Explore the vast range of titles available.

Amidst rapid urbanization, sustainable development requires moving beyond subjective land-use planning techniques toward innovative computational geospatial models. This paper introduces a GIS-based quantitative framework to enable objective, rigorous land-use compatibility analysis. Uniquely, the model evaluates radial impacts and expert-defined criteria across multiple scales, overcoming the limitations of qualitative approaches. Cell-by-cell computation identifies emerging spatial conflicts with enhanced realism. A case study in Qaemshahr, Iran, demonstrated the model’s proficiency in revealing incompatibilities and hotspots, surpassing conventional methodologies. Quantitative analysis provided accurate, transparent insights for evidence-based planning and consistency in evaluation. Ongoing improvements through 3D, real-time data integration and machine learning will further the objectivity. While extensive testing across diverse urban contexts is still needed, this pioneering computational technique marks a transition from subjective to objective methodologies. Situated at the intersection of geographic information science and urban planning, this study serves as a launchpad for advancing robust geospatial models to shape more equitable, resilient urban futures amidst complex sustainability challenges. The development of rigorous computational techniques remains fundamental, and the present innovative model can be used to provide objective, scientifically grounded compatibility analyses to guide land-use planning.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the relationship between emergency response times and crash severity in New York City, focusing on spatial disparities and their implications. It examines how these disparities impact disadvantaged neighborhoods, particularly regarding traffic safety and emergency service accessibility.Design/methodology/approachThe research uses comprehensive spatial analysis techniques, including hotspot mapping, network analysis for travel time modeling, local bivariate correlation analysis and service area calculations. It maps crash data alongside emergency facility locations, considering peak-hour traffic. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is integrated to evaluate socioeconomic factors influencing accessibility. This approach provides a nuanced understanding of how emergency response times correlate with crash severity at the census block level, accounting for socioeconomic disparities.FindingsThis study reveals significant disparities in emergency response times across New York City. In high-poverty, predominantly minority areas, response times are 2–3 min longer than average, correlating with a 15% increase in severe injury rates. Over 20% of neighborhoods show correlations between response times and crash severity, with positive linear (5.51%), negative linear (10.72%), concave (2.44%) and convex (2.80%) relationships. Blocks with positive linear relationships have a mean ADI rank of 3.918. During peak hours, 69.7% of Manhattan blocks show negative relationships, the highest among boroughs.Originality/valueThis research highlights spatial justice issues in urban emergency response systems, emphasizing the need for localized, data-driven planning and infrastructure adjustments. By integrating the ADI, the multifaceted approach reveals the complex dynamics of socioeconomic factors and emergency service accessibility that have not yet been investigated in diverse urban communities.

Urban crime prevention remains a critical challenge intertwined with socioeconomic disparities. This study investigates the spatial nexus between urban deprivation and crime decline in Chicago from 2015 to 2022, addressing the question: How do changes in neighborhood deprivation relate to crime reduction patterns? Using comprehensive crime incident and census tract Area Deprivation Index (ADI) data, this study conducted exploratory spatial analysis, regression modeling, and local bivariate relationship analysis. The findings reveal persistent hotspots of concentrated deprivation on Chicago’s south and west sides, alongside a general citywide crime decline. However, the current research uncovered significant spatial heterogeneity in both deprivation patterns and crime reduction, challenging the achievement of equitable public safety outcomes. Surprisingly, while crime incidents in 2015 and 2022 significantly predicted crime change, ADI scores were not statistically significant predictors in our regression model. Local bivariate analysis exposed diverse relationships between ADI changes and crime rate changes across neighborhoods, with 72.2% of census tracts showing no statistically significant relationship. This underscores the complexity of urban crime dynamics and the importance of local context in understanding these patterns. Our research contributes a nuanced understanding of the intricate relationship between urban deprivation and crime patterns, providing valuable insights for policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and urban planners. These findings highlight the need for integrated, long-term strategies that address both crime prevention and socioeconomic disparities, ultimately fostering safer, more equitable urban environments and informing evidence-based interventions tailored to specific neighborhood contexts.

