was found again to be approximately 5%. Our variance analysis indicates that neither scaling nor display made a statistically significant difference in human performance for the task. We conclude that the non-Gaussian distributed lumpy background is a major factor in our low human-efficiency results.

Urban characteristics and homelessness in Bucharest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela Paraschiv

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Urban poverty continues to prove itself a concern in cities’ territorial planning as it disrupts the quality of life and the development process in some cities. Homelessness emerges sometimes as extreme urban poverty even in developed European Union countries. The study assesses Bucharest urban space to differentiate characteristics that influence the homeless to locate in certain places. The analysis included a three-level urban space categorization. Functional types of space were correlated to homelessness presence according to three space characteristics: property type, physical structure and state of use. The main findings argue that homeless people localization in Bucharest depends on urban space capacity to meet homelessness housing and living needs. Analysis’ conclusions evidence homeless location patterns to urban planners and authorities that may use the information to improve policies and actions to alleviate extreme poverty in Bucharest.

24 CFR 203.38 - Location of dwelling.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Location of dwelling. 203.38... § 203.38 Location of dwelling. At the time a mortgage is insured there must be located on the mortgaged property one or more dwellings designed principally for residential use for not more than four families...

Multi-location wheat stripe rust QTL analysis: genetic background and epistatic interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Vazquez, M Dolores; Zemetra, Robert; Peterson, C James; Chen, Xianming M; Heesacker, Adam; Mundt, Christopher C

2015-07-01

Epistasis and genetic background were important influences on expression of stripe rust resistance in two wheat RIL populations, one with resistance conditioned by two major genes and the other conditioned by several minor QTL. Stripe rust is a foliar disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) caused by the air-borne fungus Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici and is present in most regions around the world where commercial wheat is grown. Breeding for durable resistance to stripe rust continues to be a priority, but also is a challenge due to the complexity of interactions among resistance genes and to the wide diversity and continuous evolution of the pathogen races. The goal of this study was to detect chromosomal regions for resistance to stripe rust in two winter wheat populations, 'Tubbs'/'NSA-98-0995' (T/N) and 'Einstein'/'Tubbs' (E/T), evaluated across seven environments and mapped with diversity array technology and simple sequence repeat markers covering polymorphic regions of ≈1480 and 1117 cM, respectively. Analysis of variance for phenotypic data revealed significant (P located in chromosomes 2AS and 6AL, with epistatic interaction between them, were responsible for the main phenotypic response. For the T/N population, eight QTL were identified, with those in chromosomes 2AL and 2BL accounting for the largest percentage of the phenotypic variance.

Study of School Environment and Prevalence of Obesity & Its Predictors among Adolescent (10-13 Years) Belonging to a Private School in an Urban Indian City

OpenAIRE

Mehan Meenakshi, Munshi Aparna, Surabhi Somila, Bhatt Trushna, Kantharia Neha

2012-01-01

Background: Recent shift in lifestyle and behavioral patterns in population have caused an obesity epidemic during formative years. Present study evaluated existing health and nutrition policies in a private school in an urban Indian city and assessed prevalence of obesity in adolescent children & their association if any, with predictive behaviors of obesity. Methods: A private coeducational school located in an urban Indian city was selected and its existing health policies were eva...

Urbane Projekter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Anne Juel

2013-01-01

of Chapter 1 ’problem and research questions’, Chapter 2 ’place, discourse and planning as a theoretical framework’ and Chapter 3 ’research design’. Part 2 ’urban practice locally, nationally and globally’ consisting of Chapter 4 ’background and context, urban trans- formations in Aalborg from 1950 to 2013...... of Chapter 9 with the same name. The analysis results and thus the conclusions are at 3 levels of knowledge: Historically specific development in terms of urban planning practices respectively in Aalborg and natio- nally/internationally The tools here have been a focus on different rationales or urban...... projects as a strategic tool in urban policy, development of place perceptions, the use of narratives in the planning processes, the functions of representations as discursive devised imagined realities, power structures and planning approaches - knowledge that can be used in the future practice of other...

Monitoring of urban growth in the state of Hidalgo using Landsat images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Cano Salinas

2017-03-01

Given this background, this paper is focused on the generation of geographic information for regional urban planning and the overall aim is to examine urban growth rate during the period 2000-2014 in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico and identify potential areas of expansion from Landsat images. The methodology was based on techniques of remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS. The inputs used were six Landsat scenes: three for 2000 year and three for 2014. Image processing was performed on ERDAS Imagine® 9.1 and the spatial analysis of urban coverage statewide on ArcGIS 10.0 by ESRI®. First, the radiometric correction was made and we obtained the urban polygons of the 2000 year through of supervised classification. The 2014 urban layer was digitized manually due to the spectral incompatibility between the bands of the Landsat sensor 5 and 7, and the Landsat sensor 8. Then, we build a road density map and the spatial relationship of the urban centers with the road influence area was evaluated. For the year 2000, 103 urban polygons were mapped, whilst for 2014 were identified ten polygons more with a mapped minimum area of 24 ha. The main results indicated that in the state has increased 72.3 km2 urban area from 2000 to 2014. This represents an average growth rate of 1.8% per year. The most widespread municipalities are located in the region of Valle del Mezquital, however, Mineral de la Reforma, Tetepango, Tizayuca and Pachuca showed growth rates of 183.44%, 102% 94% and 68.5% in fourteen years, respectively. According to the road map density, these municipalities are located in areas of greatest influence of infrastructure as the Arco Norte highway in the state. The above findings, lead us to conclude that the Mezquital Valley and the Basin of Mexico are potential areas of urban spreading and it is associated with road development in the Central Mexico.

URBAN UPBRINGING INFLUENCES RESPONSE TO SOCIAL FEEDBACK

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lemmers-Jansen, Imke; Fett, Anne-Kathrin; Krabbendam, Lydia

Background: Growing up in an urban environment is associated with a higher incidence of schizophrenia. The effects of urbanicity seem particularly pronounced during development. It has been hypothesized that urbanicity could be a proxy for social stress, which might account for disturbed social

Scaling Patterns of Natural Urban Places as a Rule for Enhancing Their Urban Functionality Using Trajectory Data

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, T.; Yu, X.

2018-04-01

With the availability of massive trajectory data, it is highly valuable to reveal their activity information for many domains such as understanding the functionality of urban regions. This article utilizes the scaling patterns of human activities to enhance functional distribution of natural urban places. Specifically, we proposed a temporal city clustering algorithm to aggregate the stopping locations into natural urban places, which are reported to follow remarkable power law distributions of sizes and obey a universal law of economy of scale on human interactions with urban infrastructure. Besides, we proposed a novel Bayesian inference model with damping factor to estimate the most likely POI type associated with a stopping location. Our results suggest that hot natural urban places could be effectively identified from their scaling patterns and their functionality can be very well enhanced. For instance, natural urban places containing airport or railway station can be highly stressed by accumulating the massive types of human activities.

LOFT gamma densitometer background fluxes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grimesey, R.A.; McCracken, R.T.

1978-01-01

Background gamma-ray fluxes were calculated at the location of the γ densitometers without integral shielding at both the hot-leg and cold-leg primary piping locations. The principal sources for background radiation at the γ densitometers are 16 N activity from the primary piping H 2 O and γ radiation from reactor internal sources. The background radiation was calculated by the point-kernel codes QAD-BSA and QAD-P5A. Reasonable assumptions were required to convert the response functions calculated by point-kernel procedures into the gamma-ray spectrum from reactor internal sources. A brief summary of point-kernel equations and theory is included

Location choice of Chinese urban fringe residents on employment, housing, and urban services: A case study of Nanjing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xingping Wang

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Urban fringe area is the most important space for city development. It includes several complicated elements, such as population, space, and management organization. On the basis of local population attributes in the city fringe area combined with people’s movement characteristics in time and space, this article reclassifies basic public service facilities and discusses the relationship between facility layout and housing, employment, and commuter transportation. Through a questionnaire survey in Qiaobei District of the urban fringe area in Nanjing and on the basis of comparative analysis, we discuss the impact factor on the choice of housing, urban services, and the tolerance of commuting time. Our findings indicate mutual promoting and restricting connections among living, employment, and services. Workers’ living situation determines their daily behavior, such as dining, shopping, and entertainment. Furthermore, different income levels have a great influence on residents’ choices with regard to places to live and develop their careers.

Heat Retreat Locations in Cities - The Survey-Based Location Analysis of Heat Relief

Science.gov (United States)

Neht, Alice; Maximini, Claudia; Prenger-Berninghoff, Kathrin

2017-12-01

The adaptation of cities to climate change effects is one of the major strategies in urban planning to encounter the challenges of climate change (IPCC 2014). One of the fields of climate change adaption is dealing with heat events that occur more frequently and with greater intensity. Cities in particular are vulnerable to these events due to high population and infrastructure density. Proceeding urbanization calls for the existence of sufficient heat retreat locations (HRL) to enable relief for the population from heat in summer. This is why an extensive analysis of HRL is needed. This paper aims at the development of a survey-based location analysis of heat relief by identifying user groups, locations and characteristics of HRL based on a home survey that was conducted in three German cities. Key results of the study show that the majority of the participants of the survey are users of existing HRL, are affected by heat, and perceive heat as a burden in summer. Moreover, HRL that are located in close proximity are preferred by most users while their effect depends on the regional context that has to be considered in the analysis. Hence, this research presents an approach to heat relief that underlines the importance of HRL in cities by referring to selected examples of HRL types in densely populated areas of cities. HRL should especially be established and secured in densely built-up areas of cities. According to results of the survey, most HRL are located in public spaces, and the overall accessibility of HRL turned out to be an issue.

Submicrometer aerosol in rural and urban backgrounds in southern Poland: primary and secondary components of PM1.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogula-Kozłowska, Wioletta; Klejnowski, Krzysztof

2013-01-01

Diurnal samples of PM(1) (submicrometer particles, having aerodynamic diameters not greater than 1 μm) were collected at an urban background site in Zabrze (from 01.08. to 31.12.2009) and a rural background site in Racibórz (from 01.08. to 31.12.2010). The samples were analyzed for carbon (organic and elemental), water soluble ions (Na(+), NH(4) (+), K(+), Mg(2+), Ca(2+), Cl(-), NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-)) and concentrations of 21 elements by using, respectively, a Sunset Laboratory carbon analyzer, a Herisau Metrohm AG ion chromatograph, a PANalitycal Epsilon 5 spectrometer. To perform the monthly mass closure calculations for PM(1), the chemical components were categorized into organic matter (OM), elemental carbon (EC), secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA), crustal matter (CM), marine components (MC), other elements (OE) and unidentified matter (UM). The mass contributions of secondary (SOM) and primary (POM) organic matter to PM(1) were also estimated. In average, 50 % of PM(1) in Zabrze and 40 % in Racibórz were secondary aerosol coming from the transformations of its gaseous precursors. High concentrations and mass contributions of EC and OM to PM, and probable PM acidic nature in Zabrze, indicate particularly high hazard from the ambient submicrometer particles to the inhabitants of southern Poland.

Sustainable Urban Development? Exploring the Locational Attributes of LEED-ND Projects in the United States through a GIS Analysis of Light Intensity and Land Use

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Russell M. Smith

2016-06-01

Full Text Available LEED®-ND™ is the latest attempt to develop more sustainable urban environs in the United States. The LEED®-ND™ program was created to provide a green rating system that would improve the quality of life for all people through the inclusion of sustainable development practices. To achieve this, a premium is placed on the locational attributes of proposed projects under the “Smart Location and Linkages” credit category. The purpose of this paper is to explore the locational attributes of LEED®-ND™ projects in the United States to determine if projects are being located in areas that will result in achieving the program’s stated objectives. Specifically, this paper will examine two locational variables (i.e., night-time light intensity and land use cover through the use of GIS to determine the effectiveness of these criteria.

Informational Urbanism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolfgang G. Stock

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Contemporary and future cities are often labeled as "smart cities," "ubiquitous cities," "knowledge cities" and "creative cities." Informational urbanism includes all aspects of information and knowledge with regard to urban regions. "Informational city" is an umbrella term uniting the divergent trends of information-related city research. Informational urbanism is an interdisciplinary endeavor incorporating on the one side computer science and information science and on the other side urbanism, architecture, (city economics, and (city sociology. In our research project on informational cities, we visited more than 40 metropolises and smaller towns all over the world. In this paper, we sketch the theoretical background on a journey from Max Weber to the Internet of Things, introduce our research methods, and describe main results on characteristics of informational cities as prototypical cities of the emerging knowledge society.

Influence of distance to urban markets on smallholder dairy farming systems in Kenya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Migose, S.A.; Bebe, B.O.; Boer, de I.J.M.; Oosting, S.J.

2018-01-01

We studied influence of distance to urban markets on smallholder dairy farming system development. Farms were chosen from three locations that varied in distance to the urban market of Nakuru Town in the Kenyan highlands: urban location (UL, n = 10) at less than 15 km distance, mid-rural location

Indoor air quality of houses located in the urban environment of Agra, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Taneja, Ajay; Saini, Renuka; Masih, Amit

2008-10-01

Increased concern over the adverse health effects of air pollution has highlighted the need for air-pollution measurements, especially in urban areas, where many sources of air pollutants are normally monitored outdoors as part of obligations under the National Air Quality Strategies. Very little is known about air pollution indoors. In fact, the largest exposure to health-damaging indoor pollution probably occurs in the developing world, not in households, schools, and offices of developed countries where most research and control efforts have been focused to date. As a result much of the health impacts from air pollution worldwide seem to occur among the poorest and most vulnerable populations. The authors in their earlier studies have confirmed the importance of ambient air in determining the quality of air indoors. In this study an observation of air quality indoors and outdoors of domestic homes located in an urban environment from October 2004 to December 2005 in Agra, north central India, is performed. The purpose of this study was to characterize the indoor/outdoor (I/O) relationship of airborne pollutants and recognize their probable source in all three seasons, that is, winter, summer, and rainy season. Concentrations of SO(2), NO(2), CO(2), Cl(2), H(2)S, NH(3), RSPM, and PAH were monitored simultaneously and I/O ratios were calculated. In order to investigate the effect of seasonality on indoor and ambient air quality, winter to summer and winter to monsoon average ratios were calculated. It is apparent that there is a general pattern of increasing levels from monsoon to summer to winter, and similarly from outdoor to indoor air. Regressions analysis had been done to further investigate the influence of outdoor air-pollutant concentrations on indoor concentrations. The most probable categories of sources for these pollutants have been identified by using principal-component analysis. Indoor air pollution is a complex function of energy housing and

Urban characteristics and homelessness in Bucharest

OpenAIRE

Mirela Paraschiv

2013-01-01

Urban poverty continues to prove itself a concern in cities’ territorial planning as it disrupts the quality of life and the development process in some cities. Homelessness emerges sometimes as extreme urban poverty even in developed European Union countries. The study assesses Bucharest urban space to differentiate characteristics that influence the homeless to locate in certain places. The analysis included a three-level urban space categorization. Functional types of space were correlated...

Census 2000 Urbanized Areas (CEN00UA02_2)

Data.gov (United States)

California Natural Resource Agency — For Census 2000, the Census Bureau classifies as 'urban' all territory, population, and housing units located within an urbanized area (UA) or an urban cluster (UC)....

Psychiatric disorders and urbanization in Germany

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dekker, J.J.M.; Peen, J.; Koelen, J.A.; Smit, H.F.E.; Schoevers, R.A.

2008-01-01

Abstract Background Epidemiological studies over the last decade have supplied growing evidence of an association between urbanization and the prevalence of psychiatric disorders. Our aim was to examine the link between levels of urbanization and 12-month prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders in

A Method for Estimating Urban Background Concentrations in Support of Hybrid Air Pollution Modeling for Environmental Health Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saravanan Arunachalam

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Exposure studies rely on detailed characterization of air quality, either from sparsely located routine ambient monitors or from central monitoring sites that may lack spatial representativeness. Alternatively, some studies use models of various complexities to characterize local-scale air quality, but often with poor representation of background concentrations. A hybrid approach that addresses this drawback combines a regional-scale model to provide background concentrations and a local-scale model to assess impacts of local sources. However, this approach may double-count sources in the study regions. To address these limitations, we carefully define the background concentration as the concentration that would be measured if local sources were not present, and to estimate these background concentrations we developed a novel technique that combines space-time ordinary kriging (STOK of observations with outputs from a detailed chemistry-transport model with local sources zeroed out. We applied this technique to support an exposure study in Detroit, Michigan, for several pollutants (including NOx and PM2.5, and evaluated the estimated hybrid concentrations (calculated by combining the background estimates that addresses this issue of double counting with local-scale dispersion model estimates using observations. Our results demonstrate the strength of this approach specifically by eliminating the problem of double-counting reported in previous hybrid modeling approaches leading to improved estimates of background concentrations, and further highlight the relative importance of NOx vs. PM2.5 in their relative contributions to total concentrations. While a key limitation of this approach is the requirement for another detailed model simulation to avoid double-counting, STOK improves the overall characterization of background concentrations at very fine spatial scales.

Grass plants crop water consumption model in urban parks located ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The most important issue is the to use of urban space to increase the number and size of green areas. As well as another important issue is to work towards maintaining these spaces. One such important effort is to meet the water needs of plants. Naturally, the amount of water needed by plants depends on the species.

Real-time airborne gamma-ray background estimation using NASVD with MLE and radiation transport for calibration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kulisek, J.A., E-mail: Jonathan.Kulisek@pnnl.gov; Schweppe, J.E.; Stave, S.C.; Bernacki, B.E.; Jordan, D.V.; Stewart, T.N.; Seifert, C.E.; Kernan, W.J.

2015-06-01

Helicopter-mounted gamma-ray detectors can provide law enforcement officials the means to quickly and accurately detect, identify, and locate radiological threats over a wide geographical area. The ability to accurately distinguish radiological threat-generated gamma-ray signatures from background gamma radiation in real time is essential in order to realize this potential. This problem is non-trivial, especially in urban environments for which the background may change very rapidly during flight. This exacerbates the challenge of estimating background due to the poor counting statistics inherent in real-time airborne gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements. To address this challenge, we have developed a new technique for real-time estimation of background gamma radiation from aerial measurements without the need for human analyst intervention. The method can be calibrated using radiation transport simulations along with data from previous flights over areas for which the isotopic composition need not be known. Over the examined measured and simulated data sets, the method generated accurate background estimates even in the presence of a strong, {sup 60}Co source. The potential to track large and abrupt changes in background spectral shape and magnitude was demonstrated. The method can be implemented fairly easily in most modern computing languages and environments.

The impact of the eldritch city: Classical and alien urbanism in Lovecraft’s Mythos

OpenAIRE

Martinez Jimenez, Javier

2018-01-01

In the world of the Cthulhu Mythos ancient ruins and old towns (both human and alien) usually form an essential part of stories. These ancient constructions are usually depicted and explained by Lovecraft at length, and they give not only ambience to the narration but a background to the locations in which the story is set. Through the descriptions of these cities, various conclusions regarding Lovecraft’s use of classical urbanism and monumentality can be drawn. By looking at his description...

Low energy background radiation in India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gopinath, D.V.

1980-01-01

Spectral distribution of background radiation at 9 locations spread all over India has been measured. Specifications of the counting set-up standardised for measurement are given. At one of the places, the background spectrum was measured with four different types of detectors. A broad peak in 60-100 keV with differing intensity and standard deviation is observed in all the spectra. In the Kalpakkam area, the peak near the seashore is observed to be more intense than away from the shore. This could be due to the presence of monazite sands on the seashore. The natural background radiation is observed to have a steep rise below 20 keV. Peak intensity is found to be independent of both the location (i.e. the source of energy) and the type of detector used for measurement. The calculated spectra due to multiple scattered radiation (with a nominal source energy of 1 MeV) through paraffin wax and the measured background spectrum with the detector shielded with 20 cm wax show good agreement above 40 keV. This shows that 80 keV hump in the natural background radiation is a property of air. The peak, therefore, in the spectra of natural background radiation is essentially a property of medium and it is independent of location or detector. (M.G.B.)

Seasonal and spatial variations of PPCP occurrence, removal and mass loading in three wastewater treatment plants located in different urbanization areas in Xiamen, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, Qian; Li, Mingyue; Ma, Cong; Chen, Xiangqiang; Xie, Xiaoqing; Yu, Chang-Ping

2016-01-01

The occurrence and fate of 48 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in different urbanization areas in Xiamen, China was investigated over one year. Results showed that PPCPs were widely detected, but the major PPCPs in the influent, effluent, and sludge were different. Spatial and seasonal variations of PPCP levels in the influent and sludge were observed. The removal efficiencies for most PPCPs were similar among the three WWTPs, although they employed different biological treatment processes. Furthermore, the mass loadings per inhabitant of most pharmaceuticals had a positive correlation with the urbanization levels, indicating that most pharmaceutical usage was higher in the urban core compared to the suburban zones. The total mass loadings of all the 48 PPCPs in the effluent and waste sludge showed close proportions, which suggested the importance of proper waste sludge disposal to prevent a large quantity of PPCPs from entering the environment. - Highlights: • The major components in the influent, effluent, and sludge were different. • Removal rates were similar for most PPCPs under different treatment processes. • Pharmaceutical usage was higher in the urban core compared to suburban zones. • Effluent and sludge shared close proportions for PPCP releasing to the environment. - The total mass loadings of PPCPs per inhabitant in the influent, effluent and waste sludge of WWTPs were higher in the urban core compared to the suburban zones.

Evaluation of urban sprawl and urban landscape pattern in a rapidly developing region.

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, Zhi-Qiang; Dai, Fu-Qiang; Sun, Cheng

2012-10-01

Urban sprawl is a worldwide phenomenon happening particularly in rapidly developing regions. A study on the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban sprawl and urban pattern is useful for the sustainable management of land management and urban land planning. The present research explores the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban sprawl in the context of a rapid urbanization process in a booming economic region of southern China from 1979 to 2005. Three urban sprawl types are distinguished by analyzing overlaid urban area maps of two adjacent study years which originated from the interpretation of remote sensed images and vector land use maps. Landscape metrics are used to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern of urban sprawl for each study period. Study results show that urban areas have expanded dramatically, and the spatiotemporal landscape pattern configured by the three sprawl types changed obviously. The different sprawl type patterns in five study periods have transformed significantly, with their proportions altered both in terms of quantity and of location. The present research proves that urban sprawl quantification and pattern analysis can provide a clear perspective of the urbanization process during a long time period. Particularly, the present study on urban sprawl and sprawl patterns can be used by land use and urban planners.

Evaluation of Potential Relay Locations in a Urban Macro-Cell Scenario with Applicability to LTE-A

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodriguez, Ignacio; Coletti, Claudio; Sørensen, Troels Bundgaard

2012-01-01

. This paper presents a measurement-based study focusing on the performance evaluation of the relay backhaul link for different potential relay locations and antenna configurations in a real urban macro-cell scenario. Based on the assumption that a similar network deployment would apply for LTE-A, a fully......Relay base stations are expected to play an important role in extending coverage for beyond 3G networks, such as LTE-A. However, the signal quality experienced on the backhaul link between the macro-cell and the relay node has a major impact on the performance of the multi-hop transmission...... operational 3G network has been used for measuring both received signal strength and Signal-to-Interference-Ratio (SIR). Furthermore, the results have been used to estimate the performance of the multi-hop transmission under simplifying assumptions. The experimental results show that by increasing the relay...

Transnational Urban Spaces and Urban Environmental Reforms : Analyzing Beijing's Environmental Restructuring in the Light of Globalization.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Melchert Saguas Presas, L.

2004-01-01

In this era of globalization, `transnational spaces¿ are being created within urban settings, providing a direct connection between the `local¿ and the `global¿. Corporate headquarters, hotels, shopping malls, and airports are typical examples of such spaces, which while located within an urban

True-3D accentuating of grids and streets in urban topographic maps enhances human object location memory.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dennis Edler

Full Text Available Cognitive representations of learned map information are subject to systematic distortion errors. Map elements that divide a map surface into regions, such as content-related linear symbols (e.g. streets, rivers, railway systems or additional artificial layers (coordinate grids, provide an orientation pattern that can help users to reduce distortions in their mental representations. In recent years, the television industry has started to establish True-3D (autostereoscopic displays as mass media. These modern displays make it possible to watch dynamic and static images including depth illusions without additional devices, such as 3D glasses. In these images, visual details can be distributed over different positions along the depth axis. Some empirical studies of vision research provided first evidence that 3D stereoscopic content attracts higher attention and is processed faster. So far, the impact of True-3D accentuating has not yet been explored concerning spatial memory tasks and cartography. This paper reports the results of two empirical studies that focus on investigations whether True-3D accentuating of artificial, regular overlaying line features (i.e. grids and content-related, irregular line features (i.e. highways and main streets in official urban topographic maps (scale 1/10,000 further improves human object location memory performance. The memory performance is measured as both the percentage of correctly recalled object locations (hit rate and the mean distances of correctly recalled objects (spatial accuracy. It is shown that the True-3D accentuating of grids (depth offset: 5 cm significantly enhances the spatial accuracy of recalled map object locations, whereas the True-3D emphasis of streets significantly improves the hit rate of recalled map object locations. These results show the potential of True-3D displays for an improvement of the cognitive representation of learned cartographic information.

Picturing Urban Green Attachments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blok, Anders; Meilvang, Marie Leth

2015-01-01

In this article, we explore the cultural-political tensions and ambiguities of urban ecology, by way of following how activists move and translate between ‘familiar’ and ‘public’ engagements in the green city. Empirically, we locate our exploration in and around Nordhavnen (The North Harbor......), a large-scale sustainable urban development project in Copenhagen. Invoking Laurent Thévenot’s pragmatic sociology of ‘regimes of engagement’, we sketch a culturally sensitive approach to urban ecological activism, highlighting the critical moral capacities involved in building new forms of ‘commonality...

Identification and location of catenary insulator in complex background based on machine vision

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Xiaotong; Pan, Yingli; Liu, Li; Cheng, Xiao

2018-04-01

It is an important premise to locate insulator precisely for fault detection. Current location algorithms for insulator under catenary checking images are not accurate, a target recognition and localization method based on binocular vision combined with SURF features is proposed. First of all, because of the location of the insulator in complex environment, using SURF features to achieve the coarse positioning of target recognition; then Using binocular vision principle to calculate the 3D coordinates of the object which has been coarsely located, realization of target object recognition and fine location; Finally, Finally, the key is to preserve the 3D coordinate of the object's center of mass, transfer to the inspection robot to control the detection position of the robot. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method has better recognition efficiency and accuracy, can successfully identify the target and has a define application value.

Addressing South Africa’s urban challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jayne M. Rogerson

2014-07-01

Full Text Available South Africa is among the most urbanized countries in Africa and has an urban population that is growing rapidly. The country’s urban challenges sometimes are considered as distinctive and separate to those of rest of Africa because of the apartheid legacy of a fragmented and racially splintered urban landscape. Nevertheless, 20 years after democratic transition the issues that confront its cities increasingly exhibit a set of sustainability challenges that typify those problems of many other fast-growing African urban areas. This introduction locates the collection of articles as a contribution to the expanding corpus of scholarship on urban South Africa.

Listening to Students from Refugee Backgrounds: Lessons for Education Professionals

Science.gov (United States)

Mthethwa-Sommers, Shirley; Kisiara, Otieno

2015-01-01

This article is based on a study that examined how students from refugee backgrounds cope with victimization and bullying in three urban high schools in the United States. Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis were employed. Twelve high school students from refugee backgrounds participated in the study, which involved focus group…

Energy supply at Vinex locations; Energievoorziening op Vinex-locaties

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bais, H.; Dougle, P. [Beleidsstudies, Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland ECN, Petten (Netherlands)

1997-10-01

Sustainable construction of newly to be built urban areas is a hot topic nowadays in the Netherlands. A brief overview is given of what is needed to plan and realize a sustainable (energy)-infrastructure of new urban areas, in particular the so-called Vinex-locations (Vinex is the Dutch abbreviation for Fourth Memorandum Physical Planning Extra). 1 fig.

Intra-urban and street scale variability of BTEX, NO 2 and O 3 in Birmingham, UK: Implications for exposure assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Vardoulakis, Sotiris; Solazzo, Efisio; Lumbreras, Julio

2011-09-01

Automatic monitoring networks have the ability of capturing air pollution episodes, as well as short- and long-term air quality trends in urban areas that can be used in epidemiological studies. However, due to practical constraints (e.g. cost and bulk of equipment), the use of automatic analysers is restricted to a limited number of roadside and background locations within a city. As a result, certain localised air pollution hotspots may be overlooked or overemphasised, especially near heavily trafficked street canyons and intersections. This has implications for compliance with regulatory standards and may cause exposure misclassification in epidemiological studies. Apart from automatic analysers, low cost passive diffusion tubes can be used to characterise the spatial variability of air pollution in urban areas. In this study, BTEX, NO 2 and O 3 data from a one-year passive sampling survey were used to characterise the intra-urban and street scale spatial variability of traffic-related pollutants in Birmingham (UK). In addition, continuous monitoring of NO 2, NO x, O 3, CO, SO 2, PM 10 and PM 2.5 from three permanent monitoring sites was used to identify seasonal and annual pollution patterns. The passive sampling measurements allowed us to evaluate the representativeness of a permanent roadside monitoring site that has recorded some of the highest NO 2 and PM 10 concentrations in Birmingham in recent years. Dispersion modelling was also used to gain further insight into pollutant sources and dispersion characteristics at this location. The strong spatial concentration gradients observed in busy streets, as well as the differences between roadside and urban background levels highlight the importance of appropriate positioning of air quality monitoring equipment in cities.

Influence of distance to urban markets on smallholder dairy farming systems in Kenya

OpenAIRE

Migose, S.A.; Bebe, B.O.; Boer, de, I.J.M.; Oosting, S.J.

2018-01-01

We studied influence of distance to urban markets on smallholder dairy farming system development. Farms were chosen from three locations that varied in distance to the urban market of Nakuru Town in the Kenyan highlands: urban location (UL, n = 10) at less than 15 km distance, mid-rural location (MRL, n = 11) in between 20 and 50 km west of Nakuru and extreme rural location (ERL, n = 9) beyond 50 km west and south-west of Nakuru. In-depth interviews with farmers and focus group discussions w...

Variations in vanadium, nickel and lanthanoid element concentrations in urban air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moreno, Teresa; Querol, Xavier; Alastuey, Andres; Rosa, Jesus de la; Sanchez de la Campa, Ana Maria; Minguillon, MariCruz; Pandolfi, Marco; Gonzalez-Castanedo, Yolanda; Monfort, Eliseo; Gibbons, Wes

2010-01-01

The emission of trace metal pollutants by industry and transport takes place on a scale large enough to alter atmospheric chemistry and results in measurable differences between the urban background of inhalable particulate matter (PM) in different towns. This is particularly well demonstrated by the technogenic release into the atmosphere of V, Ni, and lanthanoid elements. We compare PM concentrations of these metals in large datasets from five industrial towns in Spain variously influenced by emissions from refinery, power station, shipping, stainless steel, ceramic tiles and brick-making. Increased La/Ce values in urban background inhalable PM, due to La-contamination from refineries and their residual products (fuel oils and petcoke), contrast with Ce-rich emissions from the ceramic related industry, and clearly demonstrate the value of this ratio as a sensitive and reliable tracer for many point source emissions. Similarly, anomalously high V/Ni values (> 4) can detect the influence of nearby high-V petcoke and fuel oil combustion, although the use of this ratio in urban background PM is limited by overlapping values in natural and anthropogenic materials. Geochemical characterisation of urban background PM is a valuable compliment to the physical monitoring of aerosols widely employed in urban areas, especially given the relevance of trace metal inhalation to urban health issues.

Urban and peri-urban precipitation and air temperature trends in mega cities of the world using multiple trend analysis methods

Science.gov (United States)

Ajaaj, Aws A.; Mishra, Ashok K.; Khan, Abdul A.

2018-04-01

Urbanization plays an important role in altering local to regional climate. In this study, the trends in precipitation and the air temperature were investigated for urban and peri-urban areas of 18 mega cities selected from six continents (representing a wide range of climatic patterns). Multiple statistical tests were used to examine long-term trends in annual and seasonal precipitation and air temperature for the selected cities. The urban and peri-urban areas were classified based on the percentage of land imperviousness. Through this study, it was evident that removal of the lag-k serial correlation caused a reduction of approximately 20 to 30% in significant trend observability for temperature and precipitation data. This observation suggests that appropriate trend analysis methodology for climate studies is necessary. Additionally, about 70% of the urban areas showed higher positive air temperature trends, compared with peri-urban areas. There were not clear trend signatures (i.e., mix of increase or decrease) when comparing urban vs peri-urban precipitation in each selected city. Overall, cities located in dry areas, for example, in Africa, southern parts of North America, and Eastern Asia, showed a decrease in annual and seasonal precipitation, while wetter conditions were favorable for cities located in wet regions such as, southeastern South America, eastern North America, and northern Europe. A positive relationship was observed between decadal trends of annual/seasonal air temperature and precipitation for all urban and peri-urban areas, with a higher rate being observed for urban areas.

Spatial analysis related to the location characteristics of park supply. Case study: Music Park and Pendawa Park, Bandung City, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Malik, A.; Akbar, R.; Maryati, S.; Natalivan, P.

2018-05-01

Public space plays a role in defining the character of a city and is a valuable asset for a city and one of the indicators in assessing whether a city is considered successful or not. In the context of urban sociology, high-quality public spaces with well-maintained environments can improve the quality of the heterogeneous life of urban social communities by creating economic, social, or environmental value-added. Urban societies tend to be heterogeneous, individualistic, and characterized by high competition that often causes conflicts. Another reason for conflicts is the relatively high social differentiation because of the level of religious differences, customs, languages, and sociocultural aspects brought by immigrants from various regions. In the context of space, the city is a system that does not stand alone because internally the city is a unified system of functional activities in it. Meanwhile, externally, the city is influenced by its surrounding environment. As part of the public space, park has an important role in the environmental, aesthetic, recreational, psychological, social, educational, and economic aspects of the city. Public space can be understood as open spaces in urban areas, where everyone regardless their interests and backgrounds can be intersectional and have social contact and serve as an “urban regenerator” including educational functions through innovation and technological intervention. Moreover, park can also absorb carbon dioxide emissions, produce oxygen, improve air and water quality, regulate the microclimate, reduce noise, protect soil and water, and maintain biodiversity. However, many things cause the function of parks to decrease. One reason relates to the distribution of parks related to the characteristics of their location. Research has not seen many studies on the characteristics of locations in the planning of public space. The provision of public space should consider these location characteristics. This study

Urban land planning in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zeković Slavka L.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the capitalization, urban land management and planning routine have been explored. The focus dwells on the praxis and urban planning perspectives as a link and means for realizing the public interest in space and the role of 'urban transplants' as a lever of urban development. It has also been pointed to a certain discrimination of the property status and property rights through the category of 'public interest', which is articulated by way of urban planning. The unfairness of the existing planning system towards private property and 'taxation' of entrepreneurial activities is evident, especially in urban land use i.e. installing the height of the land rent. It is expected that urban planning is competent upon the background of societal democratization, privatization and introduction of market institutions where the perspectives shift towards democratic transformation, the regulatory role and protection of property rights and different actors’ interests in using urban land. The conclusion is that changes in the management of urban land are required with recommendations to consider public-private sector partnerships.

Forecasting Urban Forest Ecosystem Structure, Function, and Vulnerability

Science.gov (United States)

James W. N. Steenberg; Andrew A. Millward; David J. Nowak; Pamela J. Robinson; Alexis Ellis

2016-01-01

The benefits derived from urban forest ecosystems are garnering increasing attention in ecological research and municipal planning. However, because of their location in heterogeneous and highly-altered urban landscapes, urban forests are vulnerable and commonly suffer disproportionate and varying levels of stress and disturbance. The objective of this study is to...

Milestones on the social accountability journey: Family medicine practice locations of Northern Ontario School of Medicine graduates.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogenbirk, John C; Timony, Patrick E; French, Margaret G; Strasser, Roger; Pong, Raymond W; Cervin, Catherine; Graves, Lisa

2016-03-01

To assess the effect of different levels of exposure to the Northern Ontario School of Medicine's (NOSM's) distributed medical education programs in northern Ontario on FPs' practice locations. Cross-sectional design using longitudinal survey and administrative data. Canada. All 131 Canadian medical graduates who completed FP training in 2011 to 2013 and who completed their undergraduate (UG) medical degree or postgraduate (PG) residency training or both at NOSM. Exposure to NOSM's medical education program at the UG (n = 49) or PG (n = 31) level or both (n = 51). Primary practice location in September of 2014. Approximately 16% (21 of 129) of FPs were practising in rural northern Ontario, 45% (58 of 129) in urban northern Ontario, and 5% (7 of 129) in rural southern Ontario. Logistic regression found that more rural Canadian background years predicted rural practice in northern Ontario or Ontario, with odds ratios of 1.16 and 1.12, respectively. Northern Canadian background, sex, marital status, and having children did not predict practice location. Completing both UG and PG training at NOSM predicted practising in rural and northern Ontario locations with odds ratios of 4.06 to 48.62. Approximately 61% (79 of 129) of Canadian medical graduate FPs who complete at least some of their training at NOSM practise in northern Ontario. Slightly more than a quarter (21 of 79) of these FPs practise in rural northern Ontario. The FPs with more years of rural background or those with greater exposure to NOSM's medical education programs had higher odds of practising in rural northern Ontario. This study shows that NOSM is on the road to reaching one of its social accountability milestones.

