Study Abroad and the City: Mapping Urban Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blair, Scott

2011-01-01

Study abroad by U.S. students, despite recent growth into non-western and rural destinations, often remains focused on cities, often very large and highly urbanized ones. While the destination cities for study abroad are located across the globe, European cities remain predominant, and thus, this article focuses on study abroad in one city. The…

China Report, Agriculture.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-01-26

utilization of genetic theories for the cultivation of good varieties, the adoption of reproductive biology, artificial insemination and embryonic implan...100 yuan of original value of fixed assets was higher than the large cities that had a population of 500,000 to 2 million people. Some " satellite ...view, the results of some " satellite cities" are better than those of the large and medium cities. For instance, the per capita value of output of

City School District Reorganization: An Annotated Bibliography. Centralization and Decentralization in the Government of Metropolitan Areas with Special Emphasis on the Organization, Administration, and Financing of Large-City School Systems. Educational Research Series No. 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rideout, E. Brock; Najat, Sandra

As a guide to educational administrators working in large cities, abstracts of 161 books, pamphlets, papers, and journal articles published between 1924 and 1966 are classified into five categories: (1) Centralization versus decentralization, (2) local government, (3) metropolitan organization, (4) the financing of education, and (5) the…

Birth and death in cities in the developing world.

PubMed

1995-06-01

City dwellers in Sub-Saharan Africa have increased roughly 600% in the last 35 years. Throughout the developing world, cities have expanded at a rate that has far outpaced rural population growth. Extensive data document lower fertility and mortality rates in cities than in rural regions. But slums, shantytowns, and squatters' settlements proliferate in many large cities. Martin Brockerhoff studies the reproductive and health consequences of urban growth, with an emphasis on maternal and child health. Brockerhoff reports that child mortality rates in large cities are highest among children born to mothers who recently migrated from rural areas or who live in low-quality housing. Children born in large cities have about a 30% higher risk of dying before they reach the age of 5 than those born in smaller cities. Despite this, children born to migrant mothers who have lived in a city for about a year have much better survival chances than children born in rural areas to nonmigrant mothers and children born to migrant mothers before or shortly after migration. Migration in developing countries as a whole has saved millions of children's lives. The apparent benefits experienced in the 1980s may not occur in the future, as cities continue to grow and municipal governments confront an overwhelming need for housing, jobs, and services. Another benefit is that fertility rates in African cities fell by about 1 birth per woman as a result of female migration from villages to towns in the 1980s and early 1990s. There will be an increasing need for donors and governments to concentrate family planning, reproductive health, child survival, and social services in cities, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, because there child mortality decline has been unexpectedly slow, overall fertility decline is not yet apparent in most countries, and levels of migration to cities are anticipated to remain high.

Scaling of the Urban Water Footprint: An Analysis of 65 Mid- to Large-Sized U.S. Metropolitan Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahjabin, T.; Garcia, S.; Grady, C.; Mejia, A.

2017-12-01

Scaling laws have been shown to be relevant to a range of disciplines including biology, ecology, hydrology, and physics, among others. Recently, scaling was shown to be important for understanding and characterizing cities. For instance, it was found that urban infrastructure (water supply pipes and electrical wires) tends to scale sublinearly with city population, implying that large cities are more efficient. In this study, we explore the scaling of the water footprint of cities. The water footprint is a measure of water appropriation that considers both the direct and indirect (virtual) water use of a consumer or producer. Here we compute the water footprint of 65 mid- to large-sized U.S. metropolitan areas, accounting for direct and indirect water uses associated with agricultural and industrial commodities, and residential and commercial water uses. We find that the urban water footprint, computed as the sum of the water footprint of consumption and production, exhibits sublinear scaling with an exponent of 0.89. This suggests the possibility of large cities being more water-efficient than small ones. To further assess this result, we conduct additional analysis by accounting for international flows, and the effects of green water and city boundary definition on the scaling. The analysis confirms the scaling and provides additional insight about its interpretation.

Small cities face greater impact from automation.

PubMed

Frank, Morgan R; Sun, Lijun; Cebrian, Manuel; Youn, Hyejin; Rahwan, Iyad

2018-02-01

The city has proved to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: how will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across US urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and subsampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment. © 2018 The Authors.

Small cities face greater impact from automation

PubMed Central

Sun, Lijun; Cebrian, Manuel; Rahwan, Iyad

2018-01-01

The city has proved to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: how will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across US urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and subsampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment. PMID:29436514

Urban Education: Past, Present and Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Bernard C.

In spite of the efforts of the Ford Foundation's Great Cities School Improvement Program in ten large city school systems to provide quality education to children and youth from the ghettos of America's cities, this problem remains unsolved. Cities have never been able to do an adequate job of educating the poor, the immigrants, and the…

Educational Decision Making and the Distribution of Influence in Cities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crain, Robert L.

A study determined the extent of influence members of a city's business elite have on civil rights policy of the city's school system. The National Opinion Research Center interviewed the school superintendent, school board members, civil rights leaders, other political leaders, and members of the business elite in eight large cities. The study…

Carving Out Meaningful Spaces for Youth Participation and Engagement in Decision-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finlay, Sarah

2010-01-01

Auckland City Council has one of the longest-standing youth councils in Aotearoa New Zealand. It enables young people to learn about their community, their city and their local government. The process of engaging young people in large cities offers unique challenges for youth councils to reflect the diversity of cities and provide meaningful…

Preparing for Prison: Life in San Francisco's Inner-City Neighborhoods. Draft.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldman, Harvey W.; And Others

A study of inner-city youth in San Francisco (California) shows that behavior and street ideology once associated exclusively with gangs have now become the world view of a large segment of inner-city young people, especially males. Inner-city young people who aspire to material success do not see a realistic connection between public education…

Whatever Became of the Learning City?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yarnit, Martin

2015-01-01

During the 1990s, the UK Learning City Network was a large and influential movement with government support, the most significant national body of its kind anywhere. Yet, less than a decade later, it was in decline and now no longer exists. But while few UK towns or cities any longer use the term "learning city", the notion lives on as…

Budgeting for Desegregation in Large Cities. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colton, David L.; Berg, William M.

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of the process of mobilizing and allocating resources for desegregation in large cities. Examined were the effects of budgetary constraints on school desegregation and desegregation impact on educational finance. Four urban school districts were selected for site reports. Section one of this…

The inhabited environment, infrastructure development and advanced urbanization in China’s Yangtze River Delta Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Xiaoqing; Gao, Weijun; Zhou, Nan; Kammen, Daniel M.; Wu, Yiqun; Zhang, Yao; Chen, Wei

2016-12-01

This paper analyzes the relationship among the inhabited environment, infrastructure development and environmental impacts in China’s heavily urbanized Yangtze River Delta region. Using primary human environment data for the period 2006-2014, we examine factors affecting the inhabited environment and infrastructure development: urban population, GDP, built-up area, energy consumption, waste emission, transportation, real estate and urban greenery. Then we empirically investigate the impact of advanced urbanization with consideration of cities’ differences. Results from this study show that the growth rate of the inhabited environment and infrastructure development is strongly influenced by regional development structure, functional orientations, traffic network and urban size and form. The effect of advanced urbanization is more significant in large and mid-size cities than huge and mega cities. Energy consumption, waste emission and real estate in large and mid-size cities developed at an unprecedented rate with the rapid increase of economy. However, urban development of huge and mega cities gradually tended to be saturated. The transition development in these cities improved the inhabited environment and ecological protection instead of the urban construction simply. To maintain a sustainable advanced urbanization process, policy implications included urban sprawl control polices, ecological development mechanisms and reforming the economic structure for huge and mega cities, and construct major cross-regional infrastructure, enhance the carrying capacity and improvement of energy efficiency and structure for large and mid-size cities.

Urban Security Initiative: Earthquake impacts on the urban ``system of systems``

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maheshwari, S.; Jones, E.; Rasmussen, S.

1999-06-01

This paper is a discussion of how to address the problems of disasters in a large city, a project titled Urban Security Initiative undertaken by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The paper first discusses the need to address the problems of disasters in large cities and ten provides a framework that is suitable to address this problem. The paper then provides an overview of the module of the project that deals with assessment of earthquake damage on urban infrastructure in large cities and an internet-based approach for consensus building leading to better coordination in the post-disaster period. Finally, the papermore » discusses the future direction of the project.« less

Immigration and Emigration: Canadian and Mexican Youth Making Sense of a Globalized Conflict

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nieto, Diego; Bickmore, Kathy

2017-01-01

This paper discusses findings from focus groups with youth located in underprivileged surroundings in one large multicultural city in Canada and in a moderately large city in Mexico, examining their understandings and lived experiences of migration-related conflicts. Canadian participants framed these conflicts as a problem of racist attitudes…

Mission Matters: The Cost of Small High Schools Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stiefel, Leanna; Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Iatarola, Patrice; Chellman, Colin C.

2009-01-01

With the financial support of several large foundations and the federal government, creating small schools has become a prominent high school reform strategy in many large American cities. While some research supports this strategy, little research assesses the relative costs of these smaller schools. We use data on over 200 New York City high…

Virtual Water Transfers in U.S. Cities from Domestic Commodity Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahams, I. C.; Mejia, A.; Paterson, W.

2015-12-01

Cities have imported water into their boundaries for centuries but understanding how cities indirectly affect watersheds through the commodities which they import is fairly unknown. Thus, we present and discuss here a methodology for determining the virtual water transfers to and from U.S. cities associated with domestic commodity flows. For our methodology, we only consider agricultural and industrial commodities and, to represent the commodity flows, we use the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) dataset from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Accordingly, we determine virtual water transfers for the 123 geographic regions in the FAF, which consists of 17 states, 73 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), and 33 remainders of states. Out of the 41 sectors that comprise the FAF data, we consider only the 29 sectors that account for the agricultural and industrial commodities. Using both water use data for macro-sectors and national water use coefficients for different industries, we determine a weighted water use coefficient for each of the 29 sectors considered. Ultimately, we use these weighted coefficients to estimate virtual water transfers and the water footprint for each city. Preliminary comparisons with other water footprint estimates indicate that our methodology yields reasonable results. In terms of the water footprint, we find that cities (i.e. MSAs) are net consumers, can consume a large proportion of their own production, and can have a large agricultural production. We also find that the per capita water footprint of industrial consumption decreases with increasing population in cities, suggesting that large cities may be more efficient.

The Spatiotemporal Trend of City Parks in Mainland China between 1981 and 2014: Implications for the Promotion of Leisure Time Physical Activity and Planning.

PubMed

Wang, Kai; Liu, Jianjun

2017-09-29

City parks, important environments built for physical activity, play critical roles in preventing chronic diseases and promoting public health. We used five commonly used park indicators to investigate the spatiotemporal trend of city parks in mainland China between 1981 and 2014 at three scales: national, provincial and city class. City parks in China increased significantly with a turning point occurring around the year 2000. Up until the end of 2014, there were 13,074 city parks totaling 367,962 ha with 0.29 parks per 10,000 residents, 8.26 m² of park per capita and 2.00% of parkland as a percentage of urban area. However, there is still a large gap compared to the established American and Japanese city park systems, and only 5.4% of people aged above 20 access city parks for physical activity. The low number of parks per 10,000 residents brings up the issue of the accessibility to physical activity areas that public parks provide. The concern of spatial disparity, also apparent for all five city park indicators, differed strongly at provincial and city class scales. The southern and eastern coastal provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong have abundant city park resources. At the scale of the city classes, mega-city II had the highest of the three ratio indicators and the large city class had the lowest. On one hand, the leading province Guangdong and its mega-cities Shenzhen and Dongguan had park indicators comparable to the United States and Japan. On the other hand, there were still five cities with no city parks and many cities with extremely low park indicators. In China, few cities have realized the importance of city parks for the promotion of leisure time physical activity. It is urgent that state and city park laws or guidelines are passed that can serve as baselines for planning a park system and determining a minimum standard for city parks with free, accessible and safe physical activity areas and sports facilities.

The Spatiotemporal Trend of City Parks in Mainland China between 1981 and 2014: Implications for the Promotion of Leisure Time Physical Activity and Planning

PubMed Central

Wang, Kai; Liu, Jianjun

2017-01-01

City parks, important environments built for physical activity, play critical roles in preventing chronic diseases and promoting public health. We used five commonly used park indicators to investigate the spatiotemporal trend of city parks in mainland China between 1981 and 2014 at three scales: national, provincial and city class. City parks in China increased significantly with a turning point occurring around the year 2000. Up until the end of 2014, there were 13,074 city parks totaling 367,962 ha with 0.29 parks per 10,000 residents, 8.26 m2 of park per capita and 2.00% of parkland as a percentage of urban area. However, there is still a large gap compared to the established American and Japanese city park systems, and only 5.4% of people aged above 20 access city parks for physical activity. The low number of parks per 10,000 residents brings up the issue of the accessibility to physical activity areas that public parks provide. The concern of spatial disparity, also apparent for all five city park indicators, differed strongly at provincial and city class scales. The southern and eastern coastal provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong have abundant city park resources. At the scale of the city classes, mega-city II had the highest of the three ratio indicators and the large city class had the lowest. On one hand, the leading province Guangdong and its mega-cities Shenzhen and Dongguan had park indicators comparable to the United States and Japan. On the other hand, there were still five cities with no city parks and many cities with extremely low park indicators. In China, few cities have realized the importance of city parks for the promotion of leisure time physical activity. It is urgent that state and city park laws or guidelines are passed that can serve as baselines for planning a park system and determining a minimum standard for city parks with free, accessible and safe physical activity areas and sports facilities. PMID:28961182

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-07-26

ISS036-E-025802 (26 July 2013) --- A nighttime view of southwestern Saudi Arabia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 36 crew member on the International Space Station. In addition to city lights, patchy cloud cover partially obscures and blurs city lights, especially in the vicinity of Khamis Mushait and Abha. While much of the country is lightly populated desert ? and relatively dark at night due to lack of city and roadway lights ? the southwestern coastal region has more moderate climate and several large cities. Three brightly lit urban centers are visible at top left; Jeddah, Mecca, and Taif. Jeddah is the gateway city for Islamic pilgrims going to nearby Mecca (a religious journey known as the hajj). Taif to the east is located on the slopes of the Sarawat Mountains, and provides a summer retreat for the Saudi government from the desert heat of the capital city of Riyadh. Bright yellow-orange lighting marks highways that parallel the trend of the Asir Mountains at center, connecting Mecca to the resort cities of Al Bahah and Abha (lower right). Smaller roadways, lit with blue lights, extend to the west to small cities along the Red Sea coastline. The bright yellow-orange glow of the city of Abha is matched by that of the city of Khamis Mushait (or Khamis Mushayt) to the northeast. The brightly lit ribbon of highway continues onward towards other large cities to the south (Jazan, not shown) and southeast (Najran, not shown).

Facing the Urban Challenge: Reimagining Land Use in America's Distressed Older Cities--The Federal Policy Role

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mallach, Alan

2010-01-01

The end of World War II heralded an era of urban disinvestment in the United States. While some cities began to rebound in the 1990s with population and economic growth, others--including large cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis as well as many smaller cities and towns--did not, and have continued to decline. As these communities…

Understanding the City Size Wage Gap*

PubMed Central

Baum-Snow, Nathaniel; Pavan, Ronni

2013-01-01

In this paper, we decompose city size wage premia into various components. We base these decompositions on an estimated on-the-job search model that incorporates latent ability, search frictions, firm-worker match quality, human capital accumulation and endogenous migration between large, medium and small cities. Counterfactual simulations of the model indicate that variation in returns to experience and differences in wage intercepts across location type are the most important mechanisms contributing to observed city size wage premia. Variation in returns to experience is more important for generating wage premia between large and small locations while differences in wage intercepts are more important for generating wage premia betwen medium and small locations. Sorting on unobserved ability within education group and differences in labor market search frictions and distributions of firm-worker match quality contribute little to observed city size wage premia. These conclusions hold for separate samples of high school and college graduates. PMID:24273347

Tropospheric ozone (TOR) trend over three major inland Indian cities: Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulkarni, Pavan S.; Ghude, Sachin D.; Bortoli, D.

2010-10-01

An analysis of tropospheric column ozone using the NASA Langley TOR data during 1979-2005 has been done to investigate the trend over major Indian cities Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. India was under social democratic-based policies before 1990s. Economic Liberalization began in nineties which lead to a significant growth in industrial, energy and transport sectors in major cities. Our analysis shows that there is a systematic increase in the number of months with higher tropospheric ozone values after 1990. A comparison of TOR climatology before and after 1990 over these cities shows evidence of increase in the tropospheric ozone after 1990. Trend obtained from the model shows significant change during monsoon over Delhi and during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon over Hyderabad and Bangalore. The present analysis using TOR technique demonstrates the TOR potential to detect changes in tropospheric ozone over large cities which are impacted by large anthropogenic pollution.

Understanding the City Size Wage Gap.

PubMed

Baum-Snow, Nathaniel; Pavan, Ronni

2012-01-01

In this paper, we decompose city size wage premia into various components. We base these decompositions on an estimated on-the-job search model that incorporates latent ability, search frictions, firm-worker match quality, human capital accumulation and endogenous migration between large, medium and small cities. Counterfactual simulations of the model indicate that variation in returns to experience and differences in wage intercepts across location type are the most important mechanisms contributing to observed city size wage premia. Variation in returns to experience is more important for generating wage premia between large and small locations while differences in wage intercepts are more important for generating wage premia betwen medium and small locations. Sorting on unobserved ability within education group and differences in labor market search frictions and distributions of firm-worker match quality contribute little to observed city size wage premia. These conclusions hold for separate samples of high school and college graduates.

Large Dog Relinquishment to Two Municipal Facilities in New York City and Washington, D.C.: Identifying Targets for Intervention

PubMed Central

Weiss, Emily; Slater, Margaret; Garrison, Laurie; Drain, Natasha; Dolan, Emily; Scarlett, Janet M.; Zawistowski, Stephen L.

2014-01-01

Simple Summary While the overall trend in euthanasia has been decreasing nationally, large dogs are at a higher risk of euthanasia than other-sized dogs in most animal shelters in the United States. We hypothesized that one way to increase the lives saved with regard to large dogs in shelters is to keep them home in the first place when possible. Our research is the first to collect data in New York City and Washington, D.C., identifying the process leading to the owner relinquishment of large dogs. We found that targets for interventions to decrease large dog relinquishment are likely different in each community. Abstract While the overall trend in euthanasia has been decreasing nationally, large dogs are at a higher risk of euthanasia than other sized dogs in most animal shelters in the United States. We hypothesized one way to increase the lives saved with respect to these large dogs is to keep them home when possible. In order to develop solutions to decrease relinquishment, a survey was developed to learn more about the reasons owners relinquish large dogs. The survey was administered to owners relinquishing their dogs at two large municipal facilities, one in New York City and one in Washington, D.C. There were 157 responses between the two facilities. We found both significant similarities and differences between respondents and their dogs from the two cities. We identified opportunities to potentially support future relinquishers and found that targets for interventions are likely different in each community. PMID:26480315

The Multi-ethnic and Multicultural City: An Asian Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laquian, Aprodicio A.

1996-01-01

Presents a broad overview of the issues, ethnic groups, and cultural interrelationships defining most large cities throughout Asia. Discusses those aspects of Western colonialism, socialism, and economic growth that have worked to limit racial tension and violence in most Asian cities. Examines municipal and legislative responses to urban…

Verbalizing, Visualizing, and Navigating: The Effect of Strategies on Encoding a Large-Scale Virtual Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kraemer, David J. M.; Schinazi, Victor R.; Cawkwell, Philip B.; Tekriwal, Anand; Epstein, Russell A.; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2017-01-01

Using novel virtual cities, we investigated the influence of verbal and visual strategies on the encoding of navigation-relevant information in a large-scale virtual environment. In 2 experiments, participants watched videos of routes through 4 virtual cities and were subsequently tested on their memory for observed landmarks and their ability to…

Urbanisation, poverty and employment: the large metropolis in the third world.

PubMed

Singh, A

1992-01-01

"The main purpose of this paper is to provide an overall review of the chief analytical as well as economic policy issues in relation to Third World cities in the light of the available theoretical and empirical studies on urbanisation, poverty and employment in the developing countries.... Part I...provides basic information on urbanisation in the Third World...[and] outlines the nature and extent of urban poverty in these large cities and considers the impact of the world economic crisis on the urban poor. Part II of the paper discusses the most important structural features of urbanisation in relation to economic development....Finally, Part III briefly examines policy issues in relation to urbanisation and poverty in the Third World's large cities." excerpt

Comparison of CO2 Emissions Data for 30 Cities from Different Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakagawa, Y.; Koide, D.; Ito, A.; Saito, M.; Hirata, R.

2017-12-01

Many sources suggest that cities account for a large proportion of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, in search for the best ways to reduce total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a focus on the city emission is crucial. In this study, we collected CO2 emissions data in 30 cities during 1990-2015 and evaluated the degree of variance between data sources. The CO2 emissions data were obtained from academic papers, municipal reports, and high-resolution emissions maps (CIDIACv2016, EDGARv4.2, ODIACv2016, and FFDASv2.0). To extract urban CO2 emissions from the high-resolution emissions maps, urban fraction ranging from 0 to 1 was calculated for each 1×1 degree grid cell using the global land cover data (SYNMAP). Total CO2 emissions from the grid cells in which urban fraction occupies greater than or equal to 0.9 were regarded as urban CO2 emissions. The estimated CO2 emissions varied greatly depending on the information sources, even in the same year. There was a large difference between CO2 emissions collected from academic papers, municipal reports, and those extracted from high-resolution emissions maps. One reason is that they use different city boundaries. That is, the city proper (i.e. the political city boundary) is often defined as the city boundary in academic papers and municipal reports, whereas the urban area is used in the high-resolution emissions maps. Furthermore, there was a large variation in CO2 emissions collected from academic papers and municipal reports. These differences may be due to the difference in the assumptions such as allocation ratio of CO2 emissions to producers and consumers. In general, the consumption-based assignment of emissions gives higher estimates of urban CO2 emission in comparison with production-based assignment. Furthermore, there was also a large variation in CO2 emissions extracted from high-resolution emissions maps. This difference would be attributable to differences in information used in the spatial disaggregation of emissions. To identify the CO2 emissions from cities, it is necessary to determine common definitions of city boundaries, allocation ratio of CO2 emissions to consumption and production, and refined approach of the spatial disaggregation of CO2 emissions in high-resolution emissions maps.

Epidemiological implications of mobility between a large urban centre and smaller satellite cities.

PubMed

Arino, Julien; Portet, Stéphanie

2015-11-01

An SIR infectious disease propagation model is considered that incorporates mobility of individuals between a large urban centre and smaller satellite cities. Because of the difference in population sizes, the urban centre has standard incidence and satellite cities have mass action incidence. It is shown that the general basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] acts as a threshold between global asymptotic stability of the disease free equilibrium and disease persistence. The case of Winnipeg (MB, Canada) and some neighbouring satellite communities is then considered numerically to complement the mathematical analysis, highlighting the importance of taking into account not only [Formula: see text] but also other measures of disease severity. It is found that the large urban centre governs most of the behaviour of the general system and control of the spread is better achieved by targeting it rather than reducing movement between the units. Also, the capacity of a satellite city to affect the general system depends on its population size and its connectivity to the main urban centre.

Urbanization and Slum Formation

PubMed Central

Phua, Kai Hong

2007-01-01

The formation of slums need not be inevitable with rapid urbanization. Such an argument appears to be contradicted by evidence of large slum populations in a large number of developing countries and particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions like Asia. The evidence discussed suggests that city authorities faced with rapid urban development lack the capacity to cope with the diverse demands for infrastructural provision to meet economic and social needs. Not only are strategic planning and intervention major issues in agenda to manage rapid urbanization, but city governments are not effectively linking the economic development trajectory to implications for urban growth and, hence, housing needs. In the following discussion, a case study is presented in support of the argument that city governments have to first recognize and then act to establish the link that is crucial between economic development, urban growth, and housing. This is the agendum that has been largely neglected by city and national governments that have been narrowly focused on economic growth with the consequent proliferation of slum formation as a housing solution. PMID:17387618

Inter-City Virtual Water Transfers Within a Large Metropolitan Area: A Case Study of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rushforth, R.; Ruddell, B. L.

2014-12-01

Water footprints have been proposed as potential sustainability indicators, but these analyses have thus far focused at the country-level or regional scale. However, for many countries, especially the United States, the most relevant level of water decision-making is the city. For water footprinting to inform urban sustainability, the boundaries for analysis must match the relevant boundaries for decision-making and economic development. Initial studies into city-level water footprints have provided insight into how large cities across the globe—Delhi, Lagos, Berlin, Beijing, York—create virtual water trade linkages with distant hinterlands. This study hypothesizes that for large cities the most direct and manageable virtual water flows exist at the metropolitan area scale and thus should provide the most policy-relevant information. This study represents an initial attempt at quantifying intra-metropolitan area virtual water flows. A modified commodity-by-industry input-output model was used to determine virtual water flows destined to, occurring within, and emanating from the Phoenix metropolitan area (PMA). Virtual water flows to and from the PMA were calculated for each PMA city using water consumption data as well as economic and industry statistics. Intra-PMA virtual water trade was determined using county-level traffic flow data, water consumption data, and economic and industry statistics. The findings show that there are archetypal cities within metropolitan areas and that each type of city has a distinct water footprint profile that is related to the value added economic processes occuring within their boundaries. These findings can be used to inform local water managers about the resilience of outsourced water supplies.

Biotic homogenization of three insect groups due to urbanization.

PubMed

Knop, Eva

2016-01-01

Cities are growing rapidly, thereby expected to cause a large-scale global biotic homogenization. Evidence for the homogenization hypothesis is mostly derived from plants and birds, whereas arthropods have so far been neglected. Here, I tested the homogenization hypothesis with three insect indicator groups, namely true bugs, leafhoppers, and beetles. In particular, I was interested whether insect species community composition differs between urban and rural areas, whether they are more similar between cities than between rural areas, and whether the found pattern is explained by true species turnover, species diversity gradients and geographic distance, by non-native or specialist species, respectively. I analyzed insect species communities sampled on birch trees in a total of six Swiss cities and six rural areas nearby. In all indicator groups, urban and rural community composition was significantly dissimilar due to native species turnover. Further, for bug and leafhopper communities, I found evidence for large-scale homogenization due to urbanization, which was driven by reduced species turnover of specialist species in cities. Species turnover of beetle communities was similar between cities and rural areas. Interestingly, when specialist species of beetles were excluded from the analyses, cities were more dissimilar than rural areas, suggesting biotic differentiation of beetle communities in cities. Non-native species did not affect species turnover of the insect groups. However, given non-native arthropod species are increasing rapidly, their homogenizing effect might be detected more often in future. Overall, the results show that urbanization has a negative large-scale impact on the diversity specialist species of the investigated insect groups. Specific measures in cities targeted at increasing the persistence of specialist species typical for the respective biogeographic region could help to stop the loss of biodiversity. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Challenges on Java’s small city spatial planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirawan, B.; Tambunan, J. R.

2018-05-01

Most Indonesians nowadays live in the urban area, due to urbanization. 60 percent of the inhabitants of Java, the most populous island in Indonesia, will live in the urban area by 2010, a figure that is higher than the national average of 55 percent. Urbanization has brought a large influx of newcomers not only into the metropolitan or large cities, but also into small and medium cities. One of urbanization’s most concerning impacts is urban sprawl that harms sustainability. There is a dearth of academic literature studying the phenomenon of urban sprawl in Indonesian small cities. Urban sprawl in small cities is commonly ignored, considered as a contained problem the solution for which is a simple use of local spatial plan. Unfortunately, for Indonesia, this solution is difficult to implement because city spatial plans works only within administrative jurisdictions, whilst the urban sprawls themselves generally occur across the borders of different administrative jurisdictions. This study studies urban sprawls occurring in several small cities in Java. While those cities already have spatial plan, most were the general spatial plan (Rencana Tata Ruang Wilayah Kota/Kabupaten) that operates only within the city’s administrative jurisdiction. We are unable to find detailed strategies in these cities to deal with urban sprawl. We also found that all spatial plans are unable to come up with urban growth boundary strategy. Finally, we are also unable to find integrated detailed spatial plan among those cities to answer the urban sprawl situation.

Spatial distribution of allergenic pollen through a large metropolitan area.

PubMed

Werchan, Barbora; Werchan, Matthias; Mücke, Hans-Guido; Gauger, Ulrich; Simoleit, Anke; Zuberbier, Torsten; Bergmann, Karl-Christian

2017-04-01

For nearly a decade, the majority of the world's population has been living in cities, including a considerable percentage of people suffering from pollen allergy. The increasing concentration of people in cities results in larger populations being exposed to allergenic pollen at the same time. There is almost no information about spatial distribution of pollen within cities as well as a lack of information about the possible impact to human health. To obtain this increasing need for pollen exposure studies on an intra-urban scale, a novelty screening network of 14 weekly changed pollen traps was established within a large metropolitan area-Berlin, Germany. Gravimetric pollen traps were placed at a uniform street-level height from March until October 2014. Three important allergenic pollen types for Central Europe-birch (Betula), grasses (Poaceae), and mugwort (Artemisia)-were monitored. Remarkable spatial and temporal variations of pollen sedimentation within the city and the influences by urban local sources are shown. The observed differences between the trap with the overall highest and the trap with the overall lowest amount of pollen sedimentation were in the case of birch pollen 245%, grass pollen 306%, and mugwort pollen 1962%. Differences of this magnitude can probably lead to different health impacts on allergy sufferers in one city. Therefore, pollen should be monitored preferably in two or more appropriate locations within large cities and as a part of natural air quality regulations.

[Cost-benefit analysis to substituting natural gas for coal project in large Chinese cities].

PubMed

Mao, Xianqiang; Peng, Yingdeng; Guo, Xiurui

2002-09-01

Since China's large cities were faced with serious coal-smoke pollution with PM10 and SO2 as the main pollutants, natural gas is becoming one of the most attractive clean replacers of coal. To clarify the wide disputation and doubt on the rationality of burning natural gas instead of coal, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of urban natural gas substitution projects in Beijing and Chongqing was done respectively, in which, the health benefit was carefully estimated with epidemical dose-response function as the main external benefit. The final result shows that in large cities with intensively concentrated population and economic activities, natural gas consumption as municipal civil energy has obvious priority in terms of large environmental benefit from reducing non-point and low-altitude air pollutant concentration. This paper finally recommends that market oriented system reform in natural gas production and retailing system should be considered.

Effects of red light camera enforcement on fatal crashes in large U.S. cities.

PubMed

Hu, Wen; McCartt, Anne T; Teoh, Eric R

2011-08-01

To estimate the effects of red light camera enforcement on per capita fatal crash rates at intersections with signal lights. From the 99 large U.S. cities with more than 200,000 residents in 2008, 14 cities were identified with red light camera enforcement programs for all of 2004-2008 but not at any time during 1992-1996, and 48 cities were identified without camera programs during either period. Analyses compared the citywide per capita rate of fatal red light running crashes and the citywide per capita rate of all fatal crashes at signalized intersections during the two study periods, and rate changes then were compared for cities with and without cameras programs. Poisson regression was used to model crash rates as a function of red light camera enforcement, land area, and population density. The average annual rate of fatal red light running crashes declined for both study groups, but the decline was larger for cities with red light camera enforcement programs than for cities without camera programs (35% vs. 14%). The average annual rate of all fatal crashes at signalized intersections decreased by 14% for cities with camera programs and increased slightly (2%) for cities without cameras. After controlling for population density and land area, the rate of fatal red light running crashes during 2004-2008 for cities with camera programs was an estimated 24% lower than what would have been expected without cameras. The rate of all fatal crashes at signalized intersections during 2004-2008 for cities with camera programs was an estimated 17% lower than what would have been expected without cameras. Red light camera enforcement programs were associated with a statistically significant reduction in the citywide rate of fatal red light running crashes and a smaller but still significant reduction in the rate of all fatal crashes at signalized intersections. The study adds to the large body of evidence that red light camera enforcement can prevent the most serious crashes. Communities seeking to reduce crashes at intersections should consider this evidence. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advantages of place as perceived by Sunbelt promoters.

PubMed

Raitz, K

1988-01-01

A questionnaire was sent to 104 Chamber of Commerce executives in states and cities in the South and Southwest to evaluate the factors they perceive to be important in recruiting business and industrial migrants from the North. 81 respondents rates 33 locational factors on a scale of 1 to 5. Results show variation in the perceived importance of factors between Southeast, South Central, and Southwest states and the Border states. Patterns of perceived competition among cities reveal that Border cities view Southern cities as their most important competitors but Southern cities see their major competitors as other rapidly growing Southern cities. Large cities do not see smaller cities as competitors with the exception of the "high tech" research centers such as Raleigh, North Carolina.

Central City White Flight: Racial and Nonracial Causes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, William H.

The cumulative adverse impact of residential white flight from large central cities on the residual population has led policy makers to be wary of instituting programs which will further exacerbate the process. Recent policy debates have evolved over the question of whether white city-to-suburb movement is affected more significantly by…

The Kindness of Strangers Revisited: A Comparison of 24 US Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Robert V.; Reysen, Stephen; Ganz, Ellen

2008-01-01

Three field studies compared helping behavior across a sample of 24 small, medium and large cities across the United States. The relationship of helping to statistics reflecting the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of these communities was then examined. The strongest predictors of city differences in helping were population size,…

76 FR 65212 - Caterpillar, Inc., Large Power Systems Division, Including On-Site Leased Workers From Gray...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-20

..., River City, GCA, Lozier, Obrien Bros., HK, FCA and Clifton Gunderson, Mossville, IL; Amended..., Inc., ATS, URS, River City, GCA, Lozier, Obrien Bros., HK, FCA, and Clifton Gunderson were employed on... Interplant Systems, Inc., ATS, URS, River City, GCA, Lozier, Obrien Bros., HK, FCA, and Clifton Gunderson...

Studies in Environment--Volume III: Pollution and the Municipality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Pamela C.; And Others

Recent studies have focused attention on the fact that residents of inner-city neighborhoods are subject to greater amounts of pollutants than are other neighborhoods of large cities. In this study, the premise is set forth and investigated at the metropolitan scale, seeking to discover differences of impact between the center city and its…

Performance results from Small- and Large-Scale System Monitoring and green Infrastructure in Kansas City - slides

EPA Science Inventory

In 2010, Kansas City, MO (KCMO) signed a consent degree with EPA on combined sewer overflows. The City decided to use adaptive management in order to extensively utilize green infrastructure (GI) in lieu of, and in addition to, structural controls. KCMO installed 130 GI storm co...

Empty Promises: A Case Study of Restructuring and the Exclusion of English Language Learners in Two Brooklyn High Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2009

2009-01-01

Since 2002, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) has attempted to reverse the city's severe drop-out crisis through a large scale restructuring of high schools, focused mainly on closing large, comprehensive high schools and replacing them with small high schools that offer a more personalized learning environment. Unfortunately, this…

Determinants of Police Strength in Large U.S. Cities during the 1990s: A Fixed-Effects Panel Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarty, William P.; Ren, Ling; Zhao, Jihong

2012-01-01

The 1990s represented a unique decade in which to analyze the determinants of police strength in the United States. This decade was a time in which crime initially increased, then substantially decreased. Furthermore, this decade also was characterized by increases in the minority population throughout large American cities. Finally, the 1990s…

Race, Urban Context, and Russian Roulette: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2003-2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wasserman, Ira; Stack, Steven

2011-01-01

Previous work on Russian roulette has focused on data from large cities. It is unclear if the epidemiological patterns based on large cities will replicate for the nation as a whole, and if the influence of minority status will be moderated by urban context. The present investigation fills these gaps by providing descriptive epidemiological data…

Implementing 15 Essential Elements for High Quality: A State and Local Policy Scan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnett, W. Steven; Weisenfeld, G. G.; Brown, Kirsty; Squires, Jim; Horowitz, Michelle

2016-01-01

This report explores the extent to which states (and several large cities) are positioned to provide high quality preschool education on a large scale. States and cities that are already doing so or that could do so with modest improvements offer opportunities for advocacy to advance access to high quality early education as well as for rigorous…

Mission Matters: The Cost of Small High Schools Revisited. IESP Working Paper #08-03

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stiefel, Leanna; Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Iatorola, Patrice; Chellman, Colin C.

2008-01-01

With the financial support of several large foundations and the federal government, creating small schools has become a prominent high school reform strategy in many large American cities. While some research supports this strategy, little research assesses the relative costs of these smaller schools. Data on over 200 New York City high schools,…

The Contribution of Children's Advocacy Centers to Felony Prosecutions of Child Sexual Abuse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Aaron; Rubin, David

2009-01-01

Objective: To describe trends of felony sexual abuse prosecutions between 1992 and 2002 for two districts of a large urban city that differed primarily in their use of children's advocacy centers (CACs) for sexual abuse evaluations in children. Methods: Aggregate data for two districts of a large urban city were provided from 1992 to 2002 from the…

Declining Mortality Inequality within Cities during the Health Transition.

PubMed

Costa, Dora L; Kahn, Matthew E

2015-05-01

In the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, large cities had extremely high death rates from infectious disease. Within major cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, there was significant variation at any point in time in the mortality rate across neighborhoods. Between 1900 and 1930 neighborhood mortality convergence took place in New York City and Philadelphia. We document these trends and discuss their consequences for neighborhood quality of life dynamics and the economic incidence of who gains from effective public health interventions.

Assessing the PACE of California residential solar deployment: Impacts of Property Assessed Clean Energy programs on residential solar photovoltaic deployment in California, 2010-2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Deason, Jeff; Murphy, Sean

A new study by Berkeley Lab found that residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (R-PACE) programs increased deployment of residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in California, raising it by about 7-12% in cities that adopt these programs. R-PACE is a financing mechanism that uses a voluntary property tax assessment, paid off over time, to facilitate energy improvements and, in some jurisdictions, water and resilience measures. While previous studies demonstrated that early, regional R-PACE programs increased solar PV deployment, this new analysis is the first to demonstrate these impacts from the large, statewide R-PACE programs dominating the California market today, which usemore » private capital to fund the upfront costs of the improvements. Berkeley Lab estimated the impacts using econometric techniques on two samples: -Large cities only, allowing annual demographic and economic data as control variables -All California cities, without these annual data Analysis of both samples controls for several factors other than R-PACE that would be expected to drive solar PV deployment. We infer that on average, cities with R-PACE programs were associated with greater solar PV deployment in our study period (2010-2015). In the large cities sample, solar PV deployment in jurisdictions with R-PACE programs was higher by 1.1 watts per owner-occupied household per month, or 12%. Across all cities, solar PV deployment in jurisdictions with R-PACE programs was higher by 0.6 watts per owner-occupied household per month, or 7%. The large cities results are statistically significant at conventional levels; the all-cities results are not. The estimates imply that the majority of solar PV deployment financed by R-PACE programs would likely not have occurred in their absence. Results suggest that R-PACE programs have increased PV deployment in California even in relatively recent years, as R-PACE programs have grown in market share and as alternate approaches for financing solar PV have developed. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office supported this research.« less

New York, USA. Chapter 10

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Solecki, William; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Solecki, Stephen; Patrick, Lesley; Horton, Radley; Dorsch, Michael

2016-01-01

New York City, one of the most populous and ethnically diverse cities in the world, has responded to a variety of enviornmental challenges in its history. The most recent is climate change, which is projected to have wide impacts on the city's critical infrastructure and population through higher temperatures, more intense flooding events and sea level rise. The city recognized the risks early and has become a national and international leader in responding to this new challenge, illustrating how this is possible for a large city. As part of a mature urban region, it is an excellent bellwether for the impacts that may be experienced by other cities, especially those in emerging metropolitan conurbations.

Spatio-Semantic Comparison of Large 3d City Models in Citygml Using a Graph Database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, S. H.; Yao, Z.; Kolbe, T. H.

2017-10-01

A city may have multiple CityGML documents recorded at different times or surveyed by different users. To analyse the city's evolution over a given period of time, as well as to update or edit the city model without negating modifications made by other users, it is of utmost importance to first compare, detect and locate spatio-semantic changes between CityGML datasets. This is however difficult due to the fact that CityGML elements belong to a complex hierarchical structure containing multi-level deep associations, which can basically be considered as a graph. Moreover, CityGML allows multiple syntactic ways to define an object leading to syntactic ambiguities in the exchange format. Furthermore, CityGML is capable of including not only 3D urban objects' graphical appearances but also their semantic properties. Since to date, no known algorithm is capable of detecting spatio-semantic changes in CityGML documents, a frequent approach is to replace the older models completely with the newer ones, which not only costs computational resources, but also loses track of collaborative and chronological changes. Thus, this research proposes an approach capable of comparing two arbitrarily large-sized CityGML documents on both semantic and geometric level. Detected deviations are then attached to their respective sources and can easily be retrieved on demand. As a result, updating a 3D city model using this approach is much more efficient as only real changes are committed. To achieve this, the research employs a graph database as the main data structure for storing and processing CityGML datasets in three major steps: mapping, matching and updating. The mapping process transforms input CityGML documents into respective graph representations. The matching process compares these graphs and attaches edit operations on the fly. Found changes can then be executed using the Web Feature Service (WFS), the standard interface for updating geographical features across the web.

Middle Holocene coastal environment and the rise of the Liangzhu City complex on the Yangtze delta, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yan; Sun, Qianli; Thomas, Ian; Zhang, Li; Finlayson, Brian; Zhang, Weiguo; Chen, Jing; Chen, Zhongyuan

2015-11-01

The large prehistoric city of Liangzhu and its associated earthen dike emerged on the Yangtze delta-coast after two millennia of occupation in this area by scattered communities. Details of its development have been widely discussed in the literature. Our results reveal that the city was selectively built at the head of an embayment backed by hills, with close access to food, freshwater and timber, and with protection from coastal hazards. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating shows that it was built around 4.8-4.5 ka, and the earthen dike was constructed a little later at 4.1 ka. During this time, saltwater wetlands were changing to freshwater in response to rapid coastal progradation as the postglacial sea-level rise stabilized. This facilitated rice farming and furthered the development of the city with elaborate city planning. The younger large-scale earthen dike and artificial ponds possibly suggest increasing demand for flood mitigation and irrigation.

Influence of solid waste and topography on urban floods: The case of Mexico City.

PubMed

Zambrano, Luis; Pacheco-Muñoz, Rodrigo; Fernández, Tania

2018-02-24

Floods in cities are increasingly common as a consequence of multifactor watershed dynamics, including geomorphology, land-use changes and land subsidence. However, urban managers have focused on infrastructure to address floods by reducing blocked sewage infrastructure, without significant success. Using Mexico City as a case study, we generated a spatial flood risk model with geomorphology and anthropogenic variables. The results helped contrast the implications of different public policies in land use and waste disposal, and correlating them with flood hazards. Waste disposal was only related to small floods. 58% of the city has a high risk of experiencing small floods, and 24% of the city has a risk for large floods. Half of the population with the lowest income is located in the high-risk areas for large floods. These models are easy to build, generate fast results and are able to help to flood policies, by understanding flood interactions in urban areas within the watershed.

A global fingerprint of macro-scale changes in urban structure from 1999 to 2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frolking, Steve; Milliman, Tom; Seto, Karen C.; Friedl, Mark A.

2013-06-01

Urban population now exceeds rural population globally, and 60-80% of global energy consumption by households, businesses, transportation, and industry occurs in urban areas. There is growing evidence that built-up infrastructure contributes to carbon emissions inertia, and that investments in infrastructure today have delayed climate cost in the future. Although the United Nations statistics include data on urban population by country and select urban agglomerations, there are no empirical data on built-up infrastructure for a large sample of cities. Here we present the first study to examine changes in the structure of the world’s largest cities from 1999 to 2009. Combining data from two space-borne sensors—backscatter power (PR) from NASA’s SeaWinds microwave scatterometer, and nighttime lights (NL) from NOAA’s defense meteorological satellite program/operational linescan system (DMSP/OLS)—we report large increases in built-up infrastructure stock worldwide and show that cities are expanding both outward and upward. Our results reveal previously undocumented recent and rapid changes in urban areas worldwide that reflect pronounced shifts in the form and structure of cities. Increases in built-up infrastructure are highest in East Asian cities, with Chinese cities rapidly expanding their material infrastructure stock in both height and extent. In contrast, Indian cities are primarily building out and not increasing in verticality. This new dataset will help characterize the structure and form of cities, and ultimately improve our understanding of how cities affect regional-to-global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Russia: St. Petersburg

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2013-04-17

article title:  St. Petersburg, Russia     View Larger Image ... The city in the south eastern portion of the image is Russia's St. Petersburg, which is the most northerly large city in the world at ...

Convergence of microclimate in residential landscapes across diverse cities in the United States

Treesearch

Sharon J. Hall; J. Learned; B. Ruddell; K.L. Larson; J. Cavender-Bares; N. Bettez; P.M. Groffman; Morgan Grove; J.B. Heffernan; S.E. Hobbie; J.L. Morse; C. Neill; K.C. Nelson; Jarlath O' Neil-Dunne; L. Ogden; D.E. Pataki; W.D. Pearse; C. Polsky; R. Roy Chowdhury; M.K. Steele; T.L.E. Trammell

2016-01-01

The urban heat island (UHI) is a well-documented pattern of warming in cities relative to rural areas. Most UHI research utilizes remote sensing methods at large scales, or climate sensors in single cities surrounded by standardized land cover. Relatively few studies have explored continental-scale climatic patterns within common urban microenvironments such as...

High School Closures in New York City: Impacts on Students' Academic Outcomes, Attendance, and Mobility. Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemple, James J.

2015-01-01

In the first decade of the 21st century, the New York City (NYC) Department of Education implemented a set of large-scale and much debated high school reforms, which included closing large, low-performing schools, opening new small schools, and extending high school choice to students throughout the district. The school closure process was the…

High School Closures in New York City: Impacts on Students' Academic Outcomes, Attendance, and Mobility. Technical Appendices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemple, James J.

2015-01-01

In the first decade of the 21st century, the New York City (NYC) Department of Education implemented a set of large-scale and much debated high school reforms, which included closing large, low-performing schools, opening new small schools, and extending high school choice to students throughout the district. The school closure process was the…

High School Closures in New York City: Impacts on Students' Academic Outcomes, Attendance, and Mobility. Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemple, James J.

2015-01-01

In the first decade of the 21st century, the New York City (NYC) Department of Education implemented a set of large-scale and much debated high school reforms, which included closing large, low-performing schools, opening new small schools, and extending high school choice to students throughout the district. The school closure process was the…

An Empirical Analysis of Economic and Racial Bias in the Distribution of Educational Resources in Nine Large American Cities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, John D.

Empirical evidence is presented consistent with the hypothesis that instructional expenditures are distributed unequally, and that less is spent on non-white and poor students than on others in large American cities. The most experienced teachers are generally to be found in schools attended by the less poor white children. More important, the…

Current scientific and practical problems in restricting the growth of large cities in the USSR.

PubMed

Khorev, B

1984-12-01

Current problems involved in restricting the growth of large cities in the USSR are examined using the example of Moscow and its suburban areas. Government policies concerning urbanization and the distribution of the labor force throughout the country are discussed. The use of various types of incentives to regulate the economy and the labor force is suggested.

Infrastructure Shapes Differences in the Carbon Intensities of Chinese Cities.

PubMed

Zheng, Bo; Zhang, Qiang; Davis, Steven J; Ciais, Philippe; Hong, Chaopeng; Li, Meng; Liu, Fei; Tong, Dan; Li, Haiyan; He, Kebin

2018-05-15

The carbon intensity of economic activity, or CO 2 emissions per unit GDP, is a key indicator of the climate impacts of a given activity, business, or region. Although it is well-known that the carbon intensity of countries varies widely according to their level of economic development and dominant industries, few studies have assessed disparities in carbon intensity at the level of cities due to limited availability of data. Here, we present a detailed new inventory of emissions for 337 Chinese cities (every city in mainland China including 333 prefecture-level divisions and 4 province-level cities, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) in 2013, which we use to evaluate differences of carbon intensity between cities and the causes of those differences. We find that cities' average carbon intensity is 0.84 kg of CO 2 per dollar of gross domestic product (kgCO 2 per $GDP), but individual cities span a large range: from 0.09 to 7.86 kgCO 2 per $GDP (coefficient of variation of 25%). Further analysis of economic and technological drivers of variations in cities' carbon intensity reveals that the differences are largely due to disparities in cities' economic structure that can in turn be traced to past investment-led growth. These patterns suggest that "carbon lock-in" via socio-economic and infrastructural inertia may slow China's efforts to reduce emissions from activities in urban areas. Policy instruments targeted to accelerate the transition of urban economies from investment-led to consumption-led growth may thus be crucial to China meeting both its economic and climate targets.

The Influence of Drivers and Barriers on Urban Adaptation and Mitigation Plans—An Empirical Analysis of European Cities

PubMed Central

Reckien, Diana; Flacke, Johannes

2015-01-01

Cities are recognised as key players in global adaptation and mitigation efforts because the majority of people live in cities. However, in Europe, which is highly urbanized and one of the most advanced regions in terms of environmental policies, there is considerable diversity in the regional distribution, ambition and scope of climate change responses. This paper explores potential factors contributing to such diversity in 200 large and medium-sized cities across 11 European countries. We statistically investigate institutional, socio-economic, environmental and vulnerability characteristics of cities as potential drivers of or barriers to the development of urban climate change plans. Our results show that factors such as membership of climate networks, population size, GDP per capita and adaptive capacity act as drivers of mitigation and adaptation plans. By contrast, factors such as the unemployment rate, warmer summers, proximity to the coast and projected exposure to future climate impacts act as barriers. We see that, overall, it is predominantly large and prosperous cities that engage in climate planning, while vulnerable cities and those at risk of severe climate impacts in the future are less active. Our analysis suggests that climate change planning in European cities is not proactive, i.e. not significantly influenced by anticipated future impacts. Instead, we found that the current adaptive capacity of a city significantly relates to climate planning. Along with the need to further explore these relations, we see a need for more economic and institutional support for smaller and less resourceful cities and those at high risk from climate change impacts in the future. PMID:26317420

The Influence of Drivers and Barriers on Urban Adaptation and Mitigation Plans-An Empirical Analysis of European Cities.

PubMed

Reckien, Diana; Flacke, Johannes; Olazabal, Marta; Heidrich, Oliver

2015-01-01

Cities are recognised as key players in global adaptation and mitigation efforts because the majority of people live in cities. However, in Europe, which is highly urbanized and one of the most advanced regions in terms of environmental policies, there is considerable diversity in the regional distribution, ambition and scope of climate change responses. This paper explores potential factors contributing to such diversity in 200 large and medium-sized cities across 11 European countries. We statistically investigate institutional, socio-economic, environmental and vulnerability characteristics of cities as potential drivers of or barriers to the development of urban climate change plans. Our results show that factors such as membership of climate networks, population size, GDP per capita and adaptive capacity act as drivers of mitigation and adaptation plans. By contrast, factors such as the unemployment rate, warmer summers, proximity to the coast and projected exposure to future climate impacts act as barriers. We see that, overall, it is predominantly large and prosperous cities that engage in climate planning, while vulnerable cities and those at risk of severe climate impacts in the future are less active. Our analysis suggests that climate change planning in European cities is not proactive, i.e. not significantly influenced by anticipated future impacts. Instead, we found that the current adaptive capacity of a city significantly relates to climate planning. Along with the need to further explore these relations, we see a need for more economic and institutional support for smaller and less resourceful cities and those at high risk from climate change impacts in the future.

Citygml and the Streets of New York - a Proposal for Detailed Street Space Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beil, C.; Kolbe, T. H.

2017-10-01

Three-dimensional semantic city models are increasingly used for the analysis of large urban areas. Until now the focus has mostly been on buildings. Nonetheless many applications could also benefit from detailed models of public street space for further analysis. However, there are only few guidelines for representing roads within city models. Therefore, related standards dealing with street modelling are examined and discussed. Nearly all street representations are based on linear abstractions. However, there are many use cases that require or would benefit from the detailed geometrical and semantic representation of street space. A variety of potential applications for detailed street space models are presented. Subsequently, based on related standards as well as on user requirements, a concept for a CityGML-compliant representation of street space in multiple levels of detail is developed. In the course of this process, the CityGML Transportation model of the currently valid OGC standard CityGML2.0 is examined to discover possibilities for further developments. Moreover, a number of improvements are presented. Finally, based on open data sources, the proposed concept is implemented within a semantic 3D city model of New York City generating a detailed 3D street space model for the entire city. As a result, 11 thematic classes, such as roadbeds, sidewalks or traffic islands are generated and enriched with a large number of thematic attributes.

An evaluation of climate/mortality relationships in large U.S. cities and the possible impacts of a climate change.

PubMed Central

Kalkstein, L S; Greene, J S

1997-01-01

A new air mass-based synoptic procedure is used to evaluate climate/mortality relationships as they presently exist and to estimate how a predicted global warming might alter these values. Forty-four large U.S. cities with metropolitan areas exceeding 1 million in population are analyzed. Sharp increases in mortality are noted in summer for most cities in the East and Midwest when two particular air masses are present. A very warm air mass of maritime origin is most important in the eastern United States, which when present can increase daily mortality by as many as 30 deaths in large cities. A hot, dry air mass is important in many cities, and, although rare in the East, can increase daily mortality by up to 50 deaths. Cities in the South and Southwest show lesser weather/mortality relationships in summer. During winter, air mass-induced increases in mortality are considerably less than in summer. Although daily winter mortality is usually higher than summer, the causes of death that are responsible for most winter mortality do not vary much with temperature. Using models that estimate climate change for the years 2020 and 2050, it is estimated that summer mortality will increase dramatically and winter mortality will decrease slightly, even if people acclimatize to the increased warmth. Thus, a sizable net increase in weather-related mortality is estimated if the climate warms as the models predict. PMID:9074886

Rural Design Ethics Based on Four Dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jiaxin; Zhu, Li

2017-12-01

China has a large rural area with a large population, whose architectural features, natural landscape, organizational structure and industrial structure are very different from that of cities. In the past, the contradictory between city and rural areas in China had negative effects on rural construction, resulting in a slow development. The excessive focus on city design has led to the neglect of rural design. Blindly using the concept and method of city design to renewed the countryside is a kind of destruction to the countryside, and also wastes a lot of construction resources. Design is influenced by ethical concepts, which needs to pay more attention to the culture tendency and society. Urban design makes theoretical investigation aiming at the ethical questions that emerged from city, then summarizes the design strategies of the city. While Chinese rural design has only begun to enter people’s horizon, and there is very little discussion about it. Due to the lack of ethical value guidance, Chinese rural design and construction has many problems at different levels of ecology, culture and industry. Therefore this paper primarily explores the domestic and foreign design ethics, attempting to provide a new perspective for Chinese rural design, aiming at finding a realistic and forward-looking solution for Chinese rural design concerning to the complex relation between city and rural areas.

Large scale air pollution estimation method combining land use regression and chemical transport modeling in a geostatistical framework.

PubMed

Akita, Yasuyuki; Baldasano, Jose M; Beelen, Rob; Cirach, Marta; de Hoogh, Kees; Hoek, Gerard; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark; Serre, Marc L; de Nazelle, Audrey

2014-04-15

In recognition that intraurban exposure gradients may be as large as between-city variations, recent air pollution epidemiologic studies have become increasingly interested in capturing within-city exposure gradients. In addition, because of the rapidly accumulating health data, recent studies also need to handle large study populations distributed over large geographic domains. Even though several modeling approaches have been introduced, a consistent modeling framework capturing within-city exposure variability and applicable to large geographic domains is still missing. To address these needs, we proposed a modeling framework based on the Bayesian Maximum Entropy method that integrates monitoring data and outputs from existing air quality models based on Land Use Regression (LUR) and Chemical Transport Models (CTM). The framework was applied to estimate the yearly average NO2 concentrations over the region of Catalunya in Spain. By jointly accounting for the global scale variability in the concentration from the output of CTM and the intraurban scale variability through LUR model output, the proposed framework outperformed more conventional approaches.

The Principals' Perspective of Sustainable Partnerships in New York City's New School Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Robert

2010-01-01

New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg and school's Chancellor Joel Klein made the creation of new schools an essential part of their Children First reform policy. In September 2002, 13 high schools opened replacing the lowest performing large high schools throughout the City. As of 2010, more than 400 new district and charter schools are in…

Civic Mobilization for School Reform in Rivergrove, Florida: Contesting the "Social Construction of Place" in an Inner Ring Suburban City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shircliffe, Barbara J.; Lance Rowland, M.

2015-01-01

This paper examines civic mobilization for school improvement in Rivergrove, a small suburban city within the inner rings of a large Florida metro (All names of individuals, schools, organizations and communities are pseudonyms per IRB agreement with district. Subsequently, references to local media reports and city documents are disguised to meet…

A Fiscal Perspective on the Analysis of School Finance Reform: The Case of City-Suburban Competition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Lawrence H.

One way in which the analysis of educational finance reform might be broadened to include an analysis of the fiscal effects of such reform is to show fiscal competition between large cities and their suburbs. It is not possible to say that "most central cities" or "most suburban areas" deserve a greater share of State…

Energy in the urban environment. Proceedings of the 22. annual Illinois energy conference

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1994-12-31

The conference addressed the energy and environmental challenges facing large metropolitan areas. The topics included a comparison of the environmental status of cities twenty years ago with the challenges facing today`s large cities, sustainable economic development, improving the energy and environmental infrastructure, and the changing urban transportation sector. Selected papers are indexed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database.

Patterns and comparisons of human-induced changes in river flood impacts in cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, Stephanie; Sharma, Ashish; Sisson, Scott A.

2018-03-01

In this study, information extracted from the first global urban fluvial flood risk data set (Aqueduct) is investigated and visualized to explore current and projected city-level flood impacts driven by urbanization and climate change. We use a novel adaption of the self-organizing map (SOM) method, an artificial neural network proficient at clustering, pattern extraction, and visualization of large, multi-dimensional data sets. Prevalent patterns of current relationships and anticipated changes over time in the nonlinearly-related environmental and social variables are presented, relating urban river flood impacts to socioeconomic development and changing hydrologic conditions. Comparisons are provided between 98 individual cities. Output visualizations compare baseline and changing trends of city-specific exposures of population and property to river flooding, revealing relationships between the cities based on their relative map placements. Cities experiencing high (or low) baseline flood impacts on population and/or property that are expected to improve (or worsen), as a result of anticipated climate change and development, are identified and compared. This paper condenses and conveys large amounts of information through visual communication to accelerate the understanding of relationships between local urban conditions and global processes.

The characteristic of the building damage from historical large earthquakes in Kyoto

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishiyama, Akihito

2016-04-01

The Kyoto city, which is located in the northern part of Kyoto basin in Japan, has a long history of >1,200 years since the city was initially constructed. The city has been a populated area with many buildings and the center of the politics, economy and culture in Japan for nearly 1,000 years. Some of these buildings are now subscribed as the world's cultural heritage. The Kyoto city has experienced six damaging large earthquakes during the historical period: i.e., in 976, 1185, 1449, 1596, 1662, and 1830. Among these, the last three earthquakes which caused severe damage in Kyoto occurred during the period in which the urban area had expanded. These earthquakes are considered to be inland earthquakes which occurred around the Kyoto basin. The damage distribution in Kyoto from historical large earthquakes is strongly controlled by ground condition and earthquakes resistance of buildings rather than distance from estimated source fault. Therefore, it is necessary to consider not only the strength of ground shaking but also the condition of building such as elapsed years since the construction or last repair in order to more accurately and reliably estimate seismic intensity distribution from historical earthquakes in Kyoto. The obtained seismic intensity map would be helpful for reducing and mitigating disaster from future large earthquakes.

Integrating Infrastructure and Institutions for Water Security in Large Urban Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padowski, J.; Jawitz, J. W.; Carrera, L.

2015-12-01

Urban growth has forced cities to procure more freshwater to meet demands; however the relationship between urban water security, water availability and water management is not well understood. This work quantifies the urban water security of 108 large cities in the United States (n=50) and Africa (n=58) based on their hydrologic, hydraulic and institutional settings. Using publicly available data, urban water availability was estimated as the volume of water available from local water resources and those captured via hydraulic infrastructure (e.g. reservoirs, wellfields, aqueducts) while urban water institutions were assessed according to their ability to deliver, supply and regulate water resources to cities. When assessing availability, cities relying on local water resources comprised a minority (37%) of those assessed. The majority of cities (55%) instead rely on captured water to meet urban demands, with African cities reaching farther and accessing a greater number and variety of sources for water supply than US cities. Cities using captured water generally had poorer access to local water resources and maintained significantly more complex strategies for water delivery, supply and regulatory management. Eight cities, all African, are identified in this work as having water insecurity issues. These cities lack sufficient infrastructure and institutional complexity to capture and deliver adequate amounts of water for urban use. Together, these findings highlight the important interconnection between infrastructure investments and management techniques for urban areas with a limited or dwindling natural abundance of water. Addressing water security challenges in the future will require that more attention be placed not only on increasing water availability, but on developing the institutional support to manage captured water supplies.

Urban soils as hotspots of anthropogenic carbon accumulation: Review of stocks, mechanisms and factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasenev, Viacheslav; Kuzyakov, Yakov

2017-04-01

Urban soils and cultural layers accumulate carbon (C) over centuries and consequently large C stocks are sequestered below the cities. These C stocks as well as the full range of processes and mechanisms leading to high C accumulation in urban soils remain unknown. We collected data on organic (SOC), inorganic (SOC) and black (pyrogenic) (BC) C content in urban and natural soils from 100 papers based on Scopus and Web-of-Knowledge databases. The yielded database includes 770 values on SOC, SIC and BC stocks from 118 cities worldwide. The collected data were analyzed considering the effects of climatic conditions and urban-specific factors: city size, age and functional zoning. For the whole range of climatic conditions, the C contents in urban soils were 1.5-3 times higher than in respective natural soils. This higher C content and much deeper C accumulation in urban soils resulted in 3 to 5 times higher C stocks compared to natural soils. Urban SOC stocks were positively correlated with latitude, whereas SIC stocks were less affected by climate. The city size and age were the main factors controlling intra-city variability of C stocks with higher stocks in small cities compared to megapolises and in medieval compared to new cities. The inter-city variability of C stocks was dominated by functional zoning: large SOC and N stocks in residential areas and large SIC and BC stocks in industrial zones and roadsides were similar for all climates and for cities of different size and age. Substantial stocks of SOC, SIC and N were sequestered for long-term in the subsoils and cultural layers of the sealed soils, which underline the importance of these 'hidden' stocks for C assessments. Typical and specific for urban soils is that the anthropogenic factor overshadows the other five factors of soil formation. Substantial C stocks in urban soils and cultural layers result from specific mechanisms of C accumulation in cities: i) large and long-term C inputs from outside the city (e.g. suburban, agricultural and forest areas), and ii) C accumulation in parallel with upward soil growing without complete mineralization (common in natural soils). These mechanisms result over long period in gradual growing-up of urban soils and C accumulation. The average rate of urban soils' uprising growth of 50 cm per century and the average SOC contents of 3-5% led conclude that urban soils accumulate 15-30 kg C m-2 per century without steady state (common for all natural soils). These factors lead to high potential of urban soils for long-term C sequestration. We conclude that despite small area under the cities, urban soils are hotspots of belowground long-term C sequestration worldwide and the importance of urban soils will increase in future with global urbanization.

Research on the application of wisdom technology in smart city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Juntao; Ma, Shuai; Gu, Weihua; Chen, Weiyi

2015-12-01

This paper first analyzes the concept of smart technology, the relationship between wisdom technology and smart city, and discusses the practical application of IOT(Internet of things) in smart city to explore a better way to realize smart city; then Introduces the basic concepts of cloud computing and smart city, and explains the relationship between the two; Discusses five advantages of cloud computing that applies to smart city construction: a unified and highly efficient, large-scale infrastructure software and hardware management, service scheduling and resource management, security control and management, energy conservation and management platform layer, and to promote modern practical significance of the development of services, promoting regional social and economic development faster. Finally, a brief description of the wisdom technology and smart city management is presented.

Earth observation taken by the Expedition 30 crewmember

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-02-22

ISS030-E-099324 (22 Feb. 2012) --- City lights of Dubai, United Arab Emirates are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 30 crew member on the International Space Station. The City of Dubai?the largest metropolitan area within the emirate of Dubai?is a favorite subject of astronaut photography largely due to the unique island developments situated directly offshore in the Persian Gulf. These artificial archipelagos have been built such that their full design is only visible from the vantage point of an airplane ? or an orbiting spacecraft such as the International Space Station. The city presents an eye-catching appearance at night that vividly displays the urban development pattern. In this detailed nighttime image?taken with a long focal length lens and digital camera optimized for fast response and high light sensitivity?several interesting patterns can be observed. The highways and major streets are sharply defined by yellow-orange lighting, while the commercial and residential areas are resolved into a speckle pattern of individual white, blue, and yellow-orange lights. Several large and brilliantly lit areas are large hotel and mall complexes, including the Burj Khalifa Tower; at 828 meters (2,717 feet) height it is the world?s tallest building. The brilliant lighting of the city contrasts sharply with both the dark Persian Gulf to the northwest, and largely undeveloped and unlit areas to the southeast. Likewise, the clusters of lighting in the Palm Jumeira complex at bottom right correspond to the relatively small part of the archipelago that has been developed. Isolated areas of blurred city lights are due to patchy clouds.

On the validity of the incremental approach to estimate the impact of cities on air quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thunis, Philippe

2018-01-01

The question of how much cities are the sources of their own air pollution is not only theoretical as it is critical to the design of effective strategies for urban air quality planning. In this work, we assess the validity of the commonly used incremental approach to estimate the likely impact of cities on their air pollution. With the incremental approach, the city impact (i.e. the concentration change generated by the city emissions) is estimated as the concentration difference between a rural background and an urban background location, also known as the urban increment. We show that the city impact is in reality made up of the urban increment and two additional components and consequently two assumptions need to be fulfilled for the urban increment to be representative of the urban impact. The first assumption is that the rural background location is not influenced by emissions from within the city whereas the second requires that background concentration levels, obtained with zero city emissions, are equal at both locations. Because the urban impact is not measurable, the SHERPA modelling approach, based on a full air quality modelling system, is used in this work to assess the validity of these assumptions for some European cities. Results indicate that for PM2.5, these two assumptions are far from being fulfilled for many large or medium city sizes. For this type of cities, urban increments are largely underestimating city impacts. Although results are in better agreement for NO2, similar issues are met. In many situations the incremental approach is therefore not an adequate estimate of the urban impact on air pollution. This poses issues in terms of interpretation when these increments are used to define strategic options in terms of air quality planning. We finally illustrate the interest of comparing modelled and measured increments to improve our confidence in the model results.

Marketing Small Schools in New York City: A Critique of Neoliberal School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shiller, Jessica

2011-01-01

The objective of this article is to critically examine a school reform effort that has taken hold in New York City over the past seven years. A largely privately funded venture, the New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI), opened hundreds of new small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City starting in 2002. The theory behind opening…

Behavioral Risk Reduction in a Declining HIV Epidemic: Injection Drug Users in New York City, 1990-1997.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Des Jarlais, Don C.; Perlis, Theresa; Friedman, Samuel R.; Chapman, Timothy; Kwok, John; Rockwell, Russell; Paone, Denise; Milliken, Judith; Monterroso, Edgar

2000-01-01

Assessed trends in HIV risk behaviors among New York City injection drug users from 1990-97. Interviews at a drug detoxification program and a research storefront in a high drug-use area showed continuing risk reduction among users that indicated a declining phase in the large HIV epidemic in New York City. HIV prevention programs appeared to be…

Neural Network Solves "Traveling-Salesman" Problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thakoor, Anilkumar P.; Moopenn, Alexander W.

1990-01-01

Experimental electronic neural network solves "traveling-salesman" problem. Plans round trip of minimum distance among N cities, visiting every city once and only once (without backtracking). This problem is paradigm of many problems of global optimization (e.g., routing or allocation of resources) occuring in industry, business, and government. Applied to large number of cities (or resources), circuits of this kind expected to solve problem faster and more cheaply.

Going Tobacco-Free on 24 New York City University Campuses: A Public Health Agency's Partnership with a Large Urban Public University System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bresnahan, Marie P.; Sacks, Rachel; Farley, Shannon M.; Mandel-Ricci, Jenna; Patterson, Ty; Lamberson, Patti

2016-01-01

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene partnered with the nation's largest university system, the City University of New York (CUNY), to provide technical assistance and resources to support the development and implementation of a system-wide tobacco-free policy. This effort formed one component of "Healthy CUNY"--a…

The Appeal of Vouchers for Failing Large City School Districts: Voting in Congress on Two Very Different Voucher Proposals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenny, Lawrence W.

2010-01-01

Virtually all voucher programs in the United States limit vouchers to a large struggling city such as Cleveland, Milwaukee, or the District of Columbia. This study examines the votes cast by 188 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who cast votes on (a) a nationwide voucher plan in 2001 and (b) a 2003 proposal for vouchers for DC. This…

Building-related health impacts in European and Chinese cities: a scalable assessment method.

PubMed

Tuomisto, Jouni T; Niittynen, Marjo; Pärjälä, Erkki; Asikainen, Arja; Perez, Laura; Trüeb, Stephan; Jantunen, Matti; Künzli, Nino; Sabel, Clive E

2015-12-14

Public health is often affected by societal decisions that are not primarily about health. Climate change mitigation requires intensive actions to minimise greenhouse gas emissions in the future. Many of these actions take place in cities due to their traffic, buildings, and energy consumption. Active climate mitigation policies will also, aside of their long term global impacts, have short term local impacts, both positive and negative, on public health. Our main objective was to develop a generic open impact model to estimate health impacts of emissions due to heat and power consumption of buildings. In addition, the model should be usable for policy comparisons by non-health experts on city level with city-specific data, it should give guidance on the particular climate mitigation questions but at the same time increase understanding on the related health impacts and the model should follow the building stock in time, make comparisons between scenarios, propagate uncertainties, and scale to different levels of detail. We tested The functionalities of the model in two case cities, namely Kuopio and Basel. We estimated the health and climate impacts of two actual policies planned or implemented in the cities. The assessed policies were replacement of peat with wood chips in co-generation of district heat and power, and improved energy efficiency of buildings achieved by renovations. Health impacts were not large in the two cities, but also clear differences in implementation and predictability between the two tested policies were seen. Renovation policies can improve the energy efficiency of buildings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, but this requires systematic policy sustained for decades. In contrast, fuel changes in large district heating facilities may have rapid and large impacts on emissions. However, the life cycle impacts of different fuels is somewhat an open question. In conclusion, we were able to develop a practical model for city-level assessments promoting evidence-based policy in general and health aspects in particular. Although all data and code is freely available, implementation of the current model version in a new city requires some modelling skills.

Rock cities, periglacial mass-wasting, and honeycomb weathering in Warren County, northwestern Pennsylvania

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Inners, J.D.; Sevon, W.D.; Moore, M.E.

1993-03-01

Imposing hilltop rock-cities developed from widely jointed outcrops of Olean conglomerate (Lower Pennsylvanian) create picturesque scenery on the Allegheny High Plateau in Warren Co., Pa. At least six such rock cities 2 to 5 acres in extent are associated with the Late Wisconsinan glacial border in the northern half of the county. Farther to the south, jumbled Olean and Knapp (Lower Mississippian) joint blocks occur on steep slopes below valley-wall cliffs. The rock cities and accumulations of displaced joint blocks are largely relics of Late Wisconsinan periglacial mass-wasting. Frost splitting initiated opening of bedrock joints to form buildings. Gravity, soilmore » wedging, and possibly gelifluction then widened the fissures into streets. Gelifluction moved blocks downslope and oriented their long axes parallel with slope (Warren Rocks). Forward toppling of high, unstable blocks contributed to mass-movement on some steep slopes (Rimrock). Today, rock cities and downslope blocks are stable in areas of gentle (less than 10 percent) slopes, but toppling, solifluction, creep, and debris flows cause continued slow movement of large blocks on moderately steep to steep (greater than 30 percent) slopes. Blocks of Olean and Knapp conglomerate have both stratabound pitting and intricate honeycomb weathering. Deep pitting is controlled largely by variations in silica cementation. Honeycomb weathering is most evident in sandy layers and results from patterns of iron-oxide impregnation. Both are Holocene surface-weathering processes.« less

Urban retail location: Insights from percolation theory and spatial interaction modeling.

PubMed

Piovani, Duccio; Molinero, Carlos; Wilson, Alan

2017-01-01

Characterising road networks has been the focus of a large body of research due to it being the main driver of activities in an urban ecosystem and the structuring factor in the dynamics of the city. One of these activities, and one with the largest economical impact in a city, is retail dynamics and its evolution. Therefore, the mathematical modeling of the location of retail activities and of the emergence of clustering in retail centers has as well generated a large number of works. Despite these two interwoven components strongly depending on one another and their fundamental importance in understanding cities, little work has been done in order to compare their local and global properties. Here we compare the road network's hierarchical structure, unveiled through a percolation analysis of the network, with the retail location distribution defined by exploiting a gravity-based retail model. We interpret the great agreement in the city's organizations as it emerges from both methodologies as new evidence of the interdependence of these two crucial dimensions of a city's life.

Density of Indoor Tanning Facilities in 116 Large U.S. Cities

PubMed Central

Hoerster, Katherine D.; Garrow, Rebecca L.; Mayer, Joni A.; Clapp, Elizabeth J.; Weeks, John R.; Woodruff, Susan I.; Sallis, James F.; Slymen, Donald J.; Patel, Minal R.; Sybert, Stephanie A.

2009-01-01

Background U.S. adolescents and young adults are using indoor tanning at high rates, even though it has been linked to both melanoma and squamous cell cancer. Because the availability of commercial indoor tanning facilities may influence use, data are needed on the number and density of such facilities. Methods In March 2006, commercial indoor tanning facilities in 116 large U.S. cities were identified, and the number and density (per 100,000 population) were computed for each city. Bivariate and multivariate analyses conducted in 2008 tested the association between tanning-facility density and selected geographic, climatologic, demographic, and legislative variables. Results Mean facility number and density across cities were 41.8 (SD=30.8) and 11.8 (SD=6.0), respectively. In multivariate analysis, cities with higher percentages of whites and lower ultraviolet (UV)index scores had significantly higher facility densities than those with lower percentages of whites and higher UV index scores. Conclusions These data indicate that commercial indoor tanning is widely available in the urban U.S., and this availability may help explain the high usage of indoor tanning. PMID:19215849

Density of indoor tanning facilities in 116 large U.S. cities.

PubMed

Hoerster, Katherine D; Garrow, Rebecca L; Mayer, Joni A; Clapp, Elizabeth J; Weeks, John R; Woodruff, Susan I; Sallis, James F; Slymen, Donald J; Patel, Minal R; Sybert, Stephanie A

2009-03-01

U.S. adolescents and young adults are using indoor tanning at high rates, even though it has been linked to both melanoma and squamous cell cancer. Because the availability of commercial indoor tanning facilities may influence use, data are needed on the number and density of such facilities. In March 2006, commercial indoor tanning facilities in 116 large U.S. cities were identified, and the number and density (per 100,000 population) were computed for each city. Bivariate and multivariate analyses conducted in 2008 tested the association between tanning-facility density and selected geographic, climatologic, demographic, and legislative variables. Mean facility number and density across cities were 41.8 (SD=30.8) and 11.8 (SD=6.0), respectively. In multivariate analysis, cities with higher percentages of whites and lower ultraviolet (UV)index scores had significantly higher facility densities than those with lower percentages of whites and higher UV index scores. These data indicate that commercial indoor tanning is widely available in the urban U.S., and this availability may help explain the high usage of indoor tanning.

Efficient Scavenging of Solar and Wind Energies in a Smart City.

PubMed

Wang, Shuhua; Wang, Xue; Wang, Zhong Lin; Yang, Ya

2016-06-28

To realize the sustainable energy supply in a smart city, it is essential to maximize energy scavenging from the city environments for achieving the self-powered functions of some intelligent devices and sensors. Although the solar energy can be well harvested by using existing technologies, the large amounts of wasted wind energy in the city cannot be effectively utilized since conventional wind turbine generators can only be installed in remote areas due to their large volumes and safety issues. Here, we rationally design a hybridized nanogenerator, including a solar cell (SC) and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), that can individually/simultaneously scavenge solar and wind energies, which can be extensively installed on the roofs of the city buildings. Under the same device area of about 120 mm × 22 mm, the SC can deliver a largest output power of about 8 mW, while the output power of the TENG can be up to 26 mW. Impedance matching between the SC and TENG has been achieved by using a transformer to decrease the impedance of the TENG. The hybridized nanogenerator has a larger output current and a better charging performance than that of the individual SC or TENG. This research presents a feasible approach to maximize solar and wind energies scavenging from the city environments with the aim to realize some self-powered functions in smart city.

Sustainable urban water systems in rich and poor cities--steps towards a new approach.

PubMed

Newman, P

2001-01-01

The 'big pipes in, big pipes out' approach to urban water management was developed in the 19th century for a particular linear urban form. Large, sprawling car-dependent cities are pushing this approach to new limits in rich cities and it has never worked in poor cities. An alternative which uses new small-scale technology and is more community-based, is suggested for both rich and poor countries. The Sydney Olympics and a demonstration project in Java show that the approach can work.

Effects of air pollution on infant and children respiratory mortality in four large Latin-American cities.

PubMed

Gouveia, Nelson; Junger, Washington Leite

2018-01-01

Air pollution is an important public health concern especially for children who are particularly susceptible. Latin America has a large children population, is highly urbanized and levels of pollution are substantially high, making the potential health impact of air pollution quite large. We evaluated the effect of air pollution on children respiratory mortality in four large urban centers: Mexico City, Santiago, Chile, and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Generalized Additive Models in Poisson regression was used to fit daily time-series of mortality due to respiratory diseases in infants and children, and levels of PM 10 and O 3 . Single lag and constrained polynomial distributed lag models were explored. Analyses were carried out per cause for each age group and each city. Fixed- and random-effects meta-analysis was conducted in order to combine the city-specific results in a single summary estimate. These cities host nearly 43 million people and pollution levels were above the WHO guidelines. For PM 10 the percentage increase in risk of death due to respiratory diseases in infants in a fixed effect model was 0.47% (0.09-0.85). For respiratory deaths in children 1-5 years old, the increase in risk was 0.58% (0.08-1.08) while a higher effect was observed for lower respiratory infections (LRI) in children 1-14 years old [1.38% (0.91-1.85)]. For O 3 , the only summarized estimate statistically significant was for LRI in infants. Analysis by season showed effects of O 3 in the warm season for respiratory diseases in infants, while negative effects were observed for respiratory and LRI deaths in children. We provided comparable mortality impact estimates of air pollutants across these cities and age groups. This information is important because many public policies aimed at preventing the adverse effects of pollution on health consider children as the population group that deserves the highest protection. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mystery #12 Answer

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2013-04-22

... Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) natural-color image of Russia's St. Petersburg was captured by the instrument's nadir camera on May ... The city in the south eastern portion of the image is Russia's St. Petersburg, which is the most northerly large city in the world at ...

Pavement management system for City of Madison : research brief.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-11-01

Keeping city streets in good state of repair has been a significant challenge for small communities : where both road repair budgets and staff resources are lacking. To prevent pavement deterioration at : a large scale, local governments need to find...

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in Midsize Cities

EPA Science Inventory

Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight...

Approaches of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-Funded Intermediary Organizations to Structuring and Supporting Small High Schools in New York City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Eileen

2010-01-01

In 2003, a few years after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began implementing its small schools reform agenda, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced a plan to replace large failing high schools in New York City with 200 small schools. In short order, the foundation and the Chancellor became partners…

Approaches of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-Funded Intermediary Organizations to Structuring and Supporting Small High Schools in New York City. Executive Summary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Eileen

2010-01-01

In 2003, a few years after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began implementing its small schools reform agenda, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced a plan to replace large failing high schools in New York City with 200 small schools. In short order, the foundation and the Chancellor became partners with…

Lost in transportation: Information measures and cognitive limits in multilayer navigation.

PubMed

Gallotti, Riccardo; Porter, Mason A; Barthelemy, Marc

2016-02-01

Cities and their transportation systems become increasingly complex and multimodal as they grow, and it is natural to wonder whether it is possible to quantitatively characterize our difficulty navigating in them and whether such navigation exceeds our cognitive limits. A transition between different search strategies for navigating in metropolitan maps has been observed for large, complex metropolitan networks. This evidence suggests the existence of a limit associated with cognitive overload and caused by a large amount of information that needs to be processed. In this light, we analyzed the world's 15 largest metropolitan networks and estimated the information limit for determining a trip in a transportation system to be on the order of 8 bits. Similar to the "Dunbar number," which represents a limit to the size of an individual's friendship circle, our cognitive limit suggests that maps should not consist of more than 250 connection points to be easily readable. We also show that including connections with other transportation modes dramatically increases the information needed to navigate in multilayer transportation networks. In large cities such as New York, Paris, and Tokyo, more than 80% of the trips are above the 8-bit limit. Multimodal transportation systems in large cities have thus already exceeded human cognitive limits and, consequently, the traditional view of navigation in cities has to be revised substantially.

Lost in transportation: Information measures and cognitive limits in multilayer navigation

PubMed Central

Gallotti, Riccardo; Porter, Mason A.; Barthelemy, Marc

2016-01-01

Cities and their transportation systems become increasingly complex and multimodal as they grow, and it is natural to wonder whether it is possible to quantitatively characterize our difficulty navigating in them and whether such navigation exceeds our cognitive limits. A transition between different search strategies for navigating in metropolitan maps has been observed for large, complex metropolitan networks. This evidence suggests the existence of a limit associated with cognitive overload and caused by a large amount of information that needs to be processed. In this light, we analyzed the world’s 15 largest metropolitan networks and estimated the information limit for determining a trip in a transportation system to be on the order of 8 bits. Similar to the “Dunbar number,” which represents a limit to the size of an individual’s friendship circle, our cognitive limit suggests that maps should not consist of more than 250 connection points to be easily readable. We also show that including connections with other transportation modes dramatically increases the information needed to navigate in multilayer transportation networks. In large cities such as New York, Paris, and Tokyo, more than 80% of the trips are above the 8-bit limit. Multimodal transportation systems in large cities have thus already exceeded human cognitive limits and, consequently, the traditional view of navigation in cities has to be revised substantially. PMID:26989769

The most effective strategy for recruiting a pregnancy cohort: a tale of two cities.

PubMed

Manca, Donna P; O'Beirne, Maeve; Lightbody, Teresa; Johnston, David W; Dymianiw, Dayna-Lynn; Nastalska, Katarzyna; Anis, Lubna; Loehr, Sarah; Gilbert, Anne; Kaplan, Bonnie J

2013-03-22

Pregnant women were recruited into the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study in two cities in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton. In Calgary, a larger proportion of women obtain obstetrical care from family physicians than from obstetricians; otherwise the cities have similar characteristics. Despite similarities of the cities, the recruitment success was very different. The purpose of this paper is to describe recruitment strategies, determine which were most successful and discuss reasons for the different success rates between the two cities. Recruitment methods in both cities involved approaching pregnant women (< 27 weeks gestation) through the waiting rooms of physician offices, distributing posters and pamphlets, word of mouth, media, and the Internet. Between May 2009 and November 2010, 1,200 participants were recruited, 86% (1,028/1,200) from Calgary and 14% (172/1,200) from Edmonton, two cities with similar demographics. The most effective strategy overall involved face-to-face recruitment through clinics in physician and ultrasound offices with access to a large volume of women in early pregnancy. This method was most economical when clinic staff received an honorarium to discuss the study with patients and forward contact information to the research team. Recruiting a pregnancy cohort face-to-face through physician offices was the most effective method in both cities and a new critically important finding is that employing this method is only feasible in large volume maternity clinics. The proportion of family physicians providing antenatal and post-natal care may impact recruitment success and should be studied further.

The most effective strategy for recruiting a pregnancy cohort: a tale of two cities

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Pregnant women were recruited into the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study in two cities in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton. In Calgary, a larger proportion of women obtain obstetrical care from family physicians than from obstetricians; otherwise the cities have similar characteristics. Despite similarities of the cities, the recruitment success was very different. The purpose of this paper is to describe recruitment strategies, determine which were most successful and discuss reasons for the different success rates between the two cities. Methods Recruitment methods in both cities involved approaching pregnant women (< 27 weeks gestation) through the waiting rooms of physician offices, distributing posters and pamphlets, word of mouth, media, and the Internet. Results Between May 2009 and November 2010, 1,200 participants were recruited, 86% (1,028/1,200) from Calgary and 14% (172/1,200) from Edmonton, two cities with similar demographics. The most effective strategy overall involved face-to-face recruitment through clinics in physician and ultrasound offices with access to a large volume of women in early pregnancy. This method was most economical when clinic staff received an honorarium to discuss the study with patients and forward contact information to the research team. Conclusion Recruiting a pregnancy cohort face-to-face through physician offices was the most effective method in both cities and a new critically important finding is that employing this method is only feasible in large volume maternity clinics. The proportion of family physicians providing antenatal and post-natal care may impact recruitment success and should be studied further. PMID:23521869

Noise in large cities in Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerges, Samir N. Y.

2004-05-01

Large cities' noise is considered by the World Health Organization to be the third most hazardous pollution, preceded by air and water pollution. In urban centers, in general, and especially in developing countries such as Brazil, large populations are affected by excessive noise due mainly to traffic flow. The Brazilian Federal Government specifies noise limits, but each state can enforce its own set of noise limits, providing they are lower. The rapid economic growth, together with large migration of northern Brazilians to the developing southern urban areas in search of more lucrative jobs in construction and industrial sectors, resulted in a fast increase in activities such as vehicle and bus traffic, home construction, and development of all necessary infrastructures to support this growth. Urban noise in Brazil has been receiving the attention of national authorities only since 1990, when the Federal Government approved the first ``Program of Community Silence,'' based on ISO R 1996-1971. This paper highlights the noise situation in the five largest and most populated cities in Brazil: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Curitiba [Zannin et al., Appl. Acoust. 63, 351-358 (2002)].

Development of a time-dependent hurricane evacuation model for the New Orleans area : [technical summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-01-01

When hurricanes threaten coastal cities, the most eff ective strategy to mitigate mortality is to evacuate the population : at risk. However, public offi cials face several transportation challenges when managing evacuations from a large city : like ...

Examining a shrinking rustbelt city: A case of Binghamton, NY (1990 - 2010)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Paul Sung-Pyo

Shrinking cities are locations that have experienced population and economic loss. Each shrinking city is unique in the influential characteristics that result in loss, however, patterns of the contemporary city is highly based on economic changes. The impact of shrinking cities is a global phenomenon not only limited to the U.S. or the developed world. However, among large shrinking cities of the world, 25% are located in the U.S. Therefore, it is of utter importance to understand and examine these locations. The connection of spectral findings of a shrinking "Rustbelt" city of Binghamton, NY using a multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network (ANN) mean of classification was made with spatial findings of demographic and socioeconomic status of the local population. This resulted in a high scale classification of urban ecozones, which created the boundaries for examining the changes in population size and the types of individuals associated with these populations.

Influenza and Pneumonia Mortality in 66 Large Cities in the United States in Years Surrounding the 1918 Pandemic

PubMed Central

Acuna-Soto, Rodolfo; Viboud, Cécile; Chowell, Gerardo

2011-01-01

The 1918 influenza pandemic was a major epidemiological event of the twentieth century resulting in at least twenty million deaths worldwide; however, despite its historical, epidemiological, and biological relevance, it remains poorly understood. Here we examine the relationship between annual pneumonia and influenza death rates in the pre-pandemic (1910–17) and pandemic (1918–20) periods and the scaling of mortality with latitude, longitude and population size, using data from 66 large cities of the United States. The mean pre-pandemic pneumonia death rates were highly associated with pneumonia death rates during the pandemic period (Spearman ρ = 0.64–0.72; P<0.001). By contrast, there was a weak correlation between pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza mortality rates. Pneumonia mortality rates partially explained influenza mortality rates in 1918 (ρ = 0.34, P = 0.005) but not during any other year. Pneumonia death counts followed a linear relationship with population size in all study years, suggesting that pneumonia death rates were homogeneous across the range of population sizes studied. By contrast, influenza death counts followed a power law relationship with a scaling exponent of ∼0.81 (95%CI: 0.71, 0.91) in 1918, suggesting that smaller cities experienced worst outcomes during the pandemic. A linear relationship was observed for all other years. Our study suggests that mortality associated with the 1918–20 influenza pandemic was in part predetermined by pre-pandemic pneumonia death rates in 66 large US cities, perhaps through the impact of the physical and social structure of each city. Smaller cities suffered a disproportionately high per capita influenza mortality burden than larger ones in 1918, while city size did not affect pneumonia mortality rates in the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. PMID:21886792

A Large Community Outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease Associated With a Cooling Tower in New York City, 2015.

PubMed

Weiss, Don; Boyd, Christopher; Rakeman, Jennifer L; Greene, Sharon K; Fitzhenry, Robert; McProud, Trevor; Musser, Kimberlee; Huang, Li; Kornblum, John; Nazarian, Elizabeth J; Fine, Annie D; Braunstein, Sarah L; Kass, Daniel; Landman, Keren; Lapierre, Pascal; Hughes, Scott; Tran, Anthony; Taylor, Jill; Baker, Deborah; Jones, Lucretia; Kornstein, Laura; Liu, Boning; Perez, Rodolfo; Lucero, David E; Peterson, Eric; Benowitz, Isaac; Lee, Kristen F; Ngai, Stephanie; Stripling, Mitch; Varma, Jay K

Infections caused by Legionella are the leading cause of waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States. We investigated a large outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York City in summer 2015 to characterize patients, risk factors for mortality, and environmental exposures. We defined cases as patients with pneumonia and laboratory evidence of Legionella infection from July 2 through August 3, 2015, and with a history of residing in or visiting 1 of several South Bronx neighborhoods of New York City. We describe the epidemiologic, environmental, and laboratory investigation that identified the source of the outbreak. We identified 138 patients with outbreak-related Legionnaires' disease, 16 of whom died. The median age of patients was 55. A total of 107 patients had a chronic health condition, including 43 with diabetes, 40 with alcoholism, and 24 with HIV infection. We tested 55 cooling towers for Legionella, and 2 had a strain indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis from 26 patient isolates. Whole-genome sequencing and epidemiologic evidence implicated 1 cooling tower as the source of the outbreak. A large outbreak of Legionnaires' disease caused by a cooling tower occurred in a medically vulnerable community. The outbreak prompted enactment of a new city law on the operation and maintenance of cooling towers. Ongoing surveillance and evaluation of cooling tower process controls will determine if the new law reduces the incidence of Legionnaires' disease in New York City.

Space Radar Image of Lisbon, Portugal

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

This radar image of Lisbon, Portugal illustrates the different land use patterns that are present in coastal Portugal. Lisbon, the national capital, lies on the north bank of the Rio Tejo where the river enters the Atlantic Ocean. The city center appears as the bright area in the center of the image. The green area west of the city center is a large city park called the Parque Florestal de Monsanto. The Lisbon Airport is visible east of the city. The Rio Tejo forms a large bay just east of the city. Many agricultural fields are visible as a patchwork pattern east of the bay. Suburban housing can be seen on the southern bank of the river. Spanning the river is the Ponte 25 de Abril, a large suspension bridge similar in architecture to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The image was acquired on April 19, 1994 and is centered at 38.8 degrees north latitude, 9.2 degrees west longitude. North is towards the upper right. The image is 50 kilometers by 30 kilometers (31 miles by 19 miles). The colors in this image represent the following radar channels and polarizations: red is L-band, horizontally transmitted and received; green is L-band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received; and blue is C-band, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian, and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth.

Tobacco sales and promotion in bars, cafes and nightclubs from large cities around the world.

PubMed

Shahrir, Shahida; Wipfli, Heather; Avila-Tang, Erika; Breysse, Patrick N; Samet, Jonathan M; Navas-Acien, Ana

2011-07-01

Little is known about tobacco promotion activities in low and middle-income countries. Information on tobacco sales, advertisement and promotion in bars, cafes and nightclubs is needed to develop interventions to reduce smoking initiation and relapse, particularly among youths and young adults. To evaluate cigarette sales and tobacco advertisement and promotion in bars, cafes and nightclubs using a volunteer survey approach in large cities throughout the world. Between 2007 and 2009, we administered an interview-based survey to 231 bar/cafe/nightclub owners/managers in 24 large cities in Africa, the Americas, Asia and eastern Europe. Cigarette sales and tobacco advertisement and promotions were found in bars/cafes/nightclubs in most cities. Examples of promotions included cigarette giveaways and event sponsorship. Establishments that allowed smoking were more likely to sell cigarettes compared to smoke-free establishments (OR 8.67, 95% CI 3.25 to 23.1). Larger establishments (maximum occupancy ≥ 100 vs <100 customers) were more likely to have tobacco advertising (OR 4.35, 95% CI 2.04 to 9.24) and to receive promotional items from tobacco companies (OR 3.18, 95% CI 1.41 to 7.17). Cigarette sales and tobacco promotions were common in bars, cafes and nightclubs in the majority of cities. Socialising and hospitality venues must be covered by legislation banning tobacco sales and promotions to limit exposure among populations at high risk of tobacco initiation and relapse from quitting.

A Large Community Outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease Associated With a Cooling Tower in New York City, 2015

PubMed Central

Boyd, Christopher; Rakeman, Jennifer L.; Greene, Sharon K.; Fitzhenry, Robert; McProud, Trevor; Musser, Kimberlee; Huang, Li; Kornblum, John; Nazarian, Elizabeth J.; Fine, Annie D.; Braunstein, Sarah L.; Kass, Daniel; Landman, Keren; Lapierre, Pascal; Hughes, Scott; Tran, Anthony; Taylor, Jill; Baker, Deborah; Jones, Lucretia; Kornstein, Laura; Liu, Boning; Perez, Rodolfo; Lucero, David E.; Peterson, Eric; Benowitz, Isaac; Lee, Kristen F.; Ngai, Stephanie; Stripling, Mitch; Varma, Jay K.

2017-01-01

Objectives: Infections caused by Legionella are the leading cause of waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States. We investigated a large outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City in summer 2015 to characterize patients, risk factors for mortality, and environmental exposures. Methods: We defined cases as patients with pneumonia and laboratory evidence of Legionella infection from July 2 through August 3, 2015, and with a history of residing in or visiting 1 of several South Bronx neighborhoods of New York City. We describe the epidemiologic, environmental, and laboratory investigation that identified the source of the outbreak. Results: We identified 138 patients with outbreak-related Legionnaires’ disease, 16 of whom died. The median age of patients was 55. A total of 107 patients had a chronic health condition, including 43 with diabetes, 40 with alcoholism, and 24 with HIV infection. We tested 55 cooling towers for Legionella, and 2 had a strain indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis from 26 patient isolates. Whole-genome sequencing and epidemiologic evidence implicated 1 cooling tower as the source of the outbreak. Conclusions: A large outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease caused by a cooling tower occurred in a medically vulnerable community. The outbreak prompted enactment of a new city law on the operation and maintenance of cooling towers. Ongoing surveillance and evaluation of cooling tower process controls will determine if the new law reduces the incidence of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City. PMID:28141970

User manual for veteran's glass city skyway bridge monitoring system.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-02-01

Douglas Nims 0000-0001-7663-397X : Victor Hunt 0000-0002-1590-3291 : Arthur Helmicki 0000-0002-7759-5482 : The Veterans Glass City Skyway Bridge is a large cable stayed bridge in Toledo, Ohio owned and : operated by the Ohio Department of Transpor...

Solar technical assistance provided to Forest City military communities in Hawaii for incorporation of 20-30 MW of solar energy generation to power family housing for US Navy personnel.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dominick, Jeff; Merrigan, Tim; Boudra, Will

2010-06-01

In May 2007, Forest City Military Communities won a US Department of Energy Solar America Showcase Award. As part of this award, executives and staff from Forest City Military Communities worked side-by-side with a DOE technical assistance team to overcome technical obstacles encountered by this large-scale real estate developer and manager. This paper describes the solar technical assistance that was provided and the key solar experiences acquired by Forest City Military Communities over an 18 month period.

Potencjał turystyczny Lublina jako czynnik rozwoju miasta na przestrzeni wieków

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kociuba, Dagmara; Kociuba, Waldemar

2009-01-01

Lublin is situated on eastern border of Nałęczów Plateau at three rivers' confluence, it is the very picturesque city with beautiful panoramic sights. On touristic attractiveness of city influence both the natural as well cultural values, in peculiarity the objects of the material culture which are the heritage of men of different nationalities and religions living here over the centuries. The touristic potential of Lublin showed the large changeability in time. It structural and functional supplies were changed. The division into periods of city's popularity was marked, from very large in XV-XVI and XIX-XXI century to smaller in period of the XVIII century. Last years the touristic policy activation was noticed which manifesting the intensification of marketing actings having on aim the enlargement the touristic attractiveness of city e.g. creating the mark of Lublin and the projects in frames of the Bug Euroregion. They are effective of elevation of the rank of cultural output e.g. acknowledgement of the Lublin's historical town-planning complex the title of Monument History, inclusion of Lublin to European programme "Intercultural Cities", or trying about acknowledgement in 2016 r. the title of European Capital of Culture.

EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON RESPIRATORY HEALTH OF ADULTS IN THREE CHINESE CITIES.

EPA Science Inventory

The authors examined potential associations between air-pollution exposures and respiratory symptoms and illnesses of 4,108 adults who resided in 4 districts of 3 large, distinct Chinese cities. Data on respiratory health outcomes and relevant risk factors for parents and childre...

Big-City Rules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Dan

2011-01-01

When it comes to implementing innovative classroom technology programs, urban school districts face significant challenges stemming from their big-city status. These range from large bureaucracies, to scalability, to how to meet the needs of a more diverse group of students. Because of their size, urban districts tend to have greater distance…

Sustainability for Shrinking Cities | Science Inventory | US EPA

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Shrinking cities are widespread throughout the world despite the rapidly increasing global urban population. These cities are attempting to transition to sustainable trajectories to improve the health and well-being of urban residents, to build their capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to cope with major events. The dynamics of shrinking cities are different than the dynamics of growing cities, and therefore intentional research and planning around creating sustainable cities is needed for shrinking cities. We propose research that can be applied to shrinking cities by identifying parallel challenges in growing cities and translating urban research and planning that is specific to each city’s dynamics. In addition, we offer applications of panarchy concepts to this problem. The contributions to this Special Issue take on this forward-looking planning task through drawing lessons for urban sustainability from shrinking cities, or translating general lessons from urban research to the context of shrinking cities. Humans are rapidly becoming an urban species, with greater populations in urban areas, increasing size of these urban areas, and increasing number of very large urban areas. As a consequence, much of what we know about cities is focused on how they grow and take shape, the strains that their growth puts on city infrastructure, the consequences for human and nonhuman inhabitants of these cities and their surroundings, and the policies which can

Living in a network of scaling cities and finite resources.

PubMed

Qubbaj, Murad R; Shutters, Shade T; Muneepeerakul, Rachata

2015-02-01

Many urban phenomena exhibit remarkable regularity in the form of nonlinear scaling behaviors, but their implications on a system of networked cities has never been investigated. Such knowledge is crucial for our ability to harness the complexity of urban processes to further sustainability science. In this paper, we develop a dynamical modeling framework that embeds population-resource dynamics-a generalized Lotka-Volterra system with modifications to incorporate the urban scaling behaviors-in complex networks in which cities may be linked to the resources of other cities and people may migrate in pursuit of higher welfare. We find that isolated cities (i.e., no migration) are susceptible to collapse if they do not have access to adequate resources. Links to other cities may help cities that would otherwise collapse due to insufficient resources. The effects of inter-city links, however, can vary due to the interplay between the nonlinear scaling behaviors and network structure. The long-term population level of a city is, in many settings, largely a function of the city's access to resources over which the city has little or no competition. Nonetheless, careful investigation of dynamics is required to gain mechanistic understanding of a particular city-resource network because cities and resources may collapse and the scaling behaviors may influence the effects of inter-city links, thereby distorting what topological metrics really measure.

Modelling and evaluating municipal solid waste management strategies in a mega-city: the case of Ho Chi Minh City.

PubMed

ThiKimOanh, Le; Bloemhof-Ruwaard, Jacqueline M; van Buuren, Joost Cl; van der Vorst, Jack Gaj; Rulkens, Wim H

2015-04-01

Ho Chi Minh City is a large city that will become a mega-city in the near future. The city struggles with a rapidly increasing flow of municipal solid waste and a foreseeable scarcity of land to continue landfilling, the main treatment of municipal solid waste up to now. Therefore, additional municipal solid waste treatment technologies are needed. The objective of this article is to support decision-making towards more sustainable and cost-effective municipal solid waste strategies in developing countries, in particular Vietnam. A quantitative decision support model is developed to optimise the distribution of municipal solid waste from population areas to treatment plants, the treatment technologies and their capacities for the near future given available infrastructure and cost factors. © The Author(s) 2015.

National Clean Fleets Partnership (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2012-01-01

Provides an overview of Clean Cities National Clean Fleets Partnership (NCFP). The NCFP is open to large private-sector companies that have fleet operations in multiple states. Companies that join the partnership receive customized assistance to reduce petroleum use through increased efficiency and use of alternative fuels. This initiative provides fleets with specialized resources, expertise, and support to successfully incorporate alternative fuels and fuel-saving measures into their operations. The National Clean Fleets Partnership builds on the established success of DOE's Clean Cities program, which reduces petroleum consumption at the community level through a nationwide network of coalitions that work with localmore » stakeholders. Developed with input from fleet managers, industry representatives, and Clean Cities coordinators, the National Clean Fleets Partnership goes one step further by working with large private-sector fleets.« less

Immigration, Occupation and Inequality in Emergent Nineteenth-Century New England Cities

PubMed Central

Leonard, Susan Hautaniemi; Robinson, Christopher; Anderton, Douglas L.

2017-01-01

This paper explores the social interactions of immigration, occupation and wealth in two urban industrial cities of nineteenth century New England that were largely built upon, and shaped by, immigration: the very rapidly growing factory town of Holyoke, Massachusetts and a more mixed market and steadily growing nearby community of Northampton, Massachusetts. Both communities were emergent, rapidly industrializing, inland cities, providing a quite distinct immigration context than large established cities of the East Coast. Both were destinations for the same general ethnic immigration waves over the late nineteenth century, but with very different, and differently impacted, social spaces into which immigrants arrived. Contrasting and considering both these emergent cities allows us to ascertain the extent to which the occupational distribution and accumulation of wealth by immigrant groups supports the broad pattern of nineteenth-century assimilation, and reveals ways in which other migration processes may have been at odds, or intertwined, with the long-term historical assimilation of immigrants in such communities. Our findings support a traditional assimilationist perspective in emergent urban-industrial centers. However, they also reveal the role of universal immiseration in an industrial city dual-labor market in facilitating or forcing assimilation, the temporal advantages for ethnic groups of arriving early in growing settlements, and the more individualistic nature of economic enclaves in gaining advantages over time that did not manifest across broad immigrant or occupational groups. PMID:29307945

Do Global Cities Enable Global Views? Using Twitter to Quantify the Level of Geographical Awareness of U.S. Cities.

PubMed

Han, Su Yeon; Tsou, Ming-Hsiang; Clarke, Keith C

2015-01-01

Dynamic social media content, such as Twitter messages, can be used to examine individuals' beliefs and perceptions. By analyzing Twitter messages, this study examines how Twitter users exchanged and recognized toponyms (city names) for different cities in the United States. The frequency and variety of city names found in their online conversations were used to identify the unique spatiotemporal patterns of "geographical awareness" for Twitter users. A new analytic method, Knowledge Discovery in Cyberspace for Geographical Awareness (KDCGA), is introduced to help identify the dynamic spatiotemporal patterns of geographic awareness among social media conversations. Twitter data were collected across 50 U.S. cities. Thousands of city names around the world were extracted from a large volume of Twitter messages (over 5 million tweets) by using the Twitter Application Programming Interface (APIs) and Python language computer programs. The percentages of distant city names (cities located in distant states or other countries far away from the locations of Twitter users) were used to estimate the level of global geographical awareness for Twitter users in each U.S. city. A Global awareness index (GAI) was developed to quantify the level of geographical awareness of Twitter users from within the same city. Our findings are that: (1) the level of geographical awareness varies depending on when and where Twitter messages are posted, yet Twitter users from big cities are more aware of the names of international cities or distant US cities than users from mid-size cities; (2) Twitter users have an increased awareness of other city names far away from their home city during holiday seasons; and (3) Twitter users are more aware of nearby city names than distant city names, and more aware of big city names rather than small city names.

Indoglish as adaptation of english to Indonesian: change of society in big cities of Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saddhono, K.; Sulaksono, D.

2018-03-01

Indoglish is a term that is often used for the use of Indonesian culture language nuances. Indoglish studies focus on the community, especially on the big cities in Indonesia. The use of language in society is chosen because the emerging form is the natural language, which in the context of linguistic research should actually be used in preference to describe large cities in Indonesia in actual language situations. The data of this study are various kinds of discourse obtained in the society, especially in five big cities in Indonesia where there is a form of linguistic language mixture of Indonesian and English. The main research data source is the community in big cities in Indonesia. The basic assumption for determining locational data sources is the consideration that people in large cities have diverse social, economic, and cultural backgrounds that are expected to reflect the condition of society. The major cities used as research sites are: (1) Jakarta, (2) Surakarta, (3) Surabaya, (4) Denpasar, and (5) Bandung. The data set used refers to the usual method of linguistic research. Data analysis is done by applying the usual method of distribution to linguistics. The method of analysis is performed after data is collected and classified and interpreted correctly. The results showed that in general the mastery of Indonesian language by the community was not good enough. Motivation to learn Indonesian in general is also not high enough in the community in big cities in Indonesia. With this background, then Indoglish emerged as a form of public utterance that occurs in the social. Indoglish also emerged as a form of community identity that has a prestigious sense if it smells of foreign cultural elements, including in it is the use of language.

City Level of Income and Urbanization and Availability of Food Stores and Food Service Places in China.

PubMed

Liao, Chunxiao; Tan, Yayun; Wu, Chaoqun; Wang, Shengfeng; Yu, Canqing; Cao, Weihua; Gao, Wenjing; Lv, Jun; Li, Liming

2016-01-01

The contribution of unhealthy dietary patterns to the epidemic of obesity has been well recognized. Differences in availability of foods may have an important influence on individual eating behaviors and health disparities. This study examined the availability of food stores and food service places by city characteristics on city level of income and urbanization. The cross-sectional survey was comprised of two parts: (1) an on-site observation to measure availability of food stores and food service places in 12 cities of China; (2) an in-store survey to determine the presence of fresh/frozen vegetables or fruits in all food stores. Trained investigators walked all the streets/roads within study tracts to identify all the food outlets. An observational survey questionnaire was used in all food stores to determine the presence of fresh/frozen vegetables or fruits. Urbanization index was determined for each city using a principal components factor analysis. City level of income and urbanization and numbers of each type of food stores and food service places were examined using negative binomial regression models. Large-sized supermarkets and specialty retailers had higher number of fresh/frozen vegetables or fruits sold compared to small/medium-sized markets. High-income versus low-income, high urbanized versus low urbanized areas had significantly more large-sized supermarkets and fewer small/medium-sized markets. In terms of restaurants, high urbanized cities had more western fast food restaurants and no statistically significant difference in the relative availability of any type of restaurants was found between high- and low-income areas. The findings suggested food environment disparities did exist in different cities of China.

City Level of Income and Urbanization and Availability of Food Stores and Food Service Places in China

PubMed Central

Liao, Chunxiao; Tan, Yayun; Wu, Chaoqun; Wang, Shengfeng; Yu, Canqing; Cao, Weihua; Gao, Wenjing; Lv, Jun; Li, Liming

2016-01-01

Objective The contribution of unhealthy dietary patterns to the epidemic of obesity has been well recognized. Differences in availability of foods may have an important influence on individual eating behaviors and health disparities. This study examined the availability of food stores and food service places by city characteristics on city level of income and urbanization. Methods The cross-sectional survey was comprised of two parts: (1) an on-site observation to measure availability of food stores and food service places in 12 cities of China; (2) an in-store survey to determine the presence of fresh/frozen vegetables or fruits in all food stores. Trained investigators walked all the streets/roads within study tracts to identify all the food outlets. An observational survey questionnaire was used in all food stores to determine the presence of fresh/frozen vegetables or fruits. Urbanization index was determined for each city using a principal components factor analysis. City level of income and urbanization and numbers of each type of food stores and food service places were examined using negative binomial regression models. Results Large-sized supermarkets and specialty retailers had higher number of fresh/frozen vegetables or fruits sold compared to small/medium-sized markets. High-income versus low-income, high urbanized versus low urbanized areas had significantly more large-sized supermarkets and fewer small/medium-sized markets. In terms of restaurants, high urbanized cities had more western fast food restaurants and no statistically significant difference in the relative availability of any type of restaurants was found between high- and low-income areas. Conclusions The findings suggested food environment disparities did exist in different cities of China. PMID:26938866

A Comparative Metroscope Model for Urban Information Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fink, J. H.; Shandas, V.; Beaudoin, F.

2011-12-01

One of the most promising ways to achieve global sustainability goals of climate stabilization, poverty reduction, and biodiversity preservation is to make the world's cities more efficient, equitable, and healthful. While each city must follow a unique and somewhat idiosyncratic path toward these linked goals based on its history, geography, demography, and politics, movement in this direction can accelerate if cities can learn from each other more effectively. Such learning requires the identification of common characteristics and methodologies. We have created a framework for organizing and applying urban information flows, which we refer to as "Metroscopes." Metroscopes, which are analogous to the large instruments that have advanced the physical and life sciences, integrate six elements: data collection and input; classification through the use of metrics; data storage and retrieval; analytics and modeling; decision support including visualization and scenario generation; and assessment of the effectiveness of policy choices. Standards for each of these elements can be agreed upon by relevant urban science and policy sub-communities, and then can evolve as technologies and practices advance. We are implementing and calibrating this approach using data and relationships from Portland (OR), Phoenix (AZ) and London (UK). Elements that are being integrated include the Global City Indicators Facility at University of Toronto, the J-Earth database system and Decision Theater from Arizona State University, urban mobility analyses performed by the SENSEable City Lab at MIT, and Portland's Ecodistrict approach for urban management. Individual Metroscopes can be compared directly from one city to another, or with larger assemblages of cities like those being classified by ICLEI's STAR program, the Clinton Climate Initiative's C40, and Siemens Green Cities Index. This large-scale integration of urban data sets and approaches and its systematic comparison are key steps for making urban systems more sustainable.

Illustrative visualization of 3D city models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doellner, Juergen; Buchholz, Henrik; Nienhaus, Marc; Kirsch, Florian

2005-03-01

This paper presents an illustrative visualization technique that provides expressive representations of large-scale 3D city models, inspired by the tradition of artistic and cartographic visualizations typically found in bird"s-eye view and panoramic maps. We define a collection of city model components and a real-time multi-pass rendering algorithm that achieves comprehensible, abstract 3D city model depictions based on edge enhancement, color-based and shadow-based depth cues, and procedural facade texturing. Illustrative visualization provides an effective visual interface to urban spatial information and associated thematic information complementing visual interfaces based on the Virtual Reality paradigm, offering a huge potential for graphics design. Primary application areas include city and landscape planning, cartoon worlds in computer games, and tourist information systems.

STS-35 Earth observation of the Persian Gulf area

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

STS-35 Earth observation taken aboard Columbia, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 102, is of the Persian Gulf area. Major cities and oilfields of the countries of Saudi Arabia (foreground), Iraq (top left), Iran (top center and top right), Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and a portion of the United Arab Emirates are visible in this scene. The cities are the large whitish areas of city lights. Flares characteristic of the Mid-East oil field practices are visible both onshore and offshore throughout the scene. Major cities identifiable are in Iraq - Baghdad, Basra, and Faw; in Qatar - Ab Dawhah; in Kuwait - Kuwait City; in Saudi Arabia - Riyadh, Al Jubayl, Dharan, Al Huf, Ad Dilam and Al Hariq; and Bahrain and its associated causeway to the mainland.

Alternative Fuel News: Vol. 3, No. 4

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NREL

2000-01-10

This final issue of the Alternative Fuel News (AFN) for the 20th century provides updates on specific Clean Cities Program progress and provide a glimpse of what is in store for the future. A national nonprofit organization has been part of the Clean Cities vision for some time, and now it is a reality as National Clean Cities, Inc. (NCC). While Clean Cities coalitions have had some success in securing local private foundation funds for alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) projects in their regions, now with the help of NCC, they can tap into the dollars available from large, national foundations.more » The Clean Cities Game Plan 2000, which is the highlight of the cover story, outlines the strategy for the next year.« less

STS-35 Earth observation of the Persian Gulf area

NASA Image and Video Library

1990-12-10

STS-35 Earth observation taken aboard Columbia, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 102, is of the Persian Gulf area. Major cities and oilfields of the countries of Saudi Arabia (foreground), Iraq (top left), Iran (top center and top right), Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and a portion of the United Arab Emirates are visible in this scene. The cities are the large whitish areas of city lights. Flares characteristic of the Mid-East oil field practices are visible both onshore and offshore throughout the scene. Major cities identifiable are in Iraq - Baghdad, Basra, and Faw; in Qatar - Ab Dawhah; in Kuwait - Kuwait City; in Saudi Arabia - Riyadh, Al Jubayl, Dharan, Al Huf, Ad Dilam and Al Hariq; and Bahrain and its associated causeway to the mainland.

[The monster and the city].

PubMed

Calvo Albizu, A

1996-01-01

"Negative aesthetic categories" and, specifically, the idea of monsters and monstrosity, are used in this discussion of urban phenomena and their relation to modern art. The reflection on monstrosity as a metaphor for the city draws upon such disparate sources as Greek philosophers, Freudian theory, and recent art criticism. It compares dictionary definitions of monster to a general concept of cities, judging the modern metropolis to be "excessively large or extraordinary," "disfigured and ugly," and even "cruel" and "perverse" as demonstrated in social pathologies such as terrorism that breed in cities. The relationship between monstrosity and the city is evident in a variety of artistic manifestations and can be seen in the work of planners, architects, and artists. The examination opens up promising areas for future research in greater depth.

