Abstract The use of landscape character area-morphogenetic montage clusters (LCAr-MMCs) is part of the landscape character system for the PhD research project entitled, “Capturing the Dynamic ...Character of the Philippine Peri-urban Landscape: A Landscape Character System Approach for the Region of Cavite.” These LCAr-MMCs are visualisation clusters created to suggest a localised approach in characterisation that can fully utilize the attributes of the landscape as potential references for planning and management of landscape in the rural-urban interface. The LCAr-MMCs, as a visualisation tool, addressed the need to uncover interpretations of the intangible and temporal morphogenetic qualities of Cavite’s current peri-urban landscape. Finding a visualisation method that can express the landscape’s adaptation to changes caused by peri-urbanisation was important in future planning initiatives, and the LCAr-MMCs provided that by showcasing the changes and patterns of development in Cavite through an assemblage of written texts, images, and cartographic maps. Cavite’s LCAr-MMCs became sources of evidence of the waves of landscape change in this landscape region. LCAr-MMCs supplied a collage of anecdotes and images depicting the evolution of Cavite’s landscape throughout time. The four (4) landscape clusters resulting from this project also created manageable sets of information known as periods of landscape influences, which were organised in phases of landscape evolution. The LCAr-MMCs asserted the adaptive qualities of the peri-urban landscape as well as the temporality of its natural and cultural environment. These clusters eventually exhibited an evolutionary landscape character that gave rise to the peri-urban landscape we know today.
Urban green spaces generate a number of perceived benefits toward human health and well-being, including an overall improvement in the quality of life. To date, processes underlying these benefits ...are mostly investigated at city level, while very little research has been conducted at a larger scale, such as the European level. Evidence is lacking on the association between green spaces and citizens' perceived benefits based on variations among cities with different socio-economic conditions. This study aims to disentangle the relationship between greenness, citizens' perceived quality of life, the environment, social inclusion and urban management in 51 European cities, as well as the role of per capita income in moderating the effects of greenness on overall perceived quality of life. Through structural equation modeling, the effect of greenness was tested on citizens' perceived overall quality of life (i.e., on the environment, social inclusion, and urban management). The role of metropolitan gross domestic product per capita in moderating the relationship between greenness and citizens' perceptions on overall quality of life was investigated. Our findings confirm the influence of greenness on citizens' quality of life. More importantly, the influence of greenness on the overall perception of quality of life was considerably more marked in lower-income cities. This study represents one of the first attempts at exploring the complex mechanisms underlying the association between green space and citizens' well-being at continent level. Practical implications for European urban planners and policy makers are discussed.
•Greenness positively predicts the overall perception of quality of life.•Quality of life mediates the relation between greenness and citizens' perceptions.•NDVI more strongly affects perceived quality of life in cities with lower GDP.•European scale studies can improve decisions of urban planners.
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Since the Paris Agreement, European member countries have been committed to mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects. Climate action planning allows cities to organize their approach. It ...is critical to ensure that investments in infrastructure and services have a low-carbon impact and consider likely climate change perspectives. The output of this process is the climate action plan (CAP): one or more documents where a city sets out its roadmap to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen climate resilience throughout the community. Many cities have already developed and published a Paris Agreement-compatible CAP. The quality and compliance of these plans will also influence the achievement of the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2015). Thus, cities are crucial players in global climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, and how they engage in climate policy is currently under debate. The paper is intended to support technological design, selecting good practices from the latest and most complete ones for climate mitigation and adaptation in urban settings. In particular, the paper focuses on public space and built environment regeneration actions that can tangibly contribute to the global climate resilience movement. Considering the operational difficulty that could arise in planning climate adaptation measures in historical urban contexts, the study critically analyzes current strategies in sedimented landscape realities of high cultural-historical value. The goal is to draw from them a cognitive and expeditious method of intervention that can be reiterated for similar contexts and is compatible with the consistency and value of urban and built heritage. The theme is timely and falls into Sustainable Development Goals No. 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and No. 13 (climate action).
