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.

Implications of Dynamic Interactions between Meteorological Patterns and Surface Water Quality on Environmental Health—A Case Study of the Nairobi River

Urban areas face significant challenges in maintaining water quality amidst increasing urbanization and changing climatic patterns. This study investigates the complex interplay between meteorological variables and water quality parameters in Nairobi City, focusing on the impacts of rainfall and temperature on surface water quality. Data from multiple sources, including the Water Resources Authority, Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, and the World Bank’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal, were analyzed to assess the relationships between meteorological variables (rainfall and temperature) and water quality parameters (such as electroconductivity, biochemical oxygen demand, chloride, and pH). The analysis reveals varying impacts of rainfall and temperature on different water quality parameters. While parameters like iron and pH show strong relationships with both rainfall and temperature, others such as ammonia and nitrate exhibit moderate relationships. Additionally, the study highlights the influence of runoff, urbanization, and industrial activities on water quality, emphasizing the need for holistic management approaches. Recommendations encompass the establishment of annual publications on Nairobi River water quality, online accessibility of water quality data, development of hydrological models, spatial analysis, and fostering cross-disciplinary research collaborations. Implementing these recommendations can enhance water quality management practices, mitigate risks, and safeguard environmental integrity in Nairobi City.

Monitoring Study of Long-Term Land Subsidence during Subway Operation in High-Density Urban Areas Based on DInSAR-GPS-GIS Technology and Numerical Simulation

During subway operation,various factors will cause long-term land subsidence,such as the vibration subsidence of foundation soil caused by train vibration load,incomplete consolidation deformation of foundation soil during tunnel construction,dense buildings and structures in the vicinity of the tunnel,and changes in water level in the stratum where the tunnel is located.The monitoring of long-term land subsidence during subway operation in high-density urban areas differs from that in low-density urban construction areas.The former is the gathering point of the entire urban population.There are many complex buildings around the project,busy road traffic,high pedestrian flow,and less vegetation cover.Several existing items requiremonitoring.However,monitoring distance is long,and providing early warning is difficult.This study uses the 2.8 km operation line between Wulin Square station and Ding’an Road station of Hangzhou Subway Line 1 as an example to propose the integrated method of DInSAR-GPS-GIS technology and the key algorithm for long-term land subsidence deformation.Then,it selects multiscene image data to analyze long-termland subsidence of high-density urban areas during subway operation.Results show that long-term land subsidence caused by the operation of Wulin Square station to Ding’an Road station of Hangzhou Subway Line 1 is small,with maximumsubsidence of 30.64 mm,and minimumsubsidence of 11.45 mm,and average subsidence ranging from 19.27 to 21.33 mm.And FLAC3D software was used to verify the monitoring situation,using the geological conditions of the soil in the study area and the tunnel profile to simulate the settlement under vehicle load,and the simulation results tended to be consistent with the monitoring situation.

Changes in the growth of Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris L.)stands in an urban environment in European Russia since 1862

A century and a half ago,in the European part of Russia(Moscow),forest scientists established the first long-term observations of forests,many of which are under observation to the present day.In the twentieth century,climate changes and,due to industrial development,forest areas were under air pollution.Based on observations from 157 sites,this study shows that the growth and density of Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris L.)have decreased by the end of the twentieth century.The environment has changed,and the growth and development of plantations has slowed.Pine yields(-34%stand volume)and their life expectancy(on average 50 years)have decreased.These changes are critical for forestry and for the management of forests in urban centers.Due to the decline in growth,ecosystem functions by urban forests has decreased.In order to increase the sustainability of urban forests and the provision of ecosystem services,it is preferable to create multi-species stands with a complex structure.

