Search Results (180)

To achieve the European Union’s zero-emission building targets and overcome the limitations of slow, costly on-site construction, off-site prefabrication is vital. However, existing research often neglects real-world constructability and circularity constraints. This study presents a systematic technology supply mapping and a performance-oriented taxonomy—single-function envelopes, multi-functional integrated systems, and stand-alone installations—of prefabricated renovation solutions, focusing predominantly on Southern European contexts. Applying a structured three-step screening protocol across the literature, industry databases, and European project repositories, technologies were evaluated through a multi-dimensional framework capturing market readiness, functional integration, structural constraints, and circularity indicators. Results reveal a strongly polarized market where passive envelope systems dominate commercial availability, while multi-functional active solutions remain largely confined to experimental prototype stages. Furthermore, most systems target low-to-mid-rise residential buildings, show limited compatibility with complex architectural geometries, and exhibit low integration of circular criteria due to conventional material reliance. This study concludes that bridging the research-to-market gap requires interface standardization, demand aggregation through Green Public Procurement, and localized regulatory adaptations for envelope thickness. Ultimately, this taxonomy establishes a rigorous diagnostic framework and a solid foundation for a future quantitative Prefabrication Readiness Index (PRI). Full article

This paper proposes a dynamic intelligent method for voltage violation management in high-renewable-penetration distribution networks. The method employs a dual-agent architecture: DERMS_Agent coordinates task scheduling, data management, and computational resource allocation, while Solution_Agent performs three-phase unbalanced power flow calculation and MIQP-based voltage violation joint optimization. Four key technical contributions are presented. (i) An asymmetric nodal admittance matrix is developed to incorporate transformer tap-phase-shift and capacitor branches within a unified formulation. (ii) Five categories of analytical sensitivities are systematically derived, covering transformer tap, phase shift, and capacitor compensation effects for both voltage regulation and harmonic suppression. (iii) A three-parameter MIQP joint optimization model is constructed with voltage deviation minimization as the objective and three-phase unbalance and resonance avoidance as constraints. (iv) A two-stage hybrid solution strategy combining Ipopt continuous relaxation with Gurobi neighborhood enumeration is designed to achieve real-time solvability. Validation on a real 10 kV feeder with 91 transformer areas over 768 time sections (8 days) demonstrates a 95.6% voltage violation resolution rate within the first three polling cycles and an average single-section solution time of 0.83 s, satisfying the real-time requirements of 15 min operational control cycles. Full article

To address the existing gap in quantitative evaluation regarding the integrated visual effect of spring water landscapes and street spaces within Historical and Cultural Neighborhoods of Spring Zone, the Jinan Mingfu City area is selected as a typical case for this research. A quantitative framework for street view aesthetic perception based on deep learning is constructed. ResNet-101 predicts aesthetic scores using 6796 Street View Images (SVIs), while DeepLabV3+ extracts visual elements. A four-dimensional design quality system is established, including Traffic Safety, Street Vitality, Spatial Comfort, and Living Convenience. Clustering and regression analysis reveal the relationship between aesthetic perception and design quality. Results show: (1) the Water Blue View Index (WBVI) is the primary predictor of street aesthetic scores (β = 0.419), confirming the visual dominance of the “spring water” element; (2) WBVI, Green View Index (GVI), and Sky View Factor (SVF) constitute a “Natural Perception Triangle (NPT)” as the ecological comfort foundation; (3) streets are categorized into six types with significant design quality variations; (4) the proposed “Street Perception Optimization Matrix (SPOM)” provides differentiated renewal strategies for Spring Zone. This research presents a framework for visual quality assessment and refined renewal of Historical and Cultural Neighborhoods of Spring Zone. Full article

Old neighborhoods in China’s mountainous cities generally face the dual challenge of a decline in social vitality intertwined with the fragility of ecosystem functions; there is an urgent need to develop a socio-ecological performance evaluation tool suited to the mountainous context to guide decisions on sustainable regeneration. Taking nine typical aging communities in Daxigou Subdistrict, Yuzhong District, Chongqing as case studies, this study, based on socio-ecological systems theory, constructed an evaluation system comprising 31 indicators across social, ecological, and spatial environmental subsystems. The entropy-weighted TOPSIS method was employed to quantitatively measure the communities’ comprehensive socio-ecological performance, whilst K-means clustering was used for community classification and the identification of weaknesses. The results indicate that the overall socio-ecological performance of Daxigou Subdistrict is relatively low, with scores across the various subsystems distributed unevenly. Correlation analysis reveals the decisive role of resource-related factors in community performance. Based on the evaluation results, an integrated and operational decision making framework combining diagnosis, classification, and policy implementation was established, providing a reference for the targeted regeneration and sustainable development of aging communities in mountainous cities. Full article

