2025-12-10 2025, Volume 3 Issue 4

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  • research-article
    Chunliang Chen
    2025, 3 (4): 205-207 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025010

  • research-article
    Kyle D. Buck, Justin J. Bousquin
    2025, 3 (4): 208-224 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025011

    Growing hazard exposures and deepening social disparities highlight the need for resilience frameworks that capture not only risk and vulnerability but also the processes through which communities adapt. Most existing indices rely on static indicators that describe socioeconomic or infrastructural conditions without representing the spatial and networked interactions that sustain adaptation and recovery. This paper operationalizes resilience as a process of dynamic interaction among people, infrastructure, and environment by advancing the Community Hazardscape and Amenity Placement in Provisioning of Improved Endpoints (CHAPPIE) framework. Using a production-constrained gravity model, CHAPPIE estimates potential benefit flows between households and resources within network constraints, thereby quantifying accessibility, connectivity, and equity as determinants of adaptive capacity. The paper aligns conceptual resilience capacities- education and information, basic provisioning, health and safety, and community cohesion-with measurable indicators and network metrics. By embedding spatial interaction theory within the resilience assessment, the framework provides a path toward quantifying resilience as a socio- ecological process rather than a static condition, illustrating how accessibility and structure shape adaptation potential.

  • research-article
    Clotaire Jose Pako Perabi, Raphael Onguene, Kevin MBA Djuka Zebaze, Abdoul Aboubakar, Gregoire Ondoa Abessolo, Pierre Ele
    2025, 3 (4): 225-249 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025012

    Located in southern Cameroon, at the bottom of the Gulf of Guinea, the Kribi coast has contributed over the years to the country’s economic development (seaside tourism, mining and oil exploitation, etc.). In recent decades, the coastline has been subject to a number of stresses, such as coastal erosion. However, virtually no work has been done in this area to assess the degree of vulnerability of this coastline to erosion. The objective of this article was to assess the physical and socio-economic vulnerability of a 31.5-km stretch of the Kribi coastline using geographic information systems (GIS). The results obtained have made it possible to map the vulnerable areas on this coast. More than two-thirds (68.3%) of the Kribi coastline are highly physically vulnerable to erosion risks, consisting mainly of sandy accumulations and creeks, while nearly one-third (31.7%) of the coastline has low to moderately vulnerability, consisting of rocky promontories and rocky shores. On the other hand, more than half (58.7%) of the coastline is highly vulnerable to erosion from a socio-economic perspective, consisting mainly of densely populated urban areas with well-developed road networks and a rich heritage. More than a third (41.3%) of the coastline has low to moderate socio-economic vulnerability, consisting of areas that are difficult to access and almost unexploited. The results of this study can be used as a decision-making tool to anticipate critical areas and guide development policies for sustainable coastal management, given that an industrial and port complex is gradually being built around the deep-water port of Kribi. It also contributes to enriching the assessment techniques used to date.

  • research-article
    Weidi Zhang, Xinyue Cai
    2025, 3 (4): 250-270 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025013

    The maintenance and renewal of residential communities are central to urban sustainability. As a key financial mechanism, the Housing Maintenance Fund directly affects the community governance efficiency and the residents’ living quality. The study finds that, in practice, a large proportion of homeowners exhibit systematic misunderstandings regarding the payment schedule, purpose, and management of the Housing Maintenance Fund, thus indicating a widespread knowledge gap. These gaps stem not from individual deficiencies but from a structural mismatch between policy communication and the residents’ cognitive frameworks. Drawing on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, this research employs a quantitative analysis to examine how interactions between cognitive ability and the information environment shape these disparities. Based on international experience, the study proposes governance strategies such as multi-channel information systems and real-time transparency platforms. By introducing a social cognitive perspective, the study uncovers the underlying mechanisms of fund governance and provides theoretical and practical insights to enhance the accessibility, transparency, and citizen participation in housing policy.

