Mohamad Hasan Khajedehi, Enrico Prataviera, Sara Bordignon, Angelo Zarrella, Michele De Carli
{"title":"Geospatial clustering as a method to reduce the computational load in urban building energy simulation","authors":"Mohamad Hasan Khajedehi, Enrico Prataviera, Sara Bordignon, Angelo Zarrella, Michele De Carli","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106247","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106247","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since the recent birth of physics-based urban building energy modeling (UBEM), researchers have started tackling the issues characterizing this research field, mainly linked to the lack of extensive and standardized building information datasets and the necessity of simplifying the modeling process. Concerning the latter, geospatial clustering approaches seem to be plausible methods to reduce the computational load in urban simulation, and this work aims to test their suitability and performance.</div><div>For this purpose, a case study of almost 3800 buildings in Padova, Italy, is analyzed. The tendency analysis is first used to quantify the underlying clusters that could be present. The study of this metric reveals the organic morphology and the heterogeneity of building stock in European cities like Padova. Additionally, several clustering algorithms are applied to the location, use, envelope, and geometry variables to simulate building clusters and quantify the increase in geometric and heating/cooling demand uncertainty.</div><div>Results show that, for this case study, building clusters are characterized by lower volumes than when considering single buildings, which is also reflected in a lower heating and cooling demand prediction. Nonetheless, these errors are found to be in an acceptable range (less than 6%) for UBEM applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"122 ","pages":"Article 106247"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143548616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Combining the WRF model and LCZ scheme to assess spatiotemporal variations of thermal comfort in Shenzhen's built-up areas","authors":"Jiacheng Huang , Zhengdong Huang , Wen Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106252","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106252","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Applying the local climate zone (LCZ) scheme is effective for guiding the urban morphology to enhance outdoor thermal comfort. Previous studies have extensively explored thermal comfort in built-up areas and their inter-LCZ variations by applying temperature attributes. However, the combined effects of other factors (humidity and wind speed) have received little attention, and intra-LCZ thermal comfort variations are not fully understood. This study aimed to assess spatiotemporal variations in thermal comfort across built-up LCZs based on multiple meteorological factors. We incorporated the Weather Research and Forecasting model with the LCZ scheme and calculated the net effective temperature using simulated air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. Inter-LCZ and intra-LCZ thermal comfort variations were analyzed using spatial autocorrelation and statistical methods. The study was conducted during both dry and wet seasons in the subtropical city of Shenzhen, China. The results revealed that 1) the southwestern area experienced the poorest thermal comfort during the wet season owing to high temperatures and low wind speeds; 2) significant inter-LCZ thermal comfort differences existed within the same season, with higher development intensity correlating to poorer thermal comfort; and 3) intra-LCZ thermal comfort varied across spatial locations and fluctuated with the season and time of day.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"122 ","pages":"Article 106252"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143548619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yan Li , Sige Peng , Jingmin Xu , Tao Xu , Junliang Gao
{"title":"Hydrodynamic model-based flood risk of coastal urban road network induced by storm surge during typhoon","authors":"Yan Li , Sige Peng , Jingmin Xu , Tao Xu , Junliang Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106250","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106250","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The occurrence of storm surges during typhoons results in the exacerbation of flooding incidents in coastal cities, with road networks vulnerable to inundation facing an intensified risk. This study presents a framework for assessing the flood risk of urban road networks resulting from the storm surge caused by Typhoon Mangkhut in Macau. Tidal changes in the Pearl River Estuary were simulated using a storm surge model integrated with a cyclone wind field. A high-resolution, small-scale urban hydrodynamic model, accounting for buildings and drainage systems, was further developed. Based on the flood characteristics within the model grid and the stability of people and vehicles, the threat posed by the typhoon-induced storm surge on urban roads was estimated. The results indicate that the maximum storm surge in the Pearl River Estuary during Typhoon Mangkhut exceeded 4.0 m, with approximately 25 % of roads experiencing flooding depth greater than 1.5 m. Most vehicles were at risk of instability, while fewer areas on the west coast of the Macau Peninsula presented a risk to human stability on flooded roads. The findings of this study contribute to the development of flood risk management strategies and emergency evacuation during typhoons.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 106250"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143489006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantifying the impact of built environment on traffic congestion: A nonlinear analysis and optimization strategy for sustainable urban planning","authors":"Heng Ding, Zhengrui Zhao, Shiguang Wang, Yubin Zhang, Xiaoyan Zheng, Xiaoshan Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106249","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106249","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Traffic congestion is a critical issue that must be addressed for sustainable urban development, as it directly impacts residents’ quality of life and the economic vitality of cities. Understanding the mechanisms through which the built environment (BE) influences traffic performance is essential for optimizing the sustainable development of future cities. To this end, we first identified six categories of BE