Pub Date : 2024-01-08DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1286125
Zainab Rehman, Muhammad Zubair, Dalia Osama Hafiz, S. Manzoor
The influence of urban green spaces on public health is receiving unprecedented attention. Managing urban greenspaces sustainably requires an understanding of the mechanisms behind the positive effects of urban biodiversity on the wellbeing of residents. Urban parks could improve mental restoration of park users. The restoration potential may be influenced by the biophysical characteristics of the park.This study aimed to understand two aspects of urban parks in Multan, Pakistan: (a) How does the perception of biodiversity and the quality of urban parks relate to mental restorativeness of park visitors? (b) What are the determinants of respondents' willingness to pay for the conservation and management of park biodiversity and quality in urban parks? Data were collected from October 2021 to December 2021 through a cross-sectional survey in which 550 park visitors were interviewed from six randomly selected urban parks in Multan. Multiple linear regression analysis, a binary logistic model, and a chi-square test were applied to analyze the data.The study empirically highlights the positive contribution of park visits to mental restorativeness. Biodiversity and quality were positively correlated with the mental restorativeness of park visitors. Sixty-two percent (62%) of the visitors were reluctant to pay, whereas 38% were ready to pay between Rs. 850/3.7$ and Rs. 1,700/7.4$ each year. Education, occupation, and monthly income significantly positively affected the respondent's WTP attitudes. The study highlights the importance of using urban parks as tools to promote mental restorativeness, combat social stress, and increase urban vegetation cover.
{"title":"Biodiversity and quality of urban green landscape affect mental restorativeness of residents in Multan, Pakistan","authors":"Zainab Rehman, Muhammad Zubair, Dalia Osama Hafiz, S. Manzoor","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1286125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1286125","url":null,"abstract":"The influence of urban green spaces on public health is receiving unprecedented attention. Managing urban greenspaces sustainably requires an understanding of the mechanisms behind the positive effects of urban biodiversity on the wellbeing of residents. Urban parks could improve mental restoration of park users. The restoration potential may be influenced by the biophysical characteristics of the park.This study aimed to understand two aspects of urban parks in Multan, Pakistan: (a) How does the perception of biodiversity and the quality of urban parks relate to mental restorativeness of park visitors? (b) What are the determinants of respondents' willingness to pay for the conservation and management of park biodiversity and quality in urban parks? Data were collected from October 2021 to December 2021 through a cross-sectional survey in which 550 park visitors were interviewed from six randomly selected urban parks in Multan. Multiple linear regression analysis, a binary logistic model, and a chi-square test were applied to analyze the data.The study empirically highlights the positive contribution of park visits to mental restorativeness. Biodiversity and quality were positively correlated with the mental restorativeness of park visitors. Sixty-two percent (62%) of the visitors were reluctant to pay, whereas 38% were ready to pay between Rs. 850/3.7$ and Rs. 1,700/7.4$ each year. Education, occupation, and monthly income significantly positively affected the respondent's WTP attitudes. The study highlights the importance of using urban parks as tools to promote mental restorativeness, combat social stress, and increase urban vegetation cover.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"53 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139446078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-22DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1314967
F. Tajani, P. Morano, F. Di Liddo, D. Anelli, Francesco Sica
The industrial activity constitutes one of the most driving sectors of a nation, as it is often considered at the center of public debate as the fulcrum of development policies. However, considering the climate impacts generated, many industries have necessarily changed, relocated, and/or interrupted their production. Due to the connection of industrial sites with the socio-economic, environmental, and health systems of cities, the real estate market dynamics can be differently affected by the presence of polluting industrial sites. With reference to the Italian context, the goal of the research is to, firstly, verify whether there is a functional relationship between the presence of polluting industrial sites and the residential real estate market dynamics, for then determining its type and the extent of purchase price affection.The proposed logical-evaluative model is based on the application of an econometric technique for investigating the significance of the industrial sites on the residential real estate dynamics through a set of technological, locational, and health variables.The obtained results show that the total surface area of the polluting sites, the activity level and the industrial plant opening date are among the most relevant variables, instead the accessibility to the industrial site does not influence the real estate market dynamics.The main practical implication of the present research consists of the possibility to provide a support for the activation of strategies aimed at adopting sustainable development models in the industrial sector.
