Exploring insideness in urban children’s sense of place

This study, informed by phenomenology and ethnography, explores urban children’s relationship with their urban environment: In what ways do urban children exhibit “insideness” in their sense of place? This study proposes “insideness” as a conceptual construct to understand urban children’s sense of place in its ecological and dynamic nature. Employing qualitative research methods, the study explores place stories of urban children who live in low-income, immigrant neighborhoods in New York City. The study finds that as children cultivate their sense of place, they construct “insideness” in their sense of place including 1) environmental understanding (i.e., contextualized, comprehensive, and critical understanding of a place), 2) environmental competence (i.e., knowing how to navigate and engage in a place), and 3) diverse, strong affective relationships with a place. Using “insideness” as a conceptual tool, this study discusses children’s emplaced understanding and active and dialogical positionality in the development of their sense of place.     

Creating and validating GIS measures of urban design for health research

Studies relating urban design to health have been impeded by the unfeasibility of conducting field observations across large areas and the lack of validated objective measures of urban design. This study describes measures for five dimensions of urban design - imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity - created using public geographic information systems (GIS) data from the US Census and city and state government. GIS measures were validated for a sample of 588 New York City block faces using a well-documented field observation protocol. Correlations between GIS and observed measures ranged from 0.28 to 0.89. Results show valid urban design measures can be constructed from digital sources.     

城市化进程对城市热岛效应因子的对比分析

采用1990～2004年乌鲁木齐市和其郊区的温度差值作为衡量其城市热岛效应的标准,以乌鲁木齐市城市化七项指标作为城市热岛效应的形成因子.通过多元回归模型分析了各热岛效应因子对城市热岛的影响.文章主要结论包括乌鲁木齐市各热岛效应因子时城市热岛的影响是不同的,居民生活条件的改善和公共基础设施的改善减轻了热岛效应的影响,热岛效应也符合环境库兹涅茨曲线规律.     

西藏拉萨市热岛效应及其影响因子分析

采用2001年、2004年以及2007年三年的EOS/MODIS遥感信息反演的地面温度以及多年常规气象观测资料,讨论了拉萨市热岛现象及其可能影响因子。结果表明:(1)热岛强度的年、季节变化呈现逐渐增强的趋势,其中,冬季的热岛强度最强,其次是春季,秋季和夏季的热岛效应较弱;高温区基本位于城市中心或者县城所在地及其周围,低温区主要集中在各县的郊区;近年来拉萨地区的城市高温区域逐渐扩大,有些高温中心可能向某些区域偏移;遥感资料所获取的地表温度与平均气温之间存在一定的正相关性。(2)无论是年变化,还是季节变化,热岛强度都与风速呈正相关,与日照时数呈负相关,与蒸发量的相关在夏季和冬季分别呈正相关、负相关的相反状况;地表温度与植被分布具有较好的负相关关系,即在城区存在较高的地表温度分布和较小的NDVI,过渡到郊区具有温度减小、NDVI增加的特征;随着城市化进程的加剧,建筑面积不断扩大,人类活动明显增加,排放至大气的人为热增加,这些因素都可能导致热岛强度的增强。     

上海臭氧及前体物变化特征与相关性研究

于2010年1~12月期间,在上海城区内采用在线连续观测,分析该地区近地臭氧与其前体物的季节变化规律及相关性,探讨了臭氧浓度与OX和NO₂光解速率之间的关系。结果表明,观测期间,上海地区O₃总超标天数为13天,超标率为3.56%。O₃浓度变化呈现明显的秋冬低、春夏高的季节变化。O₃浓度日变化规律呈典型单峰变化,O₃各前体物呈双峰形分布,冬季O₃与NO_X的相关性最强。对OX的贡献中,秋冬以NO₂为主,春夏以O₃为主;夜间以NO₂为主,白天以O₃为主。臭氧浓度与OX和NO₂光解速率变化规律基本一致。     

城市环境噪声评价方法新探

通过对目前城市噪声评价存在的不足之处提出了城市评价需分两步进行，首先采用ＰＮ法进行区域评价，然后用全城区的平均等效声级ＰＳＲＮ法对全城环境噪声进行评价，既体现了区域噪声与城市总体噪声关系，同时考虑了较大起伏的噪声的“贡献”。关键应注意合理布设测试点。     

丽水市大气环境中的城市干、湿岛效应初探

利用丽水城区中心及其近郊2个站点的逐时水汽压资料,定义了干(湿)岛强度指数及干(湿)岛强度等级,并发现了丽水小城区干(湿)岛变化强度、频次及时空分布规律,研究发现城区中心的干岛现象与热岛现象之间存在着正相关.湿岛的形成与露、雾、结冰、霜、雨等天气现象有关.     

Chemical fractionation of heavy metals in urban soils of Guangzhou, China

Knowledge of the total concentration of heavy metals is not enough to fully assess the environmental impact of urban soils. For this reason, the determination of metal speciation is important to evaluate their environment and the mobilization capacity. Sequential extraction technique proposed by the former European Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) was used to speciate Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in urban soils from Guangzhou into four operationally defined fractions: HOAc extractable, reducible, oxidizable, and residual. The Cu, Fe, Ni, and Zn were predominately located in the residual fraction, Pb in the reducible fraction, and Cd and Mn within the HOAc extractable fraction. The order of Cd in each fraction was generally HOAc extractable > reducible > residual > oxidizable; Cu and Fe were residual > reducible > oxidizable > HOAc extractable; Mn was HOAc extractable > residual > reducible > oxidizable; Ni and Zn were residual > reducible > HOAc extractable > oxidizable; and Pb was reducible > residual > oxidizable > HOAc extractable. Cadmium was identified as being the most mobile of the elements, followed by Mn, Zn, Ni, Cu, Pb and Fe. Iron–Mn oxides can play an important role in binding Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn and in decreasing their proportion associated with the residual fraction in the soils. With total concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Mn increase, these metals more easily release and may produce more negative effects on the urban environment.     

北京城区河湖水系治理中的问题与建议

简要地回顾北京市近20年河湖水系治理历程中所取得的成就，分析存在的一些主要问题，根据对城区雨水径流非点源污染总量的粗略估算，指出城市雨水径流非点源污染是导致整治后的河湖水系水质恶化最主要的污染因素；结合发达国家对河湖水系治理的一些经验对北京市河湖水系的治理提出几点建议，以期为彻底治理河湖水系的污染提供新的思路，也可供其他城市在治理城市水系污染时参考。     

澳大利亚城市灾害应急反应规划研究

初步分析和整理了澳大利亚灾害学者们对城市灾害应急反应规划编制的一般认识，然后纲要性地介绍了澳大利亚某城市灾害应急反应的总体规划及分项规划．籍以借鉴国外城市灾害管理的有益经验，提高我国灾害应急反应规划的编制水平．