Search Results (483)

This study examined how environmental expectation gaps, defined as discrepancies between older adults’ expectations before admission and their actual experiences after admission, are associated with residential adaptation in nursing homes. Survey data from 613 residents of six public and private inclusive nursing homes in Changchun, China, were analyzed using structural equation modeling and bias-corrected bootstrapping. Expectation gaps in safety and mobility convenience, privacy and autonomy, environmental comfort, and spatial cognition and familiarity were significantly associated with emotional adaptation, with spatial cognition and familiarity showing the strongest relationship. Support for activities and social interaction was positively associated with relationship formation but negatively associated with communal-living adaptation. Residential adaptation followed a sequential process from emotional adaptation to relationship formation, acceptance of institutional living, and adaptation to communal living. Bootstrap analysis further showed that several environmental expectation gaps were indirectly associated with later adaptation outcomes through this sequential process, with some direct and indirect relationships operating in opposite directions. These findings demonstrate that environmental expectation gaps are associated with residential adaptation through differentiated and interconnected pathways, extending nursing home evaluation beyond facility conditions and satisfaction alone. Full article

Road safety is an important aspect of sustainable mobility in urban transportation, with excessive speed a primary contributor to the severity of traffic accidents. Monitoring it is a challenge for current transport systems; however, the current state of open data technologies allows for the collection, monitoring and analysis of traffic data using low-cost devices that can help local citizens verify and support their concerns about dangerous situations in specific areas. This study presents the results of speeding on various street segments in the city of Žilina, Slovakia, based on the data gathered from Telraam low-cost traffic sensors. Differences among the various locations were tested with nonparametric statistical tests (Kruskal–Wallis test and Dunn’s post hoc comparisons). The data provide insight into the largely passenger-car traffic at all sites and show significant variation in the proportions of bikes, pedestrians, and heavy vehicles. The particular differences in speeding behaviour in the spatial context were observed in some locations: Oslobodenia, Okruzna, and Zavodskeho showed the highest V85 values and increased proportions of vehicles exceeding 50 km/h, while Hviezdoslavova, Osvety, and Univerzitna showed substantially lower operating speeds. The findings indicate that some residential collector road segments record a higher share of overspeeding than the main road. Such findings suggest that low-cost devices may be useful technology to support citizens and their initiatives in a real way, enhancing road safety. The findings suggest that low-cost open-data sensors can support preliminary speed-management screening by identifying locations with elevated speeding indicators that warrant more detailed investigation. Full article

Urban fragmentation is often approached through residential patterns, spatial distance and the uneven distribution of urban resources. However, in Southern European medium-sized cities, where socially contrasting neighbourhoods may be located in close physical proximity, fragmentation may operate through less visible everyday mechanisms. This article examines how selective spatial practices reflect and may reproduce unequal access to places, activities and opportunities, and how this perspective may inform debates on spatial governance and urban planning. Drawing on GPS tracking, in-depth interviews and mental maps, it analyses daily mobility, activity spaces and lived spatial boundaries in two socially contrasting neighbourhoods of Lleida, Spain. The article contributes to debates on urban inequality, understood as the structurally conditioned unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, capacities and recognition by conceptualising differentiated everyday geographies as both manifestations of this inequality and mechanisms through which it may be reproduced. The findings show how spatial practices and cognitive representations structure urban experience beyond residential segregation: physical proximity does not necessarily translate into shared urban experience: as some participants develop broader and socially legitimised relations with the city, whereas others display more restricted and symbolically bounded patterns of urban engagement. The article therefore advances practised accessibility as an analytical and planning perspective that incorporates the temporal, modal, cognitive and symbolic conditions that shape everyday access to urban opportunities beyond their informal availability. Full article

Understanding how urban park landscape features are associated with service population and service radius can inform park planning and management. In Changsha, China, this study measured both indicators for 29 parks on one weekday and one weekend day in spring 2025 using mobile signaling data, quantified landscape features from multisource data, and examined their associations. Service population and service radius were not highly correlated. The adjusted R² values for the two indicators were 71.8% and 84.5%, respectively. Park area and the number of parking lots within the park were significantly associated with both indicators in the same direction. Percent vegetation cover and the number of stores within the park were significantly associated with the two indicators in opposite directions. Elevation, presence of large-scale flower landscapes, distance to the nearest subway station, number of surrounding bus stops, distance to the city center, slope, percent water body, edge density of vegetation patches, number of public restrooms, and number of surrounding residential quarters were significantly associated with only one indicator. These findings reveal synergistic, trade-off, and indicator-specific association patterns between landscape features and urban park recreational services, and may inform differentiated urban park planning and management. Full article

