City and Environment Interactions最新文献

Urbanization presents numerous societal challenges and exacerbates environmental issues. It is crucial to comprehend the current state and future direction of cities to formulate strategies and actions that mitigate negative consequences while ensuring a prosperous future for citizens. This study presents a universally applicable method for selecting indicators to gauge urban environmental sustainability. It aims to aid in structuring thinking for understanding and implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within urban settings, using Norway as a case study but with a clear potential for broader applications. To achieve this, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted to gain insight into how urban environmental sustainability is conceptualized and operationalized in Norway. This involved assessing the key environmental challenges, as well as the strategies and action plans associated with them. Standardized sustainable cities' indicators served as references, which were then tailored to the municipal level to address the identified environmental challenges specific to Norwegian cities. Furthermore, the study discussed the proposed indicators for tracking the progress and state of these specific environmental challenges. In doing so, it establishes a foundation for comprehending environmental issues and establishing connections between indicators and environmental strategies and action plans in the urban sustainability context. Importantly, the methodologies and indicators we have unveiled in this study are designed to be applicable to cities beyond Norway, offering a scalable and adaptable approach for evaluating environmental challenges internationally. This work proposes a novel approach for evaluating the status and trends of environmental challenges by employing targeted indicators. These indicators can be expanded to include social and economic dimensions, enabling decision-makers and stakeholders to prioritize actions towards urban sustainability.

Growth of the city’s population induces changes to airflow and pollutant and dust dispersion process, which is significantly affected by barriers and consequently influences human health and life. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the airflow pattern using simulation approaches. In this study, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations as a powerful numerical modeling tool, and Log-law and Power-law empirical models, along with several auxiliary data (DEM data) and several relevant software tools (Google Mapper, Sketchup 17, Rhinoceros 5, and Solid Works 19) were employed to simulate wind velocity and pressure distributions over a large-scale complex terrain and buildings in Gouyom to Shahrak-e Golestan, Shiraz, Iran. Validation procedure was performed through monthly measured wind velocity at seven elevations of 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, and 18 m in three representative locations over a year using a digital handheld anemometer (UNI-T UT361) that was capable to measure wind velocity in the range of 2 to 30 m s⁻¹ with an accuracy of 3%+0.5 The CFD results better agreed with the experimental data in real situations than those of the other two applied numerical models (Power-law and Log-law). Furthermore, wind velocity in three prescribed lines of different heights (5 m, 10 m, and 20 m) with different topographies and buildings had more fluctuations from the beginning of the study area to nearly 6 km. The turbulence intensity profiles also confirmed the mentioned issues. Results revealed that the minimum and maximum pressures were observed in the crest and flat surfaces, respectively. The CFD numerical simulation approach is recommended to predict airflow characteristics (wind velocity and pressure distributions), model soil erosion by wind, and present solutions to reduce the airflow pattern change-induced hazards.

Most of the published studies on pharmaceutical products (PhPs) focus on their occurrence in the influent/effluent at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in urban areas with high population density. In peri-urban/rural areas not collected to any WWTP, despite the lack of sewage collection, and often (poor) on-site treatment, data on PhPs occurrence in surface water bodies is scarce. In this study, we investigated the impact of onsite wastewater treatment systems on the occurrence of six PhPs, along with hydrological and hydrochemical data, in the drainage network of a peri-urban/rural area in Italy.

Our results, along with data from other studies, show onsite treatment systems are a major source of PhPs. In the drainage water 76% of the analyses positively quantified the presence of PhPs, with carbamazepine and clarithromycin always quantifiable, even in scarcely inhabited areas, at generally higher concentrations of PhPs than those reported in previous studies. As a result, onsite treatment systems may cause ubiquitous, even if at low concentrations, PhPs occurrence in the aquatic systems.