indicators, including road network design, traffic convenience, regional economic level, accessibility, population density, and land use mix. These indicators were then used to establish a comprehensive evaluation framework for characterizing the built environment. Subsequently, a composite traffic congestion status model was developed using clustering techniques, and a nonlinear impact model of composite traffic congestion status was constructed based on the Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) method. Finally, we analyzed the nonlinear impact mechanism of built environment characteristics on traffic congestion using Hefei, China as a case study, and proposed regulatory optimization strategies. By strategically optimizing BE factors, traffic congestion within the study area was alleviated to varying degrees. The findings provide valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers to better understand the influence of the built environment on transportation performance, offering guidance for designing more efficient transportation systems and promoting sustainable urban development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"122 ","pages":"Article 106249"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143519062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bin Guo , Miaoyi Chen , Xiaowei Zhu , Zheng Wang , Lu Li , Lin Pei , Hailong Chen , Puhao Chen , Tengyue Guo
{"title":"Exploring the effect of the architecture morphology on urban ventilation at block scale using CFD-GIS and random forest combined method","authors":"Bin Guo , Miaoyi Chen , Xiaowei Zhu , Zheng Wang , Lu Li , Lin Pei , Hailong Chen , Puhao Chen , Tengyue Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106241","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106241","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban ventilation plays a crucial role in dispersing air pollutants and mitigating the urban heat island effect. As a key factor, urban architectural morphology can significantly impact the wind field and ventilation efficiency. This study combines Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Random Forest (RF) methods to investigate the influence of architectural morphology on urban ventilation at the block scale. First, Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS were used to extract architectural morphology parameters. Second, CFD simulations, guided by in-situ observations, were conducted to model the wind field, with the Standard k-ɛ model validated as the optimal choice. Third, RF analysis was used to rank the importance of architectural morphology parameters on urban ventilation. The results show that architectural morphology has a substantial impact on ventilation, with Degree of Enclosure (DE), Building Coverage Ratio (BCR), Space Openness (SO), Floor Area Ratio (FAR), and Building Dispersion Ratio (BDR) identified as the most influential parameters, ranked in descending order of importance. This study provides valuable insights for enhancing urban wind environments through optimized architectural design at the block scale.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"122 ","pages":"Article 106241"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143509281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Risk-based scheduling of multi-energy microgrids with Power-to-X technology under a multi-objective framework","authors":"Pouya Salyani , Kazem Zare , Nader Javani , Ali Rifat Boynuegri","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106245","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106245","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Power to X (P2X) technologies coupled with energy storage systems serve as a bridge among the various energy vectors to enhance the flexibility of Multi-Energy Microgrids (MEMs). The current research examines a multi-objective approach for scheduling a MEM integrated with P2X conversion technology. The main goal is to minimize three conflicting objectives: operational cost, risk, and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. The suggested risk-based scheduling is solved through the augmented ε-constraint method to address the economic/environmental aspects of the problem. Two risk management tools of Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) and a robust approach are proposed to deal with uncertainties in the MEM's scheduling. Besides, the proposed MEM benefits from P2X converters, various storage technologies, demand response resources, renewable resources, and energy market bidding. This enables the MEM to transform the power into other carriers of thermal, hydrogen, and synthetic gas to meet various energy demands, effectively. The simulation results show that adopting a risk-neutral unconservative risk strategy results in an expected operating cost of $7,400 and carbon emission of 58 tCO<sub>2</sub>. In this situation, a 21 % reduction in CVaR due to the risk-averse strategy leads to a 24 % increase in operation cost and a 20 % reduction in emission. Moreover, adopting the robust approach to regulation service prices increases the operational cost compared with the corresponding risk-averse unconservative strategy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"122 ","pages":"Article 106245"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143548613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wei Cao , Liyan Wang , Rui Li , Wen Zhou , Deshun Zhang
{"title":"Unveiling the nonlinear relationships and co-mitigation effects of green and blue space landscapes on PM2.5 exposure through explainable machine learning","authors":"Wei Cao , Liyan Wang , Rui Li , Wen Zhou , Deshun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106234","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106234","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Green-blue spaces are nature-based solutions to mitigate particulate matter pollution. However, the individual and co-mitigation effects of green-blue space landscapes on PM2.5 exposure risk remain poorly understood. This study employed an explainable machine learning framework to investigate the nonlinear relationships, interaction effects, and heterogeneity of green-blue space landscape patterns on population-weighted PM<sub>2.5</sub> exposure (PWP) in the Yangtze River Delta, China. Our findings highlight that (1) Greenspace coverage (G_PLAND), mean greenspace patch size (G_AREA_MN), blue space patch contiguity (W_CONTIG_MN), and mean distance between blue space patches (W_ENN_MN) are the four most influential landscape indicators. (2) G_PLAND and G_AREA_MN negatively influence PWP with thresholds of 40 % and 50 ha, respectively. W_CONTIG_MN (> 0.26) and W_ENN_MN (< 400 m) positively impact PWP. (3) Effects of green-blue space landscapes on PWP vary with different exposure levels: high (blue space is more important), medium (green and blue space are equally important), and low (green-blue spaces are not important). (4) Interactions of green and blue spaces can reinforce PWP mitigation under certain conditions (G_PLAND > 40 %, G_AREA_MN < 12 ha, W_ENN_MN and W_CONTIG_MN with thresholds of 200 m and 0.31, respectively). The findings can facilitate comprehensive planning and optimization of regional green-blue spaces to mitigate PWP.