This study investigates the spatiotemporal distribution of heavy metals in urban soils of Thessaloniki, Greece, over a four-year monitoring period (2021–2024). A total of 664 soil samples were collected across diverse land-use types during both wet (winter) and dry (summer) seasons. Soil physicochemical properties were analyzed alongside cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) concentrations. The results reveal distinct, element-specific accumulation dynamics driven by continuous anthropogenic inputs. Statistical and geospatial analyses confirm that Cd exhibits a highly significant, progressive accumulation and spatial expansion toward residential areas. In contrast, Cu and Pb demonstrate a gradual, chronic enrichment, eventually reaching a saturation point where winter precipitation is insufficient to offset summer deposition. Zn presents as a severe but temporally stable contamination burden, anchored to the northwestern industrial–port sector. Furthermore, the alkaline properties of the local urban soils were found to act as an effective sink, immobilizing contaminants and preventing downward leaching. The Geo-accumulation Index (I_geo) confirms a progressive decline in soil quality driven primarily by cadmium, while the other trace elements exhibit persistent, stable profiles. Overall, this study establishes a vital geochemical baseline of total heavy metal loading in Mediterranean urban soils, emphasizing the need for targeted emission controls and future mobile-fraction assessments to guide sustainable urban management. Full article

Weekday commuting and weekend recreation are two mobility domains through which urban spatial structure affects residents’ daily experience and urban functioning. Although commuting and recreational mobility are theoretically related, whether their spatial relationship creates scope for coordinated improvement in both domains remains insufficiently understood. A preceding study in Chongqing identified a U-shaped relationship between weekday commuting costs and weekend recreational mobility costs at the individual level, but its proposed spatial-structural interpretation remained untested. This study examines whether the same relationship emerges across residential locations and whether the resulting mobility-cost structure corresponds to the spatial configuration of employment and recreational opportunities. Using location-based services data from the central urban area of Chongqing, individual mobility records were aggregated to residential grids and analysed through a three-stage framework examining the grid-level U-shaped relationship, multivariate dependence between the opportunity and cost structures, and their curve-based correspondence. The U-shaped relationship was reproduced at the grid level. The opportunity and cost structures exhibited multivariate dependence, and the curve-based analysis showed a positive correspondence between residential grids’ positions relative to the fitted opportunity and cost reference points. These findings support the interpretation that the U-shaped relationship partly reflects how residential locations are positioned relative to multiple employment centres and spatially distributed recreational destinations. The findings indicate that commuting and recreational mobility should be considered jointly in jobs–housing–recreation planning and suggest potential scope for coordinated improvement across both domains. Full article

The paper investigates the integration of permeable pavements into sustainable urban mobility planning in Bologna, Italy. The study evaluates stormwater management benefits under the current and future climate conditions through hydrological and hydraulic modeling with EPA SWMM. A residential catchment of about 50 hectares was analyzed, with potential permeable pavement implementation on pedestrian paths and parking areas. Results show a 40% reduction in stormwater volumes under the current climate and 38% under future scenarios, confirming the resilience and effectiveness of green infrastructure. Findings support Bologna’s Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility, highlighting permeable pavements as a strategy to enhance resilience and sustainability. Full article

Background/Objectives: Breast cancer mortality remains disproportionately high in Eastern Europe, partly due to delayed diagnosis and limited access to organized screening programs. Socioeconomic deprivation and rural residence may contribute to inequalities in breast cancer detection and disease burden at presentation. This study aimed to evaluate the association between sociodemographic disparities and mammographic tumor burden at breast cancer diagnosis within a large regional screening cohort from Eastern Romania. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted within the ONCOFEM regional breast cancer screening initiative between August 2020 and December 2023. A total of 23,886 asymptomatic women aged 50–69 years underwent screening mammography using fixed and mobile digital mammography units. Sociodemographic variables included residential environment (urban/rural) and vulnerability status. Histopathologically confirmed malignant lesions were analyzed regarding maximum mammographic tumor dimension and focality status (unifocal, multifocal, multicentric). Statistical analysis included Mann–Whitney U tests and Chi-square/Fisher exact tests, with p < 0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: The screened population included 12,652 rural women (53.0%) and 11,234 urban women (47.0%). Urban participants demonstrated significantly higher recall rates compared with rural women (7.75% vs. 4.85%, respectively; p < 0.001). Similarly, the Cancer Detection Rate (CDR) was significantly higher in the urban subgroup, reaching 7.21 cancers per 1000 screened women, compared with 4.19 cancers per 1000 screened women in the rural population (p = 0.002). The final analytic cohort included 134 patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer, corresponding to 138 malignant lesions. Median tumor size was 25 mm overall. Rural and vulnerable women demonstrated numerically higher proportions of tumors exceeding 20 mm; however, no statistically significant differences were observed regarding maximum tumor dimensions according to residential environment (p = 0.799) or vulnerability (p = 0.934). Multifocal and multicentric disease represented a minority of cases, without significant associations with the sociodemographic subgroup. Conclusions: Although significant urban–rural differences were identified in screening performance metrics, mammographic indicators of tumor burden demonstrated relatively similar distributions across sociodemographic subgroups. The persistently high proportion of tumors exceeding 20 mm across all groups suggests a substantial burden of relatively advanced disease at diagnosis within the Romanian population. No statistically significant disparities in mammographic tumor burden were identified across the analyzed sociodemographic subgroups; however, the present study cannot determine whether the use of mobile mammography units contributed to this observation. Full article

