Search Results (208)

Increasing the level of livability in cities is a topical area both in EU policies and in local urban development, as well as in scientific studies. The aim of this article is to assess the degree if livability of the large housing estates (LHEs) built during the socialist period in the main regional cities of Romania and how adequately they meet the requirements of current urban life. The research focused on assessing the accessibility of these neighborhoods to green spaces and other types of public facilities and services of interest, also taking into account the typology of LHEs. For this, we used mixed research methods, namely GIS remote sensing, fieldwork, and questionnaire surveys, with the results being digitally processed and mapped. This comparative research allowed us to see to what extent each type of neighborhood lends itself to the application of the European Green Deal principles (EGD). In this sense, we mapped the transformations undergone by urban green spaces, as a major dimension of sustainability, and we created an LHE accessibility index, using eight groups of indicators. Based on this index, we assessed the degree of livability and the compatibility of LHEs with some of the EGD principles. We believe that this study can be applied in other regions with similar characteristics, for the analysis of territorial accessibility of public services, in the creation of quality of life registers, or for the planning of spatial components of green cities. Full article

The narrow courtyard houses in the rural areas of Guanzhong region of Shaanxi Province, China, are a spatial representation of the long-term interaction of multiple influencing factors. This study, based on 716 questionnaires and 125 semi-structured interviews, comprehensively employed typology, qualitative analysis, comprehensive fuzzy evaluation, and grey correlation degree analysis methods to analyze the spatial evolution process of 125 typical samples since 1949. The results of research show: (1) In terms of spatial form, the narrow courtyard houses have evolved along a “from single to multiple, from horizontal to vertical, from open to closed” path. Their core has shifted from the symbolic “courtyard” to the functional “hall”, and the value of the main and auxiliary spaces has also undergone reconstruction, reflecting a modern transformation from “priority of etiquette” to “life quality orientation”. (2) The driving path starts from the institutional traction during the “survival stage”, then shifts to the economic dominance during the “growth stage”, and finally turns to the policy guidance and quality pursuit in the “life stage”, which are all coordinated. Policy and industrial structure are the core macro driving forces that run through the entire process. (3) Overall, the modernization transformation of the narrow courtyard houses is a dynamic process driven by external factors, with its path gradually shifting from the traditional endogenous model to external promotion and towards a diversified balance; however, the current “vacuum” state of cultural concepts reveals that the modernization of rural houses is still in the transitional stage between old and new paradigms. Based on this, the core of future rural house construction lies in achieving an internal reshaping from functional form to cultural value, guiding the spatial form to move from “disorderly exploration” to the organic generation of a “new paradigm”, providing a sustainable spatial paradigm for rural revitalization. Full article

This study examines the transformation of modern residential architecture in Cyprus between 1930 and 1974 through 14 representative residences selected across four historical periods. The study examines the political, social, and cultural contexts extending from the introduction of modern architecture to the island, through the post-Republican era, and the conflict between 1963 and 1974. It aims to comprehensively explore the spatial, climatic, and regional characteristics of modern Cypriot housing. The examples were selected based on criteria such as documentability, period representativeness, architectural originality, and spatial qualities. Data were tabulated based on plan structure, façade layout, use of semi-open spaces, material choices, and climatic adaptation strategies. These parameters were evaluated through comparative analysis to identify changes in modernist expressions, the emergence of regionalist trends, and how Mediterranean environmental approaches were reflected in architecture. The findings demonstrate that the spatial flexibility, interior-exterior continuity, and climatic sensitivity seen in modern housing from the 1930s onward evolved into a more pronounced Mediterranean regionalism with the contributions of local architects after 1950. The study offers a typological, spatial, and climatic analysis unique to the literature on the development of modern residential architecture in Cyprus. Full article