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"122 ","pages":"Article 106234"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143527167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unravelling food carbon footprint heterogeneity in metropolitan areas using Tokyo as a case study","authors":"Shun Nakayama , Wanglin Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106236","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106236","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As cities gear up toward carbon neutrality, the food sector can play a crucial role in decarbonization. Food related carbon emissions likely vary across urban areas due to the interplay of urban form, food environments, and dietary habits, affecting the intensity of emissions. Existing consumption-based carbon accounting methods fail to capture spatial heterogeneity effectively and have not fully explored opportunities to enhance spatial resolution in urban contexts. This study proposes a novel Service Point-Based Carbon Accounting (SPBCA) method to systematically understand how these factors influence CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in urban food systems. Unlike traditional approaches, SPBCA focuses on meal provision points rather than consumption locations, allowing for more accurate spatial representation of emissions. We applied SPBCA to census tracts in the Tokyo metropolitan region and validated its effectiveness using LightGBM, an advanced machine learning approach. The model achieved a high validation accuracy (R² = 0.874) through cross-validation, demonstrating SPBCA's capability to capture the heterogeneous nature of urban food-related emissions. This method enables identification of key actors in urban food systems, important for developing effective decarbonization roadmaps for climate policy and urban planning at the urban neighborhood scale.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 106236"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143474896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation-driven cities: Reconciling economic growth and ecological sustainability","authors":"Fei Chen , Liling Zhu , Huiqiang Zhang , Yi Li","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106230","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106230","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>The innovative city pilot policy</em> (ICPP) presents new solutions to balance economic growth with environmental protection. This paper treats the ICPP as a quasi-natural experiment and employs staggered difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial DID methods to examine its impact on green total factor productivity (GTFP) and its spatial spillover effects from 2008 to 2022. It further analyzes the policy's mechanisms and heterogeneity. The research results indicate that (i) ICPP significantly increased GTFP in pilot cities, accelerating green development by 4.3 % while alleviating environmental issues such as air pollution. (ii) By constructing a moderating effect model, the analysis reveals that the ICPP positively influences GTFP through the moderation of green technological innovation, government support, and intellectual property (IP) protection. (iii) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that while university-based research significantly promotes development, its impact is limited by innovation challenges. Government environmental support increases GTFP, and its effect is more pronounced in regions under greater pollution pressure, where the shift to low-carbon industries presents greater opportunities for improvement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 106230"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143464197","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An indicator-based framework of circular cities focused on sustainability dimensions and sustainable development goal 11 obtained using machine learning and text analytics","authors":"Nadia Falah , Navid Falah , Jaime Solis-Guzman , Madelyn Marrero","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106219","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scs.2025.106219","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The circular economy (CE) serves a practical pathway to facilitate sustainable development (SD) and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Current frameworks for assessing city sustainability and circularity often lack comprehensibility and multi-dimensional indicator-based approaches, also fail to include city-level CE indicators. This study defines an innovative structure for defining the circular city indicators (CCIs) addressing critical gaps in existing methodologies and CCIs coverage of sustainability and SDGs, especially SDG11. The methodology encompasses an extensive literature review, integrating CE principles, macro level of CE parameters and current CCIs, resulting in a comprehensive list of 241 indicators. Using advanced machine-learning techniques—semi-supervised learning, text analysis, and clustering algorithms—enhances the accuracy, comprehensiveness of the indicator classification. The indicators are categorized into 3D space across environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability. This multi-dimensional approach also reveals the relationships between CCIs and 16 SDG11 classes. The analysis shows 75% of CCIs are multi-dimensional, but, five SDG11 classes show the lowest coverage in the heatmap of CCIs probability distribution across SDG11 classes, indicating a need to revise SDG11 classes and the social indicators of CCIs. The findings offer urban planners and stakeholders a practical list of CCIs to evaluate sustainability and CE level in cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 106219"},"PeriodicalIF":10.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143474894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}