Fragmented urban growth in Latin American intermediate cities has increasingly displaced low-income populations to peripheral areas, creating spatial mismatches between residential areas and educational opportunities provided by public higher education institutions. These patterns reflect inequalities that constrain educational accessibility and limit urban resilience. To examine these dynamics, this study applies a geospatial framework to develop an Educational Spatial Injustice Index (ESII) that quantifies disparities in Chihuahua, Mexico. Mobility metrics derived from Google Maps API are combined with census microdata, to analyze 108 high-demand census tracts (AGEBs) linked with seven public higher education institutions. The ESII is constructed through a multi-criteria weighting scheme based on travel time, monetary cost and network distance. Results show a clear north–south pattern, with higher ESII values concentrated in southern peripheries (0.85/1.0), where mean daily travel time reaches 3.45 h. Statistical analysis shows that the Social Lag Index (IRS; ρ = 0.729) has the strongest association with the Global ESII. Furthermore, spatial regression modeling reveals that while operational transit connectivity (bus routes) is a significant mitigating factor (p < 0.001), the mere physical presence of infrastructure (bus stops) is not. These findings suggest that spatial injustice in educational accessibility is more deeply rooted in structural urban growth patterns and socio-spatial inequalities than in simple infrastructure provision. The results support targeted planning strategies to improve accessibility and strengthen urban resilience in intermediate cities. Full article

Urban noise pollution is considered to be a significant challenge to neighborhood livability, particularly in cities with limited noise governance. This has resulted in raising the environmental noise as a critical health and livability concern. Existing approaches rely on decibel thresholds that fail to capture the spatial, social and perceptual complexity of noise conditions at the neighborhood scale. This study offers a multi-criteria soundscape framework integrating acoustic measurements and urban parameters (urban design, landscape, regulations and perception). The aim is to support the optimal location for noise planning. The framework was applied as a pilot study across five residential neighborhoods in Tripoli, Lebanon. The OpeNoise mobile application was used across four temporal sessions. Recordings were combined with qualitative resident interviews. Average Equivalent Continuous Sound level LAeq(t) values ranged from 60.3 to 76.8 dBA. While all neighborhoods exceeded the World Health Organization WHO guidelines, acoustic severity alone did not determine the best case for intervention. The neighborhood with the highest measured noise did not achieve the highest priority score. This demonstrates that decibel planning is insufficient. The alignment of acoustic severity, feasibility, and community demand is more effective for intervention. The framework’s criteria are based on observable urban indicators, suggesting applicability to similar urban contexts, further pending validation. Full article

This study examines the quality of urban life (QoUL) in Ulaanbaatar by analyzing variations in overall life satisfaction across urban development types and identifying the sociodemographic, housing, mobility, and domain-specific factors associated with these differences. An integrated methodological framework combining questionnaire survey data and spatial information was utilized to analyze 529 valid responses collected from five urban development contexts: new development, redevelopment, land readjustment, urban sprawl, and other areas. The analysis employed descriptive statistics, comparative group analysis, and ordinal logistic regression models. Overall life satisfaction differed significantly across development types. The land readjustment areas reported the highest mean value of life satisfaction (3.64), followed by new development (3.53), urban sprawl (3.32), redevelopment (3.13), and other areas (2.97). In the pooled model, higher educational attainment was negatively associated with overall life satisfaction (OR = 0.30, p < 0.05), possibly reflecting higher expectations among better educated residents. In contrast, longer residential duration, particularly beyond 10 years, was positively associated with overall life satisfaction, indicating the importance of residential stability and place attachment. Household composition also emerged as relevant, with family-related responsibilities and child-supportive living conditions shaping how urban environments are experienced. Across development types, accessibility, environmental quality, and dwelling satisfaction were the most consistent predictors. These findings indicate that improving QoUL in Ulaanbaatar requires development-type-specific, people-centered policies that integrate housing, transport, environmental improvement, neighborhood services, and family-supportive interventions to support more sustainable and equitable urban development. Full article

