Buildinga New Vision for Cooperation and Development of International Tourism Cities The International Tourism Alliance of Silk Road Cities Founded

On September 1,2023,a launch ceremony for the International Tourism Alliance of Silk Road Cities was held in Jingdezhen,Jiangxi Province,along with a series of other activities,including the“International Forum on Culture and Tourism Development of Silk Road Cities”2023,and the“Charming Silk Road,Connecting the World-Silk Road Tourism Cities Joint Promotion Exhibition”.

Understanding the Relationship Between Shrinking Cities and Land Prices:Spatial Pattern,Effectiveness,and Policy Implications

Urban shrinkage has emerged as a widespread phenomenon globally and has a significant impact on land,particularly in terms of land use and price.This study focuses on 2851 county-level cities in China in 2005–2018(excluding Hong Kong,Macao,Taiwan,and‘no data’areas in Qinhai-Tibet Plateau)as the fundamental units of analysis.By employing nighttime light(NTL)data to identify shrinking cities,the propensity score matching(PSM)model was used to quantitatively examine the impact of shrinking cities on land prices,and evaluate the magnitude of this influence.The findings demonstrate the following:1)there were 613 shrinking cities in China,with moderate shrinkage being the most prevalent and severe shrinkage being the least.2)Regional disparities are evident in the spatial distribution of shrinking cities,especially in areas with diverse terrain.3)The spatial pattern of land price exhibits a significant correlated to the economic and administrative levels.4)Shrinking cities significantly negatively impact on the overall land price(ATT=–0.1241,P<0.05).However,the extent of the effect varies significantly among different spatial regions.This study contributes novel insights into the investigation of land prices and shrinking cities,ultimately serving as a foundation for government efforts to promote the sustainable development of urban areas.

An Energy Trading Method Based on Alliance Blockchain and Multi-Signature

Blockchain,known for its secure encrypted ledger,has garnered attention in financial and data transfer realms,including the field of energy trading.However,the decentralized nature and identity anonymity of user nodes raise uncertainties in energy transactions.The broadcast consensus authentication slows transaction speeds,and frequent single-point transactions in multi-node settings pose key exposure risks without protective measures during user signing.To address these,an alliance blockchain scheme is proposed,reducing the resource-intensive identity verification among nodes.It integrates multi-signature functionality to fortify user resources and transac-tion security.A novel multi-signature process within this framework involves neutral nodes established through central nodes.These neutral nodes participate in multi-signature’s signing and verification,ensuring user identity and transaction content privacy.Reducing interactions among user nodes enhances transaction efficiency by minimizing communication overhead during verification and consensus stages.Rigorous assessments on reliability and operational speed highlight superior security performance,resilient against conventional attack vectors.Simulation shows that compared to traditional solutions,this scheme has advantages in terms of running speed.In conclusion,the alliance blockchain framework introduces a novel approach to tackle blockchain’s limitations in energy transactions.The integrated multi-signature process,involving neutral nodes,significantly enhances security and privacy.The scheme’s efficiency,validated through analytical assessments and simulations,indicates robustness against security threats and improved transactional speeds.This research underscores the potential for improved security and efficiency in blockchain-enabled energy trading systems.

A Study on the Symbol-Based Narrative in the International Communication of Cities

Cultural symbols,a manifestation of cities’cultural resources,are not only signs that frame concepts but also forms that express meanings.Exploring the international communication of cities from the perspective of symbols,this paper analyzes in depth how cities create their cultural symbols in the dynamic process of international communication in an era of symbol-based digital media,and how they develop their narratives and explain meanings through the dissemination of symbols when telling their stories to international audiences,thus enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of their international communication efforts.

