scholarly journals Waste in the City: Challenges and Opportunities for Urban Agglomerations

Author(s):  
Jutta Gutberlet
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Inés Pardo Martínez ◽  
William Alfonso Piña ◽  
Angelo Facchini ◽  
Alexander Cotte Poveda

Abstract Background Currently, most of the world’s population lives in cities, and the rapid urbanization of the population is driving increases in the demand for products, goods and services. To effectively design policies for urban sustainability, it is important to understand the trends of flows in energy and materials as they enter and leave a city. This knowledge is essential for determining the key elements characterizing future urban growth and addressing future supply challenges. Methods This paper presents an analysis of the energy and material flows in the city of Bogotá over the time span from 2001 to 2017. Urban flows are also characterized in terms of their temporal evolution with respect to population growth to compare and identify the changes in the main input flows, wealth production, emissions and waste in the city. Results The results of the analysis are then compared with those for other selected large urban agglomerations in Latin America and worldwide to highlight similarities and make inferences. The results show that in Bogotá, there was a decrease in some of the material flows, such as the consumption of water and the generation of discharge, in recent years, while there was an increase in the consumption of energy and cement and in the production of CO2 emissions and construction materials. Solid waste production remained relatively stable. With respect to the other large cities considered, we observe that the 10-year growth rates of the flows with respect to population growth are lower in Bogotá, particularly when compared with the other urban agglomerations in Latin America. Conclusions The findings of this study are important for advancing characterizations of the trends of material and energy flows in cities, and they contribute to the establishment of a benchmark that allows for the definition and evaluation of the different impacts of public policy while promoting the sustainability of Bogotá in the coming decades.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4

Placemaking is an inclusive approach to the planning, design, and management of public places by which people create and/or recreate places. In the context of the Arab cities, placemaking projects are often envisaged to transform communities’ spaces into lively and attractive places; to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents. It also aims to (re)create a distinct sense of place or place branding at large. Exploring how contemporary Arab cities have framed placemaking processes within the contemporary urban conditions, and sometimes the threats to the quality of the city, are helping in creating healthier, equitable, and humane public places. Such challenges and opportunities of these processes is a core component of this special edition of The Journal of Public Space, which discusses various aspects of placemaking in Arab Cities, ranges from creating, enhancing, adapting and developing attractive and efficient public places in Arab Cities. In this context, academic papers and viewpoints have manifested a variety of perspectives, theories and practices of placemaking concepts, methods, recent challenges and possible solutions. They portrayed several tools on establishing and revitalizing public places starting from governmental toolkits, reaching unplanned activities fostering community engagement in placemaking.


Author(s):  
Victor Vladimirov ◽  
Thomas Simoner ◽  
Ioan Bica

Abstract Relining is one of the best alternatives available today for pipe system rehabilitation. This trenchless solution is particularly interesting for urban agglomerations, as a smaller diameter pipe is pushed or pulled through the old pipeline. Relining creates a leak-tight “pipe within a pipe” system, which is as good as new in both structural and hydraulic terms. Relining can be performed with both circular and special, non-circular (NC) profiles. The latter is especially advantageous for the rehabilitation of old sewers, many of which were constructed in a variety of ovoid-like shapes. This paper presents the typical steps that are performed for pipeline rehabilitation with non-circular profiles, as well as an applied case study (a project implemented in the city of Würzburg in Germany).


Author(s):  
V. Hemanth Kumar ◽  
K. Sentamilselvan

In the rapid growing urbanization, especially in the metros, it is not sure that it really leads to development of the society nor becoming a threat to it. The urbanization leads to shrinkage of the fertile and farming lands to concrete monuments for human to work in an artificial atmosphere. The vertical urbanization is very common in the cities than horizontal, due to shortage of lands. This leads to the vital resources of food and vegetables in scarce for the drastically overflowing population, ends up in fast foods and packed foods culture, that is far from organic foods, which is a clear path towards obesity, diabetes and high rate of heart disease among the youth. This study is an initiative to bring out the feasibility of urban farming that struggles to strengthen its roots in our nation. The research focuses on the challenges and opportunities of urban farming in the society. The outcomes shall bring out societal views on urban farming and the suggest ways to overcome the hindrances and facilitate the people towards utilizing the opportunities of urban farming with its benefits and ‘Let the City Grow Green', which is the way to enrich health for their present and future generations.


