Search Results (23)

Contemporary buildings and urban spaces are increasingly expected to support psychological well-being—a quality often termed “restorativeness.” Conventional approaches to quantifying restorativeness rely on subjective surveys or coarse green metrics, failing to capture how specific building morphologies and street-level visual configurations shape restorative experiences, particularly for stress-prone groups such as young adults. This study develops a deep-learning-driven framework linking building visual elements to youth-specific perceived restorativeness, using Changsha, China, as a testbed. The framework comprises three AI-powered modules: the TrueSkill algorithm trains a deep learning model to predict six dimensions of youth perception (e.g., beautiful, clean, safe) from pairwise comparisons of street view images; the Mask2Former architecture segments street-level imagery into 18 building and street attributes; and the XGBoost-SHAP pipeline uncovers nonlinear associations and threshold-like patterns between these attributes and the composite Built Environment Restorativeness Index (BERI). Results reveal three key insights: tree coverage shows a sustained positive association without saturation; building density exhibits a weakening association at high levels, suggesting possible saturation; and road proportion follows a bidirectional pattern, shifting from negative to positive beyond a certain range. Spatially, high BERI zones concentrate where ecological assets and diverse building functions co-occur, while youth perception exhibits systematic mismatches (e.g., “beautiful but not clean,” “safe but not lively”), traceable to imbalances in building form, street furniture, and commercial mix. These findings advance AI-assisted evaluation of built environments by shifting from one-dimensional metrics to interpretable, design-relevant diagnostics, offering a replicable evidence base for crafting youth-responsive buildings and streets. Full article

In the 21st century, rapid urban development during global urbanization has led to high-density environments. These settings have become a significant cause of stress-related health problems for residents. Healing street design plays an important role in helping address mental health challenges caused by this process. Current research often focuses on healing elements and methods from only a single field. As a result, it lacks the integration of multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder perspectives. To address this gap, this paper formed a Delphi expert panel with multidisciplinary scholars, urban managers, and practicing designers. The panel developed a quantitative evaluation model. This model covers four core dimensions: Safety (0.3210), Attractiveness (0.1080), Friendliness (0.2155), and Comfort (0.3553). It also includes eleven healing elements, such as Pedestrian Right-of-Way (0.4131), Night Lighting (0.3209), Visual Landscape (0.759), Street Furniture (0.4000), and Street Scale (0.3274). Using this model, the healing potential of Jingliu Road in Zhengzhou was assessed. The analysis identified the overall healing potential, core healing dimensions, and shortcomings of the street. This finding provides a clear direction for future healing-oriented street design. This paper builds a healing system for pedestrian spaces in high-density urban streets in China. It thus offers an evidence-based scientific tool for environmental design. Healing environments have expanded from less accessible spaces, such as squares and parks, to interactive and accessible streets. This transition enhances urban spaces’ capacity to address residents’ mental health concerns and promotes public health. Additionally, this paper offers specific recommendations for planners and policymakers to prioritize healing elements in urban renewal projects. Full article

In Amazonian cities, river landscapes may function as key spaces of environmental, social, and cultural convergence, particularly in areas with significant human activity. This research proposes the design of an ecological corridor as a multifunctional public space that strengthens the relationship between the city of Iquitos (Loreto, Peru) and its river environment, promoting user comfort, sustainability, and the revaluation of water resources. The methodology is based on analyses of local flora and fauna, climatic conditions, and the application of passive architectural strategies, supported by digital tools such as AutoCAD 2024, Google maps 2025, OpenStreetMap, Photoshop 2024, SketchUp 2024, and Snazzy Map. The proposal integrates renewable energy through the installation of 55 photovoltaic-powered lampposts mainly distributed along the road and pedestrian infrastructure of the corridor, responsible water management via rainwater harvesting systems, and the use of local eco-friendly materials, including capirona wood for structural elements, bolaina wood for furniture and finishes, and bamboo for shading structures. Additionally, 81.61% of the total area is allocated to green spaces with native flora, complemented by an Amazonian plant nursery. Although similar integrative riverfront regeneration projects have been implemented in several international cities, their application in Amazonian urban contexts remains limited, highlighting the relevance of this proposal. In conclusion, the project aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals and contributes to contemporary discussions on public space planning in tropical contexts, proposing an ecological regeneration model adaptable to other Amazonian cities. Full article