Responding to residents’ differentiated health-promoting needs has become important for improving the adaptability of street renewal in old urban neighborhoods. Based on 1404 valid questionnaires from residents in old urban neighborhoods of Jinan, China, this study develops an analytical framework linking group classification, environmental responses, and renewal strategies from the perspective of health literacy–activity behavior mismatch. Health literacy and activity behavior indices were constructed, and K-means clustering was used to identify mismatch groups. Estimated marginal means, average marginal effects, and multiple-response analysis were then employed to compare group-specific response trajectories and improvement preferences across four street environmental dimensions: slow-mobility space, service function, natural aesthetics, and activity facilities. Further interpretation of the obtained analytical results demonstrates that the investigated resident samples are partitioned into four typical subgroups: behavior-driven, high-literacy/high-behavior, literacy-driven, and low-literacy/low-behavior groups. Slow-mobility space was mainly associated with participation willingness and mismatch adjustment; natural aesthetics was primarily related to environmental cognition and perceived attractiveness; activity facilities were more relevant to mismatch changes among low-literacy/low-behavior residents; and service function mainly provided everyday convenience support. Improvement preferences were generally concentrated on basic environmental conditions, especially traffic safety, natural environment, and public activity spaces. These findings provide empirical evidence for group-based health-promoting street renewal and highlight its relevance to socially inclusive and sustainable urban regeneration. Full article

Contemporary zoning-driven planning has been associated with traffic hazards, pollution and noise, loss of human scale and public space, socio-spatial separation, and rigid development patterns that impede incremental renewal. In response, the New Urbanism movement promotes traditional urbanism, with Form-Based Codes (FBCs) that regulate urban form and spatial structure, as a central tool. However, FBC practice remains concentrated in North America, and evidence from other contexts is limited. This study examines whether and how FBCs can be implemented within a hierarchical, centralized planning system. Using an exploratory case study approach, we analyzed an approved urban renewal plan for Ramat Verber in Petah Tikva, Israel. The study combines plan analysis, a conceptual FBC simulation, and expert consultations, with findings derived through an inductive analysis of implementation barriers. The FBC simulation showed that goals could be translated into more effective actionable provisions, whereas the statutory plan diluted objectives between vision and implementation. Identified barriers clustered into (1) legal and institutional constraints, (2) social and professional norms, and (3) management and coordination needs. We conclude that FBCs can be advanced without legislative change through municipal policy-level codes that standardize subsequent statutory local plans, supported by clear conversion protocols and existing urban renewal governance mechanisms. Full article

As a city rich in historical and cultural heritage, Guangzhou has made substantial efforts to protect and revitalise its historic districts. This study examines Yongqing Fang, a well-known commercialised historic district in Guangzhou, to understand how tourism-driven development reshapes everyday life and the interactions among its diverse users. Using comparative analysis, interviews, and NVivo 12 coding, the research explores how longstanding residents and newer occupants adjust to the rapidly evolving environment. The findings reveal that urban renewal and commercialisation have undermined local culture and social networks, altering how spaces are used. While lifestyle differences are evident among different user groups, the study also highlights instances of alienation and conflict, as well as moments of positive interaction and mutual support. The research emphasises the importance of inclusive strategies in heritage renewal and raises the question, drawing attention to the challenges faced by marginalised users in commercialised historic districts. It offers recommendations for policymakers, urban planners, and other stakeholders to balance heritage preservation with the social and economic needs of communities, fostering sustainable integration of tourism and local life in historic districts. Full article

Rail-transit station areas concentrate commercial services, employment, and intensive land development, but their vitality is shaped by multiple built-environment conditions rather than rail accessibility alone. Focusing on 20 stations along the Osaka Metro Midosuji Line in Japan, this study uses Japanese chome units, which are small neighborhood-level address and statistical units, within an 800 m pedestrian catchment as analytical units and measures commercial-service agglomeration intensity, employment intensity, and commercial–employment composite vitality. The composite indicator measures the static co-concentration of commercial-service provision and employment carrying capacity, with pedestrian flow, consumption activity, and dwell time treated as separate dimensions of station-area vitality. Ten station-area environmental variables are examined using ordinary least squares (OLS), Lasso, Random Forest, Back-Propagation (BP) Neural Network, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) models, with Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) applied to interpret variable contributions and nonlinear responses. Results show that nonlinear models generally outperform linear models. Development intensity, officially assessed land price, and network distance to the nearest metro station are the most influential variables, showing threshold, marginal, and non-monotonic effects. Split models indicate that commercial-service agglomeration is more sensitive to rail proximity and street-network conditions, whereas employment intensity is more associated with development intensity and land price. These findings support fine-grained station-area renewal and mixed-function planning. Full article

