Explaining divided cities in China

Explanations of the existence of socio-spatial divisions in Western Europe and the United States revolve around the importance of economic, demographic, political, and socio-cultural macro developments and often also on the role of globalization. Much of the literature also emphasizes the role of institutions, especially the national and local state as well as individual and household constraints and opportunities. Many authors explain socio-spatial divisions by a mix of these factors and developments. This paper provides an account of the current state of affairs concerning the literature and theory on divided cities in China. Concentrating on a selection of 88 articles published in international journals during the last decade, we examine how authors explain urban socio-spatial divisions in Chinese cities. The paper indicates that a five-category framework of trends, policies, players, position, and preferences are useful in addressing the complexity of explanations attributed to current urban divisions and inequalities in Chinese cities. While the spatial patterns in the Western and Chinese contexts share rather similar characteristics, the interplay of mechanisms is significantly different. The influence of the state, its institutions, and the cultural background has a much stronger explanatory power in China than in the West.     

‘A place for everything’: Moral landscapes of ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town,Malaysia

This paper is based on 6 months of ethnographic, multi-sited research in Malaysia, and investigates the relatively recent phenomenon of edible birds’ nest farming in urban areas (‘swiftlet farming’). Swiftlet farms are typically converted shophouses or other buildings which have been modified for the purpose of harvesting the nests of the Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus). I use the controversy over urban swiftlet farming in the Malaysian city of George Town, Penang, to examine discourses used by key stakeholders to shape debates over the place of non-human animals in cities. By considering everyday experiences of urban swiftlet farming, I explore how this burgeoning industry is perceived amongst residents, and how it is deemed to be (in)appropriate within the political, economic and cultural landscape of George Town. Yet, I also consider how farmers have sought to contest these discourses on ideological and normative grounds. In so doing, I place the cultural animal geographies literature in conversation with emergent literature on landscape and urban political ecology. Such a framing allows for a critical evaluation of the controversies surrounding this case, and their implications for human-animal cohabitation in cities. The paper reflects on the implications of this case for how we regulate human-animal relations and live in contemporary cities, and the crucial role of animals in altering urban form, aesthetics and everyday life, particularly in non-Western contexts.     

Skilled international migrants and urban structure in Western Europe

The few existing empirical studies of high-status migrants in Western European cities suggest that classical urban models describing and explaining the segregation of immigrant groups in the city do not apply to these movers. When compared to low-status movers of the recent past, high-status movers display certain marked differences, particularly in the presence of dependants from the outset and in voluntary extensive employer involvement in housing provision or search, but there are also similarities in their restriction to the privately-rented housing sector. The characteristics and location of high-status migrants and of gastarbeiter in Vienna are here compared, demonstrating that there is a need for new urban models to deal with high-status migrant settlement in Western European cities.     

Some qualitative aspects of the urban environment in developed countries

The quality of life in cities is a subject that has aroused considerable concern and fears, but treatment of the subject tends to have become distorted by pre-existing values and subsumed under broader questions. This paper concentrates on the city as an experienced place and focuses on three emerging areas of discussion. The first part deals with the shift from two-dimensional, plan-based proposals for the future to three-dimensional theories applied to the finer grain of future urban form. The second part deals with the increasing realisation of the cultural basis and manifestations of quality in urban life and the research on urban cultural innovation which this has encouraged, drawing evidence from the Council of Europe's 21-town cultural innovation project. The final section discusses the significance of dreams for the future in shaping the urban environment of the future. It points to the current vacuum in thinking on the subject and indicates the problems that this poses for making choices for the urban environment.     

