Pub Date : 2024-03-22DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00157-w
Chao Li, Xing Su, Chao Fan, Haoying Han
Extreme heat events caused by continuous anthropogenic climate change have been increasing. Establishing public cooling environments (PCEs) is imperative for protecting public health and enhancing productivity. Yet, disparities in access to PCEs based on race, travel behavior, and income status can undermine their role in helping communities cope with extreme heat. This study investigates the varied access to three types of PCEs across 40 U.S. counties. Our findings reveal that White people enjoy greater access to PCEs than other groups, especially to tree-covered green spaces (TCGSs), outperforming Black people approximately three times. Driving can disproportionately narrow the racial/ethnic inequality gap compared to walking. Non-expense-required public environments (NERPEs) and expense-required public environments (ERPEs) are less accessible to high-income groups. Our research underscores the ongoing challenges in achieving environmental justice through equitable PCE access and stresses the importance of further studies and policy actions to eliminate disparities.
{"title":"Behavior-encoded models reveal differentiated access to public cooling environment by race and income","authors":"Chao Li, Xing Su, Chao Fan, Haoying Han","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00157-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00157-w","url":null,"abstract":"Extreme heat events caused by continuous anthropogenic climate change have been increasing. Establishing public cooling environments (PCEs) is imperative for protecting public health and enhancing productivity. Yet, disparities in access to PCEs based on race, travel behavior, and income status can undermine their role in helping communities cope with extreme heat. This study investigates the varied access to three types of PCEs across 40 U.S. counties. Our findings reveal that White people enjoy greater access to PCEs than other groups, especially to tree-covered green spaces (TCGSs), outperforming Black people approximately three times. Driving can disproportionately narrow the racial/ethnic inequality gap compared to walking. Non-expense-required public environments (NERPEs) and expense-required public environments (ERPEs) are less accessible to high-income groups. Our research underscores the ongoing challenges in achieving environmental justice through equitable PCE access and stresses the importance of further studies and policy actions to eliminate disparities.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00157-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140192449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-21DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00155-y
Florian A. Schneider, Erin Epel, Ariane Middel
Researchers and city practitioners are paramount stakeholders in creating urban resilience but have diverse and potentially competing views. To understand varying stakeholder perspectives, we conducted a systematic literature content analysis on green infrastructure (GI) and reflective pavement (RP). The analysis shows a United States (US)-based science-practice disconnect in written communication, potentially hindering holistic decision-making. We identified 191 GI and 93 RP impacts, categorized into co-benefits, trade-offs, disservices, or neutral. Impacts were further classified as environmental, social, or economic. The analysis demonstrates that US city practitioners emphasize social and economic co-benefits that may not be fully represented in the scientific discourse. Scientists communicate a broader range of impacts, including trade-offs and disservices, highlighting a nuanced understanding of the potential consequences. Identifying contrasting perspectives and integrating knowledge from various agents is critical in urban climate governance. Our findings facilitate bridging the science-policy disconnect in the US heat mitigation literature.
{"title":"A disconnect in science and practitioner perspectives on heat mitigation","authors":"Florian A. Schneider, Erin Epel, Ariane Middel","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00155-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00155-y","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers and city practitioners are paramount stakeholders in creating urban resilience but have diverse and potentially competing views. To understand varying stakeholder perspectives, we conducted a systematic literature content analysis on green infrastructure (GI) and reflective pavement (RP). The analysis shows a United States (US)-based science-practice disconnect in written communication, potentially hindering holistic decision-making. We identified 191 GI and 93 RP impacts, categorized into co-benefits, trade-offs, disservices, or neutral. Impacts were further classified as environmental, social, or economic. The analysis demonstrates that US city practitioners emphasize social and economic co-benefits that may not be fully represented in the scientific discourse. Scientists communicate a broader range of impacts, including trade-offs and disservices, highlighting a nuanced understanding of the potential consequences. Identifying contrasting perspectives and integrating knowledge from various agents is critical in urban climate governance. Our findings facilitate bridging the science-policy disconnect in the US heat mitigation literature.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00155-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140181746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-20DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00144-1
Jay L. Banner, Bryan A. Black, Darrel M. Tremaine
Developing sustainable urban systems is a fundamental societal challenge for the 21st century, and central Texas faces particularly synergistic challenges of a rapidly growing urban population and a projected increasingly drought-prone climate. To assess the history of urbanization impacts on watersheds here, we analyzed 51 cores from bald cypress trees in paired urban and rural watersheds in Austin, Texas. We find a significant contrast between rural and urbanized watersheds. In the rural watershed, tree-ring-width growth histories (“chronologies”) from 1844–2018 significantly and positively correlate (p < 0.01) with (1) one another, and (2) regional instrumental and proxy records of drought. In the urbanized watershed, by contrast, chronologies weakly correlate with one another, with instrumental records of drought, and with the rural chronologies and regional records. Relatively weak drought limitations to urban tree growth are consistent with the significant present-day transfer of municipal water from urban infrastructure by leakage and irrigation to the natural hydrologic system. We infer a significant, long-term contribution from infrastructure to baseflow in urbanized watersheds. In contrast to the common negative impacts of ‘urban stream syndrome’, such sustained baseflow in watersheds with impaired or failing infrastructure may be an unintended positive consequence for stream ecosystems, as a mitigation against projected extended 21st-century droughts. Additionally, riparian trees may serve as a proxy for past impacts of urbanization on natural streams, which may inform sustainable urban development.