Digital twins (DTs) are increasingly adopted to enhance the monitoring, management, and planning of urban infrastructure. While DT development for buildings is well established, applications to urban road networks remain limited, particularly in integrating heterogeneous geospatial datasets into semantically rich, multi-scale representations. This study presents a methodology for developing a BIM-based DT of urban roads by integrating geospatial data from Mobile Mapping System (MMS) surveys with semantic information from municipal geodatabases. The approach follows a multi-modal (point clouds, imagery, vector data), multi-scale and multi-level framework, where ‘multi-level’ refers to modeling at different scopes—from a city-wide level, offering a generalized representation of the entire road network, to asset-level detail, capturing parametric BIM elements for individual road segments or specific components such as road sign and road marker, lamp posts and traffic light. MMS-derived LiDAR point clouds allow accurate 3D reconstruction of road surfaces, curbs, and ancillary infrastructure, while municipal geodatabases enrich the model with thematic layers including pavement condition, road classification, and street furniture. The resulting DT framework supports multi-scale visualization, asset management, and predictive maintenance. By combining geometric precision with semantic richness, the proposed methodology delivers an interoperable and scalable framework for sustainable urban road management, providing a foundation for AI-ready applications such as automated defect detection, traffic simulation, and predictive maintenance planning. The resulting DT achieved a geometric accuracy of ±3 cm and integrated more than 45 km of urban road network, enabling multi-scale analyses and AI-ready data fusion. Full article

This article presents a spatial analysis of projects selected by city residents and implemented in five successive editions (2015–2019) of the participatory budgeting in Częstochowa, Poland. The study examines the relationship between the type of hard projects (small investments in public infrastructure and landscaping) and the pre-existing characteristics of the land use of each district. Kernel density estimation and Spearman correlation analysis were used. The highest spatial density occurred in projects related to the modernization of roads and sidewalks, recreation, and greenery, indicating a relatively high number of proposals within or near residential areas. Key correlations included the following: (1) greenery projects were more common in districts lacking green areas; (2) recreational infrastructure was more frequently chosen in areas with significant water features; (3) street furniture projects were mostly selected in districts with sparse development, scattered buildings, and postindustrial sites; (4) educational infrastructure was often chosen in low-density, but developing districts. The selected projects often reflect local deficits in specific land use or public infrastructure, but also stress the predestination of the recreational use of waterside areas. Full article

The level of detail (LOD) differentiates multi-scale representations of virtual 3D city models; however, the LOD tends to relay primarily the geometric details of buildings. When the LOD extends to other datasets, such as vegetation, transportation, terrain, water bodies, and city furniture, their LODs are not as clearly defined. Despite the general acceptance of this categorization, existing LOD formats also neglect non-geometric attributes. Integrating geometric and attribute data enables geometrically accurate and data-rich 3D models, ensuring that representations are as accurate as possible and that analyses contain as much information as possible. This paper proposes a family of LOD definitions considering both geometric and attribute data based on the geometric complexity and difficulty of obtaining, archiving, processing, and distributing the data. These definitions are intended to apply to all datasets by determining divisions in the LOD typically experienced across urban 3D model elements and their associated datasets, including buildings, vegetation, roads, relief, water bodies, and city furniture. Universally applicable definitions for datasets allow individuals to recreate studies or representations of 3D models to ensure the relevant data are present. These definitions also assist data providers in evaluating their data infrastructure and further strategizing and prioritizing updates or upgrades. Full article

Construction and demolition waste management through the reuse of materials has drawn a considerable amount of attention in recent years. Hence, this study examines the diverse approaches to construction and demolition waste reuse in South Africa. Surveying 122 construction professionals, 87 responses were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results show that manufacturing the road base pavement layer from reclaimed asphalt, manufacturing furniture from used timber, using recycled plastic to manufacture plastic strips for soil embankments, and manufacturing fibreglass insulation from recycled glass are the most adopted and significant approaches to construction and demolition waste reuse in South Africa. By embracing these approaches, the construction industry can transition towards more sustainable and resource-efficient practices, thereby minimising waste generation, conserving natural resources, and mitigating environmental impacts. Full article