{"title":"The presence of polluting sites in urban contexts: an analysis of the effects on the dynamics of the residential real estate market","authors":"F. Tajani, P. Morano, F. Di Liddo, D. Anelli, Francesco Sica","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1314967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1314967","url":null,"abstract":"The industrial activity constitutes one of the most driving sectors of a nation, as it is often considered at the center of public debate as the fulcrum of development policies. However, considering the climate impacts generated, many industries have necessarily changed, relocated, and/or interrupted their production. Due to the connection of industrial sites with the socio-economic, environmental, and health systems of cities, the real estate market dynamics can be differently affected by the presence of polluting industrial sites. With reference to the Italian context, the goal of the research is to, firstly, verify whether there is a functional relationship between the presence of polluting industrial sites and the residential real estate market dynamics, for then determining its type and the extent of purchase price affection.The proposed logical-evaluative model is based on the application of an econometric technique for investigating the significance of the industrial sites on the residential real estate dynamics through a set of technological, locational, and health variables.The obtained results show that the total surface area of the polluting sites, the activity level and the industrial plant opening date are among the most relevant variables, instead the accessibility to the industrial site does not influence the real estate market dynamics.The main practical implication of the present research consists of the possibility to provide a support for the activation of strategies aimed at adopting sustainable development models in the industrial sector.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"37 36","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138946882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-19DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1296605
Endris Assen Ebrahim, Ahmet Toy, Yissa Hassen Kassim
The growth or performance of Micro and Small-Scale Enterprises (MSSEs) is widely recognized for their important contributions to economic developments in developing countries. Small and Medium-sized businesses (MMEs) in most developing nations encounter obstacles throughout and after the start-up process. This research aims to explore the determinants of the growth of MSSEs with a special emphasis on five work sectors: manufacturing, trade, construction, service, and urban agriculture in Dessie Town, Ethiopia.The primary data was collected using a self-questionnaire from a sample of 218 managers/owners of MSE operators. Both descriptive and inferential analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive narrations were used to analyze qualitative data as a concurrent triangulation strategy. The sample respondents were selected using a stratified random sampling method based on the type of business sector. This practical study provoked nine major issues affecting the growth of MSSEs in town: political & legal factors, including bureaucratic bottlenecks system, the COVID-19 pandemic, working premises, market-related issues, road infrastructures, management system, technology-related factors, and entrepreneurial-related factors. The results show that linear and positive substantial to strong significant relationships or associations exist between some independent variables and the growth of MSSEs. Among the expected nine determinants of MSSEs' growth and performance, only political & legal-related, management-related, market-related, technology-related, infrastructure-related, entrepreneur-related factors, and COVID-19 pandemic were statistically significant. Besides, the nominated factors explained the total variations in the MSSEs' growth and performance at a 5% significance level. Realizing this conclusion, the government and non-government bodies and operators of MSSEs should give attention to management, marketing, technology infrastructure, and entrepreneur-related factors.
{"title":"The factors that influence the growth and performance of micro and small-scale enterprises in Dessie Town administration","authors":"Endris Assen Ebrahim, Ahmet Toy, Yissa Hassen Kassim","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1296605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1296605","url":null,"abstract":"The growth or performance of Micro and Small-Scale Enterprises (MSSEs) is widely recognized for their important contributions to economic developments in developing countries. Small and Medium-sized businesses (MMEs) in most developing nations encounter obstacles throughout and after the start-up process. This research aims to explore the determinants of the growth of MSSEs with a special emphasis on five work sectors: manufacturing, trade, construction, service, and urban agriculture in Dessie Town, Ethiopia.The primary data was collected using a self-questionnaire from a sample of 218 managers/owners of MSE operators. Both descriptive and inferential analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive narrations were used to analyze qualitative data as a concurrent triangulation strategy. The sample respondents were selected using a stratified random sampling method based on the type of business sector. This practical study provoked nine major issues affecting the growth of MSSEs in town: political & legal factors, including bureaucratic bottlenecks system, the COVID-19 pandemic, working premises, market-related issues, road infrastructures, management system, technology-related factors, and entrepreneurial-related factors. The results show that linear and positive substantial to strong significant relationships or associations exist between some independent variables and the growth of MSSEs. Among the expected nine determinants of MSSEs' growth and performance, only political & legal-related, management-related, market-related, technology-related, infrastructure-related, entrepreneur-related factors, and COVID-19 pandemic were statistically significant. Besides, the nominated factors explained the total variations in the MSSEs' growth and performance at a 5% significance level. Realizing this conclusion, the government and non-government bodies and operators of MSSEs should give attention to management, marketing, technology infrastructure, and entrepreneur-related factors.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":" 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138962340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-18DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1288714
J. Panjaitan, Indra Bastian, Ilham Unggara, Efa Agus Susanto, Sumiyana Sumiyana