{"title":"Positive unintended consequences of urbanization for climate-resilience of stream ecosystems","authors":"Jay L. Banner, Bryan A. Black, Darrel M. Tremaine","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00144-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00144-1","url":null,"abstract":"Developing sustainable urban systems is a fundamental societal challenge for the 21st century, and central Texas faces particularly synergistic challenges of a rapidly growing urban population and a projected increasingly drought-prone climate. To assess the history of urbanization impacts on watersheds here, we analyzed 51 cores from bald cypress trees in paired urban and rural watersheds in Austin, Texas. We find a significant contrast between rural and urbanized watersheds. In the rural watershed, tree-ring-width growth histories (“chronologies”) from 1844–2018 significantly and positively correlate (p < 0.01) with (1) one another, and (2) regional instrumental and proxy records of drought. In the urbanized watershed, by contrast, chronologies weakly correlate with one another, with instrumental records of drought, and with the rural chronologies and regional records. Relatively weak drought limitations to urban tree growth are consistent with the significant present-day transfer of municipal water from urban infrastructure by leakage and irrigation to the natural hydrologic system. We infer a significant, long-term contribution from infrastructure to baseflow in urbanized watersheds. In contrast to the common negative impacts of ‘urban stream syndrome’, such sustained baseflow in watersheds with impaired or failing infrastructure may be an unintended positive consequence for stream ecosystems, as a mitigation against projected extended 21st-century droughts. Additionally, riparian trees may serve as a proxy for past impacts of urbanization on natural streams, which may inform sustainable urban development.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00144-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140181745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-16DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z
David J. Eldridge, Haiying Cui, Jingyi Ding, Miguel Berdugo, Tadeo Sáez-Sandino, Jorge Duran, Juan Gaitan, José L. Blanco-Pastor, Alexandra Rodríguez, César Plaza, Fernando Alfaro, Alberto L. Teixido, Sebastian Abades, Adebola R. Bamigboye, Gabriel F. Peñaloza-Bojacá, Tine Grebenc, Tine U. Nahberger, Javier G. Illán, Yu-Rong Liu, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Ana Rey, Christina Siebe, Wei Sun, Pankaj Trivedi, Jay Prakash Verma, Ling Wang, Jianyong Wang, Tianxue Wang, Eli Zaady, Xiaobing Zhou, Xin-Quan Zhou, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.
