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Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Health, Well-Being and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2018) | Viewed by 30713

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hung Chak Ho

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Guest Editor

Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Dr. Ta-Chien Chan

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Guest Editor

Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Interests: spatio-temporal modeling; tropical disease; health informatics; geographic information systems; infectious disease epidemiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Man Sing Wong

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Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: urban heat island effect; urban environmental quality; landslides; vegetation and ecosystems; spectral mixture analysis; aerosol retrieval; air quality monitoring; water vapor retrieval
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Population increase and urbanization are two factors influencing urban health and sustainability. Previous studies have demonstrated that sustainable policy and planning protocols can mitigate urban issues related to health and sustainability. Recent studies have found that using spatial or spatio-temporal approaches, such as geospatial modelling, may be able to enhance planning assessment. However, most studies of spatial planning only apply simple applications such as a spatial overlaying technique to improve the assessment of sustainable planning, while the advantages and limitations of using such spatial or spatio-temporal techniques for planning have not yet been discussed. This Special Issue aims to be the first platform to comprehensively address the questions above.

Specific topics of this special issue include (but are not limited to):

1) innovative techniques of spatial and spatio-temporal planning for urban health mitigation;

2) advanced modelling for spatial/spatio-temporal planning and urban sustainability;

3) literature reviews of advantages and limitations of spatial and spatio-temporal planning for urban health/sustainability;

4) projection of spatial or spatio-temporal data for forecasting and future planning;

5) linkage between spatial/spatio-temporal planning and urban sustainability policy; and

6) open topics related to spatio-temporal modelling and urban health/sustainability

Dr. Hung Chak Ho
Dr. Ta-Chien Chan
Dr. Man Sing Wong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

spatial analytics
urban planning
wellbeing
urban health
urban sustainability
spatio-temporal modelling

Published Papers (6 papers)

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27 pages, 16824 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Air Quality Monitoring Network Design Optimisation for Robust Land Use Regression Models

by Shivam Gupta, Edzer Pebesma, Jorge Mateu and Auriol Degbelo

Sustainability 2018, 10(5), 1442; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051442 - 05 May 2018

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5534

Abstract

A very common curb of epidemiological studies for understanding the impact of air pollution on health is the quality of exposure data available. Many epidemiological studies rely on empirical modelling techniques, such as land use regression (LUR), to evaluate ambient air exposure. Previous studies have located monitoring stations in an ad hoc fashion, favouring their placement in traffic “hot spots”, or in areas deemed subjectively to be of interest to land use and population. However, ad-hoc placement of monitoring stations may lead to uninformed decisions for long-term exposure analysis. This paper introduces a systematic approach for identifying the location of air quality monitoring stations. It combines the flexibility of LUR with the ability to put weights on priority areas such as highly-populated regions, to minimise the spatial mean predictor error. Testing the approach over the study area has shown that it leads to a significant drop of the mean prediction error (99.87% without spatial weights; 99.94% with spatial weights in the study area). The results of this work can guide the selection of sites while expanding or creating air quality monitoring networks for robust LUR estimations with minimal prediction errors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability)

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9 pages, 2684 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Association between Ambient Temperature and Acute Diarrhea Incidence in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan

by Chien-Chou Chen, Bo-Cheng Lin, Liwei Yap, Po-Huang Chiang and Ta-Chien Chan

Sustainability 2018, 10(5), 1417; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051417 - 03 May 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3910

Abstract

While studies have examined the association between weather variables and acute diarrhea in a city, region, or country, less evidence is available on the temperature effect across countries. The objective of this study is to elucidate the nonlinear and lagged association between ambient temperature and acute diarrhea in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. We collected weekly surveillance statistics on acute diarrhea with the corresponding meteorological data from 12 regions of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan during 2012–2016. Firstly, we fitted the region-specific counts of acute diarrhea in a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) which accounts for the non-linearity and lagged effect of temperature. Secondly, we applied meta-analysis to pool estimates across 12 regions. A total of 5,992,082 acute diarrhea cases were identified. We found that (1) the pooled overall cumulative relationship between the relative risk (RR) of acute diarrhea and temperature was the greatest (RR = 1.216; 95% CI: 1.083, 1.364) at 11 °C; (2) a pooled predictor-specific summary association at lower temperatures (12 °C or 25th percentile) began immediately and vanished after four weeks. Predictions and error analysis for new onsets of acute diarrhea in 2017 were evaluated. An early warning system based on the information of temperature variation was suggested for acute diarrhea control management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability)

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16 pages, 1522 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Urban Development: Spatial Analyses as Novel Tools for Planning a Universally Designed City

by Joanna Borowczyk

Sustainability 2018, 10(5), 1407; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051407 - 03 May 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4105

