Habitat International最新文献

{"title":"Dammam metropolitan area: Advancing the pursuit of urban resilience","authors":"Abdulaziz I. Almulhim ,&nbsp;Patrick Brandful Cobbinah","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103499","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103499","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban resilience has become part of the policy orthodoxy in managing climate change and addressing urban sustainability inadequacies worldwide. Several researchers from multiple fields have primed this policy via empirical studies. In this paper, we profile Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA), a Middle Eastern city in Saudi Arabia, to argue that expanding research on urban resilience to key perspectives and transformative strategies in less researched regions can help ‘diversify’ understandings of urban resilience in ways that advance and consolidate urban sustainability in critical urban studies. We show that urban resilience has been less conceived in land cover changes, land surface temperatures, urbanization patterns, land use planning, and in broadly framing environmental and climate change risks. And as a consequence, many of its implications are either overlooked or uncoordinated. Based on this analysis, we propose a renewed agenda for resilience that re-articulates it as a strategy for sustainable development in DMA via the urban nexus framework.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103499"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rural social space differentiation: The construction and representation of social relations","authors":"Shanshan Wu ,&nbsp;Libang Ma ,&nbsp;Zhihao Shi ,&nbsp;Xiaoyan Chang ,&nbsp;Rui Wang ,&nbsp;Xin Li","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103498","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103498","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rural social space can reveal the changes of rural social structure and the distribution of spatial resources. The difference of rural development between East and West and the long-standing dualistic divide between urban and rural areas necessitate a deeper exploration of rural social space research in China. This paper systematically explored the formation of rural social space from the perspective of rural social relations, and took Henapo Village as an example to illustrate the constructive role of rural social relations in rural social activities, as well as the external representation of these activities based on this, and explored the differentiation mechanism of rural social space. The research results indicated that within the internal construction of rural social space, the village had developed internal characteristics supporting various social activities primarily based on blood relations, supplemented by business and geographic relations. The external representation of rural social space exhibited a spatial characteristic of social activities structured as “home-administrative village/natural village-county.” The social space of Henapo Village exhibited a core-periphery layered structural characteristic, where social relations in the core layer were relatively intimate, social activities were simpler, and the activity space was more concentrated compared to the peripheral layer. The social space differentiation in Henapo Village was mainly influenced by villagers, the village committee and the natural environment, resulting in land enrolment, industry enrolment, demand enrolment and resource enrolment. The decisive driving force of the village committee, the fundamental driving force of the natural environment and the endogenous driving force of villagers worked together to promote the significant differentiation of the physical-social environment and social groups in Henapo Village. The differentiation of social relationship networks and the diversity of social activities occurred and were fed back to the key actors, resulting in the differentiation of rural social space.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103498"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Australian nationwide assessment of social vulnerability in two decades through its linkage to the built environment","authors":"Siqin Wang ,&nbsp;Haiyan Liu ,&nbsp;Wenhui Cai ,&nbsp;Xiao Huang ,&nbsp;Qian Chayn Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103495","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103495","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Evaluating social vulnerability and identifying at-risk populations are foundational to hazard risk mitigation and sustainable human settlement, yet these tasks entail distinct challenges that vary across urban-rural contexts and temporal scales. Despite Australia's escalating exposure to natural disasters, longitudinal, nationwide metrics of social vulnerability remain absent, with prior research constrained to localized or temporally fragmented analyses. Grounded in Cutter's social vulnerability framework, this study develops fine-grained, longitudinal indices of social vulnerability for urban and rural Australia across five census cycles (2001–2021). Spatial inequities, temporal trends, and associations between social vulnerability and 30 built environment indicators were analyzed using interpretable machine learning techniques. Key findings reveal that while the geographic distribution of the most vulnerable areas has remained stable over time, socioeconomic inequities of such areas have diminished whereas spatial clustering intensified. Resilient regions are characterized by enhanced access to public amenities, housing diversity, and commercial density—factors that collectively attenuate vulnerability. Furthermore, upgraded built environments attract socioeconomically advantaged populations, amplifying aggregated resilience. To our knowledge, this represents the first comprehensive, longitudinal, and spatially explicit national assessment of social vulnerability in Australia over two decades. The results elucidate critical trends in vulnerability and their interplay with built environment dynamics, offering actionable insights for place-based hazard mitigation, urban-rural sustainability, and infrastructure resilience. By bridging data gaps, this work addresses Australia's pressing need for evidence-driven policy and spatially targeted interventions to counter intensifying natural hazards and prioritize the resilience of human settlement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103495"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fragmented expansion induces rural housing wealth differences in urban fringes: Evidence from fine-grained housing data in Shanghai, China","authors":"Jin Xie ,&nbsp;Yinying Cai ,&nbsp;Lynn Huntsinger","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103492","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103492","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The dynamic changes in urban fringes have been widely studied in the context of suburbanization, but few studies have disaggregated the fragmented expansion or intrinsic differences in rural housing at the household or village level. Using fine-grained housing data from 66 villages in Shanghai for the period of 1978–2017, we elucidated the fragmented variation in rural