Search Results (4,505)

Water towers are historically significant hydraulic infrastructures that evolved from simple masonry structures to technologically advanced and architecturally expressive forms. This study presents a typological and material analysis of water towers, focusing on their construction techniques, durability, and potential for adaptive reuse. The research combines visual inspection, archival and bibliographic research, and photographic documentation, of selected European and Italian examples for comparative insights on design and materials choices. Data were collected and organized according to parameters such as construction materials, structural type, tank and roof form, access system, and current function. Assessments were conducted following the UNI EN 16096, providing a structured framework to evaluate heritage value, material conditions, and adaptive reuse potential. Main results demonstrate that water towers, beyond their original hydraulic function, retain significant technical, architectural, and cultural value, offering opportunities for adaptive reuse as cultural, educational, residential, or community spaces. Key findings identify material vulnerabilities, structural challenges (including wind, seismic, and thermo-hygrometric effects), and possibilities for sustainable interventions that respect historical authenticity. The study highlights how systematic typological assessment and documentation can guide evidence-based conservation and support innovative reuse strategies, integrating heritage preservation with urban regeneration and community engagement. Water towers exemplify the intersection of engineering, architecture, and cultural heritage, and their conservation requires a multidisciplinary approach between technical performance, material preservation, and socio-cultural significance. Finally, the implemented procedure is proposed as a methodological framework replicable and scalable for assessing similar infrastructures in other contexts. Full article

China’s rapid urbanization has accelerated the transition of residential development toward high-density models. As a critical interface between architecture and the urban environment, residential facades reflect evolving design strategies, living demands, and technological conditions. However, due to the complexity and diversity of facade components, the underlying influencing factors of facade evolution remain insufficiently explored. This study focuses on Shenzhen, a typical high-density city in southern China, and quantitatively analyzes 225 residential facades from 1980 to 2024 using HCA (Hierarchical Cluster Analysis). The results show that the development of residential facades in Shenzhen presents continuous and staged evolutionary characteristics, with a transition from simplified, function-oriented configurations to diversified and technology-integrated forms. Six clusters of facade types are identified, and the analysis reveals that this evolution is driven by the combined effects of policies and design standards (external factors), resident demand (internal factors), and technological development (technical support), rather than merely stylistic changes. This study establishes a quantitative classification framework to identify the evolutionary patterns and influencing factors of residential facades, enriches the research system of high-density residential facades, provides methodological support for facade analysis, and offers both theoretical and practical guidance for facade design in subtropical high-density cities. Full article

Coastal cities are complex spatial systems shaped by intertwined economic, environmental, demographic, and governance pressures. This study develops a multidimensional comparative framework to analyze coastal cities in the Black Sea basin across five dimensions: physical–morphological structure, demographic scale, economic–functional profile, transportation and accessibility, and urban quality–governance. To address cross-country data heterogeneity, an ordinal (0–1–2) indicator system is employed and analyzed through multiple multivariate techniques, including Gower dissimilarity, NMDS, Ward hierarchical clustering, MCA, Spearman rank correlation, network analysis, and rank-transformed PCA. Findings indicate that Black Sea coastal cities do not form a single homogeneous typology but cluster around distinct structural patterns. A major axis of differentiation separates port–industrial production-oriented cities from tourism–service-oriented cities, while a considerable group of multifunctional and transitional cities exhibits moderate values across several dimensions. Results show that city typologies are shaped less by national planning regimes than by structural dynamics such as port scale, economic specialization, accessibility, and spatial pressure. By integrating non-metric and metric approaches, the study proposes a context-sensitive and multi-criteria comparative methodology. The findings highlight the need for multi-scalar and multidimensional planning perspectives to better understand structural differentiation in coastal urban systems within semi-enclosed marine regions such as the Black Sea. Full article

The urban heat island effect is well recognized and has been quantified using ground observations within and outside urban areas. Earth Observation has further revealed small-scale local spatial differences, especially in urban surface temperatures, that have been shown to be highly correlated with differences in the urban fabric. However, surface temperatures do not directly translate to human-experienced temperatures, and hence high-resolution air temperature data is of high relevance. However, air temperature is not easily measured from space, and seldom do ground measurements allow for small-scale differences to be quantified to a satisfactory degree. In the present study, we assessed the added value of an air temperature product downscaled using machine learning compared to the high-resolution reanalysis model that formed its foundation. The downscaled product was developed using satellite data, local observations from privately owned weather stations, and high-resolution reanalysis. The comparison focused on Denmark’s four largest urban areas and examined the two data product’s ability to describe the urban heat island effect at the city scale as well as intra-city differences in air temperatures. Both data products show similar urban heat island effects at the city scale, while the downscaled product shows greater intra-city variance in air temperature, with patterns that are somewhat correlated with both urban density and urban green spaces. Generally, the downscaling product offers city planners a better data basis for evaluating where to prioritize contingency and mitigation measures within the urban space. Full article

In the contexts of higher education and Education for Sustainable Development, universities face the challenge of preparing professionals capable of addressing complex urban issues related to Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11). Learning landscapes, grounded in the theory of Multiple Intelligences and Bloom’s Taxonomy, have been proposed as a pedagogical framework to support the development of sustainability competencies and higher-order thinking; however, evidence regarding their applicability and viability in university teaching remains limited. This study examines an exploratory learning landscape–based training experience oriented toward SDG 11, focusing on university faculty perceptions. A design-based research approach with mixed-methods design was employed, emphasizing the co-construction, pilot implementation, and formative assessment of learning landscapes within a technical-scientific faculty development program. The results indicate generally positive faculty perceptions, particularly in terms of satisfaction, perceived learning, and professional development. Participants also reported pedagogical usefulness and perceived potential to enhance student motivation and engagement. However, stable curricular integration emerged as the main challenge, mainly due to design workload and the need for institutional support. Overall, the findings provide initial empirical evidence on the perceived value and limitations of learning landscapes in sustainability-oriented higher education and point to the need for further research and institutional conditions to support their implementation. Full article

Urban last-mile logistics systems must improve service responsiveness while reducing environmental impact. While micromobility-based delivery fleets offer significant emission advantages compared to conventional vans, their operational efficiency depends on adaptive, data-driven capacity allocation. We develop and analyze a real-time optimization framework that explicitly integrates sustainability considerations into zone-level fleet allocation decisions. The continuous-time backlog dynamics admit a closed-form discrete-time prediction, enabling computationally efficient rolling-horizon fleet reallocation. Sustainability is explicitly embedded through zone-specific emission factors and a multi-criteria objective function balancing backlog reduction, environmental impact, and operational stability. In a ten-zone numerical case study with a fleet of 40 vehicles, the proposed method reduced backlog in all zones within a 15-min interval while preserving strict feasibility and stability (spectral radius is less than 1). The framework also demonstrated a controllable emission–service trade-off via sensitivity analysis. These results suggest the practical applicability and real-time suitability of the proposed Industry 4.0-aligned optimization approach. Full article

China’s “Sponge City” initiative, launched in 2014, is a transformative approach to urban stormwater management that aims to deliver multiple benefits through nature-based solutions. Despite its widespread adoption in China, questions remain regarding its long-term viability. Through a new conceptual framework, this study examines the viability of the Sponge City model by analyzing insights from 30 practitioners and domain experts working in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and field studies, it investigates how participants interpret the concept, integrate climate adaptation strategies, and assess effectiveness across six dimensions: governance, economy, environment, urban form, civic engagement, and human wellbeing. The findings reveal diverse perspectives shaped by local contexts, disciplinary backgrounds, and professional experiences. While participants expressed cautious optimism, they also identified persistent challenges, including funding constraints, fragmented planning processes, and insufficient public engagement. Climate adaptation emerged as a central concern, with mixed views on the initiative’s ability to address extreme weather events. Overall, the study suggests that the Sponge City model holds promise, but its viability depends on continued refinement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and adaptive governance tailored to local needs. This study offers insights to inform future practice and broaden global efforts in stormwater management and urban resilience. Full article

From an active-health perspective, regular walking is a key pathway for mitigating chronic disease risks and promoting sustained health benefits. Existing studies have primarily assessed urban walkability using static or aggregated measures of walking intensity, which insufficiently capture the capacity of urban spaces to continuously support walking behavior over time. This study aims to identify urban walking support types by incorporating the temporal structure of walking behavior beyond intensity alone. Crowdsourced walking trajectory data are used to construct a multidimensional behavioral indicator system integrating walking intensity, temporal stability, and rhythmic characteristics over an annual period. An unsupervised clustering framework combining nonlinear dimensionality reduction and density-based clustering is applied to identify distinct walking support types, while interpretable machine-learning models are employed to examine the relative roles of built-environment factors in differentiating these types. The results indicate that urban walking support does not vary continuously along a single intensity dimension but instead forms discrete spatial types shaped by multiple behavioral temporal characteristics. These types exhibit clear differences in temporal walking structures and associated environmental constraints. By emphasizing behavioral temporal stability and rhythm, this study provides a process-oriented understanding of urban walking support and supports typology-based spatial identification beyond intensity-based assessments. Full article

Since the 1970s, accelerated urban development in Doha has contributed to a disjointed and inefficient city structure. While the Doha Metro has begun to address spatial and mobility-related challenges, planners continue to call for a more integrated, strategic approach to ensure safe, accessible, and efficient transit connectivity. In response, the Qatar National Development Framework provides a long-term vision for sustainable urban transformation, with a central aim of embedding the Metro system within the existing urban context and aligning expansion with Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), which promotes dense, multifunctional, pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods along transit corridors. Within this context, this study investigates how TOD strategies can enhance quality of life in mixed-use environments, focusing on the area surrounding Al Mansoura metro station and the adjacent Najma and Al Mansoura districts. Using the Integrated Modification Methodology (IMM), the analysis assesses spatial structure across density, spatial diversity, and connectivity, and derives evidence-based recommendations to improve livability and support sustainable revitalization. To broaden regional applicability, the study also compares Al Mansoura with Olaya in Riyadh—two mid-to-late 20th-century, high-density mixed-use districts undergoing TOD-driven transition—highlighting how spatial form, infrastructure legacy, and urban governance shape TOD outcomes and inform adaptable TOD frameworks for Gulf cities. Full article

Generative AI enables rapid visualization of sustainable urban design scenarios, yet the question of whether these outputs encode sustainability as operable spatial logic, rather than merely depicting it as a visual impression, remains underexplored. This study proposes a two-level assessment framework that scores the same sustainability dimensions at both the visual-representation level and the spatial-logic level, treating the systematic decoupling between the two as a form of visual greenwashing: system-induced representational distortion rather than deliberate misrepresentation. Using AI-workflow reports from two site-based urban design studios (47 students, 12 teams, 36 coded scenes), the framework integrates rubric-based scoring with qualitative process tracing of breakdown–repair logs. Results show that image-level scores consistently outperform logic-level scores across all five dimensions, with the gap most severe in mobility hierarchy and walkability and smallest in green/blue infrastructure. Case analysis reveals that breakdowns arise from failures in program encoding, urban-scale coherence, functional-boundary demarcation, and relational-condition matching, and that students deploy multi-stage repair pipelines, including prompt restructuring, tool switching, reference injection, and external-source compositing, to re-inject collapsed spatial logic. These findings reframe AI-assisted urban design as repair-centered workmanship rather than automated production. The study proposes three guardrails to prevent visual sustainability from substituting for spatial-logic sustainability: image–logic paired submission, design audit trail formalization, and gap-based red-flag review. Full article

