COVID19 in Latin America: informal settlements and the politics of urbicide.

Informal settlements in Latin America express pandemic idiosyncrasies, calling global attention to historical problems related to a specific urbanization pattern. This article stresses COVID19 implications in the main urban planning canon: the notion of densification as an urban solution. Traditionally invisible social groups and territories acquire relevance, but now as a source of biological risk. Urban density appears as a contradictory trigger point, outlining new debates about informal settlements and their metrics. Evidence shows that trends in health discourse are striving to legitimize and enhance "urbicides" in this scenario, already underway through State action or inaction.

Impact of COVID-19 outbreak and vaccination on ride-sharing services: a social media analysis

The global COