Influence of Transportation Accessibility on Urban-rural Income Disparity and Its Spatial Heterogeneity

Transportation accessibility has been treated as an important means of reducing the urban-rural income disparity.However,only a few studies have examined the effects of different types of transportation accessibility on urban-rural income disparity and their spatial heterogeneity.Based on data from 285 prefecture-level(and above)Chinese cities in 2000,2005,2010,2015,and 2020,this study uses spatial econometric models to examine how highway accessibility and railway accessibility influence the urban-rural income disparity and to identify their spatial heterogeneity.The result reveals that highway accessibility and railway accessibility have‘coreperiphery’ring-like circle structures.The urban-rural income disparity exhibits strong spatial clustering effects.Both highway accessibility and railway accessibility are negatively associated with urban-rural income disparity,and the former having a greater effect size.Moreover,there is a substitution effect between highway accessibility and railway accessibility in the whole sample.Furthermore,these associations differ in geographic regions.In the central region,highway accessibility is more important in reducing the urban-rural income disparity,but its effect is weakened with the increase of railway accessibility.In the western region,railway accessibility has a larger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income disparity,and this effect is strengthened by the increase of highway accessibility.We conclude that improving transportation accessibility is conducive to reducing the urban-rural income disparity but its effect is spatial heterogenetic.Highways and railways should be developed in a coordinated manner to promote an integrated transport network system.

Improvement of the Vitality of Public Space under the Background of Urban Renewal

As an indispensable part of urban development,urban renewal plays an important role in terms of promoting urban society,economy,culture,etc.,and has a profound impact on the sustainable development of cities and the happiness index of residents.Public space,as an important part of a city,plays a more critical role in urban renewal.The vitality of public space not only reflects the degree of urban cultural inheritance,but also shows the level of urban economic development,so it is an important issue that must be paid attention to in urban renewal work.In this paper,starting from the concept of urban renewal,public space and vitality,the influencing factors and methods of studying the vitality of public space under the background of urban renewal,as well as its advantages and limitations,were discussed,and some strategies for enhancing the vitality of public space under the background of urban renewal were finally put forward.It is expected to provide some reference and practical significance for the research and practice of urban renewal and the enhancement of the vitality of public space.

Research on the Application and Development of Digital Media Art in Urban Public Space Design

Digital media art is an emerging art form that combines digital technology and media art.It has huge potential to bring innovation to urban public spaces and provide them with vibrant artistic experiences.This article analyzes the design significance and value of digital media art in urban public space,its various forms of application in urban public space design,and the innovative ideas and paths that digital media art can take in urban public space to guide the future.The application and innovative methods of digital media art in urban public space design provide certain theoretical and practical references for urban planners and designers.

30 years of the transformation of non-urban public transport in Poland's peripheral areas – what went wrong?

Transport-based social exclusion is currently a serious social problem in Poland,and one which is apparently most severe at the level of the county(Polish powiat)in the south-eastof the country,including the Beskid Niski and Bieszczady Mountains.A deeper illustration of this problem requires both observation of changes in the suburban public-transport network and the identification of areas in which this has deteriorated significantly in quantity and quality.The chosen starting point for the research was therefore 1990,as a year in which–on the one hand–the Polish economy was already shifted to the new free-market principles;while–on the other–state PKS(Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej)non-urban bus transport enterprises still dominated public transport.The endpoint of the study is then the beginning of 2019(the author's research year).The article introduced here seeks to identify and present cartographically the changes affecting the public-transport network in the study area over the last 30 years,as well as to point to possible consequences of these processes.The background of the described changes is also discussed,as are the observed consequences of what is taking place.

The Development of Generalized Public Bicycles in China and Its Role in the Urban Transportation System

Public bicycle service has experienced 15 years of development in Chinese cities,and China's Mainland is the world's largest public bicycle market.Choosing to use public bicycles is becoming more and more a daily habit of residents.Broadly speaking,public bicycles in Chinese cities include both public bikes with service stations and shared bicycles without service stations.Based on historical review and years of accumulated data,this paper reviews the development of general public bicycles in Chinese cities in the past 15 years.And the role of general public bicycles in China’s urban transportation system is analyzed.Finally,from the perspective of urban construction and management,some suggestions for the future development of public bicycles are put forward.

Survey and Countermeasures on the Public Facilities in Urban Parks——with Urban Parks in Nanjing City as Study Cases

Urban park is an important outdoor leisure space for urban citizens. The public facility in urban park is a functional environmental element connecting human beings and environment. Through analyzing the present situation and application of public facilities in urban parks of Nanjing City, the existing problems and countermeasures were pointed out, in order to provide theoretical references for the construction of public facility in the urban parks.

