A new approach towards the sustainability of urban-rural integration:The development strategy for central villages in the Abbasiya District of Iraq using GIS techniques

The development of rural areas usually has a positive impact on the urban-rural integration. This study explores an innovative approach to stimulate rural development by proposing qualified villages as central villages that can provide basic urban services for their residents and residents of neighboring villages. This approach can contribute to overcoming the various problems that rural areas faced at the social, economic, and environmental levels. It seeks to achieve spatial sustainability of rural areas, representing a new approach by integrating urban development methods to revitalize rural villages. The study analyzed 15 villages belonging to Abbasiya District of AL Kufa City in the Najaf Governorate of Iraq. Based on the GIS techniques and the analysis of urban service indicators(village population, percentage of urban building materials used in villages, distance between village and health centers, distance between village and main roads, nature of economic activity, distance between village and educational institutions, distance between village and drinking water sources, number of communication towers, and distance between village and urban administrative center), this study proposed that Abu Gharb and Albu Ghraib can served as central villages in Abbasiya District in the future. This study establishes a new rural spatial structure to achieve rural sustainable development, improves the development status of rural areas, and provides a theoretical basis for the government and relevant institutions to use urban service indicators, achieving rural sustainable development and formulating relevant development policies in Abbasiya District.

Micro-reconstruction Strategies of Urban Villages in Small Towns from the Perspective of Policy Orientation:A Case Study of Zhuangqian Xiongjia Village,Fengcheng City

As China’s economy shifts from high-speed development to high-quality development,China’s urbanization also shifts from incremental expansion to stock optimization,providing a new direction for the transformation of urban villages.At present,the reconstruction work office of urban villages in small towns is mainly promoted based on government-led and villager main body in the initial exploration stage.From the perspective of policy orientation,to solve the main problems in urban villages in small towns,Zhuangqian Xiongjia Village,Fengcheng City was taken as an example,and the micro-transformation strategies of urban villages were put forward from the perspective of satisfying the appeals of the government,village committee and villagers,so as to provide some references for the transformation of urban villages in other small towns across the country.

Expansion Strategy of Agricultural Industrial Chain of Suburban Villages and Towns in the Process of Urbanization——A Case Study of Yongle Town in Nanming District of Guiyang City

On the basis of introducing the connotation of agricultural industrial chain, taking Yongle Town in Nanming District of Guiyang City as an example, this paper analyzes the advantages and constraint factors of the suburban villages and towns in the process of expanding agricultural industrial chain in the context of urbanization. Corresponding strategies of expanding the agricultural industrial chain of Yongle Town in the process of urbanization as follows: vigorously develop the leading enterprises; strengthen the construction of farmers' specialized cooperatives and agricultural associations; build and perfect agricultural industrial chain organizations; set up the public information platform; rely on the food industrial park to propel the deep processing of agricultural products; vigorously develop the logistics of agricultural products; promote the development of operation model of "brand+ standard+ scale"; vigorously develop ecology-oriented rural tourism; give full play to the functional role of the government.

Autonomous Vehicle Platoons In Urban Road Networks:A Joint Distributed Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control Approach

In this paper, platoons of autonomous vehicles operating in urban road networks are considered. From a methodological point of view, the problem of interest consists of formally characterizing vehicle state trajectory tubes by means of routing decisions complying with traffic congestion criteria. To this end, a novel distributed control architecture is conceived by taking advantage of two methodologies: deep reinforcement learning and model predictive control. On one hand, the routing decisions are obtained by using a distributed reinforcement learning algorithm that exploits available traffic data at each road junction. On the other hand, a bank of model predictive controllers is in charge of computing the more adequate control action for each involved vehicle. Such tasks are here combined into a single framework:the deep reinforcement learning output(action) is translated into a set-point to be tracked by the model predictive controller;conversely, the current vehicle position, resulting from the application of the control move, is exploited by the deep reinforcement learning unit for improving its reliability. The main novelty of the proposed solution lies in its hybrid nature: on one hand it fully exploits deep reinforcement learning capabilities for decisionmaking purposes;on the other hand, time-varying hard constraints are always satisfied during the dynamical platoon evolution imposed by the computed routing decisions. To efficiently evaluate the performance of the proposed control architecture, a co-design procedure, involving the SUMO and MATLAB platforms, is implemented so that complex operating environments can be used, and the information coming from road maps(links,junctions, obstacles, semaphores, etc.) and vehicle state trajectories can be shared and exchanged. Finally by considering as operating scenario a real entire city block and a platoon of eleven vehicles described by double-integrator models, several simulations have been performed with the aim to put in light the main f eatures of the proposed approach. Moreover, it is important to underline that in different operating scenarios the proposed reinforcement learning scheme is capable of significantly reducing traffic congestion phenomena when compared with well-reputed competitors.