Livestock farming represents one of the primary sources of ammonia (NH₃) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and carbon dioxide (CO₂), having a significant environmental impact. Reducing emissions and recovering gas systems from these livestock buildings necessitate measuring gas concentrations to mitigate environmental impacts using an accurate, high-cost portable device. This study aims to evaluate the concentration of NH₃ and GHGs in a semi-open dairy farm located in southern Sicily, a region with a hot climate. The measurement campaign was carried out during the spring of 2025. The concentrations of NH₃, CH₄, CO_2, and N₂O were measured in different barn areas (i.e., manger, feeding alley, and service alley) using a portable gas detector (GASMET GT5000) based on Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) technology. Statistical analysis revealed that NH₃ concentrations were highest in the feeding alley, while CH₄ concentrations peaked at the manger. N₂O levels stayed low because there was no straw. Future research should investigate gas concentrations across different seasons (e.g., winter, summer) to analyze gas patterns under different climatic conditions. Additionally, the use of an accurate portable device enables further investigations into other barn typologies within the Mediterranean area to assess how farm construction and management practices influence gas production. Full article

The increase in extreme weather underscores the critical need for combining innovative architecture, urban, and landscape design to render our cities more resilient. Conventional approaches, heavily relying on energy consuming and dioxide producing technology, often falter during extreme events, worsening climate challenges. A project in Melbourne exemplifies a shift towards nature-inspired, distributed designs implementing passive strategies of shading, ventilation, water capture, and evaporative cooling. It transformed underused urban spaces into “climate oases” connected through walkable ecological corridors to mitigate urban heat and flooding while providing social and recreational benefits. Its design combined architectural, urban, and ecological strategies in interconnected city ecologies involving buildings, landscapes, and human activities. Local climate adaptation could similarly inform architectural and urban strategies in other locations across the globe. They could similarly draw on the needs of each climate: tropical cities would benefit from embracing cross-ventilation and shade, arid regions from integrating cooling gardens and introverted dense layouts, temperate climates from seasonal strategies alternating rain and sun protection, while cold areas could optimize sun exposure and wind protection. A study of climate design principles across architecture, urban, and landscape sections demonstrate tailored approaches for specific climates over one-size-fits-all models. They combine strategies to drive innovative urban ecologies that prioritize human and environmental well-being. While the Melbourne Cool Lines initiative exemplifies the integration of climate sensitive urban and ecological approaches within existing urban areas, the typological study ignites discussions on how to take these ideas into different contexts, transforming cities into resilient ecosystems that could better respond to changing climates. Full article

As digital transformation intensifies, the governance of spatial data infrastructures is becoming increasingly dependent on the capacity to generate and sustain trust—technological, institutional and civic. This challenge is particularly acute in the Mediterranean region, where disparities in how geospatial data are produced, accessed, and validated are created by uneven digital development and fragmented governance structures. In response to this, this paper introduces an integrated framework combining geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and blockchain technologies to support transparent, verifiable and spatially explicit models of digital trust. Based on case studies from the Horizon 2020 TRUST project, the framework defines trust through territorial indicators across three dimensions: digital infrastructure, institutional transparency, and civic engagement. The system uses interpretable AI models, such as Random Forests, K-means clustering and convolutional neural networks, to classify regions into trust typologies based on multi-source geospatial data. These outputs are then transformed into semantically structured spatial products and anchored to the Ethereum blockchain via smart contracts and decentralized storage (IPFS), thereby ensuring data integrity, auditability and version control. Experimental results from pilot regions in Italy, Greece, Spain and Israel demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework in detecting spatial patterns of trust and producing interoperable, reusable datasets. The findings highlight significant spatial asymmetries in digital trust across the Mediterranean region, suggesting that trust is a measurable territorial condition, not merely a normative ideal. By combining GeoAI with decentralized verification mechanisms, the proposed approach helps to develop accountable, explainable and inclusive spatial data infrastructures, which are essential for democratic digital governance in complex regional environments. Full article