housing and the state of wealth differences in urban fringes at the household or village levels, as well as examined the relationships between rural housing expansion and housing wealth differences through the combined use of Gini coefficient decomposition, Shapley decomposition, and quantile regression. The results showed that the disparate increases in rural housing wealth in Shanghai's metropolitan suburbs were largely due to the unapproved and frequent growth of auxiliary rooms in households. Villages adjacent to downtown areas or towns have been able to engage in this form of construction more than those further away, stimulating rural housing differences at the landscape scale. Driven by the opportunity spaces that emerge from government policies and the demand for rentals near sources of urban employment, the unregulated and disorganized dynamic of rural auxiliary rooms have exacerbated existing inequalities and resulted in stratified wealth differentiation within urban fringes. In conclusion, we suggest clarifying the approval system for the construction of rural rooms and implementing effective land use planning to manage fragmented housing growth, thereby leading to more balanced wealth growth and improved land use efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103492"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Socio-technical dynamics of energy consumption in low-income housing in Amman, Jordan","authors":"Nowf Maaith ,&nbsp;Tania Sharmin ,&nbsp;Satish Bk","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103485","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103485","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the key sociocultural and physical factors influencing energy consumption patterns in low-income housing in Amman, Jordan. A qualitative methodology was employed, consisting of semi-structured interviews and house tours conducted with 24 households in low-income public housing settings in Amman. The analysis used a dual qualitative approach, combining a codebook method with Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) to interpret the data. The findings reveal that energy consumption in low-income housing is shaped by a complex interplay of sociocultural practices and physical conditions. Comfort emerged as a dynamic, multidimensional concept influenced by sociocultural contexts. Central to this is the culturally and religiously rooted notion of ‘privacy’, which drives spatial modifications and daily practices, often raising energy demands. ‘Family dynamics and social relationships’ further impact energy consumption patterns. Additionally, ‘substandard building and urban design’ and the use of ‘low-quality building materials’ exacerbate energy inefficiencies, promoting more energy-intensive behaviours. Despite financial limitations, participants demonstrated a notable awareness of energy issues and implemented various adaptive strategies informed by cultural and religious teachings. However, existing studies on energy performance often rely heavily on technical data while overlooking such sociocultural factors, limiting their ability to inform design and policy strategies that effectively address energy consumption. This study bridges that gap by integrating sociocultural and physical dimensions, offering nuanced insights into residential energy use in culturally sensitive, resource-constrained contexts. The findings provide an evidence-based foundation for designing energy-efficient housing tailored to low-income communities in a culturally rich context and supporting policy efforts aligned with sustainable development goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103485"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144502802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Foreign direct investment and regional integration: The connectivity role of same-origin greenfield investment in the Yangtze River Delta","authors":"Zehan Pan ,&nbsp;Yaning Song ,&nbsp;Xue Li","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103484","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103484","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Much literature explores the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the development of city regions by establishing global-local connections and expanding local economies, but few studies examine how interconnections among same-origin FDI enhance regional integration in host countries. Focusing on the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) mega-city region, which consists of 41 cities, we examine whether and how greenfield investment from the same country of origin and located in different cities of YRD facilitates intercity connectivity. To address endogeneity issues, we construct instrumental variables for the intercity connections of FDI by employing the Shift-Share instrumental variable method. The estimation results suggest a persistent and robust effect throughout the 2005–2020 period. Moreover, foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) operating in different subsectors, high-value manufacturing, and producer-service sectors, are the primary drivers of these spatial effects. This research highlights the established connections among FIEs from the same origin country in understanding the dynamics of mega-city regions. It also indicates that when attracting foreign investment, local governments should identify the heterogenous impact of interconnections among same-origin FIEs, rather than focusing exclusively on an individual FIE to boost regional integration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103484"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144481736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the impact mechanisms of China's Rural homestead transfer policy on household welfare: A perspective of labor migration","authors":"Yongchao Zhang ,&nbsp;Zvi Lerman","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103486","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103486","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rural homestead transfer (RHT) program, which the government in China is promoting in recent years, has noticeable impacts on household welfare. This paper constructs a theoretical framework of “government-promoted homestead transfer - multi-channels of labor migration - the welfare of households”, based on the data from three pilot selected areas, namely, Wujin district in Jiangsu, Yiwu city in Zhejiang and Changyuan county in Henan, uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to explain the complex relation between government-promoted homestead transfer, labor migration, and component factors of household welfare. We found that RHT, directly or indirectly through the mediation of labor migration, had an overall positive influence on household income status, but negative effect on household living standard. RHT also had an overall positive effect on household social security, and negative effect on residential environment, although this effect was indirect, only through labor migration as a mediating variable. RHT also had a direct positive influence on the household psychological state. We conclude that rural homestead transfer and the resulting release of land for industrial construction create increased opportunities for off-farm employment, facilitating the farmers’ livelihood transition and leading to changes in household welfare components. Filling gaps in previous studies, the innovative contribution of our research covers both objective (material) and subjective (behavioral) dimensions of welfare, examines direct as well as indirect influence mechanisms, inclusion of indirect influences that through labor migration as a mediating variable. Also provides a comprehensive assessment of all five government measures that constitute the core of the RHT program.