Smart Cities and the Idea of Smartness in Urban Development - A Critical Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Husár, Milan; Ondrejička, Vladimír; Ceren Varış, Sıla

2017-10-01

The concept of smart cities is becoming another mantra for both developing and developed cities. For instance, Indian government in 2015 announced its objective to build one hundred smart cities all over the country. They clearly stated that they are choosing smart development as the underlying concept for their future growth as a way to foster economic development in smart way to avoid the paths of rapid industrialization and pollution of cities as it took place in Europe and United States. The first of these smart cities, Dholera, is already under construction and it attracts journalists and urban planners from all over the world. The aim of this paper is to critically discuss the theoretical backgrounds and the practices of smart cities and examine the ways the concept is implemented. The paper is based on thorough study of literature and examining the two case studies of Dholera (India) and Songdo (South Korea). Smart city is a contested concept without a unified definition. It stems from the idea of digital and information city promoted using information and communication technologies (ICT) to develop cities. By installation of ICT municipalities obtain large sets of data which are then transformed into effective urban policies. One of the pilot projects of this kind was Rio de Janeiro and building the Center of Operations by IBM Company. City made a great investment into the smart information system before two huge events took place - FIFA World Cup in 2014 and Olympic Games in 2016. The project raised many questions including whether and how it improved the life of its citizens and in what way it made the city smart. The other definition of smart city is the idea of smartness in city development in broader sense. It focuses on smart use of resources, smart and effective management and smart social inclusion. Within this view, the ICTs are one component of the concept, by no means its bread and butter. Technologies can be used in a variety of ways. Problem occurs when smart city is viewed as means to make investments from city budgets by any price, by promoting use of smart technologies as the only way forward, as necessity. Many companies, including technological giants IBM and CISCO already participate on many smart city projects supplying technologies for smart city projects. In this study, we are looking into two case studies, the city of Dholera in India and city of Songdo in South Korea, both pompous large scale projects. Smart City technologies are growing market which is projected to be annually worth 20 billion dollars by 2020 [19], with IBM participating in 2000 projects accounting for 3 billion dollars [19]. There are many concerns about these developments, among them the issue of equity, whose purposes the projects are serving, how these initiatives are developing cities and the general idea of smartness in urban context. The research concludes that the ambiguity of smart city definition allowing multiple interpretations is frequently bent and used to promote the lobbying of strong players in cities and in private sector.

A typology of street patterns.

PubMed

Louf, Rémi; Barthelemy, Marc

2014-12-06

We propose a quantitative method to classify cities according to their street pattern. We use the conditional probability distribution of shape factor of blocks with a given area and define what could constitute the 'fingerprint' of a city. Using a simple hierarchical clustering method, these fingerprints can then serve as a basis for a typology of cities. We apply this method to a set of 131 cities in the world, and at an intermediate level of the dendrogram, we observe four large families of cities characterized by different abundances of blocks of a certain area and shape. At a lower level of the classification, we find that most European cities and American cities in our sample fall in their own sub-category, highlighting quantitatively the differences between the typical layouts of cities in both regions. We also show with the example of New York and its different boroughs, that the fingerprint of a city can be seen as the sum of the ones characterizing the different neighbourhoods inside a city. This method provides a quantitative comparison of urban street patterns, which could be helpful for a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms behind their distinct shapes. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Jane Jacobs and ‘The Need for Aged Buildings’: Neighbourhood Historical Development Pace and Community Social Relations

EPA Science Inventory

Jacobs argued that grand planning schemes intending to redevelop large swaths of a city according to a central theoretical framework fail because planners do not understand that healthy cities are organic, spontaneous, messy, complex systems that result from evolutionary proces...

Working on the Urban Campus.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connections, 1981

1981-01-01

The role and status of adjunct professors are examined by exploring advantages and disadvantages of part-time teaching. The urban university, the inner city college student, attrition, and large-scale team leadership development in the university are discussed. The diaries of an inner city career-oriented students are presented. A feature dialogue…

Cultural Voucher Program; Program Abstract.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Museums Collaborative, Inc., New York, NY.

A description of the Museums Collaborative Voucher Program, a system through which cultural institutions conduct programs with large, heterogeneous, adult populations in New York City is provided in this paper. The program began with two goals: to broaden the audience served by New York City's cultural institutions and to provide the institutions…

School Desegregation, the Philadelphia Experience.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herron, William P.

The Philadelphia experience very strongly indicates that at least in Philadelphia, and very probably in most large cities in the northeastern U.S., several factors--notably the geographic separation of the races within the city and the existence of a sizable non-public school system (Usually (Usually parochial)--preclude the effective…

Analyzing the Alternatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grayson, Jennifer

2010-01-01

Technologies like solar, wind, and geothermal are exciting, but relatively new and untested in the context of universities, many of which are large enough to be cities unto themselves. And, like cities, universities count on a reliable, uninterruptible source of power. It is imperative, too, that precious dollars are wisely invested in the right…

EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON CHILDREN'S RESPIRATORY HEALTH IN THREE CHINESE CITIES.

EPA Science Inventory

During the winter of 1988-1989, parents of 2,789 elementary school students completed standardized questionnaires. The students were 5-14 years of age and were from three urban districts and one suburban district of three large Chinese cities. The 4-y average ambient levels of ...

Livable Winter Cities--Leisure Attitudes and Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neal, Larry; Coles, Roger, Ed.

1989-01-01

The nine articles included in this feature emphasize how leisure, recreation, health and physical activities make winter cities more livable. Specific topics include techniques for teaching about cold weather safety and cold related injuries, Arctic Winter Games, and results of a study on winter recreation in large North American communities. (IAH)

Flood loss assessment in Can Tho City, Vietnam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, T. C.; Kreibich, H.

2012-04-01

Floods are recurring events in the Lower Mekong Basin resulting in loss of life and property, causing damage to agriculture and rural infrastructure, and disrupting social and economic activities. Flood management and mitigation has become a priority issue at the national and regional levels. Besides, it is expected that large areas of the Mekong delta, the Red River delta and the central coast will be flooded by sea-level rise due to climate change. Can Tho City is ranked under the five most flood-tide-influenced cities of Vietnam. It is the biggest city in the Mekong delta and it is located near the Hau river. Like other region of the Mekong delta, Can Tho suffers due to floods from upstream and flood tides from the sea. In the flood season large rural areas of the city are flooded, particularly during tidal days. Flood risk management policy includes preparative measures for living with floods and to minimise the damage caused by floods as well as to take advantage of floods for sustainable development. An intensive literature review, including administrative reports as well as expert interviews have been undertaken to gain more insight into flood characteristics, their consequences and risk mitigation. Therefore, flood damaging processes and trends have been reviewed for Can Tho City and the Mekong Basin in Vietnam. Additionally, suitable flood damage estimation methodologies have been collected as important input for flood risk analyses. On this basis it has been investigated which flood risk mitigation and management strategies promise to be effective in Can Tho City, Vietnam.

The Effect of Urban Heat Island on Climate Warming in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in China.

PubMed

Huang, Qunfang; Lu, Yuqi

2015-07-27

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has experienced rapid urbanization and dramatic economic development since 1978 and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) has been one of the three largest urban agglomerations in China. We present evidence of a significant urban heat island (UHI) effect on climate warming based on an analysis of the impacts of the urbanization rate, urban population, and land use changes on the warming rate of the daily average, minimal (nighttime) and maximal (daytime) air temperature in the YRDUA using 41 meteorological stations observation data. The effect of the UHI on climate warming shows a large spatial variability. The average warming rates of average air temperature of huge cities, megalopolises, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities are 0.483, 0.314 ± 0.030, 0.282 ± 0.042, 0.225 ± 0.044 and 0.179 ± 0.046 °C/decade during the period of 1957-2013, respectively. The average warming rates of huge cities and megalopolises are significantly higher than those of medium-sized cities and small cities, indicating that the UHI has a significant effect on climate warming (t-test, p < 0.05). Significantly positive correlations are found between the urbanization rate, population, built-up area and warming rate of average air temperature (p < 0.001). The average warming rate of average air temperature attributable to urbanization is 0.124 ± 0.074 °C/decade in the YRDUA. Urbanization has a measurable effect on the observed climate warming in the YRD aggravating the global climate warming.

Environmental Response of Small Urban Parks in Context of Dhaka City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tabassum, S.

2018-01-01

Urban green spaces are essential element of urban life which, due to their structure and multi functionality, can play an exemplary role in the vitality and quality of urban life. Urban Parks are not only used as active recreational and leisure areas for its citizens but also an important catalyst for community development and enhancement. These spaces in the city act like its lungs and play a critical role in supporting the ecological and environmental system. In the dense urban areas, even Small Parks (less than one acre in size) can also contribute a lot to improve environmental quality of city life. In a populated city where it is difficult to incorporate large Public Parks, these small green area can complement large Public Park system. Accordingly the study is concerned to evaluate the environmental performances of Small Parks on the built environments of urban Dhaka. The analysis identifies that Small Parks has strong environmental impact, the intensity of which depends on the type and quality of its vegetation, its design parameters, connectivity and of course on surrounding urban morphology. And it is confirmed that park with more canopy tree is suitable for our environment and therefore a good combination of vegetation (wide canopy trees at periphery, medium canopy trees beside internal walkway and small canopy tree, shrub and grass cover elsewhere) are recommended for better environmental performance of Small Parks. The research will be an approach to find the ways and means to restore the Small Parks of Dhaka city to ensure the livability of the city and enhance the quality of city image.

The Effect of Urban Heat Island on Climate Warming in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in China

PubMed Central

Huang, Qunfang; Lu, Yuqi

2015-01-01

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has experienced rapid urbanization and dramatic economic development since 1978 and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) has been one of the three largest urban agglomerations in China. We present evidence of a significant urban heat island (UHI) effect on climate warming based on an analysis of the impacts of the urbanization rate, urban population, and land use changes on the warming rate of the daily average, minimal (nighttime) and maximal (daytime) air temperature in the YRDUA using 41 meteorological stations observation data. The effect of the UHI on climate warming shows a large spatial variability. The average warming rates of average air temperature of huge cities, megalopolises, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities are 0.483, 0.314 ± 0.030, 0.282 ± 0.042, 0.225 ± 0.044 and 0.179 ± 0.046 °C/decade during the period of 1957–2013, respectively. The average warming rates of huge cities and megalopolises are significantly higher than those of medium-sized cities and small cities, indicating that the UHI has a significant effect on climate warming (t-test, p < 0.05). Significantly positive correlations are found between the urbanization rate, population, built-up area and warming rate of average air temperature (p < 0.001). The average warming rate of average air temperature attributable to urbanization is 0.124 ± 0.074 °C/decade in the YRDUA. Urbanization has a measurable effect on the observed climate warming in the YRD aggravating the global climate warming. PMID:26225986

Earth Observations taken by Expedition 38 crewmember

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-12-12

ISS038-E-016506 (12 Dec. 2013) --- A nighttime view of Salt Lake City, Utah is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member on the International Space Station. The Salt Lake City metropolitan area is located along the western front of the Wasatch Range in northern Utah. Viewed at night from the vantage point of the space station, the regular north-south and east-west layout of street grids typical of western U.S. cities is clearly visible. Known as "the crossroads of the West", the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS Church and informally as the Mormon Church), and the state capital of Utah, Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young together with other followers of the Mormon faith. The Salt Lake City metropolitan area today is included in the larger urban Wasatch Front region of Utah which includes over two million people (approximately 80 percent of the population of the state). Both the color of the city lights and their density provide clues to the character of the urban fabric -- yellow gold lights generally indicate major roadways such as Interstate Highway 15 that passes through the center of the metropolitan area (center, left to right), while bright white clusters of lights are associated with city centers, commercial, and industrial areas. In contrast, residential and suburban areas are recognizable due to diffuse and relatively dim lighting (center left). The Wasatch Range to the east is largely dark, as are several large urban parks and golf courses located within the illuminated urban areas.

Life quality and living standards in big cities under conditions of high-rise construction development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avdeeva, Elena; Averina, Tatiana; Kochetova, Larisa

2018-03-01

Modern urbanization processes occurring on a global scale inevitably lead to an increase in population density in large cities. People assess the state of life quality and living standards of megalopolises under conditions of high-rise construction development ambiguously. Using SWOT analysis, the authors distinguished positive and negative aspects of high-rise construction, highlighted threats to its development and its opportunities. The article considers the model of development of the city's industry and infrastructure, which enables determining the optimal volume of production by sectors and branches of city economy in order to increase its innovative, production and economic potential and business activity.

LANDSAT (MSS): Image demographic estimations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dejesusparada, N. (Principal Investigator); Foresti, C.

1977-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Two sets of urban test sites, one with 35 cities and one with 70 cities, were selected in the State, Sao Paulo. A high degree of colinearity (0.96) was found between urban and areal measurements taken from aerial photographs and LANDSAT MSS imagery. High coefficients were observed when census data were regressed against aerial information (0.95) and LANDSAT data (0.92). The validity of population estimations was tested by regressing three urban variables, against three classes of cities. Results supported the effectiveness of LANDSAT to estimate large city populations with diminishing effectiveness as urban areas decrease in size.

An estimation of vehicle kilometer traveled and on-road emissions using the traffic volume and travel speed on road links in Incheon City.

PubMed

Jung, Sungwoon; Kim, Jounghwa; Kim, Jeongsoo; Hong, Dahee; Park, Dongjoo

2017-04-01

The objective of this study is to estimate the vehicle kilometer traveled (VKT) and on-road emissions using the traffic volume in urban. We estimated two VKT; one is based on registered vehicles and the other is based on traffic volumes. VKT for registered vehicles was 2.11 times greater than that of the applied traffic volumes because each VKT estimation method is different. Therefore, we had to define the inner VKT is moved VKT inner in urban to compare two values. Also, we focused on freight modes because these are discharged much air pollutant emissions. From analysis results, we found middle and large trucks registered in other regions traveled to target city in order to carry freight, target city has included many industrial and logistics areas. Freight is transferred through the harbors, large logistics centers, or via locations before being moved to the final destination. During this process, most freight is moved by middle and large trucks, and trailers rather than small trucks for freight import and export. Therefore, these trucks from other areas are inflow more than registered vehicles. Most emissions from diesel trucks had been overestimated in comparison to VKT from applied traffic volumes in target city. From these findings, VKT is essential based on traffic volume and travel speed on road links in order to estimate accurately the emissions of diesel trucks in target city. Our findings support the estimation of the effect of on-road emissions on urban air quality in Korea. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Opportunistic mobile air pollution monitoring: A case study with city wardens in Antwerp

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van den Bossche, Joris; Theunis, Jan; Elen, Bart; Peters, Jan; Botteldooren, Dick; De Baets, Bernard

2016-09-01

The goal of this paper is to explore the potential of opportunistic mobile monitoring to map the exposure to air pollution in the urban environment at a high spatial resolution. Opportunistic mobile monitoring makes use of existing mobile infrastructure or people's common daily routines to move measurement devices around. Opportunistic mobile monitoring can also play a crucial role in participatory monitoring campaigns as a typical way to gather data. A case study to measure black carbon was set up in Antwerp, Belgium, with the collaboration of city employees (city wardens). The Antwerp city wardens are outdoors for a large part of the day on surveillance tours by bicycle or on foot, and gathered a total of 393 h of measurements. The data collection is unstructured both in space and time, leading to sampling bias. A temporal adjustment can only partly counteract this bias. Although a high spatial coverage was obtained, there is still a rather large uncertainty on the average concentration levels at a spatial resolution of 50 m due to a limited number of measurements and sampling bias. Despite of this uncertainty, large spatial patterns within the city are clearly captured. This study illustrates the potential of campaigns with unstructured opportunistic mobile monitoring, including participatory monitoring campaigns. The results demonstrate that such an approach can indeed be used to identify broad spatial trends over a wider area, enabling applications including hotspot identification, personal exposure studies, regression mapping, etc. But, they also emphasize the need for repeated measurements and careful processing and interpretation of the data.

CERN at 60: giant magnet journeys through Geneva

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banks, Michael

2014-07-01

More than 30,000 people descended onto Geneva's harbour last month to celebrate the bicentenary of the city's integration into Switzerland with a parade through the city. Joining the 1200 participants at the Genève200 celebrations were staff from the CERN particle-physics lab, which is located on the outskirts of Geneva, who paraded a superconducting dipole magnet - similar to the thousands used in the Large Hadron Collider - through the city's narrow streets on a 20 m lorry.

The NASA/Baltimore Applications Project: An experiment in technology transfer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Golden, T. S.

1981-01-01

Conclusions drawn from the experiment thus far are presented. The problems of a large city most often do not require highly sophisticated solutions; the simpler the solution, the better. A problem focused approach is a greater help to the city than a product focused approach. Most problem situations involve several individuals or organized groups within the city. Mutual trust and good interpersonal relationships between the technologist and the administrator is as important for solving problems as technological know-how.

New Orleans, Louisiana

NASA Image and Video Library

1989-05-08

As one of the best ever views of the city of New Orleans, LA (30.0N, 90.0W) from space, this image allows the study of the city and the region in minute detail. Major city street and highway patterns can easily be traced. Even the Superdome near the old French Quarter can be seen as a large round white circle near the middle of the photo. The French Napoleonic Code land distribution system of long narrow fields fronting the river is also evident.

Acquisition of electroencephalographic data in a large regional hospital - Bringing the brain waves to the computer.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Low, M. D.; Baker, M.; Ferguson, R.; Frost, J. D., Jr.

1972-01-01

This paper describes a complete electroencephalographic acquisition and transmission system, designed to meet the needs of a large hospital with multiple critical care patient monitoring units. The system provides rapid and prolonged access to a centralized recording and computing area from remote locations within the hospital complex, and from locations in other hospitals and other cities. The system includes quick-on electrode caps, amplifier units and cable transmission for access from within the hospital, and EEG digitization and telephone transmission for access from other hospitals or cities.

[Urban development and the demographic situation in Chaco and its capital between 1960 and 1990].

PubMed

Foschiatti De Dell'orto, A M

1992-01-01

"The large demographic growth registered in the Chaco province [of Argentina] at the beginning of this Century slowed down since the 1950s as a result of the successive economic crisis undergone by this province. The demographic response was the outmigration toward the more developed areas of the country and to the capital city of Chaco. A large share of Resistencia demographic growth is provided by this internal migration. This rapid increase makes inadequate the functional and the service structure of the city." (SUMMARY IN ENG) excerpt

Utilizing Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) Special Observations to Study Air Quality Over Megacities: A Case Study of Mexico City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osterman, G. B.; Neu, J. L.; Cady-Pereira, K.; Fu, D.; Payne, V.; Pfister, G.

2016-12-01

Since the beginning of 2013, the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the NASA Aura spacecraft has been making special "transect" observations over 19 large cities across the globe. In all there are over 50 transect observations of each city, allowing for studying the chemistry of the troposphere during different seasons and differing atmospheric conditions. The cities that have been observed include, Beijing, Delhi and Mexico City. In addition, the TES group at JPL has been developing new data products using combined radiances from other satellite instruments. They have produced an ozone data product using a combination of TES and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) radiances. There has also been progress in creating an ozone product from combining OMI and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) radiances using the TES retrieval framework. This product offers the possibility of better spatial coverage than the TES or TES/OMI products. We have selected an observation from October 13, 2013 over Mexico City for doing a case study where high values of ozone were seen in the lower troposphere in retrievals from TES and TES/OMI. Other trace gases measured by TES, carbon monoxide, methanol, and formic acid were also enhanced over the city. TES was also able to capture downwind conditions where the trace gases were no longer enhanced except for formic acid and peroxyacetyl nitrate which showed elevated values. We will utilize trajectory analysis, the TES data as well as combined TES-OMI retrievals, the new combined AIRS-OMI retrievals of ozone to examine this case in more detail to understand possible broader scale effects of Mexico City pollution. Model results will be utilized to provide further context in understanding the atmospheric conditions being studied. We feel the TES special observations of megacities will provide an opportunity to study the effects of local sources versus broader regional sources on pollutions of these large cities.

Prevention through policy: Urban macroplastic leakages to the marine environment during extreme rainfall events.

PubMed

Axelsson, Charles; van Sebille, Erik

2017-11-15

The leakage of large plastic litter (macroplastics) into the ocean is a major environmental problem. A significant fraction of this leakage originates from coastal cities, particularly during extreme rainfall events. As coastal cities continue to grow, finding ways to reduce this macroplastic leakage is extremely pertinent. Here, we explore why and how coastal cities can reduce macroplastic leakages during extreme rainfall events. Using nine global cities as a basis, we establish that while cities actively create policies that reduce plastic leakages, more needs to be done. Nonetheless, these policies are economically, socially and environmentally cobeneficial to the city environment. While the lack of political engagement and economic concerns limit these policies, lacking social motivation and engagement is the largest limitation towards implementing policy. We recommend cities to incentivize citizen and municipal engagement with responsible usage of plastics, cleaning the environment and preparing for future extreme rainfall events. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Disaster mental health services following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing: modifying approaches to address terrorism.

PubMed

Pfefferbaum, Betty; North, Carol S; Flynn, Brian W; Norris, Fran H; DeMartino, Robert

2002-08-01

How did the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing differ from prior disasters and what implications did it have for disaster mental health services and service delivery? The federal disaster mental health approach in this country developed largely out of experiences with natural disasters. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing differed in several important ways, including the large number of human casualties, higher rates of psychopathology, and an extended period of concern due to the criminal investigation and trials, which suggested the need to consider modifications in the program. Outreach was extensive, but psychiatric morbidity of direct victims was greater than that of victims of natural disasters, emphasizing the need for attention to the triage and referral process. Other concerns that warrant consideration include practices related to record keeping and program evaluation.

The effect of city curfew ordinances on teenage motor vehicle fatalities.

PubMed

Preusser, D F; Zador, P L; Williams, A F

1993-10-01

Of 149 large cities surveyed, 72 were found to have nighttime curfew ordinances applying to teenagers of various ages. The typical city curfew identified starts at midnight, ends at 5 A.M., and affects all activity of teenagers ages 13-17 in a public place and unaccompanied by a parent. In comparisons of 47 cities with curfews covering 13- to 17-year-olds and 77 cities without curfews, curfews were associated with a 23% reduction in fatal injury for 13- to 17-year-olds for the 9 P.M.-5:59 A.M. time period. This is identical to the 23% reduction estimated for both fatal and nonfatal motor vehicle injuries for 13- to 17-year-olds in an earlier, more limited study of curfews in Detroit, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio.

Social aspects of urbanization.

PubMed

Weaver, R C

1976-01-01

In slightly less than a century the world has gone from a predominantly rural to a largely urban society. Unlike Western Europe which industrialized slowly with labor-intensive industries, the developing world is industrializing rapidly with capital intensive industries which provide insufficient employment for the millions coming into the cities from the countryside. 2 factors responsible for growth of cities are rural push combined with urban pull, a lack of opportunity in the country combined with hopes and aspirations represented by the city. In addition, large population growth is a factor in both the increase in numbers of city-born dwellers and in the increase of young people leaving the countryside. Problems of health, sanitation, and public welfare are compounded by this rapid population growth. The social implications of these migrations are awesome. Already people are crowding together into cities without sufficient industrial base to provide employment; 1/5 to 1/4 of adult males are unemployed; as many as 4 out of 5 families live in a single room; as many as a 1/3 or more are without water. The tensions and social unrest caused by such conditions are the seedbed for serious political unrest. Resources and knowledge must quickly be brought to bear on the urban problem so that the now-disadvantaged will be able to realize their dream of a better life.

Biodiversity in cities needs space: a meta-analysis of factors determining intra-urban biodiversity variation.

PubMed

Beninde, Joscha; Veith, Michael; Hochkirch, Axel

2015-06-01

Understanding varying levels of biodiversity within cities is pivotal to protect it in the face of global urbanisation. In the early stages of urban ecology studies on intra-urban biodiversity focused on the urban-rural gradient, representing a broad generalisation of features of the urban landscape. Increasingly, studies classify the urban landscape in more detail, quantifying separately the effects of individual urban features on biodiversity levels. However, while separate factors influencing biodiversity variation among cities worldwide have recently been analysed, a global analysis on the factors influencing biodiversity levels within cities is still lacking. We here present the first meta-analysis on intra-urban biodiversity variation across a large variety of taxonomic groups of 75 cities worldwide. Our results show that patch area and corridors have the strongest positive effects on biodiversity, complemented by vegetation structure. Local, biotic and management habitat variables were significantly more important than landscape, abiotic or design variables. Large sites greater than 50 ha are necessary to prevent a rapid loss of area-sensitive species. This indicates that, despite positive impacts of biodiversity-friendly management, increasing the area of habitat patches and creating a network of corridors is the most important strategy to maintain high levels of urban biodiversity. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Bridging the District-Charter Divide to Help More Students Succeed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lake, Robin; Yatsko, Sarah; Gill, Sean; Opalka, Alice

2017-01-01

In cities where public charter schools serve a large share of students, the costs of ongoing sector divisions and hostility across district and charter lines fall squarely on students and families. Exercising choice and accessing good schools in "high-choice cities" can be difficult for many families, especially some of the most…

THE CULTURALLY DEPRIVED. EDUCATING THE DISADVANTAGED.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MITCHELL, CHARLES

AMERICA'S GREAT CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE HAVING SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES. THEY HAVEN'T ENOUGH MONEY FOR TEACHERS AND CLASSROOMS. THEIR INNER-CITY SCHOOLS ARE CROWDED WITH STUDENTS WHO REQUIRE SERVICES WHICH THE SCHOOLS HAVE NEVER HAD TO PROVIDE ON A LARGE, ORGANIZED SCALE. THEY HAVE TOO FEW TEACHERS, MANY OF WHOM ARE INADEQUATELY PREPARED TO TEACH THE…

Education and the Two Phases of Urbanization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peachey, Paul

The struggle between the country and the city has always been a part of human history, but with the industrial revolution, large societies possessing urban attributes came into existence while the cities proper began to lose their bounded autonomy. Entire populations are now transformed into a single industrial economy, even though they may live…

Empowered or Beleaguered? Principals' Accountability under New York City's Diverse Provider Regime

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shipps, Dorothy

2012-01-01

By 2008, New York City's school governing regime contained two market-creation policies. Each reshaped principal incentives. One closed large high schools, replacing them with four-to-eight small schools. Another replaced uniform district-provided services with eleven School Support Organizations (SSOs). Both aimed to empower principals with new…

The Condition of Education in the Great City Schools. A Statistical Profile 1980-1986.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council of the Great City Schools, Washington, DC.

This report provides statistical information on the 35 large urban school systems that comprise the Council of Great City Schools. Data are organized into the following categories: (1) enrollment and demographics (including racial composition, children below poverty level, and private school, handicapped, vocational education and limited English…

KSC-03pd1537

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-05-06

STAR CITY, RUSSIA - Expedition Six Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin (large), Commander Ken Bowersox (center), and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit (right) pose for photos at a Press Conference at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. The Expedition Six crew spent 161 days in space, 159 manning the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Public School Infrastructure Problem: Deteriorating Buildings and Deferred Maintenance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Richard C.

2009-01-01

The deterioration of public school buildings is more prevalent in large cities that, because of funding shortfalls, have deferred maintenance and require huge sums to bring their buildings up to acceptable standards. Cities such as New York will require approximately $680 million to address the problem of deferred maintenance for needed painting,…

Perceptions of Crowding: Predicting at the Residence, Neighborhood, and City Levels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Donald E.; And Others

1979-01-01

Details the results of a large-scale field study aimed at testing two theories on human crowding. Found that psychological factors are increasingly important for the prediction of crowding as one moved from the immediate residence to the less immediate city level. Implications, limitations and further results are discussed. (Author/MA)

Benefits of restoring ecosystem services in urban areas

Treesearch

T. Elmqvist; H. Setala; S.N. Handel; S. van der Ploeg; J. Aronson; J.N. Blignaut; E. Gomez-Baggethun; D.J. Nowak; J. Kronenberg; R. de Groot

2015-01-01

Cities are a key nexus of the relationship between people and nature and are huge centers of demand for ecosystem services and also generate extremely large environmental impacts. Current projections of rapid expansion of urban areas present fundamental challenges and also opportunities to design more livable, healthy and resilient cities (e.g. adaptation to climate...

An Interpretation of Juvenile Parolees' Gender Constructions at School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Brain J.

2002-01-01

This paper focuses on inner-city juvenile parolees' gendered interactions at a community school in a large southwestern city. The analysis seeks to interpret the students' gender constructions within the contexts of cultural ideologies and social-structural locations. Drawing from a year of field research at the school and interviews with youths…

76 FR 42542 - Special Local Regulations for Marine Events, Bogue Sound; Morehead City, NC

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-19

.... The likely combination of large numbers of recreational vessels, powerboats traveling at high speeds... Bogue Sound, adjacent to Morehead City from the southern tip of Sugar Loaf Island approximate position...'' N, longitude 076[deg]42'12'' W, thence westerly to the southern tip of Sugar Loaf Island the point...

Innovative Degree Programs Matched to City Strengths

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sukhatme, Uday

2011-01-01

In recent years, IUPUI has steadily acquired a considerable national reputation as an up-and-coming university. Some of the reasons for this recognition include the RISE Initiative and the large number of innovative degree programs recently started at IUPUI based on campus strengths and the priorities of the city of Indianapolis. Some specific…

Reduced Urban Heat Island intensity under warmer conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, Anna A.; Waugh, Darryn W.; Zaitchik, Ben F.

2018-06-01

The Urban Heat Island (UHI), the tendency for urban areas to be hotter than rural regions, represents a significant health concern in summer as urban populations are exposed to elevated temperatures. A number of studies suggest that the UHI increases during warmer conditions, however there has been no investigation of this for a large ensemble of cities. Here we compare urban and rural temperatures in 54 US cities for 2000–2015 and show that the intensity of the Urban Heat Island, measured here as the differences in daily-minimum or daily-maximum temperatures between urban and rural stations or ΔT, in fact tends to decrease with increasing temperature in most cities (38/54). This holds when investigating daily variability, heat extremes, and variability across climate zones and is primarily driven by changes in rural areas. We relate this change to large-scale or synoptic weather conditions, and find that the lowest ΔT nights occur during moist weather conditions. We also find that warming cities have not experienced an increasing Urban Heat Island effect.

Modelling spatial patterns of urban growth in Africa

PubMed Central

Linard, Catherine; Tatem, Andrew J.; Gilbert, Marius

2013-01-01

The population of Africa is predicted to double over the next 40 years, driving exceptionally high urban expansion rates that will induce significant socio-economic, environmental and health changes. In order to prepare for these changes, it is important to better understand urban growth dynamics in Africa and better predict the spatial pattern of rural-urban conversions. Previous work on urban expansion has been carried out at the city level or at the global level with a relatively coarse 5–10 km resolution. The main objective of the present paper was to develop a modelling approach at an intermediate scale in order to identify factors that influence spatial patterns of urban expansion in Africa. Boosted Regression Tree models were developed to predict the spatial pattern of rural-urban conversions in every large African city. Urban change data between circa 1990 and circa 2000 available for 20 large cities across Africa were used as training data. Results showed that the urban land in a 1 km neighbourhood and the accessibility to the city centre were the most influential variables. Results obtained were generally more accurate than results obtained using a distance-based urban expansion model and showed that the spatial pattern of small, compact and fast growing cities were easier to simulate than cities with lower population densities and a lower growth rate. The simulation method developed here will allow the production of spatially detailed urban expansion forecasts for 2020 and 2025 for Africa, data that are increasingly required by global change modellers. PMID:25152552

Physical Exposure to Seismic Hazards of Health Facilities in Mexico City, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, S. M.; Novelo Casanova, D.

2010-12-01

Although health facilities are essential infrastructure during disasters and emergencies, they are also usually highly vulnerable installations in the case of the occurrence of large and major earthquakes. Hospitals are one of the most complex critical facilities in modern cities and they are used as first response in emergency situations. The operability of a hospital must be maintained after the occurrence of a local strong earthquake in order to satisfy the need for medical care of the affected population. If a health facility is seriously damaged, it cannot fulfill its function when most is needed. In this case, hospitals become a casualty of the disaster. To identify the level of physical exposure of hospitals to seismic hazards in Mexico City, we analyzed their geographic location with respect to the seismic response of the different type of soils of the city from past earthquakes, mainly from the events that occurred on September 1985 (Ms= 8.0) and April 1989 (Ms= 6.9). Seismic wave amplification in this city is the result of the interaction of the incoming seismic waves with the soft and water saturated clay soils, on which a large part of Mexico City is built. The clay soils are remnants of the lake that existed in the Valley of Mexico and which has been drained gradually to accommodate the growing urban sprawl. Hospital facilities were converted from a simple database of names and locations into a map layer of resources. This resource layer was combined with other map layers showing areas of seismic microzonation in Mexico City. This overlay was then used to identify those hospitals that may be threatened by the occurrence of a large or major seismic event. We analyzed the public and private hospitals considered as main health facilities. Our results indicate that more than 50% of the hospitals are highly exposed to seismic hazards. Besides, in most of these health facilities we identified the lack of preventive measures and preparedness to reduce their vulnerability. For proper interpretation, our results are also presented in a Geographical Information System (GIS) that provides elements to support government plans to mitigate the impact of future earthquakes.

Spatial Analysis of the Level of Exposure to Seismic Hazards of Health Facilities in Mexico City, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moran, S.; Novelo-Casanova, D. A.

2011-12-01

Although health facilities are essential infrastructure during disasters and emergencies, they are also usually highly vulnerable installations in the case of the occurrence of large and major earthquakes. Hospitals are one of the most complex critical facilities in modern cities and they are used as first response in emergency situations. The operability of a hospital must be maintained after the occurrence of a local strong earthquake in order to satisfy the need for medical care of the affected population. If a health facility is seriously damaged, it cannot fulfill its function when most is needed. In this case, hospitals become a casualty of the disaster. To identify the level of physical exposure of hospitals to seismic hazards in Mexico City, we analyzed their geographic location with respect to the seismic response of the different type of soils of the city from past earthquakes, mainly from the events that occurred on September 1985 (Ms= 8.0) and April 1989 (Ms= 6.9). Seismic wave amplification in this city is the result of the interaction of the incoming seismic waves with the soft and water saturated clay soils, on which a large part of Mexico City is built. The clay soils are remnants of the lake that existed in the Valley of Mexico and which has been drained gradually to accommodate the growing urban sprawl. Hospital facilities were converted from a simple database of names and locations into a map layer of resources. This resource layer was combined with other map layers showing areas of seismic microzonation in Mexico City. This overlay was then used to identify those hospitals that may be threatened by the occurrence of a large or major seismic event. We analyzed the public and private hospitals considered as main health facilities. Our results indicate that more than 50% of the hospitals are highly exposed to seismic hazards. Besides, in most of these health facilities we identified the lack of preventive measures and preparedness to reduce their vulnerability. For proper interpretation, our results are also presented in a Geographical Information System (GIS) that provides elements to support government plans to mitigate the impact of future earthquakes.

Avoiding Decline: Fostering Resilience and Sustainability in ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy reliance and close management of local ecosystem services. They also may be less path-dependent than larger cities due to shorter average connection length among system components, contributing to higher responsiveness among social, infrastructural, and ecological feedbacks. These distinct midsize city features call for a framework that organizes information and concepts concerning the sustainability of midsize cities specifically. We argue that an integrative approach is necessary to capture properties emergent from the complex interactions of the social, infrastructural, and ecological subsystems that comprise a city system. We suggest approaches to estimate the relative resilience of midsize cities, and include an example assessment to illustrate one such estimation approach. Resilience assessments of a midsize city can be used to examine why some cities end up on sustainable paths while others diverge to unsustainable paths, and which feedbacks may be partially responsible. They also provide insight into how city planners and decision makers can use information about the resilience of midsize citi

Multiple scattering of waves in random media: Application to the study of the city-site effect in Mexico City area.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishizawa, O. A.; Clouteau, D.

2007-12-01

Long-duration, amplifications and spatial response's variability of the seismic records registered in Mexico City during the September 1985 earthquake cannot only be explained by the soil velocity model. We will try to explain these phenomena by studying the extent of the effect of buildings' diffracted wave fields during an earthquake. The main question is whether the presence of a large number of buildings can significantly modify the seismic wave field. We are interested in the interaction between the incident wave field propagating in a stratified half- space and a large number of structures at the free surface, i.e., the coupled city-site effect. We study and characterize the seismic wave propagation regimes in a city using the theory of wave propagation in random media. In the coupled city-site system, the buildings are modeled as resonant scatterers uniformly distributed at the surface of a deterministic, horizontally layered elastic half-space representing the soil. Based on the mean-field and the field correlation equations, we build a theoretical model which takes into account the multiple scattering of seismic waves and allows us to describe the coupled city-site system behavior in a simple and rapid way. The results obtained for the configurationally averaged field quantities are validated by means of 3D results for the seismic response of a deterministic model. The numerical simulations of this model are computed with MISS3D code based on classical Soil-Structure Interaction techniques and on a variational coupling between Boundary Integral Equations for a layered soil and a modal Finite Element approach for the buildings. This work proposes a detailed numerical and a theoretical analysis of the city-site interaction (CSI) in Mexico City area. The principal parameters in the study of the CSI are the buildings resonant frequency distribution, the soil characteristics of the site, the urban density and position of the buildings in the city, as well as the type of incident wave. The main results of the theoretical and numerical models allow us to characterize the seismic movement in urban areas.

Earth Observations taken by the Expedition 14 crew

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-11-04

ISS014-E-07258 (4 Nov. 2006) --- Galveston, Texas is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 14 crewmember on the International Space Station (ISS). Mexico established a port of entry (known as Galveston) in 1825, and following the Texas Revolution it was the capital of the Republic of Texas during 1836. The modern-day city of Galveston was incorporated in 1839, and became the major trading seaport of Texas during the latter half of the 19th century. The city was largely destroyed in early September of 1900 by a powerful hurricane; this, coupled with construction of the Houston Ship Channel and discovery of oil in eastern Texas shifted the center of trade northwest to Houston. Many human footprints are easily observed from the vantage point of low Earth orbit. The eastern half of Galveston Island is dominated by the city of Galveston (gray-white region at center). A large seawall along the Gulf of Mexico (southern coastline of Galveston Island) protects most of the city. To the west of Galveston, coastal wetlands are largely submerged by regional subsidence--a result of ground water withdrawal by the petrochemical industry of Houston and Texas City. The entrance to Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel is located between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula (upper right). Numerous ship wakes are visible along the Houston Ship Channel. Other visible features of the entrance to Galveston Bay include the five-mile long Texas City Dike, a structure that protects the Texas City channel and includes a fishing pier that extends 600 feet beyond the end of the Dike. Extensive petroleum processing facilities are located to the west of the Dike in Texas City. The Intracoastal Waterway runs through western Galveston Bay; new subdivisions built on dredge spoils are visible along the northern boundary of the Waterway. Geologists studying the ISS collection of down linked still imagery observe that complex estuarine sediment patterns are visible in this image. Dark brown to tan waters adjacent to the Bolivar Peninsula and Texas City Dike reflect increased sediment loads following heavy rains in mid-to-late October, coupled with northerly winds moving Bay water southwards. Turbidity currents to both the northwest and southeast of Galveston Island produce a more chaotic pattern of sediment-laden (light green to tan) and relatively sediment-free (dark green) water leading into the dark green Gulf of Mexico (lower right).

Do Global Cities Enable Global Views? Using Twitter to Quantify the Level of Geographical Awareness of U.S. Cities

PubMed Central

Han, Su Yeon; Tsou, Ming-Hsiang; Clarke, Keith C.

2015-01-01

Dynamic social media content, such as Twitter messages, can be used to examine individuals’ beliefs and perceptions. By analyzing Twitter messages, this study examines how Twitter users exchanged and recognized toponyms (city names) for different cities in the United States. The frequency and variety of city names found in their online conversations were used to identify the unique spatiotemporal patterns of “geographical awareness” for Twitter users. A new analytic method, Knowledge Discovery in Cyberspace for Geographical Awareness (KDCGA), is introduced to help identify the dynamic spatiotemporal patterns of geographic awareness among social media conversations. Twitter data were collected across 50 U.S. cities. Thousands of city names around the world were extracted from a large volume of Twitter messages (over 5 million tweets) by using the Twitter Application Programming Interface (APIs) and Python language computer programs. The percentages of distant city names (cities located in distant states or other countries far away from the locations of Twitter users) were used to estimate the level of global geographical awareness for Twitter users in each U.S. city. A Global awareness index (GAI) was developed to quantify the level of geographical awareness of Twitter users from within the same city. Our findings are that: (1) the level of geographical awareness varies depending on when and where Twitter messages are posted, yet Twitter users from big cities are more aware of the names of international cities or distant US cities than users from mid-size cities; (2) Twitter users have an increased awareness of other city names far away from their home city during holiday seasons; and (3) Twitter users are more aware of nearby city names than distant city names, and more aware of big city names rather than small city names. PMID:26167942

Transport solutions for cleaner air.

PubMed

Kelly, Frank J; Zhu, Tong

2016-05-20

In cities across the globe, road transport remains an important source of air pollutants that are linked with acute and chronic health effects. Decreasing vehicle emissions--while maintaining or increasing commuter journeys--remains a major challenge for city administrators. In London, congestion-charging and a citywide low-emission zone failed to bring nitrogen dioxide concentrations under control. In Beijing, controls on the purchase and use of cars have not decreased transport emissions to a sufficient extent. As cities continue to grow, not even zero-emission vehicles are the solution. Moving increasingly large numbers of people efficiently around a city can only be achieved by expanding mass transit systems. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Avoiding decline: Fostering resilience and sustainability in midsize cities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Allen, Craig R.; Birge, Hannah E.; Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon; Bevans, Rebecca A.; Burnett, Jessica L.; Cosens, Barbara; Cai, Ximing; Garmestani, Ahjond S.; Linkov, Igor; Scott, Elizabeth A.; Solomon, Mark D.; Uden, Daniel R.

2016-01-01

Eighty-five percent of United States citizens live in urban areas. However, research surrounding the resilience and sustainability of complex urban systems focuses largely on coastal megacities (>1 million people). Midsize cities differ from their larger counterparts due to tight urban-rural feedbacks with their immediate natural environments that result from heavy reliance and close management of local ecosystem services. They also may be less path-dependent than larger cities due to shorter average connection length among system components, contributing to higher responsiveness among social, infrastructural, and ecological feedbacks. These distinct midsize city features call for a framework that organizes information and concepts concerning the sustainability of midsize cities specifically. We argue that an integrative approach is necessary to capture properties emergent from the complex interactions of the social, infrastructural, and ecological subsystems that comprise a city system. We suggest approaches to estimate the relative resilience of midsize cities, and include an example assessment to illustrate one such estimation approach. Resilience assessments of a midsize city can be used to examine why some cities end up on sustainable paths while others diverge to unsustainable paths, and which feedbacks may be partially responsible. They also provide insight into how city planners and decision makers can use information about the resilience of midsize cities undergoing growth or shrinkage relative to their larger and smaller counterparts, to transform them into long-term, sustainable social-ecological systems.

Earth Observations taken by Expedition 30 crewmember

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-12-04

ISS030-E-010008 (4 Dec. 2011) --- One of the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the Earth-orbiting International Space Station photographed this night time scene of the Iberian Peninsula on Dec. 4, 2011. The city lights of Spain and Portugal define the peninsula. Several large metropolitan areas are visible, marked by their relatively large and brightly lit areas, such as two capital cities -- Madrid, Spain, located near the center of the peninsula?s interior, and Lisbon, Portugal, located along the southwestern coastline. Ancient Seville, visible at image right to the north of the approximately 14 kilometer-wide Strait of Gibraltar, is one of the largest cities in Spain. All together, the Principality of Andorra, the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic total approximately 590,000 square kilometers of landmass. The peninsula is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest, west, and southwest and the Mediterranean Sea to the east. Its northeastern boundary with the rest of continental Europe is marked by the Pyrenees mountain range. The view is looking outwards from the orbital outpost toward the east. The network of smaller cities and towns in the interior and along the coastline attest to the large extent of human presence on the Iberian landscape. Blurring of the city lights is caused by thin cloud cover (image left and center), while the cloud tops are dimly illuminated by moonlight. Though obscured, the lights of France are visible near the horizon line at image upper left, while the lights of northern Africa are more clearly discernable at image right. The gold to green line of airglow, caused by excitation of upper atmosphere gas molecules by ultraviolet radiation, parallels the horizon line (or Earth limb).

Assessing the spatial and temporal variability of fine particulate matter components in Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarnat, Jeremy A.; Moise, Tamar; Shpund, Jacob; Liu, Yang; Pachon, Jorge E.; Qasrawi, Radwan; Abdeen, Ziad; Brenner, Shmuel; Nassar, Khaled; Saleh, Rami; Schauer, James J.

2010-07-01

This manuscript presents results from an extensive, multi-country comparative monitoring study of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and its primary chemical components in Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian cities. This study represented the first time that researchers from these countries have worked together to examine spatial and temporal relationships for PM 2.5 and its major components among the study sites. The findings indicated that total PM 2.5 mass was relatively homogenous among many of the 11 sites as shown from strong between-site correlations. Mean annual concentrations ranged from 19.9 to 34.9 μg m -3 in Haifa and Amman, respectively, and exceeded accepted international air quality standards for annual PM 2.5 mass. Similarity of total mass was largely driven by SO 42- and crustal PM 2.5 components. Despite the close proximity of the seven, well correlated sites with respect to PM 2.5, there were pronounced differences among the cities for EC and, to a lesser degree, OC. EC, in particular, exhibited spatiotemporal trends that were indicative of strong local source contributions. Interestingly, there were moderate to strong EC correlations ( r > 0.65) among the large metropolitan cities, West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Amman. For these relatively large cities, (i.e., West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Amman), EC sources from the fleet of buses and cars typical for many urban areas predominate and likely drive spatiotemporal EC distributions. As new airshed management strategies and public health interventions are implemented throughout the Middle East, our findings support regulatory strategies that target integrated regional and local control strategies to reduce PM 2.5 mass and specific components suspected to drive adverse health effects of particulate matter exposure.

Urban Growth Scenarios of a Future MEGA City: Case Study Ahmedabad

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehner, A.; Kraus, V.; Steinnocher, K.

2016-06-01

The study of urban areas and their development focuses on cities, their physical and demographic expansion and the tensions and impacts that go along with urban growth. Especially in developing countries and emerging national economies like India, consistent and up to date information or other planning relevant data all too often is not available. With its Smart Cities Mission, the Indian government places great importance on the future developments of Indian urban areas and pays tribute to the large-scale rural to urban migration. The potentials of urban remote sensing and its contribution to urban planning are discussed and related to the Indian Smart Cities Mission. A case study is presented showing urban remote sensing based information products for the city of Ahmedabad. Resulting urban growth scenarios are presented, hotspots identified and future action alternatives proposed.

Migration of female construction labourers to Dhaka City, Bangladesh.

PubMed

Ahsan, R M

1997-03-01

The author analyzes migration patterns and processes of female construction workers in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, and considers the impact of this migration. "Interviews...reveal that the major goal of these female migrants, whose mobility and employment have traditionally been restricted, is to take responsibility in the struggle for livelihood.... Success of many migrations is linked with participation in construction work in the city. Employment in such activities is largely by women from male-headed households, indicating male support in the work, followed by females heading their own households." excerpt

Dissecting health care markets: large versus small businesses.

PubMed

Sherwood, P K; Stevens, R E; Warren, W E

1988-01-01

This article reports the results of a mail survey of businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma (population 377,900 in the city and 745,300 in the surrounding metropolitan area). The purpose of the research was to analyze differences in health care provision and perspectives between large and small businesses. The survey of 3,200 members of the city's chamber of commerce yielded 640 responses. Analysis of the data revealed distinct differences between the two segments of the health care industry. The findings suggest that market opportunities exist for the development of health care delivery system programs aimed at small businesses.

A note on the microeconomics of migration.

PubMed

Stahl, K

1983-11-01

"The purpose of this note is to demonstrate in a simple model that an individual's migration from a small town to a large city may be rationalized purely by a consumption motive, rather than the motive of obtaining a higher income. More specifically, it is shown that in a large city an individual may derive a higher utility from spending a given amount of income than in a small town." A formal model is first developed that includes the principal forces at work and is then illustrated using a graphic example. The theoretical and empirical issues raised are considered in the concluding section. excerpt

Montreal, Quebec, Canada as seen from STS-60

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

The city of Montreal is located on the island of Montreal at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. Despite its distance from the sea (1,000 miles) Montreal is a large inland port. It is also Canada's largest city and the second largest French speaking city in the world. This particular snow covered scene highlights the major highways and street patterns throughout the metropolitan Montreal area. The runways of the two large international airports of Mirabel (located 25 miles northwest of downtown Montreal) and Dorval (located approximately 8 miles west of the downtown area) are clearly visible on this photograph. Even the outline of Mount Royal Park, near downtown central business district, can be seen. Patches of open, ice-free water (very dark areas) are detectable as the St. Lawrence River (Seaway) makes its way along the south and southeastern side of Montreal.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada as seen from STS-60

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-02-09

STS060-94-072 (3-11 Feb 1994) --- The city of Montreal is located on the island of Montreal at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. Despite its distance from the sea (1,000 miles) Montreal is a large inland port. It is also Canada's largest city and the second largest French speaking city in the world. This particular snow covered scene highlights the major highways and street patterns throughout the metropolitan Montreal area. The runways of the two large international airports of Mirabel (located 25 miles northwest of downtown Montreal) and Dorval (located approximately 8 miles west of the downtown area) are clearly visible on this photograph. Even the outline of Mount Royal Park, an imposing hilly feature near the downtown central business district, can be seen. Patches of open, ice-free (very dark areas) are detectable as the St. Lawrence River (Seaway) makes its way along the south and southeastern side of Montreal.

The Politics of Education at the Local, State and Federal Levels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirst, Michael W., Ed.

The contents of this book are organized in three parts, the first of which is divided into two sections. Part I. Political Influence in Local Education Policy Making. Section A. Politics of education in large cities: "Schools and politics in the big city," Robert H. Salisbury; "Fiscal status and school policy making in six large…

Needle Exchange Programs and Drug Injection Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeSimone, Jeff

2005-01-01

This study examines how drug injection and needle sharing propensities respond when a needle exchange program (NEP) is introduced into a city. I analyze 1989-1995 Drug Use Forecasting data on adult male arrestees from 24 large U.S. cities, in nine of which NEPs opened during the sample period. After controlling for cocaine and heroin prices, AIDS…

Positive effects of afforestation efforts on the health of urban soils

Treesearch

Emily E. Oldfield; Alexander J. Felson; Stephen A. Wood; Richard A. Hallett; Michael S. Strickland; Mark A. Bradford

2014-01-01

Large-scale tree planting projects in cities are increasingly implemented as a strategy to improve the urban environment. Trees provide multiple benefits in cities, including reduction of urban temperatures, improved air quality, mitigation of storm-water run-off, and provision of wildlife habitat. How urban afforestation affects the properties and functions of urban...

Community, Race, and Curriculum in Detroit: The Northern High School Walkout

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franklin, Barry M.

2004-01-01

This essay examines the April 1966 student walkout at Detroit's all-black Northern High School and what the boycott tells us about the conflict between blacks and whites in that city over the education of African-American youth. The protest was one event in an ongoing struggle between Detroit's black citizens and the city's largely white…

Variations in Divorce Rates by Community Size: A Test of the Social Integration Explanation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shelton, Beth Anne

1987-01-01

Found a strong correlation between residential mobility rate and a measure of marital dissolution. Concluded that community size and marital dissolution correlated positively because of higher levels of residential mobility in large cities and urban areas than in small cities and rural areas. Found high residential mobility both an indicator and a…

Racism? Administrative and Community Perspectives in Data-Driven Decision Making: Systemic Perspectives versus Technical-Rational Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khalifa, Muhammad A.; Jennings, Michael E.; Briscoe, Felecia; Oleszweski, Ashley M.; Abdi, Nimo

2014-01-01

This case study describes tensions that became apparent between community members and school administrators after a proposal to close a historically African American public high school in a large urban Southwestern city. When members of the city's longstanding African American community responded with outrage, the school district's senior…

Do Universities Benefit Local Youth? Evidence from the Creation of New Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frenette, Marc

2009-01-01

In this study, I examine university and college participation rates, as well as graduate outcomes, following the establishment of a university in cities where there were previously none. The creation of a local university is associated with a large increase in university attendance among local youth in each affected city. However, the increase in…

Highly Mobile Students: Educational Problems and Possible Solutions. ERIC/CUE Digest, Number 73.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, New York, NY.

The following two types of student mobility stand out as causing educational problems: (1) inner-city mobility, which is prompted largely by fluctuations in the job market; and (2) intra-city mobility, which is caused by upward mobility or by poverty and homelessness. Most research indicates that high mobility negatively affects student…

Big Challenges for a Small City School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Principal Leadership, 2007

2007-01-01

So well-chronicled are the challenges faced by schools in large urban and metropolitan areas that a lay person may perceive the nation's rural and small-city schools as bucolic settings where educators do not have a care in the world other than keeping the occasional cow from wandering onto the playground during recess. The reality, of course, is…

Designing New York's Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giles, David

2012-01-01

The genius of Mayor Bloomberg's plan to develop a new applied sciences campus in New York City is that it acknowledges the increasingly pivotal role of academic institutions as drivers of local economic growth. At a time when large corporations may not be the reliable job producers they were in the past and cities like New York badly need to…

The Urban Condition: "Plates" Beneath City Surfaces and a New Research Agenda.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Margaret T.

1985-01-01

Analyzes factors which have contributed to the poor conditions of large cities: failure of courage to deal with racism; individualism; short-term thinking; political nonaccountability; diversity of peoples and information; loss of faith in leaders and in nation; and threat of nuclear war. Calls for new policy initiatives and outlines an urban…

Basin of Mexico: A history of watershed mismanagement

Treesearch

Luis A. Bojorquez Tapia; Exequiel Ezcurra; Marisa Mazari-Hiriart; Salomon Diaz; Paola Gomez; Georgina Alcantar; Daniela Megarejo

2000-01-01

Mexico City Metropolitan Zone (MCMZ) is located within the Basin of Mexico. Because of its large population and demand for natural resources, several authors have questioned the viability of the city, especially in terms of water resources. These are reviewed at the regional and the local scales. It is concluded that a multi-basin management approach is necessary to...

Race, urban context, and Russian roulette: findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2003-2006.

PubMed

Wasserman, Ira; Stack, Steven

2011-02-01

Previous work on Russian roulette has focused on data from large cities. It is unclear if the epidemiological patterns based on large cities will replicate for the nation as a whole, and if the influence of minority status will be moderated by urban context. The present investigation fills these gaps by providing descriptive epidemiological data on Russian roulette for 17 states, and testing a hypothesis on urbanism as a moderator of the race-Russian roulette relationship. Data were taken from the National Violent Death Reporting System (2003-2006). They refer to 71 Russian roulette cases and a matched control group of 284 males who committed suicide by a gunshot wound to the head. Russian roulette suicides were more apt to be of minority status, younger, had a lower incidence of mental health problems, and were more likely to be utilizing alcohol than the controls. Differentiating the sample into larger and smaller urban areas, it was found that the risk of Russian roulette for African Americans was higher in larger urban areas. Epidemiological patterns in previous research on large city samples are largely replicated. The moderating influence of urban context is related to differential opportunity structures for risk-taking behavior. © 2011 The American Association of Suicidology.

A Tale of Two Cities - HSI-DOAS Measurements of Air Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graves, Rosemarie; Leigh, Roland; Anand, Jasdeep; McNally, Michael; Lawrence, James; Monks, Paul

2013-04-01

Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy is now commonly used as an air quality measuring system; primarily through the measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) both as a ground-based and satellite technique. CityScan is a Hemispherical Scanning Imaging Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometer (HSI-DOAS) which has been optimised to measure concentrations of nitrogen dioxide. CityScan has a 95˚ field of view (FOV) between the zenith and 5˚ below the horizon. Across this FOV there are 128 resolved elements which are measured concurrently, the spectrometer is rotated azimuthally 1˚ per second providing full hemispherical coverage every 6 minutes. CityScan measures concentrations of nitrogen dioxide over specific lines of sight and due to the extensive field of view of the instrument this produces measurements which are representative over city-wide scales. Nitrogen dioxide is an important air pollutant which is produced in all combustion processes and can reduce lung function; especially in sensitised individuals. These instruments aim to bridge the gap in spatial scales between point source measurements of air quality and satellite measurements of air quality offering additional information on emissions, transport and the chemistry of nitrogen dioxide. More information regarding the CityScan technique can be found at http://www.leos.le.ac.uk/aq/index.html. CityScan has been deployed in both London and Bologna, Italy during 2012. The London deployment took place as part of the large NERC funded ClearfLo project in January and July/August. CityScan was deployed in Bologna in June as part of the large EU project PEGASOS. Analysis of both of these campaigns of data will be used to give unprecedented levels of spatial information to air quality measurements whilst also showing the difference in air quality between a relatively isolated mega city and a smaller city situated in a very polluted region; in this case the Po Valley. Results from multiple CityScan instruments will be used in conjunction with data from ground based in-situ monitor networks to evaluate the ability of in-situ monitors to effectively assess the air quality in an urban environment. Trend analysis will also be shown to demonstrate any changes in the air quality in London during the time of the Olympic Games in comparison with a normal summer.

Analysis of Spatial Pattern of Urban System along the Overland Silk Road Economic Belt Using DMSP-OLS Nighttime Light Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Jianzhong; Bai, Linyan; wang, Kui; Zhang, Xuefu; Xie, Nengfu; Ran, Qiyun; Guo, Mingqiu; Xu, Lijun

2017-02-01

As China promotes the Belt and Road (BAR) initiative, the overland SREB development is widely concerned. The cities (including towns), population centers, of urban system are the cores of the economy along the SREB. Therefore, it is necessary to monitoring the urbanization of the belt so that the new growing points of urban development and the valid coupling mechanism between human and nature will be explored to promote the regional socio-economic sustainable development and effectively implement the BAR initiative. Using the DMSP-OLS stable nighttime lights (NTL) data in 1992, 2003, and 2014, in this paper we studied the urbanized spatial patterns of and the urbanized characteristics and trends of the main city system along the SREB in the view of the whole regionalized economic zone and typical cities and settlements (towns). The results showed that in general the NTL intensities in the SREB’s city system had the obvious geographical differentiation characteristics where there was maximum brightness of NTLs over the western European countries as well as being gradually decreasing from west to east. There were obvious increases of the NTL digital number (DN) values and NTL covering areas in 2003 and 2013 comparatively with that of 1992, which indicates the great urbanization development during this period. As for the four types of urban development process, there was an apparent consistency in a certain local area but a large heterogeneity among different areas. By analyzing the 273 pivot cities and the most pivot 26 cities, we found the number of the relatively small cities being decreasing but that of the large and medium-sized cities increasing. This study would provide the scientific support for the related researches and decision making of urbanization and urban economic development to promote the socio-economic comprehensive development of the overland SREB.