{"title":"Urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil ecosystem services","authors":"David J. Eldridge, Haiying Cui, Jingyi Ding, Miguel Berdugo, Tadeo Sáez-Sandino, Jorge Duran, Juan Gaitan, José L. Blanco-Pastor, Alexandra Rodríguez, César Plaza, Fernando Alfaro, Alberto L. Teixido, Sebastian Abades, Adebola R. Bamigboye, Gabriel F. Peñaloza-Bojacá, Tine Grebenc, Tine U. Nahberger, Javier G. Illán, Yu-Rong Liu, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Ana Rey, Christina Siebe, Wei Sun, Pankaj Trivedi, Jay Prakash Verma, Ling Wang, Jianyong Wang, Tianxue Wang, Eli Zaady, Xiaobing Zhou, Xin-Quan Zhou, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00154-z","url":null,"abstract":"Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00154-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140139327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As a hot area of population inflow in the process of urbanization, the urban expansion area faces rapid growth of surface urban heat island (SUHI). However, the multi-dimensional evolutionary characteristics of SUHI in urban expansion areas are still unclear. Through analyzing the evolution of SUHI range ratio, mean intensity and maximum intensity, in this study we identified the comprehensive evolutionary pattern of summer SUHI in urban expansion areas of 31 major cities in China during 2000–2018, and further investigated the corresponding dominant influencing factors. The results showed that the SUHI range and intensity in urban expansion areas exhibited a significant increasing trend in 81% and 71% of the cities respectively during the summer daytime. The cities with declining SUHI range and intensity were distributed in northwestern high-altitude areas with low economic level, while the cities with dominant increases in the SUHI range were distributed in eastern low-altitude areas with high economic level. Climate conditions and population distribution were the dominant influencing factors of intensity-dominated increasing and balanced increasing types, respectively. The intensity and range two-dimensional increasing type had experienced the most severe SUHI growth, with large proportion of secondary industry as the main influencing factor. This study highlighted the importance of multi-dimensional characteristics of SUHI evolution, which provided a new insight to understand SUHI change in urban expansion areas and associated mitigation measures.
{"title":"Diversified evolutionary patterns of surface urban heat island in new expansion areas of 31 Chinese cities","authors":"Jian Peng, Ruilin Qiao, Qi Wang, Shuying Yu, Jianquan Dong, Zhiwei Yang","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00152-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00152-1","url":null,"abstract":"As a hot area of population inflow in the process of urbanization, the urban expansion area faces rapid growth of surface urban heat island (SUHI). However, the multi-dimensional evolutionary characteristics of SUHI in urban expansion areas are still unclear. Through analyzing the evolution of SUHI range ratio, mean intensity and maximum intensity, in this study we identified the comprehensive evolutionary pattern of summer SUHI in urban expansion areas of 31 major cities in China during 2000–2018, and further investigated the corresponding dominant influencing factors. The results showed that the SUHI range and intensity in urban expansion areas exhibited a significant increasing trend in 81% and 71% of the cities respectively during the summer daytime. The cities with declining SUHI range and intensity were distributed in northwestern high-altitude areas with low economic level, while the cities with dominant increases in the SUHI range were distributed in eastern low-altitude areas with high economic level. Climate conditions and population distribution were the dominant influencing factors of intensity-dominated increasing and balanced increasing types, respectively. The intensity and range two-dimensional increasing type had experienced the most severe SUHI growth, with large proportion of secondary industry as the main influencing factor. This study highlighted the importance of multi-dimensional characteristics of SUHI evolution, which provided a new insight to understand SUHI change in urban expansion areas and associated mitigation measures.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00152-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140139326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-15DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00153-0
Tanya Tsui, Titus Venverloo, Tom Benson, Fábio Duarte
In the European Union, construction is responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions and 40% energy consumption. The reuse of construction materials has been receiving increasing attention, including regulations established by the European Union, and cities establishing goals to reuse construction materials. This is the case for Amsterdam, which established the goal of reusing 50% of construction materials in new construction by 2030. Part of the challenge of reuse of construction materials in urban areas is to optimize the waste-to-resource loops: finding the optimal scale and location for circular construction hubs—facilities that collect, store, and redistribute construction waste as secondary construction materials. In this paper, we use the supply and demand of timber construction materials in Amsterdam as a case study to find the optimal scale and location for construction hubs. We used the spatial simulated annealing algorithm as an optimization method for balancing the trade-off between small and large-scale hubs, using cost-effectiveness to compare potential locations and identify the optimal solution. We found that the optimal number of hubs for our study area is 29, with an average service radius of 3 km. This study has implications for policymakers, urban planners, and companies seeking to implement circular economy principles.