Diversity and Application of Herbaceous Flowers in Urban Road Greening in Hefei City

In urban road greening,the planting of ground cover flowers is essential,and herbaceous flowers are an important part.Through the investigation on the diversity of herbaceous flowers in urban road green spaces of Hefei City,the types,colors,application frequency and planting of herbaceous flowers in urban road green spaces were statistically analyzed,and the application forms of herbaceous flowers in the road greening of Hefei City were studied.The characteristics and problems of herbaceous flowers in the road greening of Hefei City were found,and some development suggestions were put forward.

Building Height Trends and Their Influencing Factors under China’s Rapid Urbanization:A Case Study of Guangzhou,1960–2017

Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of three-dimensional urban forms,especially building height,can have important implications for improving urban air quality and mitigating the urban heat island effect by optimizing urban planning and management policies.This study investigated building height evolution and its influencing factors over approximately half a century(1960–2017)in Guangzhou,China.The results indicated that the logarithmic declines in height,quantity,and area of urban buildings followed Zapf’s law,which restricts the three-dimensional shape of the urban form.The urban building height decreased from the center to the periphery of the city and decreased with decreasing altitude and increasing distance from main roads.These characteristics constituted the three main spatial differentiation rules of building height in the central district of Guangzhou,and all exhibited a logarithmic decrease,which gradually strengthened over time.The development of a double-layered height structure of low-rise and high-rise buildings between 1990 and 2017 was a notable manifestation of the increase in vertical urban height over time.The three factors of city center,altitude,and accessibility,which represent centrality,low relief,proximity to water,and proximity to road networks,highlighted the roles of traffic accessibility and commercial attraction in building height evolution.The importance of location macroscopically depends on the combined effect of the geographical pattern,urban planning,and market forces of cities located on a plain near hill or by a river.The principle of profit orientation restricted spatiotemporal building height patterns.

Research on the Optimization of Public Spaces in Urban Villages Based on Space Syntax:A Case Study of Luochengtou Village in Handan City

This paper based on the theory of space syntax took Luochengtou Village in Handan City,Hebei Province for example,tried to figure out a proper way for the renewal of urban villages,and change the current dilemma of"one-size-fits-all"and"removing all"in most cases,and put forward that local conditions and regional characteristics must be considered to propose the renewal strategies more suitable for the targeted objects.Based on the space syntax Depthmap software and field investigation,the paper analyzed the accessibility,intelligibility and throughput of public spaces in Luochengtou Village,and put forward 3 optimization strategies in view of the problems such as insufficient public spaces,poor accessibility and intelligibility of roads,and poor activity of spaces,specifically,increasing public activity spaces,sorting out public space network,and creating active space nodes,so as to optimize public environment of the village,enhance villagers’sense of belonging,sense of safety and sense of identity.

Evolution of Living Space in Traditional Villages in the Pearl River Delta under the Influence of Urbanization:A Case Study of Xiaozhou Village in Guangzhou City

Traditional villages in the Pearl River Delta are known as "Lingnan water village".Urbanization affects the style of traditional villages in three ways.It also presents a positive side under the background of new urbanization.The living space of Xiaozhou Village has the unique characteristics of Lingnan water village.At the same time,it is obviously affected by urbanization.Industrialization and commercialization continue to promote the villagers to dismantle the old and build new ones until it becomes a village in the city.The evolution of the traditional living space is reflected in three aspects:being nibbled away or even disappeared,destroying the traditional style,function disappearance or transformation.In the later stage of urbanization,some living spaces have been repaired and updated.