Automobile dependence in cities: An international comparison of urban transport and land use patterns with implications for sustainability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kenworthy, J.R.; Laube, F.B.

1996-07-01

Cities around the world are subject to increasing levels of environmental impact from dependence on the automobile. In the highly auto-dependent cities of the US and Australia, this is manifested in problems such as urban sprawl and its destruction of prime farming land and natural landscapes, photochemical smog that can be primarily attributed to auto emissions. On top of the more local impacts of the automobile, the global dimension should not be forgotten. Perhaps the two most pressing issues in this regard are the oil problem and the greenhouse problem. A comparison of global cities over the period 1980 tomore » 1990 reveals large differences in automobile dependence with implications for the future sustainability of cities in different countries. This study explores some of the underlying land use, transport, and economic reasons for these different transport patterns. It briefly reviews what the sustainability agenda means for transport and land use patterns in cities and suggests a suite of targets or goals for sustainability by which cities might measure their current directions and plans.« less

Mapping of Soil-Ecological Conditions of a Medium-Size Industrial City (Birobidzhan City, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, FarEast of Russia as an Example)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalmanova, V. B.; Matiushkina, L. A.

2018-01-01

The authors analyze soil relations with other elements of the city ecosystem (the position in the landscape, soil-forming rocks and lithology, vegetation and its state) to develop the legend and map of soils in the City of Birobidzhan (scale 1:25 000). The focus of study is the morphological structure of urban soils with different degree of disturbance of these relations under the impact of technical effects, economic and recreational activities of the city population. The soil cover structure is composed of four large ecological groups of soils: natural untransformed, natural with a disturbed surface, anthropogenic soils and technogenic surface formations. Using cartometry of the mapped soil contours the authors created the scheme of soil-ecological city zoning, which in a general way depicts the state of soil ecological functions in the city as well as identified zones of soils with preserved, partially and fully distured ecological functions and zones of local geochemical anomalies at the initial formation stage (environmental risk zones).

Public water supplies of the 100 largest cities of the United States, 1962

USGS Publications Warehouse

Durfor, Charles N.; Becker, Edith

1964-01-01

The report is divided into two sections. The first describes the uses of water in large cities, the raw-water supplies available for public supplies, tl-<; major and minor constituents and the properties of water, the methods of analyses, the treatment of water, the effects of chemical treatment on constituents and properties of water, and the costs of water treatment. The second is a city-by-city inventory that gives (a) the population of the city, (b) the adjacent communities supplied by the city water system, (c) the total population served, (d) the sources of water supply (including auxiliary and emergency supplies), (e) the average amount of water used daily, (f) the lowest 30-day mean discharge of streams used for public supply during recent years, (g) the treatment of water, (h) the rated capacity of each water-treatment plant, and (i) the storage capacity for raw and finished water. For 58 of the cities, the sources of water, the location of water-treatment plants, and the areas served by the city system are shown on maps. Chemical, spectrographic, and radiochemical analyses of treated water and chemical and spectrographic analyses for many of the raw-water supplies are presented in tabular form.

Differences in gay men's AIDS risk knowledge and behavior patterns in high and low AIDS prevalence cities.

PubMed

St Lawrence, J S; Hood, H V; Brasfield, T; Kelly, J A

1989-01-01

Several studies have found reductions in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) risk practices among gay men in high AIDS-prevalence cities since the start of the AIDS crisis. Much less is known about risk behavior patterns among gay men in smaller cities, where AIDS cases are less common and the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection is relatively lower. In the study, men entering gay bars in three cities, one large and two small, completed anonymous surveys of sexual practices and AIDS risk knowledge. Men in high AIDS-prevalence areas were found to have had a greater number of sexual partners, were more knowledgeable about AIDS, were much more likely to engage in low-risk practices (such as mutual masturbation or body rubbing), and had unprotected anal intercourse less frequently than gay men in smaller cities. The most common sexual activity among gay men in the larger city was mutual masturbation, a low-risk practice. The most common sexual activity among gay men in the smaller cities was unprotected anal intercourse. Increased efforts are needed to educate gay men and to promote risk behavior changes among those living in smaller cities and in communities outside the prominent AIDS epicenters.

A worldwide model for boundaries of urban settlements.

PubMed

Oliveira, Erneson A; Furtado, Vasco; Andrade, José S; Makse, Hernán A

2018-05-01

The shape of urban settlements plays a fundamental role in their sustainable planning. Properly defining the boundaries of cities is challenging and remains an open problem in the science of cities. Here, we propose a worldwide model to define urban settlements beyond their administrative boundaries through a bottom-up approach that takes into account geographical biases intrinsically associated with most societies around the world, and reflected in their different regional growing dynamics. The generality of the model allows one to study the scaling laws of cities at all geographical levels: countries, continents and the entire world. Our definition of cities is robust and holds to one of the most famous results in social sciences: Zipf's law. According to our results, the largest cities in the world are not in line with what was recently reported by the United Nations. For example, we find that the largest city in the world is an agglomeration of several small settlements close to each other, connecting three large settlements: Alexandria, Cairo and Luxor. Our definition of cities opens the doors to the study of the economy of cities in a systematic way independently of arbitrary definitions that employ administrative boundaries.

Weekly Hydrometeorological Signatures - Characterization of Urban-Induced Streamflow and Rainfall Variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnier, S.; Cai, X.; Sivapalan, M.

2014-12-01

About half of all humans alive today live in cities, with that number projected to grow to 70% by 2050. Because most people live in cities, urban streamflow patterns and precipitation events have a large impact on the global population. Urban environments can alter natural streamflow and precipitation patterns in a localized area. This study introduces a novel way to characterize this interference: the weekly hydrometeorological signature. Daily streamflow and precipitation data is collected from USGS gages around three climatically-different major American cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, and Charlotte. The following hypothesis is tested: a persistent weekly pattern (Monday through Sunday) exists in the hydrometeorological data which is unique to each city. All three cities appear to exhibit a persistent weekly pattern which is unique to that city for various climatological, industrial, and topographic reasons. Further study is needed; however these findings have important implications for understanding urban weather and can serve as a unique identifier, or fingerprint, for human interference to local streamflow and precipitation patterns.

Shrinking cities: urban challenges of globalization.

PubMed

Martinez-Fernandez, Cristina; Audirac, Ivonne; Fol, Sylvie; Cunningham-Sabot, Emmanuèle

2012-01-01

Urban shrinkage is not a new phenomenon. It has been documented in a large literature analyzing the social and economic issues that have led to population flight, resulting, in the worse cases, in the eventual abandonment of blocks of housing and neighbourhoods. Analysis of urban shrinkage should take into account the new realization that this phenomenon is now global and multidimensional — but also little understood in all its manifestations. Thus, as the world's population increasingly becomes urban, orthodox views of urban decline need redefinition. The symposium includes articles from 10 urban analysts working on 30 cities around the globe. These analysts belong to the Shrinking Cities International Research Network (SCIRN), whose collaborative work aims to understand different types of city shrinkage and the role that different approaches, policies and strategies have played in the regeneration of these cities. In this way the symposium will inform both a rich diversity of analytical perspectives and country-based studies of the challenges faced by shrinking cities. It will also disseminate SCIRN's research results from the last 3 years.

Ageing of the baby boomer generation: how demographic change will impact on city and rural GP and nursing workforce.

PubMed

Schofield, D J; Page, S L; Lyle, D M; Walker, T J

2006-01-01

To compare the impact of ageing on the GP and nursing rural and city workforce. Cohort analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics census data. The data was used to examine the age distribution of the city and rural GP and nursing workforce; patterns of attrition for those 50 years and over; and the impact of changes in working hours. The rural GP and nursing workforce is significantly older than their city counterparts (p<0.001) with the 'baby boomer' generation making up 52% of city GPs but 59% of rural GPs in 2001. While a large proportion of city and rural GPs continued to work past the age of 65 years, rural GPs left the workforce at a significantly younger age than city doctors (p<0.001). Rural nurses are older than their city peers (p<0.001) but retire at an older age than city nurses (p<0.001). In 1986, a significantly higher proportion of rural GPs in all age cohorts worked more than 41 hours per week compared with their city counterparts (p<0.001). By 2001, rural 'generation X' GPs were no more likely to work long hours than those in the city (p<0.001). However, significantly more rural than city 'baby boomers' continued to work long hours. Rural GPs are retiring faster than city GPs and strategies to attract rural GPs and nurses will be critical to ensure adequate rural health care and that current rural workforce shortage do not worsen.

Foreclosures and crime: a city-level analysis in Southern California of a dynamic process.

PubMed

Hipp, John R; Chamberlain, Alyssa W

2015-05-01

Although a growing body of research has examined and found a positive relationship between neighborhood crime and home foreclosures, some research suggests this relationship may not hold in all cities. This study uses city-level data to assess the relationship between foreclosures and crime by estimating longitudinal models with lags for monthly foreclosure and crime data in 128 cities from 1996 to 2011 in Southern California. We test whether these effects are stronger in cities with a combination of high economic inequality and high economic segregation; and whether they are stronger in cities with high racial/ethnic heterogeneity and high racial segregation. One month, and cumulative three month, six month, and 12-month lags of foreclosures are found to increase city level crime for all crimes except motor vehicle theft. The effect of foreclosures on these crime types is stronger in cities with simultaneously high levels of inequality but low levels of economic segregation. The effect of foreclosures on aggravated assault, robbery, and burglary is stronger in cities with simultaneously high levels of racial heterogeneity and low levels of racial segregation. On the other hand, foreclosures had a stronger effect on larceny and motor vehicle theft when they occurred in a city with simultaneously high levels of racial heterogeneity and high levels of racial segregation. There is evidence that the foreclosure crisis had large scale impacts on cities, leading to higher crime rates in cities hit harder by foreclosures. Nonetheless, the economic and racial characteristics of the city altered this effect. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Particulate matter in Southwestern Africa cities of Cotonou (Benin) and Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leon, J. F.; Djossou, J.; Liousse, C.; Akpo, A.; Veronique, Y.; Gardrat, E.; Bedou, M.; Bodjrenou, M.

2017-12-01

Air quality observations in the major cities of South-Western Africa still remains few with regards to economic growth and the large increase in the urban population. The main cities lying on the Gulf of Guinea experiences low air quality because of the contribution of local emissions and advection of pollutants from the African continent. We present in this paper new observations acquired from February 2015 to March 2017 in the major cities of Cotonou (Bénin) and Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire). The PM2.5 mass concentration and carbon composition (elemental and organic carbon) were recorded on a weekly basis at 4 different locations representative of major emission sources, i.e. traffic emission, domestic fire and waste burning. Additionally, the aerosol optical depth (AOD) was also recorded daily inside and outside the cities. We observe large similarly between both cities. The mean PM2.5 concentration of around 30 µg.m-3 is coherent with previous studies for sub-Saharan western Africa and is 3 times higher than the concentrations recommended by the World Health Organization. The sampled collected at the domestic fire site shows a large pollution by smoking activity with an average concentration of 145 µg.m-3, nearly 5 times the traffic background. The seasonality of PM2.5 is affected by the contribution of desert dust and biomass burning emissions that is clearly observed from the AOD time series. We observe that dust events contribute sporadically to large amount of PM2.5, above 100 µg.m-3, during the dry seasons. Moreover, the biomass burning activity is also maximum before and during the dry season and contributes to increase the PM2.5 concentration. Low PM2.5 observed during the minor dry season can be explain by an enhancement of the atmospheric dispersion due to the increase in the wind intensity and the absence of biomass burning activity. We observe a significant difference in the carbonaceous aerosols between the traffic site in Abidjan and Cotonou. The mean OC/EC ratio is on average 4.0 for Cotonou and 2.0 for Abidjan, clearly indicating the larger contribution emission by the 2-wheel motorcycles in Cotonou compared to Abidjan

Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities.

PubMed

Brelsford, Christa; Lobo, José; Hand, Joe; Bettencourt, Luís M A

2017-08-22

Rapid worldwide urbanization is at once the main cause and, potentially, the main solution to global sustainable development challenges. The growth of cities is typically associated with increases in socioeconomic productivity, but it also creates strong inequalities. Despite a growing body of evidence characterizing these heterogeneities in developed urban areas, not much is known systematically about their most extreme forms in developing cities and their consequences for sustainability. Here, we characterize the general patterns of income and access to services in a large number of developing cities, with an emphasis on an extensive, high-resolution analysis of the urban areas of Brazil and South Africa. We use detailed census data to construct sustainable development indices in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods and show that their statistics are scale-dependent and point to the critical role of large cities in creating higher average incomes and greater access to services within their national context. We then quantify the general statistical trajectory toward universal basic service provision at different scales to show that it is characterized by varying levels of inequality, with initial increases in access being typically accompanied by growing disparities over characteristic spatial scales. These results demonstrate how extensions of these methods to other goals and data can be used over time and space to produce a simple but general quantitative assessment of progress toward internationally agreed sustainable development goals.

Geology of the southernmost Piedmont from Columbus to Junction City, GA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hanley, T.B.

1993-03-01

Mapping in the Piedmont from the Chattahoochee River to Junction City, GA, is critical to understanding contacts with Southern Appalachian outboard terranes, relationships to the Piedmont allochthon, strike slip displacements along major faults and late Paleozoic and post Paleozoic tectonic activity. Three major map units defining a large synform are recognized in western Muscogee County: the North Columbus Migmatite Complex, the Moffitts Mill Schist (MMS), and the Phenix City gneiss. The distinctive but poorly exposed fine grained feldspar augen MMS, which extends at least as far east as Geneva, contains small enclaves of amphibolite and calcsilicate and large enclaves ofmore » lineated granitoid gneiss. Protomylonites and mylonitic gneiss with a N-S to N45E strike are exposed from Geneva to Junction City. Three brecciated quartz dikes transect the area in eastern Muscogee Co. and Talbot Co., converging on Talbotton from the southwest. The northern dike strikes ENE and is associated with an augen schist; the middle dike strikes NE and projects to the southwest deep into Muscogee County as a silicified fracture zone with minor associated granite. The southern dike has a NNE strike and is parallel to and locally silicifies the mylonitic foliation that dominates gneisses to the east. Deflections of the magnetic anomaly patterns to the northeast in the Geneva - Junction City area are parallel to quartz dikes and mylonitic foliations.« less

Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities

PubMed Central

Brelsford, Christa; Lobo, José; Hand, Joe

2017-01-01

Rapid worldwide urbanization is at once the main cause and, potentially, the main solution to global sustainable development challenges. The growth of cities is typically associated with increases in socioeconomic productivity, but it also creates strong inequalities. Despite a growing body of evidence characterizing these heterogeneities in developed urban areas, not much is known systematically about their most extreme forms in developing cities and their consequences for sustainability. Here, we characterize the general patterns of income and access to services in a large number of developing cities, with an emphasis on an extensive, high-resolution analysis of the urban areas of Brazil and South Africa. We use detailed census data to construct sustainable development indices in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods and show that their statistics are scale-dependent and point to the critical role of large cities in creating higher average incomes and greater access to services within their national context. We then quantify the general statistical trajectory toward universal basic service provision at different scales to show that it is characterized by varying levels of inequality, with initial increases in access being typically accompanied by growing disparities over characteristic spatial scales. These results demonstrate how extensions of these methods to other goals and data can be used over time and space to produce a simple but general quantitative assessment of progress toward internationally agreed sustainable development goals. PMID:28461489

Spatial correlations, clustering and percolation-like transitions in homicide crimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alves, L. G. A.; Lenzi, E. K.; Mendes, R. S.; Ribeiro, H. V.

2015-07-01

The spatial dynamics of criminal activities has been recently studied through statistical physics methods; however, models and results have been focusing on local scales (city level) and much less is known about these patterns at larger scales, e.g. at a country level. Here we report on a characterization of the spatial dynamics of the homicide crimes along the Brazilian territory using data from all cities (˜5000) in a period of more than thirty years. Our results show that the spatial correlation function in the per capita homicides decays exponentially with the distance between cities and that the characteristic correlation length displays an acute increasing trend in the latest years. We also investigate the formation of spatial clusters of cities via a percolation-like analysis, where clustering of cities and a phase-transition-like behavior describing the size of the largest cluster as a function of a homicide threshold are observed. This transition-like behavior presents evolutive features characterized by an increasing in the homicide threshold (where the transitions occur) and by a decreasing in the transition magnitudes (length of the jumps in the cluster size). We believe that our work sheds new light on the spatial patterns of criminal activities at large scales, which may contribute for better political decisions and resources allocation as well as opens new possibilities for modeling criminal activities by setting up fundamental empirical patterns at large scales.

The relationship between urban form and air pollution depends on seasonality and city size.

PubMed

Liu, Yupeng; Wu, Jianguo; Yu, Deyong; Ma, Qun

2018-06-01

Understanding how urban form is related to air pollution is important to urban planning and sustainability, but the urban form-air pollution relationship is currently muddled by inconsistent findings. In this study, we investigated how the compositional and configurational attributes of urban form were related to different air pollution measures (PM 2.5 , API, and exceedance) in 83 Chinese cities, with explicit consideration of city size and seasonality. Ten landscape metrics were selected to quantify urban form attributes, and Spearman's correlation was used to quantify the urban form-air pollution relationship. Our results show that the urban form and air pollution relationship was dominated by city size and moderated by seasonality. Specifically, urban air pollution levels increased consistently and substantially from small to medium, large, and megacities. The urban form-air pollution relationship depended greatly on seasonality and monsoons. That is, the relationship was more pronounced in spring and summer than fall and winter, as well as in cities affected by monsoons. Urban air pollution was correlated more strongly with landscape composition metrics than landscape configuration metrics which seemed to affect only PM 2.5 concentrations. Our study suggests that, to understand how air pollution levels are related to urban form, city size and seasonality must be explicitly considered (or controlled). Also, in order to mitigate urban air pollution problems, regional urban planning is needed to curb the spatial extent of built-up areas, reduce the degree of urban fragmentation, and increase urban compactness and contiguity, especially for large and megacities.

Locational trends in R and D by large US corporations, 1965 to 1977

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Malecki, E.J.

1979-10-01

The locational decisions of large corporations, especially those involving research and development (R and D) and its role in technological change, have considerable effects on regional economic development. The locations of R and D facilities of 330 firms in the United States, are found primarily in metropolitan areas. Industry-specific patterns are present, but overall, a small number of major urban areas are the locations of corporate R and D. Changes in these patterns from 1965 to 1977 show that gains in R and D have taken place in only a few northeastern cities and in relatively few (SMSAs) Standard Metropolitanmore » Statistical Areas, in the Sunbelt. A second major shift in R and D is outward from some large cities, but within their urban regions. Corporate R and D, although experiencing some locational shifts, is remaining quite concentrated in large metropolitan areas. 47 references, 7 tables.« less

[Migration, urbanization, and development policy in Senegal].

PubMed

Dione, D

1992-01-01

"The various studies focussing on human settlements in Senegal show that the share of population living in cities is ever increasing because of the massive and continuous flow from rural areas. The persistance of such migration trends from the country to cities deepens regional disparities, compounds the difficulties and cost of city management and development, specially in the case of Dakar, and runs counter to the goals of social and economic development plans.... The growing importance of such phenomena calls for the designing of corrective measures in favour of rural areas and small towns in order to settle rural populations and halt the inordinate and chaotic geographical growth of large cities. Failing this, development efforts may well be compromised." (SUMMARY IN ENG) excerpt

Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in amenable mortality in urban areas of Spanish cities, 1996–2007

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background While research continues into indicators such as preventable and amenable mortality in order to evaluate quality, access, and equity in the healthcare, it is also necessary to continue identifying the areas of greatest risk owing to these causes of death in urban areas of large cities, where a large part of the population is concentrated, in order to carry out specific actions and reduce inequalities in mortality. This study describes inequalities in amenable mortality in relation to socioeconomic status in small urban areas, and analyses their evolution over the course of the periods 1996–99, 2000–2003 and 2004–2007 in three major cities in the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Alicante, Castellón, and Valencia). Methods All deaths attributed to amenable causes were analysed among non-institutionalised residents in the three cities studied over the course of the study periods. Census tracts for the cities were grouped into 3 socioeconomic status levels, from higher to lower levels of deprivation, using 5 indicators obtained from the 2001 Spanish Population Census. For each city, the relative risks of death were estimated between socioeconomic status levels using Poisson’s Regression models, adjusted for age and study period, and distinguishing between genders. Results Amenable mortality contributes significantly to general mortality (around 10%, higher among men), having decreased over time in the three cities studied for men and women. In the three cities studied, with a high degree of consistency, it has been seen that the risks of mortality are greater in areas of higher deprivation, and that these excesses have not significantly modified over time. Conclusions Although amenable mortality decreases over the time period studied, the socioeconomic inequalities observed are maintained in the three cities. Areas have been identified that display excesses in amenable mortality, potentially attributable to differences in the healthcare system, associated with areas of greater deprivation. Action must be taken in these areas of greater inequality in order to reduce the health inequalities detected. The causes behind socioeconomic inequalities in amenable mortality must be studied in depth. PMID:24690471

Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in amenable mortality in urban areas of Spanish cities, 1996-2007.

PubMed

Nolasco, Andreu; Quesada, José Antonio; Moncho, Joaquín; Melchor, Inmaculada; Pereyra-Zamora, Pamela; Tamayo-Fonseca, Nayara; Martínez-Beneito, Miguel Angel; Zurriaga, Oscar

2014-04-01

While research continues into indicators such as preventable and amenable mortality in order to evaluate quality, access, and equity in the healthcare, it is also necessary to continue identifying the areas of greatest risk owing to these causes of death in urban areas of large cities, where a large part of the population is concentrated, in order to carry out specific actions and reduce inequalities in mortality. This study describes inequalities in amenable mortality in relation to socioeconomic status in small urban areas, and analyses their evolution over the course of the periods 1996-99, 2000-2003 and 2004-2007 in three major cities in the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Alicante, Castellón, and Valencia). All deaths attributed to amenable causes were analysed among non-institutionalised residents in the three cities studied over the course of the study periods. Census tracts for the cities were grouped into 3 socioeconomic status levels, from higher to lower levels of deprivation, using 5 indicators obtained from the 2001 Spanish Population Census. For each city, the relative risks of death were estimated between socioeconomic status levels using Poisson's Regression models, adjusted for age and study period, and distinguishing between genders. Amenable mortality contributes significantly to general mortality (around 10%, higher among men), having decreased over time in the three cities studied for men and women. In the three cities studied, with a high degree of consistency, it has been seen that the risks of mortality are greater in areas of higher deprivation, and that these excesses have not significantly modified over time. Although amenable mortality decreases over the time period studied, the socioeconomic inequalities observed are maintained in the three cities. Areas have been identified that display excesses in amenable mortality, potentially attributable to differences in the healthcare system, associated with areas of greater deprivation. Action must be taken in these areas of greater inequality in order to reduce the health inequalities detected. The causes behind socioeconomic inequalities in amenable mortality must be studied in depth.

A time series study on the effects of heat on mortality and evaluation of heterogeneity into European and Eastern-Southern Mediterranean cities: results of EU CIRCE project.

PubMed

Leone, Michela; D'Ippoliti, Daniela; De Sario, Manuela; Analitis, Antonis; Menne, Bettina; Katsouyanni, Klea; De' Donato, Francesca K; Basagana, Xavier; Salah, Afif Ben; Casimiro, Elsa; Dörtbudak, Zeynep; Iñiguez, Carmen; Peretz, Chava; Wolf, Tanja; Michelozzi, Paola

2013-07-03

The Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to the effect of summer temperature.Within the CIRCE project this time-series study aims to quantify for the first time the effect of summer temperature in Eastern-Southern Mediterranean cities and compared it with European cities around the Mediterranean basin, evaluating city characteristics that explain between-city heterogeneity. The city-specific effect of maximum apparent temperature (Tappmax) was assessed by Generalized Estimation Equations, assuming a linear threshold model. Then, city-specific estimates were included in a random effect meta-regression analysis to investigate the effect modification by several city characteristics. Heterogeneity in the temperature-mortality relationship was observed among cities. Thresholds recorded higher values in the warmest cities of Tunis (35.5°C) and Tel-Aviv (32.8°C) while the effect of Tappmax above threshold was greater in the European cities. In Eastern-Southern Mediterranean cities a higher effect was observed among younger age groups (0-14 in Tunis and 15-64 in Tel-Aviv and Istanbul) in contrast with the European cities where the elderly population was more vulnerable. Climate conditions explained most of the observed heterogeneity and among socio-demographic and economic characteristics only health expenditure and unemployment rate were identified as effect modifiers. The high vulnerability observed in the young populations in Eastern-Southern Mediterranean cities represent a major public health problem. Considering the large political and economic changes occurring in this region as well future temperature increase due to climate change, it is important to strengthen research and public health efforts in these Mediterranean countries.

Earth Observations taken by Expedition 38 crewmember

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-12-11

ISS038-E-016335 (11 Dec. 2013) --- A nighttime view of the United Arab Emirates is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 38 crew member on the International Space Station. Geographers like night images of cities because you see immediately so much about the human landscape--things that are difficult or impossible to see in day images. You see where the cities are located and their shape; the brightest light clusters frequently indicate the city centers. In large field of view images, such as this photograph of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), you can also see cities' position relative to one another and their relative size. Here the largest cluster of lights is the conurbation ("joined cities") of Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman (population 3.25 million), with its smaller neighbor Dubai (population 2.1 million). These cities front onto the Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf) where the city lights are cut off abruptly at the coastline. The bright city centers are located at the coast showing that sea trade is important (and has been important) in the growth of these cities. Smaller cities are Al Ain (population 518,000), the fourth largest city in the UAE, and Fujairah (population 152,000). Major highways join the cities in a brightly lit network, and a faint peppering of lights offshore shows the relatively young oil and gas platforms on either side of the Musandam Peninsula (left). Despite being taken at night, the spike of the Musandam Peninsula is easy to imagine at the south end of the Persian Gulf. The biggest cities in the UAE are Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Muscat, the capital city of the neighboring country of Oman, appears top center. By contrast, the almost unpopulated Musandam Peninsula shows very few lights.

Comparative Analysis of Passenger Traffic Fleets in Asian Cities: Technology, Driving Activities, and Emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

KIM Oanh, N. T.; Huynh, H. V.; Saikawa, E.

2015-12-01

The road transport sector is the major emission source of toxic air pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in large Asian cities. This paper comparatively analyzed on-road passenger traffic fleets (cars, buses, taxis, motorcycles), using local data collected in cities of Bangkok (BKK), Kathmandu, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), and Yangon. Surveys were done in 2010-2014 to obtain information on vehicle technology, driving activities (speed, distance, number, and types of starts), traffic density, and fuel characteristics. Large shares of pre-Euro vehicles were still observed, especially for public buses. The most advanced technology was Euro4, which was observed in small shares (<5%) of the personal car fleets in BKK, HCMC, and Yangon. Euro3 was generally the most advanced technology found in other fleets in these cities. Motorcycles (MC) was the most dominant fleet in all cities, except in Yangon, where they were not allowed. Low vehicle speeds, mainly below 25 km/h, were observed for all vehicle types, indicating traffic jams. Natural gas and LPG had considerable shares in BKK and Yangon while for other cities diesel and gasoline were still the two major fuels used in transportation. Running emission factors (EF) of buses and taxis in Kathmandu were considerably higher than other cities due to its hilly topography, low speeds, high mileage, and less advanced vehicle technologies. The number of passenger vehicles per 1000 people were 400-500 in HCMC and Hanoi (mainly by MC) and in BKK (also by cars), moderate in Kathmandu (200) and the lowest in Yangon (40) because of the MC ban. Annual emissions of the passenger fleets were calculated for each city using the International Vehicle Emission (IVE) for 14 species. BC and OC emissions were estimated using their fractions of PM10 emission. Annual emission per capita of toxic air pollutants and GHGs was analyzed. For example, the emission in kg/year/person for CO, VOC, NOx and PM10 in these cities was 24-150 for CO, 0.9-23 for VOC, 2.1-8.2 for NOx and 0.2-1.1 for PM10. The highest per capita emissions of CO and VOC were found for HCMC and the lowest for Yangon, which showed the influence of MC fleet. The per capita emission of Kathmandu was ranked second among the cities. Our results were also analyzed in comparison with the per capita emission estimated for other Asian cities.

An Analysis of New Small High Schools' On-Time Graduation Rates in New York City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dudley, Nathan

2017-01-01

Beginning in 2002, with the election of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City's Department of Education undertook an unprecedented overhaul of the largest school district in the United States. Over the next 10 years the Department of Education closed more than 25 large, underperforming high schools, and created almost 200 new, small high schools,…

From the 2008 to the 2014 Crisis: Response of the Labor Market of Russia's Largest Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khmeleva, Galina A.; Bulavko, Olga A.

2016-01-01

The model of shift share analysis was improved to show that the foundation of economy's transition to industrially innovational type of development is created at the local level in case of developing countries. Analysis of structural shifts in 28 large cities in 2008-2014 showed that the perspective of industrially innovational development is yet…

A Survey of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Used in an Inner City Special School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norburn, Katie; Levin, Abigail; Morgan, Sally; Harding, Celia

2016-01-01

This study surveyed staff use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) within a large inner city special school for children with complex needs and learning disabilities. A questionnaire asked 72 staff members about the range of AAC strategies they typically used during the working day and how often they used it; training they had…

Study of Issues Related to the Implementation of Computer Technology in Schools. Final Report, July, 1981. Technical Report No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheingold, Karen; And Others

This study examined ways in which microcomputers are used in schools and the complex issues that surround their implementation. Three fictional geographically distinct school districts with a diversity of microcomputer applications at both the elementary and secondary levels were studied: Salerno, a large southern city; Granite, a midwestern city;…

Spatial and Multidimensional Visualization of Jeddah Health Resources: A Community Health Assessment of Jeddah City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jamalallail, Faisal Mohammed

2012-01-01

Jeddah public health resources are struggling to meet the demand of the large populations. The city is suffering from insufficient public health resources along with other health problem, like high rates of some disease, which resulted in an amount of dissatisfaction among some of the health facilities visitors. The absence of a comprehensive…

The Earth Is Flat when Personally Significant Experiences with the Sphericity of the Earth Are Absent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carbon, Claus-Christian

2010-01-01

Participants with personal and without personal experiences with the Earth as a sphere estimated large-scale distances between six cities located on different continents. Cognitive distances were submitted to a specific multidimensional scaling algorithm in the 3D Euclidean space with the constraint that all cities had to lie on the same sphere. A…

Hurricane Sandy - Public Health Situation Updates - PHE

Science.gov Websites

National Veterinary Response Team from HHS will provide primary and acute care for pets at a large pet Team from HHS anticipates providing primary and acute care for pets in the hard hit area New York City from HHS anticipates providing primary and acute care for pets in the hard hit area New York City known

Safe Drinking Water and Satisfaction with Environmental Quality of Life in Some Oil and Gas Industry Impacted Cities of Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ejechi, E. O.; Ejechi, B. O.

2008-01-01

The availability and safety of drinking water and the environmental quality of life was investigated in five cities located in an oil-producing area of Nigeria using questionnaire-based scales, discussion and laboratory tests. Polythene-packaged sachet water and commercial and non-commercial private boreholes largely met the drinking water…

Does Small High School Reform Lift Urban Districts? Evidence from New York City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stiefel, Leanna; Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Wiswall, Matthew

2015-01-01

Research finds that small high schools deliver better outcomes than large high schools for urban students. An important outstanding question is whether this better performance is gained at the expense of losses elsewhere: Does small school reform lift the whole district? We explore New York City's small high school reform in which hundreds of new…

The Effect of New York's Elite Athletic Clubs on American Amateur Athletic Governance 1870-1915.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wettan, Richard; Willis, Joe

During the early history of amateur athletics, the large and affluent athletic clubs--mostly in New York City--took the initiative in the formation of the first associations of amateur clubs, the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAAA), and its successor, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Athletic clubs in New York City in the…

A Survey of Parental Involvement in Middle Schools in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornby, Garry; Witte, Chrystal

2010-01-01

This article reports the results of a survey of parental involvement (PI) policy and practice in middle schools in a large New Zealand city. Principals at all 11 middle schools in the city were contacted and agreed to be interviewed. Interviews were conducted using a schedule that focuses on 11 aspects of PI: encouraging parents into school,…

Patterns of English Learner Student Reclassification in New York City Public Schools. REL 2017-200

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kieffer, Michael J.; Parker, Caroline E.

2016-01-01

With the rapid growth in the number of English learner students served by schools in the United States, educators are increasingly concerned with how these students progress toward proficiency in English. The large and diverse English learner student population in New York City public schools, where more than 41 percent of students speak a…

76 FR 8291 - Standard Instrument Approach Procedures, and Takeoff Minimums and Obstacle Departure Procedures...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-14

... 8260-15A. The large number of SIAPs, Takeoff Minimums and ODPs, in addition to their complex nature and... DP, Amdt 3A Ely, MN, Ely Muni, VOR-A, Orig, CANCELLED Paynesville, MN, Paynesville Muni, RNAV (GPS) RWY 11, Orig Paynesville, MN, Paynesville Muni, RNAV (GPS) RWY 29, Orig Kansas City, MO, Kansas City...

Franchisees boost growth of Hispanic PPO.

PubMed

Greene, J

1991-10-07

What began as a local marketing effort by two Chicago hospitals to reach the city's fast-growing Hispanic population has turned into a national program with franchises in San Diego and San Antonio, Texas. Formed in 1989, Hispanocare, a preferred provider organization catering to Hispanics, began attracting attention in other cities with large Hispanic populations, prompting the Chicago hospitals to begin a marketing push.

Understanding Landscape Change in Open Space Neighborhoods: Views from Developers and Residents

Treesearch

Christine A. Vogt; Robert W. Marans

2002-01-01

The landscape is changing across the country, particularly in outlying areas of US cities. These fringe areas, often called exurbia, continue to move further from the city core. Their growth is largely created by new residential, commercial ,and industrial development. Dramatic land use and land cover changes in these areas from agricultural or forested to buildings...

Understanding landscape change in open space neighborhoods: views from developers and residents

Treesearch

Christine A. Vogt; Robert W. Marans

2003-01-01

The landscape is changing across the country, particularly in outlying areas of US cities. These fringe areas, often called exurbia, continue to move further from the city core. Their growth is largely created by new residential, commercial, and industrial development. Dramatic land use and land cover changes in these areas from agricultural or forested to buildings...

Shutting Out the Poorest: Discrimination against the Most Disadvantaged Migrant Children in City Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Human Rights in China, New York, NY.

This report, based on official Chinese publications and interviews, examines the barriers official policies present to the realization of the right to education for migrant children in China, at a time when Beijing and other cities are employing large numbers of migrants in urban construction projects in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. The…

Do Small Schools Improve Performance in Large, Urban Districts? Causal Evidence from New York City. Working Paper #01-12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Stiefel, Leanna; Wiswall, Matthew

2012-01-01

We evaluate the effectiveness of small high school reform in the country's largest school district, New York City. Using a rich administrative dataset for multiple cohorts of students and distance between student residence and school to instrument for endogenous school selection, we find substantial heterogeneity in school effects: newly created…

Black, White, Green, Red. The Politics of Education in Ethnic America.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bresnick, David; And Others

The upheaval in large city school systems during the late 1960s and early 1970s is examined in this book. Most of the specific examples are drawn from school districts in New York City, such as Ocean Hill-Brownsville and Canarsie. The problems of growing demands for community control, ethnic and racial conflicts, and school decentralization are…

China's bullet trains facilitate market integration and mitigate the cost of megacity growth.

PubMed

Zheng, Siqi; Kahn, Matthew E

2013-04-02

Megacity growth in the developing world is fueled by a desire to access their large local labor markets. Growing megacities suffer from high levels of traffic congestion and pollution, which degrade local quality of life. Transportation technology that allows individuals to access the megacity without living within its boundaries offers potentially large social benefits, because individuals can enjoy the benefits of urban agglomeration while not paying megacity real estate rents and suffering from the city's social costs. This paper presents evidence supporting the claim that China's bullet trains are playing this role. The bullet train is regarded as one of the most significant technological breakthroughs in passenger transportation developed in the second half of the 20th century. Starting in 2007, China has introduced several new bullet trains that connect megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou with nearby cities. Through facilitating market integration, bullet trains will stimulate the development of second- and third-tier cities. By offering households and firms a larger menu of location alternatives, bullet trains help to protect the quality of life of the growing urban population. We document that this transport innovation is associated with rising real estate prices in the nearby secondary cities.

Association between unemployment, income, education level, population size and air pollution in Czech cities: evidence for environmental inequality? A pilot national scale analysis.

PubMed

Branis, Martin; Linhartova, Martina

2012-09-01

We analyzed differentials in exposure to SO(2), PM(10) and NO(2) among Czech urban populations categorized according to education level, unemployment rate, population size and average annual salary. Altogether 39 cities were included in the analysis. The principal component analysis revealed two factors explaining 72.8% of the data variability. The first factor explaining 44.7% of the data variability included SO(2), PM(10), low education level and high unemployment, documenting that inhabitants with unfavorable socioeconomic status mainly reside in smaller cities with higher concentration levels of combustion-related air pollutants. The second factor explaining 28.1% of the data variability included NO(2), high salary, high education level and large population, suggesting that large cities with residents with higher socioeconomic status are exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution. We conclude that, after more than a decade of free-market economy, the Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite with a centrally planned economy, displays signs of a certain kind of environmental inequality, since environmental hazards are unevenly distributed among the Czech urban populations. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

History of Planning Structure Development in Irkutsk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulakov, A. I.; Ree, A. U.

2017-11-01

The development of Irkutsk was spontaneous; the first streets represented a rather complex system of streets, dead ends, lanes. Throughout the history of the city, several general plans and development projects have been implemented (but not completely). Unlike other large Siberian cities (Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk), Irkutsk managed to preserve its historical appearance, architecture and initial planning. During its history the city has passed five stages of the planning structure development. The first stage of the city’s history coincides with the formation of the Russian settlements network in Eastern Siberia from the middle of the 17th to the end of the 18th centuries. Like many other Siberian cities, Irkutsk began its evolution from a fortified stockaded town. By the end of the 17th century a trading quarter appeared outside its walls. Currently, the city is developing and growing, so, a relevant issue of the further development direction of the Irkutsk planning structure naturally arises.

Initial planning of monorail development in Medan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Surbakti, M. S.

2018-03-01

Medan City is the third largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta and Surabaya. With a total area of 265.10 km2 and a population of 2.1 million people, it is proper that Medan City has operated a mass transportation system, which can accommodate the needs of the city movement. The current transportation system is dominated by a paratransit that has a capacity of 12 passengers. In fact, the data released by Ditlantas Poldasu and the Department of Transportation of Medan City shows that in 2013 the total number of passenger vehicles is 408,877 units, 99% of which are private vehicles, and there are only 1580 public transport. Planning the bus as a public transportation system in the city of Medan who tried to integrate it with the surrounding cities until now has not been done. One of the problems is the overlap of the bus route with existing public transport routes. This raises resistance from organda as an association of public transport operators located in the city of Medan. Bappeda Medan City in the Year 2014 has done the initial planning of monorail development in Medan City. The results of the study show that economically monorail development is feasible to be implemented and does not compete directly with the existing public transport system. This happens because 90% of monorail routes are in median ring road Medan City, which predicted the next 20 years will experience a large loading.

Differences in gay men's AIDS risk knowledge and behavior patterns in high and low AIDS prevalence cities.

PubMed Central

St Lawrence, J S; Hood, H V; Brasfield, T; Kelly, J A

1989-01-01

Several studies have found reductions in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) risk practices among gay men in high AIDS-prevalence cities since the start of the AIDS crisis. Much less is known about risk behavior patterns among gay men in smaller cities, where AIDS cases are less common and the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection is relatively lower. In the study, men entering gay bars in three cities, one large and two small, completed anonymous surveys of sexual practices and AIDS risk knowledge. Men in high AIDS-prevalence areas were found to have had a greater number of sexual partners, were more knowledgeable about AIDS, were much more likely to engage in low-risk practices (such as mutual masturbation or body rubbing), and had unprotected anal intercourse less frequently than gay men in smaller cities. The most common sexual activity among gay men in the larger city was mutual masturbation, a low-risk practice. The most common sexual activity among gay men in the smaller cities was unprotected anal intercourse. Increased efforts are needed to educate gay men and to promote risk behavior changes among those living in smaller cities and in communities outside the prominent AIDS epicenters. PMID:2502813

[Migration to metropolitan Mexico City].

PubMed

Cantu Gutierrez, J J; Luque Gonzalez, R

1990-01-01

Accelerated urbanization, especially after 1940, has been among the great transformations in Mexico associated with rapid and sustained economic growth during 1950-80. The urbanization process was highly selective, favoring in particular Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterey, which together contain about 25% of Mexico¿s total population. Metropolitan Mexico City alone contained around 18.2% of the total 1990 population on 0.2% of Mexico¿s land area. Mexico City¿s population grew at an average annual rate of 4.2%, from 1.6 million in 1940 to 14.8 million in 1990, largely due to in-migration. Migrants and their reproduction are estimated to have accounted for 51.2% of Mexico City¿s growth since 1940, and physical expansion of the metropolitan zone for another 5.7%. Slightly over 80% of migrants come from 10 states that are mostly rural, relatively densely populated, not distant, and below average in living levels. Women predominate slightly. Nearly half of migrants are aged 15-29 years on arrival. The proportion with no more than primary education is higher than that of Mexico City natives, but the proportion with post-secondary education is similar. Pollution, lack of public safety, and other urban problems will probably combine to discourage migration to Mexico City in the future and encourage departures to less difficult cities.

From mobile phone data to the spatial structure of cities

PubMed Central

Louail, Thomas; Lenormand, Maxime; Cantu Ros, Oliva G.; Picornell, Miguel; Herranz, Ricardo; Frias-Martinez, Enrique; Ramasco, José J.; Barthelemy, Marc

2014-01-01

Pervasive infrastructures, such as cell phone networks, enable to capture large amounts of human behavioral data but also provide information about the structure of cities and their dynamical properties. In this article, we focus on these last aspects by studying phone data recorded during 55 days in 31 Spanish cities. We first define an urban dilatation index which measures how the average distance between individuals evolves during the day, allowing us to highlight different types of city structure. We then focus on hotspots, the most crowded places in the city. We propose a parameter free method to detect them and to test the robustness of our results. The number of these hotspots scales sublinearly with the population size, a result in agreement with previous theoretical arguments and measures on employment datasets. We study the lifetime of these hotspots and show in particular that the hierarchy of permanent ones, which constitute the ‘heart' of the city, is very stable whatever the size of the city. The spatial structure of these hotspots is also of interest and allows us to distinguish different categories of cities, from monocentric and “segregated” where the spatial distribution is very dependent on land use, to polycentric where the spatial mixing between land uses is much more important. These results point towards the possibility of a new, quantitative classification of cities using high resolution spatio-temporal data. PMID:24923248

Latin America's supercity--the metropolitan area of Mexico City.

PubMed

1987-02-01

Big and still growing, Mexico City and its environs is soon to be the world's largest metropolitan area. The lure of city amenties--jobs, health care, schooling, and cheap food--and the hope of a better life bring 1000 rural migrants to Mexico City every day. Between 1950 and 1980, Mexico City grew at an annual average rate of 5.4%. Mexico City is typical of Latin American supercities, holding an impressive portion of the nation's population and commanding the lion's share of the country's economic activities. It is primarily due to the rapid growth in the northern periphery of the municipalities that Mexico City is expected to grow into the world's largest metropolitan area by the year 2000. Given the high proportion of youth relative to the total population, it is not suprising that average household sizes in Mexico City are large. About 60% to 70% of all families have no access to the formal housing market; much of the urban expansion has occurred through the emergence of squatter communities. Water may indeed be the most serious of all of Mexico City's infrastructural problems. Other problems include: 1) the government cannot meet the demands for educational buildings and personnel; 2) in 1982, 10.3% of the metropolitan population lived in extreme poverty and an additional 22.6% were unable to satisfy their basic needs; and 3) transport is a central problem. Demographic sources for Mexico are discussed.

"They Never Really Tried to Reach out to Us": Examining Identities and Confronting the Emotional Distance between Urban Youth and Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKnight, Andrew N.

2015-01-01

This paper looks at the perspectives of 22 young adults concerning their upbringings and life experiences, experiences in inner city and suburban schools, after leaving school, and later in a privately funded urban GED preparation facility in a large southern city. Specifically it addresses the conceptions students have about school and their…

Taking a Giant Step: A Case Study of New York City's Efforts to Implement Universal Pre-Kindergarten Services. Working Paper Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gatenio, Shirley

This working paper examines why Project Giant Step, a well-received policy initiative for universal preschool for 4-year-olds in New York City, was discontinued after overcoming many of the challenges it faced. Project Giant Step forced collaboration between large public agencies differing in their institutional structures, funding sources, and…

Re-Branding Urban Schools: Urban Revitalization, Social Status, and Marketing Public Schools to the Upper Middle Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cucchiara, Maia

2008-01-01

This article examines an effort to use urban schools to promote the revitalization of a large northeastern city in the United States. In order to attract and retain professional families to a regenerated central city, downtown schools are re-branded and promoted to such families as suitable for their children. The article draws on interviews and…

Small High Schools and Student Achievement: Lottery-Based Evidence from New York City. NBER Working Paper No. 19576

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdulkadiroglu, Atila; Hu, Weiwei; Pathak, Parag A.

2013-01-01

One of the most wideranging reforms in public education in the last decade has been the reorganization of large comprehensive high schools into small schools with roughly 100 students per grade. We use assignment lotteries embedded in New York City's high school match to estimate the effects of attendance at a new small high school on student…

77 FR 40407 - 2012 Temporary Closure of I-395 Just South of Conway Street in the City of Baltimore to Vehicular...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-09

... Highways Action Response Team will provide real-time traffic information to motorists through dynamic... 400-mile radius of the city, with a large portion traveling the I-95 corridor. It is anticipated that... Interstate route in the region, will remain open during the time period of the event. There are five...

Big Cities and Welfare Reform: Early Implementation and Ethnographic Findings from the Project on Devolution and Urban Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quint, Janet; Edin, Kathryn; Buck, Maria L.; Fink, Barbara; Padilla, Yolanda C.; Simmons-Hewitt, Olis; Valmont, Mary Eustace

This is the first report on the Project on Devolution and Urban Change, a multidisciplinary 5-year study of welfare reform in 4 large urban counties and their major cities (Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia). It uses data from interviews and focus groups conducted with welfare agency officials and line staff, observations of…

Preparing for Decision-Making: Training for Effective School-Based Budgeting in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Denver.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauber, Diana; Warden, Christine

So that New York City could build on the experiences of other large cities as it implemented Performance Driven Budgeting (PDB) in the schools, a study was conducted of the school based budgeting training in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Denver. These districts have from 6 to 10 years experience in site-based budgeting. The study is based on…

Black Suburbanization: Access to Improved Quality of Life or Maintenance of the Status Quo?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Harold M.

Large numbers of blacks have been moving into residential zones outside the central city but within what is sometimes called the metropolitan ring. By 1970, 3.5 million blacks, or a million more than in 1960, lived in these areas. Although these areas are outside the city proper, they should not be linked to the images held of typical suburbia.…

Emergy Expenditure Among Municipal Wastewater Treatment Systems Across US

EPA Science Inventory

The urbanization of the modern community creates large population centers that generate concentrated wastewater. A large expenditure on wastewater treatment has to be invested to make a modern city function without human and environmental health problems. Society relies on syste...

Urban scaling in Europe

PubMed Central

Bettencourt, Luís M. A.; Lobo, José

2016-01-01

Over the last few decades, in disciplines as diverse as economics, geography and complex systems, a perspective has arisen proposing that many properties of cities are quantitatively predictable due to agglomeration or scaling effects. Using new harmonized definitions for functional urban areas, we examine to what extent these ideas apply to European cities. We show that while most large urban systems in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) approximately agree with theoretical expectations, the small number of cities in each nation and their natural variability preclude drawing strong conclusions. We demonstrate how this problem can be overcome so that cities from different urban systems can be pooled together to construct larger datasets. This leads to a simple statistical procedure to identify urban scaling relations, which then clearly emerge as a property of European cities. We compare the predictions of urban scaling to Zipf's law for the size distribution of cities and show that while the former holds well the latter is a poor descriptor of European cities. We conclude with scenarios for the size and properties of future pan-European megacities and their implications for the economic productivity, technological sophistication and regional inequalities of an integrated European urban system. PMID:26984190

Mathematics and morphogenesis of cities: A geometrical approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Courtat, Thomas; Gloaguen, Catherine; Douady, Stephane

2011-03-01

Cities are living organisms. They are out of equilibrium, open systems that never stop developing and sometimes die. The local geography can be compared to a shell constraining its development. In brief, a city’s current layout is a step in a running morphogenesis process. Thus cities display a huge diversity of shapes and none of the traditional models, from random graphs, complex networks theory, or stochastic geometry, takes into account the geometrical, functional, and dynamical aspects of a city in the same framework. We present here a global mathematical model dedicated to cities that permits describing, manipulating, and explaining cities’ overall shape and layout of their street systems. This street-based framework conciliates the topological and geometrical sides of the problem. From the static analysis of several French towns (topology of first and second order, anisotropy, streets scaling) we make the hypothesis that the development of a city follows a logic of division or extension of space. We propose a dynamical model that mimics this logic and that, from simple general rules and a few parameters, succeeds in generating a large diversity of cities and in reproducing the general features the static analysis has pointed out.

Greenhouse gas emission footprints and energy use benchmarks for eight U.S. cities.

PubMed

Hillman, Tim; Ramaswami, Anu

2010-03-15

A hybrid life cycle-based trans-boundary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint is elucidated at the city-scale and evaluated for 8 US cities. The method incorporates end-uses of energy within city boundaries, plus cross-boundary demand for airline/freight transport and embodied energy of four key urban materials [food, water, energy (fuels), and shelter (cement)], essential for life in all cities. These cross-boundary activities contributed 47% on average more than the in-boundary GHG contributions traditionally reported for cities, indicating significant truncation at city boundaries of GHG emissions associated with urban activities. Incorporating cross-boundary contributions created convergence in per capita GHG emissions from the city-scale (average 23.7 mt-CO(2)e/capita) to the national-scale (24.5 mt-CO(2)e/capita), suggesting that six key cross-boundary activities may suffice to yield a holistic GHG emission footprint for cities, with important policy ramifications. Average GHG contributions from various human activity sectors include buildings/facilities energy use (47.1%), regional surface transport (20.8%), food production (14.7%), transport fuel production (6.4%), airline transport (4.8%), long-distance freight trucking (2.8%), cement production (2.2%), and water/wastewater/waste processing (1.3%). Energy-, travel-, and key materials-consumption efficiency metrics are elucidated in these sectors; these consumption metrics are observed to be largely similar across the eight U.S. cities and consistent with national/regional averages.

Development, primacy, and systems of cities.

PubMed

El-shakhs, S

1972-10-01

The relationship between the evolutionary changes in the city size distribution of nationally defined urban systems and the process of socioeconomic development is examined. Attention is directed to the problems of defining and measuring changes in city size distributions, using the results to test empirically the relationship of such changes to the development process. Existing theoretical structures and empirical generalizations which have tried to explain or to describe, respectively, the hierarchical relationships of cities are represented by central place theory and rank size relationships. The problem is not that deviations exist but that an adequate definition is lacking of urban systems on the 1 hand, and a universal measure of city size distribution, which could be applied to any system irrespective of its level of development, on the other. The problem of measuring changes in city size distributions is further compounded by the lack of sufficient reliable information about different systems of cities for the purposes of empirical comparative analysis. Changes in city size distributions have thus far been viewed largely within the framework of classic equilibrium theory. A more differentiated continuum of the development process should replace the bioplar continuum of underdeveloped developed countries in relating changes in city size distribution with development. Implicit in this distinction is the view that processes which influence spatial organization during the early formative stages of development are inherently different from those operating during the more advanced stages. 2 approaches were used to examine the relationship between national levels of development and primacy: a comparative analysis of a large number of countries at a given point in time; and a historical analysis of a limited sample of 2 advanced countries, the US and Great Britain. The 75 countries included in this study cover a wide range of characteristics. The study found a significant association between the degree of primacy of distributions of cities and their socioeconomic level of development; and the form of the primacy curve (or its evolution with development) seemed to follow a consistent pattern in which the peak of primacy obtained during the stages of socioeconomic transition with countries being less primate in either direction from that peak. This pattern is the result of 2 reverse influences of the development process on the spatial structure of countries--centralization and concentration beginning with the rise of cities and a decentralization and spread effect accompanying the increasing influence and importance of the periphery and structural changes in the pattern of authority.

Impact of passenger car NOX emissions on urban NO2 pollution - Scenario analysis for 8 European cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Degraeuwe, Bart; Thunis, Philippe; Clappier, Alain; Weiss, Martin; Lefebvre, Wouter; Janssen, Stijn; Vranckx, Stijn

2017-12-01

Residents of large European cities are exposed to NO2 concentrations that often exceed the established air quality standards. Diesel cars have been identified as a major contributor to this situation; yet, it remains unclear to which levels the NOX emissions of diesel cars have to decrease to effectively mitigate urban NO2 pollution across Europe. Here, we take a continental perspective and model urban NO2 pollution in a generic street canyon of 8 major European cities for various NOX emission scenarios. We find that a reduction in the on-road NOX emissions of diesel cars to the Euro 6 level can in general decrease the regional and urban NO2 concentrations and thereby the frequency of exceedances of the NO2 air quality standard. High NO2 fractions in the NOX emissions of diesel cars tend to increase the urban NO2 concentrations only in proximity of intense road traffic typically found on artery roads in large cities like Paris and London. In cities with a low share of diesel cars in the vehicle fleet such as Athens or a high contribution from the NO2 background to the urban NO2 pollution such as Krakow, measures addressing heavy-duty vehicles, and the manufacturing, energy, and mining industry are necessary to decrease urban air pollution. We regard our model results as robust albeit subject to uncertainty resulting from the application of a generic street layout. With small modifications in the input parameters, our model could be used to assess the impact of NOX emissions from road transport on NO2 air pollution in any European city.

[Internal migration changes from 1980 to 1990].

PubMed

Corona Vazquez, R

1991-01-01

From 1930 to the 1970s, internal migration in Mexico consisted mostly of permanent movement from rural areas to cities, and especially to the 3 metropolitan areas of Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. The migrations highlighted the developmental disparities between different regions. Their main consequence was the transformation of Mexico from a predominantly rural to a predominantly urban country. The regions expelling population were primarily densely populated and relatively unproductive areas in the center and south. Migrant destinations were the more developed and urban states. By 1980-90, there were a number of changes in migratory patterns that, along with participation of a greater number of household members in marginal economic activities, represented alternative survival strategies adopted by large population sectors in the face of declining living standards, natural disasters such as the earthquakes of 1985, and increasing ecological and safety problems in the large cities. Changes in migratory behavior during the 1980s included appearance and growing importance of new destinations, and the combination of permanent and temporary migration and of internal and international migration in the same localities, households, or even individuals. Greater distances were covered by migrants in the 1980s, and the relationship between socioeconomic status and migration became more varied. Another change was the decreased importance of migration to the 3 metropolitan areas. Metropolitan Mexico City even became a net expeller of population. At the same time, many medium-sized cities such as Orizaba, Matamoros, Juarez, and Tiajuana have become attractive destinations for migrants from surrounding areas and from Mexico City. The case of Baja California illustrates the combined occurrence of different types of migrations. Baja California in past decades had a high rate in-migration, but its growth has slowed. A greater diversity of origins and destinations is observed, along with a greater diversity of time frames.

Could US mayors achieve the entire US Paris climate target?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurney, K. R.; Huang, J.; Hutchins, M.; Liang, J.

2017-12-01

After the recent US Federal Administration announcement not to adhere to the Paris Accords, 359 mayors (and counting) in the US pledged to maintain their commitments, reducing emissions within their jurisdictions by 26-28% from their 2005 levels by the year 2025. While important, this leaves a large portion of the US landscape, and a large amount of US emissions, outside of the Paris commitment. With Federal US policy looking unlikely to change, could additional effort by US cities overcome the gap in national policy and achieve the equivalent US national Paris commitment? How many cities would be required and how deep would reductions need to be? Up until now, this question could not be reliably resolved due to lack of data at the urban scale. Here, we answer this question with new data - the Vulcan V3.0 FFCO2 emissions data product - through examination of the total US energy related CO2 emissions from cities. We find that the top 500 urban areas in the US could meet the national US commitment to the Paris Accords with a reduction of roughly 30% below their 2015 levels by the year 2025. This is driven by the share of US emissions emanating from cities, particularly the largest cohort. Indeed, as the number of urban areas taking on CO2 reduction targets grows, the less the reduction burden on any individual city. In this presentation, we provide an analysis of US urban CO2 emissions and US climate policy, accounting for varying definitions of urban areas, emitting sectors and the tradeoff between the number of policy-active cities and the CO2 reduction burden.

A Reading Attempt of the Urban Memory of Eskisehir Osmangazi University Meselik Campus via Cognitive Mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alptekin, Orkun

2017-10-01

University campuses have a small city view containing basic city functions such as work, accommodation, rest and transportation. They are spaces of social life that occupy large areas, have population density and different activities, change and grow with the cities they live in, and memorize the past accumulations. In this context, it is necessary for campuses to form and protect their own memories like cities. Campus memory is the ability of individuals to keep, maintain and - when necessary- reveal the experiences, sensations, comprehensions gathered from physical environment. "Cognitive mapping" is used to reveal the physical and emotional relationship that individuals make with the city and the individual-city interaction. Cognitive maps are created graphically using verbal and geometric items on paper by remembering these coded urban images. In this study, to determine the urban images belonging to Eskisehir Osmangazi University Meselik Campus, architecture students who have a short period experience of the campus were asked to note the areas they interact with the campus on the cognitive map. Campus memory items are identified by analysing the cognitive maps of the individuals who experienced the campus. In the direction of the obtained data, the campus area was re-read with five basic elements of Lynch: paths, districts, edges, nodes, and landmarks. As a result of these analyses, it is seen that religious structure, which is a large symbolic structure, located next to the main entrance in the settlement and health care facilities defined as landmarks are located in the memory of most of the individuals. Then, paths, nodes, districts, edges and educational buildings are listed respectively in cognitive maps.

