Some simple tools for communicating the biophysical condition of urban rivers to support decision making in relation to river restoration

This paper illustrates a set of simple tools that may be used to assess and communicate the biophysical condition of river and riparian habitat in urban catchments. The tools are based upon information collected using the Urban River Survey (URS), a habitat survey designed for application to 500?m stretches of urban river corridor, and comprise (i) a series of aggregate indices, (ii) three classifications relating to the materials, habitat and vegetation characteristics of urban river stretches, which contribute to an overall score, the Stretch Habitat Quality Index (SHQI), and (iii) two environmental gradients which define a URS matrix of engineering:habitat associations. This toolkit may be used to gather and exchange knowledge about urban river habitat quality to a wide range of specialist or non-technical stakeholders and local community members. It may be used to provide information at the catchment and reach scales to support stakeholder discussions and decision making relating to initial site selection for restoration works; to post project appraisal; and to track changes in river character across space and through time. Example applications of the tools are provided using URS surveys undertaken on tributaries of the River Thames within London in comparison with an archive of previous surveys from three other urban river systems. These tools are being validated in London as part of a larger interdisciplinary research project that is testing the suitability of this type of approach in the context of the London Rivers Action Plan, Water Framework Directive, and urban green space regeneration.     

Three Paradigms behind River Governance in Japan: Modern Technicism, Nature Conservationism and Life Environmentalism

Abstract:  In this paper I examine river governance or river policy in Japan through the process of modernization over one century and analyze three hidden paradigms, "modern technicism", "nature conservationism" and "life environmentalism", with the theory of environmental value. Japanese rivers were governed traditionally by local people (life environmentalism) but the river management was put under the control of administration and the specialist (modern technicism) in the tide of modernization, and in order to confront this situation a new paradigm of "nature conservationism" was born. In the analysis of the stages of river policy development, the development of economic and political power will be traced according to an environmental sociology point of view. This means analyzing people's initiatives resulting from their recognition and value in the political and economical arena. Structuring of river governance through the interactive process of "government and self-government" is also analyzed by putting an emphasis on local residents as a political body and second, I will describe the theoretical direction of environmental sociology. Lake Biwa and The Yodo River Basin system, which have historical importance in Japanese river policy, will be taken as an example. From the position of environmental sociology, river governance as an interactive process of "government and self-governance" based on independence of people, is one practical model that can give us important keys for the new river governance, transcending difference of social conditions. Consider learning the spirit of traditional communal structure as a process of practice for building a new communalism, life environmentalism model, which fits today's society.     

振动监测技术在城市排水泵站中的应用

介绍振动监测技术在城市排水泵站中的应用情况,以及它对保障动力设备的安全可靠运行所起到的重要作用。     

Urban river wall habitat and vegetation: observations from the River Thames through central London

Along heavily engineered urban rivers, river walls and embankments represent the most common habitat available to riparian vegetation. This paper presents the first study into river wall vegetation and the influence of wall surface materials on plant diversity. We were concerned with investigating the plant diversity of such wall habitats, assessing relationships between different wall surface materials and plant diversity, and determining whether river wall and embankment habitats along the River Thames through central London could support native riparian species alongside more typical urban wall flora. Fifteen sites along the River Thames through central London were surveyed to describe wall flora and establish relationships between plant diversity and wall materials. Walls were not species rich, but contained a mix of terrestrial and riparian species. Stone walls with surface fractures and heterogeneous wall surfaces were conducive to plant diversity at the local scale, while wall surface heterogeneity was also important at the landscape scale. Some stratification of vegetation was observed based on wall position relative to flow disturbance. The potential exists for walls to act as sites for habitat improvement and reconciliation ecology within urban rivers.     