Do companies influenced by smart cities pay more attention to green governance?Mechanism and optimal spatial correlation

Smart cities are a way for China to construct an innovative and environmentally conscious nation.The paper examines the impact of smart cities on corporate green governance and provides a theoretical foundation for formulating and executing smart city policy in China.Based on panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008 to 2020,this study constructs a multiperiod double-difference model to examine the influence of smart cities on corporate green governance.Additionally,it uses a spatial double-difference model to investigate the spatial spillover effect of smart cities on neighboring areas.The findings indicate that smart cities effectively enhance corporate green governance.Analyzing the influencing mechanisms reveals that resource allocation efficiency,technological innovation,management environmental awareness,and regional environmental enforcement efforts act as mediators.Furthermore,the study reveals that the impact of smart cities on promoting corporate green governance is more pronounced in regions with lower levels of marketization and resource-based cities.Moreover,the research explores the spatial spillover effects of smart cities,with an effective radius of approximately 350 km.The optimal spatial correlation zone for green governance of businesses in neighboring areas in relation to smart cities is within a range of 250-350 km.This is manifested by the significant promotion of green governance in neighboring area businesses facilitated by smart cities.

Factors Influencing the Spatial Variability of Air Temperature Urban Heat Island Intensity in Chinese Cities

Few studies have investigated the spatial patterns of the air temperature urban heat island(AUHI)and its controlling factors.In this study,the data generated by an urban climate model were used to investigate the spatial variations of the AUHI across China and the underlying climate and ecological drivers.A total of 355 urban clusters were used.We performed an attribution analysis of the AUHI to elucidate the mechanisms underlying its formation.The results show that the midday AUHI is negatively correlated with climate wetness(humid:0.34 K;semi-humid:0.50 K;semi-arid:0.73 K).The annual mean midnight AUHI does not show discernible spatial patterns,but is generally stronger than the midday AUHI.The urban–rural difference in convection efficiency is the largest contributor to the midday AUHI in the humid(0.32±0.09 K)and the semi-arid(0.36±0.11 K)climate zones.The release of anthropogenic heat from urban land is the dominant contributor to the midnight AUHI in all three climate zones.The rural vegetation density is the most important driver of the daytime and nighttime AUHI spatial variations.A spatial covariance analysis revealed that this vegetation influence is manifested mainly through its regulation of heat storage in rural land.

Research on Operation Optimization of Energy Storage Power Station and Integrated Energy Microgrid Alliance Based on Stackelberg Game

With the development of renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics and wind power,it has become a research hotspot to improve the consumption rate of new energy and reduce energy costs through the deployment of energy storage.To solve the problem of the interests of different subjects in the operation of the energy storage power stations(ESS)and the integrated energy multi-microgrid alliance(IEMA),this paper proposes the optimization operation method of the energy storage power station and the IEMA based on the Stackelberg game.In the upper layer,ESS optimizes charging and discharging decisions through a dynamic pricing mechanism.In the lower layer,IEMA optimizes the output of various energy conversion coupled devices within the IEMA,as well as energy interaction and demand response(DR),based on the energy interaction prices provided by ESS.The results demonstrate that the optimization strategy proposed in this paper not only effectively balances the benefits of the IEMA and ESS but also enhances energy consumption rates and reduces IEMA energy costs.

Hubei Association Standardization Development Alliance set up

To implement the National Standardization Development Outline and Hubei’s relevant supporting policies,the launching ceremony of Hubei Association Standardization Development Alliance was held in Wuhan,Hubei province on June 28,which was hosted by Hubei Institute of Standardization and Quality,and jointly held by Optics Valley of China and Hubei Optics Valley Standard Innovate Technology Co.,Ltd.The alliance was initiated by 94 units in Hubei,including research institutions,enterprises,industrial associations,and universities.The ceremony was attended by Yu Xinli,President of China Association for Standardization,Pan Niansong,Director-General of Hubei Medical Products Administration,Xu Qinxiang,Head of Standardization Division of Hubei Administration for Market Regulation,and representatives from members of the alliance.

Defining Cities by Water: Addressing Capital Misallocation in a Race to Conserve Resources

As part of its efforts to promote a sustainable and high-quality development,China has pledged to reduce water consumption and create a water-efficient society.On the basis of identifying the institutional root causes of excessive capital allocation and excessive water consumption in China’s water-intensive industrial sectors,this study elaborates how the national water-efficient cities assessment contributes to optimized capital allocation.Our research shows that national water-efficient cities assessment has motivated local governments to compete for water efficiency.To conserve water,local governments regulated the entry and exit of water-intensive enterprises,discouraged excessive investments in water-intensive sectors,and phased out obsolete water-intensive capacities within their jurisdictions.This approach has resulted in mutually beneficial outcomes,including improved allocation of capital,enhanced water efficiency,and reduced emissions.This paper offers policy recommendations for establishing a water-efficient society throughout the 14^(th) Five-Year Plan(2021-2025)period by presenting empirical evidence on the policy effects of resource efficiency evaluation.