Population Estimation Using a 3D City Model: A Multi-Scale Country-Wide Study in the Netherlands

PubMed Central

Arroyo Ohori, Ken; Ledoux, Hugo; Peters, Ravi; Stoter, Jantien

2016-01-01

The remote estimation of a region’s population has for decades been a key application of geographic information science in demography. Most studies have used 2D data (maps, satellite imagery) to estimate population avoiding field surveys and questionnaires. As the availability of semantic 3D city models is constantly increasing, we investigate to what extent they can be used for the same purpose. Based on the assumption that housing space is a proxy for the number of its residents, we use two methods to estimate the population with 3D city models in two directions: (1) disaggregation (areal interpolation) to estimate the population of small administrative entities (e.g. neighbourhoods) from that of larger ones (e.g. municipalities); and (2) a statistical modelling approach to estimate the population of large entities from a sample composed of their smaller ones (e.g. one acquired by a government register). Starting from a complete Dutch census dataset at the neighbourhood level and a 3D model of all 9.9 million buildings in the Netherlands, we compare the population estimates obtained by both methods with the actual population as reported in the census, and use it to evaluate the quality that can be achieved by estimations at different administrative levels. We also analyse how the volume-based estimation enabled by 3D city models fares in comparison to 2D methods using building footprints and floor areas, as well as how it is affected by different levels of semantic detail in a 3D city model. We conclude that 3D city models are useful for estimations of large areas (e.g. for a country), and that the 3D approach has clear advantages over the 2D approach. PMID:27254151

The Uses of Big Data in Cities.

PubMed

Bettencourt, Luís M A

2014-03-01

There is much enthusiasm currently about the possibilities created by new and more extensive sources of data to better understand and manage cities. Here, I explore how big data can be useful in urban planning by formalizing the planning process as a general computational problem. I show that, under general conditions, new sources of data coordinated with urban policy can be applied following fundamental principles of engineering to achieve new solutions to important age-old urban problems. I also show that comprehensive urban planning is computationally intractable (i.e., practically impossible) in large cities, regardless of the amounts of data available. This dilemma between the need for planning and coordination and its impossibility in detail is resolved by the recognition that cities are first and foremost self-organizing social networks embedded in space and enabled by urban infrastructure and services. As such, the primary role of big data in cities is to facilitate information flows and mechanisms of learning and coordination by heterogeneous individuals. However, processes of self-organization in cities, as well as of service improvement and expansion, must rely on general principles that enforce necessary conditions for cities to operate and evolve. Such ideas are the core of a developing scientific theory of cities, which is itself enabled by the growing availability of quantitative data on thousands of cities worldwide, across different geographies and levels of development. These three uses of data and information technologies in cities constitute then the necessary pillars for more successful urban policy and management that encourages, and does not stifle, the fundamental role of cities as engines of development and innovation in human societies.

The City Blueprint Approach: Urban Water Management and Governance in Cities in the U.S.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feingold, Daniel; Koop, Stef; van Leeuwen, Kees

2018-01-01

In this paper, we assess the challenges of water, waste and climate change in six cities across the U.S.: New York City, Boston, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Portland and Los Angeles. We apply the City Blueprint® Approach which consists of three indicator assessments: (1) the Trends and Pressures Framework (TPF), (2) the City Blueprint Framework (CBF) and (3) the water Governance Capacity Framework (GCF). The TPF summarizes the main social, environmental and financial pressures that may impede water management. The CBF provides an integrated overview of the management performances within the urban watercycle. Finally, the GCF provides a framework to identify key barriers and opportunities to develop governance capacity. The GCF has only been applied in NYC. Results show that all cities face pressures from heat risk. The management performances regarding resource efficiency and resource recovery from wastewater and solid waste show considerable room for improvement. Moreover, stormwater separation, infrastructure maintenance and green space require improvement in order to achieve a resilient urban watercycle. Finally, in New York City, the GCF results show that learning through smart monitoring, evaluation and cross-stakeholder learning is a limiting condition that needs to be addressed. We conclude that the City Blueprint Approach has large potential to assist cities in their strategic planning and exchange of knowledge, experiences and lessons. Because the methodology is well-structured, easy to understand, and concise, it may bridge the gap between science, policy and practice. It could therefore enable other cities to address their challenges of water, waste and climate change.

The City Blueprint Approach: Urban Water Management and Governance in Cities in the U.S.

PubMed

Feingold, Daniel; Koop, Stef; van Leeuwen, Kees

2018-01-01

In this paper, we assess the challenges of water, waste and climate change in six cities across the U.S.: New York City, Boston, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Portland and Los Angeles. We apply the City Blueprint ® Approach which consists of three indicator assessments: (1) the Trends and Pressures Framework (TPF), (2) the City Blueprint Framework (CBF) and (3) the water Governance Capacity Framework (GCF). The TPF summarizes the main social, environmental and financial pressures that may impede water management. The CBF provides an integrated overview of the management performances within the urban watercycle. Finally, the GCF provides a framework to identify key barriers and opportunities to develop governance capacity. The GCF has only been applied in NYC. Results show that all cities face pressures from heat risk. The management performances regarding resource efficiency and resource recovery from wastewater and solid waste show considerable room for improvement. Moreover, stormwater separation, infrastructure maintenance and green space require improvement in order to achieve a resilient urban watercycle. Finally, in New York City, the GCF results show that learning through smart monitoring, evaluation and cross-stakeholder learning is a limiting condition that needs to be addressed. We conclude that the City Blueprint Approach has large potential to assist cities in their strategic planning and exchange of knowledge, experiences and lessons. Because the methodology is well-structured, easy to understand, and concise, it may bridge the gap between science, policy and practice. It could therefore enable other cities to address their challenges of water, waste and climate change.

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Malaria in Urban Ahmedabad (Gujarat), India: Identification of Hot Spots and Risk Factors for Targeted Intervention

PubMed Central

Parizo, Justin; Sturrock, Hugh J. W.; Dhiman, Ramesh C.; Greenhouse, Bryan

2016-01-01

The world population, especially in developing countries, has experienced a rapid progression of urbanization over the last half century. Urbanization has been accompanied by a rise in cases of urban infectious diseases, such as malaria. The complexity and heterogeneity of the urban environment has made study of specific urban centers vital for urban malaria control programs, whereas more generalizable risk factor identification also remains essential. Ahmedabad city, India, is a large urban center located in the state of Gujarat, which has experienced a significant Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum disease burden. Therefore, a targeted analysis of malaria in Ahmedabad city was undertaken to identify spatiotemporal patterns of malaria, risk factors, and methods of predicting future malaria cases. Malaria incidence in Ahmedabad city was found to be spatially heterogeneous, but temporally stable, with high spatial correlation between species. Because of this stability, a prediction method utilizing historic cases from prior years and seasons was used successfully to predict which areas of Ahmedabad city would experience the highest malaria burden and could be used to prospectively target interventions. Finally, spatial analysis showed that normalized difference vegetation index, proximity to water sources, and location within Ahmedabad city relative to the dense urban core were the best predictors of malaria incidence. Because of the heterogeneity of urban environments and urban malaria itself, the study of specific large urban centers is vital to assist in allocating resources and informing future urban planning. PMID:27382081

Relationship between fluorine in drinking water and dental health of residents in some large cities in China.

PubMed

Wang, Binbin; Zheng, Baoshan; Zhai, Cheng; Yu, Guangqian; Liu, Xiaojing

2004-10-01

In this project, the relationship between fluorine content in drinking water and dental health of residents in some large cities in China was evaluated. The concentration of fluorine in tap water and in urine of local subjects of 28 cities and 4 high fluorine villages in China shows a strong positive correlation (r(2)=0.96, S.E.=0.9881). Our studies indicate that drinking water is the most important source of fluorine intake for Chinese people, and in more than 90% of urban cities, fluorine concentrations in drinking water are below levels recommended by the WHO (approximately 0.5-1.0 mg/l). A 1995 investigation by The National Committee on Oral Health of China (NCOH) shows the relationship between average number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) of urban residents and fluorine concentration in drinking water to be negatively correlated but not forming a good linear relationship. Our results, together with the previous study, suggest that: (1) dental caries of the study population can be reduced by drinking water fluoridation and that (2) other factors such as economic level, weather, lifestyle, food habits, living condition, etc., of a city can also affect the incidence of dental caries that cannot be predicted by fluoridation alone. Research on the relation between index of fluorosis (IF) and the fluorine concentration in drinking water for the four high fluorine villages showed that the recommended concentration of fluorine in drinking water can protect from dental fluorosis.

Evaluating the Environmental Performance of Urban Parks in Mediterranean Cities: An Example from the Barcelona Metropolitan Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parés-Franzi, Marc; Saurí-Pujol, David; Domene, Elena

2006-11-01

In a context of increasing urban sprawl and water scarcity common to other Mediterranean cities, this article focuses on the urban parks in the Region of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) to examine how these parks are distributed in this region and to assess whether their design and management follow criteria adapted to Mediterranean environmental conditions, especially in what concerns water use. In order to evaluate the environmental performance of these parks, we selected four factors possibly influencing the adoption of park management practices at the local scale: urban density, population size of the municipality, municipal income per capita, and political orientation of the city council. After determining the location and area of urban parks in the region, we correlated these four explanatory factors with several management tasks extracted from two different samples of parks (one of 315 parks and another of 125 parks) and a survey of 86 city councils. Results show that, in general, urban parks were more frequent in large, dense, and left/green municipalities but that environmentally sound practices were more common in small and low-density municipalities. We conclude that changes in certain practices (especially the substitution of high water demanding species) could improve significantly the environmental performance of public spaces in large urban areas with Mediterranean climates. Our observations may be pertinent for other cities interested in the provision of environmental public goods such as parks that necessitate water for irrigation.

Digital Archiving of People Flow by Recycling Large-Scale Social Survey Data of Developing Cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekimoto, Y.; Watanabe, A.; Nakamura, T.; Horanont, T.

2012-07-01

Data on people flow has become increasingly important in the field of business, including the areas of marketing and public services. Although mobile phones enable a person's position to be located to a certain degree, it is a challenge to acquire sufficient data from people with mobile phones. In order to grasp people flow in its entirety, it is important to establish a practical method of reconstructing people flow from various kinds of existing fragmentary spatio-temporal data such as social survey data. For example, despite typical Person Trip Survey Data collected by the public sector showing the fragmentary spatio-temporal positions accessed, the data are attractive given the sufficiently large sample size to estimate the entire flow of people. In this study, we apply our proposed basic method to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) PT data pertaining to developing cities around the world, and we propose some correction methods to resolve the difficulties in applying it to many cities and stably to infrastructure data.

Projecting future temperature-related mortality in three largest Australian cities.

PubMed

Guo, Yuming; Li, Shanshan; Liu, De Li; Chen, Dong; Williams, Gail; Tong, Shilu

2016-01-01

We estimated net annual temperature-related mortality in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia using 62 global climate model projections under three IPPC SRES CO2 emission scenarios (A2, A1B and B1). In all cities, all scenarios resulted in increases in summer temperature-related deaths for future decades, and decreases in winter temperature-related deaths. However, Brisbane and Sydney will increase the net annual temperature-related deaths in the future, while a slight decrease will happen in Melbourne. Additionally, temperature-related mortality will largely increase beyond the summer (including January, February, March, November and December) in Brisbane and Sydney, while temperature-related mortality will largely decrease beyond the winter in Melbourne. In conclusion, temperature increases for Australia are expected to result in a decreased burden of cold-related mortality and an increased burden of heat-related mortality, but the balance of these differences varied by city. In particular, the seasonal patterns in temperature-related deaths will be shifted. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adoption of endovenous laser treatment as the primary treatment modality for varicose veins: the Auckland City Hospital experience.

PubMed

Fernando, Ruchira S W; Muthu, Carl

2014-08-01

To assess the effectiveness of adopting endovenous laser treatment (EVLT) as the primary treatment modality for varicose veins at Auckland City Hospital (Auckland, New Zealand). The outcomes of 354 consecutive EVLT procedures performed between 2007 and 2013 were reviewed. Data was collected from a prospectively maintained procedural database and by retrospective chart review. Of the 319 patients who had an ultrasound, at 1 month post-procedure there was a saphenous vein occlusion rate of 96%. Side effects were minimal with no cases of DVT or skin burns and one case of self-limiting neuralgia. The procedure was well tolerated with a median pain score of 3. Since the adoption of EVLT there has been a large increase in the number of patients treated for varicose veins (28 in 2007 compared to 176 in 2013). EVLT is a safe and effective treatment for varicose veins and its adoption has allowed a large increase in the number of varicose vein patients treated at Auckland City Hospital.

Quantitative Mapping of Reflected and Emitted Energy Patterns Over a City

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luvall, J.; Rickman, D.; Quattrochi, D.; Estes, M.; Arnold, James E. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

There are major variations in energy flux within and across the region of a large city. These variations have impacts in disparate areas, such as human health, environmental monitoring and mitigation, and energy consumption. Knowledge of the variations also has utility to urban and regional planners, and climate modelers. The authors have developed a system which permits robust measurement of both the magnitude of the energy flux variation and the absolute value of energy flux over regions of the size of large cites. The technique uses properly acquired and processed multispectral imagery with bands in the visible, near-IR and thermal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. With proper knowledge of the atmosphere and geometries of acquisition it is possible to compute the energy budget for individual pixels. The reality of this technique is demonstrated using data acquired over Salt Lake City, Utah. The deficiencies in the results emphasize the critical nature of various design and engineering features usually ignored in airborne and satellite imaging systems.

An urban approach to planetary boundaries.

PubMed

Hoornweg, Daniel; Hosseini, Mehdi; Kennedy, Christopher; Behdadi, Azin

2016-09-01

The achievement of global sustainable development goals subject to planetary boundaries will mostly be determined by cities as they drive cultures, economies, material use, and waste generation. Locally relevant, applied and quantitative methodologies are critical to capture the complexity of urban infrastructure systems, global inter-connections, and to monitor local and global progress toward sustainability. An urban monitoring (and communications) tool is presented here illustrating that a city-based approach to sustainable development is possible. Following efforts to define and quantify safe planetary boundaries in areas such as climate change, biosphere integrity, and freshwater use, this paper modifies the methodology to propose boundaries from a city's perspective. Socio-economic boundaries, or targets, largely derived from the Sustainable Development Goals are added to bio-physical boundaries. Issues such as data availability, city priorities, and ease of implementation are considered. The framework is trialed for Toronto, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, and Dakar, as well as aggregated for the world's larger cities. The methodology provides an important tool for cities to play a more fulsome and active role in global sustainable development.

Opportunistic Mobility Support for Resource Constrained Sensor Devices in Smart Cities

PubMed Central

Granlund, Daniel; Holmlund, Patrik; Åhlund, Christer

2015-01-01

A multitude of wireless sensor devices and technologies are being developed and deployed in cities all over the world. Sensor applications in city environments may include highly mobile installations that span large areas which necessitates sensor mobility support. This paper presents and validates two mechanisms for supporting sensor mobility between different administrative domains. Firstly, EAP-Swift, an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)-based sensor authentication protocol is proposed that enables light-weight sensor authentication and key generation. Secondly, a mechanism for handoffs between wireless sensor gateways is proposed. We validate both mechanisms in a real-life study that was conducted in a smart city environment with several fixed sensors and moving gateways. We conduct similar experiments in an industry-based anechoic Long Term Evolution (LTE) chamber with an ideal radio environment. Further, we validate our results collected from the smart city environment against the results produced under ideal conditions to establish best and real-life case scenarios. Our results clearly validate that our proposed mechanisms can facilitate efficient sensor authentication and handoffs while sensors are roaming in a smart city environment. PMID:25738767

Opportunistic mobility support for resource constrained sensor devices in smart cities.

PubMed

Granlund, Daniel; Holmlund, Patrik; Åhlund, Christer

2015-03-02

A multitude of wireless sensor devices and technologies are being developed and deployed in cities all over the world. Sensor applications in city environments may include highly mobile installations that span large areas which necessitates sensor mobility support. This paper presents and validates two mechanisms for supporting sensor mobility between different administrative domains. Firstly, EAP-Swift, an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)-based sensor authentication protocol is proposed that enables light-weight sensor authentication and key generation. Secondly, a mechanism for handoffs between wireless sensor gateways is proposed. We validate both mechanisms in a real-life study that was conducted in a smart city environment with several fixed sensors and moving gateways. We conduct similar experiments in an industry-based anechoic Long Term Evolution (LTE) chamber with an ideal radio environment. Further, we validate our results collected from the smart city environment against the results produced under ideal conditions to establish best and real-life case scenarios. Our results clearly validate that our proposed mechanisms can facilitate efficient sensor authentication and handoffs while sensors are roaming in a smart city environment.

First Wave of the 2016-17 Cholera Outbreak in Hodeidah City, Yemen - ACF Experience and Lessons Learned.

PubMed

Altmann, Mathias; Suarez-Bustamante, Miguel; Soulier, Celine; Lesavre, Celine; Antoine, Caroline

2017-10-13

Although cases were reported only in 2010 and 2011, cholera is probably endemic in Yemen. In the context of a civil war, a cholera outbreak was declared in different parts of the country October 6th, 2016. This paper describes the ACF outbreak response in Hodeidah city from October 28th, 2016 to February 28th, 2017 in order to add knowledge to this large outbreak. The ACF outbreak response in Hodeidah city included a case management component and prevention measures in the community. In partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Yemen (MoPHP), the case management component included a Cholera Treatment Center (CTC) implemented in the Al Thoraw hospital, 11 Oral Rehydration Therapy Corners (ORTCs) and an active case finding system. In partnership with other stakeholders, prevention measures in the community, including access to safe water and hygiene promotion, were implemented in the most affected communities of the city. From October 28th, 2016 until February 28th, 2017, ACF provided care to 8,270 Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) cases, of which 5,210 (63%) were suspected cholera cases, in the CTC and the 11 ORTCs implemented in Hodeidah city. The attack rate was higher among people living in Al Hali district, with a peak in November 2016. At the CTC, 8% of children under 5 years-old also presented with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). The Case-Fatality Rate (CFR) was low (0.07%) but 15% of admitted cases defaulted for cultural and security reasons. Environmental management lacked the information to appropriately target affected areas. Financial resources did not allow complete coverage of the city. Response to the first wave of a large cholera outbreak in Hodeidah city was successful in maintaining a CFR <1% in the CTC. However, considering the actual context of Yemen and its water infrastructure, much more efforts are needed to control the current outbreak resurgence.

First Wave of the 2016-17 Cholera Outbreak in Hodeidah City, Yemen - ACF Experience and Lessons Learned

PubMed Central

Altmann, Mathias; Suarez-Bustamante, Miguel; Soulier, Celine; Lesavre, Celine; Antoine, Caroline

2017-01-01

Introduction: Although cases were reported only in 2010 and 2011, cholera is probably endemic in Yemen. In the context of a civil war, a cholera outbreak was declared in different parts of the country October 6th, 2016. This paper describes the ACF outbreak response in Hodeidah city from October 28th, 2016 to February 28th, 2017 in order to add knowledge to this large outbreak. Methods: The ACF outbreak response in Hodeidah city included a case management component and prevention measures in the community. In partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and Population of Yemen (MoPHP), the case management component included a Cholera Treatment Center (CTC) implemented in the Al Thoraw hospital, 11 Oral Rehydration Therapy Corners (ORTCs) and an active case finding system. In partnership with other stakeholders, prevention measures in the community, including access to safe water and hygiene promotion, were implemented in the most affected communities of the city. Results: From October 28th, 2016 until February 28th, 2017, ACF provided care to 8,270 Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) cases, of which 5,210 (63%) were suspected cholera cases, in the CTC and the 11 ORTCs implemented in Hodeidah city. The attack rate was higher among people living in Al Hali district, with a peak in November 2016. At the CTC, 8% of children under 5 years-old also presented with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). The Case-Fatality Rate (CFR) was low (0.07%) but 15% of admitted cases defaulted for cultural and security reasons. Environmental management lacked the information to appropriately target affected areas. Financial resources did not allow complete coverage of the city. Conclusion: Response to the first wave of a large cholera outbreak in Hodeidah city was successful in maintaining a CFR <1% in the CTC. However, considering the actual context of Yemen and its water infrastructure, much more efforts are needed to control the current outbreak resurgence. PMID:29188130

Solving large scale traveling salesman problems by chaotic neurodynamics.

PubMed

Hasegawa, Mikio; Ikeguch, Tohru; Aihara, Kazuyuki

2002-03-01

We propose a novel approach for solving large scale traveling salesman problems (TSPs) by chaotic dynamics. First, we realize the tabu search on a neural network, by utilizing the refractory effects as the tabu effects. Then, we extend it to a chaotic neural network version. We propose two types of chaotic searching methods, which are based on two different tabu searches. While the first one requires neurons of the order of n2 for an n-city TSP, the second one requires only n neurons. Moreover, an automatic parameter tuning method of our chaotic neural network is presented for easy application to various problems. Last, we show that our method with n neurons is applicable to large TSPs such as an 85,900-city problem and exhibits better performance than the conventional stochastic searches and the tabu searches.

Ticketing aggressive cars and trucks (TACT): How does it work on city streets?

PubMed

Telford, Russell; Cook, Lawrence J; Olson, Lenora M

2018-02-17

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of modifying the Ticking Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) program, originally designed to work on state highways, within a metropolitan area to reduce unsafe interactions and their related crashes between drivers of large trucks and passenger vehicles. Using crash data, the driving behaviors most commonly associated with large truck and passenger vehicle crashes were identified. A public awareness campaign using media messaging and increased law enforcement was created targeting these associated behaviors. The frequency of these behaviors both before and after the public awareness campaign was determined through observation of traffic at 3 specific locations within the city. Each location had a sufficient volume of large truck and passenger traffic to observe frequent interactions. Pre- and postintervention data were compared using negative binomial regression with generalized estimating equations to evaluate whether the campaign was associated with a reduction in the identified driving behaviors. A comparison between crash data from before, during, and after the campaign and crashes during the same time periods in previous years did not show a significant difference (P =.081). The number of large trucks observed in traffic remained the same during pre- and postintervention periods (P =.625). The rates of negative interactions per 100 large trucks decreased for both large trucks and passenger vehicles after the intervention, with calculated rate ratios of 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48, 0.70) and 0.31 (95% CI, 0.20, 0.47). The greatest reduction was seen in passenger vehicles following too close, with a rate ratio of 0.21 (95% CI, 0.15, 0.30). Although designed for reducing crashes on highways, the TACT program can be an effective approach for improving driver behaviors on city streets.

Decreased losses of woody plant foliage to insects in large urban areas are explained by bird predation.

PubMed

Kozlov, Mikhail V; Lanta, Vojtěch; Zverev, Vitali; Rainio, Kalle; Kunavin, Mikhail A; Zvereva, Elena L

2017-10-01

Despite the increasing rate of urbanization, the consequences of this process on biotic interactions remain insufficiently studied. Our aims were to identify the general pattern of urbanization impact on background insect herbivory, to explore variations in this impact related to characteristics of both urban areas and insect-plant systems, and to uncover the factors governing urbanization impacts on insect herbivory. We compared the foliar damage inflicted on the most common trees by defoliating, leafmining and gall-forming insects in rural and urban habitats associated with 16 European cities. In two of these cities, we explored quality of birch foliage for herbivorous insects, mortality of leafmining insects due to predators and parasitoids and bird predation on artificial plasticine larvae. On average, the foliage losses to insects were 16.5% lower in urban than in rural habitats. The magnitude of the overall adverse effect of urbanization on herbivory was independent of the latitude of the locality and was similar in all 11 studied tree species, but increased with an increase in the size of the urban area: it was significant in large cities (city population 1-5 million) but not significant in medium-sized and small towns. Quality of birch foliage for herbivorous insects was slightly higher in urban habitats than in rural habitats. At the same time, leafminer mortality due to ants and birds and the bird attack intensity on dummy larvae were higher in large cities than in rural habitats, which at least partially explained the decline in insect herbivory observed in response to urbanization. Our findings underscore the importance of top-down forces in mediating impacts of urbanization on plant-feeding insects: factors favouring predators may override the positive effects of temperature elevation on insects and thus reduce plant damage. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Urbanization in Africa since independence.

PubMed

Tarver, J D

1994-01-01

Over 185 million inhabitants were added to the urban areas of Africa between 1950 and 1990. Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland is the most highly urbanized, with 55% in 1990; while less than a quarter of Eastern Africa's population is living in urban centers. By the year 2015 more than half of Africa's population will be living in urban areas. Many parts of Africa have suffered prolonged droughts, overgrazing, locust infestations, and desertification. Millions have become refugees from natural disasters, political oppression, and rural poverty. The large exodus from Africa's rural areas has gone to cities but the large cities have attracted disproportionately large numbers of destitute migrants. Alexandria (1 million), Cairo (2.4 million) and the Witwatersrand in South Africa were the only African urban agglomerations with at least one million inhabitants in 1950. By 1990 the two Egyptian cities together had 12.7 million inhabitants and the Witwatersrand some 5 million, whereas the other 25 urban agglomerations with a million inhabitants each in 1990 had a total population of about 51 million. Lagos, Kinshasa, and Algiers ranged from 3 to 7.7 million. The capitals are the largest cities in at least 54 of the 59 countries and territories. Lagos, Nairobi, and Dar es Salaam are disproportionately larger than the next most populous cities in their countries. The 28 urban agglomerations with at least one million inhabitants had a total population of 70 million in 1990, and are projected to reach 100 million in the year 2000. Overall, Africa's urban population is projected to increase by approximately 135 million in the 1990-2000 decade (from 217 million to 352 million). About 105 million of the growth probably will occur in the smaller urban centers. The total African urban population is likely to reach one billion inhabitants within the next 50 years. It stood at 32 million in 1950. Presently, the United Nations projects 912 million urban residents (57% of the total population) by 2025.

It's Our Fault: better defining earthquake risk in Wellington, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Dissen, R.; Brackley, H. L.; Francois-Holden, C.

2012-12-01

The Wellington region, home of New Zealand's capital city, is cut by a number of major right-lateral strike slip faults, and is underlain by the currently locked west-dipping subduction interface between the down going Pacific Plate, and the over-riding Australian Plate. In its short historic period (ca. 160 years), the region has been impacted by large earthquakes on the strike-slip faults, but has yet to bear the brunt of a subduction interface rupture directly beneath the capital city. It's Our Fault is a comprehensive study of Wellington's earthquake risk. Its objective is to position the capital city of New Zealand to become more resilient through an encompassing study of the likelihood of large earthquakes, and the effects and impacts of these earthquakes on humans and the built environment. It's Our Fault is jointly funded by New Zealand's Earthquake Commission, Accident Compensation Corporation, Wellington City Council, Wellington Region Emergency Management Group, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Natural Hazards Research Platform. The programme has been running for six years, and key results to date include better definition and constraints on: 1) location, size, timing, and likelihood of large earthquakes on the active faults closest to Wellington; 2) earthquake size and ground shaking characterization of a representative suite of subduction interface rupture scenarios under Wellington; 3) stress interactions between these faults; 4) geological, geotechnical, and geophysical parameterisation of the near-surface sediments and basin geometry in Wellington City and the Hutt Valley; and 5) characterisation of earthquake ground shaking behaviour in these two urban areas in terms of subsoil classes specified in the NZ Structural Design Standard. The above investigations are already supporting measures aimed at risk reduction, and collectively they will facilitate identification of additional actions that will have the greatest benefit towards further increasing the region's resilience to earthquakes. We present latest results on ground motion simulations for large plate interface earthquakes under Wellington in terms of response spectra and acceleration time histories. We derive realistic broadband accelerograms based on a stochastic modelling technique. First we characterise the potential interface rupture area based on previous geodetically-derived estimates interface of slip deficit. Then, we entertain a suitable range of source parameters, including various rupture areas, moment magnitudes, stress drops, slip distributions and rupture propagation directions. The resulting rupture scenarios all produce long duration shaking, and peak ground accelerations that, typically, range between 0.2-0.7 g in Wellington city. Many of these scenarios also produce long period motions that are currently not captured by the current NZ design spectra.

Sustained Progress: New Findings about the Effectiveness and Operation of Small Public High Schools of Choice in New York City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bloom, Howard S.; Unterman, Rebecca

2013-01-01

In 2002, New York City embarked on an ambitious and wide-ranging series of education reforms. At the heart of its high school reforms were three interrelated changes: the institution of a district wide high school choice process for all rising ninth-graders, the closure of 31 large, failing high schools with an average graduation rate of 40…

The influence of personal belief, agency mission and city size on open space decision making processes in three southwestern cities

Treesearch

Megan Friggens; Carol Raish; Deborah Finch; Alice McSweeney

2015-01-01

The southwest has experienced dramatic population increases over the last 30 years, a trend that is expected to continue. Open space conservation is important both from the standpoint of preserving ecosystem services as well as maintaining quality of life for urban populations. Federal agencies manage a large proportion of the public land in the Southwestern U.S. We...

Campaign supports new name for TX hospital. Effort expands children's hospital's image and increases awareness.

PubMed

2007-01-01

For years, the North Texas Hospital for Children at Medical City in Dallas struggled with its brand awareness. It's long-winded name was largely unknown among the city's 1.2 million residents. The hospital needed a new name and it needed one fast. The year 2005 proved to be both a burden and an opportunity for the 311-bed pediatric hospital. It survived a legal battle with a local competitor for the right to use the word "children's" in its name, created a new identity, and launched a three-year branding initiative to introduce its new name: Medical City Children's Hospital.

Central electrical utility power for a satellite ring city in low earth orbit space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, Ira T.; Faymon, Karl A.; Patton, A. D.

1989-01-01

Information is given in viewgraph form on central electrical power for a satellite ring city, defined as a group of large free flyers of 10 to 20 units with perhaps 100 people in each unit, and organized in a circle so that power can be fed from a central location. The free flyers would be located at 300 to 700 miles in altitude, and spaced about a kilometer apart. Potential activities of a ring city are listed as well as the electrical power needs. Information is given on costs and individual and centralized solar arrays and nuclear reactor systems.

The development of water services and their interaction with water resources in European and Brazilian cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barraqué, B.; Formiga Johnsson, R. M.; Nogueira de Paiva Britto, A. L.

2008-08-01

The extension and complexity of large cities creates "urban water" and a related issue: public water services, including public water supply, sewage collection and treatment, and storm water control, had previously become a policy sector separate from water resource allocation issues thanks to water transport and treatment technologies. Large metropolitan areas today cannot take nature for granted anymore, and they need to protect water resources, if only to reduce the long term cost of transporting and treating water. In this paper, we compare the historical development of water services in European and Brazilian metropolitan areas, placing the technological developments in their geographic, socio-economic and political contexts. Our frame is to follow the successive contributions of civil engineering, sanitary engineering, and environmental engineering: the "quantity of water" and civil engineering paradigm allowed to mobilise water in and out of the city, and up the hills or the floors; in the "water quality" and chemical/sanitary engineering paradigm, water treatment gave more freedom to cities to take water from rivers closer to them, but also to reduce sewer discharge impacts; lastly, the environmental engineering paradigm proposes to overcome the supply side perspective, by introducing demand side management, water conservation, water allocation flexibilisation, and an integrated approach to water services, water resources management, and land use policies.

Smart City Pilot Projects Using LoRa and IEEE802.15.4 Technologies.

PubMed

Pasolini, Gianni; Buratti, Chiara; Feltrin, Luca; Zabini, Flavio; De Castro, Cristina; Verdone, Roberto; Andrisano, Oreste

2018-04-06

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), through wireless communications and the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, are the enabling keys for transforming traditional cities into smart cities, since they provide the core infrastructure behind public utilities and services. However, to be effective, IoT-based services could require different technologies and network topologies, even when addressing the same urban scenario. In this paper, we highlight this aspect and present two smart city testbeds developed in Italy. The first one concerns a smart infrastructure for public lighting and relies on a heterogeneous network using the IEEE 802.15.4 short-range communication technology, whereas the second one addresses smart-building applications and is based on the LoRa low-rate, long-range communication technology. The smart lighting scenario is discussed providing the technical details and the economic benefits of a large-scale (around 3000 light poles) flexible and modular implementation of a public lighting infrastructure, while the smart-building testbed is investigated, through measurement campaigns and simulations, assessing the coverage and the performance of the LoRa technology in a real urban scenario. Results show that a proper parameter setting is needed to cover large urban areas while maintaining the airtime sufficiently low to keep packet losses at satisfactory levels.

Neighborhood Contributions to Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Obesity Among New York City Adults.

PubMed

Lim, Sungwoo; Harris, Tiffany G

2015-01-01

Objectives. We assessed neighborhood confounding on racial/ethnic obesity disparities among adults in New York City after accounting for complex sampling, and how much neighborhood factors (walkability, percentage Black or Hispanic, poverty) contributed to this effect. Methods. We combined New York City Community Health Survey 2002-2004 data with Census 2000 zip code-level data. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) for obesity with 2 sets of regression analyses. First, we used the method incorporating the conditional pseudolikelihood into complex sample adjustment. Second, we compared ORs for race/ethnicity from a conventional multilevel model for each neighborhood factor with those from a hybrid fixed-effect model. Results. The weighted estimate for obesity for Blacks versus Whites (OR = 1.8; 95% confidence interval = 1.6, 2.0) was attenuated when we controlled neighborhood confounding (OR = 1.4; 95% confidence interval = 1.2, 1.6; first analysis). Percentage of Blacks in the neighborhood made a large contribution whereas the walkability contribution was minimal (second analysis). Conclusions. Percentage of Blacks in New York City neighborhoods explained a large portion of the disparity in obesity between Blacks and Whites. The study highlights the importance of estimating valid neighborhood effects for public health surveillance and intervention.

Smart City Pilot Projects Using LoRa and IEEE802.15.4 Technologies

PubMed Central

Buratti, Chiara; Zabini, Flavio; De Castro, Cristina; Verdone, Roberto; Andrisano, Oreste

2018-01-01

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), through wireless communications and the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, are the enabling keys for transforming traditional cities into smart cities, since they provide the core infrastructure behind public utilities and services. However, to be effective, IoT-based services could require different technologies and network topologies, even when addressing the same urban scenario. In this paper, we highlight this aspect and present two smart city testbeds developed in Italy. The first one concerns a smart infrastructure for public lighting and relies on a heterogeneous network using the IEEE 802.15.4 short-range communication technology, whereas the second one addresses smart-building applications and is based on the LoRa low-rate, long-range communication technology. The smart lighting scenario is discussed providing the technical details and the economic benefits of a large-scale (around 3000 light poles) flexible and modular implementation of a public lighting infrastructure, while the smart-building testbed is investigated, through measurement campaigns and simulations, assessing the coverage and the performance of the LoRa technology in a real urban scenario. Results show that a proper parameter setting is needed to cover large urban areas while maintaining the airtime sufficiently low to keep packet losses at satisfactory levels. PMID:29642391

Evaluation of possibility to increasing sustainability of high-rise buildings through use university intellectual property

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potekhin, Igor; Mischenko, Valeryi; Mottaeva, Angela; Zheltenkov, Alexander

2018-03-01

In this article explained approach of valuation of intellectual property of Voronezh State Technical University, as her usefulness to increasing the sustainability and ecological safety of high-rise building. High-rise building is main type of buildings in modern cities. They include large volume of material mass, high volume of energy using and high volume of emissions. Using innovation solutions to improving ecology safety of high-rise buildings has large potential to city in whole. Explained in the article methods of calculation of effects helps to value sustainable solutions of present and future generations. Thus usefulness of patents express through usefulness regarding to high-rise building, including for sustainable development.

High-rise construction in the Russian economy: modeling of management decisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miroshnikova, Tatyana; Taskaeva, Natalia

2018-03-01

The growth in the building industry, particularly in residential high-rise construction, is having considerable influence on the country's economic development. The scientific hypothesis of the research is that the execution of town-planning programs of high-rise construction depends to a large extent on the management of the provision of material resources for the construction of a millionth city, while the balance model is the most important tool for establishing and determining the ratio between supply and demand for material resources. In order to improve the efficiency of high-rise building management, it is proposed to develop a methodology for managing the provision of construction of large cities with material resources.

Gravity versus radiation models: on the importance of scale and heterogeneity in commuting flows.

PubMed

Masucci, A Paolo; Serras, Joan; Johansson, Anders; Batty, Michael

2013-08-01

We test the recently introduced radiation model against the gravity model for the system composed of England and Wales, both for commuting patterns and for public transportation flows. The analysis is performed both at macroscopic scales, i.e., at the national scale, and at microscopic scales, i.e., at the city level. It is shown that the thermodynamic limit assumption for the original radiation model significantly underestimates the commuting flows for large cities. We then generalize the radiation model, introducing the correct normalization factor for finite systems. We show that even if the gravity model has a better overall performance the parameter-free radiation model gives competitive results, especially for large scales.

Water-quality assessment of the largely urban blue river basin, Metropolitan Kansas City, USA, 1998 to 2007

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilkison, D.H.; Armstrong, D.J.; Hampton, S.A.

2009-01-01

From 1998 through 2007, over 750 surface-water or bed-sediment samples in the Blue River Basin - a largely urban basin in metropolitan Kansas City - were analyzed for more than 100 anthropogenic compounds. Compounds analyzed included nutrients, fecal-indicator bacteria, suspended sediment, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Non-point source runoff, hydrologic alterations, and numerous waste-water discharge points resulted in the routine detection of complex mixtures of anthropogenic compounds in samples from basin stream sites. Temporal and spatial variations in concentrations and loads of nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and organic wastewater compounds were observed, primarily related to a site's proximity to point-source discharges and stream-flow dynamics. ?? 2009 ASCE.

Urban cross-sector actions for carbon mitigation with local health co-benefits in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramaswami, Anu; Tong, Kangkang; Fang, Andrew; Lal, Raj M.; Nagpure, Ajay Singh; Li, Yang; Yu, Huajun; Jiang, Daqian; Russell, Armistead G.; Shi, Lei; Chertow, Marian; Wang, Yangjun; Wang, Shuxiao

2017-10-01

Cities offer unique strategies to reduce fossil fuel use through the exchange of energy and materials across homes, businesses, infrastructure and industries co-located in urban areas. However, the large-scale impact of such strategies has not been quantified. Using new models and data sets representing 637 Chinese cities, we find that such cross-sectoral strategies--enabled by compact urban design and circular economy policies--contribute an additional 15%-36% to national CO2 mitigation, compared to conventional single-sector strategies. As a co-benefit, ~25,500 to ~57,500 deaths annually are avoided from air pollution reduction. The benefits are highly variable across cities, ranging from <1%-37% for CO2 emission reduction and <1%-47% for avoided premature deaths. These results, using multi-scale, multi-sector physical systems modelling, identify cities with high carbon and health co-benefit potential and show that urban-industrial symbiosis is a significant carbon mitigation strategy, achievable with a combination of existing and advanced technologies in diverse city types.

Healthy Cities: facilitating the active participation and empowerment of local people.

PubMed

Dooris, Mark; Heritage, Zoe

2013-10-01

Community participation and empowerment are key values underpinning the European WHO Healthy Cities initiative, now in its fifth phase. This paper provides a brief overview of the history, policy context, and theory relating to community participation and empowerment. Drawing on Phase IV evaluation data, it presents the findings in relation to the four quadrants of Davidson's Wheel of Participation--information, consultation, participation in decision making, and empowerment. The large majority of European Healthy Cities have mechanisms in place to provide information for and to consult with local people. Most also demonstrate a commitment to enabling community participation in decision-making and to empowering citizens. Within this context, the evaluation highlighted a diversity of approaches and revealed varied perspectives on how participation and empowerment can be integrated within city leadership and governance processes. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need to strengthen future evaluative research to better understand how and why the Healthy Cities approach makes a difference.

Big data, smart cities and city planning

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

I define big data with respect to its size but pay particular attention to the fact that the data I am referring to is urban data, that is, data for cities that are invariably tagged to space and time. I argue that this sort of data are largely being streamed from sensors, and this represents a sea change in the kinds of data that we have about what happens where and when in cities. I describe how the growth of big data is shifting the emphasis from longer term strategic planning to short-term thinking about how cities function and can be managed, although with the possibility that over much longer periods of time, this kind of big data will become a source for information about every time horizon. By way of conclusion, I illustrate the need for new theory and analysis with respect to 6 months of smart travel card data of individual trips on Greater London’s public transport systems. PMID:29472982

Determinants of urban sprawl in European cities

PubMed Central

Alvanides, Seraphim; Garrod, Guy

2015-01-01

This paper provides empirical evidence that helps to answer several key questions relating to the extent of urban sprawl in Europe. Building on the monocentric city model, this study uses existing data sources to derive a set of panel data for 282 European cities at three time points (1990, 2000 and 2006). Two indices of urban sprawl are calculated that, respectively, reflect changes in artificial area and the levels of urban fragmentation for each city. These are supplemented by a set of data on various economic and geographical variables that might explain the variation of the two indices. Using a Hausman-Taylor estimator and random regressors to control for the possible correlation between explanatory variables and unobservable city-level effects, we find that the fundamental conclusions of the standard monocentric model are valid in the European context for both indices. Although the variables generated by the monocentric model explain a large part of the variation of artificial area, their explanatory power for modelling the fragmentation index is relatively low. PMID:26321770

Three-dimensional derailment analysis of a crashed city tram

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Hechao; Wang, Wenbin; Hecht, Markus

2013-08-01

City tram collisions are simulated using multi-body dynamics. The aim of this paper is to investigate the collision-induced derailment. Simulation results demonstrate that the corner obstacle collision scenario defined in EN 15227 is mainly focused on the energy absorption process. Due to the large impact angle (45°), it is unlikely for a city tram to comply with this scenario without derailment. In order to avoid derailment, the maximum impact angle between city tram and oblique obstacle should be reduced to 25°. Moreover, some influence factors are analysed, such as mass of loaded passengers, friction coefficient, impact angle, etc. Derailment phenomenon is shown to be significantly dependent on these parameters. Two measures are proposed to prevent the collided city tram from derailment. One is using secondary lateral dampers to absorb collision energy. Another is increasing the lateral stiffness of secondary springs as well as the lateral clearance, so that more collision energy can be stored in the suspension. With these measures, the safety against derailment can be improved.

Determinants of urban sprawl in European cities.

PubMed

Oueslati, Walid; Alvanides, Seraphim; Garrod, Guy

2015-07-01

This paper provides empirical evidence that helps to answer several key questions relating to the extent of urban sprawl in Europe. Building on the monocentric city model, this study uses existing data sources to derive a set of panel data for 282 European cities at three time points (1990, 2000 and 2006). Two indices of urban sprawl are calculated that, respectively, reflect changes in artificial area and the levels of urban fragmentation for each city. These are supplemented by a set of data on various economic and geographical variables that might explain the variation of the two indices. Using a Hausman-Taylor estimator and random regressors to control for the possible correlation between explanatory variables and unobservable city-level effects, we find that the fundamental conclusions of the standard monocentric model are valid in the European context for both indices. Although the variables generated by the monocentric model explain a large part of the variation of artificial area, their explanatory power for modelling the fragmentation index is relatively low.

Big data, smart cities and city planning.

PubMed

Batty, Michael

2013-11-01

I define big data with respect to its size but pay particular attention to the fact that the data I am referring to is urban data, that is, data for cities that are invariably tagged to space and time. I argue that this sort of data are largely being streamed from sensors, and this represents a sea change in the kinds of data that we have about what happens where and when in cities. I describe how the growth of big data is shifting the emphasis from longer term strategic planning to short-term thinking about how cities function and can be managed, although with the possibility that over much longer periods of time, this kind of big data will become a source for information about every time horizon. By way of conclusion, I illustrate the need for new theory and analysis with respect to 6 months of smart travel card data of individual trips on Greater London's public transport systems.

Ultrafine particles in cities.

PubMed

Kumar, Prashant; Morawska, Lidia; Birmili, Wolfram; Paasonen, Pauli; Hu, Min; Kulmala, Markku; Harrison, Roy M; Norford, Leslie; Britter, Rex

2014-05-01

Ultrafine particles (UFPs; diameter less than 100 nm) are ubiquitous in urban air, and an acknowledged risk to human health. Globally, the major source for urban outdoor UFP concentrations is motor traffic. Ongoing trends towards urbanisation and expansion of road traffic are anticipated to further increase population exposure to UFPs. Numerous experimental studies have characterised UFPs in individual cities, but an integrated evaluation of emissions and population exposure is still lacking. Our analysis suggests that the average exposure to outdoor UFPs in Asian cities is about four-times larger than that in European cities but impacts on human health are largely unknown. This article reviews some fundamental drivers of UFP emissions and dispersion, and highlights unresolved challenges, as well as recommendations to ensure sustainable urban development whilst minimising any possible adverse health impacts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A simple tool for estimating city-wide annual electrical energy savings from cooler surfaces

DOE PAGES

Pomerantz, Melvin; Rosado, Pablo J.; Levinson, Ronnen

2015-07-26

We present a simple method to estimate the maximum possible energy saving that might be achieved by increasing the albedo of surfaces in a large city. We restrict this to the "indirect effect", the cooling of outside air that lessens the demand for air conditioning (AC). Given the power demand of the electric utilities and data about the city, we can use a single linear equation to estimate the maximum saving. For example, the result for an albedo change of 0.2 of pavements in a typical warm city in California, such as Sacramento, is that the saving is less thanmore » about 2 kWh per m 2 per year. This may help decision makers choose which heat island mitigation techniques are economical from an energy-saving perspective.« less

Dangerous dining: health and safety in the New York City restaurant industry.

PubMed

Jayaraman, Saru; Dropkin, Jonathan; Siby, Sekou; Alston, Laine Romero; Markowitz, Steven

2011-12-01

We characterized the health and safety conditions of New York City restaurant workers, a population comprising largely of immigrants and people of color. We conducted an anonymous questionnaire survey of 502 New York City restaurant workers, addressing working conditions, benefits, demographic factors, psychosocial exposures, and medical symptoms and conditions. Restaurant workers reported fast-paced, repetitive, and physically demanding jobs that sometimes involve chemical exposures. Despite their youth, they experience a high prevalence of musculoskeletal and traumatic injuries. Few receive job benefits despite significant symptoms. Job-related injuries are positively associated with practices that pose a danger to consumers. New York City restaurant workers have stressful jobs, experience significant injury, and illness but receive few job benefits. A healthier work organization and greater access to benefits for restaurant workers would improve their health and public health.

Vatican City.

PubMed

1984-11-01

Vatican City, the administrative and spiritual capital of the Roman catholic Church, has a population of 1000. Citizenship is generally accorded only to those who reside in Vatican City for reasons of office of employment. Supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power is currentily exercised by Pope John Paul II, the 1st non-italian pope in 5 centuries. The State of Vatican City is recognized by many nations as an independent sovereign state under the temporal jurisdiction of the Pope. By 1984, 108 countries had established diplomatic relations with the Holy See, most of which are not Roman Catholic. Third World countries comprise a large proportion of countries that have recently established relations with the Holy See. The US re-established relations with the Vatican in 1984 and there is frequent contact and consultation between the 2 states on key international issues.

Research on digital city geographic information common services platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Dequan; Wu, Qunyong; Wang, Qinmin

2008-10-01

Traditional GIS (Geographic Information System) software development mode exposes many defects that will largely slow down the city informational progress. It is urgent need to build a common application infrastructure for informational project to speed up the development pace of digital city. The advent of service-oriented architecture (SOA) has motivated the adoption of GIS functionality portals that can be executed in distributed computing environment. According to the SOA principle, we bring forward and design a digital city geographic information common services platform which provides application development service interfaces for field users that can be further extended relevant business application. In the end, a public-oriented Web GIS is developed based on the platform for helping public users to query geographic information in their daily life. It indicates that our platform have the capacity that can be integrated by other applications conveniently.

Spatial analysis of injury-related deaths in Dallas County using a geographic information system

PubMed Central

Abdalla, Adil; Gunst, Mark; Ghaemmaghami, Vafa; Gruszecki, Amy C.; Urban, Jill; Barber, Robert C.; Gentilello, Larry M.

2012-01-01

This study applied a geographic information system (GIS) to identify clusters of injury-related deaths (IRDs) within a large urban county (26 cities; population, 2.4 million). All deaths due to injuries in Dallas County (Texas) in 2005 (N = 670) were studied, including the geographic location of the injury event. Out of 26 cities in Dallas County, IRDs were reported in 19 cities. Geospatial data were obtained from the local governments and entered into the GIS. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR, with 95% CI) were calculated for each city and the county using national age-adjusted rates. Dallas County had significantly more deaths due to homicides (SMR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.54–1.98) and IRDs as a result of gunshots (SMR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.09–1.37) than the US national rate. However, this increase was restricted to a single city (the city of Dallas) within the county, while the rest of the 25 cities in the county experienced IRD rates that were either similar to or better than the national rate, or experienced no IRDs. GIS mapping was able to depict high-risk geographic “hot spots” for IRDs. In conclusion, GIS spatial analysis identified geographic clusters of IRDs, which were restricted to only one of 26 cities in the county. PMID:22754116

Spatial dynamics of the 1918 influenza pandemic in England, Wales and the United States.

PubMed

Eggo, Rosalind M; Cauchemez, Simon; Ferguson, Neil M

2011-02-06

There is still limited understanding of key determinants of spatial spread of influenza. The 1918 pandemic provides an opportunity to elucidate spatial determinants of spread on a large scale. To better characterize the spread of the 1918 major wave, we fitted a range of city-to-city transmission models to mortality data collected for 246 population centres in England and Wales and 47 cities in the US. Using a gravity model for city-to-city contacts, we explored the effect of population size and distance on the spread of disease and tested assumptions regarding density dependence in connectivity between cities. We employed Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to estimate parameters of the model for population, infectivity, distance and density dependence. We inferred the most likely transmission trees for both countries. For England and Wales, a model that estimated the degree of density dependence in connectivity between cities was preferable by deviance information criterion comparison. Early in the major wave, long distance infective interactions predominated, with local infection events more likely as the epidemic became widespread. For the US, with fewer more widely dispersed cities, statistical power was lacking to estimate population size dependence or the degree of density dependence, with the preferred model depending on distance only. We find that parameters estimated from the England and Wales dataset can be applied to the US data with no likelihood penalty.

Spatial dynamics of the 1918 influenza pandemic in England, Wales and the United States

PubMed Central

Eggo, Rosalind M.; Cauchemez, Simon; Ferguson, Neil M.

2011-01-01

There is still limited understanding of key determinants of spatial spread of influenza. The 1918 pandemic provides an opportunity to elucidate spatial determinants of spread on a large scale. To better characterize the spread of the 1918 major wave, we fitted a range of city-to-city transmission models to mortality data collected for 246 population centres in England and Wales and 47 cities in the US. Using a gravity model for city-to-city contacts, we explored the effect of population size and distance on the spread of disease and tested assumptions regarding density dependence in connectivity between cities. We employed Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to estimate parameters of the model for population, infectivity, distance and density dependence. We inferred the most likely transmission trees for both countries. For England and Wales, a model that estimated the degree of density dependence in connectivity between cities was preferable by deviance information criterion comparison. Early in the major wave, long distance infective interactions predominated, with local infection events more likely as the epidemic became widespread. For the US, with fewer more widely dispersed cities, statistical power was lacking to estimate population size dependence or the degree of density dependence, with the preferred model depending on distance only. We find that parameters estimated from the England and Wales dataset can be applied to the US data with no likelihood penalty. PMID:20573630

Establishing a Water Resources Resilience Baseline for Mexico City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behzadi, F.; Ray, P. A.

2017-12-01

There is a growing concern for the vulnerability of the Mexico City water system to shocks, and the capacity of the system to accommodate climate and demographic change. This study presents a coarse-resolution, lumped model of the water system of Mexico City as a whole, designed to identify system-wide imbalances, and opportunities for large-scale improvements in city-wide resilience through investments in water imports, exports, and storage. In order to investigate the impact of climate change in Mexico City, the annual and monthly trends of precipitation and temperature at 46 stations near or inside the Mexico City were analyzed. The statistical significance of the trends in rainfall and temperature, both over the entire period of record, and the more recent "climate-change-impacted period" (1970-2015), were determined using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test. Results show a statistically significant increasing trend in the annual mean precipitation, mean temperature, and annual maximum daily temperature. However, minimum daily temperature does not appear to be increasing, and might be decreasing. Water management in Mexico City faces particular challenges, where the winter dry season is warming more quickly than the wet summer season. A stress test of Mexico City water system is conducted to identify vulnerabilities to changes in exogenous factors (esp., climate, demographics, land use). Following on the stress test, the relative merits of adaptation options that might improve the system's resilience and sustainability will be assessed.

3D Visualization of Urban Area Using Lidar Technology and CityGML

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popovic, Dragana; Govedarica, Miro; Jovanovic, Dusan; Radulovic, Aleksandra; Simeunovic, Vlado

2017-12-01

3D models of urban areas have found use in modern world such as navigation, cartography, urban planning visualization, construction, tourism and even in new applications of mobile navigations. With the advancement of technology there are much better solutions for mapping earth’s surface and spatial objects. 3D city model enables exploration, analysis, management tasks and presentation of a city. Urban areas consist of terrain surfaces, buildings, vegetation and other parts of city infrastructure such as city furniture. Nowadays there are a lot of different methods for collecting, processing and publishing 3D models of area of interest. LIDAR technology is one of the most effective methods for collecting data due the large amount data that can be obtained with high density and geometrical accuracy. CityGML is open standard data model for storing alphanumeric and geometry attributes of city. There are 5 levels of display (LoD0, LoD1, LoD2, LoD3, LoD4). In this study, main aim is to represent part of urban area of Novi Sad using LIDAR technology, for data collecting, and different methods for extraction of information’s using CityGML as a standard for 3D representation. By using series of programs, it is possible to process collected data, transform it to CityGML and store it in spatial database. Final product is CityGML 3D model which can display textures and colours in order to give a better insight of the cities. This paper shows results of the first three levels of display. They consist of digital terrain model and buildings with differentiated rooftops and differentiated boundary surfaces. Complete model gives us a realistic view of 3D objects.

What Makes Green Cities Unique? Examining the Economic and Political Characteristics of the Grey-to-Green Continuum.

PubMed

Runfola, Daniel Miller; Hughes, Sara

2014-01-01

In the United States, urbanization processes have resulted in a large variety-or "continuum"-of urban landscapes. One entry point for understanding the variety of landscape characteristics associated with different forms of urbanization is through a characterization of vegetative (green) land covers. Green land covers- i.e. , lawns, parks, forests-have been shown to have a variety of both positive and negative impacts on human and environmental outcomes-ranging from increasing property values, to mitigating urban heat islands, to increasing water use for outdoor watering purposes. While considerable research has examined the variation of vegetation distribution within cities and related social and economic drivers, we know very little about whether or how the economic characteristics and policy priorities of green cities differ from those of "grey" cities-those with little green land cover. To address this gap, this paper seeks to answer the question how do the economic characteristics and policy priorities of green and grey cities differ in the United States? To answer this question, MODIS data from 2001 to 2006 are used to characterize 373 US cities in terms of their vegetative greenness. Information from the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) 2010 Local Government Sustainability Survey and 2009 Economic Development Survey are used to identify key governance strategies and policies that may differentiate green from grey cities. Two approaches for data analysis-ANOVA and decision tree analysis-are used to identify the most important characteristics for separating each category of city. The results indicate that grey cities tend to place a high priority on economic initiatives, while green cities place an emphasis on social justice, land conservation, and quality of life initiatives.

Does rush hour see a rush of emotions? Driver mood in conditions likely to exhibit congestion

PubMed Central

Morris, Eric A; Hirsch, Jana A.

2016-01-01

Polls show that a large portion of the public considers traffic congestion to be a problem and believes a number of policy interventions would ameliorate it. However, most of the public rejects new taxes and fees to fund these improvements. This may be because of a disconnect between the public's stated antipathy towards congestion and the recalled emotional costs congestion imposes. To explore this, we use a large and representative sample drawn from the American Time Use Survey to examine how drivers experience four emotions (happiness, sadness, stress, and fatigue), plus a constructed composite mood variable, when they travel in peak periods, in large cities, in city centers, and in combinations of these. We also explore the interactions between these indicators and trip duration. We find evidence that drivers in the largest cities at the very peak of rush hour (5:00pm-6:00pm) are in a less positive mood, presumably because of congestion. However, this effect, though significant, is small, and we find no significant results using broader definitions of the peak period. In all, our findings suggest that congestion's impact on drivers as a group is quite limited. This may help explain why the public's attitude toward painful financial trade-offs to address congestion is lukewarm. PMID:27231669

Spatial boundary of urban ‘acid islands’ in southern China

PubMed Central

Du, E.; de Vries, W.; Liu, X.; Fang, J.; Galloway, J. N.; Jiang, Y.

2015-01-01

Elevated emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ammonia in China have resulted in high levels of sulfur and nitrogen deposition, being contributors to soil acidification, especially in and near large cities. However, knowledge gaps still exist in the way that large cities shape spatial patterns of acid deposition. Here, we assessed the patterns of pH, sulfate, nitrate and ammonium in bulk precipitation and throughfall in southern China’s forests by synthesizing data from published literature. Concentrations and fluxes of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium in bulk precipitation and throughfall exhibited a power-law increase with a closer distance to the nearest large cities, and accordingly pH showed a logarithmic decline. Our findings indicate the occurrence of urban ‘acid islands’ with a critical radius of approximately 70 km in southern China, receiving potential acid loads of more than 2 keq ha−1 yr−1. These urban acid islands covered an area of 0.70 million km2, accounting for nearly 30% of the land area in southern China. Despite a significant capacity to neutralize acids in precipitation, our analysis highlights a substantial contribution of ammonium to potential acid load. Our results suggest a joint control on emissions of multiple acid precursors from urban areas in southern China. PMID:26211880

Spatial boundary of urban 'acid islands' in southern China.