Background: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are hotspots of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) due to inputs from diverse anthropogenic sources. Aeromonas spp., ubiquitous in aquatic environments, often carry clinically relevant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and can persist beyond fecal contamination indicators, making them promising sentinel organisms for AMR dissemination. The aim of this study was to assess the suitability of Aeromonas spp. in this role by characterizing resistance profiles, associated virulence factor genes (VFGs), genetic mobility, and persistence across wastewater and drinking water treatment processes in the Barcelona metropolitan area, Spain. Methods: Isolates were phenotypically characterized and screened for ARGs, VFGs, integrons, and heavy metal tolerance genes, followed by whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Biofilm formation was assessed in vitro. Conjugation assays with Escherichia coli evaluated horizontal gene transfer (HGT) potential. Results: A total of 428 antibiotic-resistant Aeromonas spp., the most abundant antibiotic-resistant bacteria isolated during the 2023 sampling campaigns from two WWTPs and one drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), were characterized. Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT) non-susceptibility was most frequent (72%), followed by cefoxitin resistance (65.4%). The sul1 (57.5%) and bla_MOX (78.6%) genes predominated among SXT- and β-lactam-resistant isolates. The merA gene was detected in 23.6%; 97.9% harbored at least one VFG (aerA, act, fla, alt, or hlyA), and 70.3% carried intI1. Half formed biofilm. Conjugation confirmed bi-directional HGT, and WGS revealed persistent ST3458 clones across treatment stages. Conclusions: WWTPs and DWTPs act as reservoirs of antibiotic-resistant Aeromonas spp., demonstrating persistence and HGT potential. Findings support their use as sentinel organisms for AMR surveillance in aquatic environments and for assessing treatment efficacy, highlighting variability across treatment types and locations, and reinforcing their relevance for urban water reclamation monitoring. Full article

This paper examines public architecture in Baghdad during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing on how public buildings contributed to the formation of urban centrality and how this process interacted with local architectural practices. Rather than approaching public construction solely through administrative or ideological frameworks, the study conceptualizes public buildings as structuring components in the reconfiguration of the urban fabric. Methodologically, the research adopts a two-stage, multi-scalar approach. First, public buildings in Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad are identified and comparatively analyzed using QGIS-based spatial analysis, employing Kernel Density Estimation and DBSCAN clustering to examine patterns of spatial concentration, distribution, and relationships with major urban axes. This comparative stage establishes a comparative spatial framework for understanding urban centrality in provincial capitals. In the second stage, Baghdad is examined as a focused case study through building-scale architectural analysis, incorporating plan organization, construction techniques, material use, and environmental adaptation based on archival documents, historical maps, and visual sources. The results indicate that public buildings in Baghdad were not isolated institutional entities but integral components in the formation of new urban focal areas structured along river-oriented and infrastructural axes. Architecturally, these buildings exhibit a hybrid character, combining standardized public building programs with locally embedded materials, construction methods, and spatial adaptations. The study concludes that public architecture in late Ottoman Baghdad emerged through a negotiated process between centralized planning principles and local architectural knowledge, producing a distinct yet contextually grounded form of urban centrality. Full article

Regional differences in land use transitions and urban expansion patterns have become increasingly pronounced under rapid urbanization. However, conventional land use and land cover change (LUCC) analyses often rely on independent graphical presentations, limiting systematic cross-regional comparison and the identification of spatial heterogeneity. To address this limitation, this study constructs a comparative land use transition analytical framework integrating LUCC contrastive transition patterns, the landscape expansion index (LEI), and the PLUS model. The framework enables structured identification of transition directions, intensity differentials, and stage-specific characteristics, thereby enhancing the reproducibility and comparability of cross-regional land use analysis. Using Xi’an (inland) and Quanzhou (coastal) as representative cases, this study analyzed their land use changes from 1990 to 2020 based on Intensity Analysis and LUCC contrastive transition patterns and quantified the differences in urban expansion using the urban expansion intensity index and expansion pattern metrics. The results show that the urban expansion of Xi’an and Quanzhou was active during 1990–2020, with crops as the main stable source of urban expansion. This urban expansion mainly took the form of edge-expansion and infilling, with urban development transitioning from disorderly expansion to intensive utilization. Notable regional disparities were observed: Forest conversion to urban land was substantially higher in Quanzhou, reflecting stronger ecological land pressure in coastal areas, whereas grass conversion to crops was more prominent in Xi’an, suggesting agricultural spatial adjustment under food security constraints in inland regions. The PLUS model further demonstrates that urban expansion is jointly influenced by topographic conditions (DEM) and economic growth (GDP), highlighting the coupled effects of natural constraints and development dynamics. This study clarifies the differentiation characteristics and driving forces of coastal and inland urban expansion, providing a scientific basis for differentiated territorial spatial planning, ecological protection, and farmland management in eastern and western regions. It also helps formulate more targeted urban development policies based on regional resource endowments, promoting regional coordination and sustainable urbanization. Full article