Contemporary urban development places a critical emphasis on pedestrian environments, especially in historic cities like George Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Malaysia. Although survey questionnaires effectively captured public perceptions of issues such as poor road connectivity, weak accessibility, crime and safety concerns in George Town, they fell short in providing a comprehensive understanding of the root causes. This study leverages space syntax theory to model and analyze George Town’s unique pedestrian landscape, aiming to identify strategies for improving pedestrian networks in historical urban landscapes. Space syntax theory, known for revealing structural issues within urban contexts, is applied after a thorough examination of George Town’s urban layout, climate, architectural features, and development policies. George Town employs an informal grid layout widely utilized in British colonial port cities to enhance overall efficiency. The predominant architectural form is the shophouse, which is characterized by a ground level designed for pedestrian movement known as the “five-foot way” and adapted to Malaysia’s climate. Various axis drawing methods for the unique five-foot way under different circumstances are considered. The George Town special area plan (SAP) emphasizing heritage preservation guides development policies, thus requiring an inclusive approach to pedestrian environments. This enhances the practical significance of the current study, with the eastern and northern coastal areas serving as crucial focal points for investigation. This approach results in a comprehensive spatial model that captures the essence of George Town’s pedestrian landscape. Evaluation using space syntax indicators such as connectivity, integration, intelligibility, and choice reveals issues like poor overall network connectivity, inadequate access to key attractions, suboptimal integration, concentrated pedestrian flows, and significant safety concerns, which are exacerbated by limited infrastructure on certain two-way roads and a lack of zebra crossings. The practical implications of this study include recommendations for enhancing pedestrian spaces along identified roads and strategically installing zebra-crossings. This research is significant for its focus on a historical city in a Southeast Asian developing country, deeply integrating local environmental characteristics and providing insights into urban planning and optimization, thereby serving as a reference for similar cities.

This study explores the complex interplay between air pollution, the socioeconomic conditions, and the tourism density within Texas’s urban landscapes, focusing on Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Despite extensive research on environmental justice and urban tourism separately, few studies have integrated these fields to examine how tourism development intersects with environmental and socioeconomic disparities at a neighborhood level. This research addresses this gap by employing advanced geospatial analyses and multi-criteria decision analysis to reveal the pronounced clustering of stressed communities on urban peripheries, often removed from tourism’s economic benefits. The study uniquely quantifies the spatial mismatches between tourist hotspots and areas of environmental stress, a dimension often overlooked in the environmental justice literature. Local spatial statistics and cumulative impact analysis uncover statistically significant correlations between high poverty levels and elevated air pollution in specific locales. The results show varying patterns across cities, with Austin presenting the lowest inequality levels and San Antonio exhibiting significant disparities. This granular, neighborhood-centric approach provides novel insights into the tourism–environment–equity nexus, addressing the lack of comprehensive studies linking these factors in rapidly growing Texan metropolitan areas. The findings underscore the critical need for targeted policy interventions and neighborhood-specific approaches in diagnosing urban environmental disparities and crafting equitable urban development policies that consider tourism’s impact on local communities.

PurposeEnvironmental and functional situations of neighbourhoods can play a significant role in maintaining neighbourhoods’ socio-economic activities and residents’ place attachment. This study aims to examine the relationship between architectural identity components (i.e. symbol, ornament and old pattern) and place attachment in Aghazaman neighbourhood as a well-known historic neighbourhood in Sanandaj, Iran.Design/methodology/approachThe study is quantitative in nature and a questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 300 respondents to assess the relationships between the architectural identity components and place attachment.FindingsThe findings indicate a significant and positive relationship between architectural identity and place attachment, indicating that higher architectural identity is associated with high perceptions of place attachment amongst residents. The results further indicate that the most influencing factor in shaping architectural identity is old pattern, followed by ornaments and symbols.Social implicationsAs place attachment is a strong incentive to maintain social interactions in neighbourhoods and to create a sense of attachment towards the residential environment, attention must be paid to the relationships amongst people, place, meaning and identity.Originality/valueThe architectural elements such as motifs and columns give identity to the image of historic neighbourhoods. The use of architectural identity components can help in decision making of planners and practitioners of urban neighbourhoods. The study was designed to develop a guideline so that future developments in Iran could be monitored to sustain strong neighbourhood attachment.

While urban greening is an effective adaptation strategy for building resilient cities, socioeconomic factors and individual perceptions of urban parks play a significant role in enhancing their safety and inclusiveness. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a widely recognized approach for enhancing safety in urban public spaces. However, existing research has largely overlooked the impact of socioeconomic factors and interpersonal needs on shaping perceptions of safety. Baitashan Park is Located in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, China. It is an iconic urban park with significant cultural and recreational value. Despite the park’s popularity, it faces challenges such as uneven accessibility, maintenance discrepancies, and perceived safety concerns, especially among users from the lower socioeconomic status (SES) group. This study examines how SES and interpersonal needs affect the relationship between CPTED principles and perceived safety. Our findings reveal that interpersonal needs significantly mediate the impact of CPTED on perceived safety, with SES playing a moderating role in both the direct and indirect effects. Specifically, the influence of CPTED on perceived safety through interpersonal needs is more pronounced for individuals with higher SES, while the direct effect of CPTED on perceived safety is also stronger for users with higher SES. These results suggest that the effectiveness of CPTED principles can be enhanced by considering the interplay between socioeconomic status and interpersonal dynamics. This study underscores the importance of adopting a holistic approach to urban park design, integrating environmental, social, and economic factors to promote safety, inclusivity, and well-being for all park users.