Planning,Protection and Construction of Ancient Villages in Jiangxi under the Background of New Urbanization: Taking the Water Management System of Mingkou Village in Leping City,Jiangxi Province as an Example

Urbanization is an inevitable trend of economic development. It is an important indicator that reflects the industrialization and modernization of a country. In the long-term urbanization process in China, due to the excessive emphasis on the status of the city and one-sided emphasis on urban development, a serious of urban diseases such as population congestion and environmental damage have been caused. Meanwhile, neglected rural areas have exposed social problems such as aging and hollowing out, making the urban-rural dual structure more prominent. Currently, China s economic and social development has reached a new stage, and the realization of urban-rural integration is a major measure to comprehensively develop the national economy and social undertakings. Vigorously developing the rural areas and revitalizing the countryside has become a national policy. Traditional ancient villages are treasures in the vast rural areas. They should be more protected and developed to eliminate the urban-rural gap, thereby passing down and carrying forward the essence of traditional culture and enhancing China s national confidence and cultural confidence. Focusing on the protection and planning of ancient villages, combined with the current policy background of new urbanization, based on field research on Mingkou Village, Leping City, Jiangxi Province, protective development strategies are put forward for ancient villages and their water management from the perspective of water management in ancient villages to arouse people s attention to the protection of ancient villages.

Survival and Protection of Traditional Chinese Villages in the Context of Urbanization

The traditional village is the witness of farming civilization,but also the most important carrier of China's excellent traditional culture. However,in the process of high-speed urbanization,more and more traditional villages get gradually depressed and have problems of survival crisis. Fully exploring the value of traditional villages and protecting and activating them have attracted wide attention. This paper firstly introduced definition of traditional villages and analyzed the influence of urbanization on traditional Chinese villages. Then,it came up with recommendations for survival of Traditional Chinese villages in the context of urbanization from establishing the protection mechanism,raising the protection awareness,and strengthening dynamic inheritance,to provide some ideas and methods for protection and upgrade of traditional villages.

A Research to Village Combination and the Analysis of the Influences of Which Having on Social Economy During the Urbanization Process of Yantai City

With the rapid development of urbanization of our country, serious conflicts on land using appear. Village combination in rural areas is an important way to increase cultivated land, promote the development of urbanization and effectively solve conflicts on land using, which plays an significant role in solving agriculture problems, countryside problems and peasant problems, assuring foods safety and constructing social new countryside. Taking Yantai City as example, the paper firstly makes analyses on the necessaries and the feasibility of village combination. And then based on the mode GM (1,1) of grey theory, the paper forecasts the urbanization ratio, the proportion of urban and rural areas to the whole population and finally programs the rational scale of central villages and towns of Yantai City. At last, the paper conducts a detailed analysis on the social economic influence of village combination of Yantai City, pointing out that village combination affords carriers to farmers citizenization and it is beneficial to explore the new mode of rural urbanization, which is the engine of economic development in China.

The Development of the Deprived Urban and Rural Areas, Ingrained with the Tourist Attractions (with an Emphasis on the Silk Road)

Around the year 140 BC the Evo, the famous imperial Han Dynasty took power in China and then sent some representatives to the western land in order to communicate with the West in addition to know the political, military, geographical, economic and cultural situations of that region, it provides the basis for opening the way to the West. In this regard, they traveled to Iran and accordingly the formal relations were established between the Iranian and the Western governments and finally the Silk Road with a distance of about 8000 km has been emerged and started from the East and ended to Mediterranean Sea in the West. The aim of this study is to show that the Silk Road links throughout the world and its people together in thousands of years and the countries, cities and villages located in this road have been affected by developments or had affected and vivifying of it will lead to develop of the deprived urban and rural areas according to the abundant tourist attractions. This study which has used the historical and analytical method with practical purpose shows that cultural, scientific, religious and commercial exchanges between East and West were wide and many cities and villages were profiting of this gift. In this regard, vivifying of this road will lead to grow the underserved urban and rural areas according to many tourist attractions of the cities and villages.