Impact of coupling coordination development of port and city environments on urban economic competitiveness:Evidence from the coastal port cities in eastern China

Promoting the coupling coordination development of port and its hinterland city environments is an important way to improve urban economic competitiveness.Based on relevant data of 13 coastal port cities in eastern China from 2000 to 2018,this study explores the coupling coordination development of port and city environments and its impact on urban economic competitiveness by constructing the coupling coordination degree model and the panel threshold model.The research results show that:(1)In terms of the coupling coordination development of port and city environments,most coastal ports and their hinterland cities are in a state of moderate or serious disorder.Overall,the degree of coupling coordination of port and city environments needs to be further improved;(2)The coupling coordination degree of port and city environments has a significant impact on urban economic competitiveness,and this effect gradually increases with the development of the ports and the urban economy.Among the variables that impact the urban economic competitiveness,fixed assets investment and foreign trade are significant factors that can enhance urban economic competitiveness.(3)At present,there is a“U-shaped”relationship between the coupling coordination degree of port-city environments and the urban economic competitiveness.This relationship lies on the right side of the inflection point of the“U-shaped”curve.Therefore,following the concept of assigning priority to ecological development,expanding fixed assets investment and actively developing foreign trade can further enhance the urban economic competitiveness.

Commuting Space of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Context of Child Friendly Cities:A Case Study of Bajiao Street of Shijingshan District

With the continuous promotion of the construction of child friendly cities,the school commuting space is an important component of the construction of child friendly roads.Based on the background of child friendly cities,the commuting space of 11 primary and secondary schools in Bajiao Street is analyzed through literature analysis and field research methods.Firstly,the relevant literature on school commuting space is sorted out,and the characteristics of school commuting space are summarized,including transportation,landscape,culture,leisure,and security.Secondly,the characteristics of commuting space of primary and secondary schools in Bajiao Street are analyzed from three aspects:in front of the school gate,path space,and node space.This paper aims to provide reference and guidance for the future construction of children’s walking school commuting and promote the construction of a child friendly city.

Application Strategies of Spatial Refinement Design in Ancient Cities Supported by Digital Te-Zhaoyu Ancient City in Qixian County as an Example

Digital technology provides a method of quantitative investigation and data analysis for contemporary landscape spatial analysis,and related research is moving from image recognition to digital algorithmic analysis,providing a more scientific and macroscopic way of research.The key to refinement design is to refine the spatial design process and the spatial improvement strategy system.Taking the ancient city of Zhaoyu in Qixian County,Shanxi Province as an example,(1)based on obtaining the integrated data of the ancient city through the drone tilt photography,the style and landscape of the ancient city are modeled;(2)the point cloud data with spatial information is imported into the point cloud analysis platform and the data analysis is carried out from the overall macroscopic style of the ancient city to the refinement level,which results in the formation of a more intuitive landscape design scheme,thus improving the precision and practicability of the landscape design;(3)Based on spatial big data,it starts from the spatial aggregation level,spatial distribution characteristics and other evaluation index system to achieve the refinement analysis of the site.Digital technology and methods are used throughout the process to explore the refined design path.