Beyond the urban stream syndrome: organic matter budget for diagnostics and restoration of an impaired urban river

In response to water quality standard violations linked to excessive organic matter (OM) and a lack of sampling data informing the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), an organic matter budget was created to quantify and identify sources of OM in the lower Jordan River (Salt Lake City, UT). By sampling dissolved, fine, and coarse particulate OM, as well as measuring ecosystem metabolism at seven different sites, the researchers aimed to identify the origin of excess OM, and understand pathways by which different size classes of the OM pool are generated. The dissolved fraction (DOM; 94 %) was found to be the dominant form of OM transported within the river with fine particulate organic matter (FPOM; 6 %) the second most abundant, and coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM; 1 %) transport relatively insignificant in the overall OM budget. Primary production exceeded respiratory losses in the upper river, and this, along with OM inputs from two tributaries (where water reclamation facilities discharge into the river) delivered excess OM to the impaired lower reaches. Increasing stream metabolism index (SMI) with distance downstream (>1 in the lower river) further demonstrated that transport of excessive organic matter into the lower river was from upstream sources and not due to lateral inputs. This simple approach to characterizing the organic matter budget as it relates to water quality in the Jordan River was effective and could serve as a model for future studies attempting to quantify and identify sources of OM in urban ecosystems.     

Beyond the urban stream syndrome: organic matter budget for diagnostics and restoration of an impaired urban river

In response to water quality standard violations linked to excessive organic matter (OM) and a lack of sampling data informing the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), an organic matter budget was created to quantify and identify sources of OM in the lower Jordan River (Salt Lake City, UT). By sampling dissolved, fine and coarse particulate OM, as well as measuring ecosystem metabolism at seven different sites, the researchers aimed to identify the origin of excess OM, and understand pathways by which different size classes of the OM pool are generated. The dissolved fraction (DOM; 94 %) was found to be the dominant form of OM transported within the river with fine particulate organic matter (FPOM; 6 %) the second most abundant, and coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM; 1 %) transport relatively insignificant in the overall OM budget. Primary production exceeded respiratory losses in the upper river, and this, along with OM inputs from two tributaries (where water reclamation facilities discharge into the river) delivered excess OM to the impaired lower reaches. Increasing stream metabolism index (SMI) with distance downstream (>1 in the lower river) further demonstrated that transport of excessive organic matter into the lower river was from upstream sources and not due to lateral inputs. This simple approach to characterizing the organic matter budget as it relates to water quality in the Jordan River was effective and could serve as a model for future studies attempting to quantify and identify sources of OM in urban ecosystems.     

The Integration of Tradition and Modernity: A Search for an Urban and Architectural Identity in Arriyadh, The Capital of Saudi Arabia

About 40 years ago, traditional villages, towns and cities of the Arabian Peninsula started to lose their regional characteristics and embody modern forms and shapes. Since then, these characteristics have been subject to dilution due to social and cultural changes as well as institutionalized changes imposed by planning and architectural practices. This process creates debates and clashes between tradition and modernity. Projects carried out since 1975 are the least representative of the regional characteristics but do attempt to have urban and architectural identity. This paper argues that all the actors in “design formulation” (clients, architects, urban designers and planners) are trying to use historic elements in the creation of architectural identities. In fact they are making efforts to create urban and architectural identity to substitute regional characters. These attitudes flourished as a result of dynamic cultural, economic, political and ritualistic influences. This paper highlights the importance of urban and architectural identity in architectural and urban projects in Arriyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia because such projects create precedents for other Saudi villages, towns and cities. The study identifies the forces behind the initiation, transformation and evolution of the urban and architectural identity and attempts to supplement scholarship in the fields of architecture, urban design, and planning with regard to the role of identity as a tool for improving the spatial quality of the built environment. Architectural identity participates in setting up meaningful schemata which influences human behavior as a cultural process. The paper supports the concern for search for historic symbols which may influence the architectural identity and the quality of perceived environment during the design process of new or transformed physical environments. The paper views the traditional part of the city as an amalgamation of history and economic interests and its symbolic importance seems to be a perfect place for the emergence of different forms of engagement between tradition and modernity. The importance of the traditional part is unique while the importance of continuity of tradition is very likely complementary.     

