Cities最新文献

Introduction

Social atmospheres influence individuals' behaviors. Multilevel analysis evaluates atmospheres by capturing contextual effects beyond individual factors. While social participation benefits well-being and society, studies on the links between community factors, including social atmosphere, are still scarce. We explored the association between community social connections and social participation among adults in Japan.

Methods

Cross-sectional data were collected from 3858 valid responses were obtained from 54 communities in the Zenkoji Monzen area of Nagano City. Social connections were measured by how well participants knew their neighbors, and social participation by involvement in three activity types. We used multilevel analysis with random intercept and fixed slopes to explore the association between community social connections and participation.

Results

This study found a high community-level prevalence of social connections was significantly associated with social participation in the community even after all covariates were adjusted for. Furthermore, regarding within-community association, social connections were found to be associated with social participation even after all covariates were adjusted for.

Conclusion

A contextual association was found between community-level social connections and social participation. These findings suggest that multilevel analysis can help urban and architecture researchers explore how interactions between people and the built environment shape urban atmospheres.

This paper examines the evolving rural-urban landscape in China's rapid urbanization, contextualized within post-1978 social transitions. Using a socio-spatial analytics approach and mechanism theory, we compare rural-urban land use dynamics (RULD) in Kunshan and Nanhai, located in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions respectively. The study analyzes factors driving RULD changes through actors' practices, attributing differences to globalization timing, land rights consciousness, and resulting path dependencies. These elements have shaped political-commercial alliances and land development norms, leading to inconsistent RULD over time. Two key arguments emerge: First, contemporary RULD divergence stems from socioeconomic transitions, distinct from environmental constraints in agrarian societies. Second, this divergence reflects cross-scale state-market-society interactions at the macro level, while resulting from multi-scale actor negotiations at the micro level. This research contributes to understanding complex urbanization processes in transitional economies, offering insights into socio-spatial dynamics of rural-urban transformations.

This study analyses the characteristics of accommodation types (collaborative and professional) in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia. It examines location factors, including proximity to top tourist spots, concentration of Airbnb accommodations, and population density, to identify which accommodation type contributes to negative impacts in these cities. Additionally, it delves into pricing features, reviews, length of stay, accommodation services, and host characteristics to distinguish between collaborative and professional accommodations.

Logistic regression analysis and Random Forest are used, employing 500 decision trees to explore non-linear and complex relationships. Partial dependence plots offer insights into how predictions evolve across different ranges, providing valuable information about the locations, population density, tenure, and reviews associated with the two accommodation types.

The findings reveal that professional accommodations tend to be concentrated in areas with high population density and near major tourist attractions, exacerbating tourist overcrowding issues. Conversely, collaborative accommodations are situated more than 4 km away from the main tourist spots, potentially contributing to a more balanced distribution of tourists and avoiding excessive concentration.

These findings have significant implications for urban tourism dynamics, offering valuable insights that can inform urban planning, policy development, and sustainable tourism practices.

Public space is increasingly provided and managed by a variety of actors. In order to describe this phenomenon, several concepts have been used, such as co-production, co-creation and co-design. This paper reviews the existing literature on public space and reveals that these concepts are defined similarly and used interchangeably. Based on a systematic literature review, and aided by bibliometric analysis, the paper attempts to establish transparency regarding current understanding and use of the concepts. By discussing the differences, the paper aims to reduce the ambiguity and increase the clarity of the concepts. The paper concludes by suggesting in which case it would be more appropriate to use which concept.

Major metropolitan areas were faced with a disruptive pandemic considered at times to be capable of altering the role of economies of agglomeration and spatial interaction as fundamental economic drivers. Within this context, this paper seeks to analyse the performance and resilience factors of distinctive economic activities during the pandemic and to build a typology from the point of view of employment and its spatial evolution according to workplaces -both at intra-urban and regional levels- in the largest metropolitan region in southern Europe (Madrid). This study provides insights for the implementation of regional policies and urban planning in the post-pandemic scenario.

Value for Money (VfM) is often considered the criterion for assessing whether Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), or the traditional procurement should be adopted to deliver infrastructure projects and their services. Yet, this decision is mostly focussed on whichever approach that embodies a lower cost while neglecting the value it can bring to projects. Addressing this elephant in the room, a set of interviews with highly experienced professionals (with an average of 23-year working experience in infrastructure procurement) were conducted to engender an in-depth understanding of VfM. Through the lens of sensemaking, our results empirically demonstrated the duality of VfM in the context of transport projects instead of the previous foci on cost, time, and quality (i.e., traditional VfM), and further unearthed the nuances when considering them. As such, this research contributes to the PPP body of knowledge by providing a more meaningful concept of VfM. For practitioners and decision makers, it proposes a framework to benchmark their VfM assessments of infrastructure interventions.