  • research-article
    Yue Sun, Ryan Weightman, Anye Shi, Timur Dogan, Samitha Samaranayake
    2025, 3 (4): 271-292 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025014

    Urbanization is rapidly increasing, with urban populations expected to grow significantly by 2050, particularly in developing regions. This expansion brings challenges related to chronic stresses and acute shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has underscored the critical role of urban form in a city’s capacity to manage public health crises. Researchers are examining how built form, density, and neighborhood structure shape pandemic outcomes. This work adds to the literature and, rather than offering another empirical case study or city-specific design checklist, it bridges the general resilience/morphometrics frameworks with pandemic-specific discussions. We seek to transfer the knowledge of prevalent resilience theories into the context of a pandemic to better understand the relationship between pandemic resilience and urban morphology. In this work, we emphasized the connection between theoretical ideas with quantitative frameworks, offering a cohesive analysis that traces how concepts such system assets, attributes, and performances can be operationalized through morphometric indicators. We synthesize general urban resilience frameworks and morphometric approaches to explicitly map how their concepts and indicators can be adapted to the assessment of pandemic resilience while engaging with the emerging literature on pandemic urbanism and extended urbanization. Our goal is not only to enhance the understanding of urban resilience but also to offer a multi-scalar conceptual map for future empirical work.

  • research-article
    George Malaperdas
    2025, 3 (4): 293-305 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025015

    Terrestrial ecosystems represent some of the most extensive and human-influenced systems on Earth, playing a fundamental role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating ecological processes, and providing vital services to human societies. Assessing biodiversity and ecosystem services in terrestrial habitats is essential for understanding ecological dynamics, supporting conservation, and informing sustainable land-use policies. In this paper, we explored the theoretical underpinnings of biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships, reviewed methodological approaches for mapping and assessment, and presented selected case studies from Europe, South America, and Asia. The case studies highlighted the use of integrated frameworks such as the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), expert-based ecosystem service supply matrices, and spatial modeling techniques. By examining how biodiversity loss and land-use changes affect service delivery, we demonstrated the importance of linking ecological knowledge with socioeconomic needs. We argue that advancing interdisciplinary, spatially explicit approaches to ecosystem assessment is critical for addressing global challenges such as climate change, habitat degradation, and sustainable development.

  • research-article
    Anshul Jain, Hridayesh Varma
    2025, 3 (4): 306-327 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025016

    This paper illustrates how eco-friendly structures combined with resource-efficient approaches elevate interior air quality (IAQ), the broader interior environmental quality (IEQ), and overall human vitality. The increasing focus on eco-responsible lifestyles has spurred the development of environmentally sound construction practices, which are recognized to conserve power and lower expenses over time. An organized evaluation of 128 refereed articles was undertaken, encompassing investigations into structural planning, component choices, air surveillance innovations, and wellness consequences. Affordable detection units like the Dylos, Foobot, and AirVisual Pro models, alongside linkage protocols including WiFi, LoRa, Bluetooth, and visible light communication (VLC), were evaluated for their operational effectiveness, shortcomings, and applicability in ongoing IAQ supervision. Primary hurdles involve gradual sensor inaccuracies, routine servicing needs, reactions to the surrounding variables, and location-specific compliance restrictions. Sophisticated adjustment frameworks and merging techniques are delved into for improving the precision of information and the equipment’s sustainability. The analysis underscores the necessity for an integrated, vitality-centered methodology in eco-construction.

  • research-article
    Anshul Jain, Hridayesh Varma
    2025, 3 (4): 328-344 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025017

    The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in architecture heralds a transformative era characterized by enhanced operational efficiency and financial savings, yet it also presents significant challenges that could undermine core architectural principles. This paper critically assessed AI’s impact on the architectural profession, focusing on the potential decline of human cognition, individuality in design, and the simplification of professional roles. It ultimately advocates for a balanced application of AI as a tool to enhance, rather than replace, human creativity and decision-making, ensuring that the richness of cultural and intellectual heritage in architecture is preserved. AI can serve as a powerful tool in the development of smart cities to enhance the architectural design of green buildings.