•The paper analyses the most recent studies and scientific papers on climate action plans.•Good practices for climate mitigation and adaptation in urban settings are critically investigated.•The study analyses current strategies in sedimented landscape realities of high historical and cultural value.•A toolkit is proposed that can be repurposed for similar contexts.
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The rural-urban divide has traditionally been used to characterize key features of regions, including features of economic geography like density and connectivity that determine the prospects for ...economic growth and other dimensions of territorial development. In this paper, we develop a methodology that identifies areas along the urban-rural continuum according to their key features of population density and distance to large urban settlements at a more-detailed scale than the smallest administrative areas, taking Chile as a case study, a country that has experienced a rapid socio-economic transition over the last three decades. Information derived from the application of this methodology allows the identification of geographic categories according to observable density and distance. We also present geographic definitions of urban, rural, and mixed areas, which allow a practical, policy-relevant taxonomy of the rural-urban landscape, consistent with the 3-tier approach taken in most OECD countries. We demonstrate the relevance and practical importance of this smaller-scale approach by showing that, in the case of Chile, there is a significant mismatch between the official, cruder definitions, based on political subdivisions and currently in use by the government, and the realities of the country's present rural-urban landscape. Our results demonstrate that a focus on the scale at which information can be interpreted and summarized is not merely an academic exercise, but a way of correctly identifying, within the policymaking framework, communities according to the realities of their needs and capabilities.
•Density and connectivity are used to create an urban/rural continuum.•Connectivity, measured as travel time, is derived using modern GIS tools.•The urban/rural continuum can be aggregated in a familiar binary taxonomy.•The scale at which density is estimated is key to describe geographic units.•Urban/rural categories relevant for practical policy analysis are presented.
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•Landscape dams increase the evaporation loss ratio by 0–5%.•Landscape dams have greatly impact the local precipitation and groundwater.•The cumulative effect of landscape dams has a great impact on ...local water cycle.
To meet the needs of human recreation and provide community amenities, landscape dams (i.e., water retaining structures for intercepting river water in cities and surrounding areas, which are mainly used to create an urban landscape environment) are built in urban and peri-urban areas worldwide. The construction of these dams, however, may adversely affect the local and regional water cycle. We collected water samples from 2015 to 2019 from different water bodies in urban and peri-urban areas traversing the middle and upper reaches of Shiyang River Basin in the arid area of Central Asia to analyze their isotopic characteristics. Meanwhile, field surveys as well as meteorological, hydrological, and remote-sensing data were added to evaluate the hydrologic effects of urban landscape dams on a watershed scale in an arid region with scarce water resources and fragile ecosystems. Isotopic values of landscape water were more enriched than that of natural river. The result of the evaporation loss ratio showed that the landscape water was 0–5% higher. Moreover, the cumulative effect of multiple landscape dams leads to a great loss of water resources in arid areas. The study also demonstrated that evaporation is a vital factor in causing change in the isotope composition of the landscape water in the Shiyang River Basin. The interaction between surface water and groundwater was frequent within the landscape dam area wherein groundwater was mainly recharged by surface water leakage. Sufficient attention should be given to the evaporation, leakage, local precipitation, and groundwater changes caused by the impoundment of landscape dams. Thus, the potentially adverse effects of urban landscape dams in arid regions should be highly considered in long-term water-resources sustainability planning.