This study investigates smart city development projects implemented by the Government of Indonesia (GoI) from 2017 at the regional and municipal levels. Moreover, it provides a critical perspective on the lack of knowledge of the transformation process, substantive knowledge, and the wide-regime-shifting balance of knowledge required to accomplish smart city development. From the project scope perspective, this research elaborates on technical defaults of the regional and municipal GoI's initiating, constructing, and implementing smart cities.The authors conducted semi-structured interviews to explore how these project doers operate in each stage of the smart city development, including initiation, work in progress, implementation, and reporting. In addition, the research questions of this semi-structured interview are derived from this study's critical perspective and the knowledge domains of smart city development.First, this study sheds light on the development of 100 smart cities by the GoI, with 50 financed but unfinished projects since 2017, indicating design failure. Second, we argue that the blueprint designed by the GoI smart communities does not demonstrate comprehensive political will or the conducting of socio-cultural and technical analyses to encourage and support the development of smart cities. Third, this study uniquely highlights that the GoI wants to build smart cities using collective cognition or mutual understanding, but lacks knowledge of the transformation process and substantive knowledge for system analysis and design, development, and implementation, leading to uncertainty and non-uniform approaches to smart city developments across various regions and municipalities. Fourth, this research criticizes the misalignment and imbalance of knowledge between the GoI, the targeted regions and municipalities, and all agents involved in developing smart cities.The authors find four unique theme formulations: the GoI's behaviors in equivalencing with regular procurement, the voids of knowledge in the transformation process, substantive knowledge boundaries, and letting these projects progress without accompanying committed knowledge boundaries and working for a future without a signifier. Finally, this study suggests that the government should prioritize mastery of knowledge of the transformation processes in smart city development and implement agile strategies to ensure these projects' success and future benefits.
{"title":"Diagnosing the voids of knowledge in the transformation process in managing and standardizing smart city development: the case of the government of Indonesia","authors":"J. Panjaitan, Indra Bastian, Ilham Unggara, Efa Agus Susanto, Sumiyana Sumiyana","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1288714","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1288714","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates smart city development projects implemented by the Government of Indonesia (GoI) from 2017 at the regional and municipal levels. Moreover, it provides a critical perspective on the lack of knowledge of the transformation process, substantive knowledge, and the wide-regime-shifting balance of knowledge required to accomplish smart city development. From the project scope perspective, this research elaborates on technical defaults of the regional and municipal GoI's initiating, constructing, and implementing smart cities.The authors conducted semi-structured interviews to explore how these project doers operate in each stage of the smart city development, including initiation, work in progress, implementation, and reporting. In addition, the research questions of this semi-structured interview are derived from this study's critical perspective and the knowledge domains of smart city development.First, this study sheds light on the development of 100 smart cities by the GoI, with 50 financed but unfinished projects since 2017, indicating design failure. Second, we argue that the blueprint designed by the GoI smart communities does not demonstrate comprehensive political will or the conducting of socio-cultural and technical analyses to encourage and support the development of smart cities. Third, this study uniquely highlights that the GoI wants to build smart cities using collective cognition or mutual understanding, but lacks knowledge of the transformation process and substantive knowledge for system analysis and design, development, and implementation, leading to uncertainty and non-uniform approaches to smart city developments across various regions and municipalities. Fourth, this research criticizes the misalignment and imbalance of knowledge between the GoI, the targeted regions and municipalities, and all agents involved in developing smart cities.The authors find four unique theme formulations: the GoI's behaviors in equivalencing with regular procurement, the voids of knowledge in the transformation process, substantive knowledge boundaries, and letting these projects progress without accompanying committed knowledge boundaries and working for a future without a signifier. Finally, this study suggests that the government should prioritize mastery of knowledge of the transformation processes in smart city development and implement agile strategies to ensure these projects' success and future benefits.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139172995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-15DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1295357
S. R, Swamy Perumandla
The study explores the influence of Status Quo Bias theory constructs and the mediating role of inertia on individuals' resistance in making sustainable green home investment decisions among Indian homeowners and prospective homebuyers.A structured questionnaire was administered to 404 participants, and data analysis was performed using Partial Least Squares Structured Equation Modeling (PLS SEM).The findings indicate that factors such as loss aversion, transition costs, adherence to social norms, and self-efficacy to change significantly contribute to individuals' resistance to green home investments. Inertia further amplifies the relationship between transition costs, social norms, and self-efficacy to change, but does not mediate the impact of loss aversion.This study is valuable for enhancing our understanding of biases in decision-making processes. To combat this resistance, it is crucial to provide clear information about the benefits of green home upgrades and offer incentives that reduce perceived costs and risks. This research sheds new light on the influence of status quo bias and inertia specifically within the context of green home investment decisions, addressing contemporary concerns for environmental sustainability and the increasing importance of such decisions in today's world.