{"title":"Spatial optimization of circular timber hubs","authors":"Tanya Tsui, Titus Venverloo, Tom Benson, Fábio Duarte","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00153-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00153-0","url":null,"abstract":"In the European Union, construction is responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions and 40% energy consumption. The reuse of construction materials has been receiving increasing attention, including regulations established by the European Union, and cities establishing goals to reuse construction materials. This is the case for Amsterdam, which established the goal of reusing 50% of construction materials in new construction by 2030. Part of the challenge of reuse of construction materials in urban areas is to optimize the waste-to-resource loops: finding the optimal scale and location for circular construction hubs—facilities that collect, store, and redistribute construction waste as secondary construction materials. In this paper, we use the supply and demand of timber construction materials in Amsterdam as a case study to find the optimal scale and location for construction hubs. We used the spatial simulated annealing algorithm as an optimization method for balancing the trade-off between small and large-scale hubs, using cost-effectiveness to compare potential locations and identify the optimal solution. We found that the optimal number of hubs for our study area is 29, with an average service radius of 3 km. This study has implications for policymakers, urban planners, and companies seeking to implement circular economy principles.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00153-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140139340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-15DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00145-0
Lauren M. Cook, Kelly D. Good, Marco Moretti, Peleg Kremer, Bridget Wadzuk, Robert Traver, Virginia Smith
Decades of research on multifunctional Green Infrastructure (GI) has yet to translate into holistic implementation in the built environment. This oversight stems from assumptions that many ecosystem services occur passively and thus potential synergies are overlooked during planning and design. This study offers specific guidance for coordinating GI planning, design, and construction by examining the current state of academic literature on these aspects. It identifies 15 GI elements (e.g., green roofs) and 15 objectives (e.g., biodiversity) to collectively consider before implementation. The literature tends to isolate discussions of “engineered” GI elements with water-related objectives, while more “natural” GI are linked to biodiversity and human well-being. Coordinating across GI objectives and elements remains imperative, but evaluating too many options risks a paradox of choice. This study recommends short-term adherence to principles of adaptive design and, in the long-term, reemphasizes multifunctionality assessments, inter and transdisciplinary collaboration, and political will.
数十年来对多功能绿色基础设施 (GI) 的研究尚未转化为建筑环境中的整体实施。这种疏忽源于人们认为许多生态系统服务是被动提供的，因此在规划和设计过程中忽略了潜在的协同作用。本研究通过考察有关这些方面的学术文献现状，为协调 GI 规划、设计和施工提供了具体指导。它确定了 15 个 GI 要素（如绿色屋顶）和 15 个目标（如生物多样性），以便在实施前共同考虑。这些文献倾向于孤立地讨论与水相关目标的 "工程 "地理信息系统要素，而更 "自然 "的地理信息系统则与生物多样性和人类福祉相关。协调不同的地理信息系统目标和要素仍是当务之急，但评估过多的选项可能会造成选择悖论。本研究建议在短期内坚持适应性设计原则，在长期内再次强调多功能性评估、跨学科合作和政治意愿。
{"title":"Towards the intentional multifunctionality of urban green infrastructure: a paradox of choice?","authors":"Lauren M. Cook, Kelly D. Good, Marco Moretti, Peleg Kremer, Bridget Wadzuk, Robert Traver, Virginia Smith","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00145-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00145-0","url":null,"abstract":"Decades of research on multifunctional Green Infrastructure (GI) has yet to translate into holistic implementation in the built environment. This oversight stems from assumptions that many ecosystem services occur passively and thus potential synergies are overlooked during planning and design. This study offers specific guidance for coordinating GI planning, design, and construction by examining the current state of academic literature on these aspects. It identifies 15 GI elements (e.g., green roofs) and 15 objectives (e.g., biodiversity) to collectively consider before implementation. The literature tends to isolate discussions of “engineered” GI elements with water-related objectives, while more “natural” GI are linked to biodiversity and human well-being. Coordinating across GI objectives and elements remains imperative, but evaluating too many options risks a paradox of choice. This study recommends short-term adherence to principles of adaptive design and, in the long-term, reemphasizes multifunctionality assessments, inter and transdisciplinary collaboration, and political will.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00145-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140139320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-14DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00151-2
Ayyoob Sharifi, Chui Ying Lee
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, speculations on the decline of major cities have surged, with studies noting temporary population decreases across various cities worldwide. However, research scarcely addresses the pandemic’s enduring influence on perceptions of city living. Rather than exploring mid- to long-term impacts, current literature focuses mainly on comparing changes in residential preferences during and before the pandemic. To fill this gap, we conducted a randomized conjoint experiment to scrutinize altered residential preferences and attitudes toward residing in the Tokyo Metropolis due to the pandemic. Scenarios encompassed reminders of potential pandemic re-occurrence and teleworking options. Despite variations depending on the scenarios and socio-demographic characteristics of the survey participants, overall, results show that the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in remote working did not diminish the allure of Tokyo, implying a low probability of an urban decline. These outcomes advocate for compact urban development to bolster resilience against forthcoming stressors like climate change.
{"title":"The appeal of cities may not wane due to the COVID-19 pandemic and remote working","authors":"Ayyoob Sharifi, Chui Ying Lee","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00151-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00151-2","url":null,"abstract":"Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, speculations on the decline of major cities have surged, with studies noting temporary population decreases across various cities worldwide. However, research scarcely addresses the pandemic’s enduring influence on perceptions of city living. Rather than exploring mid- to long-term impacts, current literature focuses mainly on comparing changes in residential preferences during and before the pandemic. To fill this gap, we conducted a randomized conjoint experiment to scrutinize altered residential preferences and attitudes toward residing in the Tokyo Metropolis due to the pandemic. Scenarios encompassed reminders of potential pandemic re-occurrence and teleworking options. Despite variations depending on the scenarios and socio-demographic characteristics of the survey participants, overall, results show that the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in remote working did not diminish the allure of Tokyo, implying a low probability of an urban decline. These outcomes advocate for compact urban development to bolster resilience against forthcoming stressors like climate change.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00151-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140123817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00149-w
Bhavna Middha, Ralph Horne
In this paper we illustrate how normalised practices and strategies of waste management pay insufficient attention to social life and distributional impacts by excluding apartments and placing them at the margins of domestic waste management. In considering shifts towards more circular post-consumption systems, this paper describes the problematic policy and regulatory imaginary of apartment waste management within the Circular Economy narratives of sustainable domestic waste management. We present an argument for a relational approach to domestic waste as a counterpoint to technocentric and market-based approaches, with implications for governance and infrastructures of apartment waste management. We illustrate how spatio-temporal and socio-material bundles of practices could chart new directions for reduction and collection. We seek to demonstrate how relational place-based measures and shifts in practices in Victoria and elsewhere could counter exclusionary infrastructure by more purposefully including the marginal spaces that apartments inhabit.
{"title":"Countering exclusionary infrastructure in apartment waste management: Towards a relational place-based governance in Victoria","authors":"Bhavna Middha, Ralph Horne","doi":"10.1038/s42949-024-00149-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42949-024-00149-w","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we illustrate how normalised practices and strategies of waste management pay insufficient attention to social life and distributional impacts by excluding apartments and placing them at the margins of domestic waste management. In considering shifts towards more circular post-consumption systems, this paper describes the problematic policy and regulatory imaginary of apartment waste management within the Circular Economy narratives of sustainable domestic waste management. We present an argument for a relational approach to domestic waste as a counterpoint to technocentric and market-based approaches, with implications for governance and infrastructures of apartment waste management. We illustrate how spatio-temporal and socio-material bundles of practices could chart new directions for reduction and collection. We seek to demonstrate how relational place-based measures and shifts in practices in Victoria and elsewhere could counter exclusionary infrastructure by more purposefully including the marginal spaces that apartments inhabit.","PeriodicalId":74322,"journal":{"name":"npj urban sustainability","volume":" ","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-024-00149-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140024844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-04DOI: 10.1038/s42949-024-00147-y
Alice Battiston, Rossano Schifanella
With the recent expansion of urban greening interventions, the definition of spatial indicators to measure the provision of urban greenery has become pivotal in informing the policy-design process. By analyzing the stability of the population and area rankings induced by several indicators of green accessibility for over 1000 cities worldwide, we investigate the extent to which using a single metric provides a reliable assessment of green accessibility in a city. The results suggest that, due to the complex interaction between the spatial distribution of greenspaces in an urban center and its population distribution, a single indicator may inadequately differentiate across areas or subgroups of the population, even when focusing on one form of green accessibility. From a policy standpoint, this indicates the need to switch toward a multi-dimensional framework capable of organically evaluating a range of indicators at once.
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