With an emphasis on organizational outcomes and emerging leadership approaches, this review assessed the major contributions of leadership research over the past two decades and explored the evolution of theoretical developments in the field. Following more than twenty years of scholarly attention to leadership models and typologies, the aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the literature on leadership theories and their associated organizational variables. An exploratory and complementary research design was adopted to address the gaps left by previous systematic literature reviews. The findings indicate that, when organizational-level constructs are examined in relation to widely studied leadership theories, several dominant frameworks emerge, including transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, ethical, authentic, ambidextrous, and self-leadership. The results suggest that nearly all major organizational constructs have been investigated in connection with leadership development. Variables such as performance, job satisfaction, and personality appear most frequently, whereas terms such as life satisfaction, performance appraisal, and workplace bullying appear less often. Notably, a key finding of this review is the identification of several leadership theories present in the broader literature but absent from the ranking or co-occurrence analysis. These overlooked theories include instrumental leadership, dark leadership, hybrid, digital or e-leadership, and participative leadership. Full article

Ongoing urbanization, biodiversity decline, and intensifying climate change increasingly challenge the sustainability of urban green spaces (UGS) dominated by conventional, intensively maintained lawns. Although widespread across cities worldwide, lawns are criticised for their low biodiversity value and high resource demands. This paper explores nature-based solutions (NBS) as viable alternatives for enhancing resilience and multifunctionality of urban lawns. It conceptualizes lawns as intertwined ecological, design, and socio-cultural systems, and evaluates strategies for their transformation. Building on case studies from ten Eurasian cities, a narrative literature review, and the authors’ inter- and transdisciplinary research experience, this study develops a typology of NBS alternatives, including urban species-rich meadows, semi-natural grasslands, naturalistic herbaceous perennial plantings, mixed-vegetation groundcovers, edible lawns, pictorial (annual) meadows, and rewilded lawns. Key interventions involve reduced mowing, multifunctional green spaces, adaptive management, and community engagement. Findings demonstrate that these approaches enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate resilience, but their success depends on local ecological conditions, landscape design, and public perceptions of urban nature. Alternative lawn designs and maintenance practices should employ native, drought- and trampling-resistant plants and context-sensitive design configurations while respecting cultural traditions of urban greening and fostering social acceptance. The paper suggests practical recommendations and directions for future research. Full article

Ports pose distinctive monitoring challenges due to harsh marine conditions, mixed construction typologies, and heterogeneous ground conditions. These factors complicate the routine use of satellite InSAR, especially when medium-resolution scatterers must be reliably attributed to specific assets for risk and asset management decisions. In current practice, persistent and distributed scatterer (PS/DS) points are often interpreted in map view without an explicit positional uncertainty model or systematic linkage to three-dimensional infrastructure geometry. We present an end-to-end Differential InSAR framework tailored to large ports that fuses medium-resolution Sentinel-1 Level 2 Co-registered Single-Look Complex (L2-CSLC) stacks with high-resolution airborne LiDAR at the post-processing stage. For the Port of Bahía de Algeciras (Spain), we process 123 Sentinel-1A/B images (2020–2022) in ascending and descending geometry using PS/DS time-series analysis with ETAD-like timing corrections and RAiDER tropospheric/ionospheric mitigation. LiDAR is then used to (i) derive look-specific shadow/layover masks and (ii) perform a whitening-transformed nearest-neighbor association that assigns PS/DS points to LiDAR points under an explicit range–azimuth–cross-range (RAC) uncertainty ellipsoid. The RAC standard deviations $({\sigma }_r,{\sigma }_a,{\sigma }_c)$ are derived from the effective CSLC range/azimuth resolution and from empirical height correction statistics, providing a geometry- and data-informed prior on positional uncertainty. Finally, we render dual-geometry red–green composites (ascending to R, descending to G; shared normalization) on the LiDAR point cloud, enabling consistent inspection in plan and elevation. Across asset types, rigid steel/concrete elements (trestles, quay faces, and dolphins) sustain high coherence, small whitened offsets, and stable backscatter in both looks; cylindrical storage tanks are bright but exhibit look-dependent visibility and larger cross-range residuals due to height and curvature; and container yards and vessels show high amplitude dispersion and lower temporal coherence driven by operations. Overall, LiDAR-assisted whitening-based linking reduces effective positional ambiguity and improves structure-specific attribution for most scatterers across the port. The fusion products, geometry-aware linking plus three-dimensional dual-geometry RGB, enhance the interpretability of medium-resolution SAR and provide a transferable, port-oriented basis for integrating deformation evidence into risk and asset management workflows. Full article