{"title":"Do individuals' resist green home investment decisions? An empirical study from status quo bias and inertia perspective","authors":"S. R, Swamy Perumandla","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1295357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1295357","url":null,"abstract":"The study explores the influence of Status Quo Bias theory constructs and the mediating role of inertia on individuals' resistance in making sustainable green home investment decisions among Indian homeowners and prospective homebuyers.A structured questionnaire was administered to 404 participants, and data analysis was performed using Partial Least Squares Structured Equation Modeling (PLS SEM).The findings indicate that factors such as loss aversion, transition costs, adherence to social norms, and self-efficacy to change significantly contribute to individuals' resistance to green home investments. Inertia further amplifies the relationship between transition costs, social norms, and self-efficacy to change, but does not mediate the impact of loss aversion.This study is valuable for enhancing our understanding of biases in decision-making processes. To combat this resistance, it is crucial to provide clear information about the benefits of green home upgrades and offer incentives that reduce perceived costs and risks. This research sheds new light on the influence of status quo bias and inertia specifically within the context of green home investment decisions, addressing contemporary concerns for environmental sustainability and the increasing importance of such decisions in today's world.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"121 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138999735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-04DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1171996
C. D. Rogers, Nick Grayson, Jonathan P. Sadler, Lee Chapman, C. Bouch, Marianna Cavada, J. Leach
In the context of steadily declining Natural Capital and universal recognition of the imperative to reverse this trend before we get to the point that nature is not able to restore itself, cities have a crucial role to play. The UK Government commissioned a comprehensive study into the value of biodiversity, and by extension nature, reinforcing “why we should change our ways”—yet what is missing is the “how?”. This paper uniquely describes both the “how?” and a conclusive demonstration of the remarkable benefits of implementing it in a city. Critical to this process, it took a UK Parliamentary Inquiry to reveal that nature has become invisible within the economy, yet the ecological ecosystem services nature provides have enormous benefits to both people and the economy. Therefore integration—or seamless weaving—of urban greenspace and nature into people's lives and the places where they live, work, and spend their leisure time is vital. Moreover, what nature does not provide must be provided by engineered systems, and these have an economic cost; put another way, there are enormous cost savings to be made by taking advantage of what nature provides. In addressing these issues, this paper is the definitive paper from a 20-year portfolio of research on how to bring about transformative change in the complex system-of-systems that make up our cities, providing as it does the crucial in-depth research into the many diverse strands of governance—the last link in a chain of the creation, testing and proof of efficacy of methodologies underpinning a theory and practice of change for infrastructure and cities. The impact of this portfolio of research on Birmingham is two-fold: the Star Framework that placed natural environment considerations at the heart of all decision-making in the city, and the successful bid for the largest of the UK Future Parks Accelerator awards. While both are transformative in their different ways, yet mutually supportive, the latter enabled the design of a suite of system interventions from which the value of Birmingham's greenspaces is estimated to rise from £11.0 billion to £14.4 billion—a remarkable return on investment from the research's conceptualization of Birmingham's urban greenspace as a “business” (with its associated business models). In achieving this, the necessary enablers of thinking and practicing systemically, seamlessly working across disciplinary boundaries, an unusually strong focus on both the aspirations of all stakeholders and the context in question to define “the problem,” and the testing of proposed system intervention(s) both now and in the future have been iteratively combined. However, it is the critical enabling steps of identifying the complete range of value-generating opportunities that the interventions offer, formulating them into alternative business models to underpin the case for change and ensuring that they are synergistic with all the dimensions of governance that yielded the profound o
{"title":"Delivering sustainable, resilient and liveable cities via transformed governance","authors":"C. D. Rogers, Nick Grayson, Jonathan P. Sadler, Lee Chapman, C. Bouch, Marianna Cavada, J. Leach","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1171996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1171996","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of steadily declining Natural Capital and universal recognition of the imperative to reverse this trend before we get to the point that nature is not able to restore itself, cities have a crucial role to play. The UK Government commissioned a comprehensive study into the value of biodiversity, and by extension nature, reinforcing “why we should change our ways”—yet what is missing is the “how?”. This paper uniquely describes both the “how?” and a conclusive demonstration of the remarkable benefits of implementing it in a city. Critical to this process, it took a UK Parliamentary Inquiry to reveal that nature has become invisible within the economy, yet the ecological ecosystem services nature provides have enormous benefits to both people and the economy. Therefore integration—or seamless weaving—of urban greenspace and nature into people's lives and the places where they live, work, and spend their leisure time is vital. Moreover, what nature does not provide must be provided by engineered systems, and these have an economic cost; put another way, there are enormous cost savings to be made by taking advantage of what nature provides. In addressing these issues, this paper is the definitive paper from a 20-year portfolio of research on how to bring about transformative change in the complex system-of-systems that make up our cities, providing as it does the crucial in-depth research into the many diverse strands of governance—the last link in a chain of the creation, testing and proof of efficacy of