Welcome to the ECOCITY 2022 Interactive Programme

Abstract Body

Background: Growing evidence suggests that exposure to nature is associated with improved childhood health and development, but the impact of different types of natural environments remains relatively unexplored.

Objectives: This study investigated the association between lifetime residential exposure to urban natural environments and early childhood development and evaluated whether associations differed according to land cover type.

Methods: In a large population-based birth cohort (n=27,760) in Metro Vancouver, Canada, early childhood development was assessed via the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The EDI is a teacher-rated survey that measures children’s ability to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations in kindergarten (mean age = 5.6 years). We used a high-resolution land cover dataset to evaluate five different types of environments: coniferous trees, deciduous trees, grass-herbs, paved surfaces, and buildings. The former three classes were also combined to create an aggregated vegetation class. Lifetime residential exposure (from birth to time of EDI assessment) was calculated as the mean of annual percentage values of each land cover type, including aggregated vegetation, within a 250 m buffer of participants’ postal code centroid. Multilevel modeling was used to analyse associations between respective land cover classes and early childhood development.

Results: In adjusted models, higher levels of lifetime residential exposure to aggregated vegetation were associated with increased total EDI score, indicating benefits to early childhood development. Higher exposure to deciduous trees was positively associated with total EDI score, whereas no associations were found for exposure to other vegetation types. Higher exposure to buildings and paved surfaces was adversely associated with total EDI score.

Conclusions: Higher levels of lifetime residential exposure to natural environments may promote healthy childhood development, while built-up environments may have a negative impact. Results suggest that type of natural environment should be considered in future research on health-promoting aspects of nature and, if confirmed, our findings can help optimise urban design efforts to support childhood development, with potential health benefits across the life course.

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With the acceleration of urbanization, the air quality of many cities is worrying. The improvement of wind environment can effectively promote the diffusion of air pollutants and inhibit the formation of urban heat island effect. This study intends to study the coupling relationship between wind environment and block shape through parametric study of urban residential block form and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation method. The project selects 10 typical residential forms in Beijing, and classifies them into groups for the morphology parameterization. Combined with the local environment, the wind environment of different residential areas is evaluated. According to the simulation results, the wind environment of different altitudes of each group of models is statistically analyzed. The morphological characteristics of urban residential block forms are summarized, which are conducive to the reduction of air pollutants, and scientific planning suggestions and reference for the future urban residential blocks with a good ventilation environment are given.

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Urban spatial codes which are especially concerning BCR (Building Coverage Ratio), GAR (Green Area Ratio), BD (Building Density), RAR (Road Area Ratio), are need to be evaluated on their impact on the possibility of increasing Urban Heat Island (UHI).

The aim of this study is to provide architects and urban designers with a basic understanding of the principles of heat transfer in the urban context. The formulas presented in this paper are simple equations, but with adequate tolerance. So that it can be made in a spread sheet format independently by architects and architecture students. A one dimensional heat exchange calculation model is applied. The main focus is to calculate maximum value of horizontal surface temperature due to application of such spatial configuration, surface material, and mass-building layout. By a practical calculation approach it can be done a quickly simulations and obtain results with moderate precision. Most city regulations govern BCR, FAR and some even regulate Building Footprint. Space of green area is expressed by a coefficient of GAR (Green Area Ratio) and/ or GOS (Green Open Space). Through this study some calculation simulations were made by variations of green space with GAR from 30% to 100%. GAR 30% represents as a downtown zone, while GAR 100% is as forest area. Calculations are to find out average maximum value of land surface temperature (LST). The results show values that close to the results of the studies by other researchers who worked with commercial software or by field measurements (the difference is not exceed than 10%). Locations as case of study are cities of Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya, in Indonesia.

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Isobenefit Urbanism is a libertarian paternalist planning approach based on a morphogenetic code inducing a 15-minute walking city where one can reach within 1km: natural land, shops, amenities, services and places of work. It does it by being semi-liberally driven by market forces and genius loci. The urban development and growth follow spontaneous or desired functional morphological patterns and densities across the urban planimetry, with infinites outputs satisfying the Isobenefit Urbanism design objective function. The latter is to reach an evenly walkability across every urban area, where everyone from everywhere can walk toward natural land, and her daily activities. The generated urban forms and spatial ratio distribution between cemented and green lands would have the potential to reduce urban heat island effects, flooding, particulates, commuting time, physical and mental urban illness linked to pollution, noise, forms of stress, car use. It also opens interesting discussion and simulations of real estate values distribution deserving investigations. A few simulations from an alpha version of this cellular automata code will be briefly discussed from planning, environmental and economic issues.