Deep Learning Method to Detect the Road Cracks and Potholes for Smart Cities

The increasing global population at a rapid pace makes road trafficdense;managing such massive traffic is challenging. In developing countrieslike Pakistan, road traffic accidents (RTA) have the highest mortality percentageamong other Asian countries. The main reasons for RTAs are roadcracks and potholes. Understanding the need for an automated system forthe detection of cracks and potholes, this study proposes a decision supportsystem (DSS) for an autonomous road information system for smart citydevelopment with the use of deep learning. The proposed DSS works in layerswhere initially the image of roads is captured and coordinates attached to theimage with the help of global positioning system (GPS), communicated tothe decision layer to find about the cracks and potholes in the roads, andeventually, that information is passed to the road management informationsystem, which gives information to drivers and the maintenance department.For the decision layer, we projected a CNN-based model for pothole crackdetection (PCD). Aimed at training, a K-fold cross-validation strategy wasused where the value of K was set to 10. The training of PCD was completedwith a self-collected dataset consisting of 6000 images from Pakistani roads.The proposed PCD achieved 98% of precision, 97% recall, and accuracy whiletesting on unseen images. The results produced by our model are higher thanthe existing model in terms of performance and computational cost, whichproves its significance.

Development of urban underground space in coastal cities in China:A review

The development of urban underground space is a critical way to alleviate the lack of urban resources,and improve environmental conditions as well as residents'quality of life,which has important practical significance.As the most densely populated and economically developed areas,coastal cities face many challenges in underground space development owing to their unique environmental geological conditions.This study examined the current situation of underground space development,academic research,technology application,evaluation methods,planning,and legislation in coastal cities in China.On this basis,it analyzed the future development trends,and presented reasonable suggestions for the critical scientific and technical problems faced by the development of underground space in coastal cities.The key suggestions are as follows:it is necessary to define and clarify the critical geological issues,distributions,and hazards that affect underground space development and major engineering construction in coastal cities;the land-sea integrated detection technology for sea crossing bridges and submarine tunnels needs to be studied;in evaluating the suitability of underground space in coastal cities,the land and sea area evaluation factors should be integrated;and the evaluation system of landsea integration needs to be established.

An Optimized Offloaded Task Execution for Smart Cities Applications

Wireless nodes are one of the main components in different applications that are offered in a smart city.These wireless nodes are responsible to execute multiple tasks with different priority levels.As the wireless nodes have limited processing capacity,they offload their tasks to cloud servers if the number of tasks exceeds their task processing capacity.Executing these tasks from remotely placed cloud servers causes a significant delay which is not required in sensitive task applications.This execution delay is reduced by placing fog computing nodes near these application nodes.A fog node has limited processing capacity and is sometimes unable to execute all the requested tasks.In this work,an optimal task offloading scheme that comprises two algorithms is proposed for the fog nodes to optimally execute the time-sensitive offloaded tasks.The first algorithm describes the task processing criteria for local computation of tasks at the fog nodes and remote computation at the cloud server.The second algorithm allows fog nodes to optimally scrutinize the most sensitive tasks within their task capacity.The results show that the proposed task execution scheme significantly reduces the execution time and most of the time-sensitive tasks are executed.

Smart cities from low cost to expensive solutions under an optimal analysis

This scientific approach mainly aims to develop a smart city/smart community concept to objectively evaluate the progress of these organizational forms in relation to other classical/traditional forms of city organizations.The elaborated model allowed the construction of the dashboard of access actions in the smart city/smart community category on two levels of financial effort correlated with the effect on the sustainable development of smart cities.The validity of the proposed model and our approach was supported by the complex statistical analysis performed in this study.The research concluded that low-cost solutions are the most effective in supporting smart urban development.They should be followed by the other category of solutions,which implies more significant financial and managerial efforts as well as a higher rate of welfare growth for urban citizens.The main outcomes of this research include modelling solutions related to smart city development at a low-cost level and identifying the sensitivity elements that maximize the growth function.The implications of this research are to provide viable alternatives based on smart city development opportunities with medium and long-term effects on urban communities,economic sustainability,and translation into urban development rates.This study’s results are useful for all administrations ready for change that want the rapid implementation of the measures with beneficial effects on the community or which,through a strategic vision,aim to connect to the European objectives of sustainable growth and social welfare for citizens.Practically,this study is a tool for defining and implementing smart public policies at the urban level.

Remarks By Miguel Angel Moratinos,Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations&High Representative for the Alliance of Civilisations of the United Nations

I am very pleased and privileged to be addressing the thematic segment of the Third Belt and Road Forum for the second time.I am also delighted to be back to Beijing in less than 3 months.My latest visit was in last July at the invitation of the Chinese Association for International Understanding.

