Towards Measuring the Informal City: A Societal Metabolism Approach

The rapid growth of urban informal settlements, or slums, poses a particular challenge for balancing developmental and environmental goals. In South Africa, high levels of inequality, poverty, and unemployment contribute to widespread migration. The influx of migrant workers to cities, however, is rarely matched with adequate housing and infrastructure, resulting in the formation and growth of urban informal settlements. Despite the persistence of the slum phenomenon, very few studies provide an in‐depth understanding of the metabolic processes that link these spaces, and informal economies, to the broader urban environment and economy. This article therefore utilized a multiscale integrated assessment of the societal and ecosystem metabolism approach to examine human activity and land use in Enkanini, an urban informal settlement in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The results highlight a number of issues to be addressed through spatial, developmental, and local economic policy, such as the need for improved transport linkages. The time‐use results show that Enkanini is a net provider of labor to the surrounding area. Further, geographical mapping indicates Enkanini as a small, but vibrant, informal economy, while being grossly underserviced in terms of water, waste, and sanitation infrastructure. Key implications are discussed in terms of the theoretical, methodological, societal, and policy impact of the study, including the need for city observatories that conduct regular data collection and analysis.     

The Politics of Governance and Urban Marginality: A Camp Studies Perspective

ABSTRACT

Designed to provide temporary shelter to the displaced, in protracted refugee situations camps become places of long-term residency and undergo processes of urban change. The complex realities of protracted encampment challenge the dichotomy between the city (as a norm) and the camp (as an exception) that underpins dominant theoretical models of refugee camps. Instead, the theoretical lens of urban margins allows us to circumvent this binary and analyse the camps from the perspective of their relation to the city and the state. Rather than a specific location, this article approaches urban marginality as a condition produced by unequal power relations behind the enforcement of a particular urban order. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, it draws on the case of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. Unlike the majority of studies on Palestinian camps that focus either on top-down politics of exclusion or political agency of camp residents, the article examines how different actors, interests and modes of exercising power (both formal and informal) intersect in camp space and produce, as well as resist and subvert, the condition of urban marginality.     

Multimodal home care intervention for dependent older people “Live better at home”: Protocol of a randomized clinical trial

BackgroundThe intensity of the home care interventions for dependent older people offered in Spain may not be sufficient to help keep older people living at home, being the institutionalization in a nursing home (NH) an unavoidable consequence.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of intensification in home care interventions on users with grade II or III dependency, as well as training for their informal caregivers in order to delay or avoid their institutionalization in a NH.MethodsA randomized clinical trial with two parallel arms and blinded assessment will be conducted at the community level in two municipalities in Catalonia (Spain). The study will include those older people (aged 65 and over) living in the community, with degree II or III of dependency, users of the public home care unwilling to be institutionalized and with a main informal caregiver in charge, who will also participate in the study. The assessments will be performed monthly up to 15 months, when the intervention will be finished. The main outcome will be the time until the willingness for admission to a NH. Secondary variables will be composed of sociodemographic, health, psychosocial, resource use, and follow-up variables. A multivariate Cox regression model will be carried out to estimate the effectiveness of the intervention.DiscussionA multimodal home care intervention could improve the health and psychosocial status of dependent people and their informal caregivers and facilitate their permanence at home.Trial registrationNCT05567965     

How should we grow cities to minimize their biodiversity impacts?

Urbanization causes severe environmental degradation and continues to increase in scale and intensity around the world, but little is known about how we should design cities to minimize their ecological impact. With a sprawling style of urban development, low intensity impact is spread across a wide area, and with a compact form of development intense impact is concentrated over a small area; it remains unclear which of these development styles has a lower overall ecological impact. Here, we compare the consequences of compact and sprawling urban growth patterns on bird distributions across the city of Brisbane, Australia. We predicted the impact on bird populations of adding 84 642 houses to the city in either a compact or sprawling design using statistical models of bird distributions. We show that urban growth of any type reduces bird distributions overall, but compact development substantially slows these reductions at the city scale. Urban‐sensitive species particularly benefited from compact development at the city scale because large green spaces were left intact, whereas the distributions of nonnative species expanded as a result of sprawling development. As well as minimizing ecological disruption, compact urban development maintains human access to public green spaces. However, backyards are smaller, which impacts opportunities for people to experience nature close to home. Our results suggest that cities built to minimize per capita ecological impact are characterized by high residential density, with large interstitial green spaces and small backyards, and that there are important trade‐offs between maintaining city‐wide species diversity and people's access to biodiversity in their own backyard.     