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Extend abstractAbstractThe rapid growth of population could have negative consequences for urban life in urban areas and has caused unfavorable development of cities. With expansive growth of cities, ...their shapes, forms, and structures have been disrupted. The city entrance has an important role, which has changed over time. In the process of changing, the city entrance has got a new form. Its concept can be understood by having a look in its past and structure. The city entrance plays an important role in creating its general image in the human mind. However, it seems that the entrance structures of of today's cities consist of empty buildings and abandoned lands, which not only could not respond to the need for action, but also lack the identity and function of connection between the two different spaces, with the edges unfavorable to the city. The aim of this study was to identify the effective factors in improving the quality of city entrances. In terms of purpose, this research was an applied one with a descriptive cross-sectional method and quantitative data based on nature. Also, it was a survey research in terms of how it was conducted. Based on people's opinions, the results of this study showed that the variables of environment and green space, traffic, and facilities and furniture were more preferred. The integration of general and specialized perception approaches in landscape management processes could contribute to the development of urban landscape. Finally, it can be said that the resulting environment could be better accepted and satisfied by people if their demands are taken into account for designing urban landscapes.Keywords: city Entrances,";"urban landscape";"Saqqez";"environmental quality IntroductionA city is a spatial landscape in which achieving a healthy environment is considered. Human destiny is determined not in the countryside, but in cities. This shows the unrivaled role and importance of cities in the life of human society. Accordingly, the world has rapidly turned into urbanization. Public spaces in cities and their attractions can change human behaviors and play an important role in creating human culture (Muzaffar et al., 2016: 74) Social, economic, cultural, and political developments resulting from the modernization of human life in urban spaces have affected each region and area. The uncontrolled growth of urban population and lack of an appropriate and optimal model of urban growth leading cities towards industrialization have doubled urban problems and challenges. Migration to cities and increasing urban population have fueled these challenges. Currently, 54% of the world's population lives in cities and it is predicted that this figure will reach about 66% by 2050 (Girma et al., 2019: 139). Studies also show that world's population has increased by 423% from 1950 to 2014 (Kim et al., 2017: 82). City entrance is one of its most attractive parts providing one of its most influential memories. It should have a special identity and characteristics in order to be distinguished from other cities. It should also have certain environmental qualities to meet the audience’s needs (Habibi et al., 2019: 5). In terms of function, this space usually faces a disproportionate distribution of actions, activities, and uses, which are very effective in enhancing the environmental quality of field performance. Today, reduction of quality indicators in urban public spaces is one of the problems that cities have faced. Since the city entrance space is one of the urban spaces and is located in the middle of city with its physical development, paying attention to the concept of entrance and environmental quality needs special attention regarding the urban space. Urban spaces are important in human life activities and affect people’s life quality. However, development of urban space management strategies by experts and paying attention to people's perceptions of urban spaces are often overlooked (Dupont et al., 2015: 68). Therefore, in planning and managing public spaces, it is necessary to pay attention to the users’ perceptions of these spaces (Rossetti et al., 2019: 177). Integrating the specialists and non-specialists’ approaches in the landscape management processes can help improve the quality of urban landscapes (Vouligny et al., 2009: 890). Evidence shows that in Iran, the non-specialists’ views in urban spaces, especially about the entrances of cities, have not been paid attention to. Therefore, this study tried to examine the current situation of Saqqez entrances by considering the factors affecting the qualities of the entrance environments of cities from the perspectives of the indigenous people of Saqqez, travelers, and tourists. Materials & MethodsStudy areaSaqqez City is located to the northwest of Sanandaj City (the province center) with a distance of approximately 190 km. It is situated between the north latitudes of 36◦ 13' and 36◦ 16' minutes and east longitudes of 46◦ 14' and 46◦ 17'. It has got a population of 168.359 and been divided into 22 neighborhoods and 8 districts.Fig. 1. Map of the study area. Questionnaire StructureThe first section of the questionnaire contained demographic information. Before answering the questions, the participants were asked to offer their personal socio-demographic information, including marital status, age, education level, monthly income, and city of residence. Another section of the questionnaire dealt with the independent and dependent variables of the research. The questionnaire was designed based on the Likert spectrum with a closed structure. Survey Population and Sample SizeThe statistical population of the present study included the native people of Saqqez, as well as the travelers and tourists, who were present at the city entrances. The respondents were selected from among the clients, who were present at its entrances during the summer of 2019. Also, the residents, employees, travelers, and tourists of this area were randomly selected as the statistical population. Due to the uncertainty of the population size (number of inputs) in this study, the number of sample members was obtained using the Mitra-Langford method. The most relevant formula with a suitable solution was the formula proposed by Mitra and Lankford (1999). This formula significantly prevented errors by reducing the sampling error and increasing the confidence level, while at the same time lowering the non-sampling error. The standard deviation was assumed to be equal to 2.88, resulting in the sampling size of 300 persons:e = √ (P (1-P)/n); P = 50% and e = 2.88% 2.88% = √ (50 %( 1-50%)/n) → n = 300 Discussion of ResultsEvaluation of people's views based on the current situation and factors affecting the qualities of entrance spaces in Saqqez CityThe respondents mostly agreed with the two effective components of the environment and green space (f=247 and 82.4%) and traffic component (f=246 and 82%), respectively. They considered these components as the most important factors in improving the qualities of the entrance environments of cities.The research findings showed that there were different opinions. Most of the respondents (f=136, 45.3%) evaluated the attractiveness and qualities of the entrances of Saqez City to be completely unsatisfactory. Only about 5 percent of respondents assessed the situation to be favorable and completely desirable (f=18.5, 5.5%). The respondents’ general views indicated lack of sufficient utility. This issue highlighted the need for appropriate measures to improve the qualities of the entrances to Saqqez City.People's views on the independent variables based on their demographic characteristics of age and educationIn this section, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to identify the differences between the factors affecting the quality of the input environment based on the people's views. The respondents’ levels of education and age were arranged in 4 categories in the form of sequential variables. According to the variable of education, the value of the chi-square test for the variable of traffic was 9.637. Also, the value of the variable of environment and green space was 9.310, which was significant at the level of 0.05. According to the variable of age, the value of the chi-square test for the visual variable was equal to 7.904, which was significant at the level of 0.05%. Also, the variable of traffic was 13.99, which was significant at the level of 0.01. Therefore, the results showed a significant difference between the main factors of the research from the perspectives of the people with different education levels and ages.The Mann-Whitney test was used to identify the differences between the factors affecting the quality of the input environment based on the people's views. The respondents’ marital status and residence in a 2-floor apartment were adjusted in the form of sequential variables. Also, according to the variable of marital status, the variable of traffic was significant at the level of 0.01. Therefore, the results showed a significant difference between the main factors of the research from the people's point of view based on the place of residence and marital status. ConclusionsThe descriptive results of data analysis showed that the entrances of Saqqez City were not of good quality in general because most respondents had an unfavorable viewpoint about this component. The physical design inability of the route to create a situation for public monitoring, the existence of abandoned buildings and barren lands, industrial workshops and repair shops, military uses, the existence of vague and defenseless spaces along the route, and the impossibility of active gathering of people were the reasons. The reason for the alienation of space in areas that had the potential to create green spots fueled this phenomenon. In many places, the green space around the entrances was only visual and inaccessible and along this axis, the poi
Landscape classification methods significantly impact the exploration of the mechanism of the relationship between landscapes and atmospheric particulate matter. This study compared the local climate ...zones (LCZs) and traditional land use/cover change (LUCC) landscape classification methods in explaining spatial differences in concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and explored the mechanisms involved in how landscape elements affect atmospheric particulate matter. This was done by establishing a PM2.5 and PM10 land use regression (LUR) model of LCZ and LUCC landscapes under low, typical, and high particle concentration gradients in urban and suburban areas. The results show that under an LCZ classification system, the number of patches in the urban area of Shanghai was 548 times higher than that of a LUCC system. Moreover, LCZs were successfully established for LUR models in 12 scenarios, while only five models were established for LUCC, all of which were suburban models. The R2 of the LUR model based on the LCZ landscape and atmospheric particulate matter was mostly higher than that of the LUCC. For unnatural landscapes, the LUCC demonstrated that an urbanized environment positively affects the concentration of atmospheric particles. However, the LCZ analysis found that areas with high-density buildings have a positive effect on atmospheric particles, while most areas with low-density buildings significantly reduced the number of atmospheric particles present. Generally, compared with the traditional LUCC landscape classification method, LCZ integrates Shanghai's physical structure and classifies the urban landscape more accurately, which is closely related to the urban atmospheric particulate matter, especially in the urban area. Because the low-density building area has the same effect on the particulate matter as the natural landscape, the use of low-density buildings is recommended when planning new towns.