Retrieval and Regional Distribution Analysis of Ammonia,Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide in the Urban Environment Using Ultraviolet DOAS Algorithm

Aiming at the in situ and mobile observation of urban environmental air pollution,a portable instrument using ultraviolet spectrum retrieval algorithm was developed based on the basis of Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy(DOAS)and multiple-pass cell technique.Typical trace gas pollutants,NH3,SO2,and NO2,were explored using their optical spectral characteristics in deep ultraviolet wavelength range from 210 to 215 nm.The gas concentration was retrieved by Lambert-Beer’s law and nonlinear least square method.With an optimized optical alignment,the detection limits of NH3,SO2,NO2 were estimated to be 2.2,2.3,and 36.2 ppb,respectively.The system was used in carrying out some cruise observations in Chengdu,China.During the entire period,the polluted gases showed varied distribution and typical daily average concentrations ofNH3,SO2,NO2 were 23.2,3.5,and 106.0 ppb,respectively.The contributions from different sources were analyzed combined with the HYSPLIT model.Results show that the portable DOAS system is a convenient and effective tool for regional distribution measurement and pollution source monitoring.

Novel algorithm for detection and identification of radioactive materials in an urban environment

This study introduces a novel algorithm to detect and identify radioactive materials in urban settings using time-series detector response data. To address the challenges posed by varying backgrounds and to enhance the quality and reliability of the energy spectrum data, we devised a temporal energy window. This partitioned the time-series detector response data, resulting in energy spectra that emphasize the vital information pertaining to radioactive materials. We then extracted characteristic features of these energy spectra, relying on the formation mechanism and measurement principles of the gammaray instrument spectrum. These features encompassed aggregated counts, peak-to-flat ratios, and peak-to-peak ratios. This methodology not only simplified the interpretation of the energy spectra's physical significance but also eliminated the necessity for peak searching and individual peak analyses. Given the requirements of imbalanced multi-classification, we created a detection and identification model using a weighted k-nearest neighbors(KNN) framework. This model recognized that energy spectra of identical radioactive materials exhibit minimal inter-class similarity. Consequently, it considerably boosted the classification accuracy of minority classes, enhancing the classifier's overall efficacy. We also executed a series of comparative experiments. Established methods for radionuclide identification classification, such as standard KNN, support vector machine, Bayesian network, and random tree, were used for comparison purposes. Our proposed algorithm realized an F1 measure of 0.9868 on the time-series detector response data, reflecting a minimum enhancement of 0.3% in comparison with other techniques. The results conclusively show that our algorithm outperforms others when applied to time-series detector response data in urban contexts.

The Multi-Scale Numerical Modeling System for Research on the Relationship between Urban Planning and Meteorological Environment

Considering the urban characteristics, a customized multi-scale numerical modeling system is established to simulate the urban meteorological environment. The system mainly involves three spatial scales: the urban scale, urban sub-domain scale, and single to few buildings scale. In it, different underlying surface types are employed, the building drag factor is used to replace its roughness in the influence on the urban wind field, the effects of building distribution, azimuth and screening of shortwave radiation are added, and the influence of anthropogenic heating is also taken into account. All the numerical tests indicate that the simulated results are reasonably in agreement with the observational data, so the system can be used to simulate the urban meteorological environment. Making use of it, the characteristics of the meteorological environment from the urban to urban sub-domain scales, even the among-buildings scale, can be recognized. As long as the urban planning scheme is given, the corresponding simulated results can be obtained so as to meet the need of optimizing urban planning.

The comprehensive evaluation of China＇s urbanization and effects on resources and environment

This paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for the urbanization level in China in terms of four aspects of urbanization connotation： population, economy, society, and land. A comprehensive measurement is carried out for the Chinese urbanization between 1981 and 2006 based on the Entropy method. The results show that the comprehensive level of urbanization in China has a continuous increase with the major features of economic growth and a rapid evolution of the geographical landscape, followed by population urbanization and then social urbanization of health care standard; the distinguished evolutional characteristics can also be found in each of the subsystems. The integrated evolution of urbanization has a profound effect on the resources, energy and the environment, making the land resources and energy security situation under severe pressure. The environment pressure is also increased further.