Spatiotemporal Variations and Regional Transport of Air Pollutants in Two Urban Agglomerations in Northeast China Plain

Characteristics of air pollution in Northeast China(NEC) received less research attention in the past comparing to other heavily polluted regions in China.Spatiotemporal variations of six criteria air pollutants(PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3 and CO) in Central Liaoning Urban Agglomeration(CLUA) and Harbin-Changchun Urban Agglomeration(HCUA) in NEC Plain were analyzed in this study based on three-year hourly observations of air pollutants and meteorological variables from 2015 to 2017.The results indicated that the annual mean concentrations of air pollutants are generally higher in the middle and southern regions in NEC Plain and lower in the northern region.Megacities such as Shenyang, Harbin and Changchun experience severe air pollution, with a three-year averaged air quality index(AQI) larger than 80, far exceeding the daily AQI standard at the first-level of 50 in China.The annual mean PM and SO2 concentrations decrease most significantly in NEC urban agglomerations from 2015 to 2017, followed by CO and NO2, while O3 shows a slight increasing trend.All the six pollutants exhibit obvious seasonal and diurnal variations, and these variations are dictated by local emission and meteorological conditions.PM2.5 and O3 concentrations in NEC urban agglomerations strongly depend on wind conditions.High O3 concentrations at different cities usually occur in presence of strong winds but are independent on wind direction(WD), while high PM2.5 is usually accompanied by weak winds and poor dispersion condition, and sometimes also occur when the northerly or southerly winds are strong.Regional transport of air pollutants between NEC urban agglomerations is common.A severe haze event on November 1–4, 2017 is examined to demonstrate the role of regional transport on pollution.

CO2 emission of urban passenger transportation in China from 2000 to 2014

This study reviewed the urban passenger transportation(UPT)development of seven typical cities in China from 2000 to 2014,estimated the UPT CO2emission,analyzed the structure,and discussed the main factors of UPT CO,emission.Results showed that increases of GDP,population,and UPT scale of the cities have speeded up.The most significant development of UPT is that the growth of private vehicles is greatly faster than that of public transportation.The total and per-capita UPT CO2 emissions both increased.The share of private vehicles emission to total UPT CO2emission has increased,with the share in range of 65%-88%in 2014,exponentially leading to the increases of total and per-capita UPT CO2 emission.Although UPT CO2 emission structure with more share of public transportation would slow down the UPT CO2emission increase,private vehicle CO2 emission is recognized as the dominated driving factor.Contributions of driving factors,such as GDP,population,private vehicle CO2 emissions,to UPT CO2 emission are different among the cities.Private vehicle CO2 emission.is the dominated factor for UPT CO2emission in Beijing and Taiyuan.Besides private vehicle CO2emission,GDP also plays an important role in UPT CO2emissions of Chengdu,Shanghai,Guangzhou,and Urumqi.Contributions of private vehicle CO2 emission and GDP to UPT CO2 emission are almost same in Xi'an.

Performance Evaluation of Public Bus Transportation by Using DEA Models and Shannon’s Entropy:An Example From a Company in a Large City of China

The purpose of this paper is to assess the operational efficiency of a public bus transportation via a case study from a company in a large city of China by using data envelopment analysis(DEA)model and Shannon’s entropy.This company operates 37 main routes on the backbone roads.Thus,it plays a significant role in public transportation in the city.According to bus industry norms,an efficiency evaluation index system is constructed from the perspective of both company operations and passenger demands.For passenger satisfaction,passenger waiting time and passenger-crowding degree are considered,and they are undesirable indicators.To describe such indicators,a superefficient DEA model is constructed.With this model,by using actual data,efficiency is evaluated for each bus route.Results show that the DEA model with Shannon’s entropy being combined achieves more reasonable results.Also,sensitivity analysis is presented.Therefore,the results are meaningful for the company to improve its operations and management.

Planning of Urban Public Disaster-prevention Green Spaces: A Case Study of Living Water Park in Chengdu City

Based on disaster-prevention functions of urban public green spaces, necessity and significance of emergency shelters in a city were analyzed. Taking Living Water Park in Chengdu for example, planning of urban public disaster-prevention green spaces was analyzed to further explore planning of urban disaster-prevention green space system and refugee spaces, and provide instructions for the planning and construction of urban disaster-prevention green spaces in China.

