Landscape fragmentation and urban sprawl in the urban region of Milan

Spatial expansion of cities appears to be unavoidable. Despite concern around landscape alterations caused by urban expansion, the understanding of the amounts and patterns of this phenomenon is sorely lacking. In this study, we quantified the current pattern of landscape fragmentation in the urban region (UR) of Milan and analysed the trend of urban sprawl over more than 50 years. The UR of Milan was spatially defined using a standardised and repeatable methodology that combines land-use and population density data. Fragmentation was assessed using the effective mesh size (m_eff). The trend of sprawl was monitored between 1954 and 2012 and over different areas to detect the magnitude (amount and direction) and patterns of changes. Results revealed a positive trend and a high degree of sprawl over the whole study area.     

Measuring the benefits of urban improvements

This paper analyzes the benefits that arise from urban improvements such as changes in the transportation system or air quality. In general, two types of benefits occur: the direct or user benefits of the improvement and the secondary benefits of changes in land values and housing prices. Following the work of Mohring it has been widely held that the change in housing prices would be equal to and therefore offset the change in land values. Here it is shown that this result is true only if there are fixed coefficients in the production of housing and an inelastic demand for housing. An urban model without these restrictive assumptions is constructed to show that these secondary effects are not offsetting and cannot be ignored.     

Assessing the benefits of reclaiming urban quarries: a CVM analysis

Rehabilitation of abandoned quarry sites could alleviate the effects of environmental dereliction and could meet the social demand for improvement of the quality of life in urban centers. Nevertheless, reclamation benefits are often overlooked in assessment procedures, since they are hard to estimate, at least in monetary terms. This paper examines the economic value of rehabilitation works, using an environmental economics framework. The survey is based on the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), using as a case study an abandoned quarry site in the center of Athens, Greece. According to the estimates, recreation of the mined area produces an important economic value, which is associated with residents’ preferences. The results provide quantitative information that may be used in a beneficial way to justify environmental policy and to provide additional Government funding towards environmental treatment of derelict land.     

Feeding the global city: urban transformation and urban food supply chain in 21st-century Istanbul

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the effects of urban transformation on the urban food supply chain in 21st century Istanbul. The article begins with a discussion on the particularities of the urban transformation that has shaped the city since the 1980s, emphasizing tendencies that are relevant to food consumption and supply patterns and practices. Next, 6 categories of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFVs), provisioning agents (mixed/foreign-capital supermarkets, domestic-capital supermarkets, bazaars, local suppliers, and urban and semi-urban/peripheral farmers, internet or store-based alternative food networks) are analyzed in terms of their perception of urban transformation and various challenges it poses. The article concludes with an assessment of the changes in the city’s food supply chain in light of provisioning agents’ responses to the urban transformation as a force that either enables them compete more successfully and expand their operations or pushes them to contract or even leave the provisioning sector completely.     

The pursuit of greenness: explaining low-carbon urban transformation in Indonesia

Despite the limited efforts of Indonesian cities and urban areas to overcome high production of greenhouse gas emissions, Balikpapan and Palembang are two cities that have demonstrated intriguing efforts to reduce such emissions. This paper aims to add to the scientific literature regarding the recent progress of low-carbon transformation in developing countries. The paper identifies the drivers of low-carbon planning and development and the extent to which such drivers can influence the success of low-carbon agendas. Four perspectives of analysis are adopted and tested using Balikpapan and Palembang as study cases: (1) public policy, (2) collaboration, (3) infrastructure and (4) knowledge creation and utilization. This study offers critical discussion regarding the adoption of the four perspectives as an integrated analysis to explain the complexity of low-carbon urban transformation.     

低碳时代生态导向的城市规划变革

针对低碳时代背景下生态导向的城市规划变革展开讨论,进而提出几点有效的城市规划变革途径,希望可以让生态文明的建设理念彻底融入到城市规划与发展进程中,构建城市规划绿色格局,树立生态导向的城市规划变革思路,提升城市规划编制水平,由第三方机构来落实城市规划具体方案,加强城市规划自然生态体系建设,从而实现区域经济和自然环境的协调发展。     

可持续发展指向下的城中村改造

针对市场化的改造方式容易忽略城中村的存在所承担着的良性社会功能,不利于延续城中村原有和谐的混合居住形态,提出以可持续发展为指向的城中村改造思路,旨在重视城中村社会功能的可持续性,为城市发展过渡期提供与之适应的复合空间形态。     

Rethinking urban transformation: Temporary uses for vacant land

As some cities grapple with economic decline and depopulating neighborhoods, a number of academics and professionals have focused their attention on the causes, conditions and patterns of the resultant vacant land, whereas others lay out broad programmatic, institutional, fiscal and design responses to address vacancy on site or citywide scales. We find that, regardless of condition and context, most responses advocate complex, officially sanctioned, formal programs and policies that call for or depend on implementation over several multi-year phases. While laudable in scope, we question whether “permanent” solutions are appropriate given the widely varying causes, durations, contexts and patterns of vacancy and the inability of similarly scoped government-led programs to thus far achieve intended goals or improve local quality of life. We present examples that make the case for temporary, incremental, flexible and experimental responses to urban vacant land, then conclude by outlining the potential benefits and drawbacks of this temporary use model.     