The inspiration of Corporatism to Governance of China's Urban Community

At present, Many countries have attach great importance to the governance of society. Community, the most basic unit in the governance of urban society, is a vital content to promote the development of the national governance system and the modern management capacity. This paperanalyzes the main problems and causes of urban community governance, and tries to provide a new way of governance for China's urban community governance through the Corporatism.     

An investigation of the composition of the urban riparian soil propagule bank along the River Brent, Greater London, UK, in comparison with previous propagule bank studies in rural areas

Most propagule bank research has been conducted in rural areas and has emphasised agricultural soils, although research on rural riparian propagule banks has expanded rapidly over the last decade. This paper presents observations of the species abundance of plant propagules in urban riparian soils along the River Brent, Greater London, UK. The data are analysed to explore changes in species abundance of the propagule bank with depth (0?C5?cm compared with 5?C10?cm soil layer), with distance from the river (0?C1?m, 1?C2?m, 2?C3?m), and at different locations on the river network. No significant differences were found in propagule abundance with soil depth or distance from the river??s edge, but significantly more species were found in the propagule bank close to the river??s edge. The species composition of the Brent??s propagule bank is then compared with riparian propagule banks from the rural rivers Dove, Frome and Tern, UK. Species richness of the Brent propagule bank samples was generally lower than was found in the three rural rivers and, in total, 21%, 4%, 5% and 4% of observed species were aliens in the Brent, Dove, Frome and Tern soil samples, respectively. When the species present in the Brent??s propagule bank were compared with published data on urban garden soils in another UK city, the latter were found to support a higher number of alien species, suggesting that other propagule sources to urban river systems support lower numbers of alien species in riparian zones than domestic gardens.     

珠江三角洲城市群的历史演进与整合前景

随着经济的全球化,城市世纪已经到来,城市群成为未来国际竞争的主体。珠三角城市群发展很快,一体化已成大势所趋,但在发展过程中依然存在许多制约因素。将珠三角打造成世界级城市群,必须先了解其发展历史及掣肘因素,从观念意识、功能规划、产业协作、利益协调等多方面进行整合,才能实现可持续长远发展。     

珠三角城市群轨道交通与产业一体化

珠三角城市群产业一体化将成为必然的发展路径。与此同时,轨道交通的建设将迅速缩短沿线城市之间的时间距离,从而重构城镇产业的竞合格局。本文在分析珠三角产业现状和存在问题的基础上,加强了轨道交通对未来城镇格局的影响,试图从空间格局的角度理解区域产业一体化,对未来珠三角产业一体化发展提出建议。     

Socio-historical paths of the male breadwinner model - an explanation of cross-national differences

It is often assumed that in the historical transformation to modern industrial society, the integration of women into the economy occurred everywhere as a three‐phase process: in pre‐modern societies, the extensive integration of women into societal production; then, their wide exclusion with the shift to industrial society; and finally, their re‐integration into paid work during the further course of modernization. Results from the author's own international comparative study of the historical development of the family and the economic integration of women have shown that this was decidedly not the case even for western Europe. Hence the question arises: why is there such historical variation in the development and importance of the housewife model of the male breadwinner family? In the article, an explanation is presented. It is argued that the historical development of the urban bourgeoisie was especially significant for the historical destiny of this cultural model: the social and political strength of the urban bourgeoisie had central societal importance in the imposition of the housewife model of the male breadwinner family as the dominant family form in a given society. In this, it is necessary to distinguish between the imposition of the breadwinner marriage at the cultural level on the one hand, and at the level of social practice in the family on the other.     

Historic preservation: A comparative analyses

Historic preservation has, to date, received relatively little attention from sociologists, usually meriting only brief mention under topics of urban gentrification or community organization. But within the context of its history and its significance in modern society, preservation emerges as a multilevel response to industrialization and related processes of social change: what gets preserved and how it is symbolically interpreted depends upon the class structure of society and the related social mapping of time and place. The following comparative analysis of preservation in Great Britain and the United States demonstrates the importance of these factors.     