Assessment Of Market Facilities And Locational Effects On Adjoining Neighborhoods In Nigerian Urban Centers Empirical Evidence From Akure Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adeyinka S. A.

2015-08-01

Full Text Available There is the need for people to buy and sell and transact their businesses in a way that life can go on normally. This study examined the markets facilities level and locational effects on adjoining neighbourhoods in Akure Township. Both primary and secondary data types were employed in the study primary data were collected through the administration of questionnaire on traders and patronsbuyers in the markets and residents of adjoining neighbourhoods and personal observation. Secondary data were collected from government publications. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistical methods which included frequency counts and Likerts scale to analyse the satisfaction of traders and patrons on the facilities in the markets and severity of locational effects on residents of adjoining neighbourhoods. Findings from the study showed that facilities such as parking spaces fire extinguishers circulation spaces within the markets trading spaces safe area for children perimeter fencing and loading and off-loading bay were inadequately provided. While on-street display of goods traffic congestion air pollution on-street parking due to inadequate parking spaces were the severely perceived locational effects. The study concluded that facilities in the markets were inadequate and that markets constitute nuisances to the adjoining areas. It hereby recommends that markets in the study area be provided with the required level of facilities to prevent future urban problems.

Childhood trauma and childhood urbanicity in relation to psychotic disorder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frissen, Aleida; Lieverse, Ritsaert; Drukker, Marjan; van Winkel, Ruud; Delespaul, Philippe; Bruggeman, Richard; Cahn, Wiepke; de Haan, Lieuwe; Kahn, René; Meije, Carin; Myin-Germeys, Inez; van Os, Jim; Wiersma, Durk

2015-01-01

Urban upbringing and childhood trauma are both associated with psychotic disorders. However, the association between childhood urbanicity and childhood trauma in psychosis is poorly understood. The urban environment could occasion a background of social adversity against which any effect of

Teaching about Natural Background Radiation

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Azmi, Darwish; Karunakara, N.; Mustapha, Amidu O.

2013-01-01

Ambient gamma dose rates in air were measured at different locations (indoors and outdoors) to demonstrate the ubiquitous nature of natural background radiation in the environment and to show that levels vary from one location to another, depending on the underlying geology. The effect of a lead shield on a gamma radiation field was also…

Leading for Urban School Reform and Community Development

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Terrance L.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Improving urban schools of color and the communities where they are located requires leadership that spans school and community boundaries. The purpose of this study is to understand how principal and community leader actions support urban school reform along with community development at two community schools in the urban Midwest and…

Do motorways shape urban growth?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick; Hovgesen, Henrik Harder

2005-01-01

results suggest that the motorway most markedly influences the location of non-residential building activities within the city – in favour of locations near the entrance points to/from the motorway network. The development can be explained in part by municipal planning, which in some instances has opened......The paper is an offspring from the Research project Town, Road and Landscape that aims to assess the effect of the Danish motorway network (specifically the last 20 years) on urban growth and interaction patterns. As one of the main interests of the project is the changing urban form...... and the changing character of the roadscape, the impact of the motorway is in part analysed with micro level data, spatial statistics and GIS – to allowing mapping of changing development trends in motorway corridors. The paper presents analysis of the impact of motorway openings on urban form in two Danish...

Towards Equitable and Sustainable Urban Space: Introduction to Special Issue on “Urban Land and Sustainable Development”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yehua Dennis Wei

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The unprecedented wave of global urbanization has exerted increased pressure on urban land and made land-use sustainability an urgent concern. This Special Issue examines patterns, structures, and dynamics of urban land use from the economic, social, and, to a lesser extent, environmental standpoints, in light of the goal of equitable and sustainable development. This introduction discusses the background and design of the Special Issue and highlights the contribution of the selected papers.

Accessibility, activity participation and location of activities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Næss, Petter

2006-01-01

By investigating relationships between residential location and the availability of facilities, location of activities, trip distances, activity participation and trip frequencies, this paper seeks to contribute to a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the relationships between residential...... location and the amount of daily-life travel in an urban region. The empirical data are from a comprehensive study of residential location and travel in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area. Differences between inner- and outer-area residents in activity frequencies and trip frequencies are modest and partly...... outweigh each other. However, differences in trip distances due to the location of the dwelling relative to concentrations of facilities translate into substantially longer total travelling distances among suburbanites than among inner-city residents....

Location in Mobile Networks Using Database Correlation (DCM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michal Mada

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The article presents one of the methods of location (DCM, which is suitable for using in urban environments, where other methods are less accurate. The principle of this method is in comparison of measured samples of signal with samples stored in database. Next the article deals with methods for processing the data and other possibilities of correction of location.

Song convergence in multiple urban populations of silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis).

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Dominique A; Parris, Kirsten M

2012-08-01

Recent studies have revealed differences between urban and rural vocalizations of numerous bird species. These differences include frequency shifts, amplitude shifts, altered song speed, and selective meme use. If particular memes sung by urban populations are adapted to the urban soundscape, "urban-typical" calls, memes, or repertoires should be consistently used in multiple urban populations of the same species, regardless of geographic location. We tested whether songs or contact calls of silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis) might be subject to such convergent cultural evolution by comparing syllable repertoires of geographically dispersed urban and rural population pairs throughout southeastern Australia. Despite frequency and tempo differences between urban and rural calls, call repertoires were similar between habitat types. However, certain song syllables were used more frequently by birds from urban than rural populations. Partial redundancy analysis revealed that both geographic location and habitat characteristics were important predictors of syllable repertoire composition. These findings suggest convergent cultural evolution: urban populations modify both song and call syllables from their local repertoire in response to noise.

Re-humanising Public Urban Space

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Almahmood, Mohammed Abdulrahman M

, this thesis suggests that re-humanising public urban space should not only be considered as a matter of design, but also as an on-going process which includes an inclusive spatial planning agenda and the management of space supplemented by background knowledge regarding the culture of use of space.......This PhD thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the spatial, social, and cultural dimensions of the formation of human-centred public urban space. ‘Re-humanising’ the city is a traveling concept which implies that public urban spaces are liveable, walkable, safe, enjoyable......, and inclusive thereby allowing vibrant social interaction. While the inclusiveness of space is considered as a core value in human-centred public urban space, social and spatial exclusion is a key challenge to the success of public urban space, especially in the Global South. The mainstream research in urban...

Statistical modeling of urban air temperature distributions under different synoptic conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Christoph; Breitner, Susanne; Cyrys, Josef; Hald, Cornelius; Hartz, Uwe; Jacobeit, Jucundus; Richter, Katja; Schneider, Alexandra; Wolf, Kathrin

2015-04-01

Within urban areas air temperature may vary distinctly between different locations. These intra-urban air temperature variations partly reach magnitudes that are relevant with respect to human thermal comfort. Therefore and furthermore taking into account potential interrelations with other health related environmental factors (e.g. air quality) it is important to estimate spatial patterns of intra-urban air temperature distributions that may be incorporated into urban planning processes. In this contribution we present an approach to estimate spatial temperature distributions in the urban area of Augsburg (Germany) by means of statistical modeling. At 36 locations in the urban area of Augsburg air temperatures are measured with high temporal resolution (4 min.) since December 2012. These 36 locations represent different typical urban land use characteristics in terms of varying percentage coverages of different land cover categories (e.g. impervious, built-up, vegetated). Percentage coverages of these land cover categories have been extracted from different sources (Open Street Map, European Urban Atlas, Urban Morphological Zones) for regular grids of varying size (50, 100, 200 meter horizonal resolution) for the urban area of Augsburg. It is well known from numerous studies that land use characteristics have a distinct influence on air temperature and as well other climatic variables at a certain location. Therefore air temperatures at the 36 locations are modeled utilizing land use characteristics (percentage coverages of land cover categories) as predictor variables in Stepwise Multiple Regression models and in Random Forest based model approaches. After model evaluation via cross-validation appropriate statistical models are applied to gridded land use data to derive spatial urban air temperature distributions. Varying models are tested and applied for different seasons and times of the day and also for different synoptic conditions (e.g. clear and calm

Influence of Urbanicity and County Characteristics on the ...

Science.gov (United States)

Background: Air pollution epidemiology studies, often conducted in large metropolitan areas due to proximity to regulatory monitors, are limited in their ability to examine potential associations between air pollution exposures and health effects in rural locations. Methods: In a time-stratified case-crossover framework, we examined associations between asthma emergency department (ED) visits in North Carolina (2006-2008) collected by a surveillance system, and short-term ozone exposures using predicted concentrations from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Associations were estimated by county groupings based on four urbanicity classifications (representative of county size and urban proximity) and county health. Results: Ozone was associated with asthma ED visits in all-year and warm season (April-October) analyses [Odds Ratio (OR) =1.019; 95% CI: 0.998, 1.040; OR=1.020; 95% CI: 0.997, 1.044, respectively, for a 20 ppb increase in lag 0-2 days ozone]. The association was strongest in Less Urbanized counties, with no evidence of a positive association in Rural counties. Associations were similar when adjusted for fine particulate matter in copolluant models. Associations were stronger for children (5-17 years of age) compared with other age groups, and for individuals living in counties with poorer health status compared with counties that had the highest health rankings, although estimated associations for these subgroups were imprecise. Conclu

Characterization of atmospheric black carbon and co-pollutants in urban and rural areas of Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Becerril-Valle, M.; Coz, E.; Prévôt, A. S. H.; Močnik, G.; Pandis, S. N.; Sánchez de la Campa, A. M.; Alastuey, A.; Díaz, E.; Pérez, R. M.; Artíñano, B.

2017-11-01

A one-year black carbon (BC) experimental study was performed at three different locations (urban traffic, urban background, rural) in Spain with different equivalent BC (eBC) source characteristics by means of multi-wavelength Aethalometers. The Aethalometer model was used for the source apportionment study, based on the difference in absorption spectral dependence of emissions from biomass burning (bb) and fossil fuel (ff) combustion. Most studies use a single bb and ff absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) pair (AAEbb and AAEff), however in this work we use a range of AAE values associated with fossil fuel and biomass burning based on the available measurements, which represents more properly all conditions. A sensitivity analysis of the source specific AAE was carried out to determine the most appropriate AAE values, being site dependent and seasonally variable. Here we present a methodology for the determination of the ranges of AAEbb and AAEff by evaluating the correlations between the source apportionment of eBC using the Aethalometer model with four biomass burning tracers measured at the rural site. The best combination was AAEbb = [1.63-1.74] and AAEff = [0.97-1.12]. Mean eBC values (±SD) obtained during the period of study were 3.70 ± 3.73 μg m-3 at the traffic urban site, 2.33 ± 2.96 μg m-3 at the urban background location, and 2.61 ± 5.04 μg m-3 in the rural area. High contributions of eBC to the PM10 mass were found (values up to 21% in winter), but with high eBC/PM10 variability. The hourly mean eBCff and eBCbb concentrations varied from 0 to 51 μg m-3 and from 0 to 50 μg m-3 at the three sites, respectively, exhibiting distinct seasonal and daily patterns. The fossil fuel combustion was the dominant eBC source at the urban sites, while biomass burning dominated during the cold season (88% of eBCbb) in the rural area. Daily PM2.5 and PM10 samples were collected using high-volume air samplers and analyzed for OC and EC. Analysis of biomass

An Ecological Examination of an Urban Sixth Grade Physical Education Class

Science.gov (United States)

James, Alisa R.; Collier, Douglas

2011-01-01

Background: There are several factors that influence teaching urban physical education. Violence, poverty and irrelevant curricula influence the teaching-learning environment in urban physical education. One approach to urban physical education is to look carefully at the ecology that exists within an urban physical education class. This ecology…

Bayesian methods to estimate urban growth potential

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Jordan W.; Smart, Lindsey S.; Dorning, Monica; Dupéy, Lauren Nicole; Méley, Andréanne; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

2017-01-01

Urban growth often influences the production of ecosystem services. The impacts of urbanization on landscapes can subsequently affect landowners’ perceptions, values and decisions regarding their land. Within land-use and land-change research, very few models of dynamic landscape-scale processes like urbanization incorporate empirically-grounded landowner decision-making processes. Very little attention has focused on the heterogeneous decision-making processes that aggregate to influence broader-scale patterns of urbanization. We examine the land-use tradeoffs faced by individual landowners in one of the United States’ most rapidly urbanizing regions − the urban area surrounding Charlotte, North Carolina. We focus on the land-use decisions of non-industrial private forest owners located across the region’s development gradient. A discrete choice experiment is used to determine the critical factors influencing individual forest owners’ intent to sell their undeveloped properties across a series of experimentally varied scenarios of urban growth. Data are analyzed using a hierarchical Bayesian approach. The estimates derived from the survey data are used to modify a spatially-explicit trend-based urban development potential model, derived from remotely-sensed imagery and observed changes in the region’s socioeconomic and infrastructural characteristics between 2000 and 2011. This modeling approach combines the theoretical underpinnings of behavioral economics with spatiotemporal data describing a region’s historical development patterns. By integrating empirical social preference data into spatially-explicit urban growth models, we begin to more realistically capture processes as well as patterns that drive the location, magnitude and rates of urban growth.

Importance of location and exterior of city hotels as elements of guest satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tepavčević Jelena

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Business practices and attitudes of tourists show that hospitality represents the primary factor in the development of urban tourism. It is considered that, besides the exclusive appearance, there is no business success for hotel properties without a proper location. It is known that a typical tourist would like to be close enough to tourist attractions, to be able to reach them on foot. This paper deals with the importance of location and exterior of urban hotels on guests decision on the selection and overall satisfaction with hotel products. The survey was conducted in the hotels two largest urban centers in Serbia (Belgrade and Novi Sad. The aim of the research is an insight into the real impact of location and exterior when assessing the guest satisfaction. Descriptive statistical analysis, t-test and regression analysis were used for statistical data processing.

Neighborhood Walkable Urban Form and C-Reactive Protein

Science.gov (United States)

Background: Walkable urban form predicts physical activity and lower body mass index, which lower C-reactive protein (CRP). However, urban form is also related to pollution, noise, social and health behavior, crowding, and other stressors, which may complement or contravene walka...

Providing Sanitation for the Urban Poor in Uganda

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Okot-Okumu, J.; Oosterveer, P.J.M.

2010-01-01

After presenting background information on urbanization in Uganda, the chapter provides an overview of sanitation in the urban centres, where different social classes reside in separate zones. Factors determining sanitation provision and the use of sanitary facilities particularly in the informal

Urbanization: the pipelines ROW (Right-of-Way) future

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ribeiro, Gilberto; Malzone, Vivian de Araujo Oliveira [TRANSPETRO - PETROBRAS Transporte S.A., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2009-07-01

The accelerated process of urbanization that is shifting the aspects of Brazilian cities - most clearly in South East and South region states - is inherently involved with decayed levels of quality of life and little or any concern at all with the sustainability of such urban expansion. Besides the social difficulties generated from this non-planned growth - mainly in the cities' outskirts - there are many questions related to urbanization that should be reconsidered such as water, soil and air pollution; lack of water resources; floods, insufficient public transport and traffic problems; urban infra-structure and lodging privations and inadequate soil installment. This paper aims at showing how this disordered urban growth plays an important role on PETROBRAS' pipeline right of way located at the great cities urban areas, more specifically the Urban Right Of Way that cross the metropolitan region of the city of Sao Paulo. Also, it is an objective to express how such urbanization propitiate the execution of basic infra-structure in a way of integrating habitation, sanitation, environment and geotechnical sectors with the purposes of PETROBRAS of maintaining as priority the integrity of the pipelines located on the ROW as well as the integrity of these ROW themselves. (author)

Understanding Spatiotemporal Patterns of Human Convergence and Divergence Using Mobile Phone Location Data

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Xiping Yang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Investigating human mobility patterns can help researchers and agencies understand the driving forces of human movement, with potential benefits for urban planning and traffic management. Recent advances in location-aware technologies have provided many new data sources (e.g., mobile phone and social media data for studying human space-time behavioral regularity. Although existing studies have utilized these new datasets to characterize human mobility patterns from various aspects, such as predicting human mobility and monitoring urban dynamics, few studies have focused on human convergence and divergence patterns within a city. This study aims to explore human spatial convergence and divergence and their evolutions over time using large-scale mobile phone location data. Using a dataset from Shenzhen, China, we developed a method to identify spatiotemporal patterns of human convergence and divergence. Eight distinct patterns were extracted, and the spatial distributions of these patterns are discussed in the context of urban functional regions. Thus, this study investigates urban human convergence and divergence patterns and their relationships with the urban functional environment, which is helpful for urban policy development, urban planning and traffic management.

Performative urban Spaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marling, Gitte

2010-01-01

The article examines the background of contemporary life, i.e., the urban teoretical and analytical framework that shows the nee for a pluralistic and open city life. possibilities for developing performative places and spaces for social and cultural exchange will be suggested. The article...

Instrumental and socioemotional communications in doctor-patient interactions in urban and rural clinics

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Location of practice, such as working in a rural or urban clinic, may influence how physicians communicate with their patients. This exploratory pilot study examines the communication styles used during doctor-patient interactions in urban and rural family practice settings in Western Canada. Methods We analyzed observation and interview data from four physicians practicing in these different locations. Using a grounded theory approach, communications were categorized as either instrumental or socioemotional. Instrumental communication refers to “cure-oriented interactions” and tends to be more task-oriented focusing on the patient’s health concerns and reason for the appointment. In contrast, socioemotional communication refers to more “care-oriented interactions” that may make the patient feel comfortable, relieve patient anxiety and build a trusting relationship. Results The physicians in small, rural towns appear to know their patients and their families on a more personal level and outside of their office, and engage in more socioemotional communications compared to those practicing in suburban clinics in a large urban centre. Knowing patients outside the clinic seems to change the nature of the doctor-patient interaction, and, in turn, the doctor-patient relationship itself. Interactions between urban doctors and their patients had a mixture of instrumental and socioemotional communications, while interactions between rural doctors and their patients tended to be highly interpersonal, often involving considerable socioemotional communication and relationship-building. Conclusions Despite the different ways that doctors and patients communicate with each other in the two settings, rural and urban doctors spend approximately the same amount of time with their patients. Thus, greater use of socioemotional communication by rural doctors, which may ease patient anxiety and increase patient trust, did not appear to add extra time to the patient

Empirical Model for Mobile Learning and their Factors. Case Study: Universities Located in the Urban City of Guadalajara, México

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Juan Mejía Trejo

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Information and communication technologies (ICT are producing new and innovative teaching-learning processes. The research question we focused on is: Which is the empirical model and the factors for mobile learning at universities located within the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara, in Jalisco, México? Our research is grounded on a documentary study that chose variables used by specialists in m-learning using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP. The factors discovered were three: Technology (TECH; Contents Teaching-Learning Management and Styles (CTLMS; and Professor and Student Role (PSR. We used 13 dimensions and 60 variables. 20 professors and 800 students in social sciences courses participated in the study; they came from 7 universities located in the Urban City of Guadalajara, during 2013-2014 school cycles (24 months. We applied questionnaires and the data were analyzed by structural equations modeling (SEM, using EQS 6.1 software. The results suggest that there are 9/60 variables that have the most influence to improve the interaction with m-Learning model within the universities.

Urban stormwater - greywater management system for sustainable urban water management at sub-watershed level

Science.gov (United States)

Singh Arora, Amarpreet

2017-11-01

Urban water management involves urban water supply (import, treatment and distribution of water), urban wastewater management (collection, treatment and disposal of urban sewage) and urban storm water management. Declining groundwater tables, polluted and declining sources of water, water scarcity in urban areas, unsatisfactory urban water supply and sanitation situation, pollution of receiving water bodies (including the ground water), and urban floods have become the concerns and issues of sustainable urban water management. This paper proposes a model for urban stormwater and sewage management which addresses these concerns and issues of sustainable urban water management. This model proposes segregation of the sewage into black water and greywater, and urban sub-watershed level stormwater-greywater management systems. During dry weather this system will be handling only the greywater and making the latter available as reclaimed water for reuse in place of the fresh water supply. During wet weather, the system will be taking care of (collection and treatment) both the storm water and the greywater, and the excess of the treated water will be disposed off through groundwater recharging. Application of this model in the Patiala city, Punjab, INDIA for selected urban sub-watersheds has been tried. Information and background data required for the conceptualization and design of the sub-watershed level urban stormwater-greywater management system was collected and the system has been designed for one of the sub-watersheds in the Patiala city. In this paper, the model for sustainable urban water management and the design of the Sub-watershed level Urban Stormwater-Greywater Management System are described.

Urban Foraging: A Ubiquitous Human Practice Overlooked by Urban Planners, Policy, and Research

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Charlie M. Shackleton

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Although hardly noticed or formally recognised, urban foraging by humans probably occurs in all urban settings around the world. We draw from research in India, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States to demonstrate the ubiquity and varied nature of urban foraging in different contexts. Across these different contexts, we distil seven themes that characterise and thereby advance thinking about research and the understanding of urban foraging. We show that it is widespread and occurs across a variety of urban spaces and places. The species used and the local practices vary between contexts, and are in constant flux as urban ecological and social settings change. This requires that urban foragers are knowledgeable about diverse species, harvest locations, and rights of access, and that their practices are adaptable to changing contexts. Despite its ubiquity, most cities have some forms of regulations that prohibit or discourage urban foraging. We highlight a few important exceptions that can provide prototypes and lessons for other cities regarding supportive policy frameworks and initiatives. The formulation of dynamic policy, design, and management strategies in support of urban foraging will benefit from understanding the common characteristics of foraging in cities worldwide, but also will require comprehension of the specific and dynamic contexts in which they would be implemented.

Quantifying geocode location error using GIS methods

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Gardner Bennett R

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program (MACDP collects maternal address information at the time of delivery for infants and fetuses with birth defects. These addresses have been geocoded by two independent agencies: (1 the Georgia Division of Public Health Office of Health Information and Policy (OHIP and (2 a commercial vendor. Geographic information system (GIS methods were used to quantify uncertainty in the two sets of geocodes using orthoimagery and tax parcel datasets. Methods We sampled 599 infants and fetuses with birth defects delivered during 1994–2002 with maternal residence in either Fulton or Gwinnett County. Tax parcel datasets were obtained from the tax assessor's offices of Fulton and Gwinnett County. High-resolution orthoimagery for these counties was acquired from the U.S. Geological Survey. For each of the 599 addresses we attempted to locate the tax parcel corresponding to the maternal address. If the tax parcel was identified the distance and the angle between the geocode and the residence were calculated. We used simulated data to characterize the impact of geocode location error. In each county 5,000 geocodes were generated and assigned their corresponding Census 2000 tract. Each geocode was then displaced at a random angle by a random distance drawn from the distribution of observed geocode location errors. The census tract of the displaced geocode was determined. We repeated this process 5,000 times and report the percentage of geocodes that resolved into incorrect census tracts. Results Median location error was less than 100 meters for both OHIP and commercial vendor geocodes; the distribution of angles appeared uniform. Median location error was approximately 35% larger in Gwinnett (a suburban county relative to Fulton (a county with urban and suburban areas. Location error occasionally caused the simulated geocodes to be displaced into incorrect census tracts; the median percentage

Urban heat island research of Novi Sad (Serbia: A review

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Savić Stevan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In the second part of the 20th century, urbanization accelerated and reached enormous magnitude, which results more and more people live in urbanized regions. Nowadays, about half of the human population is affected by the burdens of urban environments and furthermore the modified parameters of the urban atmosphere compared to the natural environment. Novi Sad (45°15’N, 19°50’E is located in the northern part of Serbia, i.e. on the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and it is the second largest city in the country with a population of about 320,000 in a built-up area of approximately 80 km2. The geographical area is plain, from 80 to 86 m a.s.l., with a gentle relief, so its climate is free from orographic effects. According to Köppen-Geiger climate classification, this region is categorised as Cfa climate (temperate warm climate with a rather uniform annual distribution of precipitation. In the last 20 years, a few papers have been published considering urban heat island (UHI investigations of Novi Sad. The first publication in 1994 is theoretically based and presents all parameters, methods and measurements, which have to be used in order to work on UHI research of Novi Sad. The next studies from 1995 and 2006 analyzed various temperature parameters based on 30-40 year long time series and used rural and urban stations in order to get urban-rural temperature differences. Based on meteorological parameters and the structure of urban area, in 2010 the necessity of defining locations of an urban climate network was showed in order to advance further UHI research. In the last two publications from 2011 a new empirical modeling method, adjusted for cities located on plains, has been used in order to determine locations for representative stations of an urban climate network in Novi Sad.

Urban Early Childhood Teachers' Attitudes towards Inclusive Education

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Wu-Ying; Hsieh, Chang-Ming

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between urban early childhood teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education and personal characteristics, professional background, and programme context. Questionnaires were completed by teachers (n = 130) who taught preschool children in primarily low-income, urban neighbourhoods. Attitude ratings were…

The Employment Advantages of Skilled Urban Areas

OpenAIRE

Diaz Escobar, Ana Maria

2011-01-01

This paper explores whether the agglomeration of human capital leads to social employment advantages in urban labor markets of a developing country: Colombia. I estimate the social effects of human capital agglomeration by comparing employment opportunities of individuals located in urban areas in which the level of education differs. Results show that employment opportunities are higher on average in skilled urban areas. Three explanations have been offered: human capital externalities, prod...

Effects of rapid urban sprawl on urban forest carbon stocks: integrating remotely sensed, GIS and forest inventory data.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Yin; Yan, Jing; Wei, Xiaohua; Wang, Yajun; Yang, Yusheng; Hua, Lizhong; Xiong, Yongzhu; Niu, Xiang; Song, Xiaodong

2012-12-30

Research on the effects of urban sprawl on carbon stocks within urban forests can help support policy for sustainable urban design. This is particularly important given climate change and environmental deterioration as a result of rapid urbanization. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of urban sprawl on dynamics of forest carbon stock and density in Xiamen, a typical city experiencing rapid urbanization in China. Forest resource inventory data collected from 32,898 patches in 4 years (1972, 1988, 1996 and 2006), together with remotely sensed data (from 1988, 1996 and 2006), were used to investigate vegetation carbon densities and stocks in Xiamen, China. We classified the forests into four groups: (1) forest patches connected to construction land; (2) forest patches connected to farmland; (3) forest patches connected to both construction land and farmland and (4) close forest patches. Carbon stocks and densities of four different types of forest patches during different urbanization periods in three zones (urban core, suburb and exurb) were compared to assess the impact of human disturbance on forest carbon. In the urban core, the carbon stock and carbon density in all four forest patch types declined over the study period. In the suburbs, different urbanization processes influenced forest carbon density and carbon stock in all four forest patch types. Urban sprawl negatively affected the surrounding forests. In the exurbs, the carbon stock and carbon density in all four forest patch types tended to increase over the study period. The results revealed that human disturbance played the dominant role in influencing the carbon stock and density of forest patches close to the locations of human activities. In forest patches far away from the locations of human activities, natural forest regrowth was the dominant factor affecting carbon stock and density. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Impact of the Location on the Price Offered by Accommodation Establishments in Urban Areas

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Roman Švec

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between the price of accommodation and the urban space and character of the place. The price and spatial connections (together with the quality of the provided services become an important motive for clients when choosing a concrete accommodation establishment. As the competition is very difficult in the field of accommodation establishments and the supply multiply surpasses the demand, there is an intensive search for miscellaneous strategies of engaging in the competition. The built-up territory of the town České Budějovice was chosen as a model territory. The prices of the summer season 2012 have been entered into the analysis. The impact of the location was assessed on the level of the type of land-use. The distribution of the accommodation establishments in the studied is highly uneven, without any more significant tendency to the creation of the spatial clusters. It is fundamentally influenced especially by the distance of the historical center. A price map was formed identifying the zones with the above-average prices, as well as the zones with the highly below-average prices.

Air Inflated Greenhouse as Urban Farming Facilities: Architectural Overview

OpenAIRE

Abidin, Syed Zainol; Nasihien, Ronny D; Budiyanto, Hery

2017-01-01

Urban Farming utilizing land intensification, in order to meet the needs of fresh vegetables and fruits everyday for the community residential / housing in urban areas. Air Inflated Greenhouse as urban farming facilities, can be built and transferred to a residential location / specific housing is easy, safe, fast and lightweight (0,55mm PVC tarpaulin) so that urban farming products closer to consumers in urban settlements, the price impact getting cheaper, but quality. Long-term goal is to d...

Hip-Hop, the "Obama Effect," and Urban Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Emdin, Christopher; Lee, Okhee

2012-01-01

Background/Context: With the ever increasing diversity of schools, and the persistent need to develop teaching strategies for the students who attend today's urban schools, hip-hop culture has been proposed to be a means through which urban youth can find success in school. As a result, studies of the role of hip-hop in urban education have grown…

Spatial frequency characteristics at image decision-point locations for observers with different radiological backgrounds in lung nodule detection

Science.gov (United States)

Pietrzyk, Mariusz W.; Manning, David J.; Dix, Alan; Donovan, Tim

2009-02-01

Aim: The goal of the study is to determine the spatial frequency characteristics at locations in the image of overt and covert observers' decisions and find out if there are any similarities in different observers' groups: the same radiological experience group or the same accuracy scored level. Background: The radiological task is described as a visual searching decision making procedure involving visual perception and cognitive processing. Humans perceive the world through a number of spatial frequency channels, each sensitive to visual information carried by different spatial frequency ranges and orientations. Recent studies have shown that particular physical properties of local and global image-based elements are correlated with the performance and the level of experience of human observers in breast cancer and lung nodule detections. Neurological findings in visual perception were an inspiration for wavelet applications in vision research because the methodology tries to mimic the brain processing algorithms. Methods: The wavelet approach to the set of postero-anterior chest radiographs analysis has been used to characterize perceptual preferences observers with different levels of experience in the radiological task. Psychophysical methodology has been applied to track eye movements over the image, where particular ROIs related to the observers' fixation clusters has been analysed in the spaces frame by Daubechies functions. Results: Significance differences have been found between the spatial frequency characteristics at the location of different decisions.

EVOLUTION OF THE NOCTURNAL INVERSION LAYER AT AN URBAN AND NONURBAN LOCATION

Science.gov (United States)

The evolutionary cycle of the nocturnal radiation inversion layer from formation until dissipation under fair weather conditions was investigated by time-series analyses of observations of inversion base and top heights, and inversion strength at an urban and a nonurban site in S...

Establishment of a Background Environmental Monitoring Station for the PNNL Campus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fritz, Brad G. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Snyder, Sandra F. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Barnett, J. Matthew [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Bisping, Lynn E. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Rishel, Jeremy P. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2014-12-01

The environmental surveillance of background levels of radionuclides and, in particular, the siting of a background environmental surveillance (monitoring) station are examined. Many published works identify and stress the need for background monitoring; however, little definitive and comprehensive information for siting a station exists. A definition of an ideal background monitoring location and the generic criteria recommended for use in establishing such a background monitoring location are proposed. There are seven primary (mandatory) criteria described with two additional, optional criteria. The criteria are applied to the Richland, Washington (WA), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Campus, which currently uses background monitoring data from the nearby Hanford Site. Eleven potential background monitoring sites were identified, with one location in Benton City, WA found to meet all of the mandatory and optional criteria. It is expected that the new sampler will be installed and operating by the end of June, 2015.

Futures of global urban expansion: uncertainties and implications for biodiversity conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Güneralp, B.; Seto, K. C.

2013-03-01

Urbanization will place significant pressures on biodiversity across the world. However, there are large uncertainties in the amount and location of future urbanization, particularly urban land expansion. Here, we present a global analysis of urban extent circa 2000 and probabilistic forecasts of urban expansion for 2030 near protected areas and in biodiversity hotspots. We estimate that the amount of urban land within 50 km of all protected area boundaries will increase from 450 000 km2 circa 2000 to 1440 000 ± 65 000 km2 in 2030. Our analysis shows that protected areas around the world will experience significant increases in urban land within 50 km of their boundaries. China will experience the largest increase in urban land near protected areas with 304 000 ± 33 000 km2 of new urban land to be developed within 50 km of protected area boundaries. The largest urban expansion in biodiversity hotspots, over 100 000 ± 25 000 km2, is forecasted to occur in South America. Uncertainties in the forecasts of the amount and location of urban land expansion reflect uncertainties in their underlying drivers including urban population and economic growth. The forecasts point to the need to reconcile urban development and biodiversity conservation strategies.

Futures of global urban expansion: uncertainties and implications for biodiversity conservation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Güneralp, B; Seto, K C

2013-01-01

Urbanization will place significant pressures on biodiversity across the world. However, there are large uncertainties in the amount and location of future urbanization, particularly urban land expansion. Here, we present a global analysis of urban extent circa 2000 and probabilistic forecasts of urban expansion for 2030 near protected areas and in biodiversity hotspots. We estimate that the amount of urban land within 50 km of all protected area boundaries will increase from 450 000 km 2 circa 2000 to 1440 000 ± 65 000 km 2 in 2030. Our analysis shows that protected areas around the world will experience significant increases in urban land within 50 km of their boundaries. China will experience the largest increase in urban land near protected areas with 304 000 ± 33 000 km 2 of new urban land to be developed within 50 km of protected area boundaries. The largest urban expansion in biodiversity hotspots, over 100 000 ± 25 000 km 2 , is forecasted to occur in South America. Uncertainties in the forecasts of the amount and location of urban land expansion reflect uncertainties in their underlying drivers including urban population and economic growth. The forecasts point to the need to reconcile urban development and biodiversity conservation strategies. (letter)

The urban features of informal settlements in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Alzamil, Waleed

2017-12-01

This data article contains the urban features of three informal settlements in Jakarta: A. Kampung Bandan; B. Kampung Luar Batang; And C. Kampung Muara Baru. The data describes the urban features of physical structures, infrastructures, and public services. These data include maps showing locations of these settlements, photography of urban status, and examples of urban fabric. The data are obtained from the statistical records and field surveys of three settlements cases.

Fossil and Contemporary Fine Carbon Fractions at 12 Rural and Urban Sites in the United States

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schichtel, B; Malm, W; Bench, G; Fallon, S; McDade, C; Chow, J

2007-03-01

Fine particulate matter collected at two urban, four near-urban, and six remote sites throughout the United States were analyzed for total carbon (TC) and radiocarbon ({sup 14}C). Samples were collected at most sites for both a summer and winter season. The radiocarbon was used to partition the TC into fossil and contemporary fractions. On average, contemporary carbon composed about half of the carbon at the urban, {approx}70-97% at near-urban, and 82-100% at remote sites. At Phoenix, Arizona, and Seattle, Washington, one monitor was located within the urban center and one outside to assess the urban excess over background concentrations. During the summer the urban and rural sites had similar contemporary carbon concentrations. However, during the winter the urban sites had more than twice the contemporary carbon measured at the neighboring sites, indicating anthropogenic contributions to the contemporary carbon. The urban fossil carbon was 4-20 times larger than the neighboring rural sites for both seasons. Organic (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) from TOR analysis were available. These and the radiocarbon data were used to estimate characteristic fossil and contemporary EC/TC ratios for the winter and summer seasons. These ratios were applied to carbon data from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments network to estimate the fraction of contemporary carbon at mostly rural sites throughout the United States. In addition, the ratios were used to develop a semiquantitative, lower bound estimate of secondary organic carbon (SOC) contribution to fossil and contemporary carbon. SOC accounted for more than one-third of the fossil and contemporary carbon.

Analysis of surface contributions to external doses in a radioactively contaminated urban environment designed by the EMRAS-2 Urban Areas Working Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Won Tae; Jeong, Hae Sun; Jeong, Hyo Joon; Kim, Eun Han; Han, Moon Hee; Kim, In Gyu

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► External dose and contribution from radio-activated surface were evaluated for EMRAS-2 Urban Areas Working Group scenarios. ► The external doses showed a distinctive difference with the locations and precipitation. ► The contribution of contaminated surfaces for external dose depends on locations and precipitation. ► These results provide the essential information for decision-making support of countermeasures. - Abstract: The EMRAS-2 Urban Areas Working Group, which is supported by the IAEA, has designed a variety of accidental scenarios to test and improve the capabilities of the models used for an evaluation of radioactive contamination in an urban environment. A variety of models including a Korean model, METRO-K, are used for predictive results on the hypothetical scenarios. This paper describes the predictive results of METRO-K for the hypothetical scenarios designed in the Working Group. The external dose resulting from the air contamination of Co-60 was evaluated, and its contribution was analyzed with time as a function of the location of a receptor and precipitation conditions at the time of the contamination event. As a result, the external doses showed a distinctive difference with the locations to be evaluated and the precipitation conditions. Moreover, the contribution of contaminated surfaces for external doses was strongly dependent on the locations to be evaluated and the precipitation conditions. These results will provide essential information to assist the decision-making of appropriate countermeasures in an emergency situation of a radioactively contaminated urban environment

The urban features of informal settlements in Jakarta, Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Waleed Alzamil

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This data article contains the urban features of three informal settlements in Jakarta: A. Kampung Bandan; B. Kampung Luar Batang; And C. Kampung Muara Baru. The data describes the urban features of physical structures, infrastructures, and public services. These data include maps showing locations of these settlements, photography of urban status, and examples of urban fabric. The data are obtained from the statistical records and field surveys of three settlements cases. Keywords: Informal settlements, Physical, Features, Urban, Kampung, Jakarta, Indonesia

City-making. Chances of urban regeneration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luisa Bravo

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Urban transformation resulting from the reutilization of urban areas located close to historical consolidated areas, formerly occupied by industrial complexes, settled at the end of the nineteenth century (and now abandoned and by disued military areas, represent a great opportunity for regeneration and urban renewal, in order to balance the physical and functional structure of the existing city. Mostly there areas are real voids to be returned to the city, assigning new functions, catalyst of differente activities and generatior of a substantial housing income, and defining new spaces, both for public and private use, aimed at combining social and collective urban interaction.

Involuntary resettlement: A cross-country study on urban inequality ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

... the violence of forced displacement and the level of poverty and inequality. ... city in India (Cochin) where urban displacement and resettlement are significant ... needs of women and children, legal status, and protection at urban locations.

Geochemistry and carbon isotopic ratio for assessment of PM10 composition, source and seasonal trends in urban environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Palma, A; Capozzi, F; Agrelli, D; Amalfitano, C; Giordano, S; Spagnuolo, V; Adamo, P

2018-08-01

Investigating the nature of PM 10 is crucial to differentiate sources and their relative contributions. In this study we compared the levels, and the chemical and mineralogical properties of PM 10 particles sampled in different seasons at monitoring stations representative of urban background, urban traffic and suburban traffic areas of Naples city. The aims were to relate the PM 10 load and characteristics to the location of the monitoring stations, to investigate the different sources contributing to PM 10 and to highlight PM 10 seasonal variability. Bulk analyses of chemical species in the PM 10 fraction included total carbon and nitrogen, δ 13 C and other 20 elements. Both natural and anthropogenic sources were found to contribute to the exceedances of the EU PM 10 limit values. The natural contribution was mainly related to marine aerosols and soil dust, as highlighted by X-ray diffractometry and SEM-EDS microscopy. The percentage of total carbon suggested a higher contribution of biogenic components to PM 10 in spring. However, this result was not supported by the δ 13 C values which were seasonally homogeneous and not sufficient to extract single emission sources. No significant differences, in terms of PM 10 load and chemistry, were observed between monitoring stations with different locations, suggesting a homogeneous distribution of PM 10 on the studied area in all seasons. The anthropogenic contribution to PM 10 seemed to dominate in all sites and seasons with vehicular traffic acting as a main source mostly by generation of non-exhaust emissions Our findings reinforce the need to focus more on the analysis of PM 10 in terms of quality than of load, to reconsider the criteria for the classification and the spatial distribution of the monitoring stations within urban and suburban areas, with a special attention to the background location, and to emphasize all the policies promoting sustainable mobility and reduction of both exhaust and not

Urbanization and Land Use Changes in Peri-Urban Area using Spatial Analysis Methods (Case Study: Ciawi Urban Areas, Bogor Regency)

Science.gov (United States)

Cahya, D. L.; Martini, E.; Kasikoen, K. M.

2018-02-01

Urbanization is shown by the increasing percentage of the population in urban areas. In Indonesia, the percentage of urban population increased dramatically form 17.42% (1971) to 42.15% (2010). This resulted in increased demand for housing. Limited land in the city area push residents looking for an alternative location of his residence to the peri-urban areas. It is accompanied by a process of land conversion from green area into built-up area. Continuous land conversion in peri-urban area is becoming increasingly widespread. Bogor Regency as part of the Jakarta Metropolitan Area is experiencing rapid development. This regency has been experienced land-use change very rapidly from agricultural areas into urban built up areas. Aim of this research is to analyze the effect of urbanization on land use changes in peri-urban areas using spatial analysis methods. This research used case study of Ciawi Urban Area that experiencing rapid development. Method of this research is using descriptive quantitative approach. Data used in this research is primary data (field survey) and secondary data (maps). To analyze land use change is using Geographic Information System (GIS) as spatial analysis methods. The effect of urbanization on land use changes in Ciawi Urban Area from year 2013 to 2015 is significant. The reduction of farm land is around -4.00% and wetland is around - 2.51%. The increasing area for hotel/villa/resort is around 3.10%. Based on this research, local government (Bogor Regency) should be alert to the land use changes that does not comply with the land use plan and also consistently apply the spatial planning.

Is Traffic Still an Important Emitter of Monoaromatic Organic Compounds in European Urban Areas?

Science.gov (United States)

Borbon, Agnès; Boynard, Anne; Salameh, Thérèse; Baudic, Alexia; Gros, Valérie; Gauduin, Julie; Perrussel, Olivier; Pallares, Cyril

2018-01-16

Trends of long-term observations and emission inventories suggest that traffic emissions will no longer dominate the concentrations of monoaromatic compounds (i.e., TEX - toluene, xylenes, and ethylbenzene) in European urban areas. But the split limit between traffic and other emission sector contributions such as solvent use remains tenuous. Here long-term observations of an extensive set of hydrocarbons, including TEX, at traffic and urban background sites in London, Paris and Strasbourg were combined to estimate the relative importance of traffic emissions on TEX in every city. When analyzing the urban enhancement emission ratios of TEX-to-benzene on a seasonal basis, two potential source signatures other than traffic could be differentiated in all cities (1) summertime evaporation from fuel and/or solvent and (2) wintertime domestic heating. However, traffic emissions still unambiguously dominate the concentration levels of TEX in every city despite the reduction of their emissions at exhaust pipe over the last two decades. Traffic explains between 60% and 96% (at ±20%) of TEX levels while it is less clear for xylenes at some locations. Our results provide a basis to evaluate regional emission inventories. The method is applicable at any urban area where speciated hydrocarbon monitoring is available.

Perception of the Local Population toward Urban Forests in Municipality of Aerodrom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aneta Blazevska

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Background and Purpose: With the development of both society and economy, environmental issues have become a more popular topic. In recent decades both the role and perception of urban forests have changed regarding recreational and environmental aspects on both a local and global level. This coupled with urbanization places great importance on how people see and value the forests in an urban and peri-urban setting. Visitors are not a homogeneous category and hence have different needs and perceptions of urban and peri-urban green spaces. The study aims to understand the visitors` perception from municipality Aerodrom towards urban forests and their recreational use, benefits, preferences and perception regarding management activities of urban forests. Material and Methods: The method used for the research is qualitative with semi-structured questionnaire which was conducted face to face. Gathered data were analyzed by Excel and after that were presented in tables and graphs for better review of the results. The study area was municipality of Aerodrom which has the biggest space under urban forests per capita in Skopje. Results and Conclusion: Results have shown that all respondents have permanent residence in the municipality of Aerodrom, located in different settlements and with the length of stay mainly between 5 to 40 years. There is a dominance of female population and respondent’s age over 40 in the research. Results also showed that the average number of visit in urban forests by respondents during the week is three times. Regarding the meaning and association of term urban forests, results showed that majority of respondents have a clear and concise perception, and mainly this term for them is association on park and greenery, a nice decorated environment and place for walk. When it comes to the way how current situation with urban forest can be improved almost all of the respondents highlighted it can be through the following things

Hub location problems in transportation networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gelareh, Shahin; Nickel, Stefan

2011-01-01

In this paper we propose a 4-index formulation for the uncapacitated multiple allocation hub location problem tailored for urban transport and liner shipping network design. This formulation is very tight and most of the tractable instances for MIP solvers are optimally solvable at the root node....... also introduce fixed cost values for Australian Post (AP) dataset....

The financialisation of urban capitalism

OpenAIRE

Guironnet, Antoine

2017-01-01

Myriads of urban objects and spaces located in city-regions have turned into financial assets. Office buildings, shopping malls, student dwellings, and large utilities are purchased by investment funds and listed property companies, which seek to capitalise on the future income streams based on their use by firms and people. Urban redevelopment and financial markets are thus intertwined through the financing circuits of property markets. By analysing the interactions between the financial str...

Background noise analysis in urban airport surroundings of Brazilian cities, Congonhas Airport, São Paulo.

Science.gov (United States)

Scatolini, Fabio; Alves, Cláudio Jorge Pinto

2016-12-22

To perform a quantitative analysis of the background noise at Congonhas Airport surroundings based on large sampling and measurements with no interruption. Measuring sites were chosen from 62 and 72 DNL (day-night-level) noise contours, in urban sites compatible with residential use. Fifteen sites were monitored for at least 168 hours without interruption or seven consecutive days. Data compilation was based on cross-reference between noise measurements and air traffic control records, and results were validated by airport meteorological reports. Preliminary diagnoses were established using the standard NBR-13368. Background noise values were calculated based on the Sound Exposure Level (SEL). Statistic parameters were calculated in one-hour intervals. Only four of the fifteen sites assessed presented aircraft operations as a clear cause for the noise annoyance. Even so, it is possible to detect background noise levels above regulation limits during periods of low airport activity or when it closes at night. All the sites monitored showed background noise levels above regulation limits between 7:00 and 21:00. In the intervals between 6:00-6:59 and 21:00-22:59 the noise data, when analyzed with the current airport operational characteristics, still allow the development of additional mitigating measures. Avaliar quantitativamente o ruído de fundo no entorno do aeroporto de Congonhas, com base em ampla amostragem e medições sem interrupção. Locais de medição escolhidos a partir de curvas de ruído de 62 e 72 LDN (day-night level), em equipamentos urbanos de uso compatível com o residencial. Quinze locais foram avaliados por mais de 168 horas consecutivas cada um (sete dias). A compilação baseou-se em cruzamentos de dados do controle de tráfego aéreo e os resultados foram validados por meio de relatórios meteorológicos do aeroporto. Diagnósticos preliminares foram estabelecidos utilizando a NBR-13368. O ruído de fundo foi calculado com base no Sound

[Effects of exposure frequency and background information on preferences for photographs of cars in different locations].

Science.gov (United States)

Matsuda, Ken; Kusumi, Takashi; Hosomi, Naohiro; Osa, Atsushi; Miike, Hidetoshi

2014-08-01

This study examined the influence of familiarity and novelty on the mere exposure effect while manipulating the presentation of background information. We selected presentation stimuli that integrated cars and backgrounds based on the results of pilot studies. During the exposure phase, we displayed the stimuli successively for 3 seconds, manipulating the background information (same or different backgrounds with each presentation) and exposure frequency (3, 6, and 9 times). In the judgment phase, 18 participants judged the cars in terms of preference, familiarity, and novelty on a 7-point scale. As the number of stimulus presentations increased, the preference for the cars increased during the different background condition and decreased during the same background condition. This increased preference may be due to the increase in familiarity caused by the higher exposure frequency and novelty resulting from the background changes per exposure session. The rise in preference judgments was not seen when cars and backgrounds were presented independently. Therefore, the addition of novel features to each exposure session facilitated the mere exposure effect.

Risk factors for asthma and allergy associated with urban migration: background and methodology of a cross-sectional study in Afro-Ecuadorian school children in Northeastern Ecuador (Esmeraldas-SCAALA Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stein Renato T

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Asthma and allergic diseases are becoming increasingly frequent in children in urban centres of Latin America although the prevalence of allergic disease is still low in rural areas. Understanding better why the prevalence of asthma is greater in urban migrant populations and the role of risk factors such as life style and environmental exposures, may be key to understand what is behind this trend. Methods/design The Esmeraldas-SCAALA (Social Changes, Asthma and Allergy in Latin America study consists of cross-sectional and nested case-control studies of school children in rural and urban areas of Esmeraldas Province in Ecuador. The cross-sectional study will investigate risk factors for atopy and allergic disease in rural and migrant urban Afro-Ecuadorian school children and the nested case-control study will examine environmental, biologic and social risk factors for asthma among asthma cases and non-asthmatic controls from the cross-sectional study. Data will be collected through standardised questionnaires, skin prick testing to relevant aeroallergen extracts, stool examinations for parasites, blood sampling (for measurement of IgE, interleukins and other immunological parameters, anthropometric measurements for assessment of nutritional status, exercise testing for assessment of exercise-induced bronchospasm and dust sampling for measurement of household endotoxin and allergen levels. Discussion The information will be used to identify the factors associated with an increased risk of asthma and allergies in migrant and urbanizing populations, to improve the understanding of the causes of the increase in asthma prevalence and to identify potentially modifiable factors to inform the design of prevention programmes to reduce the risk of allergy in urban populations in Latin America.

Hourly elemental concentrations in PM2.5 aerosols sampled simultaneously at urban background and road site during SAPUSS - diurnal variations and PMF receptor modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Dall'Osto, M.; Querol, X.; Amato, F.; Karanasiou, A.; Lucarelli, F.; Nava, S.; Calzolai, G.; Chiari, M.

2013-04-01

Hourly-resolved aerosol chemical speciation data can be a highly powerful tool to determine the source origin of atmospheric pollutants in urban environments. Aerosol mass concentrations of seventeen elements (Na, Mg, Al, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr and Pb) were obtained by time (1 h) and size (PM2.5 particulate matter Spain) during September-October 2010: an urban background site (UB) and a street canyon traffic road site (RS). Elements related to primary non-exhaust traffic emission (Fe, Cu), dust resuspension (Ca) and anthropogenic Cl were found enhanced at the RS, whereas industrial related trace metals (Zn, Pb, Mn) were found at higher concentrations at the more ventilated UB site. When receptor modelling was performed with positive matrix factorization (PMF), nine different aerosol sources were identified at both sites: three types of regional aerosols (regional sulphate (S) - 27%, biomass burning (K) - 5%, sea salt (Na-Mg) - 17%), three types of dust aerosols (soil dust (Al-Ti) - 17%, urban crustal dust (Ca) - 6%, and primary traffic non-exhaust brake dust (Fe-Cu) - 7%), and three types of industrial aerosol plumes-like events (shipping oil combustion (V-Ni) - 17%, industrial smelters (Zn-Mn) - 3%, and industrial combustion (Pb-Cl) - 5%, percentages presented are average source contributions to the total elemental mass measured). The validity of the PMF solution of the PIXE data is supported by very good correlations with external single particle mass spectrometry measurements. Some important conclusions can be drawn about the PM2.5 mass fraction simultaneously measured at the UB and RS sites: (1) the regional aerosol sources impact both monitoring sites at similar concentrations regardless their different ventilation conditions; (2) by contrast, local industrial aerosol plumes associated with shipping oil combustion and smelters activities have a higher impact on the more ventilated UB site; (3) a unique source of Pb-Cl (associated with

Smart Device-Supported BDS/GNSS Real-Time Kinematic Positioning for Sub-Meter-Level Accuracy in Urban Location-Based Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Liang; Li, Zishen; Zhao, Jiaojiao; Zhou, Kai; Wang, Zhiyu; Yuan, Hong

2016-12-21

Using mobile smart devices to provide urban location-based services (LBS) with sub-meter-level accuracy (around 0.5 m) is a major application field for future global navigation satellite system (GNSS) development. Real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning, which is a widely used GNSS-based positioning approach, can improve the accuracy from about 10-20 m (achieved by the standard positioning services) to about 3-5 cm based on the geodetic receivers. In using the smart devices to achieve positioning with sub-meter-level accuracy, a feasible solution of combining the low-cost GNSS module and the smart device is proposed in this work and a user-side GNSS RTK positioning software was developed from scratch based on the Android platform. Its real-time positioning performance was validated by BeiDou Navigation Satellite System/Global Positioning System (BDS/GPS) combined RTK positioning under the conditions of a static and kinematic (the velocity of the rover was 50-80 km/h) mode in a real urban environment with a SAMSUNG Galaxy A7 smartphone. The results show that the fixed-rates of ambiguity resolution (the proportion of epochs of ambiguities fixed) for BDS/GPS combined RTK in the static and kinematic tests were about 97% and 90%, respectively, and the average positioning accuracies (RMS) were better than 0.15 m (horizontal) and 0.25 m (vertical) for the static test, and 0.30 m (horizontal) and 0.45 m (vertical) for the kinematic test.

Secondary Inorganic Aerosols over an Urban Location in North-Western Himalayan Region: Seasonal Variation in Composition and Formation Process(es)

Science.gov (United States)

Kaushal, D.; Tandon, A.

2017-12-01

Oxidative photo-chemical transformation of precursor gases, mainly of anthropogenic origin, produces secondary aerosols. Secondary inorganic aerosols constitute a significant fraction of total aerosol load over urban locations especially high altitude in wet-temperate climatic set-up. Towns situated in North-Western Himalayan region (NWHR) with sizable population and attractive tourist destinations have been facing ever increasing problem of gaseous and particulate air pollution from exponential increase in vehicular traffic and other anthropogenic emissions. The present study has been planned to investigate the seasonal variations in atmospheric processes responsible for the formation of Secondary Inorganic Aerosols (SIA) and to estimate contribution of SIA to PM­10 load over an Urban location, Dharamshala, in Dhauladhar region of NWHR. Twenty four hourly PM10 aerosol samples were collected, on quartz micro fibre filters in Dharamshala (1350 amsl) on weekly basis for complete one year time-period (February 2015 - January 2016). These samples were analyzed for Water Soluble Inorganic Ions (WSII) using Ion-Chromatographic System. On annual basis, SO42- ions contributed maximum (52%) followed by NO3- (13%) and NH4+ (12%) to WSII. Based upon Principal Component Analysis (PCA), dominant sources contributing to PM10 associated WSII were identified as: Fossil-Fuel and Bio-mass burning, Vehicular (mainly diesel) emissions and gaseous emissions from the microbial degradation of dead bio-mass. Throughout the year, significantly high proportion of SO42- and considerable thermodynamic stability of (NH4)2SO2 at ambient temperatures, made it the major contributor to SIA over NH4NO3 and NH4Cl. On seasonal basis, maximum contribution of SIA to PM10 was observed in monsoon followed by the winter season. Low ambient temperature in winter season favoured formation of NH4NO3 with significant contribution to SIA. It could be concluded that observed variability in the composition and

Study of radiation background at various high altitude locations in preparation for rare event search in cosmic rays

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bhattacharyya, R.; Dey, S.; Ghosh, Sanjay K.; Maulik, A.; Raha, Sibaji; Syam, D., E-mail: rupamoy@gmail.com, E-mail: dey_s2001@yahoo.com, E-mail: sanjay@jcbose.ac.in, E-mail: atanu.maulik@jcbose.ac.in, E-mail: sibaji.raha@jcbose.ac.in, E-mail: syam.debapriyo@gmail.com [Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Science, Bose Institute, Block-EN, Sector-V, Kolkata-700091 (India)

2017-04-01

Various phenomenological models presented over the years have hinted at the possible presence of strangelets, which are nuggets of Strange Quark Matter (SQM), in cosmic rays. One way to search for such rare events is through the deployment of large area Nuclear Track Detector (NTD) arrays at high mountain altitudes. Before the deployment of any such array can begin, a detailed study of the radiation background is essential. Also, a proper understanding of the response of detectors exposed to extreme weather conditions is necessary. With that aim, pilot studies were carried out at various high altitude locations in India such as Darjeeling (2200 m a.m.s.l), Ooty (2200 m a.m.s.l) and Hanle (4500 m a.m.s.l). Small arrays of CR-39 as well as high threshold Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) detectors were given open air exposures for periods ranging from three months to two years. The findings of such studies are reported in this paper.

URBAN RAIN GAUGE SITING SELECTION BASED ON GIS-MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Fu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available With the increasingly rapid growth of urbanization and climate change, urban rainfall monitoring as well as urban waterlogging has widely been paid attention. In the light of conventional siting selection methods do not take into consideration of geographic surroundings and spatial-temporal scale for the urban rain gauge site selection, this paper primarily aims at finding the appropriate siting selection rules and methods for rain gauge in urban area. Additionally, for optimization gauge location, a spatial decision support system (DSS aided by geographical information system (GIS has been developed. In terms of a series of criteria, the rain gauge optimal site-search problem can be addressed by a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA. A series of spatial analytical techniques are required for MCDA to identify the prospective sites. With the platform of GIS, using spatial kernel density analysis can reflect the population density; GIS buffer analysis is used to optimize the location with the rain gauge signal transmission character. Experiment results show that the rules and the proposed method are proper for the rain gauge site selection in urban areas, which is significant for the siting selection of urban hydrological facilities and infrastructure, such as water gauge.

Statistical analysis and parameterization of the hygroscopic growth of the sub-micrometer urban background aerosol in Beijing

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yu; Wu, Zhijun; Ma, Nan; Wu, Yusheng; Zeng, Limin; Zhao, Chunsheng; Wiedensohler, Alfred

2018-02-01

The take-up of water of aerosol particles plays an important role in heavy haze formation over North China Plain, since it is related with particle mass concentration, visibility degradation, and particle chemistry. In the present study, we investigated the size-resolved hygroscopic growth factor (HGF) of sub-micrometer aerosol particles (smaller than 350 nm) on a basis of 9-month Hygroscopicity-Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer measurement in the urban background atmosphere of Beijing. The mean hygroscopicity parameter (κ) values derived from averaging over the entire sampling period for particles of 50 nm, 75 nm, 100 nm, 150 nm, 250 nm, and 350 nm in diameters were 0.14 ± 0.07, 0.17 ± 0.05, 0.18 ± 0.06, 0.20 ± 0.07, 0.21 ± 0.09, and 0.23 ± 0.12, respectively, indicating the dominance of organics in the sub-micrometer urban aerosols. In the spring, summer, and autumn, the number fraction of hydrophilic particles increased with increasing particle size, resulting in an increasing trend of overall particle hygroscopicity with enhanced particle size. Differently, the overall mean κ values peaked in the range of 75-150 nm and decreased for particles larger than 150 nm in diameter during wintertime. Such size-dependency of κ in winter was related to the strong primary particle emissions from coal combustion during domestic heating period. The number fraction of hydrophobic particles such as freshly emitted soot decreased with increasing PM2.5 mass concentration, indicating aged and internal mixed particles were dominant in the severe particulate matter pollution. Parameterization schemes of the HGF as a function of relative humidity (RH) and particle size between 50 and 350 nm were determined for different seasons and pollution levels. The HGFs calculated from the parameterizations agree well with the measured HGFs at 20-90% RH. The parameterizations can be applied to determine the hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles at ambient conditions for the area

Determining Arsenic Distribution in Urban Soils: A Comparison with Nonurban Soils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tait Chirenje

2002-01-01

Full Text Available There are many challenges in the determination of arsenic background concentrations in soils. However, these challenges are magnified when those determinations are carried out on urban soils. Irrespective of this, it is important to correctly identify and understand the extent of pollution in order to provide efficient preventative, remedial actions and cost-effective management of contaminated areas. This review paper discusses the factors that make the determination of arsenic background concentrations in urban areas different from similar determinations in nonurban areas. It also proposes solutions, where applicable, that are based on experience in determining arsenic background concentrations in both urban and nonurban areas in Florida, and from other studies in the literature. Urban soils are considerably different from nonurban areas because they have significant human disturbance, making them more difficult to study. They are characterized by high spatial and temporal variability, compaction, and modified chemical and physical characteristics. These differences have to be addressed during site selection, sample collection, and statistical analyses when determining arsenic distribution.

Utilizing Urban Environments for Effective Field Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

MacAvoy, S. E.; Knee, K.

2014-12-01

Research surveys suggest that students are demanding more applied field experiences from their undergraduate environmental science programs. For geoscience educators at liberal arts colleges without field camps, university vehicles, or even geology departments, getting students into the field is especially rewarding - and especially challenging. Here, we present strategies that we have used in courses ranging from introductory environmental science for non-majors, to upper level environmental methods and geology classes. Urban locations provide an opportunity for a different type of local "field-work" than would otherwise be available. In the upper-level undergraduate Environmental Methods class, we relied on a National Park area located a 10-minute walk from campus for most field exercises. Activities included soil analysis, measuring stream flow and water quality parameters, dendrochronology, and aquatic microbe metabolism. In the non-majors class, we make use of our urban location to contrast water quality in parks and highly channelized urban streams. Here we share detailed lesson plans and budgets for field activities that can be completed during a class period of 2.5 hours with a $75 course fee, show how these activities help students gain quantitative competency, and provide student feedback about the classes and activities.

Brain size and urbanization in birds

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Anders; Pape; M?ller; Johannes; Erritz?e

2015-01-01

Background: Brain size may affect the probability of invasion of urban habitats if a relatively larger brain entails superior ability to adapt to novel environments. However, once urbanized urban environments may provide poor quality food that has negative consequences for normal brain development resulting in an excess of individuals with small brains.Methods: Here we analyze the independent effects of mean, standard deviation and skewness in brain mass for invasion of urban habitats by 108 species of birds using phylogenetic multiple regression analyses weighted by sample size.Results: There was no significant difference in mean brain mass between urbanized and non-urbanized species or between urban and rural populations of the same species, and mean brain mass was not significantly correlated with time since urbanization. Bird species that became urbanized had a greater standard deviation in brain mass than non-urbanized species, and the standard deviation in brain mass increased with time since urbanization. Brain mass was significantly left skewed in species that remained rural, while there was no significant skew in urbanized species. The degree of left skew was greater in urban than in rural populations of the same species, and successfully urbanized species decreased the degree of left skew with time since urbanization. This is consistent with the hypothesis that sub-optimal brain development was more common in rural habitats resulting in disproportionately many individuals with very smal brains.Conclusions: These findings do not support the hypothesis that large brains promote urbanization, but suggest that skewness has played a role in the initial invasion of urban habitats, and that variance and skew in brain mass have increased as species have become urbanized.

Brain size and urbanization in birds

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Anders Pape Mller; Johannes Erritze

2015-01-01

Background:Brain size may affect the probability of invasion of urban habitats if a relatively larger brain entails superior ability to adapt to novel environments. However, once urbanized urban environments may provide poor quality food that has negative consequences for normal brain development resulting in an excess of individuals with small brains. Methods:Here we analyze the independent effects of mean, standard deviation and skewness in brain mass for invasion of urban habitats by 108 species of birds using phylogenetic multiple regression analyses weighted by sample size. Results:There was no significant difference in mean brain mass between urbanized and non-urbanized species or between urban and rural populations of the same species, and mean brain mass was not significantly correlated with time since urbanization. Bird species that became urbanized had a greater standard deviation in brain mass than non-urbanized species, and the standard deviation in brain mass increased with time since urbanization. Brain mass was significantly left skewed in species that remained rural, while there was no significant skew in urbanized species. The degree of left skew was greater in urban than in rural populations of the same species, and successfully urbanized species decreased the degree of left skew with time since urbanization. This is consistent with the hypothesis that sub-optimal brain development was more common in rural habitats resulting in disproportionately many individuals with very smal brains. Conclusions:These findings do not support the hypothesis that large brains promote urbanization, but suggest that skewness has played a role in the initial invasion of urban habitats, and that variance and skew in brain mass have increased as species have become urbanized.

Urban camouflage assessment through visual search and computational saliency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toet, A.; Hogervorst, M.A.

2013-01-01

We present a new method to derive a multiscale urban camouflage pattern from a given set of background image samples. We applied this method to design a camouflage pattern for a given (semi-arid) urban environment. We performed a human visual search experiment and a computational evaluation study to

Data visualization of temporal ozone pollution between urban and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... this study was conducted with the aim to assess and visualize the occurrence of potential Ozone pollution severity of two chosen locations in Selangor, Malaysia: Shah Alam (urban) and Banting (sub-urban). Data visualization analytics were employed using Ozone exceedances and Principal Component Analysis (PCA).

Urban Field Experiences for Undergraduate Liberal Arts Students: Using Compromised Environments as Living Laboratories

Science.gov (United States)

MacAvoy, S. E.; Knee, K.

2015-12-01

While urban environments may lack the beauty of relatively pristine field sites, they can be used to deliver an effective demonstration of actual environmental damage. Students demanding applied field experiences from their undergraduate environmental science programs can be well served in urban settings. Here, we present strategies for integrating degraded urban systems into the undergraduate field experience. Urban locations provide an opportunity for a different type of local "field-work" than would otherwise be available. In the upper-level undergraduate Environmental Methods class, we relied on a National Park area located a 10-minute walk from campus for most field exercises. Activities included soil analysis, measuring stream flow and water quality parameters, dendrochronology, and aquatic microbe metabolism. In the non-majors class, we make use of our urban location to contrast water quality in parks and highly channelized urban streams. Students spend labs immersed in streams and wetlands heavily impacted by the urban runoff their city generates. Here we share lesson plans and budgets for field activities that can be completed during a class period of 2.5 hours with a $75 course fee, show how these activities help students gain quantitative competency.

Green roofs provide habitat for urban bats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K.L. Parkins

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Understanding bat use of human-altered habitat is critical for developing effective conservation plans for this ecologically important taxon. Green roofs, building rooftops covered in growing medium and vegetation, are increasingly important conservation tools that make use of underutilized space to provide breeding and foraging grounds for urban wildlife. Green roofs are especially important in highly urbanized areas such as New York City (NYC, which has more rooftops (34% than green space (13%. To date, no studies have examined the extent to which North American bats utilize urban green roofs. To investigate the role of green roofs in supporting urban bats, we monitored bat activity using ultrasonic recorders on four green and four conventional roofs located in highly developed areas of NYC, which were paired to control for location, height, and local variability in surrounding habitat and species diversity. We then identified bat vocalizations on these recordings to the species level. We documented the presence of five of nine possible bat species over both roof types: Lasiurus borealis, L. cinereus, L. noctivagans, P. subflavus,andE. fuscus. Of the bat calls that could be identified to the species level, 66% were from L. borealis. Overall levels of bat activity were higher over green roofs than over conventional roofs. This study provides evidence that, in addition to well documented ecosystem benefits, urban green roofs contribute to urban habitat availability for several North American bat species.

Understanding Informal Urban Land Market Functioning in Peri ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Understanding Informal Urban Land Market Functioning in Peri-urban Areas of Secondary Towns of Rwanda: Case Study of Tumba Sector, Butare Town. ... Land price is negotiable and varies greatly based on the land size and its specific location and is higher than the reference land price. Land right transfer is evidenced ...

[Spatial tendency of urban land use in new Yinzhou Town of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province of East China].

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Wen-Wei; Guo, Hui-Hui; Mei, Yan-Xia

2012-03-01

By adopting gradient analysis combining with the analysis of urban land use degree, this paper studied the spatial layout characteristics of residential and industrial lands in new Yinzhou Town, and explored the location characters of various urban land use by selecting public green land, public facilities, and road as the location advantage factors. Gradient analysis could effectively connect with the spatial layout of urban land use, and quantitatively depict the spatial character of urban land use. In the new town, there was a new urban spatial center mostly within the radius of 2 km, namely, the urban core area had obvious location advantage in the cross-shaft direction urban development. On the south of Yinzhou Avenue, the urban hinterland would be constructed soon. In the future land use of the new town, the focus would be the reasonable vicissitude of industrial land after the adjustment of industrial structure, the high-efficient intensive use of the commercial land restricted by the compulsive condition of urban core area, and the agricultural land protection in the southeastern urban-rural fringe.

Patient satisfaction with community pharmacy: comparing urban and suburban chain-pharmacy populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Malewski, David F; Ream, Aimrie; Gaither, Caroline A

2015-01-01

Patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care can be a strong predictor of medication and other health-related outcomes. Less understood is the role that location of pharmacies in urban or suburban environments plays in patient satisfaction with pharmacy and pharmacist services. The purpose of this study was to serve as a pilot examining urban and suburban community pharmacy populations for similarities and differences in patient satisfaction. Community pharmacy patients were asked to self-administer a 30-question patient satisfaction survey. Fifteen questions addressed their relationship with the pharmacist, 10 questions addressed satisfaction and accessibility of the pharmacy, and five questions addressed financial concerns. Five urban and five suburban pharmacies agreed to participate. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. Most patients reported high levels of satisfaction. Satisfaction with pharmacist relationship and service was 70% or higher with no significant differences between locations. There were significant differences between the urban and suburban patients regarding accessibility of pharmacy services, customer service and some patient/pharmacist trust issues. The significant differences between patient satisfaction in the suburban and urban populations warrant a larger study with more community pharmacies in other urban, suburban and rural locations to better understand and validate study findings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Methodology for setup and data processing of mobile air quality measurements to assess the spatial variability of concentrations in urban environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Poppel, Martine; Peters, Jan; Bleux, Nico

2013-01-01

A case study is presented to illustrate a methodology for mobile monitoring in urban environments. A dataset of UFP, PM 2.5 and BC concentrations was collected. We showed that repeated mobile measurements could give insight in spatial variability of pollutants at different micro-environments in a city. Streets of contrasting traffic intensity showed increased concentrations by a factor 2–3 for UFP and BC and by 2.5 . The first quartile (P25) of the mobile measurements at an urban background zone seems to be good estimate of the urban background concentration. The local component of the pollutant concentrations was determined by background correction. The use of background correction reduced the number of runs needed to obtain representative results. The results presented, are a first attempt to establish a methodology for setup and data processing of mobile air quality measurements to assess the spatial variability of concentrations in urban environments. -- Highlights: ► Mobile measurements are used to assess the variability of air pollutants in urban environments. ► PM 2.5 , BC and UFP concentrations are presented for zones with different traffic characteristics. ► A methodology for background correction based on the mobile measurements is presented. ► The background concentration is estimated as the 25th percentile of the urban background data. ► The minimum numbers of runs for a representative estimate is reduced after background correction. -- This paper shows that the spatial variability of air pollutants in an urban environment can be assessed by a mobile monitoring methodology including background correction

Monuments in the Structure of an Urban Environment: The Source of Social Memory and the Marker of the Urban Space

Science.gov (United States)

Antonova, N.; Grunt, E.; Merenkov, A.

2017-10-01

The major research objective was to analyze the role of monuments in the formation of local residents’ and guests’ representations about the city, its history and traditions. The authors consider the system of monuments’ location in the urban space as a way of its social construction, as the system of influence on citizens’ aesthetic feelings, as the formation of their attitudes towards maintaining of continuity in the activities of different generations for the improvement of the territory of their permanent residence. Methodology. An urban monument is considered in two ways: as a transfer of historical memory and as a social memory transfer, which includes the experience of previous generations. One of the main provisions of the study is the idea that monuments can lose their former social value, transforming into “simple” objects of a public place. The study was conducted in the city of Yekaterinburg, one of the largest, cultural, scientific and industrial Russian megalopolises in 2015. The primary data was collected using standardized interviews. Four hundred and twenty respondents at the age of and above 18 were questioned on the basis of quota sampling. Interviews with respondents were conducted in order to identify key problems involved and reasons for shaping respondents’ representations of monuments in the urban environment typical for the population of Russian megalopolises. The standardized interview guide included 15 questions. Findings and discussion. Our investigation has revealed that different monuments fulfil various functions in an urban environment (ideological, aesthetic, transferring, valuable, etc.). The study has unequivocally confirmed that objects in the urban space have a different emotional colour background: people paint them in accordance with the feelings that arise in their perception. Hence, some monuments effectively fulfil the functions of social memory transfer: they are remembered, they tell us about the events to

Tuberculosis in an urban area in China: differences between urban migrants and local residents.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xin Shen

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The increase in urban migrants is one of major challenges for tuberculosis control in China. The different characteristics of tuberculosis cases between urban migrants and local residents in China have not been investigated before. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed a retrospective study of all pulmonary tuberculosis patients reported in Songjiang district, Shanghai, to determine the demographic, clinical and microbiological characteristics of tuberculosis cases between urban migrants and local residents. We calculated the odds ratios (OR and performed multivariate logistic regression to identify the characteristics that were independently associated with tuberculosis among urban migrants. A total of 1,348 pulmonary tuberculosis cases were reported during 2006-2008, among whom 440 (32.6% were local residents and 908 (67.4% were urban migrants. Urban migrant (38.9/100,000 population had higher tuberculosis rates than local residents (27.8/100,000 population, and the rates among persons younger than age 35 years were 3 times higher among urban migrants than among local residents. Younger age (adjusted OR per additional year at risk = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.91-0.94, p<0.001, poor treatment outcome (adjusted OR = 4.12, 95% CI: 2.65-5.72, p<0.001, and lower frequency of any comorbidity at diagnosis (adjusted OR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.13-0.26, p = 0.013 were significantly associated with tuberculosis patients among urban migrants. There were poor treatment outcomes among urban migrants, mainly from transfers to another jurisdiction (19.3% of all tuberculosis patients among urban migrants. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A considerable proportion of tuberculosis cases in Songjiang district, China, during 2006-2008 occurred among urban migrants. Our findings highlight the need to develop and implement specific tuberculosis control strategies for urban migrants, such as more exhaustive case finding, improved case management and follow-up, and use of

Location of airports - selected quantitative methods

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Agnieszka Merkisz-Guranowska

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background: The role of air transport in  the economic development of a country and its regions cannot be overestimated. The decision concerning an airport's location must be in line with the expectations of all the stakeholders involved. This article deals with the issues related to the choice of  sites where airports should be located. Methods: Two main quantitative approaches related to the issue of airport location are presented in this article, i.e. the question of optimizing such a choice and the issue of selecting the location from a predefined set. The former involves mathematical programming and formulating the problem as an optimization task, the latter, however, involves ranking the possible variations. Due to various methodological backgrounds, the authors present the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches and point to the one which currently has its own practical application. Results: Based on real-life examples, the authors present a multi-stage procedure, which renders it possible to solve the problem of airport location. Conclusions: Based on the overview of literature of the subject, the authors point to three types of approach to the issue of airport location which could enable further development of currently applied methods.