PubMed

Du, E; de Vries, W; Liu, X; Fang, J; Galloway, J N; Jiang, Y

2015-07-27

Elevated emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ammonia in China have resulted in high levels of sulfur and nitrogen deposition, being contributors to soil acidification, especially in and near large cities. However, knowledge gaps still exist in the way that large cities shape spatial patterns of acid deposition. Here, we assessed the patterns of pH, sulfate, nitrate and ammonium in bulk precipitation and throughfall in southern China's forests by synthesizing data from published literature. Concentrations and fluxes of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium in bulk precipitation and throughfall exhibited a power-law increase with a closer distance to the nearest large cities, and accordingly pH showed a logarithmic decline. Our findings indicate the occurrence of urban 'acid islands' with a critical radius of approximately 70 km in southern China, receiving potential acid loads of more than 2 keq ha(-1) yr(-1). These urban acid islands covered an area of 0.70 million km(2), accounting for nearly 30% of the land area in southern China. Despite a significant capacity to neutralize acids in precipitation, our analysis highlights a substantial contribution of ammonium to potential acid load. Our results suggest a joint control on emissions of multiple acid precursors from urban areas in southern China.

Estimation of Maximum Ground Motions in the Form of ShakeMaps and Assessment of Potential Human Fatalities from Scenario Earthquakes on the Chishan Active Fault in southern Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Kun Sung; Huang, Hsiang Chi; Shen, Jia Rong

2017-04-01

Historically, there were many damaging earthquakes in southern Taiwan during the last century. Some of these earthquakes had resulted in heavy loss of human lives. Accordingly, assessment of potential seismic hazards has become increasingly important in southern Taiwan, including Kaohsiung, Tainan and northern Pingtung areas since the Central Geological Survey upgraded the Chishan active fault from suspected fault to Category I in 2010. In this study, we first estimate the maximum seismic ground motions in term of PGA, PGV and MMI by incorporating a site-effect term in attenuation relationships, aiming to show high seismic hazard areas in southern Taiwan. Furthermore, we will assess potential death tolls due to large future earthquakes occurring on Chishan active fault. As a result, from the maximum PGA ShakeMap for an Mw7.2 scenario earthquake on the Chishan active fault in southern Taiwan, we can see that areas with high PGA above 400 gals, are located in the northeastern, central and northern parts of southwestern Kaohsiung as well as the southern part of central Tainan. In addition, comparing the cities located in Tainan City at similar distances from the Chishan fault have relatively greater PGA and PGV than those in Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County. This is mainly due to large site response factors in Tainan. On the other hand, seismic hazard in term of PGA and PGV, respectively, show that they are not particular high in the areas near the Chishan fault. The main reason is that these areas are marked with low site response factors. Finally, the estimated fatalities in Kaohsiung City at 5230, 4285 and 2786, respectively, for Mw 7.2, 7.0 and 6.8 are higher than those estimated for Tainan City and Pingtung County. The main reason is high population density above 10000 persons per km2 are present in Fongshan, Zuoying, Sanmin, Cianjin, Sinsing, Yancheng, Lingya Districts and between 5,000 and 10,000 persons per km2 are present in Nanzih and Gushan Districts in Kaohsiung City. Another to pay special attention is Kaohsiung City has more than 540 thousands households whose residences over 50 years old, including bungalows and 2-3 stories houses. Many of them are still in use. Even more worry some is that in Kaohsiung many of these old structures are used for shops in the city center where population is highly concentrated. In case of earthquake, the consequences would be unthinkable. In light of results of this study, we urge both the municipal and central governments to take effective seismic hazard mitigation measures in the highly urbanized areas with large number of old buildings in southern Taiwan.

Revitalization Pagaruyung area as one of tourist destinations in Medan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Izzadati Khairuni, Zhilli; Rahmadhani, Fitri

2018-03-01

Rapid development Medan city apparently impact on the region as tourism. Medan generally have the potential to large enough in the development of tourism in the center for food. The purpose of revitalization is to change the place to be used for more appropriate functions. What is meant by functions better suit usefulness who do no ask an abrupt change or that is just minimize the negative effects. Medan city is one of the city famous in culinary tour. One of the typical culinary attractions in Medan city located in Pagaruyung street. Here sold various culinary existing in Medan city. Pagaruyung area is a strategic location of culinary because it is in the middle in Medan city. No wonder so easily found from the Sun plaza shopping center, Cambridge hotel, Shri mariamman temple, and also Ghaudiyah mosque. But, as the growth and development, pagaruyung start difficulty.Central growth hawker night with modern facilities are unstoppable more or less succeeded in stealing visitors from young generation. To create the region that remained one of tourim Medan city will be applied concept. Focus research about revitalize the region pagaruyung to improve the potential existing that the process this research to the need for theories from the perspective of discipline architecture.

Seismic hazard analysis with PSHA method in four cities in Java.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elistyawati, Y.; Palupi, I. R.; Suharsono

2016-11-01

In this study the tectonic earthquakes was observed through the peak ground acceleration through the PSHA method by dividing the area of the earthquake source. This study applied the earthquake data from 1965 - 2015 that has been analyzed the completeness of the data, location research was the entire Java with stressed in four large cities prone to earthquakes. The results were found to be a hazard map with a return period of 500 years, 2500 years return period, and the hazard curve were four major cities (Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and the city of Banyuwangi). Results Java PGA hazard map 500 years had a peak ground acceleration within 0 g ≥ 0.5 g, while the return period of 2500 years had a value of 0 to ≥ 0.8 g. While, the PGA hazard curves on the city's most influential source of the earthquake was from sources such as fault Cimandiri backgroud, for the city of Bandung earthquake sources that influence the seismic source fault dent background form. In other side, the city of Yogyakarta earthquake hazard curve of the most influential was the source of the earthquake background of the Opak fault, and the most influential hazard curve of Banyuwangi earthquake was the source of Java and Sumba megatruts earthquake.

Does Morphological Adjustment During Tsunami Inundation Increase Levels of Hazard?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tehranirad, B.; Kirby, J. T., Jr.; Shi, F.; Grilli, S. T.

2016-12-01

Previous inundation mapping results for the US East Coast have shown that barrier islands would be among the most impacted areas during a possible tsunami. Many of these barriers are home to large population centers such as Atlantic City, NJ and Ocean City, MD. A tsunami can significantly change coastal morphology. Post-tsunami surveys have shown that large amounts of sediment can be moved in bays and estuaries by tsunami action, especially over coastal dunes. During tsunami inundation, large amounts of sediment have been eroded from sandy coasts and deposited further onshore. In some cases, sand dunes have been completely eroded by a tsunami, with the eroded sediment being deposited either onshore behind the dunes, or offshore during the rundown process. Given the potential for tsunamis to change coastal morphology, it is necessary to consider whether barrier island morphology change during inundation, if accounted for, would increase the assessment of tsunami hazard identified in the development of inundation and evacuation maps. In this presentation, we will show the results of our recent study on the morphological response of barrier islands during possible tsunamis that threaten the US East Coast. For this purpose, we have coupled the Boussinesq model FUNWAVE-TVD with a depth-averaged advection-diffusion sediment transport model and a morphology module to capture bed evolution under tsunami conditions. The model is verified in comparison to laboratory observations and to observed erosion/deposition patterns in Crescent City, CA harbor during the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami. We then use the model to study the effect of morphology change on predicted inundation limits for two barrier islands: the undeveloped Assateague Island, and the developed Ocean City, MD, using the tsunami sources utilized in previous hazard analysis. Our results suggest that significant bathymetric changes could be expected on a barrier island during tsunami inundation, leading to large increases in inundation areas for some of the events, particularly for smaller events where inundation without progressive dune breaching is minor.

The $5 Man: The Underground Economic Response to a Large Cigarette Tax Increase in New York City

PubMed Central

Shelley, Donna; Cantrell, M. Jennifer; Moon-Howard, Joyce; Ramjohn, Destiny Q.; VanDevanter, Nancy

2007-01-01

Objectives. We examined the mechanisms by which living in a disadvantaged minority community influences smoking and illegal cigarette sale and purchasing behaviors after a large cigarette tax increase. Methods. Data were collected from 14 focus groups (n=104) that were conducted during the spring of 2003 among Blacks aged 18 years and older living in New York City. Results. A large tax increase led to what focus group participants described as a pervasive illegal cigarette market in a low-income minority community. Perceived pro-smoking community norms, a stressful social and economic environment, and the availability of illegal cigarettes worked together to reinforce smoking and undermine cessation. Conclusions. Although interest in quitting was high, bootleggers created an environment in which reduced-price cigarettes were easier to access than cessation services. This activity continues to undermine the public health goals of the tax increase. PMID:17600270

Increased tornado hazard in large metropolitan areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cusack, Stephen

2014-11-01

The tornado climate was compared between large metropolitan areas and neighbouring non-metro cities using modern tornado reports in the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) archives. Twenty large metro areas in the higher-risk region of the U.S. were used to boost sample sizes hence robustness of results. Observational biases were minimised by using the most densely populated zips. The analysis found 50% greater tornado frequency and a thicker-tailed severity distribution in metro areas compared to the non-metro cities. These differences are significant at the 1% level. Regarding tornado frequency, the primary question is whether the raised occurrence rates in metro areas are due to observation biases or real differences in tornado climate. Past studies found no relative biases at the population densities used here, whereas there are two potential urban drivers of tornadogenesis. First, the urban heat island raises the storm severity above and downwind of main urban areas, as recorded in precipitation and lightning datasets. Second, the increased surface roughness over metro areas raises low-level shear which in turn has been found to be favourable for tornadogenesis. Modification of convective storms over large metro areas is the more plausible explanation of raised tornado frequency. The drivers of a thicker-tailed tornado severity distribution in metro areas are less certain. Potential causes include: increased debris-loading in metro tornadoes; modification of storms' lower boundary layer by increased surface roughness in metro areas; the reduced density of damage indicators in non-metro cities.

The Effect of Text Materials with Relevant Language, Illustrations and Content Upon the Reading Achievement and Reading Preference (Attitude) of Black Primary and Intermediate Inner-City Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grant, Gloria W.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of text materials with relevant language, illustrations, and content upon the reading achievement and reading preference (attitude) of black primary and intermediate grade inner-city students. The subjects for the study were 330 black students enrolled in three schools in a large urban area. A…

Diasporas in America: Negative Effects and Mitigation

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-10

form of government its people have chosen. The United States is no exception to this construct.70 Saskia Sassen , a professor of urban planning at...Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2005), 130. 71 Saskia Sassen , “Immigration Policy Should Reflect Economic Globalization”, see Barbour, ed...to be known as “global cities”. The concept of global cities is largely credited to Saskia Sassen in her book, The Global City, written in 1991. She

National Clean Fleets Partnership (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None, None

2014-01-01

Clean Cities' National Clean Fleets Partnership establishes strategic alliances with large fleets to help them explore and adopt alternative fuels and fuel economy measures to cut petroleum use. The initiative leverages the strength of nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions, nearly 18,000 stakeholders, and more than 20 years of experience. It provides fleets with top-level support, technical assistance, robust tools and resources, and public acknowledgement to help meet and celebrate fleets' petroleum-use reductions.

The University and the Municipality: Summary of Proceedings of the First Session of the National Association of Municipal Universities. Bulletin, 1915, No. 38. Whole Number 665

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United States Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior, 1915

1915-01-01

The problems of industry, government, and life in the modern industrial and commercial city are numerous, large, and complex. For their solution a larger amount of scientific knowledge and higher standards of intelligence among citizens are needed. All the city's agencies for good and progress need to be united and vitalized for more effective…

Ships as future floating farm systems?

PubMed

Moustafa, Khaled

2018-04-03

Environmental and agriculture challenges such as severe drought, desertification, sprawling cities and shrinking arable lands in large regions in the world compel us to think about alternative and sustainable farming systems. Ongoing projects to build floating cities in the sea suggest that building specific ships for farming purposes (as farming ships or farming boats) would also be attainable to introduce new farming surfaces and boost food production worldwide to cope with food insecurity issues.

10. 4TH FLOOR, HOTEL SOAP LINE No. 6 TO SOUTHWEST, ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

10. 4TH FLOOR, HOTEL SOAP LINE No. 6 TO SOUTHWEST, WITH AUTOMATIC CUTTER (LEFT), PRESS (CENTER), AND WRAPPER (RIGHT); LARGE CHUTE AT CENTER FROM 5TH FLOOR BINS TO 3RD FLOOR SOAP MILLS; OVERHEAD AND FLOOR (LOWER RIGHT) FINISHED GOODS CONVEYORS TO G BLOCK (HAER NO. NJ-71-NN) - Colgate & Company Jersey City Plant, Building No. B-14, 54-58 Grand Street, Jersey City, Hudson County, NJ

Race and the Teacher-Student Relationship: Interpersonal Connections between West Indian Students and Their Teachers in a New York City High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warikoo, Natasha

2004-01-01

Through a review of interviews with West Indian, African American, and white teachers at a New York City high school with a large West Indian population (ages 14 to 18), in this paper I discuss the complicated nature of teacher-student matching, and its impact on student achievement. I find that West Indian teachers have strong points of…

Stochastic modelling of a large subduction interface earthquake in Wellington, New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francois-Holden, C.; Zhao, J.

2012-12-01

The Wellington region, home of New Zealand's capital city, is cut by a number of major right-lateral strike slip faults, and is underlain by the currently locked west-dipping subduction interface between the down going Pacific Plate, and the over-riding Australian Plate. A potential cause of significant earthquake loss in the Wellington region is a large magnitude (perhaps 8+) "subduction earthquake" on the Australia-Pacific plate interface, which lies ~23 km beneath Wellington City. "It's Our Fault" is a project involving a comprehensive study of Wellington's earthquake risk. Its objective is to position Wellington city to become more resilient, through an encompassing study of the likelihood of large earthquakes, and the effects and impacts of these earthquakes on humans and the built environment. As part of the "It's Our Fault" project, we are working on estimating ground motions from potential large plate boundary earthquakes. We present the latest results on ground motion simulations in terms of response spectra and acceleration time histories. First we characterise the potential interface rupture area based on previous geodetically-derived estimates interface of slip deficit. Then, we entertain a suitable range of source parameters, including various rupture areas, moment magnitudes, stress drops, slip distributions and rupture propagation directions. Our comprehensive study also includes simulations from historical large world subduction events translated into the New Zealand subduction context, such as the 2003 M8.3 Tokachi-Oki Japan earthquake and the M8.8 2010 Chili earthquake. To model synthetic seismograms and the corresponding response spectra we employed the EXSIM code developed by Atkinson et al. (2009), with a regional attenuation model based on the 3D attenuation model for the lower North-Island which has been developed by Eberhart-Phillips et al. (2005). The resulting rupture scenarios all produce long duration shaking, and peak ground accelerations that, typically range between 0.2-0.7 g in Wellington city. Many of these scenarios also produce long period motions that are currently not captured by the current NZ design spectra.

Estimating watershed degradation over the last century and its impact on water-treatment costs for the world’s large cities

PubMed Central

McDonald, Robert I.; Weber, Katherine F.; Padowski, Julie; Boucher, Tim; Shemie, Daniel

2016-01-01

Urban water systems are impacted by land use within their source watersheds, as it affects raw water quality and thus the costs of water treatment. However, global estimates of the effect of land cover change on urban water-treatment costs have been hampered by a lack of global information on urban source watersheds. Here, we use a unique map of the urban source watersheds for 309 large cities (population > 750,000), combined with long-term data on anthropogenic land-use change in their source watersheds and data on water-treatment costs. We show that anthropogenic activity is highly correlated with sediment and nutrient pollution levels, which is in turn highly correlated with treatment costs. Over our study period (1900–2005), median population density has increased by a factor of 5.4 in urban source watersheds, whereas ranching and cropland use have increased by a factor of 3.4 and 2.0, respectively. Nearly all (90%) of urban source watersheds have had some level of watershed degradation, with the average pollutant yield of urban source watersheds increasing by 40% for sediment, 47% for phosphorus, and 119% for nitrogen. We estimate the degradation of watersheds over our study period has impacted treatment costs for 29% of cities globally, with operation and maintenance costs for impacted cities increasing on average by 53 ± 5% and replacement capital costs increasing by 44 ± 14%. We discuss why this widespread degradation might be occurring, and strategies cities have used to slow natural land cover loss. PMID:27457941

Estimating watershed degradation over the last century and its impact on water-treatment costs for the world's large cities.

PubMed

McDonald, Robert I; Weber, Katherine F; Padowski, Julie; Boucher, Tim; Shemie, Daniel

2016-08-09

Urban water systems are impacted by land use within their source watersheds, as it affects raw water quality and thus the costs of water treatment. However, global estimates of the effect of land cover change on urban water-treatment costs have been hampered by a lack of global information on urban source watersheds. Here, we use a unique map of the urban source watersheds for 309 large cities (population > 750,000), combined with long-term data on anthropogenic land-use change in their source watersheds and data on water-treatment costs. We show that anthropogenic activity is highly correlated with sediment and nutrient pollution levels, which is in turn highly correlated with treatment costs. Over our study period (1900-2005), median population density has increased by a factor of 5.4 in urban source watersheds, whereas ranching and cropland use have increased by a factor of 3.4 and 2.0, respectively. Nearly all (90%) of urban source watersheds have had some level of watershed degradation, with the average pollutant yield of urban source watersheds increasing by 40% for sediment, 47% for phosphorus, and 119% for nitrogen. We estimate the degradation of watersheds over our study period has impacted treatment costs for 29% of cities globally, with operation and maintenance costs for impacted cities increasing on average by 53 ± 5% and replacement capital costs increasing by 44 ± 14%. We discuss why this widespread degradation might be occurring, and strategies cities have used to slow natural land cover loss.

Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Footprints.

PubMed

Pichler, Peter-Paul; Zwickel, Timm; Chavez, Abel; Kretschmer, Tino; Seddon, Jessica; Weisz, Helga

2017-11-07

Cities are economically open systems that depend on goods and services imported from national and global markets to satisfy their material and energy requirements. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprints are thus a highly relevant metric for urban climate change mitigation since they not only include direct emissions from urban consumption activities, but also upstream emissions, i.e. emissions that occur along the global production chain of the goods and services purchased by local consumers. This complementary approach to territorially-focused emission accounting has added critical nuance to the debate on climate change mitigation by highlighting the responsibility of consumers in a globalized economy. Yet, city officials are largely either unaware of their upstream emissions or doubtful about their ability to count and control them. This study provides the first internationally comparable GHG footprints for four cities (Berlin, Delhi NCT, Mexico City, and New York metropolitan area) applying a consistent method that can be extended to other global cities using available data. We show that upstream emissions from urban household consumption are in the same order of magnitude as cities' overall territorial emissions and that local policy leverage to reduce upstream emissions is larger than typically assumed.

Ecological Carrying Capacity of Land Use Changes in Da'an City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, H.; Zhang, J.; Li, B.

2018-04-01

Based on GIS and RS technology, this paper analyzed the land use change in Da'an city from 1995 to 2010. land-use ecological evaluation index was constructed to evaluate the land-use ecological risk of Da 'an city dynamically, and the land-use ecological risk level map was made, and then the distribution and change of the land-use ecological carrying capacity pattern of Da'an city were analyzed qualitatively. According to the evaluation results of ecological carrying capacity, the ecological environment of Da'an city has deteriorated in fifteen years. in 1995, the poor ecological environment area is mainly distributed in the northeast area of Da'an city, and the area is small, while the area of the central and southern areas is large; In 2010, the western region also appeared environmental degradation, the northeast environment deterioration is serious, the dominant area is reduced, and a small amount of deterioration in the central and southern regions. According to the study of this paper, in the future, we should strengthen the comprehensive management of this part of the area, strengthen vegetation coverage, reduce soil erosion, ensure the effective improvement of ecological environment.

CO2 Urban Synthesis and Analysis ("CO2-USA") Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, J. C.; Hutyra, L.; Loughner, C.; Stein, A. F.; Lusk, K.; Mitchell, L.; Gately, C.; Wofsy, S. C.

2017-12-01

Emissions of carbon associated with cities comprise a large component of the anthropogenic source. A number of cities have announced plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the scientific knowledge to quantitatively track emissions and assess the efficacy of mitigation is lacking. As the global population increasingly resides in urban regions, scientific knowledge about how much, where, and why a particular city emits carbon becomes increasingly important. To address this gap, researchers have initiated studies of carbon emissions and cycling in several U.S. cities, making it timely to develop a collaborative network to exchange information on community standards and common measurements, facilitate data sharing, and create analysis frameworks and cross-city syntheses to catalyze a new generation of researchers and enable new collaborations tackling important objectives that are difficult to address in isolation. We describe initial results from an incipient network focusing initially on cities in the U.S. with low barriers of entry that entrains a cross-section of U.S. urban centers with varying characteristics: size, population density, vegetation, urban form, infrastructure, development rates, climate, and meteorological patterns. Results will be reported that emerge from an initial workshop covering data harmonization & integration, inventory comparison, stakeholder outreach, network design, inverse modeling, and collaboration.

A Multi-Technology Communication Platform for Urban Mobile Sensing.

PubMed

Almeida, Rodrigo; Oliveira, Rui; Luís, Miguel; Senna, Carlos; Sargento, Susana

2018-04-12

A common concern in smart cities is the focus on sensing procedures to provide city-wide information to city managers and citizens. To meet the growing demands of smart cities, the network must provide the ability to handle a large number of mobile sensors/devices, with high heterogeneity and unpredictable mobility, by collecting and delivering the sensed information for future treatment. This work proposes a multi-wireless technology communication platform for opportunistic data gathering and data exchange with respect to smart cities. Through the implementation of a proprietary long-range (LoRa) network and an urban sensor network, our platform addresses the heterogeneity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices while conferring communications in an opportunistic manner, increasing the interoperability of our platform. It implements and evaluates a medium access communication (MAC) protocol for LoRa networks with multiple gateways. It also implements mobile Opportunistic VEhicular (mOVE), a delay-tolerant network (DTN)-based architecture to address the mobility dimension. The platform provides vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication with support for highly reliable and actionable information flows. Moreover, taking into account the high mobility pattern that a smart city scenario presents, we propose and evaluate two forwarding strategies for the opportunistic sensor network.

Conflict Environment Task Force (Implications of Third World Urban Involvement)

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-05-07

Pahama Panama City 17 1970)Peru Lima 40 1970) Arequipa 40 1970) Chimbote 67 1970) Venezuela Craacas 40 1969) Maracaibo 50 1969) Sarq uisimeto 41 1969... tourism ; destruction and damage to communications facilities and other public property; large numbers of casualties to civilians; and equally large numbers

Bureaucracy and the Schools. Special Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seeley, David

This paper reviews the pathologies of school bureaucratic structures especially evident in large urban school systems like New York City's, and it suggests some remedies to these problems. Bureaucratic organization has severe disadvantages when applied to a function like education in a society that purports to be democratic. Large educational…

Comparative Emergy Evaluation of Nutrient Removal and Nutrient Recovery Technologies and the Implications to Nutrient Management

EPA Science Inventory

The urbanization of the modern community creates large population centers that generate concentrated wastewater. A large expenditure on wastewater treatment has to be invested to make a modern city function without human and environmental health problems. Society relies on syste...

75 FR 5120 - United States, et al. v. Stericycle, Inc., et al.; Proposed Final Judgment and Competitive Impact...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-01

... services for Large Quantity Generator (``LQG'') customers in the states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and...; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; and Booneville, Missouri; LQG customer contracts associated with... collection and treatment services for large quantity generator (``LQG'') customers. The resulting combination...

The advisability of high-rise construction in the city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sergievskaya, Natalia; Pokrovskaya, Tatyana; Vorontsova, Natalya

2018-03-01

In this article there discusses the question of advisability high-rise construction, the reasons for its use, both positive and negative sides of it. On the one hand, a number of authors believe that it is difficult to avoid high-rise construction due to the limited areas in very large cities. On the other hand, a number of other authors draw attention to the problems associated with high-rise construction. The author of the article analyses examples of high-rise construction in several countries (UAE, Dubai "Burj Khalifa"; Japan "Tokyo Sky Tree"; United States of America, "Willis Tower"; Russia "Federation Tower") and proves the advisability of high-rise construction in the city.

Basin seismology in the megacity of Jakarta, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widiyantoro, S.; Cummins, P. R.; Saygin, E.; Cipta, A.; Ridwan, M.; Joshi, N.; Murjaya, J.; Irsyam, M.

2016-12-01

Like several of SE Asia's megacities, Jakarta is home to a very large and vulnerable urban population (10 million in the city itself, 28 million in greater Jakarta). Jakarta also has many tall buildings built on a basin filled with poorly consolidated sediments. The resonant periods of many buildings are longer than 1 second, and if these periods match the resonant periods of the sedimentary basin, they may be particularly prone to damage if a large earthquake occurs. In order to characterize the subsurface structure of the Jakarta Basin, a dense portable seismic broad-band network was operated by the Australian National University (ANU) and the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) between October 2013 and February 2014. Overall 96 locations were sampled through successive deployments of 52 seismic broadband sensors at different parts of the city. Oceanic and anthropogenic noise was recorded as well as regional and teleseismic earthquakes. We applied a Trans-dimensional Bayesian implementation of Ambient Noise Tomography to estimate the thickness and shear velocity of the basin fill. Results show that these vary between about 300 to 700 meters and 200 to 1200 m/s, respectively. We show that these variations agree well with variations in P-wave arrival time delays of regional and distant earthquakes, variations in the peak period of horizontal-over-vertical spectral ratios, and times of P-to-S converted waves generated at the floor of the basin. We discuss the implications these low seismic velocities and the thick basin beneath the city may have for seismic amplification during a subduction megathrust or other large earthquake close to the city of Jakarta.

Allometric scaling of UK urban emissions: interpretation and implications for air quality management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacKenzie, Rob; Barnes, Matt; Whyatt, Duncan; Hewitt, Nick

2016-04-01

Allometry uncovers structures and patterns by relating the characteristics of complex systems to a measure of scale. We present an allometric analysis of air quality for UK urban settlements, beginning with emissions and moving on to consider air concentrations. We consider both airshed-average 'urban background' concentrations (cf. those derived from satellites for NO2) and local pollution 'hotspots'. We show that there is a strong and robust scaling (with respect to population) of the non-point-source emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, as well as the toxic pollutants nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5, and 1,3-butadiene. The scaling of traffic-related emissions is not simply a reflection of road length, but rather results from the socio-economic patterning of road-use. The recent controversy regarding diesel vehicle emissions is germane to our study but does not affect our overall conclusions. We next develop an hypothesis for the population-scaling of airshed-average air concentrations, with which we demonstrate that, although average air quality is expected to be worse in large urban centres compared to small urban centres, the overall effect is an economy of scale (i.e., large cities reduce the overall burden of emissions compared to the same population spread over many smaller urban settlements). Our hypothesis explains satellite-derived observations of airshed-average urban NO2 concentrations. The theory derived also explains which properties of nature-based solutions (urban greening) can make a significant contribution at city scale, and points to a hitherto unforeseen opportunity to make large cities cleaner than smaller cities in absolute terms with respect to their airshed-average pollutant concentration.

Comparative Analysis of Carbon Dioxide Emissions across Large Urban Areas in the U.S.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patarasuk, R.; Gurney, K. R.; O'Keeffe, D.; Song, Y.; Rao, P.; Huang, J.; Razlivanov, I. N.

2014-12-01

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion represents the single largest net annual flux of carbon into the atmosphere. Even though urban areas cover only 2% of the earth's surface, they contribute about 70% of global carbon emissions. We aim to conduct a comparative analysis of fossil fuel CO2 (FFCO2) emissions in three large urban areas across different regions in the U.S. based on our spatially-explicit Hestia approach, called the 'Hestia Project'. This research effort is the first to use bottom-up methods to quantify all FFCO2 emissions down to the scale of individual buildings, road segments, and industrial/electricity production facilities on an hourly basis for an entire urban landscape. The Hestia method relies on a large swath of input data such as criteria pollutant emissions reporting, stack monitoring, census data, tax assessor parcel data and traffic monitoring. The urban areas quantified with the Hestia approach include Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, and the Los Angeles Basin (encompassing over 80 cities). A comparative analysis will provide a better understanding of how and why FFCO2 emissions differ across time and space. We examine various factors such as heating/cooling degree days, population, GDP, industrial profile and building age. The study seeks to answer the following questions: 1) How and why do FFCO2 differ across the cities/regions? 2) What drives the different temporal profile of urban emissions? and 3) How do these vary across and within the urban landscape? The results from the study will benefit city planners and other stakeholders in managing urban development and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation.

St. Petersburg, Russia as seen from STS-60

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

This wintertime photograph shows the large city of St. Petersburg, Russia at the head of the Gulf of Finland. The city, built by Peter the Great, is situated in the former swampy delta of the Neva River which connects the large Lake Ladoga (the frozen white surface on the edge of the photograph) to the Gulf of Finland. An interesting feature of St. Petersburg which can be discerned in this photograph is the new storm surge barrier built from both sides of the Gulf of Finland out to the island of Kronstadt in the middle. Also visible as a thin line between Kronstadt and St. Petersburg is the ice-free shipping channel kept open much of the winter. Power plant plumes are also visible on the frame.

Scalable cluster administration - Chiba City I approach and lessons learned.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Navarro, J. P.; Evard, R.; Nurmi, D.

2002-07-01

Systems administrators of large clusters often need to perform the same administrative activity hundreds or thousands of times. Often such activities are time-consuming, especially the tasks of installing and maintaining software. By combining network services such as DHCP, TFTP, FTP, HTTP, and NFS with remote hardware control, cluster administrators can automate all administrative tasks. Scalable cluster administration addresses the following challenge: What systems design techniques can cluster builders use to automate cluster administration on very large clusters? We describe the approach used in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory on Chiba City I, a 314-node Linuxmore » cluster; and we analyze the scalability, flexibility, and reliability benefits and limitations from that approach.« less

Physical Science in Barcelona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roca-Rosell, Antoni; Roqué, Xavier

2013-12-01

We provide a tour of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, following four routes through the city and one elsewhere in the city and beyond, focusing on sites of importance in physics. Route 1 covers the Old Town, its Gothic Quarter, Plaça del Rei, Plaça de Sant Jaume, and Jewish Quarter. Route 2 identifies sites on and close to La Rambla, the main promenade in the city. Route 3 goes from the medieval shipyards to the Board of Commerce to Citadel Park. Route 4 concentrates on the Extension ( Eixample) and covers the restored University, the Industrial University, and the new campus of the University of Barcelona. Elsewhere in the city and beyond are the Fabra Observatory; the Plaça de les Glòries with its large steel sculpture depicting the meridian arc from Dunkirk to Barcelona; Montjuïc, the site of the National Art Museum of Catalonia; and the National Museum of Science and Technology in Terrassa.

Analysis of The Surface Radiative Budget Using ATLAS Data for San Juan, Puerto Rico

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luvall, Jeffrey C.; Rickman, D. L.; Gonzalez, J.; Comarazamy, Daniel; Picon, Ana

2007-01-01

The additional beating of the air over the city is the result of the replacement of naturally vegetated surfaces with those composed of asphalt, concrete, rooftops and other man-made materials. The temperatures of these artificial surfaces can be 20 to 40 C higher than vegetated surfaces. This produces a dome of elevated air temperatures 5 to 8 C greater over the city, compared to the air temperatures over adjacent rural areas. Urban landscapes are a complex mixture of vegetated and nonvegetated surfaces. It is difficult to take enough temperature measurements over a large city area to characterize the complexity of urban radiant surface temperature variability. The NASA Airborne Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS) operates in the visual and IR bands was used in February 2004 to collect data from San Juan, Puerto Rico with the main objective of investigating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) in tropical cities.

Uncovering the spatial structure of mobility networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louail, Thomas; Lenormand, Maxime; Picornell, Miguel; García Cantú, Oliva; Herranz, Ricardo; Frias-Martinez, Enrique; Ramasco, José J.; Barthelemy, Marc

2015-01-01

The extraction of a clear and simple footprint of the structure of large, weighted and directed networks is a general problem that has relevance for many applications. An important example is seen in origin-destination matrices, which contain the complete information on commuting flows, but are difficult to analyze and compare. We propose here a versatile method, which extracts a coarse-grained signature of mobility networks, under the form of a 2 × 2 matrix that separates the flows into four categories. We apply this method to origin-destination matrices extracted from mobile phone data recorded in 31 Spanish cities. We show that these cities essentially differ by their proportion of two types of flows: integrated (between residential and employment hotspots) and random flows, whose importance increases with city size. Finally, the method allows the determination of categories of networks, and in the mobility case, the classification of cities according to their commuting structure.

Semantic Framework of Internet of Things for Smart Cities: Case Studies.

PubMed

Zhang, Ningyu; Chen, Huajun; Chen, Xi; Chen, Jiaoyan

2016-09-14

In recent years, the advancement of sensor technology has led to the generation of heterogeneous Internet-of-Things (IoT) data by smart cities. Thus, the development and deployment of various aspects of IoT-based applications are necessary to mine the potential value of data to the benefit of people and their lives. However, the variety, volume, heterogeneity, and real-time nature of data obtained from smart cities pose considerable challenges. In this paper, we propose a semantic framework that integrates the IoT with machine learning for smart cities. The proposed framework retrieves and models urban data for certain kinds of IoT applications based on semantic and machine-learning technologies. Moreover, we propose two case studies: pollution detection from vehicles and traffic pattern detection. The experimental results show that our system is scalable and capable of accommodating a large number of urban regions with different types of IoT applications.

A global synthesis of plant extinction rates in urban areas.

PubMed

Hahs, Amy K; McDonnell, Mark J; McCarthy, Michael A; Vesk, Peter A; Corlett, Richard T; Norton, Briony A; Clemants, Steven E; Duncan, Richard P; Thompson, Ken; Schwartz, Mark W; Williams, Nicholas S G

2009-11-01

Plant extinctions from urban areas are a growing threat to biodiversity worldwide. To minimize this threat, it is critical to understand what factors are influencing plant extinction rates. We compiled plant extinction rate data for 22 cities around the world. Two-thirds of the variation in plant extinction rates was explained by a combination of the city's historical development and the current proportion of native vegetation, with the former explaining the greatest variability. As a single variable, the amount of native vegetation remaining also influenced extinction rates, particularly in cities > 200 years old. Our study demonstrates that the legacies of landscape transformations by agrarian and urban development last for hundreds of years, and modern cities potentially carry a large extinction debt. This finding highlights the importance of preserving native vegetation in urban areas and the need for mitigation to minimize potential plant extinctions in the future.

Historic Church of the Holy Cross in Kielce - Valuable Substance and Cultural Heritage in the Space of the Modern City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gil-Mastalerczyk, Joanna

2017-10-01

In the frequently modified city fabrics, sacral architecture still plays an important role defining aspects of spatial forms and their compositional relations to the surroundings. The historic church of the Holy Cross in Kielce (1903-1939) has been a characteristic sight, a landmark and a contributing factor to the structure of the modern city. Large dimensions and dominant vertical shapes give a sturdy, recognizable form to the church architecture. The body of this Neogothic church, original and distinguishable from its surroundings, has been highly appreciated by the community members. The church provides an example of the aesthetics of the time in which it was built, it also documents changes in the people’s lives and attitudes. It shows Poland’s economic, legal and social transformation. The church has gained a status of one of the symbols of the city.

Semantic Framework of Internet of Things for Smart Cities: Case Studies

PubMed Central

Zhang, Ningyu; Chen, Huajun; Chen, Xi; Chen, Jiaoyan

2016-01-01

In recent years, the advancement of sensor technology has led to the generation of heterogeneous Internet-of-Things (IoT) data by smart cities. Thus, the development and deployment of various aspects of IoT-based applications are necessary to mine the potential value of data to the benefit of people and their lives. However, the variety, volume, heterogeneity, and real-time nature of data obtained from smart cities pose considerable challenges. In this paper, we propose a semantic framework that integrates the IoT with machine learning for smart cities. The proposed framework retrieves and models urban data for certain kinds of IoT applications based on semantic and machine-learning technologies. Moreover, we propose two case studies: pollution detection from vehicles and traffic pattern detection. The experimental results show that our system is scalable and capable of accommodating a large number of urban regions with different types of IoT applications. PMID:27649185

Has climate change driven urbanization in Africa?

PubMed

Henderson, J Vernon; Storeygard, Adam; Deichmann, Uwe

2017-01-01

This paper documents strong but differentiated links between climate and urbanization in large panels of districts and cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has dried substantially in the past fifty years. The key dimension of heterogeneity is whether cities are likely to have manufacturing for export outside their regions, as opposed to being exclusively market towns providing local services to agricultural hinterlands. In regions where cities are likely to be manufacturing centers (25% of our sample), drier conditions increase urbanization and total urban incomes. There, urban migration provides an "escape" from negative agricultural moisture shocks. However, in the remaining market towns (75% of our sample), cities just service agriculture. Reduced farm incomes from negative shocks reduce demand for urban services and derived demand for urban labor. There, drying has little impact on urbanization or total urban incomes. Lack of structural transformation in Africa inhibits a better response to climate change.

Cultural heritage of Varna and its tourist recognisability in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dombrowicz, M.; Gruszka, P.; Jarecka, I.

2016-03-01

Cultural heritage of the European civilization constitutes cultural and spiritual property of the ancestors, as well as current generations of the Varna city. It represents both material and non-material value, defines the European culture. It includes all the environmental consequences arising from the interaction between the man and the surroundings over the course of history. Assessment of tourist potential of Varna performed on 9-14th September, 2014, by the members of the "European Traveler" scientific circle, students of tourist and recreation, as well as heritage and culture tourism at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, made it possible to identify the main points of tourist recognizability in relation to the city and region. The staid points are predominantly based on the unique cultural assets of the city and the region - in large measure related to the origins of the European civilization - as well as current cultural events organized in the city.

Has climate change driven urbanization in Africa?

PubMed Central

Henderson, J. Vernon; Storeygard, Adam; Deichmann, Uwe

2017-01-01

This paper documents strong but differentiated links between climate and urbanization in large panels of districts and cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has dried substantially in the past fifty years. The key dimension of heterogeneity is whether cities are likely to have manufacturing for export outside their regions, as opposed to being exclusively market towns providing local services to agricultural hinterlands. In regions where cities are likely to be manufacturing centers (25% of our sample), drier conditions increase urbanization and total urban incomes. There, urban migration provides an “escape” from negative agricultural moisture shocks. However, in the remaining market towns (75% of our sample), cities just service agriculture. Reduced farm incomes from negative shocks reduce demand for urban services and derived demand for urban labor. There, drying has little impact on urbanization or total urban incomes. Lack of structural transformation in Africa inhibits a better response to climate change. PMID:28458445

Gentrification in black and white: the racial impact of public housing demolition in American cities.

PubMed

Goetz, Edward

2011-01-01

The gentrification that has transformed high-poverty neighbourhoods in US cities since the mid 1990s has been characterised by high levels of state reinvestment. Prominent among public-sector interventions has been the demolition of public housing and in some cases multimillion dollar redevelopment efforts. In this paper, the racial dimension of state-supported gentrification in large US cities is examined by looking at the direct and indirect displacement induced by public housing transformation. The data show a clear tendency towards the demolition of public housing projects with disproportionately high African American occupancy. The pattern of indirect displacement is more varied; public housing transformation has produced a number of paths of neighbourhood change. The most common, however, involve significant reductions in poverty, sometimes associated with Black to White racial turnover and sometimes not. The findings underscore the central importance of race in understanding the dynamics of gentrification in US cities.

Inter-regional competition and quality in hospital care.

PubMed

Aiura, Hiroshi

2013-06-01

This study analyzes the effect of episode-of-care payment and patient choice on waiting time and the comprehensive quality of hospital care. The study assumes that two hospitals are located in two cities with different population sizes and compete with each other. We find that the comprehensive quality of hospital care as well as waiting time of both hospitals improve with an increase in payment per episode of care. However, we also find that the extent of these improvements differs according to the population size of the cities where the hospitals are located. Under the realistic assumptions that hospitals involve significant labor-intensive work, we find the improvements in comprehensive quality and waiting time in a hospital located in a small city to be greater than those in a hospital located in a large city. The result implies that regional disparity in the quality of hospital care decreases with an increase in payment per episode of care.

Sustainable Management of Urban Heat Islands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, K.; Rumohr, S.; Balke, K.-D.; Bayer, P.; Blum, P.

2009-04-01

In recent years, geothermal energy has become increasingly popular, because it offers a number of advantages over traditional energy sources based on fossil fuels. It is a renewable energy source, it is clean and safe for the surrounding environment, and it also contributes to reduction of CO2 emissions. Geothermal energy systems are recognized as one of the most efficient heating and cooling systems on the market. Therefore, there is great chance for future growth of geothermal energy use, particularly in densely populated urban regions. But there are also drawbacks: In many large cities, groundwater is heated up by several degrees (~ 5˚ C) compared to the surrounding areas. Causes might be microclimatic changes in the urban environment and the heating effect of sewage effluents. In fact, a major role plays overutilization of the ground as a cooling medium during the hot seasons for the air conditioning of large office buildings. The focus of this project is set on sustainable geothermal use in such large and densely populated areas, which are also called "urban heat islands". Previous studies focus on spatial temperature trends in the subsurface, and only a few have been able to reveal temporal trends, for which long-term measurement records are needed. This study is dedicated to two German locations: the city of Frankfurt/Main and the city of Cologne. The purpose of the study in Frankfurt is a comprehensive field investigation of the spatial temperature variations in the underlying aquifers, while in Cologne the attention is also on the temporal trends of urban groundwater temperatures. Of particular interest is not only to develop a sustainable management concept, but also a quantitative geophysical and hydrogeological assessment. For the city of Frankfurt/Main, the Hessian Agency for the Environment and Geology (HLUG) provides access to ongoing, highly spatially resolved field measurement locations. For Cologne, about 40 years old intensive temperature records will be utilized and compared to the status-quo. Furthermore, major geothermal projects in both cities will be reported and quantitatively analyzed in order to study the urban anthropogenic impacts. For this, heat transport models will be set up for at least one city. In site-specific integrative management strategies a balance between heat extraction and injection is elaborated. Finally, the findings of these case studies will be translated into a general guidance for those other urban areas with substantial heat anomalies that exist worldwide.

What Makes Green Cities Unique? Examining the Economic and Political Characteristics of the Grey-to-Green Continuum

PubMed Central

Runfola, Daniel Miller; Hughes, Sara

2014-01-01

In the United States, urbanization processes have resulted in a large variety—or “continuum”—of urban landscapes. One entry point for understanding the variety of landscape characteristics associated with different forms of urbanization is through a characterization of vegetative (green) land covers. Green land covers—i.e., lawns, parks, forests—have been shown to have a variety of both positive and negative impacts on human and environmental outcomes—ranging from increasing property values, to mitigating urban heat islands, to increasing water use for outdoor watering purposes. While considerable research has examined the variation of vegetation distribution within cities and related social and economic drivers, we know very little about whether or how the economic characteristics and policy priorities of green cities differ from those of “grey” cities—those with little green land cover. To address this gap, this paper seeks to answer the question how do the economic characteristics and policy priorities of green and grey cities differ in the United States? To answer this question, MODIS data from 2001 to 2006 are used to characterize 373 US cities in terms of their vegetative greenness. Information from the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) 2010 Local Government Sustainability Survey and 2009 Economic Development Survey are used to identify key governance strategies and policies that may differentiate green from grey cities. Two approaches for data analysis—ANOVA and decision tree analysis—are used to identify the most important characteristics for separating each category of city. The results indicate that grey cities tend to place a high priority on economic initiatives, while green cities place an emphasis on social justice, land conservation, and quality of life initiatives. PMID:25541593

Urban retail location: Insights from percolation theory and spatial interaction modeling

PubMed Central

Molinero, Carlos; Wilson, Alan

2017-01-01

Characterising road networks has been the focus of a large body of research due to it being the main driver of activities in an urban ecosystem and the structuring factor in the dynamics of the city. One of these activities, and one with the largest economical impact in a city, is retail dynamics and its evolution. Therefore, the mathematical modeling of the location of retail activities and of the emergence of clustering in retail centers has as well generated a large number of works. Despite these two interwoven components strongly depending on one another and their fundamental importance in understanding cities, little work has been done in order to compare their local and global properties. Here we compare the road network’s hierarchical structure, unveiled through a percolation analysis of the network, with the retail location distribution defined by exploiting a gravity-based retail model. We interpret the great agreement in the city’s organizations as it emerges from both methodologies as new evidence of the interdependence of these two crucial dimensions of a city’s life. PMID:28977032

Aromatic volatile organic compounds and their role in ground-level ozone formation in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berezina, E. V.; Moiseenko, K. B.; Skorokhod, A. I.; Elansky, N. F.; Belikov, I. B.

2017-05-01

This paper reports proton mass spectrometry data on aromatic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (benzene, toluene, phenol, styrene, xylene, and propylbenzene) obtained in different Russian regions along the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, based on expedition data retrieved using the TRO-ICA-12 mobile laboratory in the summer of 2008. The contribution of aromatic VOCs to ozone formation in the cities and regions along the measurement route has been estimated quantitatively. The greatest contribution of aromatic VOCs to ozone formation is characteristic of large cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway (up to 7.5 ppbv O3) specified by the highest concentrations of aromatic VOCs (1-1.7 ppbv) and nitrogen oxides (>20 ppbv). The results obtained are indicative of a considerable contribution (30-50%) of anthropogenic emissions of VOCs to photochemical ozone generation in the large cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway in hot and dry weather against the background of a powerful natural factor such as isoprene emissions controlling the regional balance of ground-level ozone in warm seasons.

Analysis of the 2011 Mekong flood in Can Tho city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, Thi-Chinh; Bubeck, Philip; Nguyen, Viet-Dung; Kreibich, Heidi

2014-05-01

Floods in the Mekong delta occur on a recurring basis during the flood season from July to November, and regular inundations of large areas are a prerequisite for the livelihoods of about 17 million people in the Vietnamese delta. At the same time, large-scale flood events above usual water levels pose a serious hazard that repeatedly caused severe economic damage and losses of life in past decades. The flood event in 2011 in the Mekong Delta heavily impacted Can Tho City and caused substantial damage to various economic sectors. Data from face to face interviews with 480 flood-affected households and 378 small businesses were analysed to gain detailed insights into flood preparedness, early warning, emergency measures, flood impacts and recovery before, during and after the 2011 flood in Can Tho city. Amongst other things, the findings reveal that damage to households is high, often exceeding the amount of several months of income, despite a relatively high level of preparedness. In terms of small businesses, it is found that higher losses indeed occur due to the disruption of production processes compared with direct damage.

Developing Small Cities by Promoting Village to Town and Its Effects on Quality of Life for the Local Residents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rezvani, Mohamad Reza; Mansourian, Hossain

2013-01-01

In the past few years, developing small cities, by promoting villages to towns for instance, has been considered as one of the main policies for improving the Quality of Life(QoL) in the rural regions of Iran and with this aim in the last few decades, a large number of rural centers have been promoted to towns. The purpose of this research is to…

Occupational Education in the Large Five Cities. Statement before the New York State Assembly Education Committee (Albany, New York, March 2, 1988). Capsule Report 88-11-CR-A.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sobol, Thomas

This document reports the policy statement of the President of the University of the State of New York regarding vocational education in the five largest cities in the state. The statement provides background on how changes in the economy and the organization of work will affect the skills needed by the work force of the future. It also indicates…

The eroticism of Internet cruising as a self-contained behaviour: a multivariate analysis of men seeking men demographics and getting off online

PubMed Central

Robinson, Brandon Andrew; Moskowitz, David A.

2013-01-01

Most studies on men seeking men and who use the Internet for sexual purposes have focused on the epidemiological outcomes of Internet cruising. Other research has only focused on online sexual behaviours such as cybersex. The present study examines men who find the acts of Internet cruising and emailing to be erotic as self-contained behaviours. We surveyed 499 men who used craigslist.org for sexually-oriented purposes, and ran an ordinary least squares multiple regression model to determine the demographic characteristics of men seeking men who found Internet cruising erotic. Our results showed that younger compared to older men seeking men found the acts erotic. Likewise, men seeking men from mid-sized cities and large cities compared to men from smaller cities found Internet cruising and emailing to be erotic. Most notably, bisexual- and heterosexual-identifying men seeking men compared to gay-identifying men found these acts to be more erotic. Our results suggested that self-contained Internet cruising might provide dual functions. For some men (e.g., heterosexual-identifying men), the behaviour provides a sexual outlet in which fantasy and experimentation may be explored without risking stigmatization. For other men (e.g., those from large cities), the behaviour may be an alternative to offset sexual risk while still being able to ‘get off’. PMID:23565985

Sustainable water services and interaction with water resources in Europe and in Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barraqué, B.; Formiga Johnsson, R. M.; Britto, A. L.

2007-09-01

The increasing interaction between large cities and nature makes "urban water" an issue: water resources and water services - including public water supply, sewage collection and treatment, and in large cities, storm water control -, which had become separate issues thanks to the process of water transport and treatment technologies, are now increasingly interfering with each other. We cannot take nature for granted anymore, and we need to protect water resources, if only to reduce the long term cost of transporting and treating water. In this paper, we compare the historical development of water industry technologies in European and Brazilian metropolitan areas, in their socio-economic and political context, tracing it through three "ages" of water technology and services which developed under civil engineering, sanitary engineering, and environmental engineering perspectives: the "quantity of water" and civil engineering paradigm was developed on the assumption that water should be drawn from natural environments far from the cities; in the "water quality" and chemical/sanitation engineering paradigm, water treatment was invented and allowed cities to take water from rivers closer to them and treat it, but also to reduce sewer discharge impacts; finally, the environmental engineering paradigm proposes to overcome the supply side perspective, by introducing demand side management, water conservation, water allocation flexibilisation, and an integrated approach to water services, water resources management, and land use policies.

Ireland

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

On August 7, 2003, the NASA Aqua MODIS instrument acquired this image of Ireland on the first day this summer that most of the island hasn´t been completely obscured by cloud cover. Called the Emerald Isle for a good reason, Ireland is draped in vibrant shades of green amidst the blue Atlantic Ocean and Celtic (south) and Irish (east) Seas. Faint ribbons of blue-green phytoplankton drift in the waters of the Celtic Sea, just south of Dublin. Dublin itself appears as a large grayish-brown spot on the Republic of Ireland´s northeastern coast. This large capital city (population 1.12 million) sits on the River Liffey, effectively splitting the city in half. Northern Ireland´s capital city, Belfast, also sits on a river: the River Lagan. This city, though its population is only a fifth of the size of Dublin´s, is also clearly visible in the image as a grayish-brown spot on the coast of the Irish Sea. Sensor Aqua/MODIS Credit Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC For more information go to: visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=5744 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook

Relationships between Changes in Urban Characteristics and Air Quality in East Asia from 2000 to 2010

PubMed Central

Larkin, Andrew; van Donkelaar, Aaron; Geddes, Jeffrey A.; Martin, Randall V.; Hystad, Perry

2017-01-01

Characteristics of urban areas, such as density and compactness, are associated with local air pollution concentrations. The potential for altering air pollution through changing urban characteristics, however, is less certain, especially for expanding cities within the developing world. We examined changes in urban characteristics from 2000 to 2010 for 830 cities in East Asia to evaluate associations with changes in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution. Urban areas were stratified by population size into small (100,000–250,000), medium, (250,000–1,000,000) and large (>1,000,000). Multivariate regression models including urban baseline characteristics, meteorological variables, and change in urban characteristics explained 37%, 49%, and 54% of the change in NO2 and 29%, 34%, and 37% of the change in PM2.5 for small, medium and large cities, respectively. Change in lights at night strongly predicted change in NO2 and PM2.5, while urban area expansion was strongly associated with NO2 but not PM2.5. Important differences between changes in urban characteristics and pollutant levels were observed by city size, especially NO2. Overall, changes in urban characteristics had a greater impact on NO2 and PM2.5 change than baseline characteristics, suggesting urban design and land use policies can have substantial impacts on local air pollution levels. PMID:27442110

Heat stress increase under climate change twice as large in cities as in rural areas: A study for a densely populated midlatitude maritime region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wouters, Hendrik; De Ridder, Koen; Poelmans, Lien; Willems, Patrick; Brouwers, Johan; Hosseinzadehtalaei, Parisa; Tabari, Hossein; Vanden Broucke, Sam; van Lipzig, Nicole P. M.; Demuzere, Matthias

2017-09-01

Urban areas are usually warmer than their surrounding natural areas, an effect known as the urban heat island effect. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to global warming and associated increases in extreme temperatures. Yet ensemble climate-model projections are generally performed on a scale that is too coarse to represent the evolution of temperatures in cities. Here, for the first time, we combine unprecedented long-term (35 years) urban climate model integrations at the convection-permitting scale (2.8 km resolution) with information from an ensemble of general circulation models to assess temperature-based heat stress for Belgium, a densely populated midlatitude maritime region. We discover that the heat stress increase toward the mid-21st century is twice as large in cities compared to their surrounding rural areas. The exacerbation is driven by the urban heat island itself, its concurrence with heat waves, and urban expansion. Cities experience a heat stress multiplication by a factor 1.4 and 15 depending on the scenario. Remarkably, the future heat stress surpasses everywhere the urban hot spots of today. Our results demonstrate the need to combine information from climate models, acting on different scales, for climate change risk assessment in heterogeneous regions. Moreover, these results highlight the necessity for adaptation to increasing heat stress, especially in urban areas.

Compact or spread? A quantitative spatial model of urban areas in Europe since 1990

PubMed Central

Haase, Dagmar; Haase, Annegret

2018-01-01

Changes in urban residential density represent an important issue in terms of land consumption, the conservation of ecosystems, air quality and related human health problems, as well as the consequential challenges for urban and regional planning. It is the decline of residential densities, in particular, that has often been used as the very definition of sprawl, describing a phenomenon that has been extensively studied in the United States and in Western Europe. Whilst these studies provide valuable insights into urbanization processes, only a handful of them have reflected the uneven dynamics of simultaneous urban growth and shrinkage, using residential density changes as a key indicator to uncover the underlying dynamics. This paper introduces a contrasting analysis of recent developments in both de- and re-concentration, defined as decreasing or increasing residential densities, respectively. Using a large sample of European cities, it detects differences in density changes between successional population growth/decline. The paper shows that dedensification, found in some large cities globally, is not a universal phenomenon in growing urban areas; neither the increasing disproportion between a declining demand for and an increasing supply of residential areas nor actual concentration processes in cities were found. Thus, the paper provides a new, very detailed perspective on (de)densification in both shrinking and growing cities and how they specifically contribute to current land take in Europe. PMID:29489851

Compact or spread? A quantitative spatial model of urban areas in Europe since 1990.

PubMed

Wolff, Manuel; Haase, Dagmar; Haase, Annegret

2018-01-01

Changes in urban residential density represent an important issue in terms of land consumption, the conservation of ecosystems, air quality and related human health problems, as well as the consequential challenges for urban and regional planning. It is the decline of residential densities, in particular, that has often been used as the very definition of sprawl, describing a phenomenon that has been extensively studied in the United States and in Western Europe. Whilst these studies provide valuable insights into urbanization processes, only a handful of them have reflected the uneven dynamics of simultaneous urban growth and shrinkage, using residential density changes as a key indicator to uncover the underlying dynamics. This paper introduces a contrasting analysis of recent developments in both de- and re-concentration, defined as decreasing or increasing residential densities, respectively. Using a large sample of European cities, it detects differences in density changes between successional population growth/decline. The paper shows that dedensification, found in some large cities globally, is not a universal phenomenon in growing urban areas; neither the increasing disproportion between a declining demand for and an increasing supply of residential areas nor actual concentration processes in cities were found. Thus, the paper provides a new, very detailed perspective on (de)densification in both shrinking and growing cities and how they specifically contribute to current land take in Europe.

The Smart Health Initiative in China: The Case of Wuhan, Hubei Province.

PubMed

Fan, Meiyu; Sun, Jian; Zhou, Bin; Chen, Min

2016-03-01

To introduce smart health in Wuhan, and provide some references for other cities. As the largest mega-city in central China, Wuhan is investing large amounts of resources to push forward the development of Smart Wuhan and Health Wuhan, and it has unique features. It is one of the centerpieces of China's New Healthcare Reform, and great hope is put on it to help solve the conflict between limited healthcare resources and the large population of patients. How to plan and design smart health is important. The construction of Wuhan Smart Health includes some aspects as follows, like requirement analysis, the establishment of objectives and blueprint, the architecture design of regional health information platform, evaluation and implementation, problems and solutions, and so on. Wuhan Smart Health has obtained some achievements in health network, information systems, resident's health records, information standard, and the first phase of municipal health information platform. The focus of this article is the whole construction process of smart health in Wuhan. Although there are some difficulties during this period, some smart health services and management have been reflected. Compared with other cities or countries, Wuhan Smart Health has its own advantages and disadvantages. This study aims to provide a reference for other cities. Because smart health of Wuhan is characteristic in construction mode. Though still in the initial stage, it has great potentials in the future.

Home educating in an extended family culture and aging society may fare best during a pandemic.