Living in the city: can anyone become an ‘urban exploiter'?

Aim As urban landscapes expand, shifts in biodiversity are occurring. This is leading biogeographers and ecologists to consider human‐dominated landscapes in their current work. One question that arises is: what characterizes those species that are widespread in the most highly urban environments compared with those restricted to less urbanized areas in the city? Here, we aim to identify the traits that enable species to become urban exploiters, i.e. to dominate highly urbanized surroundings. Identifying these traits may help us better predict and possibly mitigate the biotic homogenization occurring in these areas. Location Israel in general, with special focus on the city of Jerusalem. Methods Combining literature and field‐based data for birds in Israel we compared phenotypic, behavioural and life‐history traits between urban exploiters and urban adapters. The latter occur in urban landscapes, but are characteristic of the less urbanized parts of the city. We then examined the trends along a finer field‐sampled gradient of increasing urbanization from sub‐natural to downtown areas within the city of Jerusalem. Results Urban exploiters and adapters differed primarily in social structure and migratory status: exploiters were significantly more social and sedentary than urban adapters. Clear trends were also seen for dietary preferences along a gradient of increasing urbanization in Jerusalem, such that, with increasing urbanization, the proportion of granivorous species increased whereas the proportion of species feeding on invertebrates declined. In contrast, neither relative brain size nor behavioural flexibility, as measured by feeding innovations, differed significantly among urban exploiters and adapters in Israel or along the urbanization gradient in Jerusalem specifically. Main conclusions The results of our study suggest that being successful in more vs. less urbanized environments in the city is not necessarily a factor of brain size nor of how flexible and behaviourally innovative the species is; rather, it depends on a combination of traits, including diet, degree of sociality, sedentariness and preferred nesting sites.     

Does becoming an informal caregiver make your health worse? A longitudinal analysis across Europe

ObjectiveTo determine whether becoming an informal caregiver in Europe has a significant effect on health status, compared with non-informal caregivers, distinguishing by place of residence (in or outside the home of the care receivers) and country. And to determine whether there is an adaptation effect after the passage of time.MethodsThe Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (2004–2017) was used. Propensity score matching was applied to analyse the differences in the health status of people who became informal carers between different periods and those who did not. We considered short-term (2–3 years after the shock) and medium-term effects (4–5 years).ResultsIn the short term, the probability of those who became informal caregivers being depressed was 3.7% points (p.p.) higher than among their counterparts, being higher among those who lived in the care recipients’ homes (12.8 p.p.) and those providing care outside and at home (12.9 p.p.). Significant differences in the probability of being depressed were also observed by country (Southern and Eastern Europe), and in countries with low expenditure on long-term care (LTC). Those effects remained in the medium term. No significant effects were found in cancer, stroke, heart attack and diabetes.ConclusionsThe results might help to concentrate a major effort of any policy in the field of mental health on the period immediately after the negative shock, especially for those caregivers who live with the care receiver, for those in Southern and Eastern Europe and in countries with low expenditure on LTC.     

基于熵权物元分析模型的城市生态安全综合评价

随着城市化进程的加快,人口膨胀,交通拥挤,环境破坏,大气污染,能源短缺等一系列生态问题严重制约着城市的可持续发展,影响着城市的生态安全。针对城市生态安全的问题,论文以郑州市为例,采用物元分析和熵权法,建立城市生态安全熵权物元模型,首先通过熵权法对郑州市2001-2004年的指标数据进行处理并计算出相应的权重,再通过物元分析法对郑州市2001年城市生态安全状况进行综合评价,结果表明郑州市2001年的城市生态处于较不安全状态,评价结果客观、科学,不仅为解决城市生态安全问题提供了一种有效的评价方法,而且能够为明确城市的发展状况,制定下一步发展战略提供依据。     

Putting the Ninth Ward on the Map: Race, Place, and Transformation in Desire, New Orleans

In this article, we consider how long-term patterns of resistance to structural violence inform citizens' responses to displacement before and after Katrina. Drawing on Abdou Maliq Simone's (2004) conceptualization of people as infrastructure, we recenter the discussion about the rebuilding of New Orleans around displaced residents, taking the place-making practices of members of a social club as a lens through which to examine the predicament of the city as a whole. Members have been generating alternative ways of thinking about and dwelling together in a restructuring city. Their perspectives are articulated through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and the embodied practices of club members and their followers as they make claims to the city through massive, participatory street processions known as second lines. These distinctive ways of thinking and being in the city—the subaltern mainstream of the second-line tradition—are now being deployed by exiled New Orleanians reconsidering their relationship to home.     

新乡市生态城市建设研究

随着经济的快速发展和城市化进程的加快,新乡市的生态环境面临着巨大的社会与生态压力。因此,很有必要从战略的高度审视新乡市生态城市建设的现状。概述了生态城市的由来及其内涵、当前国内外生态城市发展概况、新乡市生态城市建设的有利条件和制约因素。提出,必须释放新乡市生态城市建设的内部潜力、寻求外部动力,克服生态城市建设的制约因素,加快生态城市建设的进程。     

近20年城市遥感研究现状及其发展趋势

随着城市化进程的不断加速,城市遥感研究已成为地理学、生态学、城市规划学等学科领域主要发展方向之一。城市化使人口与经济增长的同时,也使得城市原有的生态环境状况发生改变,从而引起了一系列城市生态环境问题。城市遥感是一门多学科交叉研究领域,近年来已经取得了一系列显著的研究成果。对近年来城市遥感研究涉及的城市地表温度、边界扩张、不透水表面、景观格局以及生态安全5个方面的理论、研究方法、应用动态以及发展方向进行了较为详细的总结与探讨。主要得出如下结论：（1）数据源从单个遥感数据研究走向多源遥感数据融合发展,多源遥感数据尤其是结合高分辨率数据越来越多的被应用到城市研究的各个领域中;（2）城市遥感的研究目标不断扩展、深化和聚焦;（3）城市遥感研究已开始从二维空间向三维空间拓展;（4）城市遥感涉及的研究对象之间相互作用,相互影响在深入解读城市遥感研究理论意义和潜在挑战的基础上,结合最新研究对本文所涉及的主题进行了补充和完善,为城市典型生态环境问题的解决提供新的思路;今后应按照城市形态与构成、城市关键要素、生态环境响应、生态环境评价以及城市扩展与环境预测的体系结构进行综合分析。     

A Survey of Dog Populations in Urban and Rural Areas of Yucatan,Mexico

ABSTRACT

A survey in a major Mexican city (Merida) and three rural communities was conducted to generate information regarding the size and structure of the owned-dog populations and people's opinions about the dogs and how they took care of them. Household characteristics and dog population size, health and reproductive issues were compared between the two kinds of communities: urban and rural. A telephone survey was conducted in Merida city whereas personal interviews were used in the rural communities. Local veterinarians were also interviewed to evaluate their influence on the dog populations in Merida city. The ratio of people to dogs was 3.4:1 in the city, and 1.7:1 to 4.6:1 in the different rural communities. In general it was more common to find a dog-owning household in the city of Merida (72.8%) than in the rural areas (63.6%, 65.5% and 71.1%), and in the city more households had adequate fences to restrain dogs. Larger families were more likely to own a dog than small families. Households of medium socio-economic status had a significantly higher probability of owning a dog than households of low or high socio-economic status. Of the dogs in the city, 90.1% were vaccinated against rabies compared with 62.3% of the dogs in the rural communities. Most animals were intact; the frequency of neutering/spaying was 3.1% in Merida and 1.8% in the rural communities. Few private veterinary practitioners were involved in the control of dog overpopulation. It is concluded that dogs are popular pets both in urban and rural Yucatan. People's opinions about dogs and the level of supervision varied with socio-economic status, and people in the city provided better food, shelter and preventive medicine. The veterinary practitioners did little to promote the control of dog breeding or to reduce the relinquishing of unwanted dogs in the city. Better client education and the promotion of sterilization of pets at low cost would improve the situation.     