Abstract

The aim of the research was to analyze the “design for all” concept as a key strategy for creating social sustainability. The paper attempts to answer the question: how can universal design contribute to the rational development of the city space? The author has taken part in participatory experiments. The research took into account various criteria, including the level of the city space’s adaptation to the needs and capabilities of persons with different disabilities. Analyses included qualitative studies concerning the possibilities of developing the social capital as well as creating and preserving a cohesive social structure. The analytic process allowed determining the means of raising the quality of urban planning. Finding effective and reliable analytical tools enabling the development of healthy cities which are compatible with the principles of sustainability could become both a great chance and a great challenge for urban planners. Transition from the microplanning to the macroplanning scale and following the principles of universal design at the stage of the formation of urban concepts using spatiotemporal modelling methods will lead to the creation of harmonious accessible spaces adjusted to the needs of present and future users, which will generate sustainable development and lead to the healing of a city. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability)

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16 pages, 4006 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards a Smart City: Development and Application of an Improved Integrated Environmental Monitoring System

by Man Sing Wong, Tingneng Wang, Hung Chak Ho, Coco Y. T. Kwok, Keru Lu and Sawaid Abbas

Sustainability 2018, 10(3), 623; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030623 - 28 Feb 2018

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 4492

Abstract

Environmental deprivation is an issue influencing the urban wellbeing of a city. However, there are limitations to spatiotemporally monitoring the environmental deprivation. Thus, recent studies have introduced the concept of “Smart City” with the use of advanced technology for real-time environmental monitoring. In this regard, this study presents an improved Integrated Environmental Monitoring System (IIEMS) with the consideration on nine environmental parameters: temperature, relative humidity, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, CO, SO₂, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), UV index, and noise. This system was comprised of a mobile unit and a server-based platform with nine highly accurate micro-sensors in-coupling into the mobile unit for estimating these environmental exposures. A calibration test using existing monitoring station data was conducted in order to evaluate the systematic errors. Two applications with the use of the new system were also conducted under different scenarios: pre- and post-typhoon days and in areas with higher and lower vegetation coverage. Linear regressions were applied to predict the changes in environmental quality after a typhoon and to estimate the difference in environmental exposures between urban roads and green spaces. The results show that environmental exposures interact with each other, while some exposures are also controlled by location. PM_2.5 had the highest change after a typhoon with an estimated 8.0 μg/m³ decrease that was controlled by other environmental factors and geographical location. Sound level and temperature were significantly higher on urban roads than in urban parks. This study demonstrates the potential to use IIEMS for environmental quality measurements under the greater framework of a Smart City and for sustainability research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability)

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22 pages, 851 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Solving a More Flexible Home Health Care Scheduling and Routing Problem with Joint Patient and Nursing Staff Selection

by Jamal Abdul Nasir and Chuangyin Dang

Sustainability 2018, 10(1), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010148 - 09 Jan 2018

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 5738

Abstract

Development of an efficient and effective home health care (HHC) service system is a quite recent and challenging task for the HHC firms. This paper aims to develop an HHC service system in the perspective of long-term economic sustainability as well as operational efficiency. A more flexible mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated by incorporating the dynamic arrival and departure of patients along with the selection of new patients and nursing staff. An integrated model is proposed that jointly addresses: (i) patient selection; (ii) nurse hiring; (iii) nurse to patient assignment; and (iv) scheduling and routing decisions in a daily HHC planning problem. The proposed model extends the HHC problem from conventional scheduling and routing issues to demand and capacity management aspects. It enables an HHC firm to solve the daily scheduling and routing problem considering existing patients and nursing staff in combination with the simultaneous selection of new patients and nurses, and optimizing the existing routes by including new patients and nurses. The model considers planning issues related to compatibility, time restrictions, contract durations, idle time and workload balance. Two heuristic methods are proposed to solve the model by exploiting the variable neighborhood search (VNS) approach. Results obtained from the heuristic methods are compared with a CPLEX based solution. Numerical experiments performed on different data sets, show the efficiency and effectiveness of the solution methods to handle the considered problem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability)

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15 pages, 1525 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

Land Use and Cover Change during the Rapid Economic Growth Period from 1990 to 2010: A Case Study of Shanghai

by Ge Shi, Nan Jiang and Lianqiu Yao

Sustainability 2018, 10(2), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020426 - 07 Feb 2018

Cited by 82 | Viewed by 5987

Abstract

China has experienced a period of rapid economic growth during the past few decades especially in Shanghai. The rapid urbanization has caused great change for land use and cover change (LUCC), which is a prominent feature of global change. This paper focuses on land use history and the driving forces of LUCC in Shanghai from 1990 to 2010. We evaluated the LUCC of Shanghai based on three period Landsat images using the land use transition matrix model, the land use dynamic degree model, and the land use degree model. Then we analyzed the potential driving forces from different dimensions. The results show that the most obvious pattern of LUCC is the increase of built-up area and the decrease of arable land. The land use change dynamic from 2000 to 2010 is much greater than that from 1990 to 2010. The main driving forces of LUCC are human activity and social economic development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatial and Spatio-Temporal Planning for Urban Health and Sustainability)

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