PubMed

Dawson, Wayne; Yamamoto, Kenji

2009-09-28

Large cities can contain populations that move rapidly from one section to another in an efficient transportation network. An emerging air-borne or contact based pathogen could use these transportation routes to rapidly spread an infection throughout an entire population in a short time. Further, in many developed countries, the aging population is increasing. The family structure in these societies may also affect the course of a disease. To help understand the impact of an epidemic on family structure in a networked population, an individual based computer model that randomly generates networked cities with a specified range of population and disease characteristics and individual schedules, infectivity, transmission and hygiene factors was developed. Several salient issues emerged. First, a city of highly active individuals may in fact diminish the number of fatalities because the average duration of the interactions between agents is reduced. Second, home schooling can significantly improve survival because the institutional clustering of weak individuals is minimized. Third, the worst scenario for an aging population is the nuclear family where the aged population is confined to large housing facilities. Naturally, hygiene is the first barrier to infection. The results suggest that societies where extended families and small groups manage most of their own affairs may also be the most suitable for defense against a pandemic. This may prove applicable in city planning and policy making.

A comparative study of the mobile population in Wuhan and other major cities.

PubMed

Zeng, Y

1997-01-01

This study examined population mobility among residents of 5 cities in China: Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Data were obtained from the 1995 Sample Survey of 1% of Wuhan Population and provincial Statistical Yearbooks. The total mobile population in China has increased from 20-80 million during 1982-95. Shanghai is the largest Chinese city. Beijing has a large proportion of international and internal migrants. Guangzhou is a capital city that was the first to adopt economic reforms. Migration fueled development in Shenzhen. A larger mobile population was related to larger population density. The mobile population was 20% in all cities, 30% of central city population, and 140.5% of the central city of Shenzhen. Beijing and Shanghai had the highest growth rates. Construction accounts for the largest percentage of business-related mobile population in Wuhan, Beijing, and Shanghai. Manufacturing accounts for the largest percentage in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Most of the mobile population in capital cities such as Wuhan and Guangzhou, originates from within the provinces. The largest percentage of mobile population in Beijing and Shanghai come from adjacent provinces. Guangzhou receives many migrants from adjacent Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. 47.8-78.8% of mobile population were farmers. More migrants are men. Educational levels are low. The mobile population contributes to industry and informational/cultural exchange. The migrants detract from urban areas in population pressure on housing and services, shortages of employment, illegal activities and crime, and unplanned births.

Seismic Hazard Management in Mexico City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wintergerst, L.

2007-05-01

Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world. More than 8.5 million residents and 4.5 million floating population are in the city itself, but with the surrounding suburbs the number of people that could be affected by natural and man-made hazards rises to approximately 20 million. The main risk to the city as a whole is a large magnitude earthquake. Since there is reason to prepare for a credible seismic scenario of Mw = 8.2, which would exceed the damages caused during the 1985 earthquake (Mw = 8.1), we founded the Metropolitan Geologic Service (MGS) in 1998. The MGS has developed geologic and seismic hazard maps for the city (http:www.proteccioncivil.df.gob.mx). The maps include three separate risk maps for low height (3 stories), medium height (10 stories) and tall buildings (10 stories). The maps were prepared by using the maximum horizontal accelerations documented during the 1985 earthquake, and wave propagation modeling for buildings of different resonant periods (T = 0.0, 1.0 and 2.0 sec). In all cases, the risk zones were adjusted to include documented damage during the 1957, 1979 and 1985 earthquakes. All three maps show a high risk zone in the north-central portion of the city, elongated in a N-S direction, which corresponds with a narrow graben where the thickness of alluvial sediments is particularly large, and where wave amplification is accentuated. Preparation of these maps, and others used for planning, has been facilitated by the ongoing elaboration of a Dynamic Geographical Information System, which is based on geo-scientific information, includes all types of risks, and incorporates vulnerability models. From the risk management standpoint, we have elaborated the Permanent Contingency Plan for Mexico City, which in its Earthquakes chapter includes plans for coordination and for organizing attention to the population in the event of a seismic disaster. This Permanent Plan follows the philosophy of Descartes' Method, has 11 processes (6 main and 5 support processes), and is coordinated by Center of Control of Operations under the overall direction of the Head of Government of the Federal District. We are also working on the definition of the Basic Elements for a New Paradigm in the Prevention of Disasters, to investigate the origins, causes and effects of disaster phenomena, and to plan and implement a suitable response from the Government to better protect the population.

Influenza newspaper reports and the influenza epidemic: an observational study in Fukuoka City, Japan.

PubMed

Hagihara, Akihito; Onozuka, Daisuke; Miyazaki, Shougo; Abe, Takeru

2015-12-30

We examined whether the weekly number of newspaper articles reporting on influenza was related to the incidence of influenza in a large city. Prospective, non-randomised, observational study. Registry data of influenza cases in Fukuoka City, Japan. A total of 83,613 cases of influenza cases that occurred between October 1999 and March 2007 in Fukuoka City, Japan. A linear model with autoregressive time series errors was fitted to time series data on the incidence of influenza and the accumulated number of influenza-related newspaper articles with different time lags in Fukuoka City, Japan. In order to obtain further evidence that the number of newspaper articles a week with specific time lags is related to the incidence of influenza, Granger causality was also tested. Of the 16 models including 'number of newspaper articles' with different time lags between 2 and 17 weeks (xt-2 to t-17), the β coefficients of 'number of newspaper articles' at time lags between t-5 and t-13 were significant. However, the β coefficients of 'number of newspaper articles' that are significant with respect to the Granger causality tests (p<0.05) were the weekly number of newspaper articles at time lags between t-6 and t-10 (time shift of 10 weeks, β=-0.301, p<0.01; time shift of 9 weeks, β=-0.200, p<0.01; time shift of 8 weeks, β=-0.156, p<0.01; time shift of 7 weeks, β=-0.122, p<0.05; time shift of 6 weeks, β=-0.113, p<0.05). We found that the number of newspaper articles reporting on influenza in a week was related to the incidence of influenza 6-10 weeks after media coverage in a large city in Japan. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Influenza newspaper reports and the influenza epidemic: an observational study in Fukuoka City, Japan

PubMed Central

Hagihara, Akihito; Onozuka, Daisuke; Miyazaki, Shougo; Abe, Takeru

2015-01-01

Objectives We examined whether the weekly number of newspaper articles reporting on influenza was related to the incidence of influenza in a large city. Design Prospective, non-randomised, observational study. Setting Registry data of influenza cases in Fukuoka City, Japan. Participants A total of 83 613 cases of influenza cases that occurred between October 1999 and March 2007 in Fukuoka City, Japan. Main outcome measure A linear model with autoregressive time series errors was fitted to time series data on the incidence of influenza and the accumulated number of influenza-related newspaper articles with different time lags in Fukuoka City, Japan. In order to obtain further evidence that the number of newspaper articles a week with specific time lags is related to the incidence of influenza, Granger causality was also tested. Results Of the 16 models including ‘number of newspaper articles’ with different time lags between 2 and 17 weeks (xt-2 to t-17), the β coefficients of ‘number of newspaper articles’ at time lags between t-5 and t-13 were significant. However, the β coefficients of ‘number of newspaper articles’ that are significant with respect to the Granger causality tests (p<0.05) were the weekly number of newspaper articles at time lags between t-6 and t-10 (time shift of 10 weeks, β=−0.301, p<0.01; time shift of 9 weeks, β=−0.200, p<0.01; time shift of 8 weeks, β=−0.156, p<0.01; time shift of 7 weeks, β=−0.122, p<0.05; time shift of 6 weeks, β=−0.113, p<0.05). Conclusions We found that the number of newspaper articles reporting on influenza in a week was related to the incidence of influenza 6–10 weeks after media coverage in a large city in Japan. PMID:26719323

Geochemical Legacies and the Future Health of Cities: An Analysis of two Neurotoxins in Urban Soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filippelli, G. M.; Risch, M.

2015-12-01

The past and future of cities are inextricably linked, a linkage that can be seen clearly in the long-term impacts of urban geochemical legacies. As loci of population as well as the means of employment and industry to support these populations, cities have a long history of co-locating contaminating practices and people, sometimes with negative implications for human health. Working at the intersection between geochemical processes, communities, and human health is critical to grapple with environmental legacies and to support healthy, sustainable, and growing urban populations. An emerging area of environmental health research is to understand the impacts of chronic exposures and exposure mixtures—these impacts are very poorly studied, yet have materialized as perhaps the greatest threat to large-scale population health. Acute exposure to lead (Pb), a powerful neurotoxin to which children are particularly susceptible, has largely been eliminated in the U.S. and other countries through policy-based restrictions on leaded gasoline and lead-based paints. But these legacy Pb sources are still around in the form of surface soil Pb contamination, a common problem in cities and one that has only recently emerged as a pernicious and widespread chronic exposure mechanism in cities. Some urban soils are also contaminated with another neurotoxin, mercury (Hg), although very little work has been done to understand human exposures to low levels of this element in soils. The most documented human exposure to Hg is through fish consumption, so eating fish caught in urban areas presents risks for above average dietary Hg exposure. The potential double impact of chronic exposure to these two neurotoxins is pronounced in cities. Many aspects of the dose-response curves for individual elements and mixtures are poorly understood, especially at lower levels, leaving unanswered several interesting and provocative questions about environmental impacts on neurological and developmental disorders.

Utilising integrated urban water management to assess the viability of decentralised water solutions.

PubMed

Burn, Stewart; Maheepala, Shiroma; Sharma, Ashok

2012-01-01

Cities worldwide are challenged by a number of urban water issues associated with climate change, population growth and the associated water scarcity, wastewater flows and stormwater run-off. To address these problems decentralised solutions are increasingly being considered by water authorities, and integrated urban water management (IUWM) has emerged as a potential solution to most of these urban water challenges, and as the key to providing solutions incorporating decentralised concepts at a city wide scale. To incorporate decentralised options, there is a need to understand their performance and their impact on a city's total water cycle under alternative water and land management options. This includes changes to flow, nutrient and sediment regimes, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts on rivers, aquifers and estuaries. Application of the IUWM approach to large cities demands revisiting the fundamental role of water system design in sustainable city development. This paper uses the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) to expand a logical definition for the aims of IUWM, and discusses the role of decentralised systems in IUWM and how IUWM principles can be incorporated into urban water planning.

Uncovering urban human mobility from large scale taxi GPS data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Jinjun; Liu, Fang; Wang, Yinhai; Wang, Hua

2015-11-01

Taxi GPS trajectories data contain massive spatial and temporal information of urban human activity and mobility. Taking taxi as mobile sensors, the information derived from taxi trips benefits the city and transportation planning. The original data used in study are collected from more than 1100 taxi drivers in Harbin city. We firstly divide the city area into 400 different transportation districts and analyze the origin and destination distribution in urban area on weekday and weekend. The Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm is used to cluster pick-up and drop-off locations. Furthermore, four spatial interaction models are calibrated and compared based on trajectories in shopping center of Harbin city to study the pick-up location searching behavior. By extracting taxi trips from GPS data, travel distance, time and average speed in occupied and non-occupied status are then used to investigate human mobility. Finally, we use observed OD matrix of center area in Harbin city to model the traffic distribution patterns based on entropy-maximizing method, and the estimation performance verify its effectiveness in case study.

The Advantage by Using Low-Altitude UAV for Sustainable Urban Development Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djimantoro, Michael I.; Suhardjanto, Gatot

2017-12-01

The City will always grow and develop along with the increasing number of population which affect more demands of building space in the city. Thoserequirements of development can be done by the government, the private sector or by the individual sectors, but it needs to follow the ordinance which is set in the city plan to avoid the adverse negative impact in the future. The problems are if the monitored development in the city is like Jakarta - Indonesia, which have an area of 661 square kilometres compared with the limitation of government employee source. Therefore, it is important to advancing the new tools to monitor the development of the city, due to the large development area and the limitation of source. This research explores the using of Low-altitude UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) combined with photogrammetry techniques - a new rapidly developing technology - to collect as-built building development information in real time, cost-effective and efficient manner. The result of this research explores the possibility of using the UAV in sustainable urban development control and it can detect the anomalies of the development.

An evaluated community action project on alcohol.

PubMed

Casswell, S; Gilmore, L

1989-07-01

This article reports outcomes of an evaluated community action program directed toward alcohol problem prevention. In a quasi-experimental design, change was monitored in six cities--two cities with an alcohol-focused community organizer and media campaign, two cities with the media campaign only and two reference cities. The community organizers worked with a local alcohol coordinating committee and other local organizations. They focused on alcohol availability (including the promotion of nonalcoholic beverages), advertising and, to a lesser extent, pricing policies. The media campaign focused on reducing the large-quantity drinking of young men, and generated considerable controversy. Before and after surveys of the general population were carried out to evaluate the outcome of the project. Support for control policies on advertising, availability and price held steady in the treatment communities but dropped in the reference communities. The perception of alcohol being essential to entertaining and as being relatively innocuous decreased significantly in the community-action cities. The project thus appears to have met its objectives in these areas, although primarily by stemming the national trend toward greater support for liberalization.

Geochemical legacies and the future health of cities: A tale of two neurotoxins in urban soils

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fillipelli, Gabriel M.; Risch, Martin R.; Laidlaw, Mark A. S.; Nichols, Deborah E.; Crewe, Julie

2015-01-01

Acute exposure to lead (Pb), a powerful neurotoxin to which children are particularly susceptible, has largely been eliminated in the U.S. and other countries through policy-based restrictions on leaded gasoline and lead-based paints. But the legacy of these sources remains in the form of surface soil Pb contamination, a common problem in cities and one that has only recently emerged as a widespread chronic exposure mechanism in cities. Some urban soils are also contaminated with another neurotoxin, mercury (Hg). The greatest human exposure to Hg is through fish consumption, so eating fish caught in urban areas presents risks for toxic Hg exposure. The potential double impact of chronic exposure to these two neurotoxins is pronounced in cities. Overall, there is a paradigmatic shift from reaction to and remediation of acute exposures towards a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic cycling of persistent environmental contaminants with resultant widespread and chronic exposure of inner-city dwellers, leading to chronic toxic illness and disability at substantial human and social cost.

The scaling of human interactions with city size

PubMed Central

Schläpfer, Markus; Bettencourt, Luís M. A.; Grauwin, Sébastian; Raschke, Mathias; Claxton, Rob; Smoreda, Zbigniew; West, Geoffrey B.; Ratti, Carlo

2014-01-01

The size of cities is known to play a fundamental role in social and economic life. Yet, its relation to the structure of the underlying network of human interactions has not been investigated empirically in detail. In this paper, we map society-wide communication networks to the urban areas of two European countries. We show that both the total number of contacts and the total communication activity grow superlinearly with city population size, according to well-defined scaling relations and resulting from a multiplicative increase that affects most citizens. Perhaps surprisingly, however, the probability that an individual's contacts are also connected with each other remains largely unaffected. These empirical results predict a systematic and scale-invariant acceleration of interaction-based spreading phenomena as cities get bigger, which is numerically confirmed by applying epidemiological models to the studied networks. Our findings should provide a microscopic basis towards understanding the superlinear increase of different socioeconomic quantities with city size, that applies to almost all urban systems and includes, for instance, the creation of new inventions or the prevalence of certain contagious diseases. PMID:24990287

Winter Season Mortality: Will Climate Warming Bring Benefits?

PubMed

Kinney, Patrick L; Schwartz, Joel; Pascal, Mathilde; Petkova, Elisaveta; Tertre, Alain Le; Medina, Sylvia; Vautard, Robert

2015-06-01

Extreme heat events are associated with spikes in mortality, yet death rates are on average highest during the coldest months of the year. Under the assumption that most winter excess mortality is due to cold temperature, many previous studies have concluded that winter mortality will substantially decline in a warming climate. We analyzed whether and to what extent cold temperatures are associated with excess winter mortality across multiple cities and over multiple years within individual cities, using daily temperature and mortality data from 36 US cities (1985-2006) and 3 French cities (1971-2007). Comparing across cities, we found that excess winter mortality did not depend on seasonal temperature range, and was no lower in warmer vs. colder cities, suggesting that temperature is not a key driver of winter excess mortality. Using regression models within monthly strata, we found that variability in daily mortality within cities was not strongly influenced by winter temperature. Finally we found that inadequate control for seasonality in analyses of the effects of cold temperatures led to spuriously large assumed cold effects, and erroneous attribution of winter mortality to cold temperatures. Our findings suggest that reductions in cold-related mortality under warming climate may be much smaller than some have assumed. This should be of interest to researchers and policy makers concerned with projecting future health effects of climate change and developing relevant adaptation strategies.

A CityGML Extension for Handling Very Large Tins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, K.; Ledoux, H.; Stoter, J.

2016-10-01

In addition to buildings, the terrain forms an important part of a 3D city model. Although in GIS terrains are usually represented with 2D grids, TINs are also increasingly being used in practice. One example is 3DTOP10NL, the 3D city model covering the whole of the Netherlands, which stores the relief with a constrained TIN containing more than 1 billion triangles. Due to the massive size of such datasets, the main problem that arises is: how to efficiently store and maintain them? While CityGML supports the storage of TINs, we argue in this paper that the current solution is not adequate. For instance, the 1 billion+ triangles of 3DTOP10NL require 686 GB of storage space with CityGML. Furthermore, the current solution does not store the topological relationships of the triangles, and also there are no clear mechanisms to handle several LODs. We propose in this paper a CityGML extension for the compact representation of terrains. We describe our abstract and implementation specifications (modelled in UML), and our prototype implementation to convert TINs to our CityGML structure. It increases the topological relationships that are explicitly represented, and allows us to compress up to a factor of ∼ 25 in our experiments with massive real-world terrains (more than 1 billion triangles).

Comparing alcohol affordability in 65 cities worldwide.

PubMed

Kan, Ming-Yue; Lau, Maggie

2013-01-01

To develop a measure of alcohol affordability (AA) and compare the AA of 65 cities worldwide. In this paper, AA is defined as the proportion of median daily income needed to buy a certain quantity of certain alcoholic beverages. The income data and the price of alcoholic beverages were drawn from the Union Bank of Switzerland survey and the Economist Intelligence Unit respectively. A large majority of cities (87.7%, n = 57) had a high level of AA. The top 20 ranking was occupied by European and American cities with Tokyo in the Western Pacific region being the exception. All cities belonging to high-income countries had high levels of AA. However, two cities with low-level AA came from low-middle-income countries instead of low-income countries. The findings have shown that alcohol consumption is highly affordable in many cities. If price policy is being considered as policy instrument of alcohol control, it is in urgent need of price adjustments. More specifically, the new emerging economies play a significant role in the world alcohol control movement because of their bright economic performance with huge population size. Further studies on AA, especially periodical monitoring and its impacts on alcohol consumption and alcohol related health problems, should be conducted so as to facilitate the formulation and evaluation price measure of alcohol control. © 2012 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Winter season mortality: will climate warming bring benefits?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinney, Patrick L.; Schwartz, Joel; Pascal, Mathilde; Petkova, Elisaveta; Le Tertre, Alain; Medina, Sylvia; Vautard, Robert

2015-06-01

Extreme heat events are associated with spikes in mortality, yet death rates are on average highest during the coldest months of the year. Under the assumption that most winter excess mortality is due to cold temperature, many previous studies have concluded that winter mortality will substantially decline in a warming climate. We analyzed whether and to what extent cold temperatures are associated with excess winter mortality across multiple cities and over multiple years within individual cities, using daily temperature and mortality data from 36 US cities (1985-2006) and 3 French cities (1971-2007). Comparing across cities, we found that excess winter mortality did not depend on seasonal temperature range, and was no lower in warmer vs. colder cities, suggesting that temperature is not a key driver of winter excess mortality. Using regression models within monthly strata, we found that variability in daily mortality within cities was not strongly influenced by winter temperature. Finally we found that inadequate control for seasonality in analyses of the effects of cold temperatures led to spuriously large assumed cold effects, and erroneous attribution of winter mortality to cold temperatures. Our findings suggest that reductions in cold-related mortality under warming climate may be much smaller than some have assumed. This should be of interest to researchers and policy makers concerned with projecting future health effects of climate change and developing relevant adaptation strategies.

The land-use of Bandung, its density, overcrowded area and public facility toward a compact city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paramita, B.

2016-04-01

The concept of a compact city has been introduced since 1973. It is a utopian vision largely driven by a desire to see more efficient uses of resources. In 1980s, the reconfiguration of the physical urban form of metropolitan areas was increasingly debated by both theorists and practitioners. Recently, the concept of a compact city has been more focused on developed countries in which the population tends to decrease. However, in Asia, except Japan which contains many dense cities, it has become a concept which promotes relatively high residential density with mixed land uses, though rather only in population and density. This paper addresses the land-use of Bandung that having the density over 14,000 people/km2, which has been so much potential toward a compact city. Somehow, unprepared ness of urban planning and regulation, the city seemed overwrought to serve its inhabitants. This condition is shown from the demographic condition, especially population density in Bandung based on its sub areas of the city (SWK). The stack of public facilities in a certain district has led the concentration of density and activity, which finally raising the slum and overcrowded settlement. Finally, this paper explores the implications of land use management and describes challenges faced and possible approaches, especially in land-use management strategies to be implemented in Bandung.

The illegal cigarette market in a socioeconomically deprived inner-city area: the case of the South Bronx.

PubMed

Kurti, Marin K; von Lampe, Klaus; Thompkins, Douglas E

2013-03-01

To determine the scope of the cigarette black market in a socioeconomically deprived inner-city area in the US, taking the South Bronx in New York City as a case study. The South Bronx Litter Pack Survey collected discarded cigarette packs (n=497) along 30 randomised census tracts to quantify the prevalence of counterfeit, legal and out-of-state tax stamps. It was found that 76.2% of cigarette packs collected avoided the combined New York City and State tax. More specifically, 57.9% were untaxed (counterfeit or bearing no tax stamp), for 15.8% taxes were paid outside of New York City (including other states and New York State only). Only 19.4% of tax stamps collected indicated that New York City and New York State taxes were paid. 4.4% of the cigarette packs could not be analysed because the tax stamps were not discernible. The finding that the majority of cigarettes did not have a tax stamp or bore a counterfeit tax stamp suggests that these cigarettes were being bootlegged, most likely from Native American Reservations. The present study highlights the importance of examining the illegal cigarette market in socioeconomically deprived regions of the US, where tax avoidance and black market activities appear to far exceed levels found elsewhere in the country including Chicago and New York City at large.

Ring-Shaped Seismicity Structures in Southern California: Possible Preparation for Large Earthquake in the Los Angeles Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kopnichev, Yu. F.; Sokolova, I. N.

2017-12-01

Some characteristics of seismicity in Southern California are studied. It is found that ring-shaped seismicity structures with threshold magnitudes M th of 4.1, 4.1, and 3.8 formed prior to three large ( M w > 7.0) earthquakes in 1992, 1999, and 2010, respectively. The sizes of these structures are several times smaller than for intracontinental strike-slip events with similar magnitudes. Two ring-shaped structures are identified in areas east of the city of Los Angeles, where relatively large earthquakes have not occurred for at least 150 years. The magnitudes of large events which can occur in the areas of these structures are estimated on the basis of the previously obtained correlation dependence of ring sizes on magnitudes of the strike-slip earthquakes. Large events with magnitudes of M w = 6.9 ± 0.2 and M w = 8.6 ± 0.2 can occur in the area to the east of the city of Los Angeles and in the rupture zone of the 1857 great Fort Tejon earthquake, respectively. We believe that ring-structure formation, similarly to the other regions, is connected with deep-seated fluid migration.

Evaluation Findings from High School Reform Efforts in Baltimore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smerdon, Becky; Cohen, Jennifer

2009-01-01

The Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) is one of the first urban districts in the country to undertake large-scale high school reform, phasing in small learning communities by opening new high schools and transforming large, comprehensive high schools into small high schools. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a…

Factors Affecting Volunteering among Older Rural and City Dwelling Adults in Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warburton, Jeni; Stirling, Christine

2007-01-01

In the absence of large scale Australian studies of volunteering among older adults, this study compared the relevance of two theoretical approaches--social capital theory and sociostructural resources theory--to predict voluntary activity in relation to a large national database. The paper explores volunteering by older people (aged 55+) in order…

Ella Flagg Young: Tribute to a Pioneer Leader in Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, L. Dean; McCarthy, Martha M.

1996-01-01

Young was the first woman to head a large city school system, the first woman to serve as head of a large teachers college, and the first woman president of the National Education Association. Her visionary accomplishments offer inspiration for current women administrators to continue in the quest to improve education. (LSR)

A survey of urban climate change experiments in 100 cities

PubMed Central

Castán Broto, Vanesa; Bulkeley, Harriet

2013-01-01

Cities are key sites where climate change is being addressed. Previous research has largely overlooked the multiplicity of climate change responses emerging outside formal contexts of decision-making and led by actors other than municipal governments. Moreover, existing research has largely focused on case studies of climate change mitigation in developed economies. The objective of this paper is to uncover the heterogeneous mix of actors, settings, governance arrangements and technologies involved in the governance of climate change in cities in different parts of the world. The paper focuses on urban climate change governance as a process of experimentation. Climate change experiments are presented here as interventions to try out new ideas and methods in the context of future uncertainties. They serve to understand how interventions work in practice, in new contexts where they are thought of as innovative. To study experimentation, the paper presents evidence from the analysis of a database of 627 urban climate change experiments in a sample of 100 global cities. The analysis suggests that, since 2005, experimentation is a feature of urban responses to climate change across different world regions and multiple sectors. Although experimentation does not appear to be related to particular kinds of urban economic and social conditions, some of its core features are visible. For example, experimentation tends to focus on energy. Also, both social and technical forms of experimentation are visible, but technical experimentation is more common in urban infrastructure systems. While municipal governments have a critical role in climate change experimentation, they often act alongside other actors and in a variety of forms of partnership. These findings point at experimentation as a key tool to open up new political spaces for governing climate change in the city. PMID:23805029

Impacts of Modernizing Urban Stormwater Systems on Nutrient and Carbon Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filippelli, G. M.; Jacinthe, P. A.; Druschel, G.

2015-12-01

Over 200 cities throughout the U.S. are undergoing the painful and expensive transition from Combined Sewer Outflows (CSOs) to modern stormwater systems. The infrastructure of CSOs is frequently a century old, with a design adapted to stormwater conditions of smaller, more pervious cities. Normal rainfall events of less 1 cm per hour can now exceed the CSO capacities in many urban sub-watersheds, leading to streamwater conditions that exceed human health standards for pathogens. Although much focus has been placed on the plumbing aspects of urban stormwater modernization, less has been focused on local, and indeed regional, implications of nutrient and carbon dynamic changes. Indianapolis, Indiana, with a metropolitan population of over 1 million, is a case study of CSO modernization. Most CSO systems in the city were built almost 100 years ago, and the city has experienced classic patterns of growth of impervious surface area, population growth, and enhanced use of chemical fertilizers. The result of these changes has been frequent failure of the CSO system, and release of sewage water into suburban and urban streams, rivers and reservoirs. Driven largely by modern environmental regulations, the city is now "footing the bill" for a century of poor planning and growth, with the real costs seen by ratepayers in the form of steeply growing wastewater fees. The mitigation approach to this problem is largely one of subsurface engineering on a mega scale, with less attention (i.e., money) placed on complementary land-use and nutrient management efforts on the surface. Several examples illustrate the relatively straightforward nature of changing plumbing, in contrast to the complex result of these changes on nutrient pathways, and the implications that this has on oxygenation, nutrient cycling, and carbon release/sequestration dynamics in riparian and urban reservoir systems.

The Urban Tree as a Tool to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island in Mexico City: A Simple Phenomenological Model.

PubMed

Ballinas, Mónica; Barradas, Víctor L

2016-01-01

The urban heat island (UHI) is mainly a nocturnal phenomenon, but it also appears during the day in Mexico City. The UHI may affect human thermal comfort, which can influence human productivity and morbidity in the spring/summer period. A simple phenomenological model based on the energy balance was developed to generate theoretical support of UHI mitigation in Mexico City focused on the latent heat flux change by increasing tree coverage to reduce sensible heat flux and air temperature. Half-hourly data of the urban energy balance components were generated in a typical residential/commercial neighborhood of Mexico City and then parameterized using easily measured variables (air temperature, humidity, pressure, and visibility). Canopy conductance was estimated every hour in four tree species, and transpiration was estimated using sap flow technique and parameterized by the envelope function method. Averaged values of net radiation, energy storage, and sensible and latent heat flux were around 449, 224, 153, and 72 W m, respectively. Daily tree transpiration ranged from 3.64 to 4.35 Ld. To reduce air temperature by 1°C in the studied area, 63 large would be required per hectare, whereas to reduce the air temperature by 2°C only 24 large trees would be required. This study suggests increasing tree canopy cover in the city cannot mitigate UHI adequately but requires choosing the most appropriate tree species to solve this problem. It is imperative to include these types of studies in tree selection and urban development planning to adequately mitigate UHI. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Primates as pets in Mexico City: an assessment of the species involved, source of origin, and general aspects of treatment.

PubMed

Duarte-Quiroga, Alejandra; Estrada, Alejandro

2003-10-01

The large human populations in cities are an important source of demand for wildlife pets, including primates, and not much is known about the primate species involved in terms of their general origin, the length of time they are kept as pets, and some of the maintenance problems encountered with their use as pets. We report the results of a survey conducted in Mexico City among primate pet owners, which was aimed at providing some of the above information. We used an ethnographic approach, and pet owners were treated as informants to gain their trust so that we could enter their homes and learn about the life of their primate pets. We surveyed 179 owners of primate pets, which included 12 primate species. Of these, three were native species (Ateles geoffroyi, Alouatta pigra, and A. palliata). The rest were other neotropical primate species not native to Mexico, and some paleotropical species. Spider monkeys and two species of howler monkeys native to Mexico accounted for 67% and 15%, respectively, of the primate cases investigated. The most expensive primate pets were those imported from abroad, while the least expensive were the Mexican species. About 45% of the native primate pets were obtained by their owners in a large market in Mexico City, and the rest were obtained in southern Mexico. Although they can provide companionship for children and adults, primate pets are subject to a number of hazards, some of which put their lives at risk. The demand by city dwellers for primate pets, along with habitat destruction and fragmentation, exerts a significant pressure on wild populations in southern Mexico. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and coronary heart disease mortality in 8 Chinese cities.

PubMed

Li, Huichu; Chen, Renjie; Meng, Xia; Zhao, Zhuohui; Cai, Jing; Wang, Cuicui; Yang, Changyuan; Kan, Haidong

2015-10-15

Coronary heart disease (CHD) accounted for a large fraction of death globally. The association between air pollution and CHD has been reported, but evidence from highly-polluted regions was scarce. We aimed to estimate the acute effects of outdoor air pollution on daily CHD mortality in China. We collected daily CHD deaths in 8 large Chinese cities from 1996 to 2008. We firstly obtained the city-specific effect estimates of air pollution using generalized additive models with quasi-Poisson regression, controlling for time trends, meteorological indicators and day of the week. The random-effect model in meta-analysis was used to pool the exposure-response relationships. We identified a total of 0.13 million CHD deaths. On average, an increase of 10μg/m(3) in 2-day moving average concentrations of particulate matter≤10μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was significantly associated with increases of 0.36% [95% confidence intervals (CIs): 0.12%, 0.61%], 0.86% (95% CIs: 0.30%,1.41%) and 1.30% (95% CIs: 0.45%, 2.14%) in daily CHD mortality over the 8 Chinese cities, respectively. The pooled exposure-response curves were almost linear and no apparent thresholds were identified. The effects were more pronounced in cities with lower levels of air pollution. The effects of PM10 and NO2 were more robust than SO2. Our findings contributed to the very limited evidence regarding the hazardous effects of ambient air pollution on CHD mortality in highly-polluted regions such as China. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring Potential of Crowdsourced Geographic Information in Studies of Active Travel and Health: Strava Data and Cycling Behaviour

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Y.

2017-09-01

In development of sustainable transportation and green city, policymakers encourage people to commute by cycling and walking instead of motor vehicles in cities. One the one hand, cycling and walking enables decrease in air pollution emissions. On the other hand, cycling and walking offer health benefits by increasing people's physical activity. Earlier studies on investigating spatial patterns of active travel (cycling and walking) are limited by lacks of spatially fine-grained data. In recent years, with the development of information and communications technology, GPS-enabled devices are popular and portable. With smart phones or smart watches, people are able to record their cycling or walking GPS traces when they are moving. A large number of cyclists and pedestrians upload their GPS traces to sport social media to share their historical traces with other people. Those sport social media thus become a potential source for spatially fine-grained cycling and walking data. Very recently, Strava Metro offer aggregated cycling and walking data with high spatial granularity. Strava Metro aggregated a large amount of cycling and walking GPS traces of Strava users to streets or intersections across a city. Accordingly, as a kind of crowdsourced geographic information, the aggregated data is useful for investigating spatial patterns of cycling and walking activities, and thus is of high potential in understanding cycling or walking behavior at a large spatial scale. This study is a start of demonstrating usefulness of Strava Metro data for exploring cycling or walking patterns at a large scale.

The characteristic of the earthquake damage in Kyoto during the historical period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishiyama, Akihito

2017-04-01

The Kyoto city is located in the northern part of the Kyoto basin, central Japan and has a history of more than 1200 years. Kyoto has long been populated area with many buildings, and the center of politics, economics and culture of Japan. Due to historical large earthquakes, the Kyoto city was severely damaged such as collapses of buildings and human casualties. In the historical period, the Kyoto city has experienced six damaging large earthquake of 976, 1185, 1449, 1596, 1662 and 1830. Among them, Kyoto has experienced three damaging large earthquakes from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, when the urban area was being expanded. All of these earthquakes are considered to be not the earthquakes in the Kyoto basin but inland earthquakes occurred in the surrounding area. The earthquake damage in Kyoto during the historical period is strongly controlled by ground conditions and earthquakes resistance of buildings rather than distance from the estimated source fault. To better estimate seismic intensity based on building damage, it is necessary to consider the state of buildings (e.g., elapsed years since established, histories of repairs and/or reinforcements, building structures) as well as the strength of ground shakings. By considering the strength of buildings at the time of an earthquake occurrence, the seismic intensity distribution due to historical large earthquakes can be estimated with higher reliability than before. The estimated seismic intensity distribution map for such historical earthquakes can be utilized for developing the strong ground motion prediction in the Kyoto basin.

Proposal as to Efficient Collection and Exploitation of Earthquake Damage Information and Verification by Field Experiment at Toyohashi City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zama, Shinsaku; Endo, Makoto; Takanashi, Ken'ichi; Araiba, Kiminori; Sekizawa, Ai; Hosokawa, Masafumi; Jeong, Byeong-Pyo; Hisada, Yoshiaki; Murakami, Masahiro

Based on the earlier study result that the gathering of damage information can be quickly achieved in a municipality with a smaller population, it is proposed that damage information is gathered and analyzed using an area roughly equivalent to a primary school district as a basic unit. The introduction of this type of decentralized system is expected to quickly gather important information on each area. The information gathered by these communal disaster prevention bases is sent to the disaster prevention headquarters which in turn feeds back more extensive information over a wider area to the communal disaster prevention bases. Concrete systems have been developed according to the above mentioned framework, and we performed large-scale experiments on simulating disaster information collection, transmission and on utilization for smooth responses against earthquake disaster with collaboration from Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture, where is considered to suffer extensive damage from the Tokai and Tonankai Earthquakes with very high probability of the occurrence. Using disaster information collection/transmission equipments composed of long-distance wireless LAN, a notebook computer, a Web camera and an IP telephone, city staffs could easily input and transmit the information such as fire, collapsed houses and impassable roads, which were collected by the inhabitants participated in the experiment. Headquarters could confirm such information on the map automatically plotted, and also state of each disaster-prevention facility by means of Web-cameras and IP telephones. Based on the damage information, fire-spreading, evaluation, and traffic simulations were automatically executed at the disaster countermeasure office and their results were displayed on the large screen to utilize for making decisions such as residents' evacuation. These simulated results were simultaneously displayed at each disaster-prevention facility and were served to make people understand the situation of whole damage of the city and necessity of evacuation with optimum timing and access. According to the evaluation by the city staffs through the experiments, information technology is available for rationally implementing initial responses just after a large earthquake in spite of some improvement on the systems used in the experiments.

Evaluation of bottom-up and downscaled emission inventories for Paris and consequences for estimating urban air pollution increments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Timmermans, R.; Denier van der Gon, H.; Segers, A.; Honore, C.; Perrussel, O.; Builtjes, P.; Schaap, M.

2012-04-01

Since a major part of the Earth's population lives in cities, it is of great importance to correctly characterise the air pollution levels over these urban areas. Many studies in the past have already been dedicated to this subject and have determined so-called urban increments: the impact of large cities on the air pollution levels. The impact of large cities on air pollution levels usually is determined with models driven by so-called downscaled emission inventories. In these inventories official country total emissions are gridded using information on for example population density and location of industries and roads. The question is how accurate are the downscaled inventories over cities or large urban areas. Within the EU FP 7 project MEGAPOLI project a new emission inventory has been produced including refined local emission data for two European megacities (Paris, London) and two urban conglomerations (the Po valley, Italy and the Rhine-Ruhr region, Germany) based on a bottom-up approach. The inventory has comparable national totals but remarkable difference at the city scale. Such a bottom up inventory is thought to be more accurate as it contains local knowledge. Within this study we compared modelled nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM) concentrations from the LOTOS-EUROS chemistry transport model driven by a conventional downscaled emission inventory (TNO-MACC inventory) with the concentrations from the same model driven by the new MEGAPOLI 'bottom-up' emission inventory focusing on the Paris region. Model predictions for Paris significantly improve using the new Megapoli inventory. Both the emissions as well as the simulated average concentrations of PM over urban sites in Paris are much lower due to the different spatial distribution of the anthropogenic emissions. The difference for the nearby rural stations is small implicating that also the urban increment for PM simulated using the bottom-up emission inventory is much smaller than for the downscaled emission inventory. Urban increments for PM calculated with downscaled emissions, as is common practice, might therefore be overestimated. This finding is likely to apply to other European Megacities as well.

Advantages of a city-scale emission inventory for urban air quality research and policy: the case of Nanjing, a typical industrial city in the Yangtze River Delta, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Y.; Qiu, L. P.; Xu, R. Y.; Xie, F. J.; Zhang, Q.; Yu, Y. Y.; Nielsen, C. P.; Qin, H. X.; Wang, H. K.; Wu, X. C.; Li, W. Q.; Zhang, J.

2015-11-01

With most eastern Chinese cities facing major air quality challenges, there is a strong need for city-scale emission inventories for use in both chemical transport modeling and the development of pollution control policies. In this paper, a high-resolution emission inventory (with a horizontal resolution of 3 × 3 km) of air pollutants and CO2 for Nanjing, a typical large city in the Yangtze River Delta, is developed, incorporating the best available information on local sources. Emission factors and activity data at the unit or facility level are collected and compiled using a thorough on-site survey of major sources. Over 900 individual plants, which account for 97 % of the city's total coal consumption, are identified as point sources, and all of the emission-related parameters including combustion technology, fuel quality, and removal efficiency of air pollution control devices (APCD) are analyzed. New data-collection approaches including continuous emission monitoring systems and real-time monitoring of traffic flows are employed to improve spatiotemporal distribution of emissions. Despite fast growth of energy consumption between 2010 and 2012, relatively small interannual changes in emissions are found for most air pollutants during this period, attributed mainly to benefits of growing APCD deployment and the comparatively strong and improving regulatory oversight of the large point sources that dominate the levels and spatial distributions of Nanjing emissions overall. The improvement of this city-level emission inventory is indicated by comparisons with observations and other inventories at larger spatial scale. Relatively good spatial correlations are found for SO2, NOx, and CO between the city-scale emission estimates and concentrations at nine state-operated monitoring sites (R = 0.58, 0.46, and 0.61, respectively). The emission ratios of specific pollutants including BC to CO, OC to EC, and CO2 to CO compare well to top-down constraints from ground observations. The interannual variability and spatial distribution of NOx emissions are consistent with NO2 vertical column density measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). In particular, the Nanjing city-scale emission inventory correlates better with satellite observations than the downscaled Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC) does when emissions from power plants are excluded. This indicates improvement in emission estimation for sectors other than power generation, notably industry and transportation. A high-resolution emission inventory may also provide a basis to consider the quality of instrumental observations. To further improve emission estimation and evaluation, more measurements of both emission factors and ambient levels of given pollutants are suggested; the uncertainties of emission inventories at city scale should also be fully quantified and compared with those at national scale.

Advantages of city-scale emission inventory for urban air quality research and policy: the case of Nanjing, a typical industrial city in the Yangtze River Delta, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Y.; Qiu, L.; Xu, R.; Xie, F.; Zhang, Q.; Yu, Y.; Nielsen, C. P.; Qin, H.; Wang, H.; Wu, X.; Li, W.; Zhang, J.

2015-07-01

With most eastern Chinese cities facing major air quality challenges, there is a strong need for city-scale emission inventories for use in both chemical transport modeling and the development of pollution control policies. In this paper, a high-resolution emission inventory of air pollutants and CO2 for Nanjing, a typical large city in the Yangtze River Delta, is developed incorporating the best available information on local sources. Emission factors and activity data at the unit or facility level are collected and compiled using a thorough onsite survey of major sources. Over 900 individual plants, which account for 97 % of the city's total coal consumption, are identified as point sources, and all of the emission-related parameters including combustion technology, fuel quality, and removal efficiency of air pollution control devices (APCD) are analyzed. New data-collection approaches including continuous emission monitoring systems and real-time monitoring of traffic flows are employed to improve spatiotemporal distribution of emissions. Despite fast growth of energy consumption between 2010 and 2012, relatively small inter-annual changes in emissions are found for most air pollutants during this period, attributed mainly to benefits of growing APCD deployment and the comparatively strong and improving regulatory oversight of the large point sources that dominate the levels and spatial distributions of Nanjing emissions overall. The improvement of this city-level emission inventory is indicated by comparisons with observations and other inventories at larger spatial scale. Relatively good spatial correlations are found for SO2, NOx, and CO between the city-scale emission estimates and concentrations at 9 state-opertated monitoring sites (R = 0.58, 0.46, and 0.61, respectively). The emission ratios of specific pollutants including BC to CO, OC to EC, and CO2 to CO compare well to top-down constraints from ground observations. The inter-annual variability and spatial distribution of NOx emissions are consistent with NO2 vertical column density measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). In particular, the Nanjing city-scale emission inventory correlates better with satellite observations than the downscaled Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC) does when emissions from power plants are excluded. This indicates improvement in emission estimation for sectors other than power generation, notably industry and transportation. High-resolution emission inventory may also provide a basis to consider the quality of instrumental observations. To further improve emission estimation and evaluation, more measurements of both emission factors and ambient levels of given pollutants are suggested; the uncertainties of emission inventories at city scale should also be fully quantified and compared with those at national scale.

An Investigation Concerning the Potential for use of Polylactic/Polyglycolic Acid Confluent Sheets in the Treatment of Osseous Defects,

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-01-01

Periodontics and Oral Biology, University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Dentistry, Kansas City, MO 64108. •* Departments of Hospital Dentistry and...as a matrix for osseous grafting, for the occlusion of large bony defects, for soft tissue contour defects, and also as a bone plating system. All of...Hunsck EE: Tissue reaction to biodegradable polylactide acid suture. Oral Surg, 31:134, 1971. 5. Kulkurni RK, Pani KC, Neuman C, et al.: Polylactic acid

STS-42 Earth observation of New York City (NYC), New York

NASA Image and Video Library

1992-01-30

STS-42 Earth observation taken aboard Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103, is of New York City (NYC), New York (41.0N, 74.0W). Snow cover highlights the large areas of development and the many reservoirs in this wintertime scene of the metropolitan NYC area. Features such as Central Park in Manhattan, the George Washington Bridge connecting Manhattan with New Jersey, street patterns in most of the boroughs, La Guardia and JFK airports in Queens, and the extensive harbor system are easily identified.

STS-42 Earth observation of New York City (NYC), New York

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

STS-42 Earth observation taken aboard Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103, is of New York City (NYC), New York (41.0N, 74.0W). Snow cover highlights the large areas of development and the many reservoirs in this wintertime scene of the metropolitan NYC area. Features such as Central Park in Manhattan, the George Washington Bridge connecting Manhattan with New Jersey, street patterns in most of the boroughs, La Guardia and JFK airports in Queens, and the extensive harbor system are easily identified.

An energy and cost analysis of residential heat pumps in northern climates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, J. K.; Oneal, D. L.

1980-04-01

Lack of natural gas and high oil prices, combined with the large energy costs of electric resistance heat have forced renewed attention to the heat pump in colder climates. The diversity in heating energy use and cost effectiveness of forty-one currently retailed heat pumps in three northern cities, Boston, Denver, and Minneapolis, were examined. Heat pump heating energy use and annualized life cycle costs were compared with other forms of space heating equipment in those same cities.

Injecting risk behavior among traveling young injection drug users: travel partner and city characteristics.

PubMed

Montgomery, Martha E; Fatch, Robin S; Evans, Jennifer L; Yu, Michelle; Davidson, Peter J; Page, Kimberly; Hahn, Judith A

2013-06-01

Young injection drug users (IDUs), a highly mobile population, engage in high levels of injecting risk behavior, yet little is understood about how such risk behavior may vary by the characteristics of the cities to which they travel, including the existence of a syringe exchange program (SEP), as well as travel partner characteristics. In 2004-2005, we conducted a 6-month prospective study to investigate the risk behavior of 89 young IDUs as they traveled, with detailed information gathered about 350 city visits. In multivariable analyses, travel to larger urban cities with a population of 500,000-1,000,000 was significantly associated with injecting drugs (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 3.71; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.56-8.82), ancillary equipment sharing (AES; AOR = 7.05; 95 % CI, 2.25-22.06) and receptive needle sharing (RNS; AOR = 5.73; 95 % CI, 1.11-27.95), as compared with visits to smaller cities with populations below 50,000. Region of the country, and the existence of a SEP within the city visited, were not independently associated with injecting drugs, AES, or RNS during city visits. Traveling with more than one injecting partner was associated with injecting drugs during city visits (AOR = 2.77; 95 % CI, 1.46-5.27), when compared with traveling alone. Additionally, both non-daily and daily/almost daily alcohol use during city visits were associated with AES (AOR = 3.37; 95 % CI, 1.42-7.68; AOR = 3.03; 95 % CI, 1.32-6.97, respectively) as compared with no alcohol consumption. Traveling young IDUs are more likely to inject when traveling with other IDUs and to engage in higher risk injection behavior when they are in large cities. Risk behavior occurring in city visits, including equipment sharing and alcohol consumption, suggests further need for focused interventions to reduce risk for viral infection among this population.

Earth Observation taken during the Expedition 37 mission

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-09-13

ISS037-E-000719 (13 Sept. 2013) --- Samarkand, Uzbekistan is featured in this image photographed by one of the Expedition 37 crew members aboard the International Space Station. The historical Silk Road provided trade routes between Asia and Europe as far back as 208 BC according to historical accounts. And, parts of the Silk Road are still used for the transport of goods today. The city of Samarkand is one of the oldest and historically most important cities along the road, occupying a central position between China and the western nationas of Europe, Today, Samarkand is the second largest city in the Republic of Uzbekistan (formed in 1991). The urban area (center) is located within a large oasis situated in the Zerafshan River Valley of southeastern Uzbekistan.

Scaling Law of Urban Ride Sharing.

PubMed

Tachet, R; Sagarra, O; Santi, P; Resta, G; Szell, M; Strogatz, S H; Ratti, C

2017-03-06

Sharing rides could drastically improve the efficiency of car and taxi transportation. Unleashing such potential, however, requires understanding how urban parameters affect the fraction of individual trips that can be shared, a quantity that we call shareability. Using data on millions of taxi trips in New York City, San Francisco, Singapore, and Vienna, we compute the shareability curves for each city, and find that a natural rescaling collapses them onto a single, universal curve. We explain this scaling law theoretically with a simple model that predicts the potential for ride sharing in any city, using a few basic urban quantities and no adjustable parameters. Accurate extrapolations of this type will help planners, transportation companies, and society at large to shape a sustainable path for urban growth.

Research on models of Digital City geo-information sharing platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Hanwei; Liu, Zhihui; Badawi, Rami; Liu, Haiwang

2009-10-01

The data related to Digital City has the property of large quantity, isomerous and multiple dimensions. In the original copy method of data sharing, the application departments can not solve the problem of data updating and data security in real-time. This paper firstly analyzes various patterns of sharing Digital City information and on this basis the author provides a new shared mechanism of GIS Services, with which the data producers provide Geographic Information Services to the application users through Web API, so as to the data producers and the data users can do their best respectively. Then the author takes the application system in supermarket management as an example to explain the correctness and effectiveness of the method provided in this paper.

Real-time micro-modelling of city evacuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Löhner, Rainald; Haug, Eberhard; Zinggerling, Claudio; Oñate, Eugenio

2018-01-01

A methodology to integrate geographical information system (GIS) data with large-scale pedestrian simulations has been developed. Advances in automatic data acquisition and archiving from GIS databases, automatic input for pedestrian simulations, as well as scalable pedestrian simulation tools have made it possible to simulate pedestrians at the individual level for complete cities in real time. An example that simulates the evacuation of the city of Barcelona demonstrates that this is now possible. This is the first step towards a fully integrated crowd prediction and management tool that takes into account not only data gathered in real time from cameras, cell phones or other sensors, but also merges these with advanced simulation tools to predict the future state of the crowd.

Scaling laws in the dynamics of crime growth rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alves, Luiz G. A.; Ribeiro, Haroldo V.; Mendes, Renio S.

2013-06-01

The increasing number of crimes in areas with large concentrations of people have made cities one of the main sources of violence. Understanding characteristics of how crime rate expands and its relations with the cities size goes beyond an academic question, being a central issue for contemporary society. Here, we characterize and analyze quantitative aspects of murders in the period from 1980 to 2009 in Brazilian cities. We find that the distribution of the annual, biannual and triannual logarithmic homicide growth rates exhibit the same functional form for distinct scales, that is, a scale invariant behavior. We also identify asymptotic power-law decay relations between the standard deviations of these three growth rates and the initial size. Further, we discuss similarities with complex organizations.

Comparative recreational assessment of Karaganda city public green spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akylbekova, I. S.; Zengina, T. Yu

2018-01-01

This article represents evaluation of recreation environment on the territory of the large industrial city of Karaganda, located in the dry steppe zone of Central Kazakhstan. A comparison of quantitative and qualitative indicators, level of recreational attractiveness and providing the citizens with public green spaces, allowed to make a more complete characterization the urban recreation places and to identify the city districts, which require prioritized fundraising for development of existing parks and public gardens, and for creation of new territories of recreational purpose. Based on the results of conducted expert assessment and sociological survey of visitors, the main problems of urban green areas were identified and also the most high-demand trends and practical recommendations for their improvement and further use were proposed.

Do socioeconomic inequalities in mortality vary between different Spanish cities? a pooled cross-sectional analysis

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The relationship between deprivation and mortality in urban settings is well established. This relationship has been found for several causes of death in Spanish cities in independent analyses (the MEDEA project). However, no joint analysis which pools the strength of this relationship across several cities has ever been undertaken. Such an analysis would determine, if appropriate, a joint relationship by linking the associations found. Methods A pooled cross-sectional analysis of the data from the MEDEA project has been carried out for each of the causes of death studied. Specifically, a meta-analysis has been carried out to pool the relative risks in eleven Spanish cities. Different deprivation-mortality relationships across the cities are considered in the analysis (fixed and random effects models). The size of the cities is also considered as a possible factor explaining differences between cities. Results Twenty studies have been carried out for different combinations of sex and causes of death. For nine of them (men: prostate cancer, diabetes, mental illnesses, Alzheimer’s disease, cerebrovascular disease; women: diabetes, mental illnesses, respiratory diseases, cirrhosis) no differences were found between cities in the effect of deprivation on mortality; in four cases (men: respiratory diseases, all causes of mortality; women: breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease) differences not associated with the size of the city have been determined; in two cases (men: cirrhosis; women: lung cancer) differences strictly linked to the size of the city have been determined, and in five cases (men: lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease; women: ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, all causes of mortality) both kinds of differences have been found. Except for lung cancer in women, every significant relationship between deprivation and mortality goes in the same direction: deprivation increases mortality. Variability in the relative risks across cities was found for general mortality for both sexes. Conclusions This study provides a general overview of the relationship between deprivation and mortality for a sample of large Spanish cities combined. This joint study allows the exploration of and, if appropriate, the quantification of the variability in that relationship for the set of cities considered. PMID:23679869

Do socioeconomic inequalities in mortality vary between different Spanish cities? a pooled cross-sectional analysis.

PubMed

Martinez-Beneito, Miguel A; Zurriaga, Oscar; Botella-Rocamora, Paloma; Marí-Dell'Olmo, Marc; Nolasco, Andreu; Moncho, Joaquín; Daponte, Antonio; Domínguez-Berjón, M Felicitas; Gandarillas, Ana; Martos, Carmen; Montoya, Imanol; Sánchez-Villegas, Pablo; Taracido, Margarita; Borrell, Carme

2013-05-16

The relationship between deprivation and mortality in urban settings is well established. This relationship has been found for several causes of death in Spanish cities in independent analyses (the MEDEA project). However, no joint analysis which pools the strength of this relationship across several cities has ever been undertaken. Such an analysis would determine, if appropriate, a joint relationship by linking the associations found. A pooled cross-sectional analysis of the data from the MEDEA project has been carried out for each of the causes of death studied. Specifically, a meta-analysis has been carried out to pool the relative risks in eleven Spanish cities. Different deprivation-mortality relationships across the cities are considered in the analysis (fixed and random effects models). The size of the cities is also considered as a possible factor explaining differences between cities. Twenty studies have been carried out for different combinations of sex and causes of death. For nine of them (men: prostate cancer, diabetes, mental illnesses, Alzheimer's disease, cerebrovascular disease; women: diabetes, mental illnesses, respiratory diseases, cirrhosis) no differences were found between cities in the effect of deprivation on mortality; in four cases (men: respiratory diseases, all causes of mortality; women: breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease) differences not associated with the size of the city have been determined; in two cases (men: cirrhosis; women: lung cancer) differences strictly linked to the size of the city have been determined, and in five cases (men: lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease; women: ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, all causes of mortality) both kinds of differences have been found. Except for lung cancer in women, every significant relationship between deprivation and mortality goes in the same direction: deprivation increases mortality. Variability in the relative risks across cities was found for general mortality for both sexes. This study provides a general overview of the relationship between deprivation and mortality for a sample of large Spanish cities combined. This joint study allows the exploration of and, if appropriate, the quantification of the variability in that relationship for the set of cities considered.

Missed Opportunities for Improving Nutrition Through Institutional Food: The Case for Food Worker Training

PubMed Central

Deutsch, Jonathan; Patinella, Stefania; Freudenberg, Nicholas

2013-01-01

The institutional food sector—including food served in schools, child care settings, hospitals, and senior centers—is a largely untapped resource for public health that may help to arrest increasing rates of obesity and diet-related health problems. To make this case, we estimated the reach of a diverse institutional food sector in 1 large municipality, New York City, in 2012, and explored the potential for improving institutional food by building the skills and nutritional knowledge of foodservice workers through training. Drawing on the research literature and preliminary data collected in New York City, we discuss the dynamics of nutritional decision-making in these settings. Finally, we identify opportunities and challenges associated with training the institutional food workforce to enhance nutrition and health. PMID:23865653

Large Displacement in Relaxor Ferroelectric Terpolymer Blend Derived Actuators Using Al Electrode for Braille Displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, S. G.; Chen, X.; Levard, T.; Diglio, P. J.; Gorny, L. J.; Rahn, C. D.; Zhang, Q. M.

2015-06-01

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based polymers are attractive for applications for artificial muscles, high energy density storage devices etc. Recently these polymers have been found great potential for being used as actuators for refreshable full-page Braille displays for visually impaired people in terms of light weight, miniaturized size, and larger displacement, compared with currently used lead zirconate titanate ceramic actuators. The applied voltages of published polymer actuators, however, cannot be reduced to meet the requirements of using city power. Here, we report the polymer actuator generating quite large displacement and blocking force at a voltage close to the city power. Our embodiments also show good self-healing performance and disuse of lead-containing material, which makes the Braille device safer, more reliable and more environment-friendly.

Large Displacement in Relaxor Ferroelectric Terpolymer Blend Derived Actuators Using Al Electrode for Braille Displays.

PubMed

Lu, S G; Chen, X; Levard, T; Diglio, P J; Gorny, L J; Rahn, C D; Zhang, Q M

2015-06-16

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) based polymers are attractive for applications for artificial muscles, high energy density storage devices etc. Recently these polymers have been found great potential for being used as actuators for refreshable full-page Braille displays for visually impaired people in terms of light weight, miniaturized size, and larger displacement, compared with currently used lead zirconate titanate ceramic actuators. The applied voltages of published polymer actuators, however, cannot be reduced to meet the requirements of using city power. Here, we report the polymer actuator generating quite large displacement and blocking force at a voltage close to the city power. Our embodiments also show good self-healing performance and disuse of lead-containing material, which makes the Braille device safer, more reliable and more environment-friendly.

Illuminating sesmic discontinuities with receiver functions from a dense array in Mexico City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perez-Campos, X.; Rodríguez-Domínguez, M. Á.; González-López, A.; Espindola, V. H.; Quintanar, L.; Ramirez-Guzman, L.

2017-12-01

Mexico City, with close to 10 million inhabitants, has grown over a sedimentary basin, from an old dried lake. This has been a big factor in amplifying the seismic waves from large subduction earthquakes, located > 300 km away on the Pacific coast, which represents a significant hazard. For this reason, it is of great interest to improve the knowledge of the seismic structure of the city and its details on spatial variations to reduce the uncertainty in ground motion modeling. In May 2017, such array started its way in Mexico City. It consists of 18 broadband stations, that record in place for 3-5 days, moving then to a new location. In total, the city will be covered with 343 recording sites. In this work, we present preliminary results of receiver functions obtained in such array and in permanent stations of the Seismic Network of the Valley of Mexico. Despite the few teleseismic events, the small spacing between stations ( 500 m) allows identification of converted Ps phases from the Moho discontinuity, as well as other converted phases, which might be related to subtle changes in the vertical and lateral seismic structure. This Project was funded by the Secretaria de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SECITI) of Mexico City. Project SECITI/073/2016.