Urban green and blue spaces are important amenities within highly urbanised areas which offer social, economic and ecological benefits and provide a number of valuable direct and indirect ecosystem of services to surrounding land uses, urban households integral to sustainable urban development. Existing research has revealed that green and blue spaces are not uniform environmental amenities, but rather a set of distinct goods comprising aesthetic and hydro-morphological characteristics therefore which can influence property values. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the heterogeneity of green and blue spaces using 4985 sales transactions applying quantile regression to investigate the proximity effects of these urban amenities on property prices within the Belfast Metropolitan area, Northern Ireland. The findings show premiums for green features range between 3.0 % and 3.6 %, with blue space proximity to the coastline and lakes commanding premiums of 7.3 % and 5.3 %. Conversely, walking distance to large rivers shows a negative pricing effect of 3.8 %. The results further reveal some evidence of distance decay effects with proximity for green and blue space amenities. The quantile findings show empirical evidence of a U-shape relationship for a number of the green space amenities, indicating that lower and higher priced houses value proximity to these urban amenities differently. For urban blue spaces, the findings reveal that living near to a lake or the coastline observes larger premiums for higher priced properties. Moreover, the highest priced dwellings exhibit a higher negative pricing effect with walkability to urban rivers than those in the lowest priced properties. Overall, the findings provide empirical evidence to inform urban design and planning in line with sustainable development goals and biodiversity strategies for inclusive, and accessible public spaces within cities.

Although studies have investigated the development of citizen relationship management (CRM) systems in various cities, no understanding exists regarding how CRM systems operate and how they influence citizen participation. Moreover, limited studies have been conducted regarding the political factors that influence citizen participation through CRM systems. Drawing from data obtained through interviews with key stakeholders involved in the implementation of a CRM system in Taiwan, the present study comprehensively analyzed the primary political characteristics and effects of this system, outlined the political factors influencing system use, and formulated suggestions for mitigating the influence of politics on the system. The findings reveal that the development of the citizen relationship management system was constrained by potential political factors in public policy development. These factors included the dynamics of power relations between citizens and local governments, the politicization of policy processes, conflicts in policy decision-making models involving top-down and bottom-up approaches, the political intentions and motives of stakeholders, and the influence of potential policy actors. Considering the case of the Taiwanese citizen relationship management system, this study provides suggestions and guidance for policymakers aiming to minimize political influence on citizen participation, with a focus on tailoring these approaches to meet the specific public service needs of citizens.

Achieving equal access to healthcare is an essential goal of the Sustainable Development Goals and a key criterion for building healthy communities. In this study, we examine the spatial and social heterogeneities of accessing hierarchical healthcare services through the lens of equity in the central urban area of Shanghai. The BFCA method is applied to analyze the accessibility to healthcare with various levels of services and via travel modes from communities and identify communities with a spatial mismatch. The relationship between factors, including socio-economic factors, health status, medical choice, and accessing healthcare services are examined using a multi-nominal logistic model. The results show that 1) Accessing healthcare performs a spatial mismatch and core-periphery disparity in the central urban area. 2) The lacking the accessibility to high-tier healthcare and a walkable environment are two main spatial equity issues, especially the latter one. 3) The inequities of access to healthcare facilities are systematic differences in factors including age, family income, family expenditure, medical choice, and health status. The results highlight the geographic and demographic disparities in healthcare services through the lens of equity and provide suggestions to improve the healthcare coverage and develop a sustainable and healthy-oriented city.

The phenomenon of commercial gentrification, marked by transformations in commercial spaces and retail patterns, is increasingly evident globally, significantly altering consumption spaces to cater to new residents and impacting main shopping areas. This study examines commercial gentrification in Taipei City, focusing on identifying affected areas and analyzing their environmental characteristics. Using secondary dissemination areas as spatial units, the research constructs quantifiable indicators to map the occurrence of commercial gentrification. Principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to explore the environmental factors correlated with this process. Taipei City's historical and economic evolution, characterized by significant infrastructure developments and commercial transformations, provides the context for this study. The threshold strategy revealed patterns of commercial gentrification within the Da'an, Zhongzheng, and Songshan districts, with Da'an displaying the most significant changes. The weighted results suggest that areas experiencing commercial gentrification showcase a high degree of diversity, a lower presence of vulnerable populations, and superior public transportation and amenities. This study aims to provide insights into the spatial dynamics and environmental impacts of commercial gentrification, offering a comprehensive understanding of its progression in Taipei City.