Habitat International最新文献

{"title":"Flood experience and risk predictability paradox of households: Implications for structural risk reduction and urban planning in Ghana, Africa","authors":"Delali Benjamin K. Dovie ,&nbsp;Mac-Donald Abopaam ,&nbsp;Aaron K. Christian ,&nbsp;Daniel K. Twerefou ,&nbsp;Michael Miyittah ,&nbsp;Opoku Pabi","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103721","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103721","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban floods remain among the most persistent threats to human settlements globally. Yet in Sub-Saharan Africa, the relative influence of geophysical, socio-demographic, and adaptive factors in shaping household flood exposure remains poorly understood. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the flood experiences of 1050 households in Ghana's Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), a rapidly urbanizing coastal region facing recurrent hydrometeorological extremes. Going beyond conventional vulnerability mapping, the study integrates physical, social, and behavioural dimensions to statistically assess how household characteristics help predict flood exposure. The results reveal that geophysical attributes, particularly housing elevation, proximity to drainage channels, and wall materials are the most consistent predictors of flood incidence. In contrast, socio-demographic factors such as age, education, sex of household head, and adaptive capacity exert limited explanatory influence. Paradoxically, households capable of predicting floods are more likely to experience them, reflecting a cycle of learned exposure rather than effective avoidance. This finding challenges the notion that experiential knowledge alone enhances resilience. Policy implications point to the urgent need for elevation-based zoning, improved drainage infrastructure, and the enforcement of resilient building codes across municipalities. Moreover, integrating household awareness with early warning systems and district-scale structural interventions can convert local predictive capacity into actionable prevention. Strengthening institutional coordination and spatial planning within flood-prone districts is thus vital to achieving equitable, long-term coastal urban resilience. The study reframes resilience as important relational outcome of governance inertia, offering an African counterpoint that enriches ongoing discourse on urban resilience and governance of coastal flood risk.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103721"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146039358","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":"Ethnicized marginality and governance discontinuity: The contentious embeddedness of Roma settlements in Naples","authors":"Tommaso Vitale ,&nbsp;Fabiola Midulla ,&nbsp;Carlo Stasolla","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103714","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103714","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban marginality is increasingly shaped by the intersection of infrastructural exclusion, governance fragmentation, and ethnicized stigmatization. This article investigates these processes through an in-depth analysis of Roma settlements in the Metropolitan region of Naples, where patterns of extreme marginalization emerge from the convergence of infrastructural deficits, governance discontinuities, and normative conflicts. Drawing on 62 semi-structured interviews, extensive participant observation, and documentary analysis, the study develops the concept of governance discontinuity to capture the multi-scalar and relational character of exclusionary dynamics. Empirically, the findings reveal how the daily lives of Roma residents are structured by persistent infrastructural decay, the absence of coordinated institutional interventions, and the production of territorial stigma, which collectively reinforce durable forms of spatial injustice. Theoretically, the article advances urban sociology by illustrating how micro-level solidarities, meso-level mediation mechanisms, and macro-level governance gaps interact within fragmented metropolitan settings. Particular attention is given to how infrastructural materialities and symbolic stigmatizations co-produce processes of urban exclusion, revealing the need for relational and conflictual approaches to understand advanced urban marginality. By situating Roma settlements within broader debates on segregation, housing precarity, and governance discontinuity, the study contributes to ongoing efforts to theorize the embeddedness of urban inequalities in the socio-political and material fabric of contemporary cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103714"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079136","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":"Adjustment from rural to urban administrative division: The differential impacts of county- and township-level administrative urbanization on the provision of basic public services","authors":"Li He ,&nbsp;Jiangyin Wang ,&nbsp;Zihan Feng ,&nbsp;Jingtao Zeng ,&nbsp;Zihan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103732","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103732","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The wave of urbanization in China has driven profound changes in urban management systems. The transformation from a rural administrative system into urban governance, referred to as administrative urbanization, has become a considerable institutional force impacting the provision of public services. With institutional change theory as anchor, this study empirically analyzed the differential impacts of county- and township-level administrative urbanization on the provision of basic public services using 2009 to 2023 panel data from 281 prefecture-level cities. The results indicated that administrative urbanization at the county setting did not significantly influence public service provision but that the enhancement of such governance in townships significantly and continuously promoted public service. A heterogeneity analysis revealed that the degree of coordination between administrative and population urbanization, as well as differences in the extent of administrative urbanization in both settings, significantly affected the improvement of public services. Tests on mediation effects showed that fiscal decentralization and attention to public service were key intermediary mechanisms through which county- and township-level administrative urbanization influenced public service provision, respectively. Moreover, population urbanization exhibited stage-specific characteristics as administrative urbanization progressed: The positive effects of such phenomenon in counties emerged at higher stages of urbanization, while the impact of urbanization in townships continued to increase as population urbanization advanced. An extended analysis showed that towns, as an intermediary form of settlement between townships and subdistricts, had undergone only partial administrative transformation, thereby limiting their role in promoting public service provision. Overall, this study uncovered the hierarchical differences of institutional change in China's urbanization and provides valuable insights for other developing countries exploring the