Territorial exclusion and violence: the case of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

If we had to point out one single feature to define Brazilian cities today, it would be the existence of a dual built environment: a landscape produced by private entrepreneurs and contained within the framework of detailed urban legislation, and another one, three times greater, self-produced by the poor and eternally situated in an intermediate zone between the legal and the illegal. In addition to being an expression of economic and social disparities, this contrast has profound implications on the form and functioning of the cities. The sprawl of the precarious peripheries has lead to an absurd disconnection of poorly urbanized spaces and the city center where jobs, cultural and economic opportunities are concentrated. The effects of this persistent territorial exclusion are devastating and occur in both the peripheries and the city center. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nexus between the precarious and risky urbanization which took place in Brazilian cities and the urban violence that seems to be the most recent and visible face of this model, using the concrete example of different cities in the state of São Paulo. In order to construct the links it is first important to understand how patterns of economic development and population trends have contributed to the generation of risk urbanization and how planning and urban management policies interact with it.     

Urban renewal in East African port cities: Mombasa's Old Town waterfront

The urban waterfront redevelopment diaspora, formerly confined to advanced countries, is starting to impact upon coastal settlements in former colonial territories. In diverse contexts ranging from postcolonialism and globalization to cultural revival and tourism development, developing countries are seeking to revive their historic port cities. This paper reports on the experience of Mombasa, Kenya, where waterfront redevelopment is a problematic element in the conservation of the historic urban core, and relates local issues to wider policies, relevant literature and experience elsewhere.     

Kenya’s Secondary Cities Growth Strategy at a Crossroads: Which Way Forward?

Kenya has been promoting equitable urban and regional development since the 1970s despite the lack of a clearly formulated national urban policy or an urban and regional development policy. A key element of the country’s equitable urban and regional development effort is the promotion of secondary cities that would relieve population pressure in the countryside, help to better integrate the country’s rural and urban economies, help to reduce congestion and improve the quality of life in the metropolitan cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, and help increase the modernization spin-off which urban centers provide to the surrounding rural areas. Using recent census and economic survey data, this paper examines the current state of Kenya’s secondary cities in the context of its urban and regional development strategies. The paper finds that: (1) the country’s urban and regional development strategies have failed to work as planned largely because of insufficient devolution of power and fiscal responsibility to municipal and other local government units, (2) the country’s secondary cities are faced with immense challenges that undermine their ability to live up to expectations, (3) some of these cities have significantly grown economically over the last four decades despite immense challenges, and (4) Nairobi’s dominance of Kenya’s economy continues because of policies that unwittingly concentrate investments there. The paper concludes with strategies that could enhance the country’s urban and regional development programs and, in the process, aid the development of its secondary cities.     

Kenya’s Secondary Cities Growth Strategy at a Crossroads: Which Way Forward?

Kenya has been promoting equitable urban and regional development since the 1970s despite the lack of a clearly formulated national urban policy or an urban and regional development policy. A key element of the country’s equitable urban and regional development effort is the promotion of secondary cities that would relieve population pressure in the countryside, help to better integrate the country’s rural and urban economies, help to reduce congestion and improve the quality of life in the metropolitan cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, and help increase the modernization spin-off which urban centers provide to the surrounding rural areas. Using recent census and economic survey data, this paper examines the current state of Kenya’s secondary cities in the context of its urban and regional development strategies. The paper finds that: (1) the country’s urban and regional development strategies have failed to work as planned largely because of insufficient devolution of power and fiscal responsibility to municipal and other local government units, (2) the country’s secondary cities are faced with immense challenges that undermine their ability to live up to expectations, (3) some of these cities have significantly grown economically over the last four decades despite immense challenges, and (4) Nairobi’s dominance of Kenya’s economy continues because of policies that unwittingly concentrate investments there. The paper concludes with strategies that could enhance the country’s urban and regional development programs and, in the process, aid the development of its secondary cities.     

