兰州市城市热岛效应与地表指数定量分析

针对现有兰州市城市热岛效应研究多以地面气象站的观测资料为数据源,以遥感影像为数据源较少的现状,该文利用Landsat 8影像,研究了兰州市城市热岛效应与修改后的土壤调节植被指数(MSAVI)、增强型水体指数(EWI)、土壤亮度指数(NDSI)、土壤湿度指数(NDMI)之间的关系。结果表明,兰州城市热岛效应较为严重,城市热岛效应与土壤湿度指数、增强型水体指数、土壤亮度指数呈正相关,与修改后的土壤调节植被指数呈负相关。     

自然灾害对公共安全的影响及其监测预警科技发展战略

改革开放以来,我国在自然灾害监测预警的各个环节均取得了可喜的发展,对减轻灾害损失、保障人民生命财产安全和社会稳定繁荣发展发挥了重要作用。但仍需清醒地认识到,在灾害规律演变、社会经济发展的新形势下,各类自然灾害对国家公共安全仍存在很大的威胁;我国目前灾害监测预警能力与国家防灾减灾“三个转变”需求以及国际先进水平相比仍存在较大差距。因此,本文简要论述了气象、海洋、地质、地震、生物五大自然灾害对国家公共安全的影响,并根据我国目前监测预警状况和存在问题,提出未来5～10 a我国自然灾害监测预警科技发展战略要从加强预测预报基础理论研究、提升综合监测能力、构建高效自然灾害预警系统以及发展减灾避灾和救灾技术四个方面着手推进。     

上海城市热岛的精细结构气候特征分析

对上海地区59个自动站2006—2013年逐时气温资料进行了本地化的质量控制,得到一套高分辨率气温数据集。将其与常规观测资料进行对比,发现两者反映的上海年平均及季节平均气温基本一致,说明经质量控制的加密资料是可信的。但其空间差异更为明显,表明高分辨气温数据在城市热环境精细空间分布研究中更具代表性和有效性。基于该数据集研究了上海的城市热岛空间分布。结果表明,加密观测数据可反映出城市热岛的精细结构气候特征:热岛分布由中心城区向四周及西南部扩展,尤其是出现了"多中心"结构特征,即除中心城区的热岛主中心外,在闵行北部和松江南部均出现了与快速城市化进程相联系的区域性副热岛中心;受大气环流季节转换和局地海陆风的影响,热岛位置在秋冬季偏东南方向,春夏季偏西北方向。上述精细化特征在常规资料中并不明显或无法体现。由此可见,经质量控制的加密气温数据在城市热岛的精细结构研究中更具优势。     

Social networks and healthy cities: spreading good practices based on a spanish case study

The city of Vitoria‐Gasteiz in Spain is considered a “healthy city” and has implemented sustainable actions to increase the mobility of its healthcare professionals. The objectives of this study are firstly to account for the use of bicycles at work as a strategy for a healthy city and secondly to propose a conceptual framework for analyzing this network and its capacity to spread their practices The paradigm proposed is that of social networks, within which sharing between contacts is explained by means of two models: the “threshold model” and “opinion leaders”.     

The Greening of Baltimore's Asphalt Schoolyards

Asphalt was becoming an integral part of the urban American landscape by the end of the nineteenth century. Not only was it emerging as the preferred alternative for street paving, its promoters were endorsing it for other purposes as well. Although Baltimore was not in the vanguard when it came to adopting asphalt for road surfaces, it soon followed the trend. Like other cities, it too found other applications for this versatile petroleum product, including the paving of playgrounds and schoolyards. Despite low maintenance costs, widespread use of asphalt as a recreational surface started to meet resistance in Baltimore during the 1960s. Fifty years later, stringent storm‐water runoff requirements are causing city officials to rethink how they deploy asphalt in an urban setting. In an effort to meet these new requirements, while at the same time improve recreational opportunities for school children, an alliance of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private developers has developed a strategy to remove asphalt from schoolyards—one that may serve as a model for other cities facing financial and sustainability challenges similar to those of Baltimore.     