This paper addresses high electricity costs in long-distance crude oil transmission systems due to limited renewable energy integration. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated to maximize renewable energy use and minimize purchased electricity costs, considering pump station and pipeline constraints. To solve this problem, a hybrid artificial bee colony algorithm with variable neighborhood search (HABC-VNS) is proposed, incorporating memory guidance, discrete uniform crossover, and three neighborhood structures. The algorithm is compared with standard ABC, binary PSO, and GA. In two experimental setups (four pumps/eight stations, 24 h horizon), HABC-VNS achieves average total costs of 33,000 CNY and 43,000 CNY, respectively, compared to 61,000–368,000 CNY for the other methods. Average green power integration rates reach 61.6% and 59.6%, outperforming all baselines. The proposed approach provides effective scheduling under strong operational constraints. Full article

At this stage, China is entering a phase of development characterized by both an aging population and a declining birth rate. As a vital link between individuals and the city, communities face a dual challenge: on the one hand, demographic shifts have revealed that public spaces and facilities struggle to meet the diverse needs of residents of all ages; on the other hand, traditional planning often focuses on a single spatial dimension and lacks systematic research into residents’ temporal–spatial behaviors and interactions among diverse groups, leading to inefficient use of space and frequent conflicts over public activities. To this end, this paper conducts temporal–spatial behavior planning with the goal of maximizing the efficiency of activities and the utilization of time and space, taking into account the needs of different age groups. A case study was conducted using the Tuolejia District in Nanjing as an example. Based on intelligent data analysis and implementation, the results show that during the day, recreational spaces for children and adolescents in this neighborhood are more concentrated, with an utilization rate of over 85%. The amount of accessible space for seniors aged 60 and older has increased by approximately 30% (with a significant improvement in accessibility for the group of seniors aged 80 and older, who account for about 9% of the total). At night, the utilization rate of parking spaces for residents and visitors in the neighborhood exceeds 80%. This planning approach transcends the limitations of a single spatial dimension and proposes an integrated strategy for time-sharing, multi-objective optimization, and behavioral incentives in community public spaces designed to address intergenerational conflicts. It provides a practical framework and practical support for advancing the renewal of age-friendly communities. Full article

In China, communities are the primary living environments for older adults, where the neighborhood environment is closely linked to their mental well-being (MW). Old urban residential communities commonly encounter problems including poor housing quality, inadequate public resources, and substandard living conditions. The association between such neighborhood environments and the MW of older adults is particularly worthy of examination. Therefore, based on empirical survey data from Nanjing, China, and from a subjective perception perspective, this study explores how the perceived neighborhood environment in old urban residential communities correlates with older adults’ MW. The findings indicate that both the perceived built environment (BE) and social environment (SE) are correlated with the MW of older adults. The BE has a stronger correlation with MW than the SE, which mediates the correlation between the BE and MW. The correlation between the neighborhood environment and MW is moderated by factors including age, residence type, and average monthly income. Among the component factors of neighborhood environment in old urban residential communities, housing quality, shopping convenience, neighborhood interaction, and community services show significant positive correlations with the MW of older adults. These findings provide valuable implications for the age-friendly renewal of old urban residential communities, the development of age-friendly communities, and the improvement in the subjective well-being of older adults in such communities. Full article

Old residential communities, characterized by dense built environments, high levels of population aging, and insufficient public services, represent critical hotspots of urban heat risk. Taking old residential communities in the central urban area of Guangzhou as the study area, this study integrates multi-source data, including social, economic, and urban infrastructure information, to develop a heat risk assessment framework encompassing four dimensions: heat hazard, heat exposure, heat vulnerability, and heat adaptation. The model is validated using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Results reveal a significant non-linear relationship between the comprehensive heat risk index and the prevalence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (R² = 0.739), indicating strong explanatory power for health risks. Spatially, heat risk exhibits a center–periphery gradient, with high-risk areas concentrated in older central districts. Heat adaptation is identified as a key regulatory factor that can either mitigate or amplify risk accumulation. Based on the spatial heterogeneity of different neighborhood types, targeted mitigation strategies are proposed, providing scientific support for urban renewal and heat resilience governance. Full article