A STUDY ON THE FORECAST AND REGULATION OF COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY IN GUANGZHOU

This article introduces the concepts of coordinated development of economy and environment and formulas of coordinated degree. Results obtained are that the coordinated degree in 1992 is over 0.87.The variation tendencies on coordinated development of urb

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Channel Characterization in Urban Environment at 28 GHz

Both ultra-reliable low latency and high-data-rate communications are required by connective vehicles. Millimeter wave(mm Wave) with large bandwidth is a key technology to support high-data-rate communications. In this paper, the 28 GHz wideband vehicle-to-infrastructure channel is characterized for the urban environment in a major street in Manhattan. The deployment of the transmitter and the receiver, as well as the traffic models, are selected by considering the recommendation by 3GPP TR 37.885. Ray tracing simulator with calibrated electromagnetic parameters is employed in this work to practically conduct intensive simulations. The 3D environment model is reconstructed from OpenStreetMap. The power delay profile, path loss, root-meansquare delay spread, K-factor and so on, are extracted from the calibrated simulation results. The evolution of the parameters, as well as their statistical properties, are analyzed and modeled. The work of this paper helps the researchers understand the propagation channel for designing mmWave technologies and communication system in a similar scenario.

Urban Green Spaces and an Integrative Approach to Sustainable Environment

This paper explains the benefits and challenges of urban green spaces based on the critical discussion of study results from different studies in different cities. The important roles played by green spaces are social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Urban green spaces can be a comprehensive tool for long term protection of environmental sustainability through improving the quality of life and air quality, increasing property value due to their amenity and aesthetic characteristics, and reducing the energy costs of cooling buildings. Urban green spaces also can provide ecosystem services in which the recreation and relaxation facilities are especially available to urban dwellers and tourists too. To confirm the multiple roles played by green spaces, certain level of qualitative improvements and distribution of green spaces within the urban area should be considered and incorporated effectively into the environmental sustainability agenda. To do this, an integrated approach regarding the planning, monitoring, designing and maintaining of urban green spaces is required for improving the environmental sustainability in cities in different countries.

Impacts of Urban Expansion on the Urban Thermal Environment:A Case Study of Changchun,China

Urbanization,especially urban land expansion,has a profound influence on the urban thermal environment.Cities in Northeast China face remarkably uneven development and environmental issues,and thus it is necessary to strengthen the diagnosis of thermal environmental pressure brought by urbanization.In this study,multi remote sensing imageries and statistical approaches,involving piecewise linear regression(PLR),were used to explore urban expansion and its effects on the thermal environment of Changchun City in Jilin Province,China.Results show that Changchun experienced rapid urban expansion from 2000 to 2020,with urban built-up areas increasing from 171.77 to 525.14 km^(2).The area of the city’s urban heat island(UHI)increased dramatically,during both day and night.Using PLR,a positive linear correlation of built-up density with land surface temperature(LST)was detected,with critical breakpoints of 70%-80%during the daytime and 40%-50%at nighttime.Above the thresholds,the magnitude of LST in response to built-up density significantly increased with intensifying urbanization,especially for nighttime LST.An analysis of the relative frequency distributions(RFDs)of LST reveals that rapid urbanization resulted in a significant increase of mean LST in newly urbanized areas,but had weak effects on daytime LST change in existing urban area.Urban expansion also contributed to a constant decrease of spatial heterogeneity of LST in existing urban area,especially at daytime.However,in newly urbanized areas,the spatial heterogeneity of LST was decreased during the daytime but increased at nighttime due to urbanization.