Macroinvertebrate richness on flood defence walls of the tidal River Thames

The River Thames through central London has seen significant environmental recovery, particularly in regard to water quality, but a substantial barrier to further ecological improvement is the spatial restriction of riparian areas. Flood defence walls represent a potential habitat for ecological improvements to benefit biodiversity. However before restoration actions are considered, an understanding of the current biodiversity and ecological status of these structures is necessary. Physical habitat and macroinvertebrate richness of flood defence walls at 15, evenly spaced sites along a 32?Km reach in central London were evaluated. We found no longitudinal patterns in total macroinvertebrate richness among our 15 sites, but did find that richness was influenced by wall type. Specifically, we found the highest richness on brick walls and lowest richness on concrete walls. Further, wall sections with algal cover supported significantly higher numbers of macroinvertebrates than sections lacking algal cover. However, reaches of the river where the channel was constricted had fewer macroinvertebrates likely due to scouring flows. These results show that macroinvertebrates of the river walls are influenced by habitat availability (i.e., wall type) and localised river flows. This work suggests that appropriate management of river wall habitats has the potential to enhance the biodiversity of highly modified, urban rivers.     

欧洲智慧城市

如今,一座城市的表现不仅取决于它的先天硬件(即有形资本),还更多地取决于知识流动的顺利与否、水平的高低以及社会的架构(人力资本与社会资本)。社会资本决定着城市的竞争力。在这一背景下,"智慧城市"的概念作为一种战略手段被提出,它将城市生产要素囊括于一个普遍的框架之中,更重要的是,它凸显出过去20年信息通讯技术对提升一座城市的竞争实力至关重要。本文旨在厘清"智慧城市"这个往往难以捉摸的概念。笔者针对这一构想提出一个浓缩且具可操作性的定义,并就欧盟27国中智慧城市的地理因素罗列出一系列证据。据笔者了解,本文的数据和图表分析首次深入运用最新版本的城市审计数据集,这些数据集设计的初衷就是为了分析影响智慧城市表现的决定性因素。我们发现:创意阶层的有无、城市环境的质量以及人们对城市环境的关注度、受教育水平、信息通讯技术(ICT)的通达性及其在公共管理领域中的应用,都与城市的财富正相关。这一结果促使欧洲城市形成新的战略,让它们实现城市可持续发展,创造更良好的城市景观。     

Urban heritage endangerment at the interface of future cities and past heritage: A spatial vulnerability assessment

Uncontrolled urban growth has been an increasing concern in many regions throughout the world. Generated by a natural tendency of population growth in relation to unsustainable land use, city sprawl has led to complex spatial developments that are creating both benefits to, and challenges for decision makers. A major problem inherent in the uncontrolled growth of cities is the threat to the fragile cultural and ecological heritage, which may escalate to permanent and irreversible damage as a result of factors such as environmental depletion and landscape decay. Using modern geosciences and spatial information technologies as predictive tools to analyse and forecast urban growth, a regional spatial decision system may be useful in order to provide seemly and timely information on the risk of overburdening the carrying capacity regarding the historico-cultural heritage at local and regional levels.The present paper develops a predictive toolkit for urban heritage in relation to urban cultural endangerment. This common problem is shared through many regions of the world and is increasingly jeopardizing fragile archaeological landscape due to urban pressure. In this sense, and to forecast an example of this common pressure, the Algarve is exemplified as a laboratory for testing this novel methodology, relying on a combined analysis of urban growth potential and threats to the abundant presence of archaeological heritage in the area. Our appro ach supports the paradigm of city growth in the context of a common agenda emerging from the Valetta Treaty, in which preserving the archaeological heritage is recognized as a key element for sustainable development. The study provides novel empirical results from the above mentioned modelling approach, with important lessons for the developing world. This paper proposes as such, an integrative spatial analysis methodology on the issue of historico-cultural endangerment, which is a new approach to comparative spatial analysis for decision making on urban heritage endangerment at the regional scale. Later, the discussion extends to a more conceptual level of urban planning by considering the questions: Is urban sprawl influencing the way we perceive cities? If so, are there positive advantages in the paradigm of urban growth and urban sprawl which might help us to protect past heritage while ensuring sustainable and modern cities?     