Sources of pollution and distribution of Pb,Cd and Hg in Wrocław soils: Insight from chemical and Pb isotope composition

Human activities in cities affect properties of urban soils. In particular, urban soils often contain high contents of harmful metals even in deeper horizons added to them from diverse sources over centuries of the city development. This is reflected in complex distribution of metals in bulk soils with depth and the complex metal fractionation, but the exact sources of the metals are difficult to identify. This is also the situation in soils from Wroclaw, one of the largest cities in Poland. Potentially harmful elements Pb, Cd and Hg were examined in six profiles located along the major communication route and compared to two non-urban soils profiles located close to the same route. In all of the urban profiles, Pb and Cd exceeded the element contents observed in non-urban profiles and showed an erratic distribution compared to the more predictable one in non-urban soils. The differences between urban and non-urban profiles were explained as the result of contamination coming from more pollution sources in the case of urban soils, the conclusion supported by Pb isotope analyses. In fact, Pb isotopes showed that the contamination sources in urban soils included leaded petrol, coal combustion, smelting and possibly old pre-industrial ore processing, whereas leaded petrol and pre-industrial lead were the only possible anthropogenic sources in non-urban soils. The comparison of Wrocöaw soils with those from cities of comparable size Kraków and Poznań show similar ranges of metal contents with implication that urban pollution oversteps diverse geogenic chemical background. On the other hand, the comparison with other European cities show large variability in metal contents and suggest that urban soils contamination is time integrated and reflects long-term industrial evolution of each country.     

城市热岛效应对土体工程性质的影响及其关键科学问题

随着全球气候变暖、城市化进程加快,世界各地大城市的热岛效应及其带来的各种环境和生态问题越来越严重。本文从地质环境保护的角度,分析了城市热岛效应的成因、特点及其对地质环境的影响,重点讨论了城市热岛效应环境中土体工程性质的变化及其带来的各种灾害效应,在此基础上,凝练出了4个关键科学问题,即城市热岛效应环境中土体温度场变化规律、土体中水分迁移规律、土体工程性质变化规律以及土体地质灾害效应,并对它们的具体研究内容进行了详细的分析。论文的分析成果对于掌握城市热岛效应对土体工程性质的影响,保护城市地质环境和防灾减灾,实现城市的可持续发展具有重要的理论和现实意义。      

A multi-method approach for the characterization of landslides in an intramontane basin in the Andes (Loja,Ecuador)

In the last several decades, population growth in the cities of the Andes has caused urban areas to expand into landslide-prone areas. Fatal landslides affecting urban settlements are especially frequent in cities located in the Neogene intramontane basins of the Andes. These basins have similar situations and include geographical and geological features that frequently generate ground instabilities. We studied the characteristics of the mass movements observed in these basins by carrying out a detailed analysis of four landslides that have occurred in the Loja Basin (Ecuador). This multi-method study integrated geophysical, geotechnical methods, mineralogical studies and analyses of precipitation time series. Our study characterizes the slope movements as active, slow-moving, complex earthslide earthflows. According to Differential GPS measurements, these landslides move at velocities of up to several metres per year. Electrical resistivity tomography profiles show that most of the landslides are mainly surficial. Time-series analyses of precipitation reveal that rainfall events that are not exceptionally intensive can reactivate these landslides. This characteristic and the development of these landslides on low-gradient slopes are explained using the results obtained from the geotechnical and mineralogical analyses. We find that the smectite clay minerals detected in the mobilized geological formations, combined with the tropical climate of the northern Andean region, induce the observed weak slope stability conditions. The conceptual model for the studied landslides may aid in assessing landslide-prone areas in Loja and other Neogene intramontane basins of the Andes and can help to mitigate the associated risks.     

The cityscapes of European capital cities

Capital cities are politico-administrative centers. They are command centers, they symbolize authority and also the unit that is governed. Primarily they are capitals of states, but other governance systems may also have capitals. In the European context there are now regional capital cities and at least the concept of a European capital. Particularly on account of their symbolic function but also for the uses made of its appearance in political life, the cityscape of capital cities is an interesting topic for research. There are different types of capital cities in Europe that give rise to different cityscapes. Existing urban networks and types of political regime are important in this respect. Although cityscapes are pretty stable, they are differently perceived over time and uses made of them also change. A research agenda for this intersection of historical, cultural and political geography should concentrate on the evolution of these cityscapes, their perception and the uses made of them in the acting out of politics.     