Smart Device-Supported BDS/GNSS Real-Time Kinematic Positioning for Sub-Meter-Level Accuracy in Urban Location-Based Services

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Liang Wang

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Using mobile smart devices to provide urban location-based services (LBS with sub-meter-level accuracy (around 0.5 m is a major application field for future global navigation satellite system (GNSS development. Real-time kinematic (RTK positioning, which is a widely used GNSS-based positioning approach, can improve the accuracy from about 10–20 m (achieved by the standard positioning services to about 3–5 cm based on the geodetic receivers. In using the smart devices to achieve positioning with sub-meter-level accuracy, a feasible solution of combining the low-cost GNSS module and the smart device is proposed in this work and a user-side GNSS RTK positioning software was developed from scratch based on the Android platform. Its real-time positioning performance was validated by BeiDou Navigation Satellite System/Global Positioning System (BDS/GPS combined RTK positioning under the conditions of a static and kinematic (the velocity of the rover was 50–80 km/h mode in a real urban environment with a SAMSUNG Galaxy A7 smartphone. The results show that the fixed-rates of ambiguity resolution (the proportion of epochs of ambiguities fixed for BDS/GPS combined RTK in the static and kinematic tests were about 97% and 90%, respectively, and the average positioning accuracies (RMS were better than 0.15 m (horizontal and 0.25 m (vertical for the static test, and 0.30 m (horizontal and 0.45 m (vertical for the kinematic test.

Impact of urbanization level on urban air quality: a case of fine particles (PM(2.5)) in Chinese cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Lijian; Zhou, Weiqi; Li, Weifeng; Li, Li

2014-11-01

We examined and compared PM2.5 concentrations in urban and the surrounding regions, and further investigated the impact of urbanization on urban PM2.5 concentrations at the Chinese prefectures. Annual PM2.5 concentrations in most prefectures were greater than 10 μg/m(3), the air quality guideline of the World Health Organization. Those prefectures were mainly distributed along the east coast and southeast of Sichuan province; The urban PM2.5 concentrations ( [Formula: see text] ) in 85 cities were greater than (>10 μg/m(3)) those in the surrounding area. Those cities were mainly located in the Beijing-Sichuan and Shanghai-Guangxi belts. In addition, [Formula: see text] was less than (urban population (R(2) = 0.99, P urban second industry fraction (R(2) = 0.71, P urbanization had considerable impact on PM2.5 concentrations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable Urban Waterfutures: A Vision

Science.gov (United States)

Background: Urban growth is seriously limited by water scarcity on every continent, and trying to house more people that aspire to current developed region water services is simply impossible due to lack of available water, let alone the cost. Furthermore, traditional water/...

Backgrounder

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

IDRC CRDI

Safe and Inclusive Cities: ... improving urban environments and public spaces might have on reducing the city's high ... violence against women among urban youth of working class neighbourhoods of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Karachi,.

Persistence of urban organic aerosols composition: Decoding their structural complexity and seasonal variability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matos, João T.V.; Duarte, Regina M.B.O.; Lopes, Sónia P.; Silva, Artur M.S.; Duarte, Armando C.

2017-01-01

Organic Aerosols (OAs) are typically defined as highly complex matrices whose composition changes in time and space. Focusing on time vector, this work uses two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D NMR) techniques to examine the structural features of water-soluble (WSOM) and alkaline-soluble organic matter (ASOM) sequentially extracted from fine atmospheric aerosols collected in an urban setting during cold and warm seasons. This study reveals molecular signatures not previously decoded in NMR-related studies of OAs as meaningful source markers. Although the ASOM is less hydrophilic and structurally diverse than its WSOM counterpart, both fractions feature a core with heteroatom-rich branched aliphatics from both primary (natural and anthropogenic) and secondary origin, aromatic secondary organics originated from anthropogenic aromatic precursors, as well as primary saccharides and amino sugar derivatives from biogenic emissions. These common structures represent those 2D NMR spectral signatures that are present in both seasons and can thus be seen as an “annual background” profile of the structural composition of OAs at the urban location. Lignin-derived structures, nitroaromatics, disaccharides, and anhydrosaccharides signatures were also identified in the WSOM samples only from periods identified as smoke impacted, which reflects the influence of biomass-burning sources. The NMR dataset on the H–C molecules backbone was also used to propose a semi-quantitative structural model of urban WSOM, which will aid efforts for more realistic studies relating the chemical properties of OAs with their atmospheric behavior. - Highlights: • 2D NMR spectroscopy was used to decode urban organic aerosols. • Water and alkaline soluble components of urban organic aerosols have been compared. • Persistence of urban organic aerosols composition across different seasons. • Annual background profile of the structural features of urban organic aerosols. • Semi

MULTIFUNCTIONAL LAND USE IN THE RENEWAL OF HARBOUR AREAS: PATTERNS OF PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE URBAN FUNCTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antoni Remesar

2004-09-01

Full Text Available Being one of the most representative spatial processes of the last 30 years, which frequently occur in strategic parts of the cities and justify special financing investments, the operations of renewal of harbour areas can be seen as a laboratory of contemporary urban design. In the context of the activity developed by the IFHP Working Party on Multifunctional and Intensive Land Use, these operations are also an high potential field of research, justifying its closer analysis, as it has been done in the last two years with the technical visits to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Oslo, and now to Barcelona. Focusing on the multifunctional use of spaces, this paper analyses several operations of renewal of harbour areas, trying to identify the urban design solutions adopted in those operations regarding the physical distribution of the proposed urban functions. The case-study comparative analysis is the applied method, based on which are identified: (1 the different urban functions present on these operations, and; (2 the concept under which these different functions are disposed in the area and combined between themselves. The hypothesis is that it can be established a general classification on the forms how different functions are combined in these operations. The paper previously distinguishes two types of functions, regarding the relative its importance in the area: the dominant urban functions and the located urban functions. The dominant urban functions are those functions that generally dominate an urban area, although it can contain located urban functions within its perimeter on specific locations, e.g., residential areas, offices and shopping areas, industrial areas, public equipment areas and special use areas. The located urban functions are those specific functions that aren’t dominating functions and exist within the perimeter of a dominant urban function, e.g., schools, museums, public services, local shopping’s and others. The papers

Caregiver Asthma in Urban Families: Implications for School Absenteeism

Science.gov (United States)

Everhart, Robin S.; Miller, Sarah; Leibach, Gillian G.; Dahl, Alexandra L.; Koinis-Mitchell, Daphne

2018-01-01

Asthma is a significant contributor to missed school days, especially for children living in urban settings. This preliminary study examined the impact of caregiver asthma on school absenteeism in a sample of 102 urban children with asthma from African American, Latino, and non-Latino White backgrounds. Caregivers and children participated in a…

When Vacant Lots Become Urban Gardens: Characterizing the Perceived and Actual Food Safety Concerns of Urban Agriculture in Ohio.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaiser, Michelle L; Williams, Michele L; Basta, Nicholas; Hand, Michelle; Huber, Sarah

2015-11-01

This study was intended to characterize the perceived risks of urban agriculture by residents of four low-income neighborhoods in which the potential exists for further urban agriculture development and to provide data to support whether any chemical hazards and foodborne pathogens as potential food safety hazards were present. Sixty-seven residents participated in focus groups related to environmental health, food security, and urban gardening. In addition, soils from six locations were tested. Residents expressed interest in the development of urban gardens to improve access to healthy, fresh produce, but they had concerns about soil quality. Soils were contaminated with lead (Pb), zinc, cadmium (Cd), and copper, but not arsenic or chromium. Results from our study suggest paint was the main source of soil contamination. Detectable polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in urban soils were well below levels of concern. These urban soils will require further management to reduce Pb and possibly Cd bioavailability to decrease the potential for uptake into food crops. Although the number of locations in this study is limited, results suggest lower levels of soil contaminants at well-established gardens. Soil tillage associated with long-term gardening could have diluted the soil metal contaminants by mixing the contaminants with clean soil. Also, lower PAH levels in long-term gardening could be due to enhanced microbial activity and PAH degradation, dilution, or both due to mixing, similar to metals. No foodborne pathogen targets were detected by PCR from any of the soils. Residents expressed the need for clearness regarding soil quality and gardening practices in their neighborhoods to consume food grown in these urban areas. Results from this study suggest long-term gardening has the potential to reduce soil contaminants and their potential threat to food quality and human health and to improve access to fresh produce in low-income urban communities.

A model for radiological dose assessment in an urban environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Won Tae; Kim, Eun Han; Jeong, Hyo Joon; Suh, Kyung Suk; Han, Moon Hee

2007-01-01

A model for radiological dose assessment in an urban environment, METRO-K has been developed. Characteristics of the model are as follows ; 1) mathematical structures are simple (i.e. simplified input parameters) and easy to understand due to get the results by analytical methods using experimental and empirical data, 2) complex urban environment can easily be made up using only 5 types of basic surfaces, 3) various remediation measures can be applied to different surfaces by evaluating the exposure doses contributing from each contamination surface. Exposure doses contributing from each contamination surface at a particular location of a receptor were evaluated using the data library of kerma values as a function of gamma energy and contamination surface. A kerma data library was prepared for 7 representative types of Korean urban building by extending those data given for 4 representative types of European urban buildings. Initial input data are daily radionuclide concentration in air and precipitation, and fraction of chemical type. Final outputs are absorbed dose rate in air contributing from the basic surfaces as a function of time following a radionuclide deposition, and exposure dose rate contributing from various surfaces constituting the urban environment at a particular location of a receptor. As the result of a contaminative scenario for an apartment built-up area, exposure dose rates show a distinct difference for surrounding environment as well as locations of a receptor

Variability of multifractal parameters in an urban precipitation monitoring network

Science.gov (United States)

Licznar, Paweł; De Michele, Carlo; Dżugaj, Dagmara; Niesobska, Maria

2014-05-01

Precipitation especially over urban areas is considered a highly non-linear process, with wide variability over a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. Despite obvious limitations of rainfall gauges location at urban sites, rainfall monitoring by gauge networks is a standard solution of urban hydrology. Often urban precipitation gauge networks are formed by modern electronic gauges and connected to control units of centralized urban drainage systems. Precipitation data, recorded online through these gauge networks, are used in so called Real-Time-Control (RTC) systems for the development of optimal strategies of urban drainage outflows management. As a matter of fact, the operation of RTC systems is motivated mainly by the urge of reducing the severity of urban floods and combined sewerage overflows, but at the same time, it creates new valuable precipitation data sources. The variability of precipitation process could be achieved by investigating multifractal behavior displayed by the temporal structure of precipitation data. There are multiply scientific communications concerning multifractal properties of point-rainfall data from different worldwide locations. However, very little is known about the close variability of multifractal parameters among closely located gauges, at the distances of single kilometers. Having this in mind, here we assess the variability of multifractal parameters among gauges of the urban precipitation monitoring network in Warsaw, Poland. We base our analysis on the set of 1-minute rainfall time series recorded in the period 2008-2011 by 25 electronic weighing type gauges deployed around the city by the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Company in Warsaw as a part of local RTC system. The presence of scale invariance and multifractal properties in the precipitation process was investigated with spectral analysis, functional box counting method and studying the probability distributions and statistical moments of the rainfall

Pupil initiatives in urban nature trail development: PMB MOSS and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A brief background to Greenbelt and urban nature trail development in Pietermaritzburg is provided. Negotiations and procedures initiated by standard 9 pupils in stimulating authorities and the public to recognise the need for urban trail development and metropolitan open space (MOSS) are outlined. long-term ...

A Preventive Intervention Program for Urban African American Youth Attending an Alternative Education Program: Background, Implementation, and Feasibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Carswell, Steven B; Hanlon, Thomas E; O'Grady, Kevin E; Watts, Amy M; Pothong, Pattarapan

2009-01-01

This paper presents background, implementation, and feasibility findings associated with planning and conducting an after-school intervention program in an alternative education setting designed to prevent the initiation and escalation of violence and substance abuse among urban African American youth at high risk for life-long problem behaviors. Evolving from earlier preventive interventions implemented in clinic and school settings, the program, entitled The Village Model of Care, consisted of structured group mentoring, parental support, and community outreach services administered to alternative education students and their primary caregiver(s) during the school year. Over a two-year intake period, 109 youth participated in the present process evaluation study. Findings from the study not only provided relevant demographic information on the characteristics of youth likely to be included in such programs but also indicated the importance of including the family in the rehabilitation effort and the need for school administrative system support for the underlying alternative education approach. The information presented in this report has a direct bearing on the planning of future prevention efforts conducted in similar settings that are aimed at reducing problem behaviors and promoting positive lifestyles among high-risk youth.

Assessment of pharmacists’ delivery of public health services in rural and urban areas in Iowa and North Dakota

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, David M.; Strand, Mark; Undem, Teri; Anderson, Gabrielle; Clarens, Andrea; Liu, Xiyuan

2016-01-01

Background: The profession of pharmacy is expanding its involvement in public health, but few studies have examined pharmacists’ delivery of public health services. Objective: To assess Iowa and North Dakota pharmacists’ practices, frequency of public health service delivery, level of involvement in achieving the essential services of public health, and barriers to expansion of public health services in rural and urban areas. Methods: This study implemented an on-line survey sent to all pharmacists currently practicing pharmacy in Iowa and North Dakota. Results: Overall, 602 valid responses were analyzed, 297 in rural areas and 305 in urban areas. Three practice settings (chain stores [169, 28.2%], independent community pharmacies [162, 27.0%], and hospital pharmacies [156, 26.0%]) comprised 81.2% of the sample. Both chain and independent community pharmacists were more commonly located in rural areas than in urban areas (PDakota. These findings should be interpreted to be primarily due to differences in the role of the rural pharmacist and the quest for certain opportunities that rural pharmacists are seeking. PMID:28042356

Latent lifestyle preferences and household location decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Joan L.; Li, Jieping

2007-04-01

Lifestyle, indicating preferences towards a particular way of living, is a key driver of the decision of where to live. We employ latent class choice models to represent this behavior, where the latent classes are the lifestyles and the choice model is the choice of residential location. Thus, we simultaneously estimate lifestyle groups and how lifestyle impacts location decisions. Empirical results indicate three latent lifestyle segments: suburban dwellers, urban dwellers, and transit-riders. The suggested lifestyle segments have intriguing policy implications. Lifecycle characteristics are used to predict lifestyle preferences, although there remain significant aspects that cannot be explained by observable variables.

Students' Moral Reasoning as Related to Cultural Background and Educational Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Bar-Yam, Miriam; And Others

The relationship between moral development and cultural and educational background is examined. Approximately 120 Israeli youth representing different social classes, sex, religious affiliation, and educational experience were interviewed. The youth interviewed included urban middle and lower class students, Kibbutz-born, Youth Aliyah…

24 CFR 3285.310 - Pier location and spacing.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... URBAN DEVELOPMENT MODEL MANUFACTURED HOME INSTALLATION STANDARDS Foundations § 3285.310 Pier location... vertical or horizontal design loads. 5. When a full-height mating wall does not support the ridge beam... wall that are less than 48 inches in width. Place piers on both sides of mating wall openings that are...

Spatiotemporal AED Location Optimization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chan, Timothy C.Y.; Sun, Christopher L.F.; Demirtas, Derya; Morrison, Laurie J.; Brooks, Steven C.

2015-01-01

Background: Mathematical optimization can be used to plan future AED placement to maximize out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) coverage. Many public access AEDs are placed in locations without 24/7 access. AED coverage can be overestimated unless temporal availability is considered. Objective: To

Background air pollution studies in urban and rural areas in Bangladesh. Appendix 3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khaliquzzaman, M.; Biswas, S.K.; Tarafdar, S.A.; Islam, A.; Khan, A.H.

1995-01-01

Air particulate matter at two size fractions have been collected at an urban station (Dhaka) in Bangladesh for one year using a 'Gent' PM-10 stacked filter unit (SFU). Of the samples collected, 73 sets of samples (coarse and fine fractions) extending over a period of six months have been analyzed to find elemental concentrations using PIXE. These results of the analyses are presented and discussed. (author)

Urban Green Space and Its Impact on Human Health

Science.gov (United States)

Michelle Kondo; Jaime Fluehr; Thomas McKeon; Charles. Branas

2018-01-01

Background: Over half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, and this proportion is expected to increase. While there have been numerous reviews of empirical studies on the link between nature and human health, very few have focused on the urban context, and most have examined almost exclusively cross-sectional research. This...

Innovative economic structures – support for development of urban systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florin Marian Buhociu

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Training and development of urban systems (US is a main direction of territorial and regional development which requires multiple studies, including those of economic background. They should aim to highlight, on the one hand, the economic potential of geographical areas making up the urban system and secondly to assess development trends you need to focus their own resources and those that are to be attracted to getting a economic trend upward in that area. It is therefore very important a zonal configuration of the urban system by following the joint capitalization of existing human and material resources, including by building synergy effect to be achieved following the joint evolution of settlements in the US. Along with the development of US is required, from the economical point of view, to implement new forms of economic structures to directly potentate the development of the area through constant cooperation, innovation and transfer of know-how. Romania currently has seven major urban centers that were selected and were assigned the role of growth poles. There were also 13 designated urban growth poles, including Galati and Braila. Urban agglomeration formed by the two municipalities, located at a distance from each other of about 25 km, is the second largest in the country after Bucharest. There is currently underway specialized documentation to achieve an optimal configuration for US Galati-Braila. From the economic point of view in the respective area can be implemented new development structures of cluster (Porter, M.E.,2000 type aimed at achieving the competitiveness poles and which will constitute the true engine of economic development. These two new structures of economic development are characterized by the fact that they allow and provide the necessary conditions to attract the systems and modern technologies to build local innovation systems that can be integrated into similar systems at regional and even national level. It is

Suicide risk in relation to level of urbanicity - a population-based linkage study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qin, Ping

2005-01-01

BACKGROUND: The extent to which the high suicide rate in urban areas is influenced by exposures to risk factors for suicide other than urbanicity remains unknown. This population-based study aims to investigate suicide risk in relation to the level of urbanicity in the context of other factors...

Urbanization effects on sediment and trace metals distribution in an urban winter pond (Netanya, Israel)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zohar, I.; Teutsch, N.; Levin, N.; Mackin, G.; de Stigter, H.; Bookman, R.

2017-01-01

PurposeThis paper aims to elucidate urban development-induced processes affecting the sediment and the distribution of contaminating metals in a seasonal pond located in the highly populated Israeli Coastal Plain. The paper demonstrates how an integrated approach, including geochemical,

Blindness to background: an inbuilt bias for visual objects.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Hanlon, Catherine G; Read, Jenny C A

2017-09-01

Sixty-eight 2- to 12-year-olds and 30 adults were shown colorful displays on a touchscreen monitor and trained to point to the location of a named color. Participants located targets near-perfectly when presented with four abutting colored patches. When presented with three colored patches on a colored background, toddlers failed to locate targets in the background. Eye tracking demonstrated that the effect was partially mediated by a tendency not to fixate the background. However, the effect was abolished when the targets were named as nouns, whilst the change to nouns had little impact on eye movement patterns. Our results imply a powerful, inbuilt tendency to attend to objects, which may slow the development of color concepts and acquisition of color words. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/TKO1BPeAiOI. [Correction added on 27 January 2017, after first online publication: The video abstract link was added.]. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Urban Forest Ecosystem Service Optimization, Tradeoffs, and Disparities

Science.gov (United States)

Bodnaruk, E.; Kroll, C. N.; Endreny, T. A.; Hirabayashi, S.; Yang, Y.

2014-12-01

Urban land area and the proportion of humanity living in cities is growing, leading to increased urban air pollution, temperature, and stormwater runoff. These changes can exacerbate respiratory and heat-related illnesses and affect ecosystem functioning. Urban trees can help mitigate these threats by removing air pollutants, mitigating urban heat island effects, and infiltrating and filtering stormwater. The urban environment is highly heterogeneous, and there is no tool to determine optimal locations to plant or protect trees. Using spatially explicit land cover, weather, and demographic data within biophysical ecosystem service models, this research expands upon the iTree urban forest tools to produce a new decision support tool (iTree-DST) that will explore the development and impacts of optimal tree planting. It will also heighten awareness of environmental justice by incorporating the Atkinson Index to quantify disparities in health risks and ecosystem services across vulnerable and susceptible populations. The study area is Baltimore City, a location whose urban forest and environmental justice concerns have been studied extensively. The iTree-DST is run at the US Census block group level and utilizes a local gradient approach to calculate the change in ecosystem services with changing tree cover across the study area. Empirical fits provide ecosystem service gradients for possible tree cover scenarios, greatly increasing the speed and efficiency of the optimization procedure. Initial results include an evaluation of the performance of the gradient method, optimal planting schemes for individual ecosystem services, and an analysis of tradeoffs and synergies between competing objectives.

Blood Pressure and Obesity Index Assessment in a Typical Urban ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Rapid transition from rural to urban lifestyle in Africa has been associated with increasing cardiovascular disease burden and thus, the need for continuous reevaluation of cardiovascular risk factors in African slums which have been shown to harbor 40 to 80% of urban residents cannot be over emphasized.

Changing hotel location patterns in Ekurhuleni, South Africa’s industrial workshop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jayne M. Rogerson

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The accommodation sector is of central importance to research on urban tourism. A number of studies seek to understand the location of hotels in urban areas. This article contributes to the limited scholarship on hotel location in African cities. Under investigation is hotel development in Ekurhuleni, one of South Africa’s newest metropolitan areas with a strong tradition of mining and industrial activities. This is a non-traditional tourism destination where until recently leisure tourism was not a component of the local economy. In terms of tourism development Ekurhuleni has expanded its share of business tourism as a result of its geographical location in South Africa’s economic heartland. Importantly, business tourism has been driven by the location in Ekurhuleni of OR Tambo Airport, South Africa’s major international gateway airport. Between 1990 and 2010 this investigation shows that the local hotel economy of Ekurhuleni has been transformed. One aspect of restructuring has been the collapse of the low quality liquor dominated hotel which was numerically the major accommodation type of the pre-1990 period. The booming business tourism economy caused new investments and hotel property developments in medium-size and high quality four and five star hotel establishments. Growth has clustered geographically in and around the international airport which is the key contemporary locational influence for hotel location in this investigation.

Influence of Urbanization Factors on Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity: A Comparison of Countries at Different Developmental Phases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaoping Cui

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Urbanization is a global problem with demographic trends. The urban heat island plays a dominant role in local climate systems. Despite existing efforts to understand the impacts of multiple urbanization factors on the urban heat island globally, very little is known about the attribution of urban heat island magnitude to urbanization in different locations or developmental phases. In this study, based on global land surface temperature data, urban spatial domain data, gross domestic product (GDP, and population data, we analyzed the influence of multiple urbanization factors on global surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII. We also tentatively compared the abovementioned factors between different regions across the globe, especially between China and the USA, the largest countries that are experiencing or have experienced rapid urbanization in recent decades. The results showed that global SUHII had remarkable spatial heterogeneity due to the geographical and socioeconomic variation between cities. There was a significant correlation between SUHII and population as well as GDP in global cities. Moreover, this study suggested that the impacts of population on SUHII might be stronger in the early stages of urbanization, and the GDP factor would become a critical factor at a certain development level. The urban area also had non-ignorable impacts on SUHII, while the correlation between SUHII and urban shape was relatively weak. All these may imply that the best approach to slow down SUHII is to find other solutions, e.g., optimize the spatial configuration of urban internal landscapes, when the urbanization reaches a high level.

A low-background gamma-ray assay laboratory for activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lindstrom, R.M.; Langland, J.K.; Lindstrom, D.J.; Slaback, L.A.

1990-01-01

The sources of background in a gamma-ray detector were experimentally determined in underground and surface counting rooms, and an optimized shield was constructed at NIST. The optimum thickness of lead was 10-15 cm, with a greater thickness giving an increased background due to the buildup of tertiary cosmic-ray particles. Neither cadmium, tin, copper nor plastic (hydrocarbon or fluorocarbon) was desirable as a shield liner, since all these increased the background continuum or introduced characteristic peaks into the background spectrum. Two broad peaks in the background result from inelastic scattering of cosmic-ray neutrons (0.02 cm -2 s -1 ) in germanium. These neutrons also excite the lower nuclear levels of lead and structural iron to produce additional gamma-ray peaks in the spectrum. The influence of the 20 MW NIST reactor, located 60 m from the detector, was undetectable. Comparisons among detectors and locations clearly separate cosmic from environmental components of the background. (orig.)

A low-background gamma-ray assay laboratory for activation analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lindstrom, R M; Langland, J K [National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (USA). Center for Analytical Chemistry; Lindstrom, D J [National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Houston, TX (USA). Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center; Slaback, L A [National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (USA). Occupational Health and Safety Div.

1990-12-20

The sources of background in a gamma-ray detector were experimentally determined in underground and surface counting rooms, and an optimized shield was constructed at NIST. The optimum thickness of lead was 10-15 cm, with a greater thickness giving an increased background due to the buildup of tertiary cosmic-ray particles. Neither cadmium, tin, copper nor plastic (hydrocarbon or fluorocarbon) was desirable as a shield liner, since all these increased the background continuum or introduced characteristic peaks into the background spectrum. Two broad peaks in the background result from inelastic scattering of cosmic-ray neutrons (0.02 cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}) in germanium. These neutrons also excite the lower nuclear levels of lead and structural iron to produce additional gamma-ray peaks in the spectrum. The influence of the 20 MW NIST reactor, located 60 m from the detector, was undetectable. Comparisons among detectors and locations clearly separate cosmic from environmental components of the background. (orig.).

Modeling urban landscape: New paradigms and challenges in territorial representation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheyla Aguilar de Santana

2013-05-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to give a brief background on the production of urban space considering the social functions of the city, the needs of contemporary urban reforms and the need for tools that assist in decision making. This state of the art about the production space justifies the current studies on the development of geoprocessing tools, techniques and methodologies that attempt the needs of creating interpretive portraits of urban landscapes to facilitate dialogue between urban technical, administrators and community. In this sense, it is presented how GIS has been working within the context of urban planning and appointed the new challenges and paradigms of territorial representation.

Consequences of Urban Stability Conditions for Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations of Urban Dispersion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lundquist, J K; Chan, S T

2005-11-30

The validity of omitting stability considerations when simulating transport and dispersion in the urban environment is explored using observations from the Joint URBAN 2003 field experiment and computational fluid dynamics simulations of that experiment. Four releases of sulfur hexafluoride, during two daytime and two nighttime intensive observing periods, are simulated using the building-resolving computational fluid dynamics model, FEM3MP to solve the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with two options of turbulence parameterizations. One option omits stability effects but has a superior turbulence parameterization using a non-linear eddy viscosity (NEV) approach, while the other considers buoyancy effects with a simple linear eddy viscosity (LEV) approach for turbulence parameterization. Model performance metrics are calculated by comparison with observed winds and tracer data in the downtown area, and with observed winds and turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) profiles at a location immediately downwind of the central business district (CBD) in the area we label as the urban shadow. Model predictions of winds, concentrations, profiles of wind speed, wind direction, and friction velocity are generally consistent with and compare reasonably well with the field observations. Simulations using the NEV turbulence parameterization generally exhibit better agreement with observations. To further explore this assumption of a neutrally-stable atmosphere within the urban area, TKE budget profiles slightly downwind of the urban wake region in the 'urban shadow' are examined. Dissipation and shear production are the largest terms which may be calculated directly. The advection of TKE is calculated as a residual; as would be expected downwind of an urban area, the advection of TKE produced within the urban area is a very large term. Buoyancy effects may be neglected in favor of advection, shear production, and dissipation. For three of the IOPs, buoyancy

Assessment of Urban Pluvial Flood Risk and Efficiency of Adaptation Options Through Simulations – A New Generation of Urban Planning Tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Löwe, Roland; Urich, Christian; Sto. Domingo, Niña Donna Farpale

2017-01-01

the possibility to systematically test various flood risk adaptation measures ranging from large infrastructure changes over decentralised water management to urban planning policies. We have tested the framework in a case study in Melbourne, Australia considering 9 scenarios for urban development and climate......-off investments. Urban planning policies proved to be an efficient means for the reduction of flood risk, while implementing property buyback and pipe increases in a guideline-oriented manner was too costly. Random variations in location and time point of urban development could have significant impact on flood......We present a new framework for flexible testing of flood risk adaptation strategies in a variety of urban development and climate scenarios. This framework couples the 1D-2D hydrodynamic simulation package MIKE FLOOD with the agent-based urban development model DAnCE4Water and provides...

Urban Cooperative Banks :At CrossRoads

OpenAIRE

Nagarajapillai, Ramu

2008-01-01

Urban Cooperative Bank in India, with their long history of over 100 years, play an important role in financial inclusion. The mainstay of these banks was rooted in their captive clientele the forms of shareholders, and also in some cases specific community or location. This shielded them from the competition from large commercial banks. Recently, Indian banking industry has witnessed failure of a large number of Urban Cooperative banks. What are the reasons for these failures and what lays a...

Characterisation of current and future GNSS performance in urban canyons using a high quality 3-D urban model of Melbourne, Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Gang-jun, Liu; Kefei, Zhang; Falin, Wu; Liam, Densley; Retscher, Günther

2009-03-01

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a critical space-borne geospatial infrastructure providing essential positioning supports to a range of location-sensitive applications. GNSS is currently dominated by the US Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation. The next generation GNSS is expected to offer more satellites, better positioning provision, and improved availability and continuity of navigation support. However, GNSS performance in 3-D urban environments is problematic because GNSS signals are either completely blocked or severely degraded by high-rising geographic features like buildings. The aim of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the changing spatial patterns of GNSS performance, measured by the number of visible satellites (NVS) and position dilution-of-precision (PDOP), in the urban canyons of Melbourne, Australia. The methodology used includes the following steps: (1) determination of the dynamic orbital positions of current and future GNSS satellites; (2) development of a 3-D urban model of high geometric quality for Melbourne Central Business District (CBD); (3) evaluation of GNSS performance for every specified location in the urban canyons; and (4) visualisation and characterisation of the dynamic spatial patterns of GNSS performances in the urban canyons. As expected, the study shows that the integration of the GPS and Galileo constellations results in higher availability and stronger geometry, leading to significant improvement of GNSS performance in urban canyons of Melbourne CBD. Some conclusions are drawn and further research currently undertaken is also outlined.

Localizing Design/Designing Location: Creative Cities in the Low Countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gimeno Martinez, J.C.; Ozorio de Almeida Meroz, J.; Serulus, K.

2013-01-01

Through a constructivist approach, the formative processes creating an association between location and creativity are analysed, focusing on the establishment of three narratives of urban creativity: Antwerp, Brussels and Eindhoven. Each case study positions the city in its cultural and economic

What do you think of the return of dungarees?: Social media interactions between retail locations and their customers

OpenAIRE

Mahoney, Jamie; Lawson, Shaun

2014-01-01

Social media presents new digital interaction opportunities and challenges to urban retail locations such as shopping malls, centres and streets. Platforms such as Facebook facilitate online communication with, and between, customers that is not possible through traditional media and marketing techniques. Using data gathered from the Facebook pages of six urban retail locations over 12 months, this paper considers the possible factors that shape online customer engagement and conversation....

Hexabromocyclododecane in terrestrial passerine birds from e-waste, urban and rural locations in the Pearl River Delta, South China: Levels, biomagnification, diastereoisomer- and enantiomer-specific accumulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun Yuxin; Luo Xiaojun; Mo Ling; He Mingjing; Zhang Qiang; Chen Shejun; Zou Fasheng; Mai Bixian

2012-01-01

Diastereoisomers and enantiomers of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) were determined in muscle and stomach contents of three terrestrial passerine birds from e-waste, urban and rural locations in South China. The highest HBCD concentration was found at the urban site, followed by the e-waste site, suggesting that HBCD was linked to urbanization and industrialization, as well as e-waste recycling activities. Trophic magnification for α-HBCD was observed in the terrestrial food chain. Diastereisomeric pattern in birds showed the predominance of α-isomer, with a minor contribution of γ-isomer. The enantiomeric analysis revealed a preferential enrichment of (−)-α-HBCD and (+)-γ-HBCD. The similarity in enantiomeric fractions of HBCD isomers between muscle and stomach contents of birds suggested that dietary uptake may be responsible for the observed nonracemic distribution of HBCD isomers in the studied birds although in vivo enantioselective biotic processes cannot be ruled out. - Highlights: ► HBCD concentrations in three terrestrial passerine birds and their stomach contents were determined. ► Biomagnification and trophic magnification for α-HBCD was found. ► A preferential enrichment of (−)-α-HBCD and (+)-γ-HBCD were found in birds. ► Diet rather than in vivo biotic processes contributed to the observed nonracemic distribution of HBCD isomers. - Enantiomer-specific accumulation of hexabromocyclododecane in terrestrial passerine birds in South China was demonstrated.

Finding candidate locations for aerosol pollution monitoring at street level using a data-driven methodology

Science.gov (United States)

Moosavi, V.; Aschwanden, G.; Velasco, E.

2015-09-01

Finding the number and best locations of fixed air quality monitoring stations at street level is challenging because of the complexity of the urban environment and the large number of factors affecting the pollutants concentration. Data sets of such urban parameters as land use, building morphology and street geometry in high-resolution grid cells in combination with direct measurements of airborne pollutants at high frequency (1-10 s) along a reasonable number of streets can be used to interpolate concentration of pollutants in a whole gridded domain and determine the optimum number of monitoring sites and best locations for a network of fixed monitors at ground level. In this context, a data-driven modeling methodology is developed based on the application of Self-Organizing Map (SOM) to approximate the nonlinear relations between urban parameters (80 in this work) and aerosol pollution data, such as mass and number concentrations measured along streets of a commercial/residential neighborhood of Singapore. Cross-validations between measured and predicted aerosol concentrations based on the urban parameters at each individual grid cell showed satisfying results. This proof of concept study showed that the selected urban parameters proved to be an appropriate indirect measure of aerosol concentrations within the studied area. The potential locations for fixed air quality monitors are identified through clustering of areas (i.e., group of cells) with similar urban patterns. The typological center of each cluster corresponds to the most representative cell for all other cells in the cluster. In the studied neighborhood four different clusters were identified and for each cluster potential sites for air quality monitoring at ground level are identified.

Balancing Urban Biodiversity Needs and Resident Preferences for Vacant Lot Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine C. Rega-Brodsky

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Urban vacant lots are often a contentious feature in cities, seen as overgrown, messy eyesores that plague neighborhoods. We propose a shift in this perception to locations of urban potential, because vacant lots may serve as informal greenspaces that maximize urban biodiversity while satisfying residents’ preferences for their design and use. Our goal was to assess what kind of vacant lots are ecologically valuable by assessing their biotic contents and residents’ preferences within a variety of settings. We surveyed 150 vacant lots throughout Baltimore, Maryland for their plant and bird communities, classified the lot’s setting within the urban matrix, and surveyed residents. Remnant vacant lots had greater vegetative structure and bird species richness as compared to other lot origins, while vacant lot settings had limited effects on their contents. Residents preferred well-maintained lots with more trees and less artificial cover, support of which may increase local biodiversity in vacant lots. Collectively, we propose that vacant lots with a mixture of remnant and planted vegetation can act as sustainable urban greenspaces with the potential for some locations to enhance urban tree cover and bird habitat, while balancing the needs and preferences of city residents.

Examining the financial performance of micro-generation wind projects and the subsidy effect of feed-in tariffs for urban locations in the United Kingdom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walters, Ryan; Walsh, Philip R.

