Search Results (12)

This pilot study aims to evaluate the state of the natural environment in the Silver Maples Alley (SMA) in Łódź, Poland, by using interdisciplinary research methods combining landscape architecture and environmental microbiology. The research focuses on the ecological condition of the trees in SMA, a historical monument consisting of about 100 century-old silver maples (Acer saccharinum L.). As part of the analysis, the study examines the area’s soil properties, microbiological composition, and air quality, providing a comprehensive approach to assessing environmental quality. Microbial analyses were conducted to determine soil pH, the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and the activity of Bacillus bacteria that produce biosurfactants for pollutant degradation. The results were compared with control sites with different Air Quality Index (AQI) values, including a park, a rural area, and a revitalized urban space. The findings support the hypothesis that environmental cleanliness correlates with the presence of pollutant-degrading microorganisms, particularly in areas with better air quality. This research contributes to understanding the role of green infrastructure, particularly old tree alleys, in urban ecosystems and public health. It also provides valuable insights into future management practices for historical green spaces. It highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between landscape architecture, microbiology, and environmental sciences to address pressing sustainable development challenges. Full article

The increasing demand for childcare facilities in Dubai, UAE, which is driven by urban expansion and workforce growth, calls for a focus on establishing standardized environmental and safety benchmarks. This study evaluated 28 daycare centers categorized by size (large, medium, and small), focusing on indoor environmental quality (IEQ), cleanliness, safety, and space utilization. Findings revealed that while air pollutants like carbon monoxide (0.57 ppm) and formaldehyde (45.8 µg/m³) remained within acceptable limits, carbon dioxide levels (averaging 1048.2 ppm, particularly in large centers) exceeded regulatory standards due to high occupancy rates and inadequate ventilation. Large facilities demonstrated better compliance with kitchen safety (8.8/10) and lighting efficiency, while small centers scored higher in restroom cleanliness (20.8/24, evaluated using eight criteria on a structured 3-point scale). However, spatial accessibility remained a critical challenge across all facility sizes, particularly regarding accommodations for individuals with disabilities. Additionally, excessive lighting levels (717.2 lux) and high indoor temperatures (27–28 °C) further highlighted the need for tailored guidelines. The study emphasizes improving ventilation systems, promoting universal design principles, and targeted investments to address these disparities. By aligning regulatory frameworks with actionable recommendations, this study provides insights for policymakers to enhance the safety, inclusivity, and environmental quality of daycare infrastructure in Dubai. Full article

Urban commercial streets are a crucial component of urban life, serving as the central hubs of commercial activity and providing vital spaces for both residents and visitors to engage in various activities. Walkability is commonly used as a key indicator of environmental quality, playing a significant role in improving residents’ health, community interaction, and environmental quality of life. Therefore, promoting the development of a high-quality walking environment in commercial districts is crucial for fostering urban economic growth and the creation of livable cities. However, existing studies predominantly focus on the impact of the built environment on walkability at the urban scale, with limited attention given to commercial streets, particularly the influence of their physical features on walking-need perceptions. In this study, we utilized Google Street-View Panorama (GSVP) images of the Tenjin commercial district and applied the Semantic Differential (SD) method to assess four walking-need perceptions of visual walkability perception, including usefulness, comfort, safety, and attractiveness. Additionally, deep-learning-based semantic segmentation was employed to extract and calculate the physical features of the Tenjin commercial district. Correlation and regression analysis were used to investigate the impact of these physical features on the four walking-need perceptions. The results showed that the different walking-need perceptions in the Tenjin commercial district are attractiveness > safety > comfort > usefulness. Furthermore, the results show that there are significant spatial distribution differences in walking-need perceptions in the Tenjin commercial district. Safety perception is more prominent on primary roads, all four walking-need perceptions in the secondary roads at a high level, and the tertiary roads have generally lower scores for all walking-need perceptions. The regression analysis indicates that walkable space and the landmark visibility index have a significant impact on usefulness, street cleanliness emerges as the most influential factor affecting safety, greenness is identified as the primary determinant of comfort, while the landmark visibility index exerts the greatest influence on attractiveness. This study expands the existing perspectives on urban street walkability by focusing on street-level analysis and proposes strategies to enhance the visual walkability perception of commercial streets. These findings aim to better meet pedestrian needs and provide valuable insights for future urban planning efforts. Full article

The electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft offers the advantages of vertical take-off and landing, environmental cleanliness, and automated control, making it a crucial component of future urban air traffic. As competition intensifies, demands for aircraft performance are escalating, including forward flight speed and payload capacity. The article presents a novel eVTOL design with propulsive wings and establishes methodologies for propulsive wing unsteady numerical simulation and wind tunnel experiments, analyzing its aerodynamic characteristics and lift enhancement mechanism. The results indicate that the cross-flow fan (CFF) provides unique airflow control capabilities, enabling the propulsive wing to achieve remarkably high lift coefficients (exceeding 7.6 in experiments) and propulsion coefficients (exceeding 7.1 in experiments) at extreme angles of attack (30°~40°) and low airspeeds. On the one hand, the CFF effectively controls boundary layer flow, delaying airflow separation at high angles of attack; on the other hand, the rotation of the CFF induces two eccentric vortices, generating vortex-induced lift and propulsion. The aerodynamic performance of the propulsive wing depends on the advance ratio and angle of attack. Typically, both lift and propulsion coefficients increase with the advance ratio, while lift and drag coefficients increase with the angle of attack. The propulsive wing shows significant advantages and prospects for eVTOL aircrafts in the low flight velocity range (0–30 m/s). Full article

The renovation of public space environments in old residential areas has become the focal point in Chinese urban renewal and promotion of urban sustainable development; thus, an urgent need for research expansion is attached to identifying the environmental factors of public space and their impacts from the perspective of residents’ needs and satisfaction. Taking Hefei, China, as an example, and based on a satisfaction survey of the public space environment in old residential areas, this study discerned critical factors affecting public space satisfaction through gradient-boosting decision trees and impact-asymmetry analysis methods, after which the asymmetric relationship between public space environment factors and resident satisfaction was tested and the priority and goal of public space environment renovation were obtained. The results indicate that the following: (1) Compared with physical environment factors, current social environment factors, including uncivilized behavior, space occupation, and hygiene and cleanliness, exert a greater impact on the overall satisfaction. (2) The hypothesis that there exists a general nonlinear relationship between environmental factors and satisfaction is verified, with all social environment factors proving to be nonlinear and physical environment factors being highly related to social environment creation, such as nursing space for the old and young, reading and learning space, and display and communication space. (3) A priority hierarchy for the improvement of environmental factors should be established, which basically conforms to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. The role of social environment renovation should be highlighted, along with the necessity to bolster community governance and public space management. At the level of the physical environment, more space should be available for the activities of residents, display and communication, and reading and learning. This study can provide a corresponding theoretical basis and planning inspiration for meeting the multiple needs of residents for public space, improving life happiness, and promoting the sustainable development of cities in the renovation of public space environments in old residential areas. Full article

Negative air ions (NAIs) are an important indicator of air cleanliness in an area, and play a vital role in promoting the psychological and physiological functions of the human body. However, there are few studies regarding the relationship between NAI concentration and various environmental factors in urban forests. Therefore, we established an observation point in the Zhuyu Bay Scenic Area in Yangzhou City and continuously measured concentration changes in NAIs for three years. At the same time, we also monitored 14 meteorological factors. A random forest model was used to determine the important environmental factors that affected changes in negative air ion concentrations from a non-comprehensive perspective, determine the prediction accuracy of the model, and screen out environmental factors that have a significant impact on negative air ions. The results showed that the environmental factor that NAIs were the most sensitive to in the Zhuyu Bay urban forest was humidity, followed by PM2.5, then wind direction, methane gas, and finally, temperature. Humidity was the most critical factor primarily because it directly affects the formation of NAIs in the environment and vegetation. We used big data to analyze the relationship between NAIs and environmental factors in forest parks. The results help deepen our understanding of NAIs characteristics and their application in urban forests. Full article