Transitioning from Wired City to Super City: a review of selected ‘Smart City’ case studies

The contemporary technological advancements of the twenty-first century are introducing paradigm shifts in every aspect of life. The “Smart City” concept has also brought the latest emerging technologies and their applications to the urban areas. The integration of Nano-technological devices collecting and transmitting data coupled with the availability and penetration of high-speed internet will only raise this potential by providing an easy way to receive and send real-time data more swiftly. The devices could also be connected with each other via the internet under the Internet of Things (IoT), making it possible to establish the machine to machine (M2M) communication between them. This large amount of urban Big Data can also deploy machine learning assisted techniques to ensure robust and precise urban analysis for getting significant insights and desired simulations ensuring the proper deployment as well as utilization of the phenomenon of Urban Intelligence. As the cities are entitled to become “Smart” in due course of time, these Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will play a major role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of urban services and management. Due to their highly versatile and adaptable nature, these technologies can be linked with different components of Smart City thereby enhancing the efficiency and capability of the existing urban systems. This paper discusses the emerging concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other associated technologies within the context of contemporary urban scenarios through relevant case studies. It further presents crucial insights based on the influence of these technologies as well as their associated challenges while also exploring the implications of the concepts like ‘Super City’ on the cities of tomorrow.

     

Megacities and natural disasters: a comparative analysis*

Natural disasters are a worsening problem in many of the world's largest cities. Since an increasing majority of the world's population will soon live in cities, and mostly in large cities, the trend towards increasing urban hazard poses serious societal challenges for the future. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the International Geographical Union's Study Group on the Disaster Vulnerability of Megacities undertook a series of case studies of megacities that have been – and are – exposed to major natural disasters. These include: Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, Lima, Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, London and Dhaka. Case studies focused on reviewing the historic record of major disasters in each city and on documenting recent changes in different components of hazard including, risk, exposure, vulnerability and response. It was found that exposure and vulnerability are the components of hazard that are changing fastest and with the gravest implications for urban populations. Because hazards are only one part of the typical urban management agenda, hazards management in large cities should be pursued with careful regard to the context of general urban policy manking and management. Sustainability has become a guiding principle of urban management but the relationship between hazard and sustainability is little understood and little explored. The way lies open for hazard researchers to develop alternative contextualized approaches to the analysis and resolution of urban hazard issues. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中国城市空间分布的双侧对称性

借助尺度归并和笛卡儿变换思想考察中国城市的宏观分布规律,发现中国城市在一定的空间和规模尺度上具有双重对称性：以秦岭—淮河为界,南方城市与北方城市呈现双侧对称特征;以呼和浩特—太原—郑州—武汉—广州沿线为轴,东部城市与西部城市形成双侧对称局势。中国城市的宏观对称性与地球公转和自转的方式有关,海陆差异、地表形态和水系构成是影响城市对称格局的重要因素。城市的对称分布属于广义的形态发育问题,对称形成的内在机制可能在于人类空间行为的自组织演化。     

Immigrants and world cities: from the hyper-diverse to the bypassed

A relationship between globalization, cities and immigration is increasingly apparent. Whether one is trying to understand Dubai, Toronto, or London, immigrants are culturally, economically, and spatially changing cities in significant ways. This study compares the roster of world cities with that of major urban immigrant destinations. The number of major urban immigrant destinations is growing due to the acceleration of immigration driven by income differentials, social networks and various state and local policies to recruit skilled and unskilled labor and replenish population. This study will present urban-level data on the foreign-born for 145 metropolitan areas of over 1 million people. It will focus on the world’s 19 metropolitan areas with over 1 million foreign-born residents. Analysis of the data suggests that there is a range of destination types. Although not all world cities are immigrant gateways, many are.     

