Nature Cities最新文献

{"title":"The gentrification paradox of green–blue adaptation in African cities","authors":"Seung Kyum Kim, Hyemin Cho, Longfeng Wu, ChengHe Guan","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00432-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00432-0","url":null,"abstract":"Green–blue adaptation strategies, including urban parks, wetland restoration and integrated flood management, are increasingly central to climate resilience in African cities. However, while these interventions aim to enhance environmental conditions, they may also accelerate urban displacement. This study provides the first continent-wide causal assessment of how green–blue adaptation initiatives influence socio-economic changes associated with early-stage gentrification. Using two decades of satellite imagery and socio-economic panel data from 5,503 cities and municipalities across 32 African countries and applying a difference-in-differences framework, we find that adaptation infrastructure is associated with rising housing prices, income levels, consumption and population growth. These patterns indicate emerging gentrification dynamics following adaptation investments. Our findings reveal a critical tension: although climate-resilient infrastructure can improve environmental conditions, it may also exacerbate socio-spatial inequality without equitable housing and land-use policies. Addressing this gentrification paradox is essential to ensuring that climate adaptation in African cities is resilient and socially just. Green–blue adaptation projects are central to climate resilience in African cities. This study reveals that these interventions may unintentionally drive gentrification, underscoring the need for equitable housing and land-use policies.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 5","pages":"438-446"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147978779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How NGOs reshape urban green space justice in Beijing","authors":"Luquan Liang, Sun Sheng Han, Jennifer Day","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00431-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00431-1","url":null,"abstract":"Realizing green justice in cities requires both the equitable distribution of urban green spaces (UGSs) across different social groups and meaningful public participation in decision-making. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are active in this process, but their role in reshaping UGS justice remains underexplored. On the basis of 58 in-depth interviews with NGO staff, officials and other stakeholders in Beijing, along with participant observations and social media analysis, this study reveals that NGOs frame distributive equity as less urgent. Rather, they focus on procedural justice through supervision, networking, advocacy and the use of legal frameworks to secure participation. In the recognitional dimension, NGOs navigate constrained governance environments by subtly altering dominant narratives, strategically engaging governments and adapting practices to align with official expectations. To gain recognition and remain operational, NGOs strategically downplay distributional inequities while foregrounding participation and recognition of UGS justice in Beijing. The findings highlight the importance of counter-narratives, information disclosure and earlier NGO involvement in UGS planning under existing political constraints. Nongovernmental organizations play an important role in urban green space development. Analyzing a rich body of qualitative data, this study finds that Beijing nongovernmental organizations make a strategic choice: to promote procedural and recognitional justice but downplay distributional inequalities.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 5","pages":"428-437"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147978770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impacts of nature-inclusive urban development on well-being and fairness perceptions","authors":"Shuo Gao, Wenjing Zhang, Sophus O. S. E. zu Ermgassen, Joseph Bull, Thomas Pienkowski, Xiang Ao, Renlu Qiao, E. J. Milner-Gulland","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00425-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00425-z","url":null,"abstract":"Nature-inclusive urban development (NIUD) is central to international frameworks such as the Global Biodiversity Framework, yet its implementation risks fostering social inequity and green gentrification. This study examines these social impacts through a sequential mixed-methods investigation combining semi-structured interviews and a representative survey in Qunli New Town, Harbin, China, a prominent case of NIUD incorporating landscape-level ecological mitigation and compensation. Here we found that well-being changes among original residents were linked to adaptation to the new context. Compared to non-agriculturalists (for example, former small-scale industry workers), former agriculturalists reported a sharper happiness decline relative to the pre-urbanization era (odds ratio (OR) = 0.15, P < 0.001). Among all original residents, those perceiving increases in social (OR = 1.30, P = 0.0049) and esthetic (OR = 1.53, P < 0.001) values of green spaces reported happiness gains. A critical finding was the stark divergence in fairness perceptions: original residents perceived ecological fairness to be substantially lower than newcomers (OR = 0.54, P < 0.001) but economic fairness higher (OR = 1.93, P < 0.001). This was shaped by the rural reference points of original residents—both former agriculturalists and non-agriculturalists—which led them to value economic upgrades, while experiencing ecological displacement from the loss of customary practices and access to previously accessible landscapes. To advance equitable NIUD, social impact assessments should explicitly manage the gentrification trade-off between new green infrastructure and the loss of cultural landscapes, promoting justice for different waves of settlement. Urban development that supports nature and people is a challenge. This study finds that, despite gains in jobs, income and ecological health with ‘green development’, former villagers in Qunli New Town, Harbin, China, feel less content than newcomers given the rural attributes they lost.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 5","pages":"416-427"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-026-00425-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147978741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When the Strait of Hormuz closes, cities pay","authors":"Zaheer Allam, Rushaa Badaloo, David S. Jones, Ali Cheshmehzangi","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00434-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00434-y","url":null,"abstract":"Closures of the Strait of Hormuz transmit immediate economic shocks into cities, and drive increasing costs across transport, food and housing. Without targeted social protection and rapid electrification, crisis responses risk entrenching the fossil fuel dependence that underpins urban vulnerability.