Comprehensive Review on Air Pollution Control Measures for Non-Attainment Cities of Uttar Pradesh, India

Introduction: The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the past many years has been reported to have many cities with highly polluted air quality. The state has been taking meticulous steps in combating air pollution in the form of action plans, introduced especially in its 17 non-attainment cities (NAC). To assess the progress and development of these action plans in UP, the present study has done an in-depth analysis and review of the state’s action plans and city micro action plans. Materials and Methods: In this research study, the analysis of the latest action plan reports, micro action plan reports as well as the recommendations for combating air pollution-related issues in the 17 NAC of the UP state has been well documented. Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has prepared these reports to highlight the progress of the plans in response to the growing air pollution in these cities. The information present in the reports has been used to further study sector-specific, category-specific action plans, institutional responsibility, and the present status of the action plans. Results: On average, the highest weightage in action plans was given to sector-specific categories such as Road dust and construction activities (24%). It was also observed that Urban local bodies (~50%) were majorly responsible to implement the action points and 56% of the action points were jointly implemented by multiple agencies.

Deep Consensus Network for Recycling Waste Detection in Smart Cities

Recently,urbanization becomes a major concern for developing as well as developed countries.Owing to the increased urbanization,one of the important challenging issues in smart cities is waste management.So,automated waste detection and classification model becomes necessary for the smart city and to accomplish better recyclable waste management.Effective recycling of waste offers the chance of reducing the quantity of waste disposed to the land fill by minimizing the requirement of collecting raw materials.This study develops a novel Deep Consensus Network with Whale Optimization Algorithm for Recycling Waste Object Detection(DCNWORWOD)in Smart Cities.The goal of the DCNWO-RWOD technique intends to properly identify and classify the objects into recyclable and non-recyclable ones.The proposed DCNWO-RWOD technique involves the design of deep consensus network(DCN)to detect waste objects in the input image.For improving the overall object detection performance of the DCN model,the whale optimization algorithm(WOA)is exploited.Finally,Na飗e Bayes(NB)classifier is used for the classification of detected waste objects into recyclable and non-recyclable ones.The performance validation of theDCNWO-RWOD technique takes place using the open access dataset.The extensive comparative study reported the enhanced performance of the DCNWO-RWOD technique interms of several measures.

Deep Learning Enabled Intelligent Healthcare Management System in Smart Cities Environment

In recent times,cities are getting smart and can be managed effectively through diverse architectures and services.Smart cities have the ability to support smart medical systems that can infiltrate distinct events(i.e.,smart hospitals,smart homes,and community health centres)and scenarios(e.g.,rehabilitation,abnormal behavior monitoring,clinical decision-making,disease prevention and diagnosis postmarking surveillance and prescription recommendation).The integration of Artificial Intelligence(AI)with recent technologies,for instance medical screening gadgets,are significant enough to deliver maximum performance and improved management services to handle chronic diseases.With latest developments in digital data collection,AI techniques can be employed for clinical decision making process.On the other hand,Cardiovascular Disease(CVD)is one of the major illnesses that increase the mortality rate across the globe.Generally,wearables can be employed in healthcare systems that instigate the development of CVD detection and classification.With this motivation,the current study develops an Artificial Intelligence Enabled Decision Support System for CVD Disease Detection and Classification in e-healthcare environment,abbreviated as AIDSS-CDDC technique.The proposed AIDSS-CDDC model enables the Internet of Things(IoT)devices for healthcare data collection.Then,the collected data is saved in cloud server for examination.Followed by,training 4484 CMC,2023,vol.74,no.2 and testing processes are executed to determine the patient’s health condition.To accomplish this,the presented AIDSS-CDDC model employs data preprocessing and Improved Sine Cosine Optimization based Feature Selection(ISCO-FS)technique.In addition,Adam optimizer with Autoencoder Gated RecurrentUnit(AE-GRU)model is employed for detection and classification of CVD.The experimental results highlight that the proposed AIDSS-CDDC model is a promising performer compared to other existing models.