沿海城市竞争力评价及资源环境约束分析

在借鉴国内外研究的基础上,建立了城市竞争力评价指标体系。通过熵值法和均方差决策法确定各指标权重,对我国14个沿海开放城市竞争力进行了评价。分析发现,各城市综合竞争力具有内部差异大、极化现象突出等特点。从城市竞争力要素层得分及其状况来看,各城市之间差异显著,而生态环境竞争力普遍偏低。从空间角度看,各城市竞争力水平大致形成了以中部上海为核心,南部广州、北部天津为两翼,连接各城市构成了一条倒"V"字型向东突出的城市竞争力发展格局。根据评价结果由高到低可将14个城市分为强竞争力、较强竞争力、一般竞争力、弱竞争力四大类。     

From community planning to partnership planning. Urban regeneration and shifting power geometries on the South Bank, London

This paper seeks to explain the persistence of inner-city deprivation in spite of sustained regeneration efforts, through demonstrating how urban regeneration policies are embedded in peculiar political-institutional power dynamics that actually contribute to the further disempowerment of the already disempowered groups in inner cities. The reconstruction of the post-war planning history of one specific urban neighbourhood, the South Bank in central London, will allow to demonstrate how the constantly reworked urban regeneration models comprise specific power relations that have important repercussions for the success and failure of regeneration programmes. The focus here will particularly be on how the fall of the South Bank's prominent era of community-based development in the 1970s is firmly embedded in changing political-institutional frameworks that, after a spell of `community power', were soon to restore the power of the local cultural, political and business elites over the local regeneration agenda.     

Quantification of urban expansion in Siliguri urban agglomeration (UA): a model-based approach

In the study of new towns and cities, spatial assimilation and the complex nature of urban development hold issues of special importance. At present, in developing countries like India, rapid development as well as urbanization in medium sized cities is a noticeable phenomenon. However,researchers in the field of urban study,lay emphasis on larger cities in our country. Therefore,more studies are essential to identify the problem and future prospect and also to suggest satisfactory policies for the betterment of medium sized cities.The current paper assesses the spatial expansion of the Siliguri (a fast growing medium sized city of Eastern India) designed for the year 1990, 2000, 2010 as well as 2019 using satellite imagery and field investigation.The research quantifies the urban growth and sprawling pattern in the study area using statistical techniques and spatial matrices.The other objectives of this study are to predict and analyze the urban growth of Siliguri Urban Agglomeration (UA) of 2030 with the help of a Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model. This simulation model was chosen by using a technique to evaluate the classified images in three maps: a time 1 reference map, a time 2 reference map and a simulation map of time 3. Spatial metrics and Shannon entropy results revealed that Siliguri (UA) is experiencing rapid sprawl. In contrast, the degree of freedom results revealed a significant gulf between the observed and planned urban development.The simulation model also showed that the unsustainable trend will likely to remain intact in the future, with the built-up area rising to 78.496 km² by 2030, potentially resulting in loss of major cultivated land, fallow land and flora.

     

Public participation in China’s green communities: Mobilizing memories and structuring incentives

In recent years, there has been heightened interest in creating more environmentally sustainable forms of urban development in China. Central in these greening initiatives has been increased attention on promoting public participation in community-based environmental activities. Focusing on China’s green community initiatives, we examine the production and effects of participation in a state-led development program. Our analysis considers how incentives for program organizers and participants are structured by broader political and economic imperatives facing Chinese cities. We also consider what influence China’s history of neighborhood-based mobilization campaigns had on the meanings and methods of participation in green communities. To understand how urban development processes and memories of mobilization influence participation at the local level, we present two examples of the community greening process from the city of Guangzhou, comparing policy outcomes between a new and older neighborhood. This article seeks to demonstrate that the participatory processes associated with such an urban environmental initiative cannot be adequately understood without reference to earlier participatory practices and broader policy priorities guiding development in Chinese cities.