Tensile stress–crack width law for steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete obtained from indirect (splitting) tensile tests

In this work, mode I fracture parameters of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) were derived from the numerical simulation of indirect splitting tensile tests. The combined experimental and numerical research allowed a comparison between the stress–crack width (σ–w) relationship acquired straightforwardly from direct tensile tests, and the σ–w response derived from inverse analysis of the splitting tensile tests results. For this purpose a comprehensive nonlinear 3D finite element (FE) modeling strategy was developed. A comparison between the experimental results obtained from splitting tensile tests and the corresponding FE simulations confirmed the good accuracy of the proposed strategy to derive the σ–w law for these composites. It is concluded that the post-cracking tensile laws obtained from inverse analysis provided a close relationship with the ones obtained from the experimental uniaxial tensile tests.     

Judicial review in the New Zealand planning system: 1926–1977

This paper explores the development of the planning appeal system in New Zealand in the period from 1926 to 1977 under the first two town planning acts, in particular focusing on the judicial aspects of that process. Drawing on archival and oral history sources it traces the development of the system from one of an expert panel to an appeal board which functioned as a tribunal and increasingly blended town planning and legal considerations. It was also a system that ran on the proverbial shoestring while at the same time developing an appeals system and a cannon of decisions that influenced the development of town planning in New Zealand.     

‘Why Can’t the Future be More Like the Past?’ Planning History Track,Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), Annual Congress,Department of Civic Design,University of Liverpool, 15–18 July 2009

AESOP’s 2009 Congress was hosted by the University of Liverpool as part of the centenary celebration of its Department of Civic Design, the world’s oldest university planning school. ‘Why Can’t the Future be More Like the Past?’ was the conference title on all the banners and conference bags – an oddly querulous question, nevertheless it did the trick in getting participants to think historically throughout AESOP 2009. Michael Hebbert and Dirk Schubert ran a planning history track for six of the conference’s seven parallel session slots. Their call for papers elicited 30 abstracts which reduced to 17 papers, a comfortable quantity allowing good time for presentation and discussion. The track had the fortune to be allocated a wood‐panelled Architecture lecture theatre with superb projection facilities – more than one speaker gasped at the glory of their own PowerPoint images.     

Limits and potentials to deliberative engagement in highly regulated planning systems: Norm development within fixed rules

Planning practice requires ongoing interaction between regulatory “facts” and deliberative “norms”. Played out in local and strategic developments, “norms” are the agreed values and positions developed by advancing deliberative engagement of residents; while “facts” are the more rigid statutory procedures through which planning decisions are typically made. However, conflict arises between residents' groups and local government decision-makers when deliberative norms, now a key tenet of strategic planning processes, struggle to gain traction in the factual spaces provided by statutory planning regulations. A contentious planning process in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia (concerning the redevelopment of a car park into a commercial and public space) highlights the challenges to deliberative engagement in highly-regulatory planning systems. Drawing on this contested case, this paper examines how the broader formal and relatively fixed framework of regulatory-based decision-making fails to support participatory principles, undermining both the desired communicative ethos and enduring collaborative outcomes and norm development. Specifically, the paper problematises tensions between residents' growing expectations for greater transparency and participation in planning, arising from a growing regard for deliberation in strategic planning, and the hegemonic nature of statutory planning that preserves planning control within the formal domain of government and the private sector.     

Do residents of Affordable Housing Communities in China suffer from relative accessibility deprivation? A case study of Nanjing

Affordable housing has emerged as a key issue in urban development in a wide range of countries. Themes in research on affordable housing development across the world are reviewed. Affordable Housing Communities for low income households have been built on a large scale in developing countries such as China during the last two decades, mainly in urban fringe areas. Evidence on the impact of the location on access of residents to services is rare. Studying Nanjing, this paper compares spatial access to services between Affordable Housing Communities and Other Housing Communities by measuring distances and imputing walking time between residential land parcels and facilities. Affordable Housing Communities have significantly poorer access than Other Housing Communities, because of poor neighbourhood provision of low order services and poor access to high order services. A household survey of Affordable Housing Communities and Other Housing Communities records the daily lives, degrees of satisfaction and community attachments of residents. Residents in affordable housing have low degrees of satisfaction, weak community attachments and desire to move. The findings emphasize that service provision should be planned to keep pace with Affordable housing construction, so that these communities become better places to live.     