In the production of high-definition maps, it is necessary to achieve the three-dimensional instantiation of road furniture that is difficult to depict on traditional maps. The development of mobile laser measurement technology provides a new means for acquiring road furniture data. To address the issue of traffic marking extraction accuracy in practical production, which is affected by degradation, occlusion, and non-standard variations, this paper proposes a 3D reconstruction method based on energy functions and template matching, using zebra crossings in vehicle-mounted LiDAR point clouds as an example. First, regions of interest (RoIs) containing zebra crossings are obtained through manual selection. Candidate point sets are then obtained at fixed distances, and their neighborhood intensity features are calculated to determine the number of zebra stripes using non-maximum suppression. Next, the slice intensity feature of each zebra stripe is calculated, followed by outlier filtering to determine the optimized length. Finally, a matching template is selected, and an energy function composed of the average intensity of the point cloud within the template, the intensity information entropy, and the intensity gradient at the template boundary is constructed. The 3D reconstruction result is obtained by solving the energy function, performing mode statistics, and normalization. This method enables the complete 3D reconstruction of zebra stripes within the RoI, maintaining an average planar corner accuracy within 0.05 m and an elevation accuracy within 0.02 m. The matching and reconstruction time does not exceed 1 s, and it has been applied in practical production. Full article

As the most promising biomass material, bamboo has been widely used, but at the same time, it is subject to many problems, such as processing residues and the failure of high-value utilization of residues. In this paper, bamboo powder and polybutylene succinate (PBS) were used as the main raw materials, and by changing the ratio of bamboo powder to PBS and adding polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) in combination with PBS, the effects of the ratio, as well as the effects of the use of PP and PE, on the physical–mechanical, thermal, and degradation properties of bamboo–plastic composites were investigated, and the microscopic changes of the materials were studied by chemical component analysis. The optimal formulation of bamboo powder/PBS composite material has been identified through experimentation, yielding a flexural strength of 24.87 MPa and a compressive strength of 29.74 MPa. This material can be used for outdoor furniture, wall panels, flooring, road barriers, and other applications, providing a new environmentally friendly approach to the consumption of residual bamboo materials. Full article

The rapid-developed scale of China’s trade in wood forest products has undergone a considerable uptick. Concomitant with the evolution of high-quality development paradigms, product quality within trade frameworks has gained escalating scrutiny. Based on the statistical analysis of the export characteristics of China’s wood forest products, this study leverages BACI data spanning from 1998 to 2017. Utilizing regression-based inverse methods, the study quantifies the quality attributes of these export products, dissects fluctuations in quality, and places particular emphasis on the markets within “Belt and Road Initiative” economies to elucidate dynamic trends and spatial distribution characteristics of export quality in this geoeconomic domain. Based on this, the fixed effect model, random effect model, and system GMM are used to empirically examine the influencing factors of China’s wood forest product export quality. This study found that wood-based panel products have the highest quality, followed by paper products and wood furniture among the three major categories of wood forest products. Besides, the overall quality levels of the three products exported to countries participating in the Belt and Road initiative haven’t significantly changed, while notable changes are evident across divergent export destination markets. In addition, an empirical study on the influencing factors of the export product quality of wood forest products is conducted, which indicates that total factor productivity, R&D investment, capital intensity, labor costs, and foreign direct investment are influencing factors. Finally, based on the research conclusions, suggestions are provided on how to improve the export quality of wood forest products. Full article

A small amount of campus walkability research has considered facility layout and environmental quality. The aim of this paper is to use a Walk Score and Urban Design Quality to assess campus walkability and investigate the impact of a campus Walk Score, environmental quality and other streetscape features on walking activity. This paper optimizes the Walk Score method based on the frequency, variety, and distance of students’ walking to and from public facilities. A total of 157 campus street segments from the Weijin Road Campus of Tianjin University in China were selected to assess campus Walk Scores and environmental quality through the use of GIS and field audits. The effect of campus walkability and environmental features on pedestrian volume was examined by negative binomial regression. We found that Walk Score, transparency, street furniture, the number of buildings and noise level have a positive effect on walking activity, while enclosure and building basic color show a negative relationship with pedestrian volume. The results will be used to propose strategies to improve campus walkability and promote walking activity. Full article