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103486"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144481735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The rural human-land relationship transition in Southwest karst mountainous areas based on rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement coupling","authors":"Xue Ren ,&nbsp;Yangbing Li ,&nbsp;Guangjie Luo ,&nbsp;Juan Huang ,&nbsp;Yiyi Zhang ,&nbsp;Qian Xu ,&nbsp;Linyu Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103493","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103493","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement are the core of the rural human-land system. Analysis of the human-land relationship transition is significant for rural ecological protection and high-quality development in karst mountainous areas of Southwest China. However, current research still lacks sufficient analysis of the interactive logic among these three elements and exploration of the transition patterns of the human-land relationship. This study constructs an analytical framework based on the coupling of rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and transition patterns of human-land relationship in the karst mountainous areas of Southwest China, and explores the interaction logic and driving mechanism. The research results indicate that: (1) Population and land are characterized by phased changes, with the overall manifestation that the rural population and agricultural production land continue to decrease, while rural settlement continue to expand, with significant spatial differentiation at different elevations, slopes, and orientations. (2) The interaction among the rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement has formed an obvious transition trend of human-land relationship, in which the \"population decline-land increase-settlement increase\" type of human-land relationship is conducive to the coordinated development of ecology and economy in karst mountainous areas. (3) Natural environment, socioeconomic, and policy factors are the main driving mechanisms for the human-land relationship transition, and the increasing policy strength gradually dominates the evolution of the human-land relationship. We proposed differentiated development strategies, which can serve as a reference for sustainable development in similar regions worldwide.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103493"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144366175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"No space for culture: the juxtaposition of urban residential planning and amaXhosa cultural land use practices in Makhanda, South Africa","authors":"Sinenhlanhla Memela,&nbsp;Zandile Nombulelo Dlongolo,&nbsp;Philippa Margaret Irvine,&nbsp;Nangamso Makhiwane","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103491","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103491","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cultural practices are often inseparable from their spatial manifestations. The spatiality of culture is seen in the existence of ritual spaces, architectural forms, and the organisation of space, for example. In traditional amaXhosa culture, the role of the extended family and spaces for various ritual and cultural practices transform residential spaces. This paper explores the contrasts between the spatial needs attached to cultural practices and the urban residential planning in South African township areas. It utilises Lefebvre's Production of Space to frame these juxtapositions and understand adaptive practices in the use of space within this context. The research uses a case study of the Makanaskop township in Makhanda, South Africa. This township is typical of state-housing provision during both the apartheid and post-apartheid periods: small, single residential plots with housing suited to nuclear families. Through interviews and participatory mapping with nine households, the findings of this research suggest that the size and spatial organisation of plots do not pay cognizance to the spatial practices of amaXhosa residents. Faced with spatial constraints, residents have had to adapt their cultural practices, and sometimes contravene planning systems and bylaws through insurgent planning and quiet encroachment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103491"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144469982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Urban metabolism and emergy of China's cities","authors":"Miaohan Tang ,&nbsp;Jingke Hong ,&nbsp;Yuli Shan ,&nbsp;Weier Liu ,&nbsp;Gengyuan Liu ,&nbsp;Rui Xue ,&nbsp;Franco Ruzzenenti ,&nbsp;Klaus Hubacek","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103494","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103494","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The unprecedented pace of urbanization and industrialization caused a massive increase in China's urban metabolic pressure. The trend presents an urgent need for detailing the long-term changes and disparities in urban metabolic performances in a wide range of cities. However, existing studies rarely evaluate cities of large spatial ranges for long time periods. Here, we present empirical evidence of 281 China's cities from 2000 to 2020 based on emergy analysis. We categorized the 281 cities in six types, namely agricultural cities, light manufacturing cities, energy production cities, heavy manufacturing cities, service-based cities, and high-tech cities. We found that China's urban metabolic performance gradually became worse. At national level, total emergy use increased more than six times, but the annual growth rate slowed down between 2000 and 2020. The environmental sustainability index of China's cities in total decreased by 83.61 %. At city level, emergy-based performances among the six types of cities showed considerable differences. Agricultural cities and light manufacturing cities had better sustainability; service-based cities faced high environmental pressure. In addition, we investigated future urban metabolic performance and potential improvements based on the five-year development policy. Scenarios based on existing policies showed that total emergy use would experience slower growth, and most cities continue their decline in emergy metabolism performances in 2025. We provided city-specific policy recommendations to typical cities in six city types. Our data and results gave a holistic view of China's city-level metabolic performances at national scale with a broad spatial coverage and for a long period of time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 103494"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144469983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}