Author(s):  
Tuğba Özbölük

The development of Web 2.0 tools has changed the ways that cities communicate and build their brands. A growing number of travelers are influenced by user generated content, presenting a number of challenges and opportunities for city branding. This chapter will focus on the use of Internet and social media as international marketing communications techniques for cities and destinations. The chapter offers insights to city branding practitioners on how online city branding is carried out and suggests that using social media is an appropriate strategy to promote cities because of its participative and interactive nature. However, it is also emphasized that city branding practitioners should evaluate social media as an opportunity to get closer to customer, instead of a mechanism to be controlled. Exploring implications for practitioners, the chapter can be regarded as an important contribution to an area which is still fairly new and unexplored. The chapter also contributes to the city branding literature by introducing the use of netnography in city branding research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 899-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Regalado ◽  
Maura A. Smale

This article discusses commuter students’ experiences with the academic library, drawn from a qualitative study at the City University of New York. Undergraduates at six community and baccalaureate colleges were interviewed to explore how they fit schoolwork into their days, and the challenges and opportunities they encountered. Students identified physical and environmental features that informed their ability to successfully engage in academic work in the library. They valued the library as a distraction-free place for academic work, in contrast to the constraints they experienced in other places—including in their homes and on the commute.


Complexity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Xinzheng Zhao ◽  
Jing Su ◽  
Jing Chao ◽  
Xiaoqiong Liu ◽  
Tongsheng Li ◽  
...  

Based on the data of Chinese enterprises that entered the Fortune 500 list in 2015, this paper utilizes the eclectic model to construct the inter-city association network. Using the network analysis method, the spatial connection characteristics of 311 inter-city networks at prefecture level and above and 20 urban agglomerations networks in China are examined, respectively. The research found the following: (1) the overall connectivity of city network is poor, the centripetal concentration is strong, and the network is not complete. The city network structure shows three tendencies, with a concentration in political centers, a concentration in coastal areas, and a concentration in resource-based cities. The external economic dependence of each node city in national city network is high, and the city network structure has distinctly flattening characteristics. (2) Network function of cities is obviously different in multiscale region. Large cities and regional centers have more balanced function systems than the small- and medium-sized cities do. (3) The network of urban agglomerations is characterized by decentralization of power, differentiation of status, and dependence on external connections. The radiation effect of three major urban agglomerations in coastal China is strong, but the radiation effect of other urban agglomerations needs to be strengthened. (4) Both city networks and agglomeration economies have positive impact on economic growth of the city. The economic performance of city networks is differentiated between urban agglomeration cities and nonurban agglomeration cities, as well as between cities of different scale levels. This study provides new evidence for understanding the spatial relations and expansion of Chinese city networks.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Luther

Abstract Urban wildlife organizations—which include groups focused on wildlife rehabilitation, rescue, removal, advocacy, education, and conflict resolution—have typically been viewed as out of step with the goals of wildlife conservation because of their focus on encounters with individual nonhuman animals, common species, and degraded habitats. The recent shift by large conservation NGOs toward a “humans and nature together” framework, because of its focus on urban natures, has brought the field into discursive relation with urban wildlife organizations. Drawing on a case study of four wildlife organizations in an urban center, this research explores their discourse about human-wildlife relationships in the city, and the challenges and opportunities presented by their emergent intersections.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-120
Author(s):  
Guillaume Campion ◽  
Guillaume Côté

This article discusses the inclusion of concrete informative elements within acousmatic music, in an attempt to mix acousmatic music and sound documentary into a form of socially engaged sound art. Inspired by existing sound practices that make strong use of the sonic reality, such as soundscape composition or radiophonic art, the authors explain how they aim to address socially relevant topics within pieces where music and information are considered of equal importance. To that end, they give a detailed description of their approach through the analysis of the composition process behind Archipel (Côté and Campion 2016), a 29-minute piece focused on the access to the waterfront in the city of Montréal, Québec. Through an alloy of interviews, sound recordings gathered on the shores of Montréal and typically acousmatic sound-processing and synthesis, the piece attempts to portray the challenges and opportunities encompassed by this topic. Having found the need to go beyond the acousmatic concert format for this kind of work, the authors also briefly discuss how they are currently expanding the project to include an interactive website and a mobile application that will complement the initial concert piece.


Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Yubo Zhao ◽  
Gui Zhang ◽  
Hongwei Zhao

Research on urban agglomerations from the perspective of network spatial structure is important to promote their sustainable development. Based on online and traditional data, this paper first improves three aspects of the traditional spatial gravity model—city quality, the gravitation coefficient, and city distance—considering urban center functional intensity and population mobility tendencies. The resulting improved directional gravity model is applied to analyze the structure of the city network for two urban agglomerations in China, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA) and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA). The results of the study are as follows: (1) the existing urban connections have obvious hierarchies and imbalances, with the YRDUA urban hierarchical connections being of larger scale. (2) Cities are closely connected, but city networks are unbalanced, though the YRDUA has more balanced urban development. (3) Each node city has a clear radiation range limit, and spatial distance remains an important constraint on urban connections. The backbone network of the BTHUA has a triangular shape and trends toward a “sparse north and dense south,” while the YRDUA is characterized by multiple axes and an overall distribution that trends toward a “dense north and sparse south.” (4) Cities with poor comprehensive strength are more likely to be captured, forming an attract and be attracted relationship. (5) The BTHUA and the YRDUA each form three communities.


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