Reflection of urban space in Iranian cinema: A review of the last two decades

Cinema as an influential mass medium continuously represents different spaces, environments, events, and symbols, and through which it reproduces viewers’ social reminiscence and merges imagination and reality in a constant manner. This paper attempts to illuminate the outlook of Iranian cinema on urban spaces (In this paper, urban space means “outdoor space” or “open space.” However, our purpose of applying the term “urban space” is an emphasis on the word “urban.” This includes what is connected with a city and its spaces and buildings, residents, and even social, economic, and political issues.), and to analyze the quality of their representation during the last two decades (1979–2006). Identifying displayed urban spaces and determining their strength and limitations, this endeavor not only offers guidelines on urban design pedagogy but also examines impacts of cinema on audiences’ visual literacy and perception, thereby exploring their expectations of urban environment.Based on content analysis of selected movies, we find that the Iranian films only occasionally involve urban spaces, and if they do, this practice is confined to historical or cultural spaces. This failure could be attributed to the poverty of urban spaces and limitations facing the film industry in such spaces on the one hand, and lack of the directors’ appropriate understanding of contemporary urban spaces and their mere attention to nostalgic spaces on the other hand.     

Analyzing growth and mortality in a subtropical urban forest ecosystem

Information on urban tree growth, mortality and in-growth is currently being used to estimate urban forest structure changes and ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration. This study reports on tree diameter growth and mortality in 65 plots distributed among four land use categories, which were established in 2005/2006 in Gainesville, Florida, USA and were re-measured in 2009. Models for mortality and in-growth models were developed by grouping species into hardwoods and softwoods. Annual change in tree diameter at breast height growth was analyzed using three tree species groups based on potential height and longevity. Additionally, the four most common tree species in the study area were modeled to explore factors affecting tree growth. The average annual mortality rate in the city was 9.97%. Trees located in Institutional land use/land cover (LULC) had the highest annual mortality rate (19.2%/yr), and commercial had the lowest (3.1%/yr). Overall, growth rates for the study area (0.70 cm/yr) and residential LULC (0.80 cm/yr) were comparable to other studies. Growth rates for trees in forested areas were higher (0.56 cm/yr) than those previously reported. Individual species-level growth rates such as those for Juniperus virginiana (1.24 cm/yr) and Quercus virginiana (1.08 cm/yr) were different than other species values reported in other studies. Maintenance activities, site conditions, soil properties, tree characteristics, and LULC significantly influenced urban tree growth, mortality, and in-growth. Results can be used to better understand urban forest ecosystem structure and services in medium sized, subtropical cities and to make better decisions regarding planting and maintenance strategies.     

A framework for the future of urban underground engineering

A special and holistic approach is needed that captures aggregate attributes and emergent behaviors of the complex system of infrastructure systems in a region. Effective management of the impacts of future population growth, urbanization, and risks arising from continued evolution of our natural, physical and human/societal systems will require a systematic exploration and characterization of the urban subsurface, including much improved understanding and assessment of geologic risks. With recent cost escalations for underground construction projects, incentives are needed for the underground construction industry to develop and implement innovations in methods and technology, and smart integrated planning is needed to reduce costs both during construction and with life-cycle engineered design and operation of our subsurface facilities.The needed framework requires investigation of potential metrics that reflect the performance of aggregate functions of an urban environment so that we can holistically study system performance response under “normal” and “stressed” operation. Such a metric can support a cross-disciplinary exploration of urban resilience, and build knowledge as we develop and test theory and models that explore resilience of complex socio-technical systems. Econometrics with spatial and temporal granularity will help to understand the integrated functionality of our cities and to establish appropriate policies that will drive continuous improvement in the quality of urban life while providing natural, human, and physical urban environmental resilience. The underground in urban regions can become an important component of managing the increasing complexity of our physical systems, and can also make more significant contributions to improving the robustness and resilience of our future cities.     

城市增长边界控制模式研究——一个基于土地存量控制的分析框架

研究以土地存量概念为基础,构建一个理论框架,用于指导复杂外部环境下的城市增长边界控制。基于土地存量概念的城市增长边界控制方法主要包括时间驱动型和事件驱动型两种。在城市增长边界扩展的控制中,应当考虑到与存量相关的各项成本,主要包括保留成本、订购成本和缺损成本三大类;通过各项成本的比较,并结合考虑控制的目标、主要关注点,以及现实的技术条件和制度条件,进行合理的城市增长边界控制方式的选择和建构。从我国目前的发展状况看,在近期可以尝试借鉴时间驱动型的控制方法,而在远期可以尝试采用事件驱动型的控制方法。     

PMetro: Measurement of urban aerosols on a mobile platform

PMetro is an innovative time/space resolved urban aerosol monitoring and data management system. The core of the monitoring system is a customized optical particle counter (OPC) integrated on a cabin of the metro urban transport system in Perugia (Central Italy). This peculiar arrangement and setup allow regular, real-time measurement of aerosol particles on a well defined path through the city all over the day. The performances of the prototype OPC system have been customized and finally inter-compared with those of similar commercial devices placed at fixed points along the metro line. Data from the mobile system are integrated with environmental measurements from fixed monitoring stations along the metro path in order to attain models of the evolution of urban aerosol pollutants.     

基于新文脉主义的城市色彩可持续发展初探

从城市文脉的角度研究城市色彩的传承与嬗变,通过引介新文脉主义,并结合城市色彩理论, 提出"城市色脉"理念,并阐述其内涵外延.影响因素及特性,统筹整合研究成果,完善城市色彩理论体系,使城市色彩发展更具整体性、前瞻性、时代性,从而实现健康可持续发展.     

都市生长——基于“时间”的城市设计初探

文章通过对2014年马群地铁站城市设计课题的记录,试图探讨在城市设计学习中引入"时间"概念的意义和反思     

老工业园区的改造升级、转型发展策略初探--以赣州沙河工业园为例

沙河工业园经过十余年的发展，取得了较好的成绩。但随着城市总体规划的修编，沙河工业园在区域发展中的地位、角色，发生了重大的变化，园区发展面临转型、升级的新形势。本文以沙河工业园为例，提出了针对老工业园的改造升级、转型发展的策略。