This article addresses the role of human capital in socio-economic development processes during Europe’s energy transition. The main empirical objectives are firstly to diagnose the overall level of human capital in the energy transition economy based on the original synthetic measure, HCIe, and secondly to analyse and assess the variation in its spatial distribution across the European socio-economic landscape, which serves as a foundation for developing a targeted policy typology directly linked to the identified cluster profiles and their specific weaknesses. The general research question is: what is the level and degree of variation in the internal structure of human capital across the European socio-economic landscape? What actions should individual European countries take to support the development of human capital in the context of the energy transition? The research concept adopted also raises additional questions. Firstly, how can the importance of human capital be captured in an economy undergoing an energy transition? Secondly, are there appropriate indicators for measuring this based on the adopted research approach? European countries were selected as the subjects of the study. In the empirical section, taxonomic methods were employed to develop a proprietary synthetic measure of human capital in a transforming energy economy (HCIe), which was then used for the hierarchical classification of entities. The internal structure of human capital was explored using multi-criteria cluster analysis with the k-means algorithm. This approach resulted in a non-hierarchical classification of entities (typologisation). The main data sources used to construct the synthetic measures were international databases: IRENA, OECD, EUROSTAT, and the World Bank. Analysis of the HCIe measure and the clustering of European countries revealed that the key risk factor for transformation is the absence of integrated human capital within individual groups of countries. This highlights the urgent need for targeted investment in health and the development of systemic and green competencies. Full article

The Djebel Amour region, located in the Western Saharan Atlas of Algeria, hosts a vernacular mosque heritage that remains largely unexplored. This study presents the first comprehensive typo-morphological analysis of fourteen mosques dating from the 11th to the 20th century. Their original architectural state was reconstructed through the triangulation of field surveys, archival documentation, iconographic sources, and oral testimonies. A reference model based on four recurrent components—the prayer hall with its mihrab, courtyard, portico, and minaret—enabled the identification of typological constants, contextual variations, and vernacular constructive logics. The results reveal the persistence of sober and functional forms, marked by the frequent absence of a courtyard and the presence of skiffa-inspired porticos and staircase minarets. A complementary quantitative component strengthens cross-regional comparisons and situates the Djebel Amour corpus within wider North African, West African, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian vernacular mosque traditions. Beyond architectural reconstruction, this study develops an operational framework for conservation and transformation management, supported by a structured database that systematises typological, material, and construction data. While the analysis relies primarily on photogrammetric documentation, the proposed framework is compatible with international digital standards and can be expanded through methods such as 3D laser scanning, drone-based surveys, or geospatial modelling. By integrating qualitative, quantitative, and digital perspectives, this research offers practical tools for heritage authorities, local administrations, mosque committees, architects, designers, and conservation practitioners, positioning the Djebel Amour mosques as a reference model for sustainable heritage management and contextual adaptation in arid and tribal environments. Full article