An Evaluation of Measures Regarding Road Traffic against the Urban Heat Island in the Tokyo Ward Area, Japan

This study aims to evaluate measures against the Urban Heat Island (UHI) regarding artificial exhaust heat of road traffic using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the Tokyo Ward Area where the degree of UHI is particularly strong. We developed a GIS database that reflected road traffic conditions, and calculated the volume of artificial exhaust heat of road traffic to evaluate measures against the UHI. The findings of this study can be summarized in the following three points. 1) Artificial exhaust heat volume for moving targets was remarkably higher than that of stationary targets and, in particular, artificial exhaust heat volume was high on roads with remarkable numbers of vehicles and running speeds such as expressways and ring roads. 2) In UHI- related policy for moving targets, the suppression of waste heat through choice of fuel burned, improvement of traffic flow by securing space for cyclists and pedestrians, development of bypasses, and upgrading signal control managed to reduce artificial exhaust heat volume, even though there were differences in degree of reduction. 3) In UHI-related policy for stationary targets, special road surfaces and the increase in efficiency of energy consumption equipment achieved a reduction ratio of around 30% in artificial exhaust heat volume, more than moving targets as well as making it possible to expect a reduction in artificial exhaust heat volume on a wide scale.

Assessment of the Contribution of Road Runoffs to Surface Water Pollution in the New Juaben Municipality, Ghana

Road runoffs were sampled from five highways and five urban roads located in the New Juaben Municipality during the late storm events in the month of November 2014 and the early storm events in January 2015. A variety of water quality parameters such as, pH, temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity (EC), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), aqueous concentrations of Chloride (Cl-), Phosphate (), Nitrate () and Sulphate () ions as well as the total concentrations of some selected heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni and Cr) were analysed for both periods. Although the results for the studied parameters, particularly the heavy metals varied for both sampling periods, the general trend indicated an increase in accumulation from November 2014 to January 2015. This was attributed to vehicular deposition as well as other natural and anthropogenic depositions on the road surfaces during the antecedent dry weather period between the two sampling months. The highest increase in pollutant loadings was associated with the heavy metals and some physico-chemical parameters such as TSS, TDS, EC and turbidity. Generally, EC, TDS, TSS and turbidity were above the permissible limits of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana for both sampling periods. However, almost all the mean concentrations of heavy metals recorded for both road runoffs and the control samples were within the permissible limits of the Ghana EPA with some few exceptions.

The Transformation and Governance of Urban Villages with Historic Culture:A Case Study of Xiaxifang,Yongfeng County,Ji'an City,Jiangxi Province

The transformation and governance of urban villages with historic culture is faced with difficulties such as lack of attention and large-scale demolition and construction,which is not conducive to the continuation of urban characteristic culture.Taking Xiaxifang,Yongfeng County,Ji'an City,Jiangxi Province for example,this study explored the transformation and governance of urban villages with historic culture from the perspectives of spatial structure,urban function,infrastructure,ecological environment,and community governance,so as to provide a reference for the research and practice of urban villages with historic culture.

Research on Budding "Villages in Cities" during Urbanization Process in Lanzhou City of China——A Case Study of Chaijiahe Village,China

By introducing the theory of suburb urbanization,it was considered that budding villages in cities emerged with the close relation between city and suburb during rapid urbanization process.The paper had briefly analyzed development of villages in cities in China.By taking villages in Lanzhou City for example,it had studied geological location,appearance,spatial structure,economy and demographic feature of budding villages in cities.Furthermore,with Chaijiahe Village of Xiguoyuan Town as case study,empirical study had been conducted and development thought of Chaijiahe Village as budding village in city had been discussed.It emphasized that it should control the development scale of villages,economically and intensively utilize lands;develop industrialized high-efficiency agriculture and leisure agriculture,develop lily economy and explore the potential of characteristic industries;realize integration of urban and rural development;strive to develop education,improve villages' quality and cultivate villagers of new generation who possessed pioneering spirit and modern agriculture technology.On this basis,it summarized approaches to realize sustainable development of budding villages in cities.