  • research-article
    Abir Messaoudi, Boudjemaa Khalfallah
    2025, 3 (4): 345-370 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025018

    Informal urbanisation has developed in the peripheries of Tunis under specific socio- economic and institutional conditions. Public urban schemes have, at times, inadvertently contributed to the emergence of informal settlements, which were subsequently incorporated into urban plans during later revisions. The unregulated land market, initially a refuge for low-income households, has gradually expanded to include other social groups, attracted by the flexibility of transactions and the relative institutional tolerance. These dynamics reflect the shortcomings of land policies and the determination of residents to secure property ownership, even if it means circumventing formal legal frameworks. However, this situation raises several questions: Is it the result of limited awareness regarding regularisation procedures and costs or of public policies that long turned a blind eye to informal practices, which have since become structural? Despite the formal rigour of housing policies, their numerous shortcomings have enabled the expansion of illegal housing in the Tunisian peripheries. Long perceived as an urban aberration, this phenomenon reveals the capacity of residents to adapt, navigate institutional obstacles, and devise strategies for inhabiting the city. Confronted with ambiguous legal frameworks and governmental inertia, they have developed forms of urban resilience founded on ingenuity, solidarity, and territorial appropriation. This “urbanity of adaptation” is based on self-building, collective organisation, and mobilisation to improve their living environment. To investigate these dynamics, we adopted a systemic and multi-scalar approach connecting metropolitan trends, neighbourhood organisation, and everyday practices. We also mobilised narrative mapping, a qualitative method that links discourse, memory, and spatial representation. Forty open-ended interviews were conducted across four contrasting neighbourhoods, Douar Hicher, Ettadhamen, Soukra, and Goulette, alongside resident-produced maps identifying frequented, avoided, and problematic spaces. This combination of verbal and graphic data offers insight into spatial perceptions, local participation, and symbolic vulnerabilities. Several questions therefore arise: To what extent have residents succeeded in confronting the administrative and social constraints that marginalise them? Have public authorities, whether consciously or unconsciously, contributed to perpetuating this state of ambiguity? And, above all, how might the paradigm of the right to the city today support these dynamics and transform informal housing into a lever for urban regeneration?

  • research-article
    Philip Mensah, Eric Yankson
    2025, 3 (4): 371-406 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025019

    Urban growth in African cities has been rapid and uneven, often intensifying vulnerability to natural and human-induced hazards. This study examines the spatial patterns of urban growth and their implications for hazard vulnerability in two rapidly expanding African capitals: Windhoek, Namibia, and Accra, Ghana. Over the past three decades, both cities have experienced significant transformation, though the scale, form, and spatial distribution of growth differ markedly. The study assesses how urban expansion from 1993 to 2023 has influenced exposure to floods, droughts, fires, and related socio-environmental hazards. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates satellite-based spatial analysis with quantitative assessment and qualitative policy evaluation. Land use dynamics were mapped and complemented by 390 household surveys to capture socio-economic perspectives, while 10 stakeholder interviews and policy analysis examined existing urban resilience frameworks in Namibia and Ghana. Results show that Windhoek exhibits low-density sprawl over underdeveloped land, heightening drought-related vulnerability, whereas Accra displays compact infill growth with increased exposure to floods and fires. Informal settlements remain a key source of vulnerability in both cities. The findings indicate that existing policies emphasize physical risks but insufficiently address underlying socio-economic drivers of exposure. In response, the study proposes a resilience-oriented framework that integrates spatial planning, socio-economic inclusion, and adaptive governance to support sustainable and equitable urban development and transform growth-related vulnerabilities into resilience opportunities across African cities.

  • research-article
    Wentao Yan
    2025, 3 (4): 407-413 . https://doi.org/10.3934/urs.2025020

    Amid rapid and profound global environmental change, urban disturbances exhibit complex characteristics of multi-source interweaving, cascading propagation, and cross-scale diffusion. A single-dimensional cognition and response paradigm of urban resilience can no longer understand and address the practice-based problems in current urban resilience construction [1]. Cities function as deeply coupled complex systems, integrating technological, social, and natural subsystems. Accordingly, urban resilience does not rest solely on the robustness of technological infrastructures. Rather, it is equally contingent upon the disturbance-absorbing capacity of socio-ecological systems and the collaborative mechanisms of diverse actors [2]. Furthermore, revisiting the key challenges and systematically articulating problem-oriented core agendas for advancing urban resilience, through a practice-based and multidimensional lens, is pivotal to addressing persistent deficiencies in urban risk governance and to advancing sustainable urban development.

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ISSN 2837-4126 (Online)