Cities最新文献

{"title":"Large-scale building dilapidation assessment for high-density cities: An urban visual intelligence approach","authors":"Zihan Huang ,&nbsp;Weisheng Lu ,&nbsp;Junjie Chen ,&nbsp;Yiyi Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106435","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106435","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding the dilapidation condition of existing building stock is the first step in urban renovation and renewal. However, current assessment methods rely on tedious in-situ inspections, and manual inspection reports filing, which are difficult to scale for community- or city-wide implementation. Based on a proved association between urban phenomena with their appearance, this paper proposes an urban visual intelligence approach for large-scale building dilapidation assessment, leveraging widely accessible geographical big data (e.g., street view images and footprints). This method is easy to scale for assessing the building mass without a need of labor-intensive and expensive site survey. A deep learning model was trained to automatically process the large volumes of street view images and detect building defects with a precision of 90.4 % and F1 score of 80.7 %. The detected defects are positioned in a geo-spatial context for large-scale mapping and assessment with a building-level granularity. Piloted in the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong, the proposed approach successfully evaluates the condition of over 9,172 buildings within an area of 47 million m² in 4 h. Theoretically, the paper enriches the emerging field of urban visual intelligence by extending its realm to urban renewal. Practically, this research provides a robust and scalable solution for mass dilapidation assessment to inform policy-making and urban planning. The mapping results offer a new stream of quantitative data for future studies to understand the mechanism of urban decay.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106435"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019584","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":"Beyond urban parks: Integrating residential greenspaces to address greenspace inequality","authors":"Chuanbao Jing ,&nbsp;Weiqi Zhou ,&nbsp;Ganlin Huang ,&nbsp;Zhiming Zhang ,&nbsp;Jingli Yan ,&nbsp;Yaqiong Jiang ,&nbsp;Zehua Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106432","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106432","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The 11th Sustainable Development Goal highlights the urgent need to provide universal access to greenspace for urban residents. Both urban parks and residential greenspaces are important for residents due to similar functions, but previous studies have mostly focused on parks when addressing greenspace inequality. Here, we addressed this issue by simultaneously considering accessibility to residential greenspaces and parks (comprehensive accessibility), focusing on Beijing, China. We found that the accessibility based on both urban greenspaces (UGSs) differed greatly from that considering only urban parks or residential greenspaces. Comprehensive accessibility revealed unrecognized UGS shortages, with 10.87 % of residential areas (RAs) having limited access to both UGS types. Residential greenspaces and parks are spatially complementary to some degree, but should be more so. Among RAs with limited access to one type of greenspace, &gt;30 % have high access to the other, but nearly one-third still have low access to the other. Given parks' public ownership and current extensive urban renewal projects, adding pocket parks in greenspace-deficient areas, especially limited access to both UGS types, is a feasible and effective solution to narrow UGS inequality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106432"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019582","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 transformation initiatives in Johannesburg and public space user perceptions","authors":"Zubeida Lowton","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban transformation has long been a priority for South African cities seeking to overcome the legacy of spatial and social segregation. In post-apartheid Johannesburg, this transformation is central to addressing inequality and promoting urban sustainability. This study focuses on public spaces as key sites of transformation, investigating whether urban initiatives have redressed socio-spatial segregation and how co-produced public spaces are perceived by everyday users. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research examines three public spaces along Fox Street through interviews, observation, and multisensory walking. Findings reveal that temporary-use practices, such as street performances and pop-up markets, play a significant role in activating public spaces and fostering social interaction. However, their impact is often short-lived without institutional support. Public space users expressed mixed perceptions, shaped by personal experiences, safety concerns, and accessibility. A strong preference for privately managed spaces over government-led initiatives reflects broader mistrust in local governance. Despite visible improvements, spatial fragmentation and socio-economic exclusion persist. This study contributes to urban transformation literature by highlighting everyday user experiences and the challenges of co-production in a historically divided urban context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106436"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019580","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":"Examining the roles of perceived neighbourhood environments in shaping social capital and the happiness of older adults in a super-aged Asian City","authors":"Jinhyun Hong,&nbsp;Dongwoo Lee,&nbsp;Jihwan Ham","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106437","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106437","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As society transitions into super-aged populations, new urban challenges, such as the mobility and health of older adults, have emerged. These challenges can significantly impact quality of life, potentially leading to reduced happiness and highlighting the need for evidence-based policies. Various disciplines have proposed innovative approaches to address these challenges, with land use policies increasingly emphasised in the urban and transport sectors to enhance the happiness of older adults. Previous studies indicate that neighbourhood environments, including mixed land use, walkability, and green spaces, can improve accessibility and promote active travel, such as walking and cycling. This fosters participation in diverse activities and helps reduce stress, thereby enhancing social interactions and contributing to greater happiness. In particular, neighbourhood characteristics, such as walkability