Learning from tradition: the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world

This paper analyses the community values of residential neighborhoods in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia as an approach to a new theory in urbanism. The indigenous masterbuilders and tribemen incorporated planning decisions pertinent to climatic, cultural, social, economic and religious factors when designing physical elements in their built environment. This is what makes every traditional settlement in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia unique in terms of urban form and social structure. As a step to examining and evaluating the process of residential neighborhood development, three stages of practiced urbanism are discussed. These stages are labelled “vernacular”, “transitional” and “new vernacularism”. These are planning concepts used worldwide in the development of residential neighborhoods throughout history until the present. “New Vernacularism” is envisioned in this investigation as a design/planning objective implemented in most recently planned neighborhoods in Al-Horaidhah, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The achievement of successful urbanism underlies the political goals of urban planning practice. The Al-Horaidhah planning concept is conceived in the light of preservation of community values in neighborhood design/planning as a critical issue.The paper aims to investigate and reconcile the conflicts in the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world. The conflicts are restricted between retaining traditions of architecture, urban design and planning with the necessary social, economic, and technological changes in urban formation, mainly, the vernacular and modern. The paper illustrates the concept “New Vernacularism” by presenting Al-Horaidhah scheme as a model for community development in three administrative regions along the Red Sea coastline. “New Vernacularism” as a planning concept looks at the community development in Al-Horaidhah in the light of Sharicah, the Islamic Law and Customary norms by emphasizing the importance of the involvement of local residents in the planning process and gives suggestions of how this might best be achieved and later implemented into new communities.     

“资治”和“通鉴”：城市史研究中的悖论

在城市史研究中,＂资治＂和＂通鉴＂本该是一对并重的关系,但是很多时候两者反而形成了悖论。在具体的城市史研究中,重视其＂资治＂作用,忽略其＂通鉴＂作用的情况时有发生。本文将对城市史的研究进行综合考察,并以失败和成功两方面的案例来说明,在城市史研究中,＂资治＂和＂通鉴＂是可以得到有机结合并且达到最佳状态的。     

Many Faces of Security: Discursive Framing in Cross-border Natural Resource Governance in the Mekong River Commission

Abstract

In the past decade, security has emerged as a new discourse in water governance beyond transboundary conflicts and cooperation. This paper will examine how security is framed in the context of international river basin organizations (RBOs), key regional organizations in transboundary water governance operating in many international river basins around the world. As an example of cross-border governance, RBOs can promote joint cooperation and information sharing, and serve as a form to bring together diverse stakeholders. This paper focuses on the discursive construction of ‘security’ in a particular context of cross-border river basin governance in the Mekong River Basin. We ask: How is security framed in the discourse of RBOs? We examine how diverse actors frame security in the context of RBOs and at various scales and around certain management actions in a case study of the Mekong River Commission, a well-established RBO. Attention will be paid to the links between water security, food security, and energy security in the broader water and development discourse. We analyze what the findings mean for cross-border governance more broadly.     

Urbanization policy: Lessons from South America for South Africa?

South African cities are currently moving through a critical period in the history of their development. Rates of growth over the last few years have been unprecedented and many of the factors which shape urban development (legislation, institutional structures, government spending patterns and so on) are currently undergoing significant transformation. Factors such as these have given rise to a concern that South African cities may face collapse if emerging problems are not addressed, and there has been intensified interest in the arena of urban policy. A significant feature of many of these current policy initiatives is that they look to other parts of the world (and frequently to South American countries) for “lessons” in solving the problems of urban settlement. This paper examines the feasibility of adopting policy models from elsewhere io address local development problems, and focuses specifically on the question of a national urban settlement strategy for South Africa. The paper concludes that a high degree of local specificity exists, and the simplistic adoption of foreign policy models can have a negative impact on attempts here to meet growing urban needs.