PurposeGiven its ineffective urban control strategies, Iran’s urbanisation experiences indicate highly rapid migration, horizontal expansion, spatial inequality and an imbalanced distribution of public services. Considering the significance of historic fabric for the spatial continuity of neighbourhoods and the formation of the physical identity of cities, this study aims to evaluate the impact of quality of place (QoP) on resident satisfaction in a historic – religious settlement of Sari, a provincial capital city in the north of Iran.Design/methodology/approachVarious studies have evaluated resident satisfaction in the old urban fabric, but scarce investigations have focussed on the impact of QoP on resident satisfaction at historic-religious settlements. Conceptually, this research extends theory by reframing QoP as a reflective, hierarchical construct and modelling its impact on satisfaction. A sample of 227 residents was analysed via structural equation modelling.FindingsUnderstanding the contribution of QoP to residential satisfaction is a key element in facilitating sustainable neighbourhood development so as to improve the condition of a historic neighbourhood. QoP is a second-order construct with four dimensions, namely, public facilities, sense of belonging, perception of safety and environmental quality, and is highly reflected by public facilities, followed by perception of safety, environmental quality and sense of belonging. The objective characteristics of the environment and subjective wellbeing perceived by residents play significant roles on resident satisfaction, especially in historic neighbourhoods.Originality/valueAnalysis of the structural model supports the theoretical findings in the literature that associate high QoP with high satisfaction. The model of this work can be applied for a wide range of human settlements.

Drastic growth of urban populations has caused expansion of peri-urban areas—the transitional zone between a city and its hinterland. Although urbanisation may bring economic opportunities and improve infrastructure in an area, uncontrolled urban expansion towards peri-urban areas will negatively impact the environment and the community living within the area. Malaysia, for example, has become one of the most urbanised countries in East Asia. However, cities in Malaysia are relatively small and less densely populated compared with other cities in East Asia. This indicates that urban expansion has been sprawling towards peri-urban areas, and not being controlled and properly managed. To ensure urban expansions occur sustainably, urban growth boundary (UGB) can potentially be used as a mechanism to contain and limit urban expansion, and allow urban growth to be planned to achieve sustainable development. A scientific approach is essential to determine an UGB that allows future growth to be predicted and taken into consideration. Potentially, urban spatial models have been widely used to plan and predict future urban expansions. George Town Conurbation, the second largest urban conurbation in Malaysia, has been chosen as the study area in this study. This study aims to demonstrate the application of a GIS-Cellular Automata model, known as FutureSim, which was developed to simulate land cover changes and generate a designated UGB for this area. The model was developed based on the transition rule derived from land cover changes, from 2010 to 2018, and then used to predict future land cover changes under two different planning scenarios—compact growth and urban sprawl scenarios. With the accuracy of the model exceeding 74%, FutureSim was used to predict land cover change until 2030. The model can potentially be used to assist planners and policymakers to make decisions on the allocation of sustainable land use and planning for rapidly developing regions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted human socioeconomic activities, leaving an everlasting impact on urban systems. As a result, there is a growing scholarly focus on exploring how urban planning strategies and tools can help create resilient cities. In Saudi Arabia, the pilgrimage city of Makkah, which has always faced the challenge of managing crowds during the annual pilgrimage, was left deserted due to lockdowns and social distancing measures. To quickly revive socioeconomic and pilgrimage activities in the city, a set of digital tools and communication technologies were deployed to manage crowds and enforce social distancing to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This study examines the role of digitalization and smartification in reviving the city and the importance of context in building urban resilience. This study used desktop research and case study analysis to highlight the transformation to the new normal and the development of future smart technologies for the city. Smart solutions provided valuable support in reducing the impacts of the pandemic and restarting Makkah’s economy. Although most activities have been restored, some facilities and services are still operating below capacity. Digitalization and smartification of urban services could play a major role in improving service delivery and urban resilience.