Cities最新文献

{"title":"Blurring the borders: An analysis of spatial borders and social segregation in gated communities in Egypt","authors":"Malak Hazem ,&nbsp;Ahmed Sami Abd Elrahman ,&nbsp;Sara Abdelbaki Hamza","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106219","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106219","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gated communities are becoming more prevalent in cities worldwide, raising concerns about social segregation, particularly in Egypt. This study utilises social landscape theory to examine how landscape design at the borders of gated communities can affect changes in behaviour and perceptions of space, ultimately enhancing urban cohesion. The study explores the potential of blurring the borders of Egyptian gated communities to create integrative spaces. It does so by analysing the complex relationship between intangible social elements and tangible aspects of the landscape, while also considering social structures and cultural dynamics. Based on a mixed-methods study, which included observation, online questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews, the study shows that blurring borders as zones may contribute to enhanced social cohesion among residents of gated and non-gated communities. The study concludes that to effectively blur the borders of gated communities, landscape design has to achieve a balance between the concepts of openness and connectedness, while also preserving privacy and exclusivity. It proposes dividing territorial bounded spaces into sub-territorial integrative zones, taking into account factors such as privacy, visual openness, permeability, and publicness. The study contributes by shifting the focus of current literature from emphasising the negative effects of gated communities on urban fragmentation to recognising these communities as potential opportunities. It explores how border design and border landscapes can be leveraged to transform the borders of gated communities into socio-spatial integrative zones. The study will subsequently outline practical implications for urban design, landscape architecture, and planning policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106219"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144670912","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":"Large-scale resettlements in the face of solastalgia and solatium – The roller coaster ride of property rights in the Rhenish lignite mining area","authors":"Michael Kolocek","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106273","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106273","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the past decades, 50 villages in the Rhenish mining area of Germany have been abandoned due to lignite mining. This paper, using a mixed-methods approach, examines the consequences of these resettlements. The methodology includes a content analysis of legal documents, policy papers, court rulings, judicial commentaries, and secondary literature. Additionally, interviews, surveys, and workshops were conducted between 2021 and 2023. The study focuses on the land acquisition process in several affected villages and how residents were compensated for their losses. It critically evaluates whether the principle of social compatibility achieved its intended goals. The situation in these areas is unique, as some villages initially designated for removal were later spared due to revised mining plans. Two theoretical concepts are discussed: solastalgia, which describes the relationship between ecosystem health and human well-being and explaining the psychological impact of these turbulent experiences; and solatium, an international concept used to compensate for emotional distress and pain caused by losing one's home. Although solatium does not exist in German law, the paper shows how stakeholders sought to mitigate economic and emotional harm through an innovative compensation approach combined with participatory measures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106273"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680239","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":"Nationwide analysis of the association between nature park visits and adult asthma risk in urbanized neighborhoods","authors":"Fengrui Jing ,&nbsp;Wenjun Ma ,&nbsp;Zhenlong Li ,&nbsp;Shuli Zhou ,&nbsp;Yongjian Ruan ,&nbsp;Guanhao He ,&nbsp;Jianxiong Hu ,&nbsp;Tao Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Evidence linking greenspace to asthma remains mixed, largely because prior studies infer exposure from static land-cover maps rather than where people actually spend time. Here, we bridge that gap, conducting the first nationwide analysis to translate passively collected GPS traces into an “actual-use” nature park metric. This study used millions of visit records to 127,752 nature parks across the contiguous United States based on a large-scale dataset from GPS-enabled mobile devices to investigate the associations between nature park visits and adult asthma risk at the neighborhood level in urbanized areas. The exposure-response relationship derived from XGBoost-SHAP analysis shows that increasing park visits reduces asthma risk, but the protective effect plateaus when visits exceed 51.94 per year. Stratified by park visits, the second, third, and fourth quartiles of nature park visits were associated with a reduction in high asthma risk by 29 % (OR: 0.71, 95 % CI: 0.67–0.75), 46 % (OR: 0.54, 95 % CI: 0.51–0.57), and 65 % (OR: 0.35, 95 % CI: 0.33–0.37), respectively, compared to the first quartile. We further observed significant additive interactions between nature park visits and environmental factors on asthma risk, with high NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) reducing asthma risk (AP = −0.1, 95 % CI: −0.19 to −0.01), while high urban heat island index (UHI) (AP = 0.56, 95 % CI: 0.49 to 0.64) and high PM2.5 levels (AP = 0.24, 95 % CI: 0.15 to 0.32) increased asthma risk. These findings highlight the importance of mobility-informed measures of nature park use, identify non-linear saturation effects, and demonstrate interactions with urban environmental stressors. Policymakers and urban planners should integrate human mobility patterns, environmental contexts, and equity considerations into greenspace strategies to effectively mitigate asthma risk and enhance respiratory health in urban settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106301"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680241","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":"Developing a measurement model to assess perceived housing inequality: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses","authors":"Mahla Tayefi Nasrabadi ,&nbsp;Taimaz Larimian ,&nbsp;Tan Yigitcanlar","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106276","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106276","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Housing inequality and resulting housing crisis are pressing global issues with significant socioeconomic implications. This study develops a robust measurement model for assessing housing inequality from residents' perspectives, filling a critical gap in the existing literature that largely overlooks subjective perceptions. By conceptualising housing inequality as a multidimensional construct encompassing affordability, sanitation, comfort, maintenance, safety and security, space, local facilities, accessibility, and social inclusivity, our model captures nuanced disparities that conventional metrics may miss. This study addresses the lack of a standardised measurement model for perceived housing inequality, which has hindered comparative research and policy development. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA), the model was validated through data from Nottingham, a city from the UK with notable socioeconomic diversity and high deprivation levels. Study findings highlight that perceived housing inequality, rooted in individual assessments of housing quality, affordability, and neighbourhood environment, is equally significant as its traditional nature, which mostly focuses on objective indicators such as income or housing availability. Theoretically, the study challenges conventional economic and spatial debates that rely solely on objective measures. It highlights the role of perception in shaping urban experiences and social cohesion, offering a holistic framework that integrates subjective dimensions of housing inequality. This study provides insights that researchers, local authorities, and policymakers can use to assess perceived housing inequality more accurately, guiding targeted interventions and promoting equitable urban development across diverse urban contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106276"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144665554","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":"Using spatially explicit high-granularity 3D geospatial data for quantifying public transport walking accessibility inequality and vulnerability in the x-minute city","authors":"Dong Liu ,&nbsp;Zihan Kan ,&nbsp;Jianying Wang ,&nbsp;Mei-Po Kwan ,&nbsp;Jiangyu Song ,&nbsp;Jiaomin Wei","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106245","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106245","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public transport (PT) plays a crucial role as a fundamental urban amenity, facilitating access to destinations beyond walking distance. The concept of the x-minute city underscores the importance of having essential urban amenities like PT within a short active travel time, i.e., good PT walking accessibility. However, significant gaps persist in understanding two key aspects within the framework of the x-minute city: (1) PT walking accessibility that integrates high-granularity three-dimensional (3D) walkability constraints (including indoor footpaths) and accounts for inter-modal ridership weight differences, referred to as enhanced 3D PT walking accessibility (E3D-PTWA); and (2) vulnerability distribution arising from low E3D-PTWA and low income—a socioeconomic condition often accompanied by heightened PT dependency—thereby compounding vulnerability. This study addresses these gaps by focusing on Hong Kong as a case study of a transit-dependent and topographically complex city. Using the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method and median-based measure, we compute E3D-PTWA at Hong Kong's fine-grained census unit, i.e., Large Subunit Groups (LSUGs), and its associated inequality and vulnerability across different districts. The results from this research reveal that districts in the New Territories and Kowloon exhibit a higher proportion of vulnerable LSUGs with both limited E3D-PTWA and low income, while districts on Hong Kong Island tend to have a lower percentage of such vulnerable groups. These findings emphasize the need to address the unequal distribution of PT services among the population and improve E3D-PTWA to promote sustainable and livable urban environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106245"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144662171","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 urban community structure at multiple levels through crowd mobility","authors":"Huijun Zhou ,&nbsp;Kailu Wang ,&nbsp;Yifan Bai ,&nbsp;Jing Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Current research on urban community structure primarily focuses on a single level and often overlooks the associations among multiple regions within a city when detecting community structures. In this regard, this research employs a hypergraph model—capable of capturing multi-region relationships—and applies a hierarchical clustering approach to reveal a multi-level urban community structure. We conduct an empirical study of Shanghai's multi-level community structure using cell phone signaling and land use data, demonstrating that the proposed method effectively detects communities. Our findings indicate that: 1) Compared to graphs, hypergraphs more effectively represent complex inter-regional relationships, thereby improving the effectiveness of community detection; 2) Shanghai exhibits a structural pattern of multifunctional areas radiating from the city center, characterized by a high degree of land-use mixing; 3) Discrepancies exist between community structures derived from real crowd flow data and those envisioned in urban planning schemes, with certain communities merging or splitting. The model presented in this study can monitor current urban community structures and, when compared with established urban planning, guide more rational urban development. Additionally, it provides a method to support multi-relationship, multi-level studies of phenomena such as the urban heat island effect and traffic congestion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106300"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144662172","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":"Mosaic governance for urban verge greening: Engaging property owners and addressing socio-spatial inequities","authors":"Mirjam Schindler","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban street vegetation is a vital component of a city's greening infrastructure, offering significant environmental, social, and health benefits. However, achieving its full potential requires active engagement from households, particularly in the context of road verge greening, where responsibilities often fall at the intersection of public and private ownership. This study explores the potential of a mosaic governance model for urban verge greening, emphasising its potential to reconcile socio-spatial diversity and foster equitable participation. Drawing on a mixed-methods survey of property owners in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, the research examines the motivations, barriers, and socio-spatial factors influencing residents' participation in verge greening. The findings highlight that while mosaic governance holds promise for encouraging collaboration and addressing urban greening complexities, it must account for the diverse socio-spatial characteristics, motivations, and challenges of residents. Communication, resource provision, and public education are essential to overcoming barriers such as limited knowledge and access to resources. The study makes conceptual and empirical contributions by extending the mosaic governance model to incorporate socio-spatial characteristics of place and stakeholders, stressing the importance of equitable participation in urban greening.