Throughout history, tools for engineering in the building industry have evolved. Due to the arrival of Industry 4.0, Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) software have replaced the usage of pens, pencils, and paper in the design process. This paper describes the work required to design a large-scale immersive visit of a district under construction in a suburban area of Greater Paris, France. As part of this real estate project, called LaVallée, we have access to its city information model: all the BIMs of the works to be carried out including roads, terrain, street furniture, fountains, and landscaping. This paper describes all the technical operations necessary for the design of an immersive 3D model with a high level of detail of the neighborhood with its surroundings. The objective of this technical report was to provide practitioners with feedback on such an achievement based on industrial-level data. The development of the city model begins with the registration of all the BIMs from different firms in a common Geographic Information System: this gives the opportunity to confront the operational requirement of a construction phase and the actual current practice of architecture firms. A first prototype was developed using the archviz tool TwinMotion. In order to increase the realism of the model, we describe the creation of a pipeline in Unreal Engine with the automated tasks of material and mesh replacement and the lighting and landscape configuration. The main contribution of this work is to give relevant experience on building such a large-scale model, with the Python script when possible, as well as the necessary manual steps. It is a valuable contribution to the making of large-scale immersive visits with a high level of detail and their requirements. Full article

Ongoing climate change is manifesting in the expansion of the urban heat island (UHI) effect. This paper evaluates the microclimate benefits of cool pavements and green infrastructures in a historical square in Rome, Italy. The ENVI-Met software enabled us to conduct a microclimatic analysis of the examined square in July 2021, through a comparison of the thermal performances of the current asphalt and sampietrini pavement (AS) with three alternatives. The proposed options are to change the existing layout to include: light concrete slabs and green furniture consisting of 5 m high trees (LC+G1), a perimeter hedge with 5 m high trees (LC+G2), and a perimeter hedge with 15 m high trees (LC+G3). The effects of the road pavements as passive countermeasures to the UHI effect are investigated in terms of air temperature (AT), mean radiant temperature (MRT), and predicted mean vote (PMV). The results show that the existing asphalt pavement is the worst option, while the cool pavement integrated with vegetation is greatly beneficial to human thermal comfort. Compared to the current layout, LC+G3 is the best scenario, because it implies an AT reduction higher than 3 °C, a MRT reduction equal to 50%, and a maximum PMV value equal to 2.2. Full article

As the most important forest product in the export of China, wooden furniture is facing increasingly fierce international competition and has a strong need for quality improvement. Based on the endogenous determination model of quality, this paper measures the quality of Chinese wooden furniture in exports from 1998 to 2017, by using product-level trade data of BACI CEPII. From the perspectives of the overall and sub-category quality, it examines the characteristics of dynamic changes in the product quality and its regional distribution of “the Belt and Road Initiative” countries. The results show that the quality of Chinese wooden furniture in exports is lower than that of wood-based panels and paper products. It remains stable after a slight increase from 2001 to 2005, but the quality level is always low. Among the sub-categories, wooden furniture not for kitchens, offices, or bedrooms has the lowest quality, while wooden office furniture has the highest one. The three dominant sub-categories that account for a high export share are all low in quality, while the small proportion sub-categories are all of higher quality, implying a strong imbalance. In particular, the quality of the main export products, upholstered wooden seats and wooden furniture not for kitchen, office, or bedroom use, has continued to decline, highlighting the plight of the quality growth of Chinese wooden furniture. For the BRI markets, the quality of Chinese wooden furniture exported to the region has declined slightly since 2012. However, different markets have shown different characteristics in the quality level and the direction of change. In terms of quality level, the qualities of wooden furniture exported to Malaysia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and the Philippines are relatively high. In terms of changing trends, the qualities of wooden furniture to Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Israel are showing a rising trend. In this case, accurately identifying the quality of different export categories of furniture products and their changing characteristics can help furniture enterprises make better production and operation decisions, promote the formation of a good business environment, and foster new comparative advantages and international competitiveness. Full article

Road vehicles are a large contributor to nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution. The routine roadside monitoring stations, however, may underrepresent the severity of personal exposure in urban areas because long-term average readings cannot capture the effects of momentary, high peaks of air pollution. While numerical modelling tools historically have been used to propose an improved distribution of monitoring stations, ultra-high resolution Computational Fluid Dynamics models can further assist the relevant stakeholders in understanding the important details of pollutant dispersion and exposure at a local level. This study deploys a 10-cm-resolution CFD model to evaluate actual high peaks of personal exposure to NOx from traffic by tracking the gases emitted from the tailpipe of moving vehicles being dispersed towards the roadside. The investigation shows that a set of four Euro 5-rated diesel vehicles travelling at a constant speed may generate momentary roadside concentrations of NOx as high as 1.25 mg/m³, with a 25% expected increase for doubling the number of vehicles and approximately 50% reduction when considering Euro 6-rated vehicles. The paper demonstrates how the numerical tool can be used to identify the impact of measures to reduce personal exposure, such as protective urban furniture, as traffic patterns and environmental conditions change. Full article