The Copenhagen 10-step method is a set of policies that originated in the 1950s to reduce vehicle traffic in Copenhagen, which was heavily impacted by traffic. These policies are incorporated into a different dynamic on a global scale every day and are adopted while maintaining relevance. These policies, advocated in the context of climate change and carbon emission targets, as well as livability and health-focused urbanization, justice, and accessibility in transportation, are criticized for potentially negatively affecting low-income groups and commercializing urban transformation. Furthermore, they require adaptation because their applicability is seen as limited in terms of localization. In this context, the adaptability of the method to different social and spatial contexts has become a critical research topic, particularly in local studies, where application is more important and the order of implementation becomes of great importance. Within the scope of this study, a Copenhagen 10-step prioritization study was conducted specifically for the Küçükçekmece Kanarya Neighborhood, where low-to-middle socioeconomic groups live, and which has been declared a risky area in terms of building stock. Accordingly, a two-phase study was conducted. In the first phase, transportation and planning experts were asked to prioritize the 10 steps, and the timing of each implementation was determined based on the resulting ranking. In the second phase, accessibility analyses for the region were conducted using GIS (Geographical Information Systems)-based spatial data, such as accessibility, slope, and the distribution of urban facilities. Subsequently, these two phases were combined to create a simple prioritization framework for the areas of greatest concern in Kanarya, as well as for urban renewal, transportation, and government investment plans. According to the SWARA results, increasing bicycle use (C10) was the most important criterion at 17.2%, followed by making the bicycle the primary mode of transportation (C9) at 13.8% and adapting the city to seasonal changes (C8) at 11.5%. This study, which is significant for its focus on a specific region at the local implementation level, presents a straightforward model—based on concrete findings—for prioritizing sustainable transportation and urbanization policies in socioeconomically vulnerable areas. In doing so, it contributes to aligning theoretical approaches with practical field applications. Full article

The 15-min neighborhood paradigm has reshaped the evaluation system of urban pedestrian mobility, shifting pedestrian network assessment from single facility supply to holistic topological structural analysis. Structural fracture of pedestrian systems has thus become a prominent challenge restricting high-quality sustainable urban travel and neighborhood renewal. Existing studies mainly focus on macroscopic accessibility and geometric connectivity, lacking systematic multi-dimensional quantitative measurement and refined typological identification of network topological fractures. Taking 52 typical 15-min neighborhoods in Baohe District, Hefei as research samples, this paper constructs a four-dimensional topological fracture evaluation system, and conducts empirical analysis through correlation analysis, K-means++ clustering and micro topological feature mining. The results show that functional fracture and hierarchical fracture are weakly correlated and relatively independent (ρ = 0.068). Four distinct topological fracture types are classified, among which the Cognitive Disorientation type accounts for the largest proportion of 37.3%. Microscopic topological verification further reveals the formation mechanisms and spatial differentiation laws of various fracture patterns. This study provides a scientific typological basis and targeted topological intervention strategies for sustainable governance, classified regulation and optimized upgrading of urban pedestrian travel networks. Full article

Active Distribution Networks (ADNs) rely on the precise coordination of flexible resources to mitigate the stochasticity of high-penetration renewables. However, the hierarchical and partitioned nature of modern ADNs transforms the day-ahead scheduling problem into a high-dimensional many-objective optimization task, typically involving conflicting objectives across multiple regions. Standard evolutionary algorithms often struggle with the “curse of dimensionality” in such scenarios. To address this limitation, this study formulates a hierarchical partition-based scheduling model for many-objective optimization and introduces a novel adaptive MOEA/D algorithm. Specifically, a double-layer weight generation method and an adaptive neighborhood adjustment strategy are introduced to balance global search capability with local convergence speed. The methodology is validated using a practical 47-node ADN case study in Panzhihua, China. Comprehensive analysis of evaluation metrics (e.g., Hypervolume and IGD) indicates that the proposed algorithm achieves enhanced performance at the expense of a marginal increase in cost. Furthermore, it demonstrates strong competitiveness against advanced heuristic algorithms in solving high-dimensional scheduling problems, effectively balancing economic efficiency and voltage stability under renewable uncertainty. Full article