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•Analyzed the impact of landscape pattern on PM concentration with 3D attributes.•Compared with LUCC, LCZ classifies the land use types of urban areas more refine.•The distribution of PM was more closely related to LCZ pattern than LUCC.•The LCZ patterns influence the distribution PM2.5 more significantly than PM10•Building height and density, which LUCC did not consider, significantly affect PM.
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Kurnia I, Arief H, Mardiastuti A, Hermawan R. 2021. The potential of bird diversity in the urban landscape for birdwatching in Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 1701-1711. Birdwatching is a ...recreational activity of observing birds in the wild with the naked eye¸ using tools such as telescopes and binoculars, or listening to bird sounds. The observation locations can be either natural landscape or urban landscapes with bird diversity. However, the dominance of built spaces and man-made vegetation differed from natural landscapes. This difference will affect the composition of birds found in the urban landscape. This paper aimed to analyze bird diversity in urban landscapes and their potential for birdwatching. The research was conducted from February to April 2020 in five cities in Java (Bogor, Sukabumi, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya). Bird data were taken using the IPA method and were carried out in 85 green open spaces. Total bird species found were 75 species, with the largest number found in Bogor (66 species), followed by Surabaya (36 species), Bandung (28 species), Sukabumi (26 species), and Yogyakarta (19 species). The locations with the highest species richness in each city are Bogor Botanical Gardens (53 species), Cikundul Agrotourism Area Sukabumi (18 species), Bandung Zoological Garden (21 species), Gembira Loka Zoo (14 species), and Pakal City Forest Surabaya (20 species). Commonly seen bird species are dominated by generalist species typical of urban landscapes (e.g., Collocalia linchi, Passer montanus, and Pycnonotus aurigaster). Bird species richness has a positive correlation with the local area and habitat diversity. A total of 74 bird species are resident species that can be found throughout the year as birdwatching objects. Only one species are migrant species namely Merops philippinus.
The research investigates the use of innovative technologies for the documentation, analysis, cataloguing of tangible and intangible heritage within the historical urban landscape. The main objective ...is the implementation of knowledge for safeguarding the Heritage in a perspective of sustainable development based on the understanding and increasingly wide use of the cultural values of a territory. Within this frame, the contribution presents the case study of Ascoli Piceno, characterized by a rich and widespread architectural-cultural heritage, testimony of history and experiences and unique resource of memory. The heritage of Ascoli Piceno has been enhanced through an information management tool in GIS environment, proposing a new digital model to be applied to build thematic layers of knowledge/enhancement of historical-artistic stratifications. The different information levels are organized in a georeferenced database, then structured in itineraries, easily accessible according to the interests of the users. This approach allows to analyze and manage a lot of information, putting in synergy technologies, data and urban space.
In the last few years, with the fast growing of neural network field such as those for virtual reception and enhanced nature, the practice and theory of conventional landscape are impacted and ...challenged by virtual landscape based on these sorts of neural network technologies. On the one hand, the virtual landscape changes the carrier of landscape design from material real world to the networked virtual world, which breaks the traditional way of generating landscape and the way of expression of results. On the other hand, the virtualized and networked morphological characteristics of the virtual landscape itself and its capacity that can offer users a sense of immertion, interplay and enjoyment of the experience provide a way of extending and deepening the realm of scenery. It is also a new type of landscape that conforms to the trend of the times created in the background of the fast evolution of scientific and technical development. Virtual landscape brings new construction thinking and practical means for the application of digital city, the construction of urban context, and the development and utilization of relics. It provides an important research source for thinking about the relationship between current humanities and science, material and virtual, history and contemporary. After the research and experiment on the urban environment landscape design of PSO-BP neural network, the experimental data showed that before using the neural network method to improve Yanta East Garden, 57% of the crowd were satisfied with the overall impression of Yanta East Garden, and 17% were dissatisfied. After the improvement, 67% were satisfied with the landscape of Yanta East Garden, only 5% were dissatisfied, and the landscape satisfaction increased by 10%. The survey group believed that the landscape color of Yanta East Garden was full of historical flavor, especially the small sculptures convey the unique Qin Opera culture. The above data show that the method based on neural network is very suitable for the improvement and development of urban landscape design.
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