methodologies underpinning a theory and practice of change for infrastructure and cities. The impact of this portfolio of research on Birmingham is two-fold: the Star Framework that placed natural environment considerations at the heart of all decision-making in the city, and the successful bid for the largest of the UK Future Parks Accelerator awards. While both are transformative in their different ways, yet mutually supportive, the latter enabled the design of a suite of system interventions from which the value of Birmingham's greenspaces is estimated to rise from £11.0 billion to £14.4 billion—a remarkable return on investment from the research's conceptualization of Birmingham's urban greenspace as a “business” (with its associated business models). In achieving this, the necessary enablers of thinking and practicing systemically, seamlessly working across disciplinary boundaries, an unusually strong focus on both the aspirations of all stakeholders and the context in question to define “the problem,” and the testing of proposed system intervention(s) both now and in the future have been iteratively combined. However, it is the critical enabling steps of identifying the complete range of value-generating opportunities that the interventions offer, formulating them into alternative business models to underpin the case for change and ensuring that they are synergistic with all the dimensions of governance that yielded the profound o","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"19 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138603219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-27DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1163984
Éva Gerőházi, Nóra Katona, Sándor György Kollár
This study aims to identify and present mechanisms through which the economic potential of European urban areas is converted into social inequalities among the young population in the field of housing. The role of national and local housing systems in this conversion is analyzed through the examples of Amsterdam, Tallinn, Chemnitz, and Pécs. These four cities represent four major ideal types with different levels of economic power and housing welfare structures. The article, through these case studies, initially delineates the ramifications of increasing housing demand arising from population growth and varied wage structures in cities experiencing economic prosperity. It also delves into the repercussions of population decline and financial constraints in cities with weaker economic foundations. Subsequently, it evaluates the efficacy of local housing policies in addressing housing affordability and spatial segregation, considering the presence of either a unitary or dual public housing sector. The article's conclusion underscores that local housing policies are tightly bound to national housing concepts, legislation, and resources, which constrains their capacity to adapt measures to the changing dynamics of economic development. The primary source of information underpinning this analysis is derived from research conducted in these urban areas as part of the UPLIFT project, funded by the European Commission within the framework of Horizon 2020.
{"title":"Mechanisms linking economic potential of European cities to housing inequalities of young people","authors":"Éva Gerőházi, Nóra Katona, Sándor György Kollár","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1163984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1163984","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to identify and present mechanisms through which the economic potential of European urban areas is converted into social inequalities among the young population in the field of housing. The role of national and local housing systems in this conversion is analyzed through the examples of Amsterdam, Tallinn, Chemnitz, and Pécs. These four cities represent four major ideal types with different levels of economic power and housing welfare structures. The article, through these case studies, initially delineates the ramifications of increasing housing demand arising from population growth and varied wage structures in cities experiencing economic prosperity. It also delves into the repercussions of population decline and financial constraints in cities with weaker economic foundations. Subsequently, it evaluates the efficacy of local housing policies in addressing housing affordability and spatial segregation, considering the presence of either a unitary or dual public housing sector. The article's conclusion underscores that local housing policies are tightly bound to national housing concepts, legislation, and resources, which constrains their capacity to adapt measures to the changing dynamics of economic development. The primary source of information underpinning this analysis is derived from research conducted in these urban areas as part of the UPLIFT project, funded by the European Commission within the framework of Horizon 2020.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"14 1-4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139234811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-27DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1291914
Atakan Genç, Khaled Alkhaledi, Sait Sağlam, S. Bendak
Using public transport is an important part of daily routine of many people in large cities and consumes considerable time and financial resources. Enhancing public transport can help in encouraging less use of privately owned motor vehicles and, therefore, in emitting less greenhouse gases. Hence, there is a need to improve public transport and make it more attractive than private motor vehicles. This study aims to assess commuters opinion on several aspects related to using public buses in Istanbul with the ultimate aim of making them more attractive than private motor vehicles. A total of 620 randomly selected bus commuters responded to a questionnaire specially prepared for this purpose. Satisfaction rates with most aspects related to public buses were found to be high. Nevertheless, non-parametric test results revealed that female commuters recorded significantly lower satisfaction rates than male commuters on many aspects related to public buses. Results also revealed that a significant minority of commuters walk for long distances to the nearest bus stop or wait for very long times for the next bus to come. Moreover, results revealed that commuters of older ages and higher income levels recorded significant higher satisfaction rates than others. Results also show that the majority of commuters support increasing bus fees during peak hours in order to minimize crowdedness during these hours. Implications of these results for decision makers in megacities on ways to encourage the use of public buses are discussed at the end.