Landscapes in urban waterfront spaces are of high societal value as they can meet people’s physical, psychological, and social needs for health and well-being, but the relationship between waterfront landscape features and public health benefits has yet to be clarified. From the perspective of blue health, this paper takes blue spaces along the Min River of Fuzhou City as the research object. It constructs the mediation model of “Waterfront landscape characteristic (WLC)→Water-friendly environmental preference (WEP)→Emotional benefit (EB)”. The role of WEP in the mechanisms linking WLC and EB in different waterfront spaces was explored through the quantification of indicators, questionnaires, and physiological measurements. The main results showed that (1) the ability of different types of waterfront spaces to arouse positive emotions in the population is characterized by blue-dominated space > co-dominated space > green-dominated space, while the opposite is true in terms of inducing negative emotions; (2) green visibility, blue visibility, naturalness, water-friendliness, and openness are all significantly related to EBs and could affect positive emotions either directly or mediated by WEPs, but openness seems not to affect negative emotions through WEPs; (3) cleanliness affects the population’s WEP for the coherence dimension, but has no significant role in improving EBs. This study could expand new ideas for research in habitat health, provide a reference for embodied evidence-based waterfront landscape design, and help promote the construction and development of healthy cities. Full article

Running surrounded by nature at night, often with limited contact with other people, is one of the safest physical activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this article is to determine what motivates night recreational runners and to analyse the differences between men and women according to age, and also to see whether the fact of having had COVID-19 or not matters when it comes to athletes’ motivation behind participating in runs. Runners were also asked about participating in cities or out-of-town events in terms of verifying the cleanliness of the air before running, using masks or running in green areas. 233 individuals in total participated in this descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study. The questionnaire uses the division of motives used in the Marathon Motivation Scale (MOMS) and a number of additional questions on environmental factors. Overall, the main motivation that drives night-time runners is health orientation, weight concern, personal goal achievement, psychological coping, life meaning and self-esteem. The research also showed higher scores for health orientation, recognition, psychological coping, life meaning and self-esteem among runners who had had COVID-19 than runners who had not had the virus. In addition, respondents clearly indicated that night running makes it easier to fall asleep and improves the quality of sleep. Most runners rated their mental health as being good, did not run in the morning despite better air levels, did not choose running events outside the urban area and did not check the air quality index before running. Therefore, it will be important for coaches, event organisers and other professionals to consider athletes’ age, gender, whether they have had COVID-19 and runners’ approaches to eco-attitudes when trying to understand their reasons for participating in different sports or leisure events, especially those that focus on a priority in shaping environmental attitudes. Full article

For developing countries, garbage classification has become an important measure to handle the environmental pollution crisis. This empirical study examined urban and rural families’ willingness to sort and deposit garbage at fixed recycling points. We found that urban residents demonstrated a significantly higher willingness to sort and deposit garbage at designated points compared to rural residents. The average number of family meals per month, average monthly household food expenditure, household cleanliness, and household crowding (spaciousness) are significantly related to a family’s willingness to sort garbage. In terms of neighbourhood factors, families living in neighbourhoods with property management are more likely to have a higher willingness to sort garbage. The degree of air pollution in the neighbourhood also has an impact on the family’s willingness to sort garbage. This study proposes that neighbourhood factors have a non-negligible influence on a household’s willingness to sort and put garbage in designated locations. Especially in urban neighbourhoods, the willingness of residents living in commodity housing neighbourhoods to sort and place garbage at designated locations is significantly higher than that of residents living in other neighbourhoods. To improve the implementation effect of the waste sorting policy, we suggest that the configuration of neighbourhood garbage recycling services and facilities should be improved so that people can sort garbage more conveniently. Full article