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106303"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144662258","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":"Quantifying residential cooling poverty and its drivers in China (2001–2020): Insights from multiple restrictive behaviors of accessing air conditioning","authors":"Chao Li ,&nbsp;Xing Su ,&nbsp;Chao Fan ,&nbsp;Haoying Han","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106262","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106262","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat highlights the importance of residential cooling, its effectiveness is largely undermined by residential cooling poverty (RCP). However, the manifestations and drivers of RCP are not well understood. To accurately quantify RCP, we here identify three incremental restrictive behaviors of accessing air conditioning (AC) and integrate them to propose a heat tolerance (HT) index. Using &gt;100,000 household data from the China Urban Household Survey, we first show the effectiveness of the HT index; the HT index identifies over 36 % more disadvantaged cities on average than using these three restrictive behaviors alone. Moreover, we examine the heterogeneity in the spatiotemporal distribution and determinants of RCP. Results show that despite the downward trend of RCP nationwide in two decades, inequality persists, particularly in southern cities. The Gini index of RCP is 50 % more pronounced in southern cities (0.18) than in northern cities (0.12) due to higher inequities of AC ownership in the South. The RCP is mainly driven by the polarization of economic status (e.g., household income) in the South, while more amplified by social factors (e.g., educational attainment) in the North. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of residential cooling poverty and inform more targeted public policy in response to ameliorate cooling restrictions nationwide.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106262"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144653327","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":"Hierarchy of urban road networks from a scaling law perspective","authors":"Ruiqi Li ,&nbsp;Ruonan Yang ,&nbsp;Yutong Shi ,&nbsp;Junli Liu ,&nbsp;Bingsheng Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106215","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106215","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The efficient functioning of cities largely relies on their road networks that manifest a rich hierarchical structure, ranging from the highest-level motorways all the way down to the lowest-level footways, much like the vascular networks found in living organisms. As an infrastructure-related indicator, road length theoretically scales sublinearly with the population size of the city, which indicate that roads need to be planned grows slower than the population. However, scaling relations between the length of roads at each hierarchical level and city size remain unclear, which is a crucial practical problem for urban planning. Attribute to collective efforts from millions of volunteers worldwide, detailed hierarchy labels for roads are available from OpenStreetMap, providing a unique opportunity to study this problem. Based on large-scale infrastructure data for more than 1000 cities in the United States and China, we unveil that the total length of roads at most hierarchical levels scales sublinearly with urban population, echoing the economy of scale. However, metro lines and footways are two prominent exceptions that surprisingly manifest a superlinear scaling relation with the population, which signifies a faster growth than the urban population and cannot be explained by current theories. Despite drastic differences in the composition of roads across hierarchies and their spatial connection patterns, it is intriguing that scaling behaviors are quite consistent across these two countries. Such nonlinear urban scaling laws suggest that, for infrastructure planning, using conventional road length per capita can be either biased towards large or small cities, depending on whether the scaling exponent is greater or less than one. Using deviations from urban scaling laws, termed as the scale-adjusted metropolitan indicator (SAMI), which takes off size effect, is a more objective evaluation for whether a city has a shortfall or excess provision of certain types of roads. Furthermore, based on SAMIs across road hierarchy, we identify four groups of cities in the US and three groups of cities in China with distinct average SAMI profiles. In addition, regression analysis further reveals that longer-than-expected residential roads and footways, indicated by positive SAMIs, can help alleviate traffic congestion. By contrast, a longer-than-expected secondary roads might exacerbate it. Our scaling analysis through the lens of hierarchy provides a more comprehensive understanding on the relation between city size and road networks, offering valuable insights for improved urban planning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106215"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144653416","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 rise of chief resilience officers in U.S. cities: A necessary evolution for managing the complex urban challenges associated with disasters?","authors":"Sarah Jo Bundy Kirkpatrick ,&nbsp;Jessica Jensen","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106234","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106234","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The number of disasters impacting cities continues to increase with growing negative consequences. How cities best address disasters, and their impacts, is a challenge inescapably intermingled with climate change and development, among other issues. The complex and interconnected nature of these concerns has recently translated to a rising demand for cities to approach them through a resilience framing. The chief resilience officer (CRO) has emerged as a new position in local government in the United States, charged with furthering city resilience efforts. The initial novelty of the position has meant no scholarly research has examined who these CROs are and what they do in their job. This manuscript presents the results of an applied research study that collected data from those in CRO positions to explore answers to those questions. The findings are discussed in the context of how cities do, or should, organize to address those urban challenges associated with disasters—recognizing that CROs are not the first, or only, position within U.S. cities to be tasked with confronting them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"166 ","pages":"Article 106234"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144653325","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}