Search results for "Urbanization"

Smartness, Sustainability and Resilience: Are They Related?

2019

In the imminent future, cities have to face not only an increasing urbanization but also the negative consequences of natural and human disasters. From this point of view, a city should be considered as vulnerable to climate change and other natural negative events. Thus, the challenge of a city consists in remaining on a sustainable development path. To reach this object the concepts of smartness, sustainability and resilience for a city should be intertwined. Starting from the analysis of a bright city as an integrated approach, the aim of this study consists in propose a first framework of an index which should include sustainable, smartness and resilient indicators. Integrating and meas…

Smart Cities—Imposed Requirement or Preferred Life-Style

2015

World is changing: the increasing population constantly impacts the natural and man-made environment; therefore, the next years are crucial for the deciding in which direction our planet will move forward. Today about ½ of the world’s population lives in cities sustaining the tendency of expanding urbanisation. Each city is different, determined by geographical location, history, and the people who live there and govern it. The best solution for one place may be not applicable for another. However, there is already enough experience of best practices accumulated to draw general conclusions and elaborate sustainable future development designs for cities. The paper summarises: different Smart…

Préface de l'ouvrage de Claude Etienne Sissao "Processus d'installation et d'urbanisation en Afrique subsaharienne. Toponymie et gouvernance locale d…

2013

Stimulating economic growth in the least developed countries: direct cash transfers for the retired via mobile phones

2013

The result of current aid policies is that only a small percentage of foreign aid reaches the poorest of the poor in the least developed countries. Current trends of urbanisation and self-reliance place elderly people in an increasingly difficult situation. This paper aims to stimulate debate by introducing an alternative mechanism for foreign aid. With the help of an economic model, we demonstrate how direct cash transfers to elderly people can spur economic growth. Targeting all elderly people above a certain age minimises selection costs and removes perverse incentives. The use of new mobile phone technologies reduces transaction costs and makes our proposed modality feasible including i…

Clustering cities through urban metrics analysis

2017

[EN] This paper describes a process for measuring and characterizing urban morphological zones. These urban zones are delineated for the entire area of Spain, independently of administrative boundaries and excluding demographic data, using a high resolution land-use dataset. Given the rich information available on land cover and subsequently assigned population data, it is possible to calculate a set of urban spatial metrics to classify these urban zones into homogenous morphological groups. Four types of urban agglomerations are identified in Spain by working with these urban metrics and applying a final cluster analysis. Although these groups have a general complex monocentric typology, e…

Urban structure changes and environmental factors of Valencian Community towns as potentital drivers of the House Sparrow decline

2021

El gorrión común Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) se encuentra en declive en gran parte de Europa. En España, destaca el caso de la Comunidad Valenciana, área de estudio de esta tesis, con descensos superiores al 95% en zonas rurales y al 70% en zonas urbanas. Las causas del declive en zonas urbanas no son claras. En los pueblos y ciudades de la Comunidad Valenciana se están produciendo importantes procesos de transformación de la estructura urbana que afectan a la disponibilidad y adecuación del hábitat para la especie. El objetivo de la tesis fue explorar esos cambios como potenciales impulsores del declive del gorrión común. La tesis se distribuye en 8 capítulos. El capítulo 1 contiene…

On the emergence of the urban phenomenon. Part I

2001

In this paper we develop a relatively simple but general model describing the formation of urban agglomerations in a pre-industrial setting. Rural agglomeration on a local scale arises from the multiplication and specialization of intermediate goods and labor services, while dispersion is due to the commuting costs of agricultural workers. Urban agglomeration on a more global scale stems from the trade-off between increasing returns to scale and transport costs of goods. We derive a general equilibrium model of the formation of urban structures and show how population growth, strict indivisibilities and structural changes in the production sector can modify quantitatively and qualitatively …

Benefits of Urban Green Space for Improving Urban Climate

2007

Urban settlements transform the natural environment so greatly that people tend to see the city only as an employment site, and economic and cultural center. Thus a growing number of people prefer to reside in greener suburbs or rural areas. This results in increased automobile commuter traffic, accompanied by traffic jams, accidents, stress, and ever more damage to the environment. Concepts of sustainable development or the ecological city represent strategies for changing these negative trends. The purpose for doing so is principally the well-being of a city’s residents. Often this entails bringing more of the natural environment back into the city, because urban green space fulfills seve…

Tilaa, seuraa ja ohjattua toimintaa

2021

Artikkelissa tutkitaan lapsille suunnattujen kaupunkiympäristöjen ja erityisesti ohjattujen leikkikenttien kehittymistä 1970-luvun Helsingissä. Lasten ympäristöjä ja niiden suunnitteluun vaikuttaneita lapsikäsityksiä tarkastellaan kolmen tason, rakennetun ympäristön, leikkikenttien arjen ja hyvinvointivaltion viitekehyksen kautta. Tutkimusaineistona on käytetty suunnitteludokumentteja, lapsista ja kaupunkiympäristöistä käytyä asiantuntijakeskustelua, sanomalehtikirjoituksia sekä entisten leikkikenttätoimijoiden kanssa tehtyjä haastatteluja. Artikkelissa esitetään, että lisääntyvistä lasten ympäristöjä koskevista normeista ja vähitellen kasvavasta valvonnasta huolimatta leikkikentät muotoutu…

Designing mobility in a city in transition : challenges from the case of Palermo

2014

Transport policy is one of the most crucial sectors in the process of adaptation of contemporary cities to the challenge of sustainable development. For its close relation with social habits and people behaviors, in fact, innovation in transports play a strategic role both in the decreasing of the environmental impact of mobility and in the improvement of the quality of the built environment. To do so, however, cities need to reach a more effective integration between transport policy and land-use planning, as well as taking full advantage by the spreading of new technologies. In this context, this paper discusses the challenges provided by the reshaping of the transport system in the metro…