2011-01-01

This paper seeks to evaluate the effect of the upcoming 2010 UK Feed-in Tariff (UK FIT) on decentralised small wind-energy installations at the household and building level in urban locations. It is projected that the UK FIT will stimulate an unprecedented surge in building-mounted turbine installation. The tariff amount must stimulate incentive but mitigate the likelihood of distortions in the competitive electricity market. To analyse these issues, measured energy output from sites in the Warwick Wind Trials Project (WWTP) is converted into revenue in a net-present-value (NPV) framework for assessing commercial purchases of small wind systems. Variances in project variables are examined through NPV simulations using Monte Carlo analysis to capture permutations of small wind-project performance in the UK-with and without the UK FIT. Our research concludes that the proposed tariff amount of 30.5 p/kWh will not significantly boost the economic attractiveness of mildly selective (WWTP-based) sites in the UK. Furthermore, the fixed-tariff rate ( Pounds /kWh generated) could cause inefficiencies applied across uneven wind-resource distribution. The results of this study suggest further examination of policy related to micro-generation, in particular decentralised small wind projects. - Highlights: → Feed-in tariff (FIT) policy for urban UK small wind projects. → Determination of economic attractiveness (NPV) of projects. → Application of performance data from Warwick Wind Trials. → Need for higher tariff rate to provide average project with NPV>0. → Recommend reconsideration of FIT policy for urban small wind projects.

A Living Story of Parks : Urban History Research of Stockholmsskolan

OpenAIRE

Wang, Pengfei; Wang, Jiayi

2016-01-01

Our thesis started with a continuous discovery of theory and observation. As a group work of landscape architect and architect, during the study of our Urbanism program, we were both curious about the urbanism theories within Europe. Among them, partly in terms of the landscape background, we were particularly interested in the theory of landscape urbanism and its practices in Europe. Spontaneously, this became our original thesis topic.   However, after reading and collecting, we realized la...

Helping behavior in a rural and an urban setting: professional and casual attire.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Shauna B; Kennedy, Janice H

2006-02-01

This study assessed differences in helping behavior in a rural versus an urban location when directed toward either a professionally or a casually dressed woman. Convenience samples included 40 men and 40 women (10 people of each sex assigned to each condition: rural and professional, rural and casual, urban and professional, and urban and casual). A 21-yr.-old female confederate dropped an envelope near each target helper individually and recorded number of seconds for the target helper to retrieve or point out the dropped item. Analysis indicated significantly faster helping occurred in the rural than in the urban location and that men helped the confederate more often than women. No difference in frequencey of help was related to kind of attire.

Research on Building Urban Sustainability along the Coastal Area in China

OpenAIRE

Sun Jiaojiao; Fu Jiayan

2015-01-01

At present, in China, the research about the urban sustainability construction is still in the exploratory stage. The ecological problems of the coastal area are more sensitive and complicated. In the background of global warming with serious ecological damage, this paper deeply researches on the main characteristics of urban sustainability and measures how to build urban sustainability. Through combining regional environmental with economic ability along the coastal area...

Social sensing of urban land use based on analysis of Twitter users' mobility patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Soliman, Aiman; Soltani, Kiumars; Yin, Junjun; Padmanabhan, Anand; Wang, Shaowen

2017-01-01

A number of recent studies showed that digital footprints around built environments, such as geo-located tweets, are promising data sources for characterizing urban land use. However, challenges for achieving this purpose exist due to the volume and unstructured nature of geo-located social media. Previous studies focused on analyzing Twitter data collectively resulting in coarse resolution maps of urban land use. We argue that the complex spatial structure of a large collection of tweets, when viewed through the lens of individual-level human mobility patterns, can be simplified to a series of key locations for each user, which could be used to characterize urban land use at a higher spatial resolution. Contingent issues that could affect our approach, such as Twitter users' biases and tendencies at locations where they tweet the most, were systematically investigated using 39 million geo-located Tweets and two independent datasets of the City of Chicago: 1) travel survey and 2) parcel-level land use map. Our results support that the majority of Twitter users show a preferential return, where their digital traces are clustered around a few key locations. However, we did not find a general relation among users between the ranks of locations for an individual-based on the density of tweets-and their land use types. On the contrary, temporal patterns of tweeting at key locations were found to be coherent among the majority of users and significantly associated with land use types of these locations. Furthermore, we used these temporal patterns to classify key locations into generic land use types with an overall classification accuracy of 0.78. The contribution of our research is twofold: a novel approach to resolving land use types at a higher resolution, and in-depth understanding of Twitter users' location-related and temporal biases, promising to benefit human mobility and urban studies in general.

Social sensing of urban land use based on analysis of Twitter users’ mobility patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Soltani, Kiumars; Yin, Junjun; Padmanabhan, Anand; Wang, Shaowen

2017-01-01

A number of recent studies showed that digital footprints around built environments, such as geo-located tweets, are promising data sources for characterizing urban land use. However, challenges for achieving this purpose exist due to the volume and unstructured nature of geo-located social media. Previous studies focused on analyzing Twitter data collectively resulting in coarse resolution maps of urban land use. We argue that the complex spatial structure of a large collection of tweets, when viewed through the lens of individual-level human mobility patterns, can be simplified to a series of key locations for each user, which could be used to characterize urban land use at a higher spatial resolution. Contingent issues that could affect our approach, such as Twitter users’ biases and tendencies at locations where they tweet the most, were systematically investigated using 39 million geo-located Tweets and two independent datasets of the City of Chicago: 1) travel survey and 2) parcel-level land use map. Our results support that the majority of Twitter users show a preferential return, where their digital traces are clustered around a few key locations. However, we did not find a general relation among users between the ranks of locations for an individual—based on the density of tweets—and their land use types. On the contrary, temporal patterns of tweeting at key locations were found to be coherent among the majority of users and significantly associated with land use types of these locations. Furthermore, we used these temporal patterns to classify key locations into generic land use types with an overall classification accuracy of 0.78. The contribution of our research is twofold: a novel approach to resolving land use types at a higher resolution, and in-depth understanding of Twitter users’ location-related and temporal biases, promising to benefit human mobility and urban studies in general. PMID:28723936

Generative electronic background music system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mazurowski, Lukasz [Faculty of Computer Science, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Zolnierska Street 49, Szczecin, PL (Poland)

2015-03-10

In this short paper-extended abstract the new approach to generation of electronic background music has been presented. The Generative Electronic Background Music System (GEBMS) has been located between other related approaches within the musical algorithm positioning framework proposed by Woller et al. The music composition process is performed by a number of mini-models parameterized by further described properties. The mini-models generate fragments of musical patterns used in output composition. Musical pattern and output generation are controlled by container for the mini-models - a host-model. General mechanism has been presented including the example of the synthesized output compositions.

Generative electronic background music system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mazurowski, Lukasz

2015-01-01

In this short paper-extended abstract the new approach to generation of electronic background music has been presented. The Generative Electronic Background Music System (GEBMS) has been located between other related approaches within the musical algorithm positioning framework proposed by Woller et al. The music composition process is performed by a number of mini-models parameterized by further described properties. The mini-models generate fragments of musical patterns used in output composition. Musical pattern and output generation are controlled by container for the mini-models - a host-model. General mechanism has been presented including the example of the synthesized output compositions

Location, Location, Location.

Science.gov (United States)

Finucan, Karen

2000-01-01

Discusses how good schools have drawing power in revitalizing both urban and rural communities and increasing property values. Several examples of the value of school renovation and its impact on the surrounding community and enrollment are discussed, including descriptions of planning and financing renovation efforts by some communities. (GR)

An Urban-Spatial Analysis of the Women in the Informal Sectors of Greater Guwahati City of Assam, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zona Bhuyan

2013-05-01

Full Text Available This article reflects the use of urban space by women in urban informal sectors in the city of Guwahati located in North East India. The population influx from across the borders in the aftermath of the partition has huge implications both on polity and on economy of the northeastern states in general and Assam in particular.  Importantly, the urban informal sectors have a sizeable share in terms of its significant contributions towards Gross Domestic Product (GDP as well as generation of employment opportunities largely. Using a feminist perspective, the research is an attempt to investigate the engagement of women in the informal sector in greater Guwahati. Research findings reveal that the occupations of the women workers are location-specific, that is, the manufacturing sectors (textiles, food preparation, printing and skilled service are mainly home/shop based production (fixed locations whereas the service sectors (leisure, caring, elementary construction, elementary sales and cleaning occupation operate at variable locations (construction sites, street pavements, marketplaces and other various locations. Further analysis shows that the informal sector is highly demand dependent and such demands are in the central business areas of the city, therefore informal sector services (skilled services and elementary services are found to be located in and around the central areas of Guwahati city. Women operators in the informal sector are attracted to the central business district because of the many advantages that it enjoys relative to other parts of a city. The paper concludes by calling on policy makers and physical planning agencies to evolve more pragmatic strategies for urban development matters in order that urban informal sector activities can be integrated into urban development plans. Finally, further research is called for on how urban planners could redesign the urban space with appropriate consideration of the informal sector

Environmental conflicts in urban regeneration areas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aunsborg, Christian; Sørensen, Michael Tophøj

2006-01-01

in more land-based freight and less shipping, amalgamation of industries and re-location due to new localization parameters. As the case may be, these structural alterations bring about more or less abandoned and worn-down areas. Typically, the areas are located centrally in the towns. With that......, they hold a substantial need for redevelopment and revitalization from an urban planning and management point of view as well as a considerable development potential, as the areas generally offer an attractive possibility for building new housing, offices and other white-collar workplaces. However......, redevelopment of these older business areas faces great challenges; especially compared to urban (re)development in general. The property structure and ownerships are often complex and need re-composition to meet new land uses, the soil may be polluted from former activities implying large clearing costs...

Pigeons Exhibit Contextual Cueing to Both Simple and Complex Backgrounds

Science.gov (United States)

Wasserman, Edward A.; Teng, Yuejia; Castro, Leyre

2014-01-01

Repeated pairings of a particular visual context with a specific location of a target stimulus facilitate target search in humans. We explored an animal model of this contextual cueing effect using a novel Cueing-Miscueing design. Pigeons had to peck a target which could appear in one of four possible locations on four possible color backgrounds or four possible color photographs of real-world scenes. On 80% of the trials, each of the contexts was uniquely paired with one of the target locations; on the other 20% of the trials, each of the contexts was randomly paired with the remaining target locations. Pigeons came to exhibit robust contextual cueing when the context preceded the target by 2 s, with reaction times to the target being shorter on correctly-cued trials than on incorrectly-cued trials. Contextual cueing proved to be more robust with photographic backgrounds than with uniformly colored backgrounds. In addition, during the context-target delay, pigeons predominately pecked toward the location of the upcoming target, suggesting that attentional guidance contributes to contextual cueing. These findings confirm the effectiveness of animal models of contextual cueing and underscore the important part played by associative learning in producing the effect. PMID:24491468

A GIS based screening tool for locating and ranking of suitable stormwater harvesting sites in urban areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Inamdar, P M; Cook, S; Sharma, A K; Corby, N; O'Connor, J; Perera, B J C

2013-10-15

There is the need to re-configure current urban water systems to achieve the objective of sustainable water sensitive cities. Stormwater represents a valuable alternative urban water source to reduce pressure on fresh water resources, and to mitigate the environmental impact of urban stormwater runoff. The selection of suitable urban stormwater harvesting sites is generally based on the judgement of water planners, who are faced with the challenge of considering multiple technical and socio-economic factors that influence the site suitability. To address this challenge, the present study developed a robust GIS based screening methodology for identifying potentially suitable stormwater harvesting sites in urban areas as a first pass for then more detailed investigation. The study initially evaluated suitability based on the match between harvestable runoff and demand through a concept of accumulated catchments. Drainage outlets of these accumulated catchments were considered as potential stormwater harvesting sites. These sites were screened and ranked under screening parameters namely demand, ratio of runoff to demand and weighted demand distance. The methodology described in this paper was successfully applied to a case study in Melbourne, Australia in collaboration with the local water utility. The methodology was found to be effective in supporting the selection of priority sites for stormwater harvesting schemes, as it provided the basis to identify, short-list and rank sites for further detailed investigation. The rapid identification of suitable sites for stormwater harvesting can assist planners in prioritising schemes in areas that will have the most impact on reducing potable water demand. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The spaces of urban economic geographies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kalsø Hansen, Høgni; Winther, Lars

2007-01-01

The paper focuses on the transformation of the industrial structure and the location dynamics on the edge of the metropolitan region of Copenhagen with the aim of explaining the rise of new spaces in the urban economic geography. The main concern of the paper is the role the transformation...... of Copenhagen. The recent changes in the economic geographies of the outer city of Copenhagen are used as a launch pad for discussing the theoretical and analytical challenges in understanding the industrial change in new urban forms....

Urban Rural Comparisons of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Burden among Adolescent Girls in a Hospital Setting in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Swetha Balaji

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS is a multifaceted disorder characterized by varying clinical presentations. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine urban and rural differences in the burden of polycystic ovarian syndrome among Indian adolescent females aged 12 to 19 years. Methods. A pilot cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of one month (August-September 2013 at Balaji Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. The final sample included 126 study participants located in various urban (50%, n=63 and rural (50%, n=63 settings. Information was gathered on sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics, clinical history, occurrence of acne and hirsutism, serum testosterone levels, obstetric history, family history of chronic diseases, menstrual history, physical activity, and dietary intake. Results. Eighteen percent of the participants were confirmed of having PCOS by recent guidelines of Rotterdam Consensus for adolescent diagnosis of PCOS (presence of all three elements. Majority of the individuals with PCOS had an average age of 16 (SD = 2 (P=.02 years with an average age of menarche 12 years (SD = 1. Conclusion. The proportion of participants diagnosed with PCOS was higher among urban participants in comparison to rural participants.

Controls on Biogeochemical Cycling of Nitrogen in Urban Ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Templer, P. H.; Hutyra, L.; Decina, S.; Rao, P.; Gately, C.

2017-12-01

Rates of atmospheric nitrogen deposition are declining across much of the United States and Europe, yet they remain substantially elevated by almost an order of magnitude over pre-industrial levels and occur as hot spots in urban areas. We measured atmospheric inputs of inorganic and organic nitrogen in multiple urban sites around the Boston Metropolitan area, finding that urban rates are substantially elevated compared to nearby rural areas, and that the range of these atmospheric inputs are as large as observed urban to rural gradients. Within the City of Boston, the variation in deposition fluxes can be explained by traffic intensity, vehicle emissions, and spring fertilizer additions. Throughfall inputs of nitrogen are approximately three times greater than bulk deposition inputs in the city, demonstrating that the urban canopy amplifies rates of nitrogen reaching the ground surface. Similar to many other metropolitan areas of the United States, the City of Boston has 25% canopy cover; however, 25% of this tree canopy is located above impervious pavement. Throughfall inputs that do not have soil below the canopy to retain excess nitrogen may lead to greater inputs of nitrogen into nearby waterways through runoff. Most measurement stations for atmospheric nitrogen deposition are intentionally located away from urban areas and point sources of pollution to capture regional trends. Our data show that a major consequence of this network design is that hotspots of nitrogen deposition and runoff into urban and coastal waterways is likely underestimated to a significant degree. A more complete determination of atmospheric nitrogen deposition and its fate in urban ecosystems is critical for closing regional nitrogen budgets and for improving our understanding of biogeochemical nitrogen cycling across multiple spatial scales.

Benefits of donkeys in rural and urban areas in northwest Nigeria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hassan, M.R.; Steenstra, F.A.; Udo, H.M.J.

2013-01-01

The objective of this study is to explore the benefits of donkeys for rural and urban smallholder farmers in northwest Nigeria. We visited 112 smallholder donkey farmers located in rural and urban areas from four states in northwest Nigeriathrough four focus group meetings, interviews with

Ecology in Urban Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Letitia K.; Ryan, Michael

In this course guide to the teaching of urban ecology, six learning activities on the following topics are outlined: (1) city location and growth; (2) an in-depth study of New Orleans; (3) city shape and structure; (4) size and spacing of cities; (5) cities with special functions; (6) local community study. Educational objectives for each activity…

The impact of human activities in soils and sediments on urban and peri-urban areas

Science.gov (United States)

Horváth, Adrienn; Szita, Renáta; Bidló, András; Gribovszki, Zoltán

2017-04-01

In this current research we would like to detect the amount of the differences between the natural, the suburb and the urban areas. The aim of the investigation was to determine the impact of human activities on urban and peri-urban soils of Sopron. 72 urban soil samples were collected on 6 sub-catchments for analysing the background pollution of Rák Creek in Sopron. After the analysis of chemical and physical properties of urban soil samples, two element fractions - the total (HNO3+H2O2-extractable) and the available NH4-acetate+EDTA-extractable - were used for element determination. Toxic elements were measured by ICP-OES in the urban soils and the sediments as well. in case of sediment samples from thalweg and dead region. That were collected from the bank of the Rák creek at 6 sampling points to calculate enrichment factors to assess the possible harmful effects of toxic metals. The field and laboratory data were processed using a GIS softver DigiTerraMap. Six elements were selected for analyses Co, Cd, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, which are prominent in urban soils. Statistical analysis was carried out with Microsoft Office Excel 2003, STATISTICA 11 and R Studio. C2 program was used for the distribution of toxic elements. Based on results e.g. pH, etc., there were definite differences between natural HAZ, BAN, semi-natural HAJNAL and urbanized FASOR, GYORI, TESCO areas and significant differences in toxic element distribution as well. The toxic elements of sediment showed the following tendency: Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni = Co. The Co and the Ni values were lower than the natural background limits. The Cutotal exceeded the first interventional pollution limit > 75 mg.kg-1 and the available Zn and Pb were higher than the suggested interventional pollution limits Znavailable >40 mg.kg-1; Pbavailable >25 mg.kg-1 at GYORI sub-catchment. The EF values were generally higher in dead region than in thalweg except of GYORI point. Lead had the highest EF values between the five metals

Chemical composition and source apportionment of PM10 at an urban background site in a high-altitude Latin American megacity (Bogota, Colombia).

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Omar; Sánchez de la Campa, A M; Amato, Fulvio; Catacolí, Ruth A; Rojas, Néstor Y; de la Rosa, Jesús

2018-02-01

Bogota registers frequent episodes of poor air quality from high PM 10 concentrations. It is one of the main Latin American megacities, located at 2600 m in the tropical Andes, but there is insufficient data on PM 10 source contribution. A characterization of the chemical composition and the source apportionment of PM 10 at an urban background site in Bogota was carried out in this study. Daily samples were collected from June 2015 to May 2016 (a total of 311 samples). Organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), water soluble compounds (SO 4 2- , Cl - , NO 3 - , NH 4 + ), major elements (Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, Na, K, P) and trace metals (V, Cd, Pb, Sr, Ba, among others) were analyzed. The results were interpreted in terms of their variability during the rainy season (RS) and the dry season (DS). The data obtained revealed that the carbonaceous fraction (∼51%) and mineral dust (23%) were the main PM 10 components, followed by others (15%), Secondary Inorganic Compounds (SIC) (11%) and sea salt (0.4%). The average concentrations of soil, SIC and OC were higher during RS than DS. However, peak values were observed during the DS due to photochemical activity and forest fires. Although trace metals represented <1% of PM 10 , high concentrations of toxic elements such as Pb and Sb on RS, and Cu on DS, were obtained. By using a PMF model, six factors were identified (∼96% PM 10 ) including fugitive dust, road dust, metal processing, secondary PM, vehicles exhaust and industrial emissions. Traffic (exhaust emissions + road dust) was the major PM 10 source, accounting for ∼50% of the PM 10 . The results provided novel data about PM 10 chemical composition, its sources and its seasonal variability during the year, which can help the local government to define control strategies for the main emission sources during the most critical periods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dental caries and the associated factors influencing it in tribal, suburban and urban school children of Tamil Nadu, India: a cross sectional study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Baby John

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background. The study was planned to assess the prevalence of dental caries among tribal, suburban and urban children of Tiruchengode and Erode of Tamil Nadu state, India. The objective of the study was to assess the association of dental caries with family background, dental service availability, transportation and knowledge on preventive dental measures among these three groups. Design and methods. Cross-sectional study. A total of 1028 school children in the age range of 9-12 years from various government schools located in Palamalai and Kolli Hills (tribal, Tiruchengode (suburban and Erode (urban, Tamil Nadu, were included in the study. Decayed, filled, and missing teeth (DMFT, decayed and filled teeth (dft and Significant Caries Index were recorded. A specially prepared questionnaire was used to record all the data regarding oral hygiene practices, socioeconomic background, dental treatment availability, parent’s education level were used for the study. ANOVA t-test and post hoc test were used for comparing quantitative variables between the 3 subgroups. Results. The tribal school children had 89.3% caries prevalence, where as it was 77% in suburban and 55% in urban school children. The mean DMFT score among tribal, suburban and urban school children were statistically significant different (P=0.001 between the three groups. There was a highly significant difference (P=0.001 in the mean DMFT score based on brushing frequency. There was a statistically significant difference (P=0.018 in the mean DMFT scores in the urban group based on the mothers education status. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean DMFT scores based on the presence or absence of television in their house and the parents’ income. Conclusions. Oral hygiene practices, dietary habits and access to dental care services played an important role in prevalence of dental caries. It was observed that the socioeconomic status, parents’ educational

Assessing the Cooling Benefits of Tree Shade by an Outdoor Urban Physical Scale Model at Tempe, AZ

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qunshan Zhao

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Urban green infrastructure, especially shade trees, offers benefits to the urban residential environment by mitigating direct incoming solar radiation on building facades, particularly in hot settings. Understanding the impact of different tree locations and arrangements around residential properties has the potential to maximize cooling and can ultimately guide urban planners, designers, and homeowners on how to create the most sustainable urban environment. This research measures the cooling effect of tree shade on building facades through an outdoor urban physical scale model. The physical scale model is a simulated neighborhood consisting of an array of concrete cubes to represent houses with identical artificial trees. We tested and compared 10 different tree densities, locations, and arrangement scenarios in the physical scale model. The experimental results show that a single tree located at the southeast of the building can provide up to 2.3 °C hourly cooling benefits to east facade of the building. A two-tree cluster arrangement provides more cooling benefits (up to 6.6 °C hourly cooling benefits to the central facade when trees are located near the south and southeast sides of the building. The research results confirm the cooling benefits of tree shade and the importance of wisely designing tree locations and arrangements in the built environment.

Preferred practice location at medical school commencement strongly determines graduates' rural preferences and work locations.

Science.gov (United States)

Herd, Marie S; Bulsara, Max K; Jones, Michael P; Mak, Donna B

2017-02-01

To identify factors influencing whether Australian medical graduates prefer to, or actually, work rurally. Secondary analysis of longitudinal data from Medical Schools Outcomes Database (MSOD) using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Twenty Australian medical schools. Australian or New Zealand citizens and Australian permanent residents who completed MSOD questionnaires between 2006 and 2013. Preferred and actual work locations 1 (PGY1) and 3 (PGY3) years postgraduation. Of 20 784 participants, 4028 completed a PGY1 or PGY3 questionnaire. Self-reported preference for rural practice location at medical school commencement was the most consistent independent predictor of whether a graduate would have a rural location preference at PGY1 (odds ratio (OR) 6.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.91-7.51) and PGY3 (OR 7.95, 95% CI 4.93-12.84), and work rurally during PGY1 (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.01-1.88) and PGY3 (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.30-2.64). The effect of preferred practice location at medical school commencement is independent of, and enhances the effect of, rural background. Graduates of graduate-entry programs or with dependent children were less likely to have worked rurally during PGY1 and PGY3 respectively. The most consistent factor associated with rural preferences and work location was students' preferred location of practice at medical school commencement; this association is independent of, and enhances the effect of, rural background. Better understanding of what determines rural preference at medical school commencement and its influence on rural workplace outcomes beyond PGY3 is required to inform Australian medical school selection policies and rural health curricula. © 2016 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

Variation in photosynthesis and stomatal conductance among red maple (Acer rubrum) urban planted cultivars and wildtype trees in the southeastern United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Lahr, Eleanor C; Dunn, Robert R; Frank, Steven D

2018-01-01

Photosynthesis is a fundamental process that trees perform over fluctuating environmental conditions. This study of red maple (Acer rubrum L.) characterizes photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and water use efficiency in planted cultivars relative to wildtype trees. Red maple is common in cities, yet there is little understanding of how physiological processes affect the long-term growth, condition, and ecosystem services provided by urban trees. In the first year of our study, we measured leaf-level gas exchange and performed short-term temperature curves on urban planted cultivars and on suburban and rural wildtype trees. In the second year, we compared urban planted cultivars and urban wildtype trees. In the first year, urban planted trees had higher maximum rates of photosynthesis and higher overall rates of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance throughout the summer, relative to suburban or rural wildtype trees. Urban planted trees again had higher maximum rates of photosynthesis in the second year. However, urban wildtype trees had higher water use efficiency as air temperatures increased and similar overall rates of photosynthesis, relative to cultivars, in mid and late summer. Our results show that physiological differences between cultivars and wildtype trees may relate to differences in their genetic background and their responses to local environmental conditions, contingent on the identity of the horticultural variety. Overall, our results suggest that wildtype trees should be considered for some urban locations, and our study is valuable in demonstrating how site type and tree type can inform tree planting strategies and improve long-term urban forest sustainability.

The Danish urban-rural gradient of allergic sensitization and disease in adults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elholm, G; Linneberg, A; Husemoen, L L N

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: The reported prevalence of allergic sensitization among children is lower in rural areas than in urban areas of the world. The aim was to investigate the urban-rural differences of allergic sensitization to inhalant allergens in adults depending on childhood exposure living in an indu......BACKGROUND: The reported prevalence of allergic sensitization among children is lower in rural areas than in urban areas of the world. The aim was to investigate the urban-rural differences of allergic sensitization to inhalant allergens in adults depending on childhood exposure living...... in an industrialized country as Denmark. METHODS: A total of 1236 male participants of 30-40 years of age recruited from two epidemiological studies were divided into four groups with regard to place of upbringing; city, town, rural area and farm. Allergic sensitization was assessed by skin prick tests (SPTs) to 10...... sensitization and specific allergen sensitization in adults depending on their childhood exposure. In this highly homogenous western population, exposure to a less urbanized childhood was associated with lower risk of allergic sensitization and disease as an adult....

Mining human mobility in location-based social networks

CERN Document Server

Gao, Huiji

2015-01-01

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth of location-based social networking services, such as Foursquare and Facebook Places, which have attracted an increasing number of users and greatly enriched their urban experience. Typical location-based social networking sites allow a user to ""check in"" at a real-world POI (point of interest, e.g., a hotel, restaurant, theater, etc.), leave tips toward the POI, and share the check-in with their online friends. The check-in action bridges the gap between real world and online social networks, resulting in a new type of social networks, namely l

Grass plants crop water consumption model in urban parks located ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

use

2011-12-14

Dec 14, 2011 ... parks located in three different climate zones of Turkey. E. Bayramoğlu1* and Ö. .... Many factors influence evapotranspiration. The most important ... sky is not covered in clouds) and daytime hours until sunset increase, both ...

Annual radiation background in Isfahan city

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tavakoli, Mohammad B.

2002-01-01

Measurement of environmental exposure is very important from different points of view. It is especially important for human health. It has been measured accurately in many countries. In Iran, it is also measured in some cities especially in high background areas such as Ramsar, but there is not any measurement in Isfahan. Measurement of background radiation in this study is performed using TLD method. The TLDs used are made from CaSO 4 :Dy, which is very sensitive. The locations under investigations in this research were 52 health centers distributed all around Isfahan city. Each TLD badge was put in a special plastic bag and left over the roofs of the selected health center for a month. The procedure was repeated for all 12 months of the year 1379(21 st March 2000 to 20 th March 2001). The results were used to obtain mean and SD in each month and at different places. The maximum and the minimum of obtained results for dose equivalent in different months and locations were 15.9x10 -2 and 6.5x10 -2 mSv. Obtained maximum and minimum of the means between all the locations were 10.5x10 -2 and 8.6x10 2 mSv for the whole year. Monthly mean and SD for Isfahan city for the whole year were 9.7x10 -2 and 1.5x10 -2 respectively therefore mean annual dose equivalent in Isfahan city is 1.16mSv. The results do not show any high background radiation area

Overview on urban and peri-urban agriculture: definition, impact on human health, constraints and policy issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang'ethe, E K; Grace, D; Randolph, T F

2007-11-01

To collate and synthesize current knowledge of components of urban agriculture (UA) with a thematic emphasis on human health impact and a geographic emphasis on East Africa. Data management followed a structured approach in which key issues were first identified and then studies selected through literature search and personal communication. Evidence-based principles. Urban agriculture is an important source of food security for urban dwellers in East Africa. Descriptors of UA are location, areas, activities, scale, products, destinations, stakeholders and motivation. Many zoonotic and food-borne diseases have been associated with UA but evidence on human health impact and management is lacking. Major constraints to UA are illegality and lack of access to input and market; policy options have been developed for overcoming these. Urban agriculture is an important activity and likely to remain so. Both positive and negative human health impacts are potentially important but more research is needed to understand these and set appropriate policy and support levels.

Place Mapping – transect walks in Arctic urban landscapes

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Peter Hemmersam

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article investigates how experimental forms of urban mapping can reveal the particularity of places in non-standard urban situations with the intention of moving beyond the reductivism of still-dominant modernist modes of mapping and associated forms of planning. In order to do so, it reports on the emergence of a methodology involving transect walks, with the purpose of mapping the peculiarities of cultural landscapes. The study is located in cities and communities in the Arctic that are undergoing rapid transformation and are in urgent need of new conceptual approaches capable of enabling future thinking and strategic action. The article specifically asks how such a methodology works to includes the ephemeral and emergent, but also digital, dimensions of urban landscapes, and results in a complex reflexive method of critically reading and writing, of moving and locating, of seeing and picturing place mapping.

Oxidative potential of size-fractionated atmospheric aerosol in urban and rural sites across Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Shafer, Martin M; Hemming, Jocelyn D C; Antkiewicz, Dagmara S; Schauer, James J

2016-07-18

In this study we applied several assays, an in vitro rat alveolar macrophage model, a chemical ROS probe (DTT, dithiothreitol), and cytokine induction (TNFα) to examine relationships between PM-induced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and PM composition, using a unique set of size-resolved PM samples obtained from urban and rural environments across Europe. From April-July 2012, we collected PM from roadside canyon, roadside motorway, and background urban sites in each of six European cities and from three rural sites spanning the continent. A Hi-Vol sampler was used to collect PM in three size classes (PM>7, PM7-3, PM3) and PM was characterized for total elements, and oxidative activity quantified in unfiltered and filtered PM extracts. We measured a remarkable uniformity in air concentrations of ROS and especially DTT activity across the continent. Only a 4-fold difference was documented for DTT across the urban sites and a similar variance was documented for ROS, implying that chemical drivers of oxidative activity are relatively similar between sites. The ROS and DTT specific activity was greater at urban background sites (and also rural sites) than at urban canyon locations. PM3 dominated the size distribution of both ROS activity (86% of total) and DTT activity (76% of total), reflecting both the large contribution of PM3 to total PM mass levels and importantly the higher specific oxidative activity of the PM3 in comparison with the larger particles. The soluble fraction of total activity was very high for DTT (94%) as well as for ROS (64%) in the PM3. However in the larger PM size fractions the contributions of the insoluble components became increasingly significant. The dominance of the insoluble PM drivers of activity was particularly evident in the TNFα data, where the insoluble contribution to cytokine production could be 100-fold greater than that from soluble components. ROS and DTT activity were strongly correlated in the PM3 (r = 0

Urban Pest Management. Selected Readings.

Science.gov (United States)

Cowles, Kathleen Letcher, Comp.; And Others

These readings provide basic background information on urban integrated pest management and the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs for the control of rodents, cockroaches, and head lice. IPM is a decision-making process for deciding if pest supprssion treatments are needed, when they should be initiated, where they should be…

Public private co-operation in urban regeneration investment planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jesper Ole; Larsen, Jacob Norvig

development. However, we believe that municipalities can become much better at attracting private investors and developers, partly because there is knowledge about the motives and backgrounds for the developers' engagement in the urban regeneration. Based on data from a number of case studies and interviews......Increasing renovation costs and ever more limited public funding for urban regeneration in combination with a political desire to stimulate the development of a sense of ownership in urban regeneration neighbourhoods has brought about a growing interest in attracting private sector funding...... with developers we argue that developers own networks are more likely to lead them to the urban regeneration areas, than knowledge of the urban regeneration itself. Also, the study reveals a mutual knowledge-gap between the municipal planners and developers; planners have limited knowledge of developers...

Experiences That Predict Early Career Teacher Commitment to and Retention in High-Poverty Urban Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Whipp, Joan L.; Geronime, Lara

2017-01-01

Correlation analysis was used to analyze what experiences before and during teacher preparation for 72 graduates of an urban teacher education program were associated with urban commitment, first job location, and retention in urban schools for 3 or more years. Binary logistic regression was then used to analyze whether urban K-12 schooling,…

Childhood leukemia and residential proximity to industrial and urban sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

García-Pérez, Javier; López-Abente, Gonzalo; Gómez-Barroso, Diana; Morales-Piga, Antonio; Pardo Romaguera, Elena; Tamayo, Ibon; Fernández-Navarro, Pablo

2015-01-01

Background: Few risk factors for the childhood leukemia are well established. While a small fraction of cases of childhood leukemia might be partially attributable to some diseases or ionizing radiation exposure, the role of industrial and urban pollution also needs to be assessed. Objectives: To ascertain the possible effect of residential proximity to both industrial and urban areas on childhood leukemia, taking into account industrial groups and toxic substances released. Methods: We conducted a population-based case–control study of childhood leukemia in Spain, covering 638 incident cases gathered from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors and for those Autonomous Regions with 100% coverage (period 1990-2011), and 13,188 controls, individually matched by year of birth, sex, and autonomous region of residence. Distances were computed from the respective subject’s residences to the 1068 industries and the 157 urban areas with ≥10,000 inhabitants, located in the study area. Using logistic regression, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for categories of distance to industrial and urban pollution sources were calculated, with adjustment for matching variables. Results: Excess risk of childhood leukemia was observed for children living near (≤2.5 km) industries (OR=1.31; 95%CI=1.03–1.67) – particularly glass and mineral fibers (OR=2.42; 95%CI=1.49–3.92), surface treatment using organic solvents (OR=1.87; 95%CI=1.24–2.83), galvanization (OR=1.86; 95%CI=1.07–3.21), production and processing of metals (OR=1.69; 95%CI=1.22–2.34), and surface treatment of metals (OR=1.62; 95%CI=1.22–2.15) – , and urban areas (OR=1.36; 95%CI=1.02–1.80). Conclusions: Our study furnishes some evidence that living in the proximity of industrial and urban sites may be a risk factor for childhood leukemia. - Highlights: • We studied proximity to both industrial and urban sites on childhood leukemia. • We conducted a case–control study in

Childhood leukemia and residential proximity to industrial and urban sites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

García-Pérez, Javier, E-mail: jgarcia@isciii.es [Cancer and Environmental Epidemiology Unit, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid (Spain); CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) (Spain); López-Abente, Gonzalo, E-mail: glabente@isciii.es [Cancer and Environmental Epidemiology Unit, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid (Spain); CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) (Spain); Gómez-Barroso, Diana, E-mail: dgomez@externos.isciii.es [CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) (Spain); National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid (Spain); Morales-Piga, Antonio, E-mail: amorales@isciii.es [Rare Disease Research Institute (IIER), Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid (Spain); Consortium for Biomedical Research in Rare Diseases (CIBERER), Madrid (Spain); Pardo Romaguera, Elena, E-mail: elena.pardo@uv.es [Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors (RETI-SEHOP), University of Valencia, Valencia (Spain); Tamayo, Ibon, E-mail: ibontama@gmail.com [Public Health Division of Gipuzkoa, BIODonostia Research Institute, Department of Health of the Regional Government of the Basque Country, Donostia (Spain); Fernández-Navarro, Pablo, E-mail: pfernandezn@isciii.es [Cancer and Environmental Epidemiology Unit, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid (Spain); CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) (Spain); and others

2015-07-15

Background: Few risk factors for the childhood leukemia are well established. While a small fraction of cases of childhood leukemia might be partially attributable to some diseases or ionizing radiation exposure, the role of industrial and urban pollution also needs to be assessed. Objectives: To ascertain the possible effect of residential proximity to both industrial and urban areas on childhood leukemia, taking into account industrial groups and toxic substances released. Methods: We conducted a population-based case–control study of childhood leukemia in Spain, covering 638 incident cases gathered from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors and for those Autonomous Regions with 100% coverage (period 1990-2011), and 13,188 controls, individually matched by year of birth, sex, and autonomous region of residence. Distances were computed from the respective subject’s residences to the 1068 industries and the 157 urban areas with ≥10,000 inhabitants, located in the study area. Using logistic regression, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for categories of distance to industrial and urban pollution sources were calculated, with adjustment for matching variables. Results: Excess risk of childhood leukemia was observed for children living near (≤2.5 km) industries (OR=1.31; 95%CI=1.03–1.67) – particularly glass and mineral fibers (OR=2.42; 95%CI=1.49–3.92), surface treatment using organic solvents (OR=1.87; 95%CI=1.24–2.83), galvanization (OR=1.86; 95%CI=1.07–3.21), production and processing of metals (OR=1.69; 95%CI=1.22–2.34), and surface treatment of metals (OR=1.62; 95%CI=1.22–2.15) – , and urban areas (OR=1.36; 95%CI=1.02–1.80). Conclusions: Our study furnishes some evidence that living in the proximity of industrial and urban sites may be a risk factor for childhood leukemia. - Highlights: • We studied proximity to both industrial and urban sites on childhood leukemia. • We conducted a case–control study in

Mixing states of aerosols over four environmentally distinct atmospheric regimes in Asia: coastal, urban, and industrial locations influenced by dust.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, S; Srivastava, Rohit

2016-06-01

Mixing can influence the optical, physical, and chemical characteristics of aerosols, which in turn can modify their life cycle and radiative effects. Assumptions on the mixing state can lead to uncertain estimates of aerosol radiative effects. To examine the effect of mixing on the aerosol characteristics, and their influence on radiative effects, aerosol mixing states are determined over four environmentally distinct locations (Karachi, Gwangju, Osaka, and Singapore) in Asia, an aerosol hot spot region, using measured spectral aerosol optical properties and optical properties model. Aerosol optical depth (AOD), single scattering albedo (SSA), and asymmetry parameter (g) exhibit spectral, spatial, and temporal variations. Aerosol mixing states exhibit large spatial and temporal variations consistent with aerosol characteristics and aerosol type over each location. External mixing of aerosol species is unable to reproduce measured SSA over Asia, thus providing a strong evidence that aerosols exist in mixed state. Mineral dust (MD) (core)-Black carbon (BC) (shell) is one of the most preferred aerosol mixing states. Over locations influenced by biomass burning aerosols, BC (core)-water soluble (WS, shell) is a preferred mixing state, while dust gets coated by anthropogenic aerosols (BC, WS) over urban regions influenced by dust. MD (core)-sea salt (shell) mixing is found over Gwangju corroborating the observations. Aerosol radiative forcing exhibits large seasonal and spatial variations consistent with features seen in aerosol optical properties and mixing states. TOA forcing is less negative/positive for external mixing scenario because of lower SSA. Aerosol radiative forcing in Karachi is a factor of 2 higher when compared to Gwangju, Osaka, and Singapore. The influence of g on aerosol radiative forcing is insignificant. Results emphasize that rather than prescribing one single aerosol mixing state in global climate models regionally and temporally varying aerosol

From Deficit to Asset: Locating Discursive Resistance in a Refugee-Background Student's Written and Oral Narrative

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Shawna; MacDonald, Michael T.