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 5","pages":"388-390"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147979444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of tech workers in ethnicity- and class-based urban segregation","authors":"Jānis Zālīte, Kadi Kalm, Kadri Leetmaa, Tiit Tammaru","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00420-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00420-4","url":null,"abstract":"Large cities are often segregated by both ethnicity and class, and these dimensions frequently overlap because minorities are over-represented in lower-paid occupations. We examine how these patterns shift during the course of digital-transition-driven professionalization by focusing on tech workers, a fast-growing professional group. Higher earnings and broad scope for remote work expand minority tech workers’ residential options relative to other minorities facing tighter housing constraints. What remains unclear is whether their residential sorting is driven primarily by ethnicity or by class. Our empirical evidence comes from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia—a country known for its digital advancement. On the basis of population-wide register data, we find that the residential outcomes of minority tech workers align with class position, paralleled by the increasing spatial isolation of non-tech minorities as upward occupational mobility draws minority professionals out of lower-income co-ethnic areas. These results underscore the need to design urban policy for digitally transforming and professionalizing cities, with explicit attention to class-based segregation risks among minority communities who gain less from new opportunities. Cities are often segregated by class and ethnicity, with work often playing a key role. Focusing on digitally advanced Tallinn, Estonia, this study finds that minority tech workers are less segregated from the majority whereas non-tech workers are more isolated, deepening class-based segregation.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 4","pages":"371-379"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-026-00420-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147733254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial planning and the governance of urban greening","authors":"Sara Meerow","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00427-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00427-x","url":null,"abstract":"Cities around the world are making historic investments in green infrastructure. Local governments critically shape the social and ecological benefits that these networks of vegetation provide through spatial planning, but these processes remain underdeveloped in both research and practice.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 5","pages":"385-387"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147979446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A new paradigm for resilient and equitable post-war recovery of cities","authors":"Nadiia Kopiika, Sotirios Argyroudis \u0000 (, ), Min Ouyang, Stergios-Aristoteles Mitoulis \u0000 (, )","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00424-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00424-0","url":null,"abstract":"Rebuilding cities after conflict often prioritizes political or economic interests at the expense of long-term resilience, equity and inclusion. Post-war recovery must break away from traditional, interest-driven patterns. Instead, reconstruction should be redefined through a science-driven, multidisciplinary lens that has people and communities, social justice, and sustainability at its heart.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 4","pages":"304-307"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147733238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uncovering the hidden role of peri-urban vegetation in modulating urban precipitation","authors":"Rui Shao, Jiaqi Li, Weiwei Shao, Yicheng Wang, Dawen Yang, Guangheng Ni, Yuting Yang, Zhiyong Yang, Jiahong Liu, Yong Zhao, Jianhua Wang, Hao Wang","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00416-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00416-0","url":null,"abstract":"Peri-urban vegetation influences urban hydroclimates, yet its role in shaping urban precipitation remains understudied due to binary urban–non-urban framings, the limited representation of peri-urban landscapes in models and datasets, and a predominant focus on intra-urban areas. Here we integrate satellite-derived vegetation trends with an evapotranspiration model and an atmospheric moisture-tracking model to quantify how peri-urban vegetation change affects urban precipitation within 1,029 cities worldwide. We identify a spatially coupled hydroclimatic mechanism in which vegetation-driven shifts in peri-urban evapotranspiration modulate urban precipitation via atmospheric moisture transfer. Although these changes contribute only 1.9% of annual urban precipitation, they account for 18.3% of its long-term increase, indicating a disproportionate and systematic influence on urban hydroclimate trajectories. We further find that this coupling strengthens in cities with more abundant surrounding vegetation, wind-aligned greening and lower background humidity. Our findings clarify how peri-urban land–atmosphere interactions regulate urban climates and highlight the need to integrate peri-urban ecosystems into climate-resilience planning. This study shows that greening peri-urban areas boosts rainfall within cities, revealing their hidden role in shaping intra-urban precipitation and supporting climate-resilience planning.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 5","pages":"393-404"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147979445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding kampungs as critical urban infrastructures","authors":"Xuanyi Nie, Kristanti Dewi Paramita, Rini Suryantini, Paramita Atmodiwirjo, Yandi Andri Yatmo, Longfeng Wu","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00428-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00428-w","url":null,"abstract":"Urban kampungs in Indonesia are more than ‘informal settlements’. They function as critical urban infrastructures that sustain climate resilience through distributed domesticity and enable inclusive governance through everyday social cooperation. This framing broadens the understanding of urban infrastructure beyond technical systems.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 4","pages":"308-310"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147733239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Datacenters as core infrastructure of urban AI","authors":"Alok Tiwari","doi":"10.1038/s44284-026-00421-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44284-026-00421-3","url":null,"abstract":"We imagine artificial intelligence (AI) in the glow of smart screens, self-adjusting traffic lights and seamless digital services. However, the true engines of this new urban age sit in vast, windowless buildings, humming at the edge of our cities. These datacenters consume enormous amounts of energy, shape where investment flows, and quietly determine who holds power in the digital city. If we care about fairness, sustainability and democratic control, we must stop treating the ‘cloud’ as intangible. The future of our cities depends on confronting the hidden infrastructure that makes urban intelligence possible. As datacenters enable urban AI, this Perspective argues that datacenters must be understood as core infrastructures, whose spatial distribution, governance arrangements, computational labor and economic logics reorganize urban space, redistribute power and externalize material costs, raising key challenges of energy justice, data sovereignty and civic accountability.","PeriodicalId":501700,"journal":{"name":"Nature Cities","volume":"3 4","pages":"311-317"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147733250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}