Controlled Environment Agriculture and Its Ability to Mitigate Food Insecurity

The research objective of this review is to discuss the rationale that led to the development of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and investigate this agricultural approach as a potential solution to mitigate the increased pressures on food security. It describes the need for urban cultivation systems using controlled environments and how they can be harnessed to address pressures facing food security. The factors that have contributed to the growth of CEAs, education, environmental justice, and the advantages and disadvantages of growing crops in CEAs in urban areas will be discussed. The article reviews global urban cultivation systems using controlled environments, by identifying the technologies needed to establish them. The practice of CEA is being increasingly adopted worldwide and we describe urban agriculture and compare it with traditional growing systems. Indoor farming systems that integrate into existing urban infrastructure such as vertical farming and plant factories using CEAs are discussed. Indoor farming gives urban areas enhanced access to food sources, but the cost is high, however decreasing due to recent technological advances. The current review extends the literature by incorporating recent research on the topic of agriculture in urban areas and food security. This review seeks to provide additional information regarding the viability of CEA in urban areas.

Test and Analysis of Indoor Thermal Environment of Urban Heating Residential Building in Hanzhong Area

By testing indoor and outdoor thermal environment of residential buildings that apply 4 mostused heating ways in Hantai District,Hanzhong City,this paper explored the indoor thermal environment conditions of different heating ways,to provide references for choosing a suitable heating way in the local area.

Elaborating Spatiotemporal Associations Between the Built Environment and Urban Vibrancy:A Case of Guangzhou City,China

This study applies multi-source datasets(i.e.,Baidu Heat Map data,points of interest(POIs)data,and floor area and land use data)and geographically and temporally weighted regression(GTWR)models to elaborate the spatiotemporal relationships between the built environment and urban vibrancy on both weekdays and weekends,using Guangzhou City as a case.First,we verified the spatially and temporally nonstationary nature of the built environment correlates,which have been largely ignored in previous studies based on local regression techniques.The spatially and temporally heterogeneous effects of the built environment on urban vibrancy are then presented and visualized,based on the GTWR results.We found that the elasticity of location(i.e.,distance),land use mix(i.e.,diversity),building intensity and numbers of POIs with various functions(i.e.,density)are different across time(2-h intervals within a day)and space(grids),due to people’s everyday lifestyle,time-space constraints,and geographical context(e.g.,spatial structure).The findings highlight the importance of a better understanding of the local geography on the spatiotemporal relationships for urban planners and local governments so as to put forward decision-making support for fostering and maintaining urban vibrancy.

An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Urbanization and Changes in Resources and Environment

The expansion of urban scale is the inevitable outcome during urbanization,and it has exacerbated the contradiction between urbanization,and resources and environment. Based on the environmental indicator data related to the urbanization of Chongqing Municipality during the period 2000- 2012,this article uses regression analysis and ARIMA forecasting model to study the impact of rapid urbanization on the resources and environment. It is found that urbanization is significantly and positively correlated with the built-up area,the annual electricity consumption,domestic waste water discharge amount,and industrial waste gas emission,but significantly and negatively correlated with the industrial solid waste discharge amount; before 2020,along with the improvement of the level of urbanization in Chongqing,the degree of deterioration of the environment and resources will be further increased; after 2020,urbanization and ecological environment will be in a new round of balance,and the resources and environment will be improved.

Analysis of Urban Land Use and Its Effects on Air Environment in Chengdu, Western China from 1992 to 2008

Large-scale development of urban land use has led to change of a variety of natural processes and ecological processes, resulting in complex eco-environmental consequences. The objective of this study was to analyze the urban land use and its impact on air environment effect in Chengdu, western China from 1992 to 2008 following the RS (Remote Sensing) and GIS technique. The environmental effects data of urban land use was extracted and analyzed by overlaying layers of urban land use and the density of nitrogen dioxide and total suspended particulate matter in sampling points data concerning to the air quality of the environment in Chengdu based on GIS spatial analysis method. The results show that the main feature of urban land use change was substantial reduction of cultivated land and construction land and forest land increased significantly within the study area from1992 to 2008. The temporal-spatial change was notable in study period time. Land use has a significant impact on urban air environment, the chroma change of nitrogen dioxide derived from forest land was obvious, the area occupied by different nitrogen dioxide chroma was the largest. The urban land use impact on the highest class chroma of total suspended particulate matter was notable and its area was the greatest. The results show also the spatial distribution of nitrogen dioxide chroma and total suspended particulate matter chroma in study area is reduced following from Qingbaijiang District-Xindu District-downtown to both sides. The spatial distribution of industry, mining and traffic land is basically the same chroma spatial distribution. Therefore, the results of this study provide a scientific basis for improvement air environment quality, the urban sustainable development and a scientific response for decisions from the municipal governments.