Thermal comfort in urban spaces: impact of vegetation growth: Case study: Piazza della Scienza,Milan, Italy

This paper reports on a study on the evolutionary impact of vegetation in a newly built square in Milan designed by V. Gregotti. The aim of the work is to evaluate the impact of vegetation growth on users’ comfort. The methodology adopted involves: sets of field measures (air and radiant temperature, wind velocity and relative humidity); a simplified thermal comfort evaluation with the energy budget method COMFA; and a scenario for the vegetation growth. When trees become adult we can observe different phenomena. The shading effect under an aged tree canopy clearly shows a reduction of the absorbed radiation by users, generating an energy budget very close to comfort (under 50 W/m²) even with a high air temperature. In the case of points exposed to direct sunlight all day long, tree growth reveals two phenomena of the global radiation absorbed by a user: (1) reduction, by the tree screening effect, of absorption of the diffuse solar global radiation, and (2) increase, by the elevation of the objects viewed in the sky hemisphere, in absorption of the terrestrial radiation.     

转型发展背景下的城市规划原理课程教学改革

在当前科学发展、城乡统筹的城市化进程下,传统的城市规划教育面临革新的要求。城市规划原理作为专业理论的核心课程,内容扩展迅猛,知识难度增大,传统的教学存在教学力量偏弱、课程研讨不够、研究性和前沿性不足等问题。为符合精品课程的建设要求,教学改革运用了改革课程结构框架,调整教学目标与内容,建设跨学科教学团队,探索教学与科研实践环节的结合,接轨国际先进教学理念等举措。文章提出,在后续的改革中应协调与其他课程关系,推进协同式教学;针对转型时期特征,加强研讨式教学;结合双语课程实际,倡导参与式教学。     

E-urbanism: E-commerce,migration, and the transformation of Taobao villages in urban China

The development of information and communications technology (ICT) has promoted the rapid growth of e-commerce, which has gradually changed the city. Networking and migration are also key driving forces for contemporary urban development. Although a growing body of literature has studied e-commerce development, there is a lack of theoretical and empirical research to understand the impact of e-commerce and migration on urbanism. This study is an attempt to fill the gap. It firstly proposes a concept framework of E-urbanism that includes three interwoven layers, namely of ICT infrastructure and production networks, social networks and power relations, and urban form and land use. The framework is then applied to understand the influence of e-commerce and migration on the socio-spatial transformation of Taobao villages in Guangzhou city, China. This article concludes that ICT infrastructure and production networks form the foundation of e-commerce development, while social networks of rural migrants are important sources of social capital in the formation of Taobao villages. The existing physical forms provide opportunities for e-commerce growth, which has in turn reshaped them. E-commerce is fundamentally revolutionizing urbanism, the intertwinement of social and spatial reorganization of the city.     

2016，中国城市转型

中国,坐拥东方自然山水,绵延千年华夏文明。《六经》有云,“礼,天地之序也。”自周礼肇始中国传统城市营建礼制以来,城市规划即成为构建文化秩序、社会秩序、政治秩序以及空间秩序的重要工具。无论是秦汉时期的宏大王城营建,还是唐宋以来的婉约园林叠置,无不渗透着对宇宙天地、山水人文的秩序象征。     

Novel urban water systems in Germany: governance structures to encourage transformation

Abstract

Novel technologies and concepts for urban water systems regarding the supply of different types of water, the separation of wastewater streams and the use of wastewater as a resource already exist, but for the most part have only been implemented in Germany in pilot projects. Limitations in the ability of governance structures to adapt might be one reason for the stagnation in their implementation. This hypothesis was investigated by means of literature analysis, expert interviews and stakeholder workshops. Obstacles to innovation were identified along with activities and measures that encourage implementation. In particular, institutional barriers and the difficulties institutions have in adapting represented key constraints. Thus routes to institutional innovation and new institutional arrangements among key players were identified and optimised. All in all, specific measures leading to cooperative management have the potential to support the necessary restructuring of institutional arrangements and pave the way for transformation.     

空中的滑翔——意大利Bastard旗舰店

Comvert S.r.l.公司由4个滑板玩家于1994年在米兰创建，公司生产和销售Bastard品牌的滑雪、滑板服装并经销电器。随着公司的业务发展，他们需要一个更能彰显品牌性格的空间来作为总部兼旗舰店，于是，他们委托意大利设计事务所studiometrico寻找合适的新处所，并希望那里有宽敞的空间，包括一个Bastard旗舰店、行政部、设计部、产品仓库和一个碗形溜滑板场。     

谈城市历史街区改造更新中的文化流失问题

结合河北省邯郸市串城街城市更新中文化传承的保护现状,从梳理历史脉络、塑造场所精神、规划空间形态、活化街区空间等方面,探寻了历史街区改造过程中避免文化流失的途径与方法,以平衡商业开发与历史文化保护之间的关系。     

城区平房节能改造施工的可行性研究

在北京市西城平房保温示范性工程基础上,运用定性和定量的数据分析方法,探讨了平房房屋保温改造的技术可行性和经济适用性,促进了城市平房节能改造工程的快速发展。     

北京友谊宾馆贵宾楼米兰咖啡厅改造

本案以直线为总体的造型手段，整体和局部配饰形成简与繁、大与小的对比，不仅具有现代感，而且还洋溢着我国传统艺术的清新、儒雅、温馨的气质。     

Maximising the benefits of rainwater harvesting technology towards sustainability in urban areas of South Africa: a case study

ABSTRACT

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) technology has been in use for a long time, however its contribution towards urban water supply has been negligible in South Africa. Through a comprehensive literature review and analysis of interviews with key stakeholders, this case study presents implementation challenges and policy gaps in relation to the scale of adoption in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ). Findings show that only 0.1% of CoJ’s population utilises RWH due to various reasons, varying from financial viability, reliability, quality concerns, and system maintenance. This paper attributes these to the scale of adoption and suggests upscaling the system to larger commercial buildings to optimise benefits. However, there is an urgent need to bridge the policy gaps for successful implementation. Three categories of policy reforms are therefore proposed to facilitate innovation uptake, stakeholder engagement and compliance. This knowledge can guide future research towards urban water management, scientists and policymakers nexus.