2017-01-01

This article examines how a refugee-background student of Somali Bantu heritage employs linguistic resources to make sense of his experience with forced migration, resettlement, and formal education. Much of the educational research on refugee-background students (and other groups of English learners) propagates a deficit orientation in which…

Increased prevalence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli in gulls sampled in southcentral Alaska is associated with urban environments

Science.gov (United States)

Atterby, Clara; Ramey, Andrew M.; Gustafsson Hall, Gabriel; Jarhult, Josef; Borjesson, Stefan; Bonnedahl, Jonas

2016-01-01

BackgroundAntibiotic-resistant bacteria pose challenges to healthcare delivery systems globally; however, limited information is available regarding the prevalence and spread of such bacteria in the environment. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in large-bodied gulls (Larus spp.) at urban and remote locations in Southcentral Alaska to gain inference into the association between antibiotic resistance in wildlife and anthropogenically influenced habitats.MethodsEscherichia coli was cultured (n=115 isolates) from fecal samples of gulls (n=160) collected from a remote location, Middleton Island, and a more urban setting on the Kenai Peninsula.ResultsScreening of E. coli from fecal samples collected from glaucous-winged gulls (Larus glaucescens) at Middleton Island revealed 8% of isolates were resistant to one or more antibiotics and 2% of the isolates were resistant to three or more antibiotics. In contrast, 55% of E. coli isolates derived from fecal samples collected from large-bodied gulls (i.e. glaucous, herring [Larus argentatus], and potentially hybrid gulls) on the Kenai Peninsula were resistant to one or more antibiotics and 22% were resistant to three or more antibiotics. In addition, total of 16% of the gull samples from locations on the Kenai Peninsula harbored extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli isolates (extended-spectrum beta-lactamases [ESBL] and plasmid-encoded AmpC [pAmpC]), in contrast to Middleton Island where no ESBL- or pAmpC-producing isolates were detected.ConclusionOur findings indicate that increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance is associated with urban environments in Southcentral Alaska and presumably influenced by anthropogenic impacts. Further investigation is warranted to assess how migratory birds may maintain and spread antimicrobial-resistant bacteria of relevance to human and animal health.

Time resolved aerosol monitoring in the urban centre of Soweto

Science.gov (United States)

Formenti, P.; Annegarn, H. J.; Piketh, S. J.

1998-03-01

A programme of aerosol sampling was conducted from 1982 to 1984 in the urban area of Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. The particulate matter (aerodynamic diameter source apportionment of crustal elements between coal smoke and traffic induced road dust, based on chemical elemental measurements. A novel technique is demonstrated for processing PIXE-derived time sequence elemental concentration vectors. Slowly varying background components have been extracted from sulphur and crustal aerosol components, using alternatively two digital filters: a moving minimum, and a moving average. The residuals of the crustal elements, assigned to locally generated aerosol components, were modelled using surrogate tracers: sulphur as a surrogate for coal smoke; and Pb as a surrogate for traffic activity. Results from this source apportionment revealed coal emissions contributed between 40% and 50% of the aerosol mineral matter, while 18-22% originated from road dust. Background aerosol, characteristic of the regional winter aerosol burden over the South African Highveld, was between 12% and 21%. Minor contributors identified included a manganese smelter, located 30 km from the sampling site, and informal trash burning, as the source of intermittent heavy metals (Cu, Zn). Elemental source profiles derived for these various sources are presented.

Rainfall-induced landslide vulnerability Assessment in urban area reflecting Urban structure and building characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Park, C.; Cho, M.; Lee, D.

2017-12-01

Landslide vulnerability assessment methodology of urban area is proposed with urban structure and building charateristics which can consider total damage cost of climate impacts. We used probabilistic analysis method for modeling rainfall-induced shallow landslide susceptibility by slope stability analysis and Monte Carlo simulations. And We combined debris flows with considering spatial movements under topographical condition and built environmental condition. Urban vulnerability of landslide is assessed by two categories: physical demages and urban structure aspect. Physical vulnerability is related to buildings, road, other ubran infra. Urban structure vulnerability is considered a function of the socio-economic factors, trigger factor of secondary damage, and preparedness level of the local government. An index-based model is developed to evaluate the life and indirect damage under landslide as well as the resilience ability against disasters. The analysis was performed in a geographic information system (GIS) environment because GIS can deal efficiently with a large volume of spatial data. The results of the landslide susceptibility assessment were compared with the landslide inventory, and the proposed approach demonstrated good predictive performance. The general trend found in this study indicates that the higher population density areas under a weaker fiscal condition that are located at the downstream of mountainous areas are more vulnerable than the areas in opposite conditions.

Spatializing 6,000 years of global urbanization from 3700 BC to AD 2000

Science.gov (United States)

Reba, Meredith; Reitsma, Femke; Seto, Karen C.

2016-06-01

How were cities distributed globally in the past? How many people lived in these cities? How did cities influence their local and regional environments? In order to understand the current era of urbanization, we must understand long-term historical urbanization trends and patterns. However, to date there is no comprehensive record of spatially explicit, historic, city-level population data at the global scale. Here, we developed the first spatially explicit dataset of urban settlements from 3700 BC to AD 2000, by digitizing, transcribing, and geocoding historical, archaeological, and census-based urban population data previously published in tabular form by Chandler and Modelski. The dataset creation process also required data cleaning and harmonization procedures to make the data internally consistent. Additionally, we created a reliability ranking for each geocoded location to assess the geographic uncertainty of each data point. The dataset provides the first spatially explicit archive of the location and size of urban populations over the last 6,000 years and can contribute to an improved understanding of contemporary and historical urbanization trends.

Location Contexts of User Check-Ins to Model Urban Geo Life-Style Patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, Samiul; Ukkusuri, Satish V.

2015-01-01

Geo-location data from social media offers us information, in new ways, to understand people's attitudes and interests through their activity choices. In this paper, we explore the idea of inferring individual life-style patterns from activity-location choices revealed in social media. We present a model to understand life-style patterns using the contextual information (e. g. location categories) of user check-ins. Probabilistic topic models are developed to infer individual geo life-style patterns from two perspectives: i) to characterize the patterns of user interests to different types of places and ii) to characterize the patterns of user visits to different neighborhoods. The method is applied to a dataset of Foursquare check-ins of the users from New York City. The co-existence of several location contexts and the corresponding probabilities in a given pattern provide useful information about user interests and choices. It is found that geo life-style patterns have similar items—either nearby neighborhoods or similar location categories. The semantic and geographic proximity of the items in a pattern reflects the hidden regularity in user preferences and location choice behavior. PMID:25970430

Quantifying the Contribution of Urban-Industrial Efficiency and Symbiosis to Deep Decarbonization: Impact of 637 Chinese Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Ramaswami, A.; Tong, K.; Fang, A.; Lal, R.; Nagpure, A.; Li, Y.; Yu, H.; Jiang, D.; Russell, A. G.; Shi, L.; Chertow, M.; Wang, Y.; Wang, S.

2016-12-01

Urban activities in China contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to local air pollution-related health risks. Co-location analysis can help inform the potential for energy- and material-exchanges across homes, businesses, infrastructure and industries co-located in cities. Such co-location dependent urban-industrial symbiosis strategies offer a new pathway toward urban energy efficiency and health that have not previously been quantified. Key examples includes the use of waste industrial heat in other co-located industries, and in residential-commercial district heating-cooling systems of cities. To quantify the impact of these strategies: (1) We develop a new data-set of 637 Chinese cities to assess the potential for efficiency and symbiosis across co-located homes, businesses, industries and the energy and construction sectors in the different cities. (2) A multi-scalar urban systems model quantifies trans-boundary CO2 impacts as well as local health benefits of these uniquely urban, co-location-dependent strategies. (3) CO2 impacts are aggregated across the 637 Chinese cities (home to 701 million people) to quantify national CO2 mitigation potential. (4) The local health benefits are modeled specific to each city and mapped geospatially to identify areas where co-benefits between GHG mitigation and health are maximized. Results: A first order conservative analysis of co-location dependent urban symbiosis indicates potential for reducing 6% of China's national total CO2 emissions in a relatively short time period, yielding a new pathway not previously considered in China's energy futures models. The magnitude of these reductions (6%) was similar in magnitude to sector specific industrial, power sector and buildings efficiency strategeies that together contributed 9% CO2 reduction aggregated across the nation. CO2 reductions mapped to the 637 cities ranged from 40,000 premature deaths (avoided) across all cities. These results

Source apportionment of PM10 and PM2.5 in major urban Greek agglomerations using a hybrid source-receptor modeling process.

Science.gov (United States)

Argyropoulos, G; Samara, C; Diapouli, E; Eleftheriadis, K; Papaoikonomou, K; Kungolos, A

2017-12-01

A hybrid source-receptor modeling process was assembled, to apportion and infer source locations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 in three heavily-impacted urban areas of Greece, during the warm period of 2011, and the cold period of 2012. The assembled process involved application of an advanced computational procedure, the so-called Robotic Chemical Mass Balance (RCMB) model. Source locations were inferred using two well-established probability functions: (a) the Conditional Probability Function (CPF), to correlate the output of RCMB with local wind directional data, and (b) the Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF), to correlate the output of RCMB with 72h air-mass back-trajectories, arriving at the receptor sites, during sampling. Regarding CPF, a higher-level conditional probability function was defined as well, from the common locus of CPF sectors derived for neighboring receptor sites. With respect to PSCF, a non-parametric bootstrapping method was applied to discriminate the statistically significant values. RCMB modeling showed that resuspended dust is actually one of the main barriers for attaining the European Union (EU) limit values in Mediterranean urban agglomerations, where the drier climate favors build-up. The shift in the energy mix of Greece (caused by the economic recession) was also evidenced, since biomass burning was found to contribute more significantly to the sampling sites belonging to the coldest climatic zone, particularly during the cold period. The CPF analysis showed that short-range transport of anthropogenic emissions from urban traffic to urban background sites was very likely to have occurred, within all the examined urban agglomerations. The PSCF analysis confirmed that long-range transport of primary and/or secondary aerosols may indeed be possible, even from distances over 1000km away from study areas. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Characterization Urban Heat Island Effect and Modelling of Secondary Pollutant Formations at Urban Hotspots

Science.gov (United States)

Undi, G. S. N. V. K. S. N. S.

2017-12-01

More than 60 percent of the world population is living the urban zones by 2020. This socio of economic transformations will bring considerable changes to the ambient atmosphere. More than 70 percent of the air pollutants in the urban hotspots are from vehicular emissions. in the urban hotspots. In the urban hotspots, the meteorological and dispersion conditions will have different characteristics than in surrounding rural areas. Reactive pollutants transformations are drastically influenced by the local meteorological conditions. The complexity of urban structure alters the pollutants dispersion in the hotspots. This relationship between urban meteorology and air pollution is an important aspect of consideration. In the atmosphere, drastic changes have been noticed from micro to regional and global scales. However, the characteristics of air pollutant emissions vary with time and space, favorable dispersion conditions transport them from local to regional scale. In the present study, the impact of land cover change on Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) has been characterized by considering the three different zones with varying land use patterns. An attempt has been made to estimate the impact of UHI on secondary pollutants (O3) transformations. Envi-Met model has been used to characterize the UHI intensity for the selected zones. Meteorological and air quality measurements were carried out at the selected locations. The diurnal variations of Ozone (O3) concentration for three zones are correlated with the UHI intensity. And the monitoring and model results of O3 concentrations are in good agreement. It is observed from the obtained model results that the metrological parameters influence on local air quality is significant in urban zones.

Influence of Music on the Behaviors of Crowd in Urban Open Public Spaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Qi; Zhao, Tingting; Kang, Jian

2018-01-01

Sound environment plays an important role in urban open spaces, yet studies on the effects of perception of the sound environment on crowd behaviors have been limited. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore how music, which is considered an important soundscape element, affects crowd behaviors in urban open spaces. On-site observations were performed at a 100 m × 70 m urban leisure square in Harbin, China. Typical music was used to study the effects of perception of the sound environment on crowd behaviors; then, these behaviors were classified into movement (passing by and walking around) and non-movement behaviors (sitting). The results show that the path of passing by in an urban leisure square with music was more centralized than without music. Without music, 8.3% of people passing by walked near the edge of the square, whereas with music, this percentage was zero. In terms of the speed of passing by behavior, no significant difference was observed with the presence or absence of background music. Regarding the effect of music on walking around behavior in the square, the mean area and perimeter when background music was played were smaller than without background music. The mean speed of those exhibiting walking around behavior with background music in the square was 0.296 m/s slower than when no background music was played. For those exhibiting sitting behavior, when background music was not present, crowd density showed no variation based on the distance from the sound source. When music was present, it was observed that as the distance from the sound source increased, crowd density of those sitting behavior decreased accordingly.

Capturing daily urban rhythms: the use of location aware technologies

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Krygsman, S

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Daily activities and travel often follow a natural rhythm or flow that is structured by the fixed spatial and temporal constraints. The work and home location act as pegs that define individual’s activity space and it is within these spaces...

Polychlorinated biphenyls in surface soil in urban and background areas of Mongolia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mamontova, Elena A.; Mamontov, Alexander A.; Tarasova, Eugenia N.; Kuzmin, Mikhail I.; Ganchimeg, Darmaa; Khomutova, Marina Yu.; Gombosuren, Odontuya; Ganjuurjav, Erdenebayasgalan

2013-01-01

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured in soil in some industrial towns (Ulaanbaatar, Suhbaatar, Erdenet, Darhan, Tsetserleg, Hovd, Ulaangom, Altay, Bayanhongor, Arvayheer, Saynshand, Choybalsan) and in background and rural areas of Mongolia. The average sum of all investigated PCB congeners in soil of Mongolia comes to 7.4 ng/g dry weight (DW) and varies from 0.53 ng/g DW till 114 ng/g DW. PCB levels in soil from towns are significantly higher than those in soil from background and rural areas. The PCB homological composition in soil sampled in highly-PCB-polluted sites is similar to the PCB homological pattern in Sovol and Aroclor 1254. Significant correlation between soil organic carbon and low chlorinated PCB both for towns and background sites was found. Significant differences in PCB means in soil in different natural zones were found. -- Highlights: •First study to measure PCBs in surface soil sampled throughout Mongolia. •The PCB patterns in polluted soil were similar to those in Sovol or Aroclor 1254. •Significant differences in PCB means in soil in different natural zones were found. -- Polychlorinated biphenyls were measured in soils throughout Mongolia

A new technique for measuring aerosols with moonlight observations and a sky background model

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Amy; Noll, Stefan; Kausch, Wolfgang; Kimeswenger, Stefan; Szyszka, Ceszary; Unterguggenberger, Stefanie

2014-05-01

There have been an ample number of studies on aerosols in urban, daylight conditions, but few for remote, nocturnal aerosols. We have developed a new technique for investigating such aerosols using our sky background model and astronomical observations. With a dedicated observing proposal we have successfully tested this technique for nocturnal, remote aerosol studies. This technique relies on three requirements: (a) sky background model, (b) observations taken with scattered moonlight, and (c) spectrophotometric standard star observations for flux calibrations. The sky background model was developed for the European Southern Observatory and is optimized for the Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama desert in Chile. This is a remote location with almost no urban aerosols. It is well suited for studying remote background aerosols that are normally difficult to detect. Our sky background model has an uncertainty of around 20 percent and the scattered moonlight portion is even more accurate. The last two requirements are having astronomical observations with moonlight and of standard stars at different airmasses, all during the same night. We had a dedicated observing proposal at Cerro Paranal with the instrument X-Shooter to use as a case study for this method. X-Shooter is a medium resolution, echelle spectrograph which covers the wavelengths from 0.3 to 2.5 micrometers. We observed plain sky at six different distances (7, 13, 20, 45, 90, and 110 degrees) to the Moon for three different Moon phases (between full and half). Also direct observations of spectrophotometric standard stars were taken at two different airmasses for each night to measure the extinction curve via the Langley method. This is an ideal data set for testing this technique. The underlying assumption is that all components, other than the atmospheric conditions (specifically aerosols and airglow), can be calculated with the model for the given observing parameters. The scattered

The PM2.5 Fine Particle Background Network of the German Meteorological Service-First Results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Uwe Kaminski

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Since 2009, the measurement of the background concentration of the fine particle fraction has been a part of the climate-monitoring program of the German Meteorological Service (DWD. These particles are of high health relevance as a critical air pollutant affecting processes like the scattering and absorption of solar radiation and influencing cloud formation and visibility. At 12 weather stations, the coarse (2.5 to 10 l m and the fine particle fractions (PM2.5 are measured by means of passive and active samplers. First results are presented for the mass concentrations of coarse and fine particles as well as for the black carbon (BC content and the concentration of certain inorganic ions of fine particles. There is not only a seasonal correlation between the fraction of fine and coarse particles, but also a correlation with the location (urban background or rural background. With the help of light microscopy, coarse particles can be differentiated for a geogenic (predominantly wind blown mineral and sea salt particles of natural origin and road abrasion and for an anthropogenic opaque component (combustion residues, e.g. fly ash and non-exhaust vehicle emissions, e.g. abrasion particles of brakes and tires. Measuring the fine fraction and the coarse fraction separately instead of PM10 allows for a better source allocation and thus is a more appropriate method for the improvement of the air quality in, e.g. low emission zones.

Urban Innovation through Co-Design Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lissandrello, Enza; Morelli, Nicola; Schillaci, Domenico

2018-01-01

-2020), that addresses the issue of behavioral change towards (more) sustainable mobility lifestyle in EU cities. The paper frames the MUV method through the combination of theories on collaborative urban planning and participatory design with a background rooted on governance of public participation, as the interplay...

GIS-based locational analysis of petrol filling stations in Kaduna ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Location of environmental sensitive commercial and service activities in densely populated urban areas are guided by planning principles and standards, expressed in either structure plans or land use development plans. There has been an upsurge of filling stations within Kaduna metropolis thereby raising the questions ...

Urban Flooding: A Social and Environmental Issue

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciana Travassos

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Investigate the introduction of environmental considerations in public policy and urban interventions are complex. This article aims to observe the parameters that have been established in plans and projects for the management of storm and river water in urban watercourses located in a variety of cities, looking to raise some essential premises for public policy on urban drainage in the Brazilian context. It seeks to understand how these plans deal with floods and urban settlements in flood areas, and also explore the actions taken before, during and after extreme events. It could be say that adequately address drainage is primarily for institutional changes and, alongside the actions detailed throughout the article, for an investment of major consequence to allow decent housing to a significant portion of the population, an important set of environmental imprint actions.

Urban environments of the entrepreneurial city : from Aker Brygge to Tjuvholmen

OpenAIRE

Ellefsen, Halvor Weider

2017-01-01

The focus of this thesis is the regeneration of industrial harbor and brownfield areas to properties primed for urban development along the urban waterfront of Oslo, Norway. The project revolves around an empirical study of Tjuvholmen, a privately operated waterfront development scheme, centrally located in the city. The point of departure for the thesis is to explore how Tjuvholmen was conceptualized as urban environment, within a particular model of political-economic cond...

WMO background air pollution monitoring network (BAPMON)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koehler, A

1980-01-01

The objectives of the network include the establishment of baseline measurements of the global troposphere against which subsequent changes can be measured. The minimum program includes analysis of wet precipitation, observation of the aerosol optical depth, and sampling of suspended particulates. Standardization efforts have resulted in accuracies in rainwater samples to within 10%. Pollutant levels are shown for regional, urban and continental stations. The possibility of establishing median values for different modes of operation at a station (background and nonbackground mode) is examined. The interference of water vapor with CO/sub 2/ measurements is discussed.

Urban Modality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge Gil

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This thesis proposes a framework for evaluating the mobility potential and performance of urban areas in the city region, as an instrument to support urban development that contributes positively to regional sustainable mobility objectives. The research takes a quantitative approach, modelling and measuring the characteristics of a city-region and of its individual urban areas, in terms of travel patterns and socioeconomic characteristics of the resident population, and in terms of built environment characteristics. It then explores how the built environment defines the affordances of urban areas for travelling by particular modes of transport, i.e. its walk-ability, cycleability, drive-ability and transit-ability, by developing a typology of what I call their ‘urban modality’. And finally the work combines this typology with the socio-economic characteristics of urban areas to determine their sustainable mobility potential and performance. It focuses on the case of the Randstad region of the Netherlands and its VINEX neighbourhoods, which are an emblematic example of new urban areas created under a policy programme with sustainable mobility objectives. A key stance in this work is the understanding that the location of an urban area in the region can be indicative of its population’s travel patterns, because the built environment (infrastructural and socio-economic characteristics are interrelated and present strong regional spatial patterns. What types of urban areas support sustainable travel patterns, and what are their spatial characteristics? How do new neighbourhoods compare to the best performing urban areas, and to other areas of the same ‘modality’ type? These are some of the questions addressed in this study. There are two main contributions of this research: the methods for building and analysing integrated multimodal network models, and the framework for contextual performance evaluation using urban area typologies. The

: Urban design, urban project, urban art, urban composition ... a question of vocabulary?

OpenAIRE

Pinson , Daniel

2014-01-01

Actes à paraître; International audience; The term "urbanism" of Pierre Clerget (1910) put the mess in the practice and the formations in France. Urban planning is thus, on the academic level, a coexistence of disciplinary approaches, which does not help to a multidisciplinary urban training. Thinking about "urban design", after beautifull city, urban composition, or alongside the urban project and other territorial approaches can help to see more clearly in town planning.; Le terme « urbanis...

Urban sound energy reduction by means of sound barriers

Science.gov (United States)

Iordache, Vlad; Ionita, Mihai Vlad

2018-02-01

In urban environment, various heating ventilation and air conditioning appliances designed to maintain indoor comfort become urban acoustic pollution vectors due to the sound energy produced by these equipment. The acoustic barriers are the recommended method for the sound energy reduction in urban environment. The current sizing method of these acoustic barriers is too difficult and it is not practical for any 3D location of the noisy equipment and reception point. In this study we will develop based on the same method a new simplified tool for acoustic barriers sizing, maintaining the same precision characteristic to the classical method. Abacuses for acoustic barriers sizing are built that can be used for different 3D locations of the source and the reception points, for several frequencies and several acoustic barrier heights. The study case presented in the article represents a confirmation for the rapidity and ease of use of these abacuses in the design of the acoustic barriers.

Urban sound energy reduction by means of sound barriers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iordache Vlad

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In urban environment, various heating ventilation and air conditioning appliances designed to maintain indoor comfort become urban acoustic pollution vectors due to the sound energy produced by these equipment. The acoustic barriers are the recommended method for the sound energy reduction in urban environment. The current sizing method of these acoustic barriers is too difficult and it is not practical for any 3D location of the noisy equipment and reception point. In this study we will develop based on the same method a new simplified tool for acoustic barriers sizing, maintaining the same precision characteristic to the classical method. Abacuses for acoustic barriers sizing are built that can be used for different 3D locations of the source and the reception points, for several frequencies and several acoustic barrier heights. The study case presented in the article represents a confirmation for the rapidity and ease of use of these abacuses in the design of the acoustic barriers.

(Un)Healthy in the City : Respiratory, Cardiometabolic and Mental Health Associated with Urbanity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zijlema, Wilma L.; Klijs, Bart; Stolk, Ronald P.; Rosmalen, Judith G. M.

2015-01-01

Background Research has shown that health differences exist between urban and rural areas. Most studies conducted, however, have focused on single health outcomes and have not assessed to what extent the association of urbanity with health is explained by population composition or socioeconomic

(Un)Healthy in the City : Respiratory, Cardiometabolic and Mental Health Associated with Urbanity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zijlema, Wilma L.; Klijs, Bart; Stolk, Ronald P.; Rosmalen, Judith G. M.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Research has shown that health differences exist between urban and rural areas. Most studies conducted, however, have focused on single health outcomes and have not assessed to what extent the association of urbanity with health is explained by population composition or socioeconomic

Forecasting urban growth across the United States-Mexico border

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, L.M.; Feller, M.; Phillip, Guertin D.

2009-01-01

The sister-city area of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, is known collectively as Ambos (both) Nogales. This area was historically one city and was administratively divided by the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. These arid-lands have limited and sensitive natural resources. Environmental planning can support sustainable development to accommodate the predicted influx of population. The objective of this research is to quantify the amount of predicted urban growth for the Ambos Nogales watershed to support future planning for sustainable development. Two modeling regimes are explored. Our goal is to identify possible growth patterns associated with the twin-city area as a whole and with the two cities modeled as separate entities. We analyzed the cross-border watershed using regression analysis from satellite images from 1975, 1983, 1996, and 2002 and created urban area classifications. We used these classifications as input to the urban growth model, SLEUTH, to simulate likely patterns of development and define projected conversion probabilities. Model results indicate that the two cities are undergoing very different patterns of change and identify locations of expected growth based on historical development. Growth in Nogales, Arizona is stagnant while the urban area in Nogales, Sonora is exploding. This paper demonstrates an application that portrays how future binational urban growth could develop and affect the environment. This research also provides locations of potential growth for use in city planning.

Urban heat island effect on cicada densities in metropolitan Seoul

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hoa Q. Nguyen

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background Urban heat island (UHI effect, the ubiquitous consequence of urbanization, is considered to play a major role in population expansion of numerous insects. Cryptotympana atrata and Hyalessa fuscata are the most abundant cicada species in the Korean Peninsula, where their population densities are higher in urban than in rural areas. We predicted a positive relationship between the UHI intensities and population densities of these two cicada species in metropolitan Seoul. Methods To test this prediction, enumeration surveys of cicada exuviae densities were conducted in 36 localities located within and in the vicinity of metropolitan Seoul. Samples were collected in two consecutive periods from July to August 2015. The abundance of each species was estimated by two resource-weighted densities, one based on the total geographic area, and the other on the total number of trees. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify factors critical for the prevalence of cicada species in the urban habitat. Results C. atrata and H. fuscata were major constituents of cicada species composition collected across all localities. Minimum temperature and sampling period were significant factors contributing to the variation in densities of both species, whereas other environmental factors related to urbanization were not significant. More cicada exuviae were collected in the second rather than in the first samplings, which matched the phenological pattern of cicadas in metropolitan Seoul. Cicada population densities increased measurably with the increase in temperature. Age of residential complex also exhibited a significantly positive correlation to H. fuscata densities, but not to C. atrata densities. Discussion Effects of temperature on cicada densities have been discerned from other environmental factors, as cicada densities increased measurably in tandem with elevated temperature. Several mechanisms may contribute to the abundance of

Urban cyclist exposure to fine particle pollution in a rapidly growing city

Science.gov (United States)

Luce, B. W.; Barrett, T. E.; Ponette-González, A.

2017-12-01

Urban cyclists are exposed to elevated atmospheric concentrations of fine particulate matter (particles vehicle exhaust, which is emitted directly into cyclists' "breathing zone." In cities, human exposure to PM2.5 is a concern because its small size allows it to be inhaled deeper into the lungs than most particles. The aim of this research is to determine "hotspots" (locations with high PM2.5 concentrations) within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas, where urban cyclists are most exposed to fine particle pollution. Recent research indicates that common exposure hotspots include traffic signals, junctions, bus stations, parking lots, and inclined streets. To identify these and other hotspots, a bicycle equipped with a low-cost, portable, battery-powered particle counter (Dylos 1700) coupled with a Trimble Geo 5T handheld Global Positioning System (GPS; ≤1 m ± resolution) will be used to map and measure particle mass concentrations along predetermined routes. Measurements will be conducted during a consecutive four-month period (Sep-Dec) during morning and evening rush hours when PM2.5 levels are generally highest, as well as during non-rush hour times to determine background concentrations. PM2.5 concentrations will be calculated from particle counts using an equation developed by Steinle et al. (2015). In addition, traffic counts will be conducted along the routes coinciding with the mobile monitoring times. We will present results on identified "hotspots" of high fine particle concentrations and PM2.5 exposure in the City of Denton, where particle pollution puts urban commuters most at risk, as well as average traffic counts from monitoring times. These data can be used to determine pollution mitigation strategies in rapidly growing urban areas.

Sun exposure patterns of urban, suburban, and rural children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bodekær, Mette; Petersen, Bibi; Philipsen, Peter Alshede

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Sun exposure is the main etiology of skin cancer. Differences in skin cancer incidence have been observed between rural and urban populations. OBJECTIVES: As sun exposure begins in childhood, we examined summer UVR exposure doses and sun behavior in children resident in urban, suburban......, and rural areas. METHODS: Personal, electronic UVR dosimeters and sun behavior diaries were used during a summer (3.5 months) by 150 children (4-19 years of age) resident in urban, suburban, and rural areas. RESULTS: On school/kindergarten days rural children spent more time outdoors and received higher UVR...... doses than urban and suburban children (rural: median 2.3 h per day, median 0.9 SED per day, urban: median 1.3 h per day, median 0.3 SED per day, suburban: median 1.5 h per day, median 0.4 SED per day) (p ≤ 0.007). Urban and suburban children exhibited a more intermittent sun exposure pattern than rural...

Exploring the roles of temperature and NOx on ozone production in the Sacramento urban plume

Science.gov (United States)

Lafranchi, B. W.; Cohen, R. C.

2009-12-01

We investigate the role of temperature and NOx (NOx = NO+NO2) on ozone (O3) production in the Sacramento urban plume over a stretch of seven years (2001-2007) using data collected at UC Blodgett Forest Research Station (a forested site in the Sierra Nevadas about 80 km downwind of Sacramento, CA) and at a series of California Air Resources Board (CARB) sites along the Sacramento-Blodgett transect. The consistent daytime wind patterns between the Central Valley of California and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains permits the assumption of plume transport from downtown Sacramento, over the CARB monitoring sites in the eastern suburbs, and past the Blodgett Forest research site. While NOx emissions are limited primarily to the urban and suburban regions of the transect, biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions are significant throughout the transect, thus there is a fast transition from VOC-limited to NOx-limited as the plume travels away from the urban center, and we have the opportunity to analyze the differences in ozone production across these two chemical regimes. For this analysis, the Sacramento-Blodgett transect is separated into three segments: urban, suburban, and rural, defined by the locations of selected monitoring sites. Ozone concentrations across each segment are controlled by chemical production (Pchem) and loss (Lchem), deposition to surfaces (Ldep), and mixing with background air (Lmix). At an assumed deposition rate, mixing rate, and background O3 concentration, the net chemical flux of ozone (Pchem - Lchem) can be inferred from differences in ozone concentrations between adjacent monitoring sites. We show that ozone production rates, in general, increase with temperature. We also show that decreases in NOx emissions over the period from 2001-2007 have been effective at reducing ozone production at all points along the transect, but only on days where temperatures are highest. At low temperatures, this decrease is less apparent

Human population, urban settlement patterns and their impact on Plasmodium falciparum malaria endemicity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kabaria Caroline W

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The efficient allocation of financial resources for malaria control and the optimal distribution of appropriate interventions require accurate information on the geographic distribution of malaria risk and of the human populations it affects. Low population densities in rural areas and high population densities in urban areas can influence malaria transmission substantially. Here, the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP global database of Plasmodium falciparum parasite rate (PfPR surveys, medical intelligence and contemporary population surfaces are utilized to explore these relationships and other issues involved in combining malaria risk maps with those of human population distribution in order to define populations at risk more accurately. Methods First, an existing population surface was examined to determine if it was sufficiently detailed to be used reliably as a mask to identify areas of very low and very high population density as malaria free regions. Second, the potential of international travel and health guidelines (ITHGs for identifying malaria free cities was examined. Third, the differences in PfPR values between surveys conducted in author-defined rural and urban areas were examined. Fourth, the ability of various global urban extent maps to reliably discriminate these author-based classifications of urban and rural in the PfPR database was investigated. Finally, the urban map that most accurately replicated the author-based classifications was analysed to examine the effects of urban classifications on PfPR values across the entire MAP database. Results Masks of zero population density excluded many non-zero PfPR surveys, indicating that the population surface was not detailed enough to define areas of zero transmission resulting from low population densities. In contrast, the ITHGs enabled the identification and mapping of 53 malaria free urban areas within endemic countries. Comparison of PfPR survey results showed

Vegetal test-system investigation on cytotoxicity of water from urban streams located in the northeastern region of Maringá, Paraná State, Brazil - doi: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v33i1.4924 Vegetal test-system investigation on cytotoxicity of water from urban streams located in the northeastern region of Maringá, Paraná State, Brazil - doi: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v33i1.4924

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcus Eduardo Kamide Gonçalves

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The increase in consumption of water, the destruction of riparian forests and the pollution caused by humans, have severely degraded several water resources. Numerous stream crisscross the city of Maringá, Paraná state, Brazil and most of their sources are scattered through the urban region. Current analysis assesses the cytotoxic potential of water from the Corregozinho, Isalto, Morangueira and Ozório streams, located within the high-populated northeastern region of Maringá, inside the urban perimeter. Root meristematic cells of Allium cepa were used as test-system. The roots of onion were prepared by Feulgen’s reaction and stained with Schiff's reagent. Results showed that there were no statistically significant changes evaluated by the chi-square test on the rates of cell division in cells of Allium cepa roots treated with the water of the streams when compared to data from controls. However, further analyses should be undertaken at different times for a periodic assessment of conditions in the streams, coupled with an awareness of the population on the environment.The increase in consumption of water, the destruction of riparian forests and the pollution caused by humans, have severely degraded several water resources. Numerous stream crisscross the city of Maringá, Paraná state, Brazil and most of their sources are scattered through the urban region. Current analysis assesses the cytotoxic potential of water from the Corregozinho, Isalto, Morangueira and Ozório streams, located within the high-populated northeastern region of Maringá, inside the urban perimeter. Root meristematic cells of Allium cepa were used as test-system. The roots of onion were prepared by Feulgen’s reaction and stained with Schiff's reagent. Results showed that there were no statistically significant changes evaluated by the chi-square test on the rates of cell division in cells of Allium cepa roots treated with the water of the streams when compared to

Aerosol number size distributions over a coastal semi urban location: Seasonal changes and ultrafine particle bursts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Babu, S. Suresh, E-mail: s_sureshbabu@vssc.gov.in [Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695022 (India); Kompalli, Sobhan Kumar [Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695022 (India); Moorthy, K. Krishna [Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012 (India)

2016-09-01

Number-size distribution is one of the important microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols that influence aerosol life cycle, aerosol-radiation interaction as well as aerosol-cloud interactions. Making use of one-yearlong measurements of aerosol particle number-size distributions (PNSD) over a broad size spectrum (~ 15–15,000 nm) from a tropical coastal semi-urban location-Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), the size characteristics, their seasonality and response to mesoscale and synoptic scale meteorology are examined. While the accumulation mode contributed mostly to the annual mean concentration, ultrafine particles (having diameter < 100 nm) contributed as much as 45% to the total concentration, and thus constitute a strong reservoir, that would add to the larger particles through size transformation. The size distributions were, in general, bimodal with well-defined modes in the accumulation and coarse regimes, with mode diameters lying in the range 141 to 167 nm and 1150 to 1760 nm respectively, in different seasons. Despite the contribution of the coarse sized particles to the total number concentration being meager, they contributed significantly to the surface area and volume, especially during transport of marine air mass highlighting the role of synoptic air mass changes. Significant diurnal variation occurred in the number concentrations, geometric mean diameters, which is mostly attributed to the dynamics of the local coastal atmospheric boundary layer and the effect of mesoscale land/sea breeze circulation. Bursts of ultrafine particles (UFP) occurred quite frequently, apparently during periods of land-sea breeze transitions, caused by the strong mixing of precursor-rich urban air mass with the cleaner marine air mass; the resulting turbulence along with boundary layer dynamics aiding the nucleation. These ex-situ particles were observed at the surface due to the transport associated with boundary layer dynamics. The particle growth rates from

Aerosol number size distributions over a coastal semi urban location: Seasonal changes and ultrafine particle bursts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Babu, S. Suresh; Kompalli, Sobhan Kumar; Moorthy, K. Krishna

2016-01-01

Number-size distribution is one of the important microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols that influence aerosol life cycle, aerosol-radiation interaction as well as aerosol-cloud interactions. Making use of one-yearlong measurements of aerosol particle number-size distributions (PNSD) over a broad size spectrum (~ 15–15,000 nm) from a tropical coastal semi-urban location-Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), the size characteristics, their seasonality and response to mesoscale and synoptic scale meteorology are examined. While the accumulation mode contributed mostly to the annual mean concentration, ultrafine particles (having diameter < 100 nm) contributed as much as 45% to the total concentration, and thus constitute a strong reservoir, that would add to the larger particles through size transformation. The size distributions were, in general, bimodal with well-defined modes in the accumulation and coarse regimes, with mode diameters lying in the range 141 to 167 nm and 1150 to 1760 nm respectively, in different seasons. Despite the contribution of the coarse sized particles to the total number concentration being meager, they contributed significantly to the surface area and volume, especially during transport of marine air mass highlighting the role of synoptic air mass changes. Significant diurnal variation occurred in the number concentrations, geometric mean diameters, which is mostly attributed to the dynamics of the local coastal atmospheric boundary layer and the effect of mesoscale land/sea breeze circulation. Bursts of ultrafine particles (UFP) occurred quite frequently, apparently during periods of land-sea breeze transitions, caused by the strong mixing of precursor-rich urban air mass with the cleaner marine air mass; the resulting turbulence along with boundary layer dynamics aiding the nucleation. These ex-situ particles were observed at the surface due to the transport associated with boundary layer dynamics. The particle growth rates from

Obesity, overweight, and underweight among urban Nigerians ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Disease burden from communicable and noncommunicable diseases is a significant health challenge facing many developing nations. Among the noncommunicable diseases, is obesity, which has become a global epidemic associated with urbanization. Objective: The aim was to evaluate the prevalence of ...

