Urban livability in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods: The experience of the German program “socially integrative city”

This paper asks how the livability of socially disadvantaged urban neighborhoods can be improved with the help of publicly funded area-based urban regeneration. It builds on the history of area-based regeneration policies in Germany aiming at upgrading and resolving urban problems at the neighborhood level. Its main argument is as follows. First, the fate of conventional physical upgrading policies focusing on the livability of deprived urban areas depends on the development environment. While successful upgrading sometimes makes inner-city neighborhoods so attractive that they run into a trend towards gentrification and displacement of the urban poor, the stabilization of less privileged areas cannot always be guaranteed. Second, alternative approaches are needed, linking limited physical upgrading with socially oriented policies, building on strategies like neighborhood management and empowerment. Third, they can make a substantial contribution to stabilizing deprived neighborhoods, thereby improving the general living conditions and the opportunities of the urban poor. However, they require at least some permanent intervention. Thus, they transcend the logic of area-based regeneration normally limited to restoring faith into the private real estate market and thereby directing inward investment into them that improves the quality of the physical environment. Fourth, they are hardly able to overcome significant negative stigmatization in cities that are severely hit by economic downturn and population decline. This is especially true when they act as arrival areas for consecutive waves of migrants, making it necessary to redefine the role of those areas in cities and accepting their high concentration of urban problems as a starting point for different area-based policies dealing with them. The key empirical background of the paper is the German system of urban development grants and an evaluation of the so-called program of “socially integrative city”.     

Simulation of interaction between high-temperature process and heat emission from electricity system in summer

During the hot summer season, using electricity systems increases the local anthropogenic heat emission, further increasing the temperature. Regarding anthropogenic heat sources, electric energy consumption, heat generation, indoor and outdoor heat transfer, and exchange in buildings play a critical role in the change in the urban thermal environment. Therefore, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model was applied in this study to investigate the heat generation from an indoor electricity system and its influence on the outdoor thermal environment. Through the building effect parameterization (BEP) of a multistorey urban canopy scheme, a building energy model (BEM) to increase the influence of indoor air conditioning on the electricity consumption system was proposed. In other words, the BEP+BEM urban canopy parameterization scheme was set. High temperatures and a summer heat wave were simulated as the background weather. The results show that using the BEP+BEM parameterization scheme of indoor and outdoor energy exchange in the WRF model can better simulate the air temperature near the surface layer on a sunny summer. During the day, the turning on the air conditioning and other electrical systems have no obvious effect on the air temperature near the surface layer in the city, whereas at night, the air temperature generally increases by 0.6 ℃, especially in densely populated areas, with a maximum temperature rise of approximately 1.2 ℃ from 22:00 to 23:00. When the indoor air conditioning target temperature is adjusted to 25–27 ℃, the total energy release of the air conditioning system is reduced by 12.66%, and the temperature drops the most from 13:00 to 16:00, with an average of approximately 1 ℃. Further, the denser the building is, the greater the temperature drop.     

长三角城市群节能减排效率及影响因素分析

使用夜间灯光数据估算了长三角城市群地区能源消耗量,通过数据包络分析、Tobit模型计算了节能减排效率与影响因素。研究结论表明:我国长三角城市群地区节能效率改进较小而减排效率提升较大,在诸多影响因素中固定资本投资率、产业结构与人口密度对节能减排效率有较大的促进作用;而第二产业集聚度目前影响方向为负,未来对节能减排效率的改进有一定的正向影响。     

Modes of making smart cities: Or,practices of variegated smart urbanism

The ‘actually existing’ smart city is not a monolith. It is not directed by a universal logic, nor does it develop in a standardised way. As recent research has argued, the spatial, material, and political contexts of cities have major influence over what smart urbanism looks like in practice. This paper adds analytical depth to, and broadens the geographical scope of, research on the variegated modes of making smart cities. Based on empirical research in multiple Australian cities we use three case studies to explore three different modes of smart urbanism, each one centred on the interests of a different key actor: corporate-centric, citizen-centric, and planner-centric. These different modes can, and do, co-exist in the same city. At times, they are competing logics that fight to pull the city in different directions. Yet, they can also work together to shape smart city initiatives. In describing these different modes, we pay particular attention to the ways that these projects and strategies must contend with the already existing spatial, cultural, and political contexts of each place.     