An evolutionary model of urban bus transport network based on B-space

In this paper, an evolutionary model of bus transport network in B-space is developed. It includes the effect of the overlapping ratio of new route on network performance and overcomes the disadvantage, i.e. lack of economic consideration, in the evolutionary bus transport network model in P-space proposed by Chen et al （2007）. The degree distribution functions are derived by using the mean-field method and the master equation method, separately. The relationship between the new stop ratio of a route, λ, and the error in exponential of degree distribution function from the mean-field method is developed as ASlope= λ/（1 -λ） ＋ ln（1-λ）. Finally, the bus transport networks of Hangzhou and Nanjing are simulated by using this model, and the results show that some characteristic index values of the simulated networks are closer to the empirical data than those from Chen＇s model.

Transportation Characteristics Change under Rapid Urban Expansion:A Case Study of Shanghai

This paper focuses on the economic development and urban morphology as well as its impact on the transportation system during the urban expansion of Shanghai in the last more than 20 years(1986-2008).Based on data from 3 comprehensive transport surveys of Shanghai since 1986,the changes in residential trip demand,vehicle use,and the spatial distribution of trips were studied to understand the demands on the transportation system.The factors contributing to those changes in transportation demand were discussed,by which the conclusions were arrived:1) economic development promotes population growth and stimulates residential trip demand greatly;2) unsynchronized migration of population and job from central district to periphery district of Shanghai make trips and congestion diffuse in the same way;and 3) urban sprawl from a city center encourages the single-occupant vehicle mode,which imposes greater pressure on the roadway system.It is concluded that urban development should coordinate with the transportation system planning and expansion.

Genius Loci of Urban Public Spaces: A Case Study of Daihu Lake Landscape Planning in New Shouzhan District, Changle City, Fujian Province

Connotations of genius loci of urban public spaces were explored, geographical position and composition of Daihu landscape design in New Shouzhan District, Changle City, Fujian Province was introduced. Design concepts, layouts and patterns were summarized by combining with geographical and cultural conditions of the study area. Functional zoning of Daihu landscape design was analyzed, human-centered site planning stressed to realize functions of new urban public spaces, regression of cultural and humanistic properties of these spaces, so as to provide diverse options for the future construction of urban public spaces.

Coupling Relationship between Transport Superiority Degree and Urbanization in Sichuan,China

Relationship between transport superiority degree and urbanization is not quantified enough in recent researches.Combined with coupling model and coupling coordination model,the spatial analysis technique was applied to quantitatively analyzing the relationship between transport superiority degree and comprehensive urbanization in eighteen prefecture-level cities in Sichuan from 2000 to 2011. An evaluation index system was constructed,and index weights were obtained using the variation coefficient method. The traffic volume was found to be the main factor contributing to transport superiority degree, and space urbanization was the primary factor influencing comprehensive urbanization. The coupling degree between transport superiority degree and urbanization( CU) was generally higher than the coupling coordination degree( DU) in 2000-2011. DUvaried more significantly than CU. In 2011, Sichuan was divided into five regional types. Based on the above observations, targeted recommendations were developed.

An iterative approach to an integrated land use and transportation planning tool for small urban areas

There has been increasing interests in developing land use models for small urban areas for various planning applications such as air quality conformity analysis. The output of a land use model can serve as a major input to a transportation model; conversely, transportation model output can provide a critical input to a land use model. The connection between the two models can be achieved by an accessibility measure. This paper presents an iterative approach to solving a regression-based land use model and a transportation model with combined trip distribution- assignment. A case study using data from a small urban area is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed modeling framework. Tests show that the procedures can converge, and the modeling framework can be a valuable tool for planners and decision-makers in evaluating land use policies and transportation investment strategies.

Effective Instructions in Design Process of Urban Public Spaces to Promote Sustainable Development

Public spaces in cities have long been the basis used for the expression of cultural values and social relations. Cultural and social systems have an old two-sided relation. This means that the establishment and continuity of social relationships strengthen the values and norms;on the other hand, culture determines the conditions and the formation of social relationships. Therefore, to create a bonding connection between people and the city, urban public spaces are the focal points which still need to be noticed more effectively by designers and managers. There are components which help the designers design more efficient urban public spaces and, as a consequence, there will be more vitality in cities. In today conditions, sustainability issues, as the solutions of having better future conditions, can considerably affect these components and give the society the opportunity of having more capable public spaces. Sum of studies in the field of sustainability and the subsequent sustainable public spaces researches mainly express three components of environment, economy and society, among which environment section is more significant than two others, so that the importance of climatic design components has been tangibly noted in public space designing. The aim of this paper is reviewing urban public spaces and sustainability notions and, as the result, reaching to some instructions for designing sustainable urban public spaces which have important impacts on these types of places. By doing this, not only the possibility of getting closer to the identity of cities, but also the necessary ground for the strong presence of sustainable urban public spaces in cities, are provided. The research method is descriptive-analytic and library research method is used for data collecting.