Urbanization Effects on the Vertical Distribution of Soil Microbial Communities and Soil C Storage across Edge-to-Interior Urban Forest Gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Rosier, C. L.; Van Stan, J. T., II; Trammell, T. L.

2017-12-01

Urbanization alters environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) deposition affecting critical soil processes (e.g., C storage). Urban soils experience elevated N deposition (e.g., transportation, industry) and decreased soil moisture via urban heat island that can subsequently alter soil microbial community structure and activity. However, there is a critical gap in understanding how increased temperatures and pollutant deposition influences soil microbial community structure and soil C/N cycling in urban forests. Furthermore, canopy structural differences between individual tree species is a potentially important mechanism facilitating the deposition of pollutants to the soil. The overarching goal of this study is to investigate the influence of urbanization and tree species structural differences on the bacterial and fungal community and C and N content of soils experiencing a gradient of urbanization pressures (i.e., forest edge to interior; 150-m). Soil cores (1-m depth) were collected near the stem (urban pressure (i.e., forest edge). We further expect trees located on the edge of forest fragments will maintain greater surface soil (urbanization alters soil microbial community composition via reduced soil moisture and carbon storage potential via deposition gradients. Further analyses will answer important questions regarding how individual tree species alters urban soil C storage, N retention, and microbial dynamics.

Neutron background estimates in GESA

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Fernandes A.C.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The SIMPLE project looks for nuclear recoil events generated by rare dark matter scattering interactions. Nuclear recoils are also produced by more prevalent cosmogenic neutron interactions. While the rock overburden shields against (μ,n neutrons to below 10−8 cm−2 s−1, it itself contributes via radio-impurities. Additional shielding of these is similar, both suppressing and contributing neutrons. We report on the Monte Carlo (MCNP estimation of the on-detector neutron backgrounds for the SIMPLE experiment located in the GESA facility of the Laboratoire Souterrain à Bas Bruit, and its use in defining additional shielding for measurements which have led to a reduction in the extrinsic neutron background to ∼ 5 × 10−3 evts/kgd. The calculated event rate induced by the neutron background is ∼ 0,3 evts/kgd, with a dominant contribution from the detector container.

The wildland-urban interface raster dataset of Catalonia

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Fermín J. Alcasena

2018-04-01

Full Text Available We provide the wildland urban interface (WUI map of the autonomous community of Catalonia (Northeastern Spain. The map encompasses an area of some 3.21 million ha and is presented as a 150-m resolution raster dataset. Individual housing location, structure density and vegetation cover data were used to spatially assess in detail the interface, intermix and dispersed rural WUI communities with a geographical information system. Most WUI areas concentrate in the coastal belt where suburban sprawl has occurred nearby or within unmanaged forests. This geospatial information data provides an approximation of residential housing potential for loss given a wildfire, and represents a valuable contribution to assist landscape and urban planning in the region. Keywords: Wildland-urban interface, Wildfire risk, Urban planning, Human communities, Catalonia

‘New urbanism' or metropolitan-level centralization?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Næss, Petter

2011-01-01

Based on a study in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area, this paper compares the influences of macro-level and micro-level urban form characteristics on the respondents' traveling distance by car on weekdays. The Copenhagen study shows that metropolitan-scale urban structural variables generally exert...... stronger influences than neighborhood-scale built environment characteristics on the amount of car travel. In particular, the location of the residence relative to the main city center of the metropolitan region shows a strong effect. Some local scale variables often mentioned in the literature...

Introduction to Global Urban Climatology

Science.gov (United States)

Varquez, A. C. G.; Kanda, M.; Kawano, N.; Darmanto, N. S.; Dong, Y.

2016-12-01

Urban heat island (UHI) is a widely investigated phenomenon in the field of urban climate characterized by the warming of urban areas relative to its surrounding rural environs. Being able to understand the mechanism behind the UHI formation of a city and distinguish its impact from that of global climate change is indispensable when identifying adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, the lack of UHI studies many cities especially for developing countries makes it difficult to generalize the mechanism for UHI formation. Thus, there is an impending demand for studies that focus on the simultaneous analyses of UHI and its trends throughout the world. Hence, we propose a subfield of urban climatology, called "global urban climatology" (GUC), which mainly focuses on the uniform understanding of urban climates across all cities, globally. By using globally applicable methodologies to quantify and compare urban heat islands of cities with diverse backgrounds, including their geography, climate, socio-demography, and other factors, a universal understanding of the mechanisms underlying the formation of the phenomenon can be established. The implementation of GUC involves the use of globally acquired historical observation networks, gridded meteorological parameters from climate models, global geographic information system datasets; the construction of a distributed urban parameter database; and the development of techniques necessary to model the urban climate. Research under GUC can be categorized into three approaches. The collaborative approach (1st) relies on the collection of data from micro-scale experiments conducted worldwide with the aid or development of professional social networking platforms; the analytical approach (2nd) relies on the use of global weather station datasets and their corresponding objectively analysed global outputs; and the numerical approach (3rd) relies on the global estimation of high-resolution urban-representative parameters as

Urban Recreational Riverfronts: Successful Revitalisation Elements

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Ha zreena Hussein

2006-12-01

Full Text Available This research identifies characteristics, which are the Theme, Identity, Functions and Authenticity of some current riverfront developments, mainly focusing in urban areas. The study began with the evolution of an urban riverfront', including understanding how early settlements were established along the rivers, later forming the town, leading to the present day cities and their inherent traditional urban culture value. Case studies selected were from South East Asia within Singapore and Sarawak in Malaysia. These examples will then be compared with London and Boston, USA. Much attention will be given to paying high respect to the cities' character and to acknowledging the historical and cultural background of the city where they are set by scrutinising their characteristics. The conclusion will be systematically analysed on design elements and careful considerations through design planning and sensitive approaches.

Visual signal detection in structured backgrounds. II. Effects of contrast gain control, background variations, and white noise

Science.gov (United States)

Eckstein, M. P.; Ahumada, A. J. Jr; Watson, A. B.

1997-01-01

Studies of visual detection of a signal superimposed on one of two identical backgrounds show performance degradation when the background has high contrast and is similar in spatial frequency and/or orientation to the signal. To account for this finding, models include a contrast gain control mechanism that pools activity across spatial frequency, orientation and space to inhibit (divisively) the response of the receptor sensitive to the signal. In tasks in which the observer has to detect a known signal added to one of M different backgrounds grounds due to added visual noise, the main sources of degradation are the stochastic noise in the image and the suboptimal visual processing. We investigate how these two sources of degradation (contrast gain control and variations in the background) interact in a task in which the signal is embedded in one of M locations in a complex spatially varying background (structured background). We use backgrounds extracted from patient digital medical images. To isolate effects of the fixed deterministic background (the contrast gain control) from the effects of the background variations, we conduct detection experiments with three different background conditions: (1) uniform background, (2) a repeated sample of structured background, and (3) different samples of structured background. Results show that human visual detection degrades from the uniform background condition to the repeated background condition and degrades even further in the different backgrounds condition. These results suggest that both the contrast gain control mechanism and the background random variations degrade human performance in detection of a signal in a complex, spatially varying background. A filter model and added white noise are used to generate estimates of sampling efficiencies, an equivalent internal noise, an equivalent contrast-gain-control-induced noise, and an equivalent noise due to the variations in the structured background.

Counter-intuitive influence of Himalayan river morphodynamics on Indus Civilisation urban settlements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Singh, Ajit; Thomsen, Kristina Jørkov; Sinha, Rajiv

2017-01-01

Urbanism in the Bronze-age Indus Civilisation (similar to 4.6-3.9 thousand years before the present, ka) has been linked to water resources provided by large Himalayan river systems, although the largest concentrations of urban-scale Indus settlements are located far from extant Himalayan rivers....

Burden of childhood diseases and malnutrition in a semi-urban slum in southern India

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Sarkar Rajiv

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background India has seen rapid unorganized urbanization in the past few decades. However, the burden of childhood diseases and malnutrition in such populations is difficult to quantify. The morbidity experience of children living in semi-urban slums of a southern Indian city is described. Methods A total of 176 children were recruited pre-weaning from four geographically adjacent, semi-urban slums located in the western outskirts of Vellore, Tamil Nadu for a study on water safety and enteric infections and received either bottled or municipal drinking water based on their area of residence. Children were visited weekly at home and had anthropometry measured monthly until their second birthday. Results A total of 3932 episodes of illness were recorded during the follow-up period, resulting in an incidence of 12.5 illnesses/child-year, with more illness during infancy than in the second year of life. Respiratory, mostly upper respiratory infections, and gastrointestinal illnesses were most common. Approximately one-third of children were stunted at two years of age, and two-thirds had at least one episode of growth failure during the two years of follow up. No differences in morbidity were seen between children who received bottled and municipal water. Conclusions Our study found a high burden of childhood diseases and malnutrition among urban slum dwellers in southern India. Frequent illnesses may adversely impact children’s health and development, besides placing an additional burden on families who need to seek healthcare and find resources to manage illness.

Social constructions of environmental services in a rapidly densifying peri-urban area under dual governance in Durban, South Africa

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Catherine Sutherland

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Biodiversity plays a critical role in improving the quality of life and resilience of poor urban communities in Durban. Objectives: However, the rapid densification that is taking place in the ‘rural periphery’ of the city is impacting significantly on the integrity of ecosystems, which provide valuable ecosystem services. It is also changing the relations between people and the environment. Mzinyathi and eSkebheni, in the north-west of Durban, are peri-urban areas located on Ingonyama Trust land and hence they are governed by both the traditional authority and the eThekwini Municipality. The settlement pattern is changing rapidly here as middle and upper income residents move into the area, changing the way of life from being rural and ‘traditional’ to urban and ‘modern’. Method: This paper focused on the nexus of rapid urban growth, dual governance systems, biodiversity loss and cultural change in these two areas. It adopted a qualitative methodology and social constructivist approach. Data on the value of environmental services in the area was collected through interviewing the traditional authority, provincial and municipal planners and environmentalists, and household members. Results: The paper revealed that environmental services are constructed in multiple ways within a particular socio-historical and political context, that they have value to peri-urban communities, and that their function and use is changing as a result of the ‘modernisation’ of the area. The impact of the dual governance system and traditional land allocation process on environmental services is significant. This has implications for long term sustainability, for the quality of life of peri-urban residents and for planning and urban governance.

Rural-urban differentials of premature mortality burden in south-west China

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Chongsuvivatwong Virasakdi

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Yunnan province is located in south western China and is one of the poorest provinces of the country. This study examines the premature mortality burden from common causes of deaths among an urban region, suburban region and rural region of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. Methods Years of life lost (YLL rate per 1,000 and mortality rate per 100,000 were calculated from medical death certificates in 2003 and broken down by cause of death, age and gender among urban, suburban and rural regions. YLL was calculated without age-weighting and discounting rate. Rates were age-adjusted to the combined population of three regions. However, 3% discounting rate and a standard age-weighting function were included in the sensitivity analysis. Results Non-communicable diseases contributed the most YLL in all three regions. The rural region had about 50% higher premature mortality burden compared to the other two regions. YLL from infectious diseases and perinatal problems was still a major problem in the rural region. Among non-communicable diseases, YLL from stroke was the highest in the urban/suburban regions; COPD followed as the second and was the highest in the rural region. Mortality burden from injuries was however higher in the rural region than the other two regions, especially for men. Self-inflicted injuries were between 2–8 times more serious among women. The use of either mortality rate or YLL gives a similar conclusion regarding the order of priority. Reanalysis with age-weighting and 3% discounting rate gave similar results. Conclusion Urban south western China has already engaged in epidemiological pattern of developed countries. The rural region is additionally burdened by diseases of poverty and injury on top of the non-communicable diseases.

Urban simulation evaluation with study case of the Singapore Management University, Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Seanders, O.

2018-01-01

This paper reports and discusses about the urban simulation evaluation with a study case, The Singapore Managemant University (SMU), the first major university to be located in the city centre. It is located in Bras Basah District, with some controversy on the geographical establishment, the physical realization of the University in the original plan required some demolishes, urban historical building, a public park and in the end will impact the lose of some certain qualities of the urban space. From this case we can see that the urban design and cultural heritage principles could come into conflicts with the more practical concerns of space constraints and transportation efficiency. This SMU case reflect the problem of the developing countries that have to decide between conservation of buildings and green spaces and space demands. In this case, for Singapore, it marks a progress in the step of greater community involvement in the planning process.

Planning Pharmacies: An Operational Method to Find the Best Location

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Simona Tondelli

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The theme of the spatial distribution of the pharmacies on the territory is closely connected to urban planning and to services supply. In Italy, the regulatory change that took place in 2012, triggered partly by the need to adhere more to a constantly changing economic system, has led to a revision of the existing situation, consisting both on the method to quantify the pharmacies distribution and on the efficiency of the service. If Law 27/2012 has effectively allowed municipalities to increase the number of pharmacies that they can settle on the municipal territory, it has also started a process of rethinking the logic of pharmacies location and of their catchment areas. In this framework, the present paper aims to discuss the merits of a regulatory evolutions that sparked the process of liberalization of locations, integrating the law guidelines and goals with an operating logic process, usable and useful to translate goals into planning actions in a continuous dialogue between law and territory, constraints and opportunities, equity and accessibility of the care services. Following this logic operations, we have investigated the urban context of Castelfranco Emilia, assuming the location of new offices on the basis of pharmaceutical analyzes.

Rapid urban malaria appraisal (RUMA I: Epidemiology of urban malaria in Ouagadougou

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Convelbo Natalie

2005-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Rapid urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa has a major impact on malaria epidemiology. While much is known about malaria in rural areas in Burkina Faso, the urban situation is less well understood. Methods An assessment of urban malaria was carried out in Ouagadougou in November -December, 2002 during which a rapid urban malaria appraisal (RUMA was applied. Results The school parasitaemia prevalence was relatively high (48.3% at the cold and dry season 2002. Routine malaria statistics indicated that seasonality of malaria transmission was marked. In the health facilities, the number of clinical cases diminished quickly at the start of the cold and dry season and the prevalence of parasitaemia detected in febrile and non-febrile cases was 21.1% and 22.0%, respectively. The health facilities were likely to overestimate the malaria incidence and the age-specific fractions of malaria-attributable fevers were low (0–0.13. Peak prevalence tended to occur in older children (aged 6–15 years. Mapping of Anopheles sp. breeding sites indicated a gradient of endemicity between the urban centre and the periphery of Ouagadougou. A remarkable link was found between urban agriculture activities, seasonal availability of water supply and the occurrence of malaria infections in this semi-arid area. The study also demonstrated that the usage of insecticide-treated nets and the education level of family caretakers played a key role in reducing malaria infection rates. Conclusion These findings show that determining local endemicity and the rate of clinical malaria cases are urgently required in order to target control activities and avoid over-treatment with antimalarials. The case management needs to be tailored to the level of the prevailing endemicity.

Urban phenological studies – Past, present, future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jochner, Susanne; Menzel, Annette

2015-01-01

Phenology is believed to be a suitable bio-indicator to track climate change. Based on the strong statistical association between phenology and temperature phenological observations provide an inexpensive means for the temporal and spatial analysis of the urban heat island. However, other environmental factors might also weaken this relationship. In addition, the investigation of urban phenology allows an estimation of future phenology from current information since cities with their amplified temperatures may serve as a proxy for future conditions. Nevertheless, the design of spatial compared to long-term studies might be influenced by different factors which should be taken into consideration when interpreting results from a specific study. In general, plants located in urban areas tend to flush and bloom earlier than in the countryside. What are the consequences of these urban–rural differences? This review will document existing findings on urban phenology and will highlight areas in which further research is needed. - Highlights: • Urban phenology can be used for the estimation of the urban heat island effect. • Confounding factors weaken the phenology–temperature relationship. • Urban phenology is useful as a proxy for climate change impacts on phenology. • Differences in the study design hinder the generalisation of one specific method. • Urban–rural variations in phenology affect vegetation, meteorology, human health. - Studies on urban phenology can be used to detect urban heat islands and to assess climate change impacts but it still remains important to adequately link spatial and long-term data

Housing the Mobile Entrepeneur. The location behavior of firms in urban residential neighbourhoods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Risselada, A.H.

2013-01-01

Changing economic production processes have opened up new locational demands for firms and have led to an increasingly diverse firm population displaying fragmented location patterns. This research focuses on those spatial configurations that fit the current economic fragmentation and changing

Focused Group Discussion of urban ASHA workers regarding their workrelated issues

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Mansi M Brahmbhatt

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Urban ASHA workers bridge the gap between the Urban Health system and urban poor to provide accessible, affordable, accountable, reliable & effective primary health care.  Amis & Objectives: To identify work related problems faced by urban ASHA workers and to seek suggestions for their work-related issues. Settings and Design: FGD of Urban ASHA workers posted at Urban Health Centres of Ahmedabad. Methods and Material: Random sampling was used to select two UHCs and 8 Urban ASHA workers from both the UHCs for conducting FGDs. Statistical analysis used: interview transcribing. Results: Service gave them satisfaction, Salary did not!!! Some of the other important issues related to their work include transportation, cooperation from community, environmental issues & extended working hours. Conclusions: The problems identified and suggestions received needs to be taken seriously, addressed promptly and timely to improve service delivery.

Narrative Voices of Early Adolescents: Influences of Learning Disability and Cultural Background

Science.gov (United States)

Celinska, Dorota K.

2009-01-01

This study analyzed personal and fictional narratives of culturally/ethnically diverse students with and without learning disabilities. The participants were 82 fourth to seventh graders from urban and suburban schools located in a Midwest metropolitan area. Narratives were elicited in the context of naturalistic conversation and analyzed using…

Population, migration and urbanization.

Science.gov (United States)

1982-06-01

Despite recent estimates that natural increase is becoming a more important component of urban growth than rural urban transfer (excess of inmigrants over outmigrants), the share of migration in the total population growth has been consistently increasing in both developed and developing countries. From a demographic perspective, the migration process involves 3 elements: an area of origin which the mover leaves and where he or she is considered an outmigrant; the destination or place of inmigration; and the period over which migration is measured. The 2 basic types of migration are internal and international. Internal migration consists of rural to urban migration, urban to urban migration, rural to rural migration, and urban to rural migration. Among these 4 types of migration various patterns or processes are followed. Migration may be direct when the migrant moves directly from the village to the city and stays there permanently. It can be circular migration, meaning that the migrant moves to the city when it is not planting season and returns to the village when he is needed on the farm. In stage migration the migrant makes a series of moves, each to a city closer to the largest or fastest growing city. Temporary migration may be 1 time or cyclical. The most dominant pattern of internal migration is rural urban. The contribution of migration to urbanization is evident. For example, the rapid urbanization and increase in urban growth from 1960-70 in the Republic of Korea can be attributed to net migration. In Asia the largest component of the population movement consists of individuals and groups moving from 1 rural location to another. Recently, because urban centers could no longer absorb the growing number of migrants from other places, there has been increased interest in the urban to rural population redistribution. This reverse migration also has come about due to slower rates of employment growth in the urban centers and improved economic opportunities

An urban Encounter: Realizing online connectedness through local urban play

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shklovski, Irina; de Souza e Silva, Adriana Araujo

2013-01-01

-based communication in daily experience. The most important outcome of these games then was not the direct individual engagement with the urban environment through technology or the collaboration with strangers in the course of play (although these were the necessary prerequisites), but the social relationships that...... of the player community are considered. The findings illustrate how this form of location-aware mobile game-play pulled together local engagement and global player communities into socio-technical assemblages, showing the interplay between local attachments, distant connections and the location......, while gained in-game, could be leveraged for civic engagement, belonging and mutual support. While the local, physical experience of the everyday and the game was important, the connections to the distributed community resulted in expanded horizons and changed the nature of the local experience...

Comparing the urbanization and global warming impacts on extreme rainfall characteristics in Southern China Pearl River Delta megacity based on dynamical downscaling

Science.gov (United States)

Fung, K. Y.; Tam, C. Y.; Wang, Z.

2017-12-01

It is well known that urban land use can significantly influence the local temperature, precipitation and meteorology through altering land-atmosphere exchange of momentum, moisture and heat in urban areas. In recent decades, there has been a substantial increase ( 5-10%) on the intensity of extreme rainfall over Southeast China; it is projected to increase further according to the latest IPCC reports. In this study, we assess how urbanization and global warming together might impact on heavy precipitation characteristics over the highly urbanized Pearl River Delta (PRD) megacity, located in southern China. This is done by dynamically downscaling GFDL-ESM2M simulations for the present and future (RCP8.5) climate scenarios, using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a single-layer urban canopy model (UCM). Over the PRD area, the WRF model is integrated at a resolution of 2km x 2km. To focus on extreme events, episodes covering daily rainfall intensity above the 99th percentile in Southeast China in the GFDL-ESM2M daily precipitation datasets were first identified. These extreme episodes were then dynamically downscaled in two parallel experiments with the following model designs: one with anthropogenic heat flux (AH) = 0 Wm-2 and the other with peak AH = 300 Wm-2 in the AH diurnal cycle over the urban domain. Results show that, with AH in urban area, the urban 2m-temperature can rise by about 2oC. This in turn leads to an increase of the mean as well as the extreme rain rates by 10-15% in urban domain. The latter is comparable to the impact of global warming alone, according to downscaling experiments for the RCP8.5 scenario. Implications of our results on urban effects on extreme rainfall under a warming background climate will be discussed.

Does spatial location matter? Traditional therapy utilisation among the general population in a Ghanaian rural and urban setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Gyasi, Razak Mohammed; Asante, Felix; Segbefia, Alexander Yao; Abass, Kabila; Mensah, Charlotte Monica; Siaw, Lawrencia Pokuah; Eshun, Gabriel; Adjei, Prince Osei-Wusu

2015-06-01

Despite the recognition for rising consumption rate of traditional medicine (TRM) in health and spatio-medical literature in the global scale, the impact of location in traditional therapy use has been explored least in Ghana. This paper analysed the role of spatial variation in TRM use in Kumasi Metropolis and Sekyere South District of Ashanti Region, Ghana. A retrospective cross-sectional and place-based survey was conducted in a representative sample (N=324) selected through systematic random sampling technique. Structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were espoused as the main research instruments. Data were analysed with Pearson's Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests from the Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) version 17.0. The study found that over 86% reported TRM use. Whilst majority (59.1%) of the respondents had used TRM two or more times within the last 12 months, biologically-based therapies and energy healing were common forms of TRM accessed. Although, the use of TRM did not vary (p>0.05), knowledge about TRM, modalities of TRM and the sources of TRM differed significantly across geographically demarcated rural and urban splits (p<0.005). The study advances our understanding of the spatial dimensions as regards TRM utilisation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vegetation cover and land use impacts on soil water repellency in an Urban Park located in Vilnius, Lithuania

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, Paulo; Cerda, Artemi

2015-04-01

It is strongly recognized that vegetation cover, land use have important impacts on the degree of soil water repellency (SWR). Soil water repellency is a natural property of soils, but can be induced by natural and anthropogenic disturbances as fire and soil tillage (Doerr et al., 2000; Urbanek et al., 2007; Mataix-Solera et al., 2014). Urban parks are areas where soils have a strong human impact, with implications on their hydrological properties. The aim of this work is to study the impact of different vegetations cover and urban soils impact on SWR and the relation to other soil variables as pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and soil organic matter (SOM) in an urban park. The study area is located in Vilnius city (54°.68' N, 25°.25' E). It was collected 15 soil samples under different vegetation cover as Pine (Pinus Sylvestris), Birch (Alnus glutinosa), Penduculate Oak (Quercus robur), Platanus (Platanus orientalis) and other human disturbed areas as forest trails and soils collected from human planted grass. Soils were taken to the laboratory, air-dried at room temperature and sieved with the 3600 (extremely water repellent). The results showed significant differences among the different vegetation cover (Kruskal-Wallis H=20.64, ppost-fire management scenarios, CGL2013-47862-C2-1-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; Fuegored; RECARE (Preventing and Remediating Degradation of Soils in Europe Through Land Care, FP7-ENV-2013-TWO STAGE), funded by the European Commission; and for the COST action ES1306 (Connecting European connectivity research). References Bisdom, E.B.A., Dekker, L., Schoute, J.F.Th. (1993) Water repellency of sieve fractions from sandy soils and relationships with organic material and soil structure. Geoderma, 56, 105-118. Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A., Walsh, R.P.D. (2000) Soil water repellency: Its causes, characteristics and hydro-geomorphological significance. Earth-Science Reviews, 51, 33-65. Doerr, S.H. (1998

Differences in the Fitness Levels of Urban and Rural Middle School Students in Croatia

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Novak, Dario; Bernstein, Eve R.; Podnar, Hrvoje; Vozzolo, Yolanda

2015-01-01

Background: It is known that suburban youth are more fit than urban youth in Croatia. Method: Differences (p < 0.05) in fitness levels and motor abilities of 9,164 (F = 4,671, M = 4,493) Croatian children (age range: 11-14 years) from urban (F = 1,380, M = 1,268), mixed rural-urban (F = 274, M = 289), and rural (F = 3017, M = 2936) areas were…

Rural transformations in the context of changing rural-urban connections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birch-Thomsen, Torben; Ørtenblad, Sinne Borby; Msese, Lukelo

, the infrastructure, including road systems and means of communication, has in general increased and improved. This development has among a number of other things caused changing patterns of mobility. These changes are highly interrelated and connected to changing rural-urban linkages, which include flows of people......, capital, resources, agricultural commodities, goods, services, technology and information, between rural and urban locations. We emphasize that the rural-urban connections go beyond the spatial dichotomy and that the linkages often occur in a dynamic rural-urban continuum. Influenced by these changes......, this paper sets out to elucidate patterns and dynamics of rural transformation in Tanzania in the context of changing rural-urban linkages by presenting data from a particularly dynamic region; namely Njombe Region in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Based on fieldwork conducted during 2014 and 2015...

Self-Assessed Intelligence: Inter-Ethnic, Rural-Urban, and Sex Differences in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Swami, Viren; Furnham, Adrian

2010-01-01

The present study examined inter-ethnic, rural-urban, and sex differences in self-assessed intelligence (SAI) in a Malaysian general population sample. In total, 633 individuals varying in rural or urban location, ethnicity (Malay, Kadazan, and Bajau), and sex (women versus men) provided their self-assessed overall intelligence and ten multiple…

Global forecasts of urban expansion to 2030 and direct impacts on biodiversity and carbon pools

OpenAIRE

Seto, Karen C.; Güneralp, Burak; Hutyra, Lucy R.

2012-01-01

Urban land-cover change threatens biodiversity and affects ecosystem productivity through loss of habitat, biomass, and carbon storage. However, despite projections that world urban populations will increase to nearly 5 billion by 2030, little is known about future locations, magnitudes, and rates of urban expansion. Here we develop spatially explicit probabilistic forecasts of global urban land-cover change and explore the direct impacts on biodiversity hotspots and tropical carbon biomass. ...

Spatial Analysis of Urban Master Plans of Towns in North-Eastern Poland in the Context of Urban Revalorisation

Science.gov (United States)

Zagroba, Marek; Klopotowski, Maciej

2017-12-01

The research subject raised in this study is the urban structure of small towns in Warmia, a region rich in history, situated in the north-eastern Poland. This area, together with the neighbouring region of Mazury, is referred to as the Land of a Thousand Lakes. The historical events, such as the conquest of this territory by the Teutonic Order in 13th century, gave rise to the foundation of twelve towns in Warmia, which have survived until our time. Of these settlements, only one, which is Olsztyn, grew to a larger size over the centuries and eventually became the capital of Warmia. The others are still small towns, with a population from a few to less than twenty thousand inhabitants. The policy and economic goals of the Teutonic Order underlay the spread of a uniform type of urban master plan in the entire region. The establishment of urban centres was dictated by military considerations - all towns had fortified castles and were 15-30 km distant from one another, which stemmed from the organisation of the Teutonic State. The location of new towns in Warmia coincided in time with the general urban planning principles governing urban development in the Middle Ages. The medieval towns, which grew on the foundations of ancient cultures, were developed on a regular grid of streets, delineating land lots for compact town houses and a central square serving as a market place. Within this structure, the town’s most significant spatial dominants, such as a town hall, a church and a fortified castle, were situated. The castle often stood on the outskirts of a town, as it had to be connected to the town’s fortifications. The location of medieval towns in Warmia proceeded according to a similar concept. All these towns are distinguished by characteristically medieval, regular urban layouts, which - while being similar - have certain intrinsic features. Differences can be seen in the design of main streets, the size and proportions of market squares, the ways in which

Detecting Development Pattern of Urban Business Facilities Using Reviews Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JIANG Botao

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This paper reveals and utilizes the growing power of online customer reviews in the space and time context. The location of commercial facilities and online customer reviews offered by Dianping.com provide an important data source for the study of spatial and temporal dynamics of urban commercial facilities. The constraints of road network are taken into account towards computing the density of urban commercial facilities and associated online customer reviews, as well as their spatial distribution, temporal trend, and the coupling relationship between facility number and stratification level. This paper maps the spatial distribution of commercial facilities onto the nearby road network, reflecting the influences of the locations, number and satisfaction levels of other commercial facilities across various street types. Because more and more customers tend to make a final shopping decision by sorting through search results by ratings and feedback, the research conducted in this paper can provide the proof for quantitative evaluation of urban planning on commercial facility development.

The global potential of local peri-urban food production

Science.gov (United States)

Kriewald, Steffen; Garcia Cantu Ros, Anselmo; Sterzel, Till; Kropp, Jürgen P.

2013-04-01

One big challenge for the rest of the 21st century will be the massive urbanisation. It is expected that more than 7 out of 10 persons will live in a city by the year 2050. Crucial developments towards a sustainable future will therefore take place in cities. One important approach for a sustainable city development is to re-localize food production and to close urban nutrient cycles through better waste management. The re-location of food production avoids CO2 emissions from transportation of food to cities and can also generate income for inhabitants. Cities are by definition locations where fertility accumulates. As cities are often built along rivers, their soils are often fertile. Furthermore, labour force and the possibility of producing fertilizer from human fecal matter within the city promises sustainable nutrients cycles. Although urban and peri-urban agriculture can be found in many cities worldwide and already have a substantial contribution to food supply, it has not jet been comprehensibly structured by research. We combine several worldwide data sets to determine the supply of cities with regional food production, where regional is defined as a production that occurs very close to the consumption within the peri-urban area. Therefore, urban areas are not defined by administrative boundaries but by connected built-up urban areas, and peri-urban area by the surrounding area with the same size multiplied with a scaling parameter. Both together accumulate to an urban-bio-region (UBR). With regard to national food consumption, a linear program achieves the best possible yield on agricultural areas and allows the computation of the fraction of population, which can be nourished. Additionally, several climate scenarios and different dietary patterns were considered. To close the gap between single case studies and to provide a quantitative overview of the global potential of peri-urban food production we used high resolution land-use data Global Land Cover

Urban water trajectories

CERN Document Server

Allen, Adriana; Hofmann, Pascale; Teh, Tse-Hui

2017-01-01

Water is an essential element in the future of cities. It shapes cities’ locations, form, ecology, prosperity and health. The changing nature of urbanisation, climate change, water scarcity, environmental values, globalisation and social justice mean that the models of provision of water services and infrastructure that have dominated for the past two centuries are increasingly infeasible. Conventional arrangements for understanding and managing water in cities are being subverted by a range of natural, technological, political, economic and social changes. The prognosis for water in cities remains unclear, and multiple visions and discourses are emerging to fill the space left by the certainty of nineteenth century urban water planning and engineering. This book documents a sample of those different trajectories, in terms of water transformations, option, services and politics. Water is a key element shaping urban form, economies and lifestyles, part of the ongoing transformation of cities. Cities are face...

Hospitality, culture and regeneration: urban decay, entrepreneurship and the "ruin" bars of Budapest.

Science.gov (United States)

Lugosi, Peter; Bell, David; Lugosi, Krisztina

2010-01-01

This paper considers the relationships between hospitality, culture and urban regeneration through an examination of rom (ruin) venues, which operate in dilapidated buildings in Budapest, Hungary. The paper reviews previous work on culture and urban regeneration in order to locate the role of hospitality within emerging debates. It subsequently interrogates the evolution of the rom phenomenon and demonstrates how, in this context, hospitality thrives because of social and physical decay in urban locations, how operators and entrepreneurs exploit conflicts among various actors involved in regeneration and how hospitality may be mobilised purposefully in the regeneration process. The paper demonstrates how networked entrepreneurship maintains these operations and how various forms of cultural production are entangled and mobilised in the venues' hospitality propositions.

Urbanization and traffic related exposures as risk factors for Schizophrenia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Carsten Bøcker; Mortensen, Preben Bo

2006-01-01

to nearest major road had no significant effect. CONCLUSIONS: The cause(s) or exposure(s) responsible for the urban-rural differences in schizophrenia risk were closer related to the degree of urbanization than to the geographical distance to nearest major road. Traffic related exposures might thus be less......BACKGROUND: Urban birth or upbringing increase schizophrenia risk. Though unknown, the causes of these urban-rural differences have been hypothesized to include, e.g., infections, diet, toxic exposures, social class, or an artefact due to selective migration. METHODS: We investigated the hypothesis...... that traffic related exposures affect schizophrenia risk and that this potential effect is responsible for the urban-rural differences. The geographical distance from place of residence to nearest major road was used as a proxy variable for traffic related exposures. We used a large population-based sample...

Future Urban Climate Projection in A Tropical Megacity Based on Global and Regional Scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Darmanto, N. S.; Varquez, A. C. G.; Kanda, M.