The 15-min city (15minC) concept has gained popularity in policy circles as a model of sustainable transportation systems, but there has not been enough empirical study done on its application to suburban peripheries with low-density residential patterns and a significant reliance on cars. In two Southern European suburban living labs—Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain, and Alverca do Ribatejo (Vila Franca de Xira), Portugal—the study examines the impact of 15minC policy initiatives on urban social equity from four distinct angles: proximity equity, modal equity, digital equity, and participatory equity. It is clear from SWOT analysis and focus group data that both study areas’ spatial layouts are geared toward promoting the use of private vehicles, which poses significant accessibility challenges for the elderly, low-income families, and the digitally marginalized population. Modal accessibility research reveals accessibility disparities of 40–60 percentage points for key amenities between walking and driving. Because digital transformation initiatives prioritize technology advancements above expanded service accessibility, they may worsen disparities in urban accessibility. Conversely, social strata whose mobility is particularly vulnerable are still not included in participation plans. It is concluded that a more redistributive transportation strategy is necessary for a fair suburban mobility transition. Full article

This paper examines how place organizes life course trajectories and shapes population processes. It does so by structuring cumulative and unequal exposure to relationships, institutions, and opportunities over time. These spatially patterned exposures shape trajectories across the life course and contribute to population heterogeneity and stratification. Drawing on a life course perspective, the paper shows how place is constitutive of processes in domains including education, work, family life, and mobility, and how these experiences are implicated in divergence across cohorts and generations. It also considers how daily activity spaces, remembered environments, and symbolic attachments to place contribute to the formation of selves and to the reproduction of social and cultural meanings over time. The paper develops a conceptual account that treats place as a layered and cumulative dimension of life course processes, offering a more analytically coherent understanding of how spatial exposure shapes trajectories and population dynamics, and outlining implications for theory, research questions, and the measurement and modeling of place in life course research. Full article

Rapid electric-vehicle adoption is reshaping urban energy and mobility systems, especially in multi-unit dwellings (MUDs), where concentrated charging in shared parking areas simultaneously stresses distribution transformers and amplifies the consequences of charger faults, battery thermal events, smoke spread, and emergency-access constraints. The central argument of this paper is that grid stress, resident-facing service quality, lifecycle cost, and fire-risk exposure in enclosed residential parking should be governed jointly rather than as four separate problems. To make that argument concrete, we develop an integrated framework that couples stochastic EV adoption, residential charging-behavior simulation, XGBoost demand forecasting, and linear-programming-based optimization for coordinated control, and we evaluate it through 1000 Monte Carlo trials on representative Turkish MUDs. Unmanaged charging triggers transformer overload at about 30% EV penetration, whereas coordinated control reduces peak demand by 44.7% (405 kW to 224 kW) and raises load factor from 0.40 to 0.68. Strict capacity protection exposes a sharp service–quality trade-off, with only 8.9% of users reaching 80% state of charge (SOC) by departure. Smart charging lowers upfront cost by about 55% ($200 vs. $439 per dwelling unit) and yields roughly $306 net present value per unit over ten years. Building on these results, we propose a five-pillar fire-risk-aware governance architecture—coordinated control, interoperability standards, time-of-use pricing, building–utility coordination, and monitoring—that turns coordinated charging into a preventive governance layer for reducing hazardous congestion in enclosed residential charging environments. Full article

Population aging has made aging in place (AIP) a central goal of sustainable welfare and urban governance, yet older adults’ perceived feasibility of remaining in their current home under conditions of vulnerability remains unevenly distributed. This study conceptualizes AIP intention under anticipated mobility limitation as a stratified condition of social sustainability, asking who expects to remain in the community as a supported and recognized member when mobility declines. Using the 2023 National Survey of Older Koreans (N = 9951), it examines older adults’ stated intention to remain in their current residence under mobility limitation through weighted logistic regression. The results show that this intention is structured most strongly by housing inequality: non-owner tenure reduces the likelihood of intending to remain in place, whereas housing satisfaction increases it. Co-residence with adult children is positively associated with this intention, while activities of daily living limitations are negatively associated with it. Beyond material and health conditions, social participation intention and digital adaptability increase the likelihood of intending to remain in place, whereas age discrimination in public institutions reduces it. Government trust is negatively associated with the intention to remain in place. Because the survey does not directly measure older adults’ awareness, availability, evaluation, or use of alternative residential or care facilities, this association is treated only as a discussion point rather than as an empirically tested mechanism: higher institutional trust may be linked to greater openness to publicly supported alternatives. The findings demonstrate that the perceived feasibility of AIP is not merely an individual preference, but an unevenly distributed possibility shaped by housing security, institutional inclusion, and civic capacity. Sustainable aging policy should integrate housing support, anti-discrimination measures, digital inclusion, and community participation. Full article