{"title":"Commuters opinion on public transport services in mega cities: the case of Istanbul buses","authors":"Atakan Genç, Khaled Alkhaledi, Sait Sağlam, S. Bendak","doi":"10.3389/frsc.2023.1291914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1291914","url":null,"abstract":"Using public transport is an important part of daily routine of many people in large cities and consumes considerable time and financial resources. Enhancing public transport can help in encouraging less use of privately owned motor vehicles and, therefore, in emitting less greenhouse gases. Hence, there is a need to improve public transport and make it more attractive than private motor vehicles. This study aims to assess commuters opinion on several aspects related to using public buses in Istanbul with the ultimate aim of making them more attractive than private motor vehicles. A total of 620 randomly selected bus commuters responded to a questionnaire specially prepared for this purpose. Satisfaction rates with most aspects related to public buses were found to be high. Nevertheless, non-parametric test results revealed that female commuters recorded significantly lower satisfaction rates than male commuters on many aspects related to public buses. Results also revealed that a significant minority of commuters walk for long distances to the nearest bus stop or wait for very long times for the next bus to come. Moreover, results revealed that commuters of older ages and higher income levels recorded significant higher satisfaction rates than others. Results also show that the majority of commuters support increasing bus fees during peak hours in order to minimize crowdedness during these hours. Implications of these results for decision makers in megacities on ways to encourage the use of public buses are discussed at the end.","PeriodicalId":33686,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sustainable Cities","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139234252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-23DOI: 10.3389/frsc.2023.1155714
Julie A. Weissmann, Sandra Rader, Rasmus Ritz, Iris R. M. Walldorf, Juliane Probst, Kristin R. Szydlik, Hanno Schaefer
Projects promoting bees in urban areas are initiated in cities around the world but evidence-based conservation concepts at a city-wide scale are scarce. We developed a holistic approach for assessment of bee and flowering plant diversity in a medium-sized city. In addition to standard mapping approaches in bee hotspots, we initiated citizen science projects for participative urban bee research to be able to collect comprehensive bee data across the entire city. We identified 22 hotspots of bee diversity, analyzed connectivity between those hotspots and evaluated the impact of flower patches planted in collaboration with the municipal gardens department as stepping stones for oligolectic bee species throughout the city. Participation by urban citizens in bee identification trainings was high (c. 630 persons) but their subsequent contribution through observation reports was relatively low (1,165 records by 140 observers). However, we identified a total of 139 bee taxa, seven of them only discovered by citizen scientists. Total species richness was higher in extensively managed orchards than in semi-natural and wasteland areas. Half of the stepping stone flower patches were occupied by the target oligolectic bee species in the year of planting. After 3 years, all but two species could be confirmed. We suggest a 5-step concept for bee management in cities: (1) identification of bee hotspots combined with standardized surveys, especially of rare species; (2) training of citizen scientists at two different levels for comprehensive surveys in all parts of the city: (a) half-day introductions to wild bee diversity, ecology and conservation in order to create more awareness and (b) 2-weeks workshops for in-depth training of a small number of dedicated citizen scientists; (3) extensive management of existing habitats and special conservation programs for very rare species; (4) creation of high-value habitats which take into account the varied resource needs of bees within flight ranges of only a few hundred meters; (5) creation of stepping stone habitats as floral and nesting resources, integrating educative and participative aspects.
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