governance effects of institutional urbanization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103732"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079138","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":"Aquatic informal settlements: Vernacular design strategies for flood-resilient built environments","authors":"Johan Mottelson ,&nbsp;Remígio Chilaule ,&nbsp;Alessandro Venerandi","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103708","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103708","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>More frequent extreme weather events caused by climate change increase the risk of flooding in informal settlements, exacerbating vulnerabilities stemming from inadequate storm water management infrastructure, dependence on on-site sanitation, and precarious settlement sites. Addressing these challenges requires climate change adaptation of informal settlements. This study focuses on adaptation of the built environment to enhance flood resilience among communities with long-standing traditions of settlement in aquatic settings. It employs qualitative visual analysis of satellite imagery covering aquatic informal settlements to document urban level design strategies along with photographic field data from Lagos, Nigeria, and Châu Đốc, Vietnam to document building level design strategies. The analysis identifies several key vernacular flood resilience design strategies developed without involvement of architects, planners, and engineers, including the construction of artificial islands that consolidate settlements at the block level and spatially separate flooded public areas from elevated, fortified private zones protected from flooding; the use of raised pedestrian pathways to separate mobility systems from flooded areas; and the incorporation of prefabricated concrete stilt elements in housing construction to protect domestic environments from flooding at low cost. The study discusses the potential of these vernacular design strategies to inform climate change adaptation in flood-prone informal settlements.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103708"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145929330","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":"Mobilising urban village houses into local public housing provision: Towards a hybrid mode of public housing (re)production in China","authors":"Jin Zhu ,&nbsp;Zhiming Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the innovative approaches being developed by local governments in China to meet the ambitious public housing targets through the mobilisation of existing properties in urban villages. Our empirical analysis of Shenzhen's Affordable Rental Housing (ARH) scheme reveals the emergence of a “selective expansion” approach, in which public housing simultaneously grows in scale while controlled access is maintained aligned with economic development objectives. Contrasting the common Western trajectories of residualisation, selective expansion can be seen as a third pathway that combines quantitative growth with strategic targeting under a developmental welfare regime. In short, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) acquire temporary management rights over urban village properties while the original ownership structures are maintained in a hybrid ownership arrangement involving sophisticated portfolio management strategies. The approach introduces market competition between public and private providers in which a segmented or localised unitary rental model is created. While the innovative approach helps meet central housing targets through rapid expansion, it raises questions about social equity, particularly regarding the displacement of existing urban village residents. The findings of the present study reveal how hybrid modes of housing provision emerge within state-led systems while highlighting the tensions brought by rapid expansion and social inclusion in developmental welfare contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103672"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146039360","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":"Optimization for community green spaces based on seniors' leisure experience perceptions under daytime and nighttime scenarios","authors":"Haiwei Li,&nbsp;Chongxian Chen,&nbsp;Xiaoxia Wen,&nbsp;Jing Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103733","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103733","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Community Green Space (CGS) renewal is crucial for meeting the elders’ leisure needs with limited resources. Current research often overlooks the impact of day-night CGS variations on senior leisure experiences, fails to address the complexity of nonlinear effects, and overlooks the optimization goals related to the social benefits of elderly leisure. This study aims to determine CGS optimization objectives and locations based on the accessibility and spatial distribution of leisure experience perceptions (LEPs) for seniors in daytime and nighttime scenarios, using spatial overlay and aggregation analysis, nonlinear impact assessment, and heuristic algorithms. Key insights are: (1) LEPs differ between day and night, with high scores in community parks and high-quality residential green spaces during the day and low scores in the same areas at night. Elderly prioritize accessibility, with sense of comfort and leisure functionality valued during the day and sense of safety at night. (2) CGS factors have a significant nonlinear effect on LEPs, showing varying threshold values across day, night, and full-time scenarios. (3) Heuristic algorithms, especially NSGA-II, are effective in solving CGS location issues, selecting areas with low LEP values but high resource potential. Daytime focus is on roadside and residential green spaces in urban villages, nighttime on community parks and high-quality residential green spaces, and full-time on old urban area CGSs. This study can provide practical advice for urban planners to update elderly-friendly CGSs targeted and efficient.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103733"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079137","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 residents’ preferences for low-carbon housing in Hainan, China","authors":"Yifan Ji ,&nbsp;Tao Xu ,&nbsp;Liuyang Yao ,&nbsp;Dan Qiao","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103729","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103729","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Low-carbon housing renovation is a crucial pathway toward achieving net-zero targets and embodying sustainable development principles. Utilizing survey data, this study employs Choice Experiment, Mixed Logit, and Latent Class models to analyze rural residents’ demand preferences for low-carbon housing and the sources of preference heterogeneity. The results indicate that, firstly, the majority of residents have a limited understanding of “low-carbon” concepts. However, approximately 70 % of the residents expressed willingness to facilitate low-carbon housing renovation. Secondly, residents show a preference for utilizing renewable energy in low-carbon housing renovations. Thirdly, based on preference heterogeneity, residents can be categorized into