and green spaces, provide residents with opportunities for social engagement, strengthening social ties and promoting a sense of belonging. Despite growing evidence of these complex links, few studies have examined these relationships comprehensively, especially among older adults in super-aged cities. Using the 2023 Seoul Survey and a Recursive Probit-Linear model, this study investigates how perceived neighbourhood environmental factors correlate with social capital, and how they relate to the happiness of older adults. Our findings reveal that perceived walkability, quality green spaces, and safety are significantly and positively associated with both social capital and happiness among older adults. Furthermore, while social capital significantly enhances the happiness of older adults, this association is not observed among younger and middle-aged adults. These results underscore the crucial role of perceived neighbourhood environments in shaping both social capital and happiness in later life, offering valuable insights for urban and transport planners committed to developing age-friendly cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106437"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019748","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 positive impact of urban-rural integration on consumption gap among residents in China","authors":"Bingrui Zhu ,&nbsp;Sun Zhang ,&nbsp;Wei Chen,&nbsp;Haimeng Shi,&nbsp;Yanan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106454","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106454","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban-rural integration (URI) is a crucial strategy for promoting sustainable economic and social development and represents the ideal state of urban-rural relations. The urban-rural consumption gap (URCG) is a critical indicator of disparities in quality of life and access to resources between urban and rural residents. Little is known about how URI affects the material living standards of urban and rural residents. This study uses panel data from 224 prefecture-level cities in China over the period 2002 to 2022. The Geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) is applied to examine the spatially and temporally heterogeneous effects of URI on the URCG. The URCG is assessed from two dimensions: the urban-rural consumption expenditure gap (URCE) and the urban-rural Engel coefficient gap (UREC). The results indicate that the URCG narrowed from 2002 to 2022, with the URCE decreasing from 2.79 to 1.75, and the UREC increasing from 0.87 to 0.94. The average mitigating effect of URI on URCE improved as the coefficient decreased from −7.91 to −0.64. Similarly, the average mitigating effect of URI on UREC strengthened with the coefficient declining from 0.98 to −0.11. In addition, the mitigating effect of URI on URCE is most pronounced in middle-income regions, whereas its mitigating effect on UREC is strongest in high-income regions. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how URI affects urban-rural consumption inequality and offers empirical evidence from China to inform policy formulation in other developing countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106454"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019579","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":"Re-thinking walkability: Synergizing the pedestrian environment and land use patterns to promote physical activity in older adults","authors":"Binay Adhikari ,&nbsp;Abby C. King ,&nbsp;James F. Sallis ,&nbsp;Brian E. Saelens ,&nbsp;Eric H. Fox ,&nbsp;Kelli L. Cain ,&nbsp;Terry L. Conway ,&nbsp;Lawrence D. Frank","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106325","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106325","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous studies have demonstrated that the macro-level design of cities (e.g., walkability) and the micro-level pedestrian-oriented design of streetscapes are associated with physical activity; however, the benefits of combining these features have rarely been examined. Understanding potential synergies between these two components could provide guidance for optimizing health impacts, especially for older adults. This cross-sectional investigation examined interactions among ‘macro-level’ neighbourhood walkability and ‘micro-level’ pedestrian environment, sex, and neighbourhood income in relation to self-reported frequency of active transportation (walked or biked (yes/no) to do errands in a week) and device-measured physical activity (≥ 30 min per day) in 352 older adults recruited from economically and built environmentally diverse neighbourhoods in Seattle/King County. Results included positive interactions between neighbourhood walkability, pedestrian environment, and sex for the active transportation outcome. The synergy was more pronounced in women, in which there were significant interactions between neighbourhood walkability and sex with scores related to streetscape design features, walking routes, and street-crossing characteristics of the pedestrian environment. Our study highlights actionable policies to create age-friendly pedestrian environments by improving route connectivity, streetscape features, and crossing safety. Prioritizing well-connected walking routes, enhancing micro-level streetscape elements, and ensuring pedestrian-friendly crossings can significantly support elderly active travel and reduce reliance on motorized transport. These results provide evidence that the pedestrian environment may enhance the health potential of neighbourhood walkability for some population segments (i.e., older women).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106325"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145010474","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":"Revisiting the legacy of Tehran's Olympic Village: Residents' perspectives 50 years after the 1974 Asian Games","authors":"Hamed Goharipour ,&nbsp;Hassan Ebrahimi ,&nbsp;Ali Jafari ,&nbsp;Irandokht Nasseh","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106455","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106455","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The 1974 Asian Games marked Iran's first and only experience hosting a sporting mega-event. This paper revisits the legacy of its primary residential site, Tehran's Olympic Village, fifty years later by examining current residents' perspectives on the neighborhood. The goal is to understand how residents today evaluate and make sense of the Village in their everyday lives, offering insight into the lived legacy of this former spectacle space. The primary method involved semi-structured interviews with fifteen residents, triangulated with multi-phase field observations and extensive document analysis. Interviews were coded through the lens of Olympic Villages typological framework and analyzed thematically. The discussion draws on Post-Occupancy Evaluation as an interpretive lens to assess how long-term resident experience reflects changes in built form, environmental quality, social life, governance and services, and the neighborhood changes and meaning. Findings reveal a dual legacy: while the Village still benefits from durable construction, thoughtful spatial design, and a strong historical memory, residents face challenges including deteriorating infrastructure, weakening neighborhood identity, and declining local governance. The area's layout and natural setting remain notable assets, but its distinctiveness is increasingly fragile due to later developments and municipal disengagement. As a case that spans pre- and post-revolutionary urban development in Tehran, the Village reflects how mega-event spaces can drift from their original purpose when not actively maintained. Ultimately, the study argues that urban legacy is not self-sustaining. It requires active stewardship, community recognition, and sustained planning to transform spaces of spectacle into lasting places for everyday life.