2017-12-01

Cities in Asian developing countries experience rapid transformation in urban morphology and energy consumption, which correspondingly affects urban climate. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model coupled with improved single-layer urban canopy model incorporating realistic distribution of urban parameters and anthropogenic heat emission (AHE) in the tropic Jakarta Greater Area was conducted. Simulation was conducted during the dry months from 2006 to 2015 and agreed well with point and satellite observation. The same technology coupled with pseudo global warming (PGW) method based on representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenario 2.6 and 8.5 was conducted to produce futuristic climate condition in 2050. Projected urban morphology and AHE in 2050s were constructed using regional urban growing model with shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP) among its inputs. Compact future urban configuration, based on SSP1, was coupled to RCP2.6. Unrestrained future urban configuration, based on SSP3, was coupled to RCP8.5. Results show that background warming from RCP 2.6 and 8.5 will increase background temperature by 0.55°C and 1.2°C throughout the region, respectively. Future projection of urban sprawl results to an additional 0.3°C and 0.5°C increase on average, with maximum increase of 1.1°C and 1.3°C due to urban effect for RCP2.6/compact and RCP8.5/unrestrained, respectively. Higher moisture content in urban area is indicated in the future due to higher evaporation. Change in urban roughness is likely affect slower wind velocity in urban area and sea breeze front inland penetration the future compare with current condition. Acknowledgement: This research was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-14) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.

Urban versus rural populations' views of health care in Scotland.

Science.gov (United States)

Farmer, Jane; Hinds, Kerstin; Richards, Helen; Godden, David

2005-10-01

To compare satisfaction with, and expectations of, health care of people in rural and urban areas of Scotland. Questions were included in the 2002 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSAS). The Scottish House-hold Survey urban-rural classification was used to categorize locations. A random sample of 2707 people was contacted to participate in a face-to-face interview and a self-completion questionnaire survey. SPSS (v.10) was used to analyse the data. Relationships between location category and responses were explored using logistic regression analysis. In all, 1665 (61.5%) interviews were conducted and 1507 (56.0%) respondents returned self-completion questionnaires. Satisfaction with local doctors and hospital services was higher in rural locations. While around 40% of those living in remote areas thought A&E services too distant, this did not rank as a top priority for health service improvement. This could be due to expectations that general practitioners would assist in out-of-hours emergencies. Most Scots thought services should be good in rural areas even if this was costly, and that older people should not be discouraged from moving to rural areas because of their likely health care needs. In all, 79% of respondents thought that care should be as good in rural as urban areas. Responses to many questions were independently significantly affected by rural/urban location. Most Scots want rural health care to continue to be good, but the new UK National Health Service (NHS) general practitioner contract and service redesign will impact on provision. Current high satisfaction, likely to be due to access and expectations about local help, could be affected. This study provides baseline data on attitudes and expectations before potential service redesign, which should be monitored at intervals in future.

City rats: From rat behaviour to human spatial cognition in urban environments

OpenAIRE

David Eilam; Juval Portugali; Osnat Yaski

2010-01-01

The structure and shape of an urban environment influence our ability to find our way about in the city^1-2^. Indeed, urban designers who face the challenge of planning environments that facilitate wayfinding^3^, have a consequent need to understand the relations between the urban environment and spatial cognition^4^. Previous studies have suggested that certain qualities of city elements, such as a distinct contrast with the background (e.g. The Eiffel Tower in Paris), or a clear morphology ...

Integrating science into governance and management of coastal areas at urban scale

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Celliers, Louis

2012-10-01

Full Text Available and development planning (CSDP) is no longer an option but a necessity. Current legislation devolves many fine scale planning and management functions within coastal urban centres to local authorities, including land-use and urban and economic development... into governance and management of coastal areas at urban scale L CELLIERS, S TALJAARD AND R VAN BALLEGOOYEN CSIR, PO Box 395, Pretoria, South Africa, 0001 Email: lcelliers@csir.co.za ? www.csir.co.za BACKGROUND With burgeoning demand for coastal space...

Awareness of cord blood banking among pregnant women in semi urban area

OpenAIRE

Poomalar G. K.; Jayasree M.

2016-01-01

Background: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are multipotent stem cells, derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood and umbilical cord. These HSC are accepted method of treatment for various disorders. Cord blood can be stored either in private or public bank. Awareness about cord blood banking among semi urban and rural population is less compared to urban population. The aim of our study is to evaluate the awareness of cord blood banking among pregnant women in semi urban area and to evaluat...

Interactive exploration of the vulnerability of the human infrastructure: an approach using simultaneous display of similar locations

Science.gov (United States)

Ceré, Raphaël; Kaiser, Christian

2015-04-01

Currently, three quarters of the Swiss population is living in urban areas. The total population is still increasing, and urbanized space is increasing event faster. Consequently, the intensity of use has decreased but the exposure of the urban space to natural events has grown along with the cost related to the impact of hazards. In line with this fact, during the 20th century there has been a noticeable increase of natural disasters accompanied by the rapid increase of the world population, leading to higher costs. Additionally to the fact that more people are exposed to natural hazards, the value of goods globally has increased more than proportionally. Consequently, the vulnerability of urban space is, more than ever before, a major issue for socio-economic development. Here, vulnerability is defined as the potential human loss or loss of infrastructure caused by a hazardous event. It encompasses factors of urban infrastructure, population and the environment, which increase the susceptibility of a location to the impact of hazards. This paper describes a novel method for improving the interactive use of exploratory data analysis in the context of minimizing vulnerability and disaster risk by prevention or mitigation. This method is used to assess the similarity between different locations with respect to several characteristics relevant to vulnerability at different scales, allowing for automatic display of multiple locations similar to the one under investigation by an expert. Visualizing vulnerability simultaneously for several locations allows for analyzing and comparing of metric characteristics between multiple places and at different scales. The interactivity aspect is also useful for understanding vulnerability patterns and it facilitates disaster risk management and decisions on global preventive measures in urban spaces. Metrics for vulnerability assessment can be extracted from extensive geospatial datasets such as high-resolution digital elevation

Travel and urban form in the Greater Copenhagen region

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick

of the economic upturn – with a later point in time where the financial crisis had radically changed the economic climate. It follows from the specificity of the historical events that an analysis of what happened to urban form and transport over the financial crisis is to be seen as a case study......Research into the associations between urban form and travel in the capital areal has focussed on subcenters and the stability of urban form correlates over time. A trend towards de-concentration and formation of subcenters in metropolitan areas has been acknowledged for decades. Studies have...... analyzed the new urban structure by identifying subcenters and their land value impacts. Others have focused on subcenters as a location attribute or ‘intervention’ that affects travel patterns and therefore may be employed in the context of urban and transportation demand management. The research has...

Urban lifestyle and urban biodiversity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, L. K.; Lyytimäki, J.; Normander, B.

2007-01-01

This report is concerned with the relations between lifestyles of urban populations on one hand and protection of biodiversity in urban areas on the other. Urban areas are of importance for the general protection of biodiversity. In the surroundings of cities and within urban sprawls there can...... biodiversity, recreational, educational and other needs. However, uncovered and unsealed space is constantly under pressure for building and infrastructure development in the urban landscape, and the design and usages of urban green structure is a matter of differing interests and expectations. Integrating...... the green needs of urban lifestyle in the planning process does not come by itself. Nor does finding the synergies between urban lifestyle and urban biodiversity. Careful planning including stakeholder involvement is required. In this process various mapping techniques and use of indicators can be most...

Assessment of urban pluvial flood risk and efficiency of adaptation options through simulations - A new generation of urban planning tools

Science.gov (United States)

Löwe, Roland; Urich, Christian; Sto. Domingo, Nina; Mark, Ole; Deletic, Ana; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten

2017-07-01

We present a new framework for flexible testing of flood risk adaptation strategies in a variety of urban development and climate scenarios. This framework couples the 1D-2D hydrodynamic simulation package MIKE FLOOD with the agent-based urban development model DAnCE4Water and provides the possibility to systematically test various flood risk adaptation measures ranging from large infrastructure changes over decentralised water management to urban planning policies. We have tested the framework in a case study in Melbourne, Australia considering 9 scenarios for urban development and climate and 32 potential combinations of flood adaptation measures. We found that the performance of adaptation measures strongly depended on the considered climate and urban development scenario and the other implementation measures implemented, suggesting that adaptive strategies are preferable over one-off investments. Urban planning policies proved to be an efficient means for the reduction of flood risk, while implementing property buyback and pipe increases in a guideline-oriented manner was too costly. Random variations in location and time point of urban development could have significant impact on flood risk and would in some cases outweigh the benefits of less efficient adaptation strategies. The results of our setup can serve as an input for robust decision making frameworks and thus support the identification of flood risk adaptation measures that are economically efficient and robust to variations of climate and urban layout.

The Extent and Implications of the Microclimatic Conditions in the Urban Environment: A Vienna Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milena Vuckovic

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Recent challenges in the realm of urban studies concern better understanding of microclimatic conditions. Changes in urban climate affect cities at local and global scales, with consequences for human health, thermal comfort, building energy use, and anthropogenic emissions. The extent of these impacts may vary due to different morphologies and materials of the built environment. The present contribution summarizes the results of a multi-year effort concerned with the extent and implications of urban heat in Vienna, Austria. For this purpose, high-resolution weather data across six locations are obtained and analyzed. This allowed for an objective assessment of urban-level climatic circumstances across distinct low-density and high-density typologies. Subsequently, a systematic framework was developed for identification of essential properties of the built environment (geometric and material-related that are hypothesized to influence microclimate variation. Results point to a number of related (positive and negative correlations with microclimatic tendencies. Additionally, the impact of this location-specific weather data on building performance simulation results is evaluated. The results suggest that buildings' thermal performance is significantly influenced by location-specific microclimatic conditions with variation of mean annual heating load across locations of up to 16.1 kWhm−2·a−1. The use of location-independent weather data sources (e.g., standardized weather files for building performance estimations can, thus, result in considerable errors.

On the urban heat island effect dependence on temperature trends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Camilloni, I.; Barros, V.

1997-01-01

For US, Argentine and Australian cities, yearly mean urban to rural temperature differences (ΔT u-r ) and rural temperatures (T r ) are negatively correlated in almost every case, suggesting that urban heat island intensity depends, among other parameters on the temperature itself. This negative correlation is related to the fact that interannual variability of temperature is generally lower in urban environments than in rural areas. This seems to hold true at low frequencies leading to opposite trends in the two variables. Hence, urban stations are prone to have lower trends in absolute value than rural ones. Therefore, regional data sets including records from urban locations, in addition to urban growth bias may have a second type of urban bias associated with temperature trends. A bulk estimate of this second urban bias trend for the contiguous United States during 1901-1984 indicates that it could be of the same order as the urban growth bias and of opposite sign. If these results could be extended to global data, it could be expected that the spurious influence of urban growth on global temperature trends during warming periods will be offset by the diminishing of the urban heat island intensity. 36 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs

Suicide risk in relation to level of urbanicity - a population-based linkage study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qin, Ping

2005-01-01

from various Danish longitudinal registers. Data were analysed with conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: This study confirms that people living in more urbanized areas are at a higher risk of suicide than their counterparts in less urbanized areas. However, this excess risk is largely eliminated...... when adjusted for personal marital, income, and ethnic differences; it is even reversed when further adjusted for psychiatric status. Moreover, the impact of urbanicity on suicide risk differs significantly by sex and across age. Urban living reduces suicide risk significantly among men, especially......BACKGROUND: The extent to which the high suicide rate in urban areas is influenced by exposures to risk factors for suicide other than urbanicity remains unknown. This population-based study aims to investigate suicide risk in relation to the level of urbanicity in the context of other factors...

The fluorescence properties of aerosol larger than 0.8 μm in urban and tropical rainforest locations

Science.gov (United States)

Gabey, A. M.; Stanley, W. R.; Gallagher, M. W.; Kaye, P. H.

2011-06-01

UV-LIF measurements were performed on ambient aerosol in Manchester, UK (urban city centre, winter) and Borneo, Malaysia (remote, tropical) using a Wide Issue Bioaerosol Spectrometer, version 3 (WIBS3). These sites are taken to represent environments with minor and significant primary biological aerosol (PBA) influences respectively, and the urban dataset describes the fluorescent background aerosol against which PBA must be identified by researchers using LIF. The ensemble aerosol at both sites was characterised over 2-3 weeks by measuring the fluorescence intensity and optical equivalent diameter (DP) of single particles sized 0.8 ≤ DP ≤ 20 μm. Filter samples were also collected for a subset of the Manchester campaign and analysed using energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX) spectroscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), which revealed mostly non-PBA at D ≤ 1 μm. The WIBS3 features three fluorescence channels: the emission following a 280 nm excitation is recorded at 310-400 nm (channel F1) and 400-600 nm (F2), and fluorescence excited at 350 nm is detected at 400-600 nm (F3). In Manchester the primary size mode of fluorescent and non-fluorescent material was present at 0.8-1.2 μm, with a secondary fluorescent mode at 2-4 μm. In Borneo non-fluorescent material peaked at 0.8-1.2 μm and fluorescent at 3-4 μm. Agreement between fluorescent number concentrations in each channel differed at the two sites, with F1 and F3 reporting similar concentrations in Borneo but F3 outnumbering F1 by a factor of 2-3 across the size spectrum in Manchester. The fluorescence intensity in each channel generally rose with DP at both sites with the exception of F1 intensity in Manchester, which peaked at DP = 4 μm, causing a divergence between F1 and F3 intensity at larger DP. This divergence and the differing fluorescent particle concentrations demonstrate the additional discrimination provided by the F1 channel in Manchester. The relationships between

Commonness and ecology, but not bigger brains, predict urban living in birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Dale, Svein; Lifjeld, Jan T; Rowe, Melissah

2015-04-11

Several life history and ecological variables have been reported to affect the likelihood of species becoming urbanized. Recently, studies have also focused on the role of brain size in explaining ability to adapt to urban environments. In contrast, however, little is known about the effect of colonization pressure from surrounding areas, which may confound conclusions about what makes a species urban. We recorded presence/absence data for birds in 93 urban sites in Oslo (Norway) and compared these with species lists generated from 137 forest and 51 farmland sites surrounding Oslo which may represent source populations for colonization. We found that the frequency (proportion of sites where present) of a species within the city was strongly and positively associated with its frequency in sites surrounding the city, as were both species breeding habitat and nest site location. In contrast, there were generally no significant effects of relative brain mass or migration on urban occupancy. Furthermore, analyses of previously published data showed that urban density of birds in six other European cities was also positively and significantly associated with density in areas outside cities, whereas relative brain mass showed no such relationship. These results suggest that urban bird communities are primarily determined by how frequently species occurred in the surrounding landscapes and by features of ecology (i.e. breeding habitat and nest site location), whereas species' relative brain mass had no significant effects.

Ecosystem services: Urban parks under a magnifying glass.

Science.gov (United States)

Mexia, Teresa; Vieira, Joana; Príncipe, Adriana; Anjos, Andreia; Silva, Patrícia; Lopes, Nuno; Freitas, Catarina; Santos-Reis, Margarida; Correia, Otília; Branquinho, Cristina; Pinho, Pedro

2018-01-01

Urban areas' population has grown during the last century and it is expected that over 60% of the world population will live in cities by 2050. Urban parks provide several ecosystem services that are valuable to the well-being of city-dwellers and they are also considered a nature-based solution to tackle multiple environmental problems in cities. However, the type and amount of ecosystem services provided will vary with each park vegetation type, even within same the park. Our main goal was to quantify the trade-offs in ecosystem services associated to different vegetation types, using a spatially detailed approach. Rather than relying solely on general vegetation typologies, we took a more ecologically oriented approach, by explicitly considering different units of vegetation structure and composition. This was demonstrated in a large park (44ha) located in the city of Almada (Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal), where six vegetation units were mapped in detail and six ecosystem services were evaluated: carbon sequestration, seed dispersal, erosion prevention, water purification, air purification and habitat quality. The results showed that, when looking at the park in detail, some ecosystem services varied greatly with vegetation type. Carbon sequestration was positively influenced by tree density, independently of species composition. Seed dispersal potential was higher in lawns, and mixed forest provided the highest amount of habitat quality. Air purification service was slightly higher in mixed forest, but was high in all vegetation types, probably due to low background pollution, and both water purification and erosion prevention were high in all vegetation types. Knowing the type, location, and amount of ecosystem services provided by each vegetation type can help to improve management options based on ecosystem services trade-offs and looking for win-win situations. The trade-offs are, for example, very clear for carbon: tree planting will boost carbon

Performing the nation between us: urban photographic sets with young migrants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tania Rossetto

2015-08-01

Full Text Available First developed during the 1990s, the transnational paradigm in the study of migration has been associated with the notions of displacement, deterritorialisation and frictionless-ness. In more recent times, there has been a growing tendency to spatially ground transnational studies by locating and emplacing transnational practices. The emergence of the so-called transnational urbanism has led to a prolific urban stream within transnational research. With respect to the growing diversity of Western societies, this literature has tended to emphasise the potentialities of the city as the location of lived diversity, sharing, dynamism, vibrancy and encounter, in contrast to the deficiencies of the nation, identified with formal politics, discourse and ideology, singular belonging, fixity and constraint. Against this narrative of the city/nation divide, this article draws attention to the alternative conceptualisations of the nation that have emerged in recent debates and have embraced local, material and agency-based, rather than discursively-oriented approaches to the nation. As well as the city/nation divide, a progressive idea of the nation as shared experiences is analysed within an urban performance project which involved young migrants in the city of Padua (Italy during winter 2013. These performances are read from the particular perspective of the scale debate, suggesting that, through the performance of urban heritage sites, those migrants physically and emotionally locate themselves within the hosting nation. Finally, I discuss this scalar shift and I propose extrapolating the concept of the “urban unconscious” to the national level, thus suggesting a way to think about the nation as a frame of co-existence and not as an identity bond.

Roads Belong in the Urban Landscape

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clemmensen, Thomas Juel

2013-01-01

Roads are often associated with a fragmentation or splintering of landscapes and their natural connectivity; particularly in relation to ‘green infrastructure’ they are often considered problematic elements that rupture and barricade. Conversely, as part of larger networks, roads can be considered...... important elements in the creation of new, ‘green infrastructures’ that can qualify urban landscapes in terms of improving their overall porosity and connectivity. This argument will be unfolded and substantiated in this article through theoretical reflections which conceptually re-locate road networks...... in the urban landscape, supported by relevant reference projects that illustrate the potential of road networks as a platform for ‘green infrastructure’....

Evaporation from water surfaces in urban environments, using Prague and Pilsen (Czech Republic as examples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Knozová Gražyna

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The subject of this study is an evaluation of the amount of evaporation from water surfaces (VVH, measured using EWM devices in two cities of different sizes, and located approximately 80 km from each other – Prague and Pilsen. The results were analyzed in the context of urban phenomena, which are pronounced especially in Prague, and also in the context of meteorological and morphological conditions in those locations. It was found that higher amounts of evaporation were measured at the meteorological station in Pilsen. The difference between the average sum of VVH per season (1st May to 30th September between 2005 and 2014 for the two locations is 33.3 mm. The difference between daily average values was 0.2 mm. Given the suburban nature of the two locations where measurements were taken, it was not possible to draw any conclusions about the effect of the urban heat island on the rate of evaporation and values of VVH. Factors significantly influencing VVH are surface roughness, which is higher in urban environments than in open landscapes. Based on the results it was concluded that at both a regional and a local scale, the rate of evaporation is more affected by wind speed than thermal conditions. The measured VVH values differ, not just because of the urban dimension of the two cities compared, but especially as a result of different topoclimatic location of the two stations.

Ethiopia's urban primary health care reform: Practices, lessons, and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Yayeh

to assess the implementation of the pilot initiatives. ... Keywords:- Urban, health extension professionals, PHC, pilot. Background. The history of .... The FHT is divided into two sub-teams. .... helped in drawing attention to social sectors that were.

Mapping urban porosity and roughness characteristics as a mean of defining urban ventilation corridors

Science.gov (United States)

Wicht, Marzena; Wicht, Andreas; Osińska-Skotak, Katarzyna

2017-10-01

Cities can be characterized with the roughest aerodynamic boundaries, which results in the enhanced turbulent motion and increased drag effect. This leads to reduced wind speeds and directly increases negative effects of living within urban areas. Urban Heat Island, decreased air quality or densely built-up residential/industrial areas occur in many cities, both in temperate and tropical regions, and are included in these negative effects. This case study investigates Warsaw, the capital of Poland, representing a dense, urban environment, located in the temperate zone. It suffers from immense air pollution levels, as well as Urban Heat Island, and the local government is seeking ways to resolve these issues. Among many mitigation techniques, air restoration and exchange system were suggested as appropriate measures, as they address many of the aforementioned issues. The essential elements of such system are ventilation corridors. This paper describes mapping these corridors utilizing the morphometric methods of urban roughness aided by remote sensing data. We focus especially on the terrain topology and texture of single elements, including high vegetation canopy layer. This study considers DSM and different porosity of obstacles, deriving a new outlook at the morphometric methods as a way to improve them. The mapped areas of low roughness characteristics might be appointed as ventilation corridors and play a crucial role in air restoration and exchange system. They may also be included in further planning processes by the local government as preservation areas.

Designing integrated energy and spatial development for sustainable urban areas in the Northern Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zheng, Ling

2006-01-01

This study aims to reduce CO2 emission in an efficient way in urban areas by reducing conventional energy use and implementing renewable energy. The research urban area is Zuidlanden, located in the south of Leeuwarden in the north of the Netherlands. The

Dissemination of regional rainfall analysis in design and analysis of urban drainage at un-gauged locations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K.; Harremoes, Poul; Mikkelsen, Peter Steen

2002-01-01

regional variation of extreme rainfalls throughout the country. This has implications for design and analysis of all practical problems related to urban drainage, since the rainfall data so far recommended as input to engineering analyses underestimates the problems. Consequently, the Danish Water......A research program in Denmark on statistical modelling of rainfall has resulted in a model for regional distribution of rainfall extremes. The results show that extreme rainfalls critical to the hydraulic function of urban drainage systems and the pollution discharge are subject to a significant...... Pollution Control Committee has issued a statement recommending a new engineering practice. The dissemination of the research results proved to be difficult due to lack of understanding of the concepts of the new paradigm by practitioners. The traditional means of communication was supplemented by user...

The effect of urban heat island on Izmir's city ecosystem and climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Corumluoglu, Ozsen; Asri, Ibrahim

2015-03-01

Depending on the researches done on urban landscapes, it is found that the heat island intensity caused by the activities in any city has some impact on the ecosystem of the region and on the regional climate. Urban areas located in arid and semiarid lands somehow represent heat increase when it is compared with the heat in the surrounding rural areas. Thus, cities located amid forested and temperate climate regions show moderate temperatures. The impervious surfaces let the rainfall leave the city lands faster than undeveloped areas. This effect reduces water's cooling effects on these lands. More significantly, if trees and other vegetations are rare in any region, it means less evapotranspiration-the process by which trees "exhale" water. Trees also contribute to the cooling of urban lands by their shade. Land cover and land use maps can easily be produced by processing of remote sensing satellites' images, like processing of Landsat's images. As a result of this process, urban regions can be distinguished from vegetation. Analyzed GIS data produced and supported by these images can be utilized to determine the impact of urban land on energy, water, and carbon balances at the Earth's surface. Here in this study, it is found that remote sensing technique with thermal images is a liable technique to asses where urban heat islands and hot spots are located in cities. As an application area, in Izmir, it was found that the whole city was in high level of surface temperature as it was over 28 °C during the summer times. Beside this, the highest temperature values which go up to 47 °C are obtained at industrial regions especially where the iron-steel factories and the related industrial activities are.

Socioeconomic Segregation of Activity Spaces in Urban Neighborhoods: Does Shared Residence Mean Shared Routines?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher R. Browning

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Residential segregation by income and education is increasing alongside slowly declining black-white segregation. Segregation in urban neighborhood residents’ nonhome activity spaces has not been explored. How integrated are the daily routines of people who live in the same neighborhood? Are people with different socioeconomic backgrounds that live near one another less likely to share routine activity locations than those of similar education or income? Do these patterns vary across the socioeconomic continuum or by neighborhood structure? The analyses draw on unique data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey that identify the location where residents engage in routine activities. Using multilevel p2 (network models, we analyze pairs of households in the same neighborhood and examine whether the dyad combinations across three levels of SES conduct routine activities in the same location, and whether neighbor socioeconomic similarity in the co-location of routine activities is dependent on the level of neighborhood socioeconomic inequality and trust. Results indicate that, on average, increasing SES diminishes the likelihood of sharing activity locations with any SES group. This pattern is most pronounced in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of socioeconomic inequality. Neighborhood trust explains a nontrivial proportion of the inequality effect on the extent of routine activity sorting by SES. Thus stark, visible neighborhood-level inequality by SES may lead to enhanced effects of distrust on the willingness to share routines across class.

Identifying the driving forces of urban expansion and its environmental impact in Jakarta-Bandung mega urban region

Science.gov (United States)

Pravitasari, A. E.; Rustiadi, E.; Mulya, S. P.; Setiawan, Y.; Fuadina, L. N.; Murtadho, A.

2018-05-01

The socio-economic development in Jakarta-Bandung Mega Urban Region (JBMUR) caused the increasing of urban expansion and led to a variety of environmental damage such as uncontrolled land use conversion and raising anthropogenic disaster. The objectives of this study are: (1) to identify the driving forces of urban expansion that occurs on JBMUR and (2) to analyze the environmental quality decline on JBMUR by producing time series spatial distribution map and spatial autocorrelation of floods and landslide as the proxy of anthropogenic disaster. The driving forces of urban expansion in this study were identified by employing Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model using 6 (six) independent variables, namely: population density, percentage of agricultural land, distance to the center of capital city/municipality, percentage of household who works in agricultural sector, distance to the provincial road, and distance to the local road. The GWR results showed that local demographic, social and economic factors including distance to the road spatially affect urban expansion in JBMUR. The time series spatial distribution map of floods and landslide event showed the spatial cluster of anthropogenic disaster in some areas. Through Local Moran Index, we found that environmental damage in one location has a significant impact on the condition of its surrounding area.

Impact of Santiago de Chile urban atmospheric pollution on anthropogenic trace elements enrichment in snow precipitation at Cerro Colorado, Central Andes

Science.gov (United States)

Cereceda-Balic, F.; Palomo-Marín, M. R.; Bernalte, E.; Vidal, V.; Christie, J.; Fadic, X.; Guevara, J. L.; Miro, C.; Pinilla Gil, E.

2012-02-01

Seasonal snow precipitation in the Andes mountain range is evaluated as an environmental indicator of the composition of atmospheric emissions in Santiago de Chile metropolitan area, by measuring a set of representative trace elements in snow samples by ICP-MS. Three late winter sampling campaigns (2003, 2008 and 2009) were conducted in three sampling areas around Cerro Colorado, a Central Andes mountain range sector NE of Santiago (36 km). Nevados de Chillán, a sector in The Andes located about 500 km south from the metropolitan area, was selected as a reference area. The experimental results at Cerro Colorado and Nevados de Chillán were compared with previously published data of fresh snow from remote and urban background sites. High snow concentrations of a range of anthropogenic marker elements were found at Cerro Colorado, probably derived from Santiago urban aerosol transport and deposition combined with the effect of mining and smelting activities in the area, whereas Nevados de Chillán levels roughly correspond to urban background areas. Enhanced concentrations in surface snow respect to deeper samples are discussed. Significant differences found between the 2003, 2008 and 2009 anthropogenic source markers profiles at Cerro Colorado sampling points were correlated with changes in emission sources at the city. The preliminary results obtained in this study, the first of this kind in the southern hemisphere, show promising use of snow precipitation in the Central Andes as a suitable matrix for receptor model studies aimed at identifying and quantifying pollution sources in Santiago de Chile.

The Historic Urban Core of Antakya under the Influence of the French Mandate, and Turkish Republican Urban Conservation and Development Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mert Nezih RİFAİOĞLU

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Antakya, known as Antioch during the ancient period, is significant among Turkey’s historical urban contexts. It is located in the south-east of Turkey, near the Syrian border and is the capital of Hatay province. Called the ‘Queen of the East’ at one time, it is an important city historically since it was an early center of Christianity and one of the capital cities of the Roman Empire. As a result of its importance, the city has been formed/re-formed over time by different empires, and many structures from various periods are still persist in the current urban form. The aim of this paper is to examine the French Mandate and Turkish Republican Period urban conservation and development strategies in Antakya in order to better understand their influences and effects on its historical urban core. The paper thus begins with an introduction and brief outline of the historical development of the core of Antakya. The second part focuses on the French Mandate and Turkish Republican Period urban conservation and development plan strategies. The final part discusses the effects of different urban development strategies on the historic core of the city.

Urban-rural difference in satisfaction with primary healthcare services in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanni Yaya

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Understanding regional variation in patient satisfaction about healthcare systems (PHCs on the quality of services provided is instrumental to improving quality and developing a patient-centered healthcare system by making it more responsive especially to the cultural aspects of health demands of a population. Reaching to the innovative National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS in Ghana, surpassing several reforms in healthcare financing has been a milestone. However, the focus of NHIS is on the demand side of healthcare delivery. Studies focusing on the supply side of healthcare delivery, particularly the quality of service as perceived by the consumers are required. A growing number of studies have focused on regional differences of patient satisfaction in developed countries, however little research has been conducted concerning patient satisfaction in resource-poor settings like in Ghana. This study was therefore dedicated to examining the variation in satisfaction across rural and urban women in Ghana. Methods Data for the present study were obtained from the latest demographic and health survey in Ghana (GDHS 2014. Participants were 3576 women aged between 15 and 49 years living in non-institutional settings in Ghana. Summary statistics in percentages was used to present respondents’ demographic, socioeconomic characteristics. Chi-square test was used to find association between urban-rural differentials with socio-economic variables. Multiple logistic regression was performed to measure the association of being satisfied with primary healthcare services with study variables. Model fitness was tested by pseudo R 2. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results The findings in this study revealed that about 57.1% were satisfied with primary health care services. The urban and rural areas reported 57.6 and 56.6% respectively which showed no statistically significant difference (z = 0.64; p = 0.523; 95

Minimizing the effect of automotive pollution in urban geometry using mathematical optimization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Craig, K.J.; De Kock, D.J.; Snyman, J.A. [Pretoria Univ. (South Africa). Dept. of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering

2001-07-01

One of the factors that needs to be considered during the layout of new urban geometry (e.g. street direction, spacing and width, building height restrictions) is the effect of the air pollution associated with the automotive transport that would use routes in this urban area. Although the pollution is generated at street level, its effect can be widespread due to interaction of the pollutant dispersion and diffusion with the wind speed and direction. In order to study the effect of a new urban geometry on the pollutant levels and dispersion, a very time-consuming experimental or parametric numerical study would have to be performed. This paper proposes an alternative approach, that of combining mathematical optimization with the techniques of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In essence, the meteorological information as represented by a wind rose (wind speed and direction), is used to calculate pollutant levels as a function of urban geometry variables: street canyon depth and street canyon width. The pollutant source specified in conjunction with a traffic scenario with CO is used as pollutant. The main aim of the study is to be able to suggest the most beneficial configuration of an idealized urban geometry that minimizes the peak pollutant levels due to assumed traffic distributions. This study uses two mathematical optimization methods. The first method is implemented through a successive maximization-minimization approach, while the second method determines the location of saddle points of the pollutant level, considered as a function of urban geometry and wind rose. Locally, a saddle point gives the best urban geometry for the worst meteorological scenario. The commercial CFD code, STAR-CD, is coupled with a version of the DYNAMIC-Q optimization algorithm of Snyman, first to successively locate maxima and minima in a min-max approach; and then to locate saddle points. It is shown that the saddle-point method is more cost-effective. The methodology

Isocyanatocyclohexane and isothiocyanatocyclohexane levels in urban and industrial areas and possible emission-related activities

Science.gov (United States)

Gallego, E.; Roca, F. X.; Perales, F.; Ribes, A.; Carrera, G.; Guardino, X.; Berenguer, M. J.

Isocyanatocyclohexane and isothiocyanatocyclohexane are becoming relevant compounds in urban and industrial air, as they are used in important amounts in automobile industry and building insulation, as well as in the manufacture of foams, rubber, paints and varnishes. Glass multi-sorbent tubes (Carbotrap, Carbopack, Carboxen) were connected to LCMA-UPC pump samplers for the retention of iso- and isothiocyanatocyclohexanes. The analysis was performed by automatic thermal desorption (ATD) coupled with capillary gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry detector (MSD). TD-GC/MS was chosen as analytical method due to its versatility and the possibility of analysis of a wide range of volatility and polarity VOC in air samples. The method was satisfactory sensitive, selective and reproducible for the studied compounds. The concentrations of iso- and isothioisocyanatocyclohexanes were evaluated in different urban, residential and industrial locations from extensive VOC air quality and odour episode studies in several cities in the Northeastern edge of Spain. Around 200-300 VOC were determined qualitatively in each sample. Higher values of iso- and isothiocyanatocyclohexane were found in industrial areas than in urban or residential locations. The concentrations ranged between n.d.-246 and n.d.-29 μg m -3 for isocyanatocyclohexane and isothiocyanatocyclohexane, respectively, for industrial areas. On the other hand, urban and residential locations showed concentrations ranging between n.d.-164 and n.d.-29 μg m -3 for isocyanatocyclohexane and isothiocyanatocyclohexane, respectively. The site location (urban or industrial), the kind and nearness of possible iso- and isothiocyanatocyclohexane emission activities (industrial or building construction) and the changes of wind regimes throughout the year have been found the most important factors influencing the concentrations of these compounds in the different places.

A Comparison of the Number of Men Who Have Sex with Men among Rural-To-Urban Migrants with Non-Migrant Rural and Urban Residents in Wuhan, China: A GIS/GPS-Assisted Random Sample Survey Study

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xinguang; Yu, Bin; Zhou, Dunjin; Zhou, Wang; Gong, Jie; Li, Shiyue; Stanton, Bonita

2015-01-01

Background Mobile populations and men who have sex with men (MSM) play an increasing role in the current HIV epidemic in China and across the globe. While considerable research has addressed both of these at-risk populations, more effective HIV control requires accurate data on the number of MSM at the population level, particularly MSM among migrant populations. Methods Survey data from a random sample of male rural-to-urban migrants (aged 18-45, n=572) in Wuhan, China were analyzed and compared with those of randomly selected non-migrant urban (n=566) and rural counterparts (580). The GIS/GPS technologies were used for sampling and the survey estimation method was used for data analysis. Results HIV-related risk behaviors among rural-to-urban migrants were similar to those among the two comparison groups. The estimated proportion of MSM among migrants [95% CI] was 5.8% [4.7, 6.8], higher than 2.8% [1.2, 4.5] for rural residents and 1.0% [0.0, 2.4] for urban residents, respectively. Among these migrants, the MSM were more likely than non-MSM to be older in age, married, and migrated to more cities. They were also more likely to co-habit with others in rental properties located in new town and neighborhoods with fewer old acquaintances and more entertainment establishments. In addition, they were more likely to engage in commercial sex and less likely to consistently use condoms. Conclusion Findings of this study indicate that compared to rural and urban populations, the migrant population in Wuhan consists of a higher proportion of MSM who also exhibit higher levels of HIV-related risk behaviors. More effective interventions should target this population with a focus on neighborhood factors, social capital and collective efficacy for risk reduction. PMID:26241900

Rural-urban disparities in maternal immunization knowledge and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Immunization and appropriate health-seeking behavior are effective strategies to reduce child deaths. Objectives: To compare maternal knowledge about immunization, use of growth chart and childhood health-seeking behavior in rural and urban areas. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study done in ...

Exploring Urban Environments Using Virtual and Augmented Reality

OpenAIRE

Stelios Papakonstantinou; Vesna Brujic-Okretic; Fotis Liarokapis

2007-01-01

In this paper, we propose the use of specific system architecture, based on mobile device, for navigation in urban environments. The aim of this work is to assess how virtual and augmented reality interface paradigms can provide enhanced location based services using real-time techniques in the context of these two different technologies. The virtual reality interface is based on faithful graphical representation of the localities of interest, coupled with sensory information on the location ...

Effectively using urban landscapes to teach biodiversity and ecohydrology to introductory environmental science classes

Science.gov (United States)

MacAvoy, S. E.; van Doorn, A.; Pondell, C.

2016-12-01

Urban environments offer students interesting opportunities to explore and examine how human modified landscapes influence biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and water quality. Students demanding applied field experiences from their undergraduate environmental science (ENVS) programs can be well served in urban settings. Here, we present strategies for integrating urban areas into the undergraduate field experience. Urban locations provide an opportunity for a different type of local "field-work" than would otherwise be available. In the intro level undergraduate ENVS class, we use our campus, the surrounding neighborhood and city as well as a nearby National Park for field exercises. Activities include: assessing water quality from multiple sites, observing species composition and ecological succession using fallen logs, assessing biodiversity using biocubes and camera traps, investigating conservation strategies through the local zoo, and walking one mile transects through local urban ecosystems to observe and collect data on the animals, buildings, roads, litter and/or light sources in the surrounding area. These labs provide inspiration and hands on skills that students apply to their own self-selected projects at the end of the semester. In the second level majors class, we make use of our urban location to contrast water quality in parks and highly channelized urban streams, monitor populations of urban wildlife, and investigate the application of urban greening methods to reduce environmental impacts. Students spend labs immersed in streams and wetlands heavily impacted by the urban runoff their city generates to better understand the extent of human impact in an urban environment. Here we share lesson plans for field activities that can be completed with incoming undergraduate students, and show how these activities help students gain quantitative and investigative competency.