Geological Environmental Adaptability of Qingdao Rural Urbanization Based on Fuzzy Mathematical Method

Fuzzy mathematics comprehensive evaluation method is used to evaluate the geological environment suitability of rural urbanization in Qingdao City,China.A total of 5 first-level evaluation factors are selected,including environmental geological condition,geological resources,engineering geological condition,geological disaster and environmental geological problem,and human engineering activity.And there are 27 second-level evaluation factors,such as topography,land type and vegetation,nature reserve,water source protection area,groundwater quality division,and major engineering project.Qingdao City is divided into four districts of suitable area,relatively suitable area,moderately suitable area and relatively unsuitable area of ecological environment.And their characteristics are introduced.Suggestions for the developing direction of urban construction are put forward.Region of Laoshan District lying to the west of the Shilaoren is suitable to set up high-rise building;west Hongshiya may establish a waste landfill site;Jiaozhou Bay,the downstream of Dagu River,and Jihongtan Reservoir should be built as the key geological environment protection area and water source protection area.And the north Hongdao should be strictly monitored in order to control the expansion of urban construction to Jihongtan Reservoir.Mocheng District and the area north of it,Jiaozhou District and the area east of it are the ideal urban construction development areas in Qingdao City in the future.

Urban Market-Gardening in Parakou (Republic of Benin): Spatial Dynamics, Food Security, Protection of the Environment and Creation of Employments

Nowadays, African cities are subjected to upsets which result from the extraordinary growth of urban populations. The growth of the population of cities has induced some changes in the structure of the activity of those cities. Agriculture which was formerly confined to the countryside henceforth develops in the urban area and occupies a preponderant place as a strategy of survival, of insertion and of food supplying of the city-dwellers. It has become an activity integrated to the urban tissue through systems of occupying and exploitation of land in the urban area. Population growth (4.81%) between 2002 and 2013 is a critical poverty rate (65%) of the population of Parakou city, entailing a misery perceptible in all its social and economic dimensions. The market-gardening activity has integrated itself to the urban tissue. The objective of this study is to understand how urban agriculture through market-gardening can be a solution for rural farmers who have moved to Parakou city. In this study, documentary research, interviews and field observation are used for data collection. The main results to be signaled among others are: evolution and status of the market-gardening areas in Parakou, the reduction of food insecurity with the permanent availability in quantity and in quality of market-gardening products accessible to the population: the protection of the environment through the drainage of the urban area and the preservation of the diversity of vegetables;the increase of the income of the households of the farmers and the creation of employments.

Exploring harmonious development between urbanization and eco-environment based on climate analysis—A study in Changsha, China

The process of urbanization affects the urban warming.The change of urban warming was investigated by several urbanization factors in Changsha,China.The data of surface temperature(minimum,maximum and mean) of Changsha were analyzed to understand the possible effects of urbanization on the climate of this region owing to the population growth,built-up area expansion and energy consumption increases.The weights of these three factors were calculated by the analytical hierarchy process(AHP).Then,three weights were simulated with nonlinear method to obtain the urbanization development rate which was utilized to reveal the influence of the urbanization factors on the surface temperature.The result shows that there is a significant upward trend in the urban temperatures of Changsha.The temperature increase seems to be closely related to the rate of urbanization between 1993 and 2008,and there is an evidential increase trend of the influence on urban temperature by urbanization during 16 years.It is a quantifiable approach measuring the relationship between urbanization and urban eco-environment,and can be applied for the urban sustainability.