The Landscape Design of Roads Afforestation of Jiangnan New District in Mudanjiang Municipality

Based on road characters in Jiangnan New District in Mudanjiang Municipality,four typical roads were selected to carry out road afforestation design with consideration of local building features and local vegetations,in order to integrate both of landscape effects,in terms of improving and beautifying city environment,and of ecological effects,such as filtering air,reducing temperature,increasing humidity,and reducing noise.

Study on the Design of Urban Sidewalk——A Case Study of the West Renmin Road in Changsha City of China

Contents of urban road landscapes were introduced from 3 perspectives of natural landscape elements,constructed landscape elements and historic landscape elements,and functions of urban road landscapes analyzed.Sidewalk of the West Renmin Road in Changsha City of Hunan Province was taken for example to elaborate design principles of urban sidewalk landscapes.It was proposed that urban cultures and local spirits have various connotations,such as historic traditions,environment background and neighboring objects,which are maintained in the memories of local residents in the form of historic relics,traditions,spirits,concepts and folk customs.These cultures and spirits are passed down from generation to generation and can be found in all corners of streets and lanes,but cannot be simply replaced by sculptures or garden settings.The fever of large-scale artificial sculpture in present construction of urban public spaces in China was criticized.

A GIS-based Spatial Analysis of Housing Price and Road Density in Proximity to Urban Lakes in Wuhan City, China

As one of the essential urban open spaces, lakes usually contribute immensely to the quality of residents′ daily lives. Different from hedonic approach employed in existing researches on urban open spaces in China, this paper integrates housing price surface with road density to analyze the spatial characteristics in proximity to urban lakes in Wuhan City, China. With the expansion of Wuhan City, urban lakes became polluted, they shrunk or even disappeared, leading to unfavorable conditions for sustainable development of the city. To better understand the spatial relationship between the city and lakes, we classify the urban lakes in Wuhan central area into ′lakes in the urban center′ and ′lakes in urban fringe′. Based on housing price surface we explore the spatial characteristics in proximity to different lakes and differences between the lakes. We also use Geographic Information System(GIS) tool to calculate road density as a supplementary indicator to reflect the accessibility in proximity to urban lakes. The results indicate that relative independence exists between different towns, and the spatial characteristics are different depending on scales and locations. In most of cases, the road density is lower where closer to the lakeshore while the housing price exhibits an opposite pattern. We conclude that city governments and urban planners should give more considerations to these spatial differences, somewhere should be better planned and protected as an important waterfront and somewhere the control of unreasonable real estate development nearby should be strengthened.

Cellular automation model for analyzing capacity of branch road section

In order to reduce the traffic pressure of urban arterial road with the rational utilization of the branch road,the vehicle meeting behavior on the branch road without divided lane was described,and the cellular automation (CA) model was put forward by introducing meeting behavior to reflect the relation between safe meeting speed and road width.The numerical simulation results depict several relation curves between road section capacity,speed and road width under different directional distributions of traffic flow,as well as the curves between the major and minor direction saturation flow,speed and road width.These relation characteristics indicate that except the one-way road section capacity and speed remaining unchanged,other road section capacities and speeds under different directional distributions increase with the increase of road width.On narrow road,the two-way traffic capacity and speed are less than those of one-way traffic;on wide road,the two-way traffic capacity doubles that of one-way traffic,but their speeds are almost the same.As the directional distribution moves to an even distribution of 50/50,the major direction saturation flows and speeds as well as the minor direction speeds tend to decease,while the minor direction saturation flow tends to increase.