Fuzzy Analysis and Evaluation of Public Transport Service Quality: A Case Study of Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania

Urban public transport plays a critical role in stimulating economic development of any nation since most of the revenues come from cities. The majority of the city dwellers of any country use public transport. The evaluation of public transport service quality provides a valuable feedback to commuter operators to ensure continuous improvement of level of service and to the government to take appropriate measures for enhancing the quality of public transport service. This paper analyses and evaluates service quality of Road Public Transport (RPT) (i.e. minibuses and buses) and Urban Rail Transport (URT) in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania. Since service quality and its attributes are intangible and vague, a fuzzy evaluation model is developed and applied. The formulated model is composed of Fuzzy Entropy Method (FEM) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The overall evaluation procedure is as follows: initially, an intensive literature search and experts’ opinions are employed to establish criteria for evaluating the service quality of public transport in Dar es Salaam City. The developed FEM is used to obtain criteria weight. Lastly, the formulated TOPSIS is used to provide an overall ranking of urban public transport service quality. The overall evaluation shows that urban rail transport outperforms road public transport in terms of service quality. Nevertheless, the urban rail transport service in Dar es Salaam City is currently not well developed as it is provided on very limited routes. Thus, the Tanzania government, the rail transport operator i.e. Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) and the agency responsible for the provision of rail infrastructure i.e. Reli Assets Holding Company (RAHCO) are advised to design and employ Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) schemes i.e. concession contracts to invest more in rolling stocks, locomotives and rail wagons so that the rail transport service is available on many routes of the road public transport to bring fair competition between the two operators.

Reflection on Early Lessons for Urban Resilience and Public Health Enhancement during the COVID-19

With growing impacts on public health systems and economies across the world, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, we need to reflect on some of the early lessons for urban resilience enhancement. In this paper, a brief discussion is made through several recommendations that could make our cities more prepared specially in the probable future waves of this current outbreak or potential spikes in infections or clustered cases. The experiences from global examples highlighted in this study address what has worked in the past few months at the spatial levels of communities and cities. The COVID-19 outbreak highlighted the deficiencies and shortfall across multiple sectors of the urban systems and enabled us to identify risks, challenges, and pathways to better city management. With regard to urban resilience enhancement, the negative impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak are assessed to suggest a checklist of what could be done through early preparedness. The findings are novel in ongoing research related to urban resilience and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The early lessons here reflect on the ongoing situation of this pandemic outbreak, but could effectually help to enhance the resilience of our cities and communities, and especially addressing the protection of public health and societal well-being. The findings contribute to major sectors of urban resilience, city management, and public health. The recommendations from this study could be utilised and adapted in any context, allowing for the consideration of all-inclusive decision-making and much-enhanced planning processes.

Relationship between Urban Noise and the Health of Users of Public Spaces—A Case Study in Vitoria, ES, Brazil

Urban populations today are exposed to high levels of noise, which may cause discomfort and lead to health problems. Most of these noises are traffic-generated;therefore, this study focuses on evaluating the soundscapes of urban open spaces to determine its importance for the health of the citizen, since such spaces can function as noise attenuators. The methodology of this study involved a literature review, computer simulations and interviews with users of the aforementioned open spaces. The case study was conducted in an urban area in the city of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The results indicate that, in the period of this study, traffic noise dissipated through open spaces but noise levels still exceeded the maximum allowable levels established by regulations. Nevertheless, the population proved to be largely unaware of the noise. It should be pointed out that the areas under study are used predominantly as recreational spaces for health and wellbeing activities. The findings of this study may serve to underpin urban planning policies that encourage the inclusion of open spaces, especially in areas of high urban density where the transport system consists of motor vehicles, in order to help control urban noise.

Urban Public Spaces and Design of Historical and Cultural Buildings——Series II of Urban Public Space Design

This paper summarized concept and role of urban public space, highlighted its role in emotional exchange, cultural exchange, and business communication, and the significance of showing inside image of the city in terms of morality and residents' quality. Combining with design of historical and cultural buildings, the paper explored the forms of historical and cultural buildings in urban public spaces from the perspectives of administration square, religious square, cultural square and commercial street, so as to design "human-concerned" urban public spaces that meet human needs and reflect personality of the city.