Exploring the Processes of Generating LOD (0-2) Citygml Models in Greater Municipality of Istanbul

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buyuksalih, I.; Isikdag, U.; Zlatanova, S.

2013-08-01

3D models of cities, visualised and exploded in 3D virtual environments have been available for several years. Currently a large number of impressive realistic 3D models have been regularly presented at scientific, professional and commercial events. One of the most promising developments is OGC standard CityGML. CityGML is object-oriented model that support 3D geometry and thematic semantics, attributes and relationships, and offers advanced options for realistic visualization. One of the very attractive characteristics of the model is the support of 5 levels of detail (LOD), starting from 2.5D less accurate model (LOD0) and ending with very detail indoor model (LOD4). Different local government offices and municipalities have different needs when utilizing the CityGML models, and the process of model generation depends on local and domain specific needs. Although the processes (i.e. the tasks and activities) for generating the models differs depending on its utilization purpose, there are also some common tasks (i.e. common denominator processes) in the model generation of City GML models. This paper focuses on defining the common tasks in generation of LOD (0-2) City GML models and representing them in a formal way with process modeling diagrams.

Summary of water-quality data for City of Albuquerque drinking-water supply wells, 1988-97

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bexfield, Laura M.; Lindberg, William E.; Anderholm, Scott K.

1999-01-01

The City of Albuquerque has collected and analyzed more than 5,000 water-quality samples from 113 water-supply wells in the Albuquerque area, including many drinking-water supply wells, since May of 1988. As a result, a large water-quality data base has been compiled that includes data for major ions, nutrients, trace elements, carbon, volatile organic compounds, radiological constituents, and bacteria. These data are intended to improve the understanding and management of the ground-water resources of the region, rather than demonstrate compliance with Federal and State drinking-water standards. This report gives summary statistics for selected physical properties and chemical constituents for ground water from wells used by the City of Albuquerque for drinking-water supply between 1988 and 1997. Maps are provided to show the general spatial distribution of selected parameters and water types around the region. Although the values of some parameters vary substantially across the city, median values for all parameters included in this report are less than their respective maximum contaminant levels in each drinking-water supply well. The dominant water types are sodium plus potassium / carbonate plus bicarbonate in the western part of the city and calcium / carbonate plus bicarbonate in the eastern part of the city.

A Multi-Technology Communication Platform for Urban Mobile Sensing

PubMed Central

Almeida, Rodrigo; Oliveira, Rui

2018-01-01

A common concern in smart cities is the focus on sensing procedures to provide city-wide information to city managers and citizens. To meet the growing demands of smart cities, the network must provide the ability to handle a large number of mobile sensors/devices, with high heterogeneity and unpredictable mobility, by collecting and delivering the sensed information for future treatment. This work proposes a multi-wireless technology communication platform for opportunistic data gathering and data exchange with respect to smart cities. Through the implementation of a proprietary long-range (LoRa) network and an urban sensor network, our platform addresses the heterogeneity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices while conferring communications in an opportunistic manner, increasing the interoperability of our platform. It implements and evaluates a medium access communication (MAC) protocol for LoRa networks with multiple gateways. It also implements mobile Opportunistic VEhicular (mOVE), a delay-tolerant network (DTN)-based architecture to address the mobility dimension. The platform provides vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication with support for highly reliable and actionable information flows. Moreover, taking into account the high mobility pattern that a smart city scenario presents, we propose and evaluate two forwarding strategies for the opportunistic sensor network. PMID:29649175

Fatal injuries among urban children in South Africa: risk distribution and potential for reduction

PubMed Central

van Niekerk, Ashley; Laflamme, Lucie

2010-01-01

Abstract Objective To determine the leading causes of fatal injury for urban South African children aged 0–14 years, the distribution of those causes and the current potential for safety improvements. Methods We obtained injury surveillance data from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System 2001–2003 for six major South African cities varying in size, development and sociodemographic composition. We calculated age-adjusted rates, by sex, population group and city, for death from the five leading causes of fatal injury as well as population attributable risks (PARs). Findings The leading causes of fatal injury in childhood included road traffic injuries – among vehicle passengers and especially among pedestrians – drowning, burns and, in some cities, firearm injuries. Large differences in PARs were observed, particularly for population groups and cities. Disparities between cities and between population groups were largest for deaths from pedestrian injuries, while differences between boys and girls were greatest for drowning deaths. Conclusion In the face of the high variability observed between cities and population groups in the rates of the most common types of fatal injuries, a safety agenda should combine safety-for-all countermeasures – i.e. lowering injury rates for all – and targeted countermeasures that help reduce the burden for those at greatest risk. PMID:20431790

Modeling Fire Occurrence at the City Scale: A Comparison between Geographically Weighted Regression and Global Linear Regression.

PubMed

Song, Chao; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhu, Jiping

2017-04-08

An increasing number of fires are occurring with the rapid development of cities, resulting in increased risk for human beings and the environment. This study compares geographically weighted regression-based models, including geographically weighted regression (GWR) and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), which integrates spatial and temporal effects and global linear regression models (LM) for modeling fire risk at the city scale. The results show that the road density and the spatial distribution of enterprises have the strongest influences on fire risk, which implies that we should focus on areas where roads and enterprises are densely clustered. In addition, locations with a large number of enterprises have fewer fire ignition records, probably because of strict management and prevention measures. A changing number of significant variables across space indicate that heterogeneity mainly exists in the northern and eastern rural and suburban areas of Hefei city, where human-related facilities or road construction are only clustered in the city sub-centers. GTWR can capture small changes in the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the variables while GWR and LM cannot. An approach that integrates space and time enables us to better understand the dynamic changes in fire risk. Thus governments can use the results to manage fire safety at the city scale.

Modeling Fire Occurrence at the City Scale: A Comparison between Geographically Weighted Regression and Global Linear Regression

PubMed Central

Song, Chao; Kwan, Mei-Po; Zhu, Jiping

2017-01-01

An increasing number of fires are occurring with the rapid development of cities, resulting in increased risk for human beings and the environment. This study compares geographically weighted regression-based models, including geographically weighted regression (GWR) and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), which integrates spatial and temporal effects and global linear regression models (LM) for modeling fire risk at the city scale. The results show that the road density and the spatial distribution of enterprises have the strongest influences on fire risk, which implies that we should focus on areas where roads and enterprises are densely clustered. In addition, locations with a large number of enterprises have fewer fire ignition records, probably because of strict management and prevention measures. A changing number of significant variables across space indicate that heterogeneity mainly exists in the northern and eastern rural and suburban areas of Hefei city, where human-related facilities or road construction are only clustered in the city sub-centers. GTWR can capture small changes in the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the variables while GWR and LM cannot. An approach that integrates space and time enables us to better understand the dynamic changes in fire risk. Thus governments can use the results to manage fire safety at the city scale. PMID:28397745

Toward a healthier city: nutrition standards for New York City government.

PubMed

Lederer, Ashley; Curtis, Christine J; Silver, Lynn D; Angell, Sonia Y

2014-04-01

Poor diet is a leading cause of disability, death, and rising health care costs. Government agencies can have a large impact on population nutrition by adopting healthy food purchasing policies. In 2007, New York City (NYC) began developing a nutrition policy for all foods purchased, served, or contracted for by City agencies. A Food Procurement Workgroup was created with representatives from all City agencies that engaged in food purchasing or service, and the NYC Health Department served as technical advisor. The NYC Standards for Meals/Snacks Purchased and Served (Standards) became a citywide policy in 2008. The first of its kind, the Standards apply to more than 3,000 programs run by 12 City agencies. This paper describes the development process and initial implementation of the Standards. With more than 260 million meals and snacks per year covered, the Standards increase demand for healthier products, model healthy eating, and may also affect clients' food choices beyond the institutional environment. Our experience suggests that implementation of nutrition standards across a wide range of diverse agencies is feasible, especially when high-level support is established and technical assistance is available. Healthy procurement policies can ensure that food purchased by a jurisdiction supports its public health efforts. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Short term association between ambient air pollution and mortality and modification by temperature in five Indian cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dholakia, Hem H.; Bhadra, Dhiman; Garg, Amit

2014-12-01

Indian cities are among the most polluted areas globally, yet assessments of short term mortality impacts due to pollution have been limited. Furthermore, studies examining temperature - pollution interactions on mortality are largely absent. Addressing this gap remains important in providing research evidence to better link health outcomes and air quality standards for India. Daily all-cause mortality, temperature, humidity and particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM10) data were collected for five cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Shimla spanning 2005-2012. Poisson regression models were developed to study short term impacts of PM10 as well as temperature - pollution interactions on daily all-cause mortality. We find that excess risk of mortality associated with a 10 μg/m3 PM10 increase is highest for Shimla (1.36%, 95% CI = -0.38%-3.1%) and the least for Ahmedabad (0.16%, 95% CI = -0.31%-0.62%). The corresponding values for Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai are 0.22% (-0.04%-0.49%), 0.85% (0.06%-1.63%) and 0.2% (0.1%-0.3%) respectively. The relative health benefits of reducing pollution are higher for cleaner cities (Shimla) as opposed to dirtier cities (Mumbai). Overall we find that temperature and pollution interactions do not significantly impact mortality for the cities studied. This is one of the first multi-city studies that assess heterogeneity of air pollution impacts and possible modification due to temperature in Indian cities that are spread across climatic regions and topographies. Our findings highlight the need for pursuing stringent pollution control policies in Indian cities to minimize health impacts.

Risk assessment of major hazards and its application in urban planning: a case study.

PubMed

Zhou, Yafei; Liu, Mao

2012-03-01

With the rapid development of industry in China, the number of establishments that are proposed or under construction is increasing year by year, and many are industries that handle flammable, explosive, toxic, harmful, and dangerous substances. Accidents such as fire, explosion, and toxic diffusion inevitably happen. Accidents resulting from these major hazards in cities cause a large number of casualties and property losses. It is increasingly important to analyze the risk of major hazards in cities realistically and to suitably plan and utilize the surrounding land based on the risk analysis results, thereby reducing the hazards. A theoretical system for risk assessment of major hazards in cities is proposed in this article, and the major hazard risk for the entire city is analyzed quantitatively. Risks of various major accidents are considered together, superposition effect is analyzed, individual risk contours of the entire city are drawn out, and the level of risk in the city is assessed using "as low as reasonably practicable" guidelines. After the entire city's individual risk distribution is obtained, risk zones are divided according to corresponding individual risk value of HSE, and land-use planning suggestions are proposed. Finally, a city in China is used as an example to illustrate the risk assessment process of the city's major hazard and its application in urban land-use planning. The proposed method has a certain theoretical and practical significance in establishing and improving risk analysis of major hazard and urban land-use planning. On the one hand, major urban public risk is avoided; further, the land is utilized in the best possible way in order to obtain the maximum benefit from its use. © 2011 Society for Risk Analysis.

Neighborhood poverty, urban residence, race/ethnicity, and asthma: Rethinking the inner-city asthma epidemic.

PubMed

Keet, Corinne A; McCormack, Meredith C; Pollack, Craig E; Peng, Roger D; McGowan, Emily; Matsui, Elizabeth C

2015-03-01

Although it is thought that inner-city areas have a high burden of asthma, the prevalence of asthma in inner cities across the United States is not known. We sought to estimate the prevalence of current asthma in US children living in inner-city and non-inner-city areas and to examine whether urban residence, poverty, or race/ethnicity are the main drivers of asthma disparities. The National Health Interview Survey 2009-2011 was linked by census tract to data from the US Census and the National Center for Health Statistics. Multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for sex; age; race/ethnicity; residence in an urban, suburban, medium metro, or small metro/rural area; poverty; and birth outside the United States, with current asthma and asthma morbidity as outcome variables. Inner-city areas were defined as urban areas with 20% or more of households at below the poverty line. We included 23,065 children living in 5,853 census tracts. The prevalence of current asthma was 12.9% in inner-city and 10.6% in non-inner-city areas, but this difference was not significant after adjusting for race/ethnicity, region, age, and sex. In fully adjusted models black race, Puerto Rican ethnicity, and lower household income but not residence in poor or urban areas were independent risk factors for current asthma. Household poverty increased the risk of asthma among non-Hispanics and Puerto Ricans but not among other Hispanics. Associations with asthma morbidity were very similar to those with prevalent asthma. Although the prevalence of asthma is high in some inner-city areas, this is largely explained by demographic factors and not by living in an urban neighborhood. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neighborhood Poverty, Urban Residence, Race/ethnicity and Asthma: Rethinking the Inner-city Asthma Epidemic

PubMed Central

Keet, Corinne A.; McCormack, Meredith C.; Pollack, Craig E.; Peng, Roger D.; McGowan, Emily; Matsui, Elizabeth C.

2015-01-01

Background Although it is thought that inner-city areas have a high burden of asthma, the prevalence of asthma in inner-cities across the U.S. is not known. Objective To estimate the prevalence of current asthma in U.S. children living in inner-city and non-inner city areas, and to examine whether urban residence, poverty or race/ethnicity are the main drivers of asthma disparities. Methods The National Health Interview Survey 2009–2011 was linked by census tract to data from the U.S. Census and the National Center for Health Statistics. Multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for sex, age, race/ethnicity, residence in an urban, suburban, medium metro or small metro/rural area, poverty, and birth outside the U.S. with current asthma and asthma morbidity as outcome variables. Inner-city areas were defined as urban areas with ≥20% of households below the poverty line. Results 23,065 children living in 5,853 census tracts were included. The prevalence of current asthma was 12.9% in inner-city and 10.6% in non-inner-city areas, but this difference was not significant after adjusting for race/ethnicity, region, age and sex. In fully adjusted models, Black race, Puerto Rican ethnicity and lower household income, but not residence in poor or urban areas, were independent risk factors for current asthma. Household poverty increased the risk of asthma among non-Hispanics and Puerto Ricans but not among other Hispanics. Associations with asthma morbidity were very similar to prevalent asthma. Conclusions Although the prevalence of asthma is high in some inner-city areas, this is largely explained by demographic factors and not by living in an urban neighborhood. PMID:25617226

Geospatial Information from Satellite Imagery for Geovisualisation of Smart Cities in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohan, M.

2016-06-01

In the recent past, there have been large emphasis on extraction of geospatial information from satellite imagery. The Geospatial information are being processed through geospatial technologies which are playing important roles in developing of smart cities, particularly in developing countries of the world like India. The study is based on the latest geospatial satellite imagery available for the multi-date, multi-stage, multi-sensor, and multi-resolution. In addition to this, the latest geospatial technologies have been used for digital image processing of remote sensing satellite imagery and the latest geographic information systems as 3-D GeoVisualisation, geospatial digital mapping and geospatial analysis for developing of smart cities in India. The Geospatial information obtained from RS and GPS systems have complex structure involving space, time and presentation. Such information helps in 3-Dimensional digital modelling for smart cities which involves of spatial and non-spatial information integration for geographic visualisation of smart cites in context to the real world. In other words, the geospatial database provides platform for the information visualisation which is also known as geovisualisation. So, as a result there have been an increasing research interest which are being directed to geospatial analysis, digital mapping, geovisualisation, monitoring and developing of smart cities using geospatial technologies. However, the present research has made an attempt for development of cities in real world scenario particulary to help local, regional and state level planners and policy makers to better understand and address issues attributed to cities using the geospatial information from satellite imagery for geovisualisation of Smart Cities in emerging and developing country, India.

Predictors of Mothers' Use of Spanking with Their Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Combs-Orme, Terri; Cain, Daphne S.

2008-01-01

Objectives: This study describes mothers who report spanking their infants in the first 13 months of life. Methods: Two hundred forty-six (246) mothers were interviewed in the Mother-Baby Unit of a large university-affiliated hospital in a large southeastern city of the United States. Ninety-three percent (93%) of those mothers were reinterviewed…

Special Education in South Korea: Daegu University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Byung Ha; Rhee, Kun Yong; Burns, Carol; Lerner, Janet W.

2009-01-01

Daegu University has enjoyed a long and remarkable history of special education. Daegu University is large University located in Daegu, South Korea, a large city in South Korea that is south of Seoul. Since the 1970's, South Korea has achieved unusual and comprehensive growth in its economy, and the field of special education continued to thrive…

Technology, Learning, and Change: Community Development Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Anne H.

2004-01-01

Bordering on North Carolina, the Dan River region of Southside Virginia is a largely rural area south of the state capitol, Richmond, and 135 miles east of Virginia Tech's main residential campus in Blacksburg. The structural problems evident today in this expanse of wooded areas, fields, small cities, and towns were born, in large measure, of the…

Long-term statistics of extreme tsunami height at Crescent City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Sheng; Zhai, Jinjin; Tao, Shanshan

2017-06-01

Historically, Crescent City is one of the most vulnerable communities impacted by tsunamis along the west coast of the United States, largely attributed to its offshore geography. Trans-ocean tsunamis usually produce large wave runup at Crescent Harbor resulting in catastrophic damages, property loss and human death. How to determine the return values of tsunami height using relatively short-term observation data is of great significance to assess the tsunami hazards and improve engineering design along the coast of Crescent City. In the present study, the extreme tsunami heights observed along the coast of Crescent City from 1938 to 2015 are fitted using six different probabilistic distributions, namely, the Gumbel distribution, the Weibull distribution, the maximum entropy distribution, the lognormal distribution, the generalized extreme value distribution and the generalized Pareto distribution. The maximum likelihood method is applied to estimate the parameters of all above distributions. Both Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and root mean square error method are utilized for goodness-of-fit test and the better fitting distribution is selected. Assuming that the occurrence frequency of tsunami in each year follows the Poisson distribution, the Poisson compound extreme value distribution can be used to fit the annual maximum tsunami amplitude, and then the point and interval estimations of return tsunami heights are calculated for structural design. The results show that the Poisson compound extreme value distribution fits tsunami heights very well and is suitable to determine the return tsunami heights for coastal disaster prevention.

A sustainable development of a city electrical grid via a non-contractual Demand-Side Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samoylenko, Vladislav O.; Pazderin, Andrew V.

2017-06-01

An increasing energy consumption of large cities as well as an extreme high density of city electrical loads leads to the necessity to search for an alternative approaches to city grid development. The ongoing implementation of the energy accounting tariffs with differentiated rates depending upon the market conditions and changing in a short-term perspective, provide the possibility to use it as a financial incentive base of a Demand-Side Management (DSM). Modern hi-technology energy metering and accounting systems with a large number of functions and consumer feedback are supposed to be the good means of DSM. Existing systems of Smart Metering (SM) billing usually provide general information about consumption curve, bills and compared data, but not the advanced statistics about the correspondence of financial and electric parameters. Also, consumer feedback is usually not fully used. So, the efforts to combine the market principle, Smart Metering and a consumer feedback for an active non-contractual load control are essential. The paper presents the rating-based multi-purpose system of mathematical statistics and algorithms of DSM efficiency estimation useful for both the consumers and the energy companies. The estimation is performed by SM Data processing systems. The system is aimed for load peak shaving and load curve smoothing. It is focused primarily on a retail market support. The system contributes to the energy efficiency and a distribution process improvement by the manual management or by the automated Smart Appliances interaction.

Agent based models for testing city evacuation strategies under a flood event as strategy to reduce flood risk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medina, Neiler; Sanchez, Arlex; Nokolic, Igor; Vojinovic, Zoran

2016-04-01

This research explores the uses of Agent Based Models (ABM) and its potential to test large scale evacuation strategies in coastal cities at risk from flood events due to extreme hydro-meteorological events with the final purpose of disaster risk reduction by decreasing human's exposure to the hazard. The first part of the paper corresponds to the theory used to build the models such as: Complex adaptive systems (CAS) and the principles and uses of ABM in this field. The first section outlines the pros and cons of using AMB to test city evacuation strategies at medium and large scale. The second part of the paper focuses on the central theory used to build the ABM, specifically the psychological and behavioral model as well as the framework used in this research, specifically the PECS reference model is cover in this section. The last part of this section covers the main attributes or characteristics of human beings used to described the agents. The third part of the paper shows the methodology used to build and implement the ABM model using Repast-Symphony as an open source agent-based modelling and simulation platform. The preliminary results for the first implementation in a region of the island of Sint-Maarten a Dutch Caribbean island are presented and discussed in the fourth section of paper. The results obtained so far, are promising for a further development of the model and its implementation and testing in a full scale city

Relationships between Changes in Urban Characteristics and Air Quality in East Asia from 2000 to 2010.

PubMed

Larkin, Andrew; van Donkelaar, Aaron; Geddes, Jeffrey A; Martin, Randall V; Hystad, Perry

2016-09-06

Characteristics of urban areas, such as density and compactness, are associated with local air pollution concentrations. The potential for altering air pollution through changing urban characteristics, however, is less certain, especially for expanding cities within the developing world. We examined changes in urban characteristics from 2000 to 2010 for 830 cities in East Asia to evaluate associations with changes in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution. Urban areas were stratified by population size into small (100 000-250 000), medium, (250 000-1 000 000), and large (>1 000 000). Multivariate regression models including urban baseline characteristics, meteorological variables, and change in urban characteristics explained 37%, 49%, and 54% of the change in NO2 and 29%, 34%, and 37% of the change in PM2.5 for small, medium and large cities, respectively. Change in lights at night strongly predicted change in NO2 and PM2.5, while urban area expansion was strongly associated with NO2 but not PM2.5. Important differences between changes in urban characteristics and pollutant levels were observed by city size, especially NO2. Overall, changes in urban characteristics had a greater impact on NO2 and PM2.5 change than baseline characteristics, suggesting urban design and land use policies can have substantial impacts on local air pollution levels.

Intraurban Differences in the Use of Ambulatory Health Services in a Large Brazilian City

PubMed Central

Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda; Proietti, Fernando Augusto; Cesar, Cibele C.; Macinko, James

2010-01-01

A major goal of health systems is to reduce inequities in access to services, that is, to ensure that health care is provided based on health needs rather than social or economic factors. This study aims to identify the determinants of health services utilization among adults in a large Brazilian city and intraurban disparities in health care use. We combine household survey data with census-derived classification of social vulnerability of each household’s census tract. The dependent variable was utilization of physician services in the prior 12 months, and the independent variables included predisposing factors, health needs, enabling factors, and context. Prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by the Hurdle regression model, which combined Poisson regression analysis of factors associated with any doctor visits (dichotomous variable) and zero-truncated negative binomial regression for the analysis of factors associated with the number of visits among those who had at least one. Results indicate that the use of health services was greater among women and increased with age, and was determined primarily by health needs and whether the individual had a regular doctor, even among those living in areas of the city with the worst socio-environmental indicators. The experience of Belo Horizonte may have implications for other world cities, particularly in the development and use of a comprehensive index to identify populations at risk and in order to guide expansion of primary health care services as a means of enhancing equity in health. PMID:21104332

Urbanisation, nutrition transition and cardiometabolic risk: the Benin study.

PubMed

Delisle, Hélène; Ntandou-Bouzitou, Gervais; Agueh, Victoire; Sodjinou, Roger; Fayomi, Benjamin

2012-05-01

A rising prevalence of CVD and diabetes has been observed in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in cities. The aim of the present study conducted in Benin was to examine the mediating role of nutrition transition in the relationship of urbanisation level and socio-economic status (SES) to cardiometabolic risk markers. A total of 541 subjects in apparent good health were randomly selected from the main city of Cotonou, a small town and its surrounding rural areas. SES was assessed based on a proxy for income and on education. Dietary intake and physical activity were assessed with at least two non-consecutive 24 h recalls. Scores for micronutrient adequacy and preventive diet were used as indicators of diet quality. Cardiometabolic risk markers were BMI, waist circumference (WC), blood pressure, serum cholesterol and insulin resistance according to homeostasis model assessment. A more advanced stage of nutrition transition, which correlated with lower diet quality scores and less physical activity, was observed in the large city compared with less urbanised locations. More obesity and more adverse cholesterol profiles, but also lower blood pressure, were present in the large city. Urbanisation, income, sedentary lifestyle and alcohol consumption, but not diet quality, independently contributed to higher BMI and WC. Higher micronutrient adequacy was independently associated with a better cholesterol profile. The study confirmed the positive rural-urban gradient in nutrition transition and cardiometabolic risk, except for blood pressure. This risk could be mitigated by a more adequate diet, particularly micronutrient intake, and a more active lifestyle.

Sedimentary Evidence of Environmental Degradation in Sanliqi Lake, Daye City (A Typical Mining City, Central China).

PubMed

Zeng, Linghan; Ning, Dongliang; Xu, Lei; Mao, Xin; Chen, Xu

2015-09-01

To reconstruct the history of environmental degradation in Sanliqi Lake (Daye City, central China), multiple proxies were analyzed in a sedimentary core which was dated using (137)Cs and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs). The results show that Sanliqi Lake has experienced serious degradation during the past 60 years, resulting from a large influx of metals and nutrients. Expansion of agricultural and industrial activities between 1945 and 1993 enhanced nutrient and metal enrichment, indicated by increases in metals, SCPs, magnetic susceptibility, total phosphorus, total nitrogen and total organic carbon. Further enrichment of Zn, Cd, Ni and Cr after 1993 was linked to a recent intensification of mining activities. Decreases in Cu and Pb after 2006 probably resulted from recent environmental remediation. This study verified the coupling between lake sediment pollution and human activities in Daye City during the past 60 years. The reconstructed history of lake pollution can provide reference information for continued restoration of Sanliqi Lake and other similar heavily polluted lakes in the developing regions.

Biophysical, infrastructural and social heterogeneities explain spatial distribution of waterborne gastrointestinal disease burden in Mexico City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baeza, Andrés; Estrada-Barón, Alejandra; Serrano-Candela, Fidel; Bojórquez, Luis A.; Eakin, Hallie; Escalante, Ana E.

2018-06-01

Due to unplanned growth, large extension and limited resources, most megacities in the developing world are vulnerable to hydrological hazards and infectious diseases caused by waterborne pathogens. Here we aim to elucidate the extent of the relation between the spatial heterogeneity of physical and socio-economic factors associated with hydrological hazards (flooding and scarcity) and the spatial distribution of gastrointestinal disease in Mexico City, a megacity with more than 8 million people. We applied spatial statistics and multivariate regression analyses to high resolution records of gastrointestinal diseases during two time frames (2007–2009 and 2010–2014). Results show a pattern of significant association between water flooding events and disease incidence in the city center (lowlands). We also found that in the periphery (highlands), higher incidence is generally associated with household infrastructure deficiency. Our findings suggest the need for integrated and spatially tailored interventions by public works and public health agencies, aimed to manage socio-hydrological vulnerability in Mexico City.

NO2 and HCHO variability in Mexico City from MAX-DOAS measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grutter, M.; Friedrich, M. M.; Rivera, C. I.; Arellano, E. J.; Stremme, W.

2015-12-01

Atmospheric studies in large cities are of great relevance since pollution affects air quality and human health. A network of Multi Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometers (MAX-DOAS) has been established in strategic sites within the Mexico City metropolitan area. Four instruments are now in operation with the aim to study the variability and spatial distribution of key pollutants, providing results of O4, NO2 and HCHO slant column densities (SCD). A numerical code has been written to retrieve gas profiles of NO2 and HCHO using radiative transfer simulations. We present the first results of the variability of these trace gases which will bring new insight in the current knowledge of transport patterns, emissions as well as frequency and origin of extraordinary events. Results of the vertical column densities (VCD) valiability of NO2 and HCHO in Mexico City are presented. These studies are useful to validate current and future satellite observatopns such as OMI, TROPOMI and TEMPO.

A Tale of Many Cities: Universal Patterns in Human Urban Mobility

PubMed Central

Noulas, Anastasios; Scellato, Salvatore; Lambiotte, Renaud; Pontil, Massimiliano; Mascolo, Cecilia

2012-01-01

The advent of geographic online social networks such as Foursquare, where users voluntarily signal their current location, opens the door to powerful studies on human movement. In particular the fine granularity of the location data, with GPS accuracy down to 10 meters, and the worldwide scale of Foursquare adoption are unprecedented. In this paper we study urban mobility patterns of people in several metropolitan cities around the globe by analyzing a large set of Foursquare users. Surprisingly, while there are variations in human movement in different cities, our analysis shows that those are predominantly due to different distributions of places across different urban environments. Moreover, a universal law for human mobility is identified, which isolates as a key component the rank-distance, factoring in the number of places between origin and destination, rather than pure physical distance, as considered in some previous works. Building on our findings, we also show how a rank-based movement model accurately captures real human movements in different cities. PMID:22666339

Aid in a city at war: the case of Mogadishu, Somalia.

PubMed

Grünewald, François

2012-07-01

Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has been central to life, war, and peace in the country for almost two decades. Its urban characteristics, though, have been put to one side for the most part. In recent years, Mogadishu-related issues have been merged mostly into a global agenda for South and Central Somalia, resulting in the technical and coordination approaches employed in the city largely being reproductions of solutions utilised in refugee camps and rural areas. Unfortunately, urban problems require urban solutions. The aid system is just starting to discover how specific aid in cities at war should be, both from an organisational and a technical standpoint. The enhancement of aid practices in an urban setting implies, among other things, a more strategic approach to the specific spatial characteristics of the city, a more fine-tuned analysis of the technical requirements of the urban service delivery systems, and a better understanding of the role of urban institutions. © 2012 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2012.

Deeply-sourced formate fuels sulfate reducers but not methanogens at Lost City hydrothermal field.

PubMed

Lang, Susan Q; Früh-Green, Gretchen L; Bernasconi, Stefano M; Brazelton, William J; Schrenk, Matthew O; McGonigle, Julia M

2018-01-15

Hydrogen produced during water-rock serpentinization reactions can drive the synthesis of organic compounds both biotically and abiotically. We investigated abiotic carbon production and microbial metabolic pathways at the high energy but low diversity serpentinite-hosted Lost City hydrothermal field. Compound-specific 14 C data demonstrates that formate is mantle-derived and abiotic in some locations and has an additional, seawater-derived component in others. Lipids produced by the dominant member of the archaeal community, the Lost City Methanosarcinales, largely lack 14 C, but metagenomic evidence suggests they cannot use formate for methanogenesis. Instead, sulfate-reducing bacteria may be the primary consumers of formate in Lost City chimneys. Paradoxically, the archaeal phylotype that numerically dominates the chimney microbial communities appears ill suited to live in pure hydrothermal fluids without the co-occurrence of organisms that can liberate CO 2 . Considering the lack of dissolved inorganic carbon in such systems, the ability to utilize formate may be a key trait for survival in pristine serpentinite-hosted environments.

Urban growth as a component of global change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, Annemarie

Urbanization---both the shift in population to urban areas and the physical transformation of land---has accelerated in recent decades in nearly all parts of the world. Urban growth is known to affect local environments through microclimatic changes, pollution, and loss of natural and agricultural lands, and has the potential to influence global circulation, biogeochemistry, and energy balance. To assess these impacts, rates and patterns of urban expansion and their relation to socioeconomic drivers must be determined. A combination of multiple sources of coarse resolution remotely sensed data and a Bayesian data fusion approach result in global maps of urban areas that show reasonable accuracy in terms of the size and location of cities, and are suitable for use in regional-global climate models. To understand changes in urban form locally, medium-resolution remote sensing data, pattern metrics, and local census data are combined to provide a suite of urban growth indicators that facilitate comparison of trends across cities from different regions and different levels of economic development. Chengdu, a rapidly developing city in Western China, provides an ideal case study to test these methods. Results show that the city has increased in area over 350% from 1978 to 2002, while expanding primarily along transportation routes with fragmentation in periurban areas. Comparison of growth metrics for 25 cities from 13 countries for the period 1990-2000 reveals four city types: low-growth cities characterized by modest rates of infilling-type expansion, high-growth cities with rapid, fragmented development, expansive-growth cities with extensive dispersion at low population densities, and frantic-growth cities such as Chengdu, that exhibit extraordinary rates of growth at high population densities. Although all 25 cities are expanding at the urban-rural boundary, cities outside of the U.S. do not show evidence of the large, dispersed spatial forms characteristic of American urban sprawl. Empirical analysis of the linkages between urban growth and population, household, and labor data shows a limited relationship between urban expansion and population change, a factor conventionally thought to play a role in land conversion. Local economic restructuring to industry and service-oriented activities shows some importance in urban growth and dispersion.

Influences of Urban Expansion on Cultivated Lands in China Since 1970S

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, F.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, X.; Yu, S.; Wang, X.; Zuo, L.

2018-04-01

Urban expansion has far-reaching influences on cultivated lands, and has a serious effect on grain output and safety. However, relatively little attention has been paid to monitor cultivated land losses through urban expansion over a long timeframe and multi-frequency, especially its differences on national scale systematically. In this work, the characteristics of Chinese cultivated land dynamics were described using annual occupied area per city, contribution rate of cultivated lands to urban expansion and the classification method of basic trend of cultivated land losses. Results indicate that: (1) in the past four decades, large amount of cultivated lands have been occupied during the urban expansion process, and have become the first land source for Chinese urban expansion. (2) Cultivated land loss among municipalities, provincial capitals and other cities was obviously different. The higher of cities' administrative level was, the more obvious of cultivated land loss in these cities appeared, and the earlier of acceleration loss stage of cultivated lands occurred. (3) Cultivated land loss in five population-size cities was unbalanced, representing obviously different loss process and contribution on urban expansion. The bigger of cities' population size was, the more obvious of cultivated land loss in these cities appeared, and the earlier of acceleration loss stage of cultivated lands occurred. (4) Cultivated land losses during urban expansion process were imbalanced in China, and were classified into seven trends. (5) Chinese cultivated land protection has been carried out from the awakening stage to the deep implementation stage.

The problem is not just sample size: the consequences of low base rates in policing experiments in smaller cities.

PubMed

Hinkle, Joshua C; Weisburd, David; Famega, Christine; Ready, Justin

2013-01-01

Hot spots policing is one of the most influential police innovations, with a strong body of experimental research showing it to be effective in reducing crime and disorder. However, most studies have been conducted in major cities, and we thus know little about whether it is effective in smaller cities, which account for a majority of police agencies. The lack of experimental studies in smaller cities is likely in part due to challenges designing statistically powerful tests in such contexts. The current article explores the challenges of statistical power and "noise" resulting from low base rates of crime in smaller cities and provides suggestions for future evaluations to overcome these limitations. Data from a randomized experimental evaluation of broken windows policing in hot spots are used to illustrate the challenges that low base rates present for evaluating hot spots policing programs in smaller cities. Analyses show low base rates make it difficult to detect treatment effects. Very large effect sizes would be required to reach sufficient power, and random fluctuations around low base rates make detecting treatment effects difficult, irrespective of power, by masking differences between treatment and control groups. Low base rates present strong challenges to researchers attempting to evaluate hot spots policing in smaller cities. As such, base rates must be taken directly into account when designing experimental evaluations. The article offers suggestions for researchers attempting to expand the examination of hot spots policing and other microplace-based interventions to smaller jurisdictions.

Cryptic Diversity in Metropolis: Confirmation of a New Leopard Frog Species (Anura: Ranidae) from New York City and Surrounding Atlantic Coast Regions

PubMed Central

Feinberg, Jeremy A.; Newman, Catherine E.; Watkins-Colwell, Gregory J.; Schlesinger, Matthew D.; Zarate, Brian; Curry, Brian R.; Shaffer, H. Bradley; Burger, Joanna

2014-01-01

We describe a new cryptic species of leopard frog from the New York City metropolitan area and surrounding coastal regions. This species is morphologically similar to two largely parapatric eastern congeners, Rana sphenocephala and R. pipiens. We primarily use bioacoustic and molecular data to characterize the new species, but also examine other lines of evidence. This discovery is unexpected in one of the largest and most densely populated urban parts of the world. It also demonstrates that new vertebrate species can still be found periodically even in well-studied locales rarely associated with undocumented biodiversity. The new species typically occurs in expansive open-canopied wetlands interspersed with upland patches, but centuries of loss and impact to these habitats give some cause for conservation concern. Other concerns include regional extirpations, fragmented extant populations, and a restricted overall geographic distribution. We assign a type locality within New York City and report a narrow and largely coastal lowland distribution from central Connecticut to northern New Jersey (based on genetic data) and south to North Carolina (based on call data). PMID:25354068

A Method for Mapping Future Urbanization in the United States

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bounoua, Lahouari; Nigro, Joseph; Thome, Kurtis; Zhang, Ping; Fathi, Najlaa; Lachir, Asia

2018-01-01

Cities are poised to absorb additional people. Their sustainability, or ability to accommodate a population increase without depleting resources or compromising future growth, depends on whether they harness the efficiency gains from urban land management. Population is often projected as a bulk national number without details about spatial distribution. We use Landsat and population data in a methodology to project and map U.S. urbanization for the year 2020 and document its spatial pattern. This methodology is important to spatially disaggregate projected population and assist land managers to monitor land use, assess infrastructure and distribute resources. We found the U.S. west coast urban areas to have the fastest population growth with relatively small land consumption resulting in future decrease in per capita land use. Except for Miami (FL), most other U.S. large urban areas, especially in the Midwest, are growing spatially faster than their population and inadvertently consuming land needed for ecosystem services. In large cities, such as New York, Chicago, Houston and Miami, land development is expected more in suburban zones than urban cores. In contrast, in Los Angeles land development within the city core is greater than in its suburbs.

The Evolving Law of Disputed Relocation: constructing inner-city renewal practices in Shanghai, 1990-2005.

PubMed

Shih, Mi

2010-01-01

The forceful pursuit of inner-city renewal in Shanghai since the early 1990s has to a great extent achieved spatial modernization, but at the same time it has given rise to increasing conflicts over residential relocation. Using law as a prism through which to examine the dialectic relationship between renewal practices and disputed relocation, this article argues that the series of unprecedented enactments in law that have taken place during this period have both paved the way for real estate market expansion and been a significant source of relocation disputes in Shanghai. Rather than viewing law as simply given and determinate, the article traces the regulatory regime's codification of property practices as a means of actively responding to the requirements of the real estate market. Under large-scale renewal practices, residents' legal rights of "return settlement" (huiban) in inner-city areas were largely denied in the early 1990s, before being effectively abolished by the adoption of monetary compensation for displacement in the 2000s. The evolving law on property practices has greatly shaped the process of disputed relocation while simultaneously posing a potential challenge to China's use of law for market-oriented development.

The strong ground motion in Mexico City: array and borehole data analysis.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roullé, A.; Chávez-García, F. J.

2003-04-01

Site response at Mexico City has been intensively studied for the last 15 years, since the disastrous 1985 earthquakes. After those events, more than 100 accelerographs were installed, and their data have been extremely useful in quantifying amplification and in the subsequent upgrading of the building code. However, detailed analysis of the wavefield has been hampered by the lack of absolute time in the records and the large spacing between stations in terms of dominant wavelengths. In 2001, thanks to the support of CONACYT, Mexico, a new dense accelerographic network was installed in the lake bed zone of Mexico City. The entire network, including an existing network of 3 surface and 2 borehole stations operated by CENAPRED, consists in 12 surface and 4 borehole stations (at 30, 102 and 50 meters). Each station has a 18 bits recorder and a GPS receiver so that the complete network is a 3D array with absolute time. The main objective of this array is to provide data that can help us to better understand the wavefield that propagates in Mexico City during large earthquakes. Last year, a small event of magnitude 6.0 was partially recorded by 6 of the 12 surface stations and all the borehole stations. We analysed the surface data using different array processing techniques such as f-k methods and MUSIC algorithm and the borehole ones using a cross-correlation method. For periods inferior to the site resonance period, the soft clay layer with very low propagation velocities (less than 500 m/s) and a possible multipathing rule the wavefield pattern. For the large period range, the dominant surface wave comes from the epicentral direction and propagates with a quicker velocity (more than 1500 m/s) that corresponds to the velocity of deep layers. The analysis of borehole data shows the presence of different quick wavetrains in the short period range that could correspond to the first harmonic modes of Rayleigh waves. To complete this study, four others events recorded in 1994 by a temporal dense network installed in the firm rock zone of Mexico City were analysed using the same techniques. The results confirm the presence of a diffracting zone south of the valley. These results confirm the hypothesis of a possible interaction between the soft clay layers resonance and diffracted wavetrains of Rayleigh waves to explain both the amplification and the long duration of strong ground motion in Mexico City.

Modeling falling groundwater tables in major cities of the world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutanudjaja, E.; Erkens, G.

2015-12-01

Groundwater use and its over-consumption are one of the major drivers in the hydrology of many major cities in the world, particularly in delta regions. Yet, a global assessment to identify cities with declining groundwater table problems has not been done yet. In this study we used the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB (10 km resolution, for 1960-2010). Using this model, we globally calculated groundwater recharge and river discharge/surface water levels, as well as global water demand and abstraction from ground- and surface water resources. The output of PCR-GLOBWB model was then used to force a groundwater MODFLOW-based model simulating spatio-temporal groundwater head dynamics, including groundwater head declines in all major cities - mainly in delta regions - due to escalation in abstraction of groundwater to meet increasing water demand. Using these coupled models, we managed to identify a number of critical cities having groundwater table falling rates above 50 cm/year (average in 2000-2010), such as Barcelona, Houston, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Rome and many large cities in China, Libya, India and Pakistan, as well as in Middle East and Central Asia regions. However, our simulation results overestimate the depletion rates in San Jose, Tokyo, Venice, and other cities where groundwater usages have been aggressively managed and replaced by importing surface water from other places. Moreover, our simulation might underestimate the declining groundwater head trends in some familiar cases, such as Bangkok (12 cm/year), Ho Chi Minh City (34 cm/year), and Jakarta (26 cm/year). The underestimation was due to an over-optimistic model assumption in allocating surface water for satisfying urban water needs. In reality, many big cities, although they are located in wet regions and have abundant surface water availability, still strongly rely on groundwater sources due to inadequate facilities to treat and distribute surface water resources.

A study on eco-environmental vulnerability of mining cities: a case study of Panzhihua city of Sichuan province in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Huaiyong; Xian, Wei; Yang, Wunian

2009-07-01

The large-scale and super-strength development of mineral resources in mining cities in long term has made great contributions to China's economic construction and development, but it has caused serious damage to the ecological environment even ecological imbalance at the same time because the neglect of the environmental impact even to the expense of the environment to some extent. In this study, according to the characteristics of mining cities, the scientific and practical eco-environmental vulnerability evaluation index system of mining cities had been established. Taking Panzhihua city of Sichuan province as an example, using remote sensing and GIS technology, applying various types of remote sensing image (TM, SPOT5, IKONOS) and Statistical data, the ecological environment evaluation data of mining cities was extracted effectively. For the non-linear relationship between the evaluation indexes and the degree of eco-environmental vulnerability in mining cities, this study innovative took the evaluation of eco-environmental vulnerability of the study area by using artificial neural network whose training used SCE-UA algorithm that well overcome the slow learning and difficult convergence of traditional neural network algorithm. The results of ecoenvironmental vulnerability evaluation of the study area were objective, reasonable and the credibility was high. The results showed that the area distribution of five eco-environmental vulnerability grade types was basically normal, and the overall ecological environment situation of Panzhihua city was in the middle level, the degree of eco-environmental vulnerability in the south was higher than the north, and mining activities were dominant factors to cause ecoenvironmental damage and eco-environmental Vulnerability. In this study, a comprehensive theory and technology system of regional eco-environmental vulnerability evaluation which included the establishment of eco-environmental vulnerability evaluation index system, processing of evaluation data and establishing of evaluation model. New ideas and methods had provided for eco-environmental vulnerability of mining cities.

Urban regulatory focus: a new concept linking city size to human behaviour

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Why do people in big cities behave differently to those living in small cities? To answer this question, in this paper a new concept of urban dynamics is presented that links city size to human behaviour. The concept has its origins in regulatory focus theory. According to the theory, goal-directed behaviour is regulated by two motivational systems, promotion and prevention. Individuals motivated by promotion goals (growth, accomplishment) focus on winning and tend to take risks, whereas those driven by prevention goals (safety, security) focus on not losing and try to avoid risk. Here we elaborate on the existing literature by linking the theory to the urban context. In our conceptualization, cities are powerful regulatory systems, and as such they impinge upon the way people regulate themselves in the urban space. Evidence from signal detection analysis is provided that supports this concept. The experience of a big-city context intensified both promotion-focused behaviour (a risky bias) for promotion-focused participants and prevention-focused behaviour (a conservative bias) for prevention-focused participants. The experience of a small-city context encouraged the opposite behavioural pattern in both cases. These findings suggest that the urban environment can influence the regulatory focus strategies of an individual in a way that cannot simply be explained by their personal regulatory focus. Specifically, the likelihood of one's behaving in a promotion- or prevention-oriented manner is dependent both on one's chronic regulatory focus and also on the urban context in which one lives. Based on this, we maintain that vibrant cities with a large population and a fast pace of life encourage extreme and polarized behaviours, whereas cities with a smaller population and a slower pace of life encourage more moderate and less polarized behavioural responses, which may explain why people in big cities take more risks, do more business, produce and spend more, and even walk faster. PMID:29892353

Modeling falling groundwater tables in major cities of the world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutanudjaja, Edwin; Erkens, Gilles

2016-04-01

Groundwater use and its over-consumption are one of the major drivers in the hydrology of many major cities in the world, particularly in delta regions. Yet, a global assessment to identify cities with declining groundwater table problems has not been done yet. In this study we used the global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB (10 km resolution, for 1960-2010). Using this model, we globally calculated groundwater recharge and river discharge/surface water levels, as well as global water demand and abstraction from ground- and surface water resources. The output of PCR-GLOBWB model was then used to force a groundwater MODFLOW-based model simulating spatio-temporal groundwater head dynamics, including groundwater head declines in all major cities - mainly in delta regions - due to escalation in abstraction of groundwater to meet increasing water demand. Using these coupled models, we managed to identify a number of critical cities having groundwater table falling rates above 50 cm/year (average in 2000-2010), such as Barcelona, Houston, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Rome and many large cities in China, Libya, India and Pakistan, as well as in Middle East and Central Asia regions. However, our simulation results overestimate the depletion rates in San Jose, Tokyo, Venice, and other cities where groundwater usages have been aggressively managed and replaced by importing surface water from other places. Moreover, our simulation might underestimate the declining groundwater head trends in some familiar cases, such as Bangkok (12 cm/year), Ho Chi Minh City (34 cm/year), and Jakarta (26 cm/year). The underestimation was due to an over-optimistic model assumption in allocating surface water for satisfying urban water needs. In reality, many big cities, although they are located in wet regions and have abundant surface water availability, still strongly rely on groundwater sources due to inadequate facilities to treat and distribute surface water resources.

[Demography of Mexico City. The same problems with less population].

PubMed

Camposortega Cruz, S

1991-01-01

The Mexico City metropolitan area currently extends over 4451.2 sq km, completely covering the Federal District and 27 municipios in the state of Mexico. The current population of the Mexico City metropolitan area is estimated at about 16.1 million and its growth rate at approximately 2%/year. The crude birth rate is 24/1000 and the crude death rate 6/1000. The metropolitan Mexico City population represents 18.6% of the total Mexican population. Mexico's other large cities fall far behind in total population, Guadalajara with 3.16 million, Monterrey with 2.77 million, and Puebla with 1.5 million. Mexico City is 1 of the 5 largest cities of the world. Estimates of the current Mexico City population differ substantially from projections completed in the 1980s, which calculated populations of 19-22 million. The explanation of the difference lies primarily in overestimation of the metropolitan population in the 1980 census, the basis for the projections. Preliminary data from the 1990 census, data from the 1987 National Fertility and Health Survey, vital statistics, and some data on internal migration allow a preliminary correction of calculations relating to Mexico's population dynamics. During the 20th century, Mexico City's population has grown from 345,000 in 1900 to 1,029,000 in 1930, 3,136,000 in 1950, 9,045,000 in 1970, and 15,785,000 in 1990. The most rapid growth occurred in 1930-70, when the population grew by more than 5% annually. The growth rate declined to 3.65% between 1970-80 and according to preliminary estimated to 1.92% in 1980-90. Factors explaining the declining growth rate may include the fertility decline in Mexico City, reorientation of migration away from Mexico City and toward inntermediate cities with under 1 million inhabitants, and departures from Mexico City caused by the 1985 earthquakes, private and public decentralization policies, pollution, and other factos which have reduced the attractiveness of the capital. The reevised calculations suggest that Mexico City's population will not reach 20 million until early in the 21st century. Although demographic pressure on Mexico City is thus reduced, it is by no means eliminated, given that current needs are only partially being met. It is estimated for example that Mexico City requires 6.3 million jobs, but only 6.1 million are available, of which 1.1 million pay less than the minimum wage.

Earth observations taken by the Expedition 14 crew

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-01-29

ISS014-E-13598 (29 Jan. 2007) --- Montevideo, Uruguay is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 14 crewmember on the International Space Station. Reflective roofing materials and dark asphalt streets outline the urban grid pattern of Uruguay's capital city of Montevideo in this image. The city may be viewed as a precursor of the predicted global population shift from dominantly rural to urban environments (by 2030, according to recent United Nations estimates) -- nearly half of Uruguay's total population now lives in the Montevideo metropolitan area. Located on the southern coastline of Uruguay along the Rio de la Plata, Montevideo Bay provides an important harbor and port facilities for transport of South American agricultural products. This view is of sufficient resolution (approximately 7 meters/pixel) to discriminate between dark green canopied tree cover and light green grass - important information for study of urban ecology and climate, as well as city water use planning - in a large golf course located at the southern edge of the city (near center right). Sediment plumes along the coastline to the southeast of the city are also visible; rough patterns in the water surface of Montevideo Bay and the Rio de la Plata are a combination of wind disturbance and sediments.

Capsular Serotype and Antibiotic Resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae Isolates in Two Chilean Cities

PubMed Central

Inostroza, Jaime; Trucco, Olivia; Prado, Valeria; Vinet, Ana Maria; Retamal, Gloria; Ossa, Gonzalo; Facklam, Richard R.; Sorensen, Ricardo U.

1998-01-01

We compared the incidence of nasopharyngeal colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae, the serotypes causing mucosal and invasive diseases, and the antibiotic resistance of these strains in patients admitted to three large hospitals and children attending day care centers in two Chilean cities (Santiago and Temuco). The populations in both cities were similar in ethnic background, socioeconomic status, family size, and access to medical care. Significant differences in nasopharyngeal colonization rates, in serotypes causing infections, and in antibiotic resistance were found between the two cities. In children 0 to 2 years of age, 42% were colonized with S. pneumoniae in Santiago compared to 14% in Temuco. A total of 41 serotypes were identified in both Chilean cities studied. Six serotypes were found only in Santiago; 14 serotypes were found only in Temuco. Antibiotic-resistant serotypes 6A, 6B, 14, 19F, and 23F were detected only in Santiago. We show that important differences in the incidence of nasopharyngeal carriage, infection, and S. pneumoniae serotypes can exist in similar populations in different areas of the same country. Our findings are relevant for prevention strategies, antibiotic usage, and vaccine design. PMID:9521139

The scaling of human interactions with city size.

PubMed

Schläpfer, Markus; Bettencourt, Luís M A; Grauwin, Sébastian; Raschke, Mathias; Claxton, Rob; Smoreda, Zbigniew; West, Geoffrey B; Ratti, Carlo

2014-09-06

The size of cities is known to play a fundamental role in social and economic life. Yet, its relation to the structure of the underlying network of human interactions has not been investigated empirically in detail. In this paper, we map society-wide communication networks to the urban areas of two European countries. We show that both the total number of contacts and the total communication activity grow superlinearly with city population size, according to well-defined scaling relations and resulting from a multiplicative increase that affects most citizens. Perhaps surprisingly, however, the probability that an individual's contacts are also connected with each other remains largely unaffected. These empirical results predict a systematic and scale-invariant acceleration of interaction-based spreading phenomena as cities get bigger, which is numerically confirmed by applying epidemiological models to the studied networks. Our findings should provide a microscopic basis towards understanding the superlinear increase of different socioeconomic quantities with city size, that applies to almost all urban systems and includes, for instance, the creation of new inventions or the prevalence of certain contagious diseases. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Land use/cover change detection and urban sprawl analysis in Bandar Abbas city, Iran.

PubMed

Dadras, Mohsen; Shafri, Helmi Zulhaidi Mohd; Ahmad, Noordin; Pradhan, Biswajeet; Safarpour, Sahabeh

2014-01-01

The process of land use change and urban sprawl has been considered as a prominent characteristic of urban development. This study aims to investigate urban growth process in Bandar Abbas city, Iran, focusing on urban sprawl and land use change during 1956-2012. To calculate urban sprawl and land use changes, aerial photos and satellite images are utilized in different time spans. The results demonstrate that urban region area has changed from 403.77 to 4959.59 hectares between 1956 and 2012. Moreover, the population has increased more than 30 times in last six decades. The major part of population growth is related to migration from other parts the country to Bandar Abbas city. Considering the speed of urban sprawl growth rate, the scale and the role of the city have changed from medium and regional to large scale and transregional. Due to natural and structural limitations, more than 80% of barren lands, stone cliffs, beach zone, and agricultural lands are occupied by built-up areas. Our results revealed that the irregular expansion of Bandar Abbas city must be controlled so that sustainable development could be achieved.

Adult tobacco use levels after intensive tobacco control measures: New York City, 2002-2003.

PubMed

Frieden, Thomas R; Mostashari, Farzad; Kerker, Bonnie D; Miller, Nancy; Hajat, Anjum; Frankel, Martin

2005-06-01

We sought to determine the impact of comprehensive tobacco control measures in New York City. In 2002, New York City implemented a tobacco control strategy of (1) increased cigarette excise taxes; (2) legal action that made virtually all work-places, including bars and restaurants, smoke free; (3) increased cessation services, including a large-scale free nicotine-patch program; (4) education; and (5) evaluation. The health department also began annual surveys on a broad array of health measures, including smoking. From 2002 to 2003, smoking prevalence among New York City adults decreased by 11% (from 21.6% to 19.2%, approximately 140000 fewer smokers). Smoking declined among all age groups, race/ethnicities, and education levels; in both genders; among both US-born and foreign-born persons; and in all 5 boroughs. Increased taxation appeared to account for the largest proportion of the decrease; however, between 2002 and 2003 the proportion of cigarettes purchased outside New York City doubled, reducing the effective price increase by a third. Concerted local action can sharply reduce smoking prevalence. However, further progress will require national action, particularly to increase cigarette taxes, reduce cigarette tax evasion, expand education and cessation services, and limit tobacco marketing.

Towards Automatic Validation and Healing of Citygml Models for Geometric and Semantic Consistency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alam, N.; Wagner, D.; Wewetzer, M.; von Falkenhausen, J.; Coors, V.; Pries, M.

2013-09-01

A steadily growing number of application fields for large 3D city models have emerged in recent years. Like in many other domains, data quality is recognized as a key factor for successful business. Quality management is mandatory in the production chain nowadays. Automated domain-specific tools are widely used for validation of business-critical data but still common standards defining correct geometric modeling are not precise enough to define a sound base for data validation of 3D city models. Although the workflow for 3D city models is well-established from data acquisition to processing, analysis and visualization, quality management is not yet a standard during this workflow. Processing data sets with unclear specification leads to erroneous results and application defects. We show that this problem persists even if data are standard compliant. Validation results of real-world city models are presented to demonstrate the potential of the approach. A tool to repair the errors detected during the validation process is under development; first results are presented and discussed. The goal is to heal defects of the models automatically and export a corrected CityGML model.

Land Use/Cover Change Detection and Urban Sprawl Analysis in Bandar Abbas City, Iran

PubMed Central

Mohd Shafri, Helmi Zulhaidi; Ahmad, Noordin; Pradhan, Biswajeet; Safarpour, Sahabeh

2014-01-01

The process of land use change and urban sprawl has been considered as a prominent characteristic of urban development. This study aims to investigate urban growth process in Bandar Abbas city, Iran, focusing on urban sprawl and land use change during 1956–2012. To calculate urban sprawl and land use changes, aerial photos and satellite images are utilized in different time spans. The results demonstrate that urban region area has changed from 403.77 to 4959.59 hectares between 1956 and 2012. Moreover, the population has increased more than 30 times in last six decades. The major part of population growth is related to migration from other parts the country to Bandar Abbas city. Considering the speed of urban sprawl growth rate, the scale and the role of the city have changed from medium and regional to large scale and transregional. Due to natural and structural limitations, more than 80% of barren lands, stone cliffs, beach zone, and agricultural lands are occupied by built-up areas. Our results revealed that the irregular expansion of Bandar Abbas city must be controlled so that sustainable development could be achieved. PMID:25276858

Unreliable Sustainable Infrastructure: Three Transformations to Guide Cities towards Becoming Healthy 'Smart Cities'

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sperling, Joshua; Fisher, Stephen; Reiner, Mark B.

The term 'leapfrogging' has been applied to cities and nations that have adopted a new form of infrastructure by bypassing the traditional progression of development, e.g., from no phones to cell phones - bypassing landlines all together. However, leapfrogging from unreliable infrastructure systems to 'smart' cities is too large a jump resulting in unsustainable and unhealthy infrastructure systems. In the Global South, a baseline of unreliable infrastructure is a prevalent problem. The push for sustainable and 'smart' [re]development tends to ignore many of those already living with failing, unreliable infrastructure. Without awareness of baseline conditions, uninformed projects run the riskmore » of returning conditions to the status quo, keeping many urban populations below targets of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. A key part of understanding the baseline is to identify how citizens have long learned to adjust their expectations of basic services. To compensate for poor infrastructure, most residents in the Global South invest in remedial secondary infrastructure (RSI) at the household and business levels. The authors explore three key 'smart' city transformations that address RSI within a hierarchical planning pyramid known as the comprehensive resilient and reliable infrastructure systems (CRISP) planning framework.« less