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106455"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145019581","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":"Effects of the pilot policy on integrated urban-rural development in China: A quasi-natural experiment analysis","authors":"Benwu Xiang,&nbsp;Yangyang Chen,&nbsp;Yali Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106420","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106420","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How to narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas is a critical challenge for developing countries. Therefore, China has carried out a pilot policy designed to promoting urban-rural integration development. However, prior research has disregarded the effect of this pilot policy on coordinated urban-rural development in China. This study aims to investigate the impact of urban-rural integration development pilot policies on the level of urban-rural integration in China and their potential mechanisms. To this end, this study utilizes data from Chinese counties covering 2704 counties (cities and districts), and employs the difference-in-differences method. The findings highlight that the pilot policy had significantly hoisted the level of urban-rural integration development in China. Meanwhile, the policy effects exhibit notable regional heterogeneity, with significant improvements observed in the municipal districts, other county-level administrative regions, and the eastern, central, and western regions. Furthermore, the pilot policy effectively improves the level of urban-rural integration at the county level through the mechanism of facilitating the flow of production factors between urban and rural areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106420"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145010475","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":"Lessons from COVID-19 for enhanced urban resilience against Mpox and future pandemics","authors":"Borhan Sepehri ,&nbsp;Ayyoob Sharifi","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106446","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106446","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cities may face new pandemic threats due to the highly interconnected nature of urban areas, the encroachment on natural resources driven by rapid urbanization, and the adverse impacts of climate change on public health. Recent experiences with COVID-19 have yielded valuable lessons in urban planning, design, and management. By employing Methodi Ordinatio, this short communication critically examines key insights from the COVID-19 response and their potential application to Mpox and future pandemics and infectious diseases, identifying opportunities and lessons for urban areas to enhance their pandemic preparedness and resilience. Due to the heterogeneity of urban spaces, lessons were analyzed based on various urban typologies. This led to an understanding of the critical points in generalized policies, such as proximity-based planning and mixed-use development, and the need to propose more flexible strategies for less focused urban typologies in low-income areas and informal settlements. Findings provide specific recommendations related to urban planning, design, and management, emphasizing the importance of building on characteristics such as adaptability, diversity, flexibility, modularity, decentralization, inclusivity, multi-functionality, and redundancy to enhance urban resilience. Ultimately, by proposing a framework of key interventions and measures, this short communication provides insights that cities can apply to enhance their resilience to future pandemics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106446"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145010473","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":"Housing hardship and suicidal ideation: The mediating role of psychological resilience","authors":"Keun Young Kwon ,&nbsp;Sujeong Park ,&nbsp;Jinho Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106452","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106452","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite growing evidence of the mental health consequences of housing hardship, its specific association with suicidal ideation and the role of psychological resilience in this pathway remain underexplored. This study examines whether housing hardship is associated with suicidal ideation and to what extent psychological resilience mediates this relationship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, sibling fixed effects models were employed to control for unobserved family background confounders, such as genetic factors, socioeconomic background, parental mental health, family environment, or traumatic experiences. The findings indicate that housing hardship is positively associated with suicidal ideation (b = 0.027, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.05) and negatively associated with psychological resilience (b = −0.058, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.01), even after controlling for a set of individual-level covariates and unobserved family-level heterogeneity. Moreover, psychological resilience mediates approximately 30 % of the effect of housing hardship on suicidal ideation, suggesting that reduced resilience contributes to heightened risk. These findings highlight the critical need to incorporate housing stability into suicide prevention strategies, underscoring the significance of stable housing as a factor in reducing suicidal ideation. Additionally, promoting resilience-building within these interventions can significantly mitigate the psychological impacts of housing hardship.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 106452"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004553","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}