有机膜精确调控传质的新型溶析结晶及过程强化

溶析结晶是一种环保、高效的结晶方法，在温敏性、低溶解度物系的晶体生产领域具有不可替代的重要作用。但是，传统溶析结晶过程中溶液过饱和度的时空均一性差，传质调控为微米级尺度，容易爆发成核，是亟待解决的关键问题。本文提出利用聚醚砜（PES）中空纤维膜，为溶析剂与结晶溶液之间的传质提供均匀稳定的界面，实现结晶溶液与溶析剂的精确混合和结晶过程强化，开发了一种新型的溶析结晶传质调控技术。溶析剂在压力差驱动下均匀渗透通过有机膜，在结晶溶液一侧的膜外表面形成溶析剂液膜层，通过表面液膜的不断更新，将传统溶析结晶的毫米级宏观混合转变为亚微米级尺度的微观混合，实现过饱和度的均匀分布。同时，这层液膜的存在，避免了结晶溶液直接接触膜表面，有效地解决了异相成核附着导致膜污染的问题。实验中，对壳程流速做出周期性改变后，渗透通量可即时发生一致的线性响应变化，证实有机膜调控传质过程的精确性和灵敏性。PES膜重复使用多次后，渗透通量仍可以保持稳定。相比传统的滴加式溶析结晶，在相同的溶析剂传质速率下，有机膜调控过程制备的晶体产品，形貌更加规整、粒径分布更集中。因此，在溶析剂精确传质和抗污染方面，有机膜调控的溶析结晶过程均表现出良好的性能，为药物、大分子结晶的高效工业化制备开拓了新的思路。     

Cloud asset for urban flood control

The performance of physical assets has become a major determinant success factor for urban flood control. However, managing these assets is always challenging as there are a huge number of diverse assets involved, which are distributed throughout the city, and owned by different agencies. Aiming at improving the management efficiency of these assets, and ensuring their performance, this paper proposes the concept of cloud asset based on cloud computing, mobile agent, and various smart devices. Through hardware integration and software encapsulation, cloud asset could sense its real-time status, adapt to varied working scenarios, be controlled remotely, and shared among agencies. It enables accurate real-time control of every asset, and thus improves the management efficiency and effectiveness. This paper first presents the concept of cloud asset with its technical architecture, and then analyses the software agent model for cloud asset, which is the key enabler to realize UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) management of assets, and provides mobility and intelligence for them. After that, the framework of cloud asset-enabled workflow management is built, in which cloud asset could be easily found and dynamically invoked by different workflows. Finally, a demonstrative case is provided to verify the effectiveness of cloud asset.     

Predicting pollutant removal in constructed wetlands using artificial neural networks(ANNs)

Growth in urban population,urbanisation,and economic development has increased the demand for water,especially in water-scarce regions.Therefore,sustainable approaches to water management are needed to cope with the effects of the urbanisation on the water environment.This study aimed to design novel configurations of tidal-flow vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands(VFCWs) for treating urban stormwater.A series of laboratory experiments were conducted with semi-synthetic influent stormwater to examine the effects of the design and operation variables on the performance of the VFCWs and to identify optimal design and operational strategies,as well as maintenance requirements.The results show that the VFCWs can significantly reduce pollutants in urban stormwater,and that pollutant removal was related to specific VFCW designs.Models based on the artificial neural network(ANN) method were built using inputs derived from data exploratory techniques,such as analysis of variance(ANOVA) and principal component analysis(PCA).It was found that PCA reduced the dimensionality of input variables obtained from different experimental design conditions.The results show a satisfactory generalisation for predicting nitrogen and phosphorus removal with fewer variable inputs,indicating that monitoring costs and time can be reduced.     

浅谈农机报废更新工作开展的必要性

老旧农机具能耗高,尾气排放量大,对环境污染严重,在一定程度上影响了机具的规范使用和管理。文章对提升农机化发展水平,迫切需要开展农机报废更新工作指出其必要性,并提出了相关具体工作措施。     

Mining urban data (part A)

Modern cities are flooded with data. New information sources like public transport and wearable devices provide opportunities for novel applications that will improve citizens׳ quality of life. From a data science perspective, data emerging from smart cities give rise to a lot of challenges that constitute a new inter-disciplinary field of research. This article introduces the first part of a special issue on the topic ‘Mining Urban Data’ published in the journal Information Systems.     

The concept of smartness in cyber–physical systems and connection to urban environment

The next-generation systems are expected to be largely cyber–physical systems (CPSs) that autonomously control physical processes, through sensors and actuators typically in real-time feedback and cooperative control loops distributed among physical and cyber environments. The rapid technological advancements enhance the smartness of these CPSs, pushing their boundaries of performance and efficiency by embedding new information and communication technologies. However, to what extent CPSs should be smarter so that they do not compromise safety and security of safety critical systems? is an open research question. Towards this goal, the purpose of this study is to establish a grounded theory to analyse what makes these systems smart? and eventually, how to find a balance between smartness and safety risks? In this precinct, this article aims to develop a conceptual framework, define the dimensions and derive the characteristics that make CPSs smart. The proposed approach combines an automated informetric and systematic analysis of literature pertinent to the topic of smartness across anthropology, science, engineering and technology. The analysis of a case study building and the discussions presented herein support the connection between the existing understanding of CPSs and smartness offered by the building design approach in urban environment.