城市空间形态离散度指数NDIS构建与应用

中国土地资源有限,需要可持续的、紧凑的城市空间形态与布局,因此,全面度量城市空间形态的紧凑性具有重要意义。通过6个情境分析了离散度指数DIS的优缺点,识别出DIS值在反映城市形态紧凑程度方面的不足,进而提出了一种新的城市空间形态紧凑度指数,即标准化离散度指数NDIS。NDIS不受城市面积规模的影响,且具有唯一性,利于城市紧凑度的横向和纵向比较,能更好地指示城市空间形态。NDIS值越大,城市越离散。进一步将NDIS与成熟使用的标准化紧凑度指数NCI结合,用于分析中国35座城市的空间形态紧凑性,研究结果表明:(1) NDIS最大值是兰州市的1.64,最小值是石家庄市的1.14,均值1.29±0.12(SE); NCI最大值是郑州市0.39,最小值是宁波市的0.1,均值0.24±0.07(SE);(2) NDIS与NCI虽然具有中等程度的相关性(r=-0.44,P0.01),但是NDIS把城市斑块间的距离关系表达得更为准确;(3)将NDIS与NCI结合,能够更加全面地指示城市空间形态的紧凑程度。准确、全面的衡量中国城市的空间形态,则需要与更多的景观格局指数结合使用。     

城市地表灰尘的概念、污染特征与环境效应

城市地表灰尘是重要的非点源污染之一,20世纪70年代就引起了国外学者的注意,研究成果颇丰,国内近年来虽然也取得了一些成果,但一直未能引起学术界的足够重视.本文从非点源污染研究的角度出发,对城市地表灰尘的概念提出了新的认识,并对国内外地表灰尘污染研究的发展阶段、研究现状等进行了系统的阐述与总结,提出了相应的研究重点及方向.城市地表灰尘是环境中污染物质的“源”、“汇”载体,包含特定的环境信息,对区域环境状况具有良好的指示作用.地表灰尘污染的研究应该成为我国城市生态环境研究的一个新的切入点,对城市生态和非点源污染管理有着重要的现实意义.     

Relationships and burden: An empirical‐ethical investigation of lived experience in home nursing arrangements

Quantitative research has called attention to the burden associated with informal caregiving in home nursing arrangements. Less emphasis has been placed, however, on care recipients’ subjective feelings of being a burden and on caregivers’ willingness to carry the burden in home care. This article uses empirical material from semi‐structured interviews conducted with older people affected by multiple chronic conditions and in need of long‐term home care, and with informal and professional caregivers, as two groups of relevant others. The high burden of home‐care arrangements is unanimously stressed by all three groups involved in the triangle of care. An empirical‐ethical investigation of what can be legitimately expected from family members and informal caregivers, informed by Frith's symbiotic empirical ethics approach, was undertaken. Key tenets from the special goods theory and nursing professionalism are used as analytical tools. The study concludes that the current situation may hinder professional development and can reinforce feelings of being a burden to relevant others.     

Multidisciplinary transmural rehabilitation for older persons with a stroke: the design of a randomised controlled trial

Background

Stroke is one of the major causes of loss of independence, decreased quality of life and mortality among elderly people. About half of the elderly stroke patients discharged after rehabilitation in a nursing home still experience serious impairments in daily functioning one year post stroke, which can lead to difficulties in picking up and managing their social life. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of a new multidisciplinary transmural rehabilitation programme for older stroke patients.

Methods

A two group multicentre randomised controlled trial is used to evaluate the effects of the rehabilitation programme. The programme consists of three care modules: 1) neurorehabilitation treatment for elderly stroke patients; 2) empowerment training for patient and informal caregiver; and 3) stroke education for patient and informal caregiver. The total programme has a duration of between two and six months, depending on the individual problems of the patient and informal caregiver. The control group receives usual care in the nursing home and after discharge.Patients aged 65 years and over are eligible for study participation when they are admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation unit in a nursing home due to a recent stroke and are expected to be able to return to their original home environment after discharge. Data are gathered by face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires, focus groups and registration forms. Primary outcomes for patients are activity level after stroke, functional dependence, perceived quality of life and social participation. Outcomes for informal caregivers are perceived care burden, objective care burden, quality of life and perceived health. Outcome measures of the process evaluation are implementation fidelity, programme deliverance and the opinion of the stroke professionals, patients and informal caregivers about the programme. Outcome measures of the economic evaluation are the healthcare utilisation and associated costs. Data are collected at baseline, and after six and 12 months. The first results of the study will be expected in 2014.