The paper investigates the role of digitalization in strengthening the sustainability of supply chains in the Romanian restaurant sector. The starting point is the intersection between the pressures for digital transformation and the integration of sustainability principles. Digitalization, through advanced digital solutions, can strengthen traceability, reduce waste, and optimize resources, strengthening responsibility for economic efficiency and the environment. However, the implementation of these solutions in HoReCa remains disproportionate and faces barriers such as lack of digital skills, high costs, and resistance to change. The authors conducted a quantitative research study among restaurant managers in Romania. The research was complemented with two Principal Component Analyses (PCA) and a TwoStep Cluster Analysis. The role of the TwoStep Cluster Analysis was to identify a typology of restaurants according to managerial behaviors related to digitalization from a sustainable perspective. The results showed that digitalization is applied predominantly in inventory management, but less in the relationship with consumers and supply chain, where it would bring considerable benefits for sustainability. The study provides theoretical and practical contributions, highlighting the role digitalization has as a facilitator of sustainability and indicating recommendations for managers and decision-makers regarding professional training and financial support policies dedicated to sustainable digitalization. Full article

This paper examines the adaptive design potential and post-industrial transformation possibilities of decommissioned mono-functional infrastructures (built to serve a single-use purpose) as fertile grounds for industrial exaptation, rather than as obsolete structures from the 20th century industrial age. It develops a typological framework, organized by industrial process, to interrogate these structures and outlines a blueprint for their possible adaptive transformations. Through select global case studies, it proposes how industrial exaptation should move beyond just cultural spectacle to support multi-performative adaptive uses: from productive economies, new forms of industry, and domestic occupations, to ecological remediation strategies and climate-responsive adaptations. Rather than treating these forms as nostalgic artifacts, the paper argues for a paradigm shift: reclaiming industrial infrastructure under the domain of the design disciplines and reframing industrial exaptation as an urban, environmental, and civic project. Through this framework, these post-industrial forms are recast as evolutionary palimpsests—spatial templates for reimagining more sustainable futures in the age of the Anthropocene. Full article

This study investigates how architectural buildings integrating open-space architectural forms that enabled new modes of public space contributed to reshaping civic life in Riyadh between the 1980s and early 1990s. While previous scholarship has largely focused on the city’s infrastructural expansion and planning discourse, it has given limited attention to the role of architecture in producing spatial openness and publicness in culturally conservative, climatically harsh, and state-directed urban contexts. Using a multi-case qualitative methodology, the research examines three landmark projects—Kindy Plaza in the Diplomatic Quarter, Qasr Al-Hukm District, and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs & Housing—and analyzes their formal configurations, user behaviors, and socio-spatial implications. The findings reveal that these projects introduced varying degrees of “controlled permeability” and hybrid public typologies, enabling shifts in spatial behavior, civic identity, and urban connectivity. Framed within a contextual model synthesizing theories of socially produced space, architectural mediation, relational urbanism, and typological adaptation, the study offers new insights into how architecture can mediate public transformation in non-Western cities undergoing negotiated modernity. The research contributes to broader discourses on urban design, architectural agency, and public life in the Global South. Full article

Urban agriculture is increasingly recognized not only for its role in enhancing ecological resilience, food security, and social inclusion, but also for its potential to challenge dominant urban development paradigms. Agroparks, as a spatial typology, have traditionally been associated with multifunctionality, productivity, and land preservation. This Perspective argues that agroparks can also serve as instruments for degrowth-oriented urban transitions, particularly in the context of climate emergency and the need to reconfigure urban land use beyond growth imperatives. Through landscape architectural analysis, the Bernex Agropark (now Parc des Molliers) in Geneva is examined as a spatial prototype that transforms underutilized land into a coherent system of crop zones, civic amenities, and ecological infrastructure. The project demonstrates how landscape architecture can contribute to the regeneration of urban edges while promoting ecological productivity, cooperative stewardship, and spatial limits to urban expansion. We introduce the concept of “Agroparks and Degrowth Urbanism”, framing Bernex as both a post-growth design strategy and a governance experiment. The Perspective concludes with recommendations for integrating agroparks into urban planning: connecting them to green infrastructure networks, prioritizing ecological over economic outputs, enabling commons-based management, and supporting climate adaptation through spatial design and food system relocalization. Full article