Applying Geography Course Projects to Issues in City Resilience and Global Connectivity

Globalization would appear to be a subject that easily could be addressed in geography classrooms, yet this is not always the case. In terms of pedagogy, many geographers are concerned whether the field has been adequately engaging various components of this topic (e.g., connectivity, core-periphery), especially in terms of making the subject matter relevant to students. This article presents the results of a recent course project situated at the intersection of city-level resilience to hazards and connectivity with the global economy, utilizing SWOT analysis. The student projects demonstrated that this comparatively simple analytical tool was a useful means for exploring and integrating key topics in globalization and urban-economic geography, while also facilitating a problem-based learning environment.     

Analyzing Accessibility Using Parcel Data: Is There Still an Access–Space Trade-Off in Long Beach,California?

This article analyzes the impact of changing housing and neighborhood characteristics on the accessibility of neighborhood businesses using Long Beach, California, as a case study. Although advocates of smart growth and New Urbanism encourage land use mixing, aggregate-level analysis can be too coarse to pick up on fine-grained aspects of urban streetscapes. This study uses assessor parcel records and a point-based business establishment data set to analyze city-wide patterns of accessibility from individual dwelling units to thirty-one types of neighborhood businesses, including grocery stores, service shops, drug stores, doctor's offices, and banks. Regression results compare parcel-level and neighborhood-level drivers of accessibility between 2006 and 2015 to gauge the aggregated effect of recent economic, demographic, and built environment changes on this aspect of urban spatial structure. Larger homes in older, multiunit buildings and higher income neighborhoods show substantial increases in accessibility to most establishment types, suggesting a trend toward both greater accessibility and larger dwelling units—despite the traditional trade-off between access and space. Although gradual increases in home and business density increased overall accessibility over this period, weaker neighborhood-level results indicate that this trend is less pronounced in high-poverty and non-white areas.     

Spatial and Temporal Patterns Associated with Permitted Tree Removal in Austin,Texas, 2002–2011

A wide-ranging set of physical, urban, demographic, socioeconomic, and policy characteristics determines the spatial distribution of urban forests. Information on the characteristics surrounding tree removals on both public and private properties has received less attention in the literature. The purpose of this research was to analyze the spatiotemporal trends and geographic patterns of tree removals in Austin, Texas, between 2002 and 2011 in an effort to understand how site-specific characteristics influence urban tree removal and affect the overall distribution of Austin's urban forest. We examined permitted tree removals using a geographic information system (GIS) as well as spatial and statistical analyses. Specifically, we evaluated the degree to which variables related to various physical, urban, and socioeconomic conditions predicted tree removals. The results indicate that permitted tree removals and their associated characteristics in Austin have varied over the ten-year study period. Permitted tree removals increased over the study period and took place in the urban core and along the urban periphery. Permitted tree removals were more likely to be undertaken by college graduates and owner-occupants and to occur in more densely populated areas, closer to major streets, and on properties with older structures. The results of this research provide urban forest professionals with information on the location and intensity of permitted tree removals and the significant characteristics driving urban tree loss.     

Redevelopment and the urban forest: A study of tree removal and retention during demolition activities

Though relationships between urbanization and tree cover are generally well studied, the effect of redevelopment on urban trees, at the scale of the individual property, is not well understood. Developing knowledge in this area is important in order to limit tree loss during redevelopment and thus, ensure sustained ecosystem services. Here, we explore the removal or retention of trees adjacent to building demolition in Christchurch, New Zealand. We mapped the presence or absence of individual trees on 123 properties prior to, and following, building demolition. Using a classification tree (CT) analysis, the presence or absence of 1209 trees was modelled as a function of: tree-related variables, property-related variables, and economic variables. The CT model estimated tree presence/absence with overall accuracy of 80.4%. Results show that 21.6% of all trees were removed as a consequence of building demolition, resulting in a tree canopy cover reduction of 19.7% across all 123 properties. The CT showed that tree crown area was the most important variable for predicting the presence/absence of trees, whereby trees with small crown areas (<7.9 m²) were most frequently removed, especially if they were within 0.7 m of a demolished building. Land value was also an important determinant of tree presence/absence, such that tree removal was more prevalent on properties with higher land value ($/m²). The results provide important new insights into some of the reasons for tree removal or retention during redevelopment at the scale of the individual property where most tree-related decisions are made.