Trial registration

International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Register Number ISRCTN62286281, The Dutch Trial Register NTR2412

     

基于城市地表参数变化的城市热岛效应分析

以不透水面、植被、水体为代表的地表参数的变化决定了城市的热环境质量.针对福州从一个非"火炉"城市一跃成为中国新三大"火炉"之首,对福州市1976-2006年间的地表参数变化及其对城市热环境的影响进行研究.通过Landsat卫星影像反演了福州市1976、1986、1996、2006年的不透水面、植被、水体、地面温度等主要地表参数,并对其进行空间叠加分析和相关关系的定量分析.研究发现:不透水面对地面温度的影响可接近或超过植被和水体之和,查明了福州城市主要地表参数在这30a里发生的变化及其对城市热环境的影响.总的看来,城市地表不透水面斑块的增加和集聚、植被和水体面积的减少和破碎,以及通风不畅,是造成福州成为"火炉"城市的主要因素.     

上海生态环境建设与城市林业发展相关研究

必须站在上海社会经济整体发展的高度 ,明确生态环境建设对城市林业发展的要求。上海生态环境的现状与建设世界城市、提升城市综合竞争力、坚持可持续发展、化解生态环境压力的要求都甚不相称。上海城市林业在总量与结构上要有新的跨越 ,要形成以沿海防护林和部分自然保护林为生态前沿 ,以大型片林、廊道林带为生态腹地的基本框架。土地是上海最为稀缺的资源之一 ,应通过各种途径统筹发展城市林业所需的增量林地。     

Doing the City from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Urban Marginality*

ABSTRACT

This special issue focuses on urban marginality in diverse contexts across the world (Africa, Latin America, Arab States and Europe) and proposes anthropological perspectives on contemporary urbanity that take into account the complexity of the social positions of those city dwellers that are on the margins. Three aspects of urban margins come to the fore. First, urbanites respond to increasing marginalisation through the production of alternative meanings and narratives about the city. While grand, powerful narratives may present cities as ‘divided’, ‘dual’ or ‘conflicted’, urban dwellers may carve out symbolic space through discourses of the non-spectacular and non-political, emerging out of lived space. Second, the cuts and frictions constituting urban margins do not only limit urban dwellers capacities, but can also provide spaces of agentic possibilities. As it is well known, the absence of state control can be turned by versatile urbanites into opportunities of the ‘informal’ economy. Third, urban dwellers engage in manifold practices that connect and entangle their marginalised position with spaces of power and resources. Through their practices urban margins become a relation to, not a disconnection from the ‘centre’. In this special issue we understand ‘urban margins’ not as essence or entities, but as forms of relations between urban dwellers shaped by processes of political, economic, spatial and social marginalisation. Seen in this way, urban margins constitute a perspective on the urban: a lens to entice comparisons of urban agency in the world of cities [Robinson, J. 2011. “Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 35 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.00982.x]].     

A Taxonomy of Continuing Medical Education Endeavour

Five basic forms of continuing educational endeavour by physicians are listed in rank order. These components constitute an indivisible unit bound together by self-learning. The scholarly habit of planned daily reading and study in a home library-sanctuary as an integral part of a physician''s workday heads the list. Day-to-day informal and formal colleague-association in patient care in the community and teaching hospital, in group practice and by consultation is the present major form of continuing educational endeavour. Emphasized is the sabbatical return every three to five years for three months at least to the teaching hospital to reinforce scholarly motivation and attitudes and to acquire new skills and knowledge. Attendance at scientific sessions of learned professional societies and short courses should be accompanied by presession and post-session guided reading to be undertaken in the physician''s home library-sanctuary.