In order to allow data comparison, studies reporting PhPs environmental concentration values should clearly detail the urban /environmental setting (population density, presence of WWTPs) and the hydrological/hydrochemical conditions. Furthermore, the joint use of hydrochemical parameters and PhPs data may provide useful proxies for the occurrence of PhPs or to identify nitrate sources of urban origin. Discharge, T, EC and ORP values may help understanding relevance of mixing and, then, the importance of dilution processes in reducing PhPs concentration.

The occurrence of PhPs in surface water has to be duly considered in order to protect the aquatic ecosystems and groundwater, and the use of such water for safe irrigation purposes. Further treatment trains based on the concept of nature-based solutions (i.e, vegetated channels, artificial wetlands) could constitute a valuable solution exploiting the soil–water-plant continuum around main residential areas in order to enhance degradation processes.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) play a crucial role in architectural education, as buildings contribute 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions and 40% of extracted materials are used in construction. This research investigates the current status of SDG integration in architecture education, its challenges, and potential future advancements. A qualitative survey was conducted among architecture educators from 22 institutions across nine countries, focusing on four key aspects: (i) general knowledge and understanding of the SDGs; (ii) qualification and experience regarding the SDGs; (iii) integration of the SDGs in architecture education; and (iv) implementation of the SDGs in architectural practises. The findings revealed that most educators did not receive formal education focused on the SDGs, relying on self-exposure and self-learning. SDG 11 was the most adopted, focusing on improving slum areas, providing safe housing, and promoting sustainable urban settlements while preserving cultural heritage.

Integrated and systematic studies on heat-related illness risk from urban heatwaves are lacking. The effects and predictions of risk reduction policies for heat-related illness risk should not be limited to a particular area of study but should be calculated in a feedback process considering the budget. In this study, we performed dynamic modeling and policy simulation aimed at reducing the risk of heat-related illnesses caused by urban heatwaves in Seoul, Korea. A causal map of the urban heatwave system was created using data from 2010 to 2021, and simulations were performed up to 2040. In analyzing the effect of reducing the incidence of patients with heat-related illnesses compared to the budget invested, the number of patients with heat-related illnesses to be reduced in support policies for the vulnerable group, high-efficiency air conditioners, heatwave shelters, green areas, and eco-friendly cars would be reduced by 0.44, 0.09, 0.0046, 0.0045, and 0.0005 people/billion won in 2035, respectively. The number of heat-related illnesses decreased by 78.0% when policy simulation, which produced the maximum effect with the lowest budget, was performed. The current urban heatwave system in Seoul would not reduce the incidence of patients with heat-related illnesses in the future but, rather, would increase it. Urban heatwave policies did not contribute considerably to the reduction of patients with heat-related illnesses because the intensity of heatwaves owing to climate change outweighed the impact of heatwave policies. We suggest additional budget increases in the order of higher return on investment (ROI).

Urban areas are particularly affected by heatwaves through the intensification of heat stress by the urban heat island effect. For effective climate change adaptation, information about microscale surface cover, structures, and human activity in cities is needed to depict the underlying causes of urban heat stress. The framework of “Local Climate Zones” (LCZs) classifies and standardizes urban areas based on such characteristics. To date, most LCZ mapping workflows use satellite imagery as input. The resulting maps may lack some important details, and thus benefit from the use of additional geodata. We introduce a novel approach that combines the geodata of urban canopy parameters with the remote sensing-based LCZ map of Bern, Switzerland. City-specific urban canopy parameters are calculated and used to adjust established value ranges, if necessary. The most common misclassification patterns are identified and misclassified pixels are corrected using a decision tree and k-nearest-neighbor algorithm. Results show that the conformity with the urban canopy parameter values markedly increased, especially in the distinction of water surfaces, non-built areas, and building height. However, for high-resolution LCZ maps, this also leads to unnecessary heterogeneity, which may require further postprocessing. Given sufficiently available urban canopy parameter data, the proposed workflow is simple and easily adaptable for other cities. It could prove useful in urban climate studies and city planning to enhance an existing LCZ map in a contextualized manner quickly.