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Topic Review Peer Reviewed
The Lost Shantytowns of Barcelona
Shantytowns still existed in many of Southern Europe’s major cities in the second half of the 20th century, although many have now been demolished. The purpose of this article is to highlight the history and evolution of some of the main shantytowns that remained in Barcelona in the mid-1970s, track their subsequent demolition, and reflect on the fate of the shanty dwellers. This form of self-build housing, usually lacking in basic services, played a vital role in providing shelter for immigrant families and the urban poor. A strong neighbourhood identity existed in many of these shantytowns, and national and local policies that aimed at their demolition and the re-housing of residents, often in low-quality housing blocks, proved problematic. The shantytowns studied here are La Perona, the Tres Turons, Campo de la Bota, and Ramon Casellas, which together comprised over 2000 shanty dwellings in the 1970s. Drawing on photographs taken at the time and existing literature, and using recent images from Google Earth, the demise of these shantytowns is examined, and the policies and plans that determined their fate are discussed. This article finds that the shanty dwellers experienced mixed fortunes, some being forcibly removed and re-housed in tower blocks with associated social-economic problems, whilst others played an active part in the design of replacement housing, implemented in situ where the shanty dwellings once existed. This article contributes to existing studies on shantytowns in Barcelona, which received scant attention from academics at the time, and which only now are being recognised as an important aspect of Barcelona’s urban history.
  • 387
  • 08 Mar 2024
Topic Review Video
The Image of the Smart City
The image of the city was first introduced by Kevin Lynch in 1960, and referred to the ways in which urban space is perceived by their users, and how these acts are based on mental maps, whose elements can be put into well-defined categories: paths, nodes, edges, districts, and landmarks.
  • 857
  • 16 Feb 2022
Topic Review
The Conflict Between Humans and Urban Coyotes
Coyotes live in most major cities across North and Central America. As their habitat shrinks, human–coyote interactions increase, spurring debate about how to respond. Residents often fear coyotes and want extermination, but scientists argue they are a permanent fixture that play a vital ecosystem role and that eradicating them does not work and has negative impacts. Instead, ecologists argue that residents need to change their behavior to coexist with coyotes. Human–coyote sightings and interactions are becoming more frequent in urban areas across North and Central America. While many species have lost territory, the coyote range has expanded. Relatively recently, ecologists have coalesced around the idea that coexistence is the most promising avenue to reduce human–coyote conflict in urban areas. Despite this, calls for the eradication of coyotes continue. 
  • 327
  • 18 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Sustainable Coastal Design
Mediterranean coastal cities are mostly urban environments with a long history, hence the idea that the different aspects that form the identity and perception of the cities can be interconnected in a framework that can be useful for further understanding and improvement. There is a need to consider multiple scales, national boundaries, the intersection of land and water and different stakeholders, policies and sectors. The coastal zone is an interface between land and sea, composed of a continuum of coastal land, intertidal areas, aquatic systems including the network of rivers and estuaries, islands, transitional and intertidal areas, salt marshes, wetlands and beaches. Natural coastal systems and areas where human activities involve the use of coastal resources may, therefore, extend well beyond the limit of territorial waters, and several kilometers inland.
  • 377
  • 29 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Sustainability in City-Regionalism
Sustainability concerns transgress jurisdictional boundaries compelling multi-scalar and inter-jurisdictional responses. The city-region is one of the scales at which governance actors may mobilise for sustainability and this is now recognised in literatures on integrated food systems, for example. However, within the mainstream debates on city-regions, sustainability as a motivation for inter-jurisdictional governance is still given scant attention. In practice also the connections between city-regionalism and sustainability are often limited and fractious. However, there are emergent practices which offer the potential for a stronger relationship, especially where there are growing pressures for addressing environmental threats and spillovers at the regional scale. 
  • 423
  • 10 May 2021
Topic Review
Spread of Viruses on Universities Campuses
Outdoor open spaces are important for sustainable universities because they accommodate outdoor activities and enhance the campus’s livability and vitality. The character of the outdoor space determines the quality of the campus.
  • 484
  • 07 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Spatial Pattern of Cross-Border Area in China
With globalization and informatization, cross-border areas have become increasingly critical interactive spaces, experiencing rapid development and extensive changes in residents’ cross-border travel, constantly changing the spatial patterns of neighboring cities. Taking the Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan area as a case, the research explored that a large number of cross-city trips for leisure and entertainment purposes emerged, and the one-way unbalanced flow, “Foshan to Guangzhou”, changed to two-way circulation. The spatial pattern of the Guangzhou-Foshan region from 1985 to 2020 to be on of spreading expansion, with Liwan District as the central core, connecting to several sub-centers. The cross-border area in the Guangzhou-Foshan region represented a compact, extremely integrated degree and a well-matched functional space. 
  • 184
  • 27 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of High-Speed Rail
Countries considering high-speed rail (HSR) developments face enormous challenges because of their high deployment cost, environmental obstacles, political opposition, and their potentially adverse effects on society. Nevertheless, HSR services are importantly sustainable that can have positive and transformative effects on the economic growth of a nation. 
  • 3.5K
  • 22 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Social Sustainable Urban Air Mobility in Europe
The first step to steer passenger Urban Air Mobility (pUAM) towards the necessity of sustainability is to understand its impact on urban transportation systems. The introduction of pUAM will have a rather negative impact on the social sustainability assessment of European urban mobility systems. The short- to mid-term affordability of pUAM for broad parts of the population cannot be expected without public subsidies. For this engagement, however, local community must first demand clear prospects for added value. Similarly, the overall inclusivity evaluation of urban transportation systems must be expected to decline if planning authorities will not demand certain standards for mobility-impaired groups. Vertiport operation in already developed urban locations might not improve accessibility, however, cross-financed and open access mobility hubs in suburbs and rural areas might include pUAM and thus contribute positively to the access indicator. A high level of satisfaction with pUAM among the public is not expected due to target-group specific business modelling. Last but not least, an impairment of the overall quality of urban public spaces is likely but might be minimised through the allocation of legal competences for urban airspace planning and civil society participation on the local level.
  • 476
  • 05 Aug 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Social Aspects of Smart Urban Mobility
There is a growing interest in sustainable urban transport solutions in cities around the world. These changes, known as “smart urban mobility”, aim to reduce the negative effects of transport on the natural environment and enhance the standard of living for urban dwellers. It should be noted that in addition to this transformation’s technological aspects, modifying the city’s structure and architecture also has a social dimension. The transformation of urban mobility has a significant impact on social relations. Introducing new modes of transport, such as city bikes and electric scooters, creates new ways of moving around the city and can impact social interactions. This can increase social integration and a community’s sense of belonging. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the differences between social groups to ensure equal access to the benefits of these changes in addition to deeper social elements, such as changing the habits and expectations of residents and adapting solutions to the specific needs of each city. This paper aims to look at the social aspects of smart urban mobility, including the impact of these changes on the lives and relationships of city residents.
  • 474
  • 22 May 2024
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