two groups: the “preference group for using renewable energy” and the “preference group for improving energy efficiency.” This heterogeneity primarily arises from individual differences in low-carbon cognition, education, housing satisfaction, and mastery of WeChat. It is recommended to promote the development of low-carbon housing in rural areas by advancing renewable energy utilization, improving compensation mechanisms, implementing low-carbon education and training programs, and adopting differentiated renovation strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103729"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079133","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":"Livelihoods of Female Heads in state-led resettlement housing in Kigali, Rwanda","authors":"Tharcille Dukuzemariya ,&nbsp;Wilbard J. Kombe ,&nbsp;Tatu Mtwangi-Limbumba","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103709","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.103709","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>State-led urban resettlement housing programs in developing nations raise concerns about addressing residents' social, cultural, physical, and economic needs. Female-headed households (FHHs) are particularly susceptible to these shortcomings due to their roles as sole breadwinners, poverty-related experiences, and reproductive responsibilities. Currently, there is limited research on how these households manage the additional challenges posed by state-led resettlement. This study employs interviews, focus groups, direct observations, and insights from key informants to investigate the experiences and coping mechanisms of FHHs in Gikomero and Busanza model villages, developed under Rwanda's Integrated Development Program (IDP). The central research question entails the intersecting vulnerabilities faced by FHHs in resettlement housing and how policy can effectively address these challenges. Our findings indicate that while IDP housing has improved basic living conditions, FHHs continue to encounter the following: limited employment opportunities, restricted access to credit, food insecurity, decreased income, inadequate housing design, disrupted social networks, poor transportation infrastructure, and unfavourable housing regulations. Furthermore, an intersectional analysis reveals that these livelihood challenges vary according to women's socio-identities, thereby shaping their vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities. Therefore, to achieve greater justice and inclusivity, the resettlement scheme should prioritise the diverse needs and lived experiences of women by placing them at the centre of every decision-making process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 103709"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981278","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":"Assessing the digital village development in China and its driving factors: An analysis using online media data","authors":"Lun Liu ,&nbsp;Jin Xu ,&nbsp;Zhu Zhang ,&nbsp;Yunxiao Bi","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103707","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103707","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The application of digital technologies in rural areas has improved the rural economy and overall development. China places significant emphasis on rural digitalisation, implementing the Digital Village Development Strategy to drive rural revitalization in recent years. Nonetheless, the evolving impacts of digital village development policy remain underexplored, and existing metrics based on traditional indicators may overestimate rural digitalisation by aggregating data at broader administrative levels, thereby obscuring local variations and recent policy-driven effects. To address this, this paper first proposes a quantitative method based on big data from news articles as a new and high-precision data source to measure the digital development in rural China. Using text analysis of 110,000 related reports from mainstream media websites, we derived assessment scores for 334 prefecture-level administrative units across various rural areas of digital development. Furthermore, this paper proposed an analytical framework tailored to the rural context, integrating both technology adoption ability (including digital infrastructure, economic development level and science and education level), and technology adoption motivations (including agricultural importance and local government attention). The study reveals significant progress not only in coastal regions but also in inland and north-eastern China, indicating a more distributed and diversifies pattern across the country. The findings highlight that digital village development is mainly driven by regional science and technology resources and local government attention as a supplementary factor. These findings enrich the dialogue in digital geography and emphasize the need for place-based and targeted strategies to foster digital inclusion in rural regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103707"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884154","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":"Desynchrony of public attention dynamics for epidemic development across different geographical scales in the online era","authors":"Nuozhou Shen ,&nbsp;Xiaoxiao Wang ,&nbsp;Haiping Zhang ,&nbsp;Liyang Xiong ,&nbsp;Guo'An Tang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103697","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103697","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global epidemics have attracted increasing public attention, primarily due to intensified human interactions driven by urbanization and globalization. However, the spread of epidemics across different geographical scales exhibits a secretive progression, leading to a mismatch with the dynamics of public attention. The characteristics and patterns of this desynchrony remain unclear. This gap limits effective support for the shift from isolated urban management to regional coordinated control and multi-level governance. In this study, we construct a public attention process-oriented regionalization model to identify regions with similar public attention dynamics to COVID-19 in mainland China, using Baidu search data. In addition, the Derivative Dynamic Time Warping (DDTW) approach is employed to quantify the desynchrony between public attention and epidemic development across different geographical scales, including the national, regional, and city levels. The results show that in most cities, public attention was disproportionately focused during the early and late stages of the epidemic, forming a phased mismatch with epidemic development characterized by a \"positive–negative–positive\" deviation. During recurrent urban epidemics, public attention dynamics exhibit a clear wave-like progression desynchrony with epidemic development at both regional and national scales, indicating attention fatigue. The findings provide valuable insights for understanding public attention dynamics and guiding responsive urban control measures toward sustainable development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103697"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790861","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}