The environment in urban residential areas is the main field of daily activity for the elderly. Environmental renewal has played a significant role in improving residents’ quality of life and promoting physical and mental health. However, there is a general tendency that more attention has been focused on the environment during environmental renewal but not the residents. There is a continued lack of discussion on the emotional status of the elderly and its impact on outdoor activities. Based on the investigation of four types of typical residential environments in the Dalian residential area, a hierarchical linear model (HLM) has been constructed to reveal the influence of the emotional status of elderly persons on their activity characteristics and the selection of environmental quality factors. The results show that the distribution of older people with different emotional statuses varies among different residential types. The proportion of positive emotion is relatively high in the flat land in rows category, and the activity characteristics are significantly different under different emotional statuses. Among the four kinds of residential environments, which are (flat land in rows, flat land enclosed, slope, and mountainous) the environmental quality factors that have the highest impact on the emotional status of the elderly are greening quality (0.395), acoustic environment (0.167), environmental cleanliness (0.269), and greening quality (0.230), respectively. In the mountainous type, the impact of environmental quality factors on the emotional status of the elderly is the highest (39.7%), and the impact contributions of the other three environmental types are 23.3%, 8.9% and 20.1%, respectively. These research results provide helpful guidance for the scientific community about practical implementation of residential environmental renewal for the elderly. Full article

Twelve beaches located in Ceuta (Spain) were studied from February to April 2019 to assess litter amounts (expressed as number of items), categories and temporal distribution. At each beach, three surveys were conducted, i.e., one per month (i.e., 36 in total). Selected beaches covered urban (7), rural (2) and remote (3) bathing areas. Plastic represented the dominant material, i.e., 35.2% of all debris, followed by glass (18.2%), pottery/ceramics (14.6%), wood (11.4%), metal (11.4%), paper/cardboard (4.8%), cloth (3.5%), rubber (0.7%), organic (0.3%) and other materials (0.1%). The Clean Coast Index was calculated to classify beaches in five categories for evaluating the cleanliness level of the coast observed at each survey: “Very Clean” (7 surveys), “Clean” (10), “Moderately Dirty” (8), “Dirty” (2) and “Extremely Dirty” (9). Litter occurrence was assessed by the Litter Grade methodology, which allowed to classify beaches in four grades: “A”: very good (0); “B”: good (4); “C”: fair (7); and “D”: poor (25). In a few surveys, some beaches were considered “good”, but their management should not be ignored because in other surveys those beaches reached fair and poor scores. Several potentially harmful litter items were related to beach users. Severe eastern storms removed litter at many of the beaches investigated and favored accumulation at others. Data analysis shows significant differences in litter abundance with respect to site, beach typology and the presence of cleaning operations but no important differences between the studied months. Rural beaches recorded the most litter, followed by urban and remote beaches. All beaches require immediate and more appropriate management actions to improve their environmental status. Full article

City disaster resilience and urban environmental cleanliness are two representative indicators used to assess the safety of human settlements in China’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). Traditional research on SDGs mainly concentrated at large-scale spatial level, such as global level or national level. It brings unclear significance to the implementation of SDGs in the county-level. The goal of this paper is to find a new calculation method to apply the index of urban disaster resilience and urban environmental cleanliness to the evaluation of county-level areas. A localization of county-level city disaster resilience and urban environmental cleanliness based on Deqing County’s situation was carried out. With quantification and projections of local data, the assessments of city disaster resilience and urban environmental cleanliness have completed. The evaluation showed that city disaster resilience is maintained at a low level, while indicators of urban cleanliness are lower than standards. The prediction of urban per capita environmental impact index based on Grey Time-Series Prediction Model was finished. The forecast showed that the urban per capita impact indicators in the next three years have not exceeded the standard line. The two indicators used to assess the safety of human settlements were consistent with the sustainable development of urban settlement. Partial results of this research were reported as a “county sample” at the first UN Geographic Information Conference held in Deqing in 2018. Full article