Assessing and mapping ecosystem services to support urban green infrastructure: The case of Barcelona,Spain

The ecosystem services approach provides an efficient way to support urban green infrastructure planning. Such an assessment, together with mapping, can effectively produce spatial analyses on a specific scale, helping to maintain multi-functional landscapes and plan urban green infrastructure. In turn, green infrastructure can offer a wide variety of ecosystem services, promoting landscape sustainability. This study develops a methodology for the planning of urban green infrastructure based on an ecosystem services approach that assesses the supply capacity of ecosystem services, and identifies possible spatial characteristic areas for interlinking urban green infrastructure within the study area. More specifically, from a landscape perspective, we use 32 ecosystem services (as X-axis) and different land use types (as Y-axis) to build an ecosystem service assessment matrix. We then take the municipality of Barcelona as an example, using the latter to assess and map ecosystem services within the city through ArcGIS, which shows the spatial distribution characteristics of ecosystem services provision. We identify possible spatial areas - which include ecosystem services provision, barren, and obstructed areas - by overlapping the ecosystem services assessment maps. Ultimately, the results provide a reference for urban green infrastructure planning by recognizing priority protected areas, new construction areas, potential areas, and renewal areas.     

How does the community resilience of urban village response to the government-led redevelopment? A case study of Tangjialing village in Beijing

Building on the critical resilience literature, this study aims at analyzing how the community resilience (CR) of urban village (UV), which is challenged by multiple natural and socio-economic disturbances such as climate change, land occupation, and industrialization, responses to the government-led redevelopment (GLR) and its hidden mechanism. A conceptual framework incorporating social, economic, institutional/governmental, material domains and community capital was established with reference to the work of Cutter, Burton, and Emrich (2010), and was applied as the conceptual springboard to assess the resilience of Tangjialing village. The results suggested that the GLR in Tangjialing village was generally a successful practice for enhancing CR, which was tightly associated with the economic empowerment for local residents and formalization of informal economic activities and negatively affected by insufficient public engagement. Accordingly, policy implications about enhancing the resilience such as protecting the farmers' “private rights” as landowners, providing employment guidance and assistance and implementing cooperative planning were proposed.     

Urban form resilience: A meso-scale analysis

Impacted by the compounding effects of climate change and urbanization, cities are facing a panoply of risks that threaten their sustainability. Recognizing the potentially catastrophic ramifications of inaction, local governments are increasingly involved in resilience-building activities that are informed by a vast body of research related to different socio-economic, environmental, and institutional aspects of urban planning and design. However, despite its significant impacts on growth and evolution of cities, limited research exists on how urban form can enhance resilience by increasing the abilities to plan for, absorb, recover from, and adapt to adverse events. As a step towards filling this gap, this paper explores how meso-scale urban form elements can affect urban resilience. This is done through synthesizing theoretical and empirical evidence reported in the literature. The focus is on morphological parameters related to the following urban form elements: neighborhoods, blocks, lots, and open spaces. Results show that existing evidence is mainly related to the associations between ‘neighborhood density, size and configuration of open spaces, and land use mix’ and resilience to ‘climate change impacts’, ‘earthquakes’, ‘social issues’, and ‘resource scarcity’. There is also considerable evidence on the association between design of blocks/lots and resilience in terms of climate change adaptation/mitigation and adaptability to changing circumstances. The analysis also shows that each element influences and is influenced by other elements in the urban system and different elements should not be studied in isolation and the interplay between them should be considered. Existing evidence on conflicts is mainly related to density, but measures related to other elements may also involve conflicts. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for future research towards improving resilience of urban form at the meso-scale.     

生物炭农田应用的固碳减排研究进展

温室气体(GHGs)过量排放造成的全球气候变化问题受到广泛关注,农业活动是第二大温室气体排放源,减少农业温室气体排放刻不容缓.生物炭由生物质在高温限氧条件下热解炭化获得,其性质稳定、孔径丰富、富含芳香碳,因而减排增汇效果优异,具有参与农业自愿减排碳交易的显著潜力.然而生物炭固碳减排效果异质性大,影响因素复杂多样,因此有必要对其减排效应、影响因素和研究进展进行归纳总结.本文系统梳理了国内外与生物炭固碳减排相关的室内、大田研究和整合分析研究,同时采用CiteSpace软件进行可视化分析,探究了该领域的发展趋势和研究热点.基于国内外碳交易市场发展特点与程度以及相应配套政策总结了生物炭参与碳交易面临的机遇和挑战,并提出了相应的解决手段,为生物炭固碳减排研究的开展和生物炭农田应用项目参与碳交易提供了科学指导和建议.     

The rational method in stormwater management modelling of peak flow flood control systems,II: Computer program application

The companion paper's development of the well-known Rational Method is used to prepare a computer program to estimate T-year return frequency peak flow rates for flood control and environmental planning purposes. When applied, the computer program results indicate the usufulness of the Rational Method for estimating peak flow rates, and perhaps explain why the method continues to be widely used in civil engineering. The computer program solves for peak flow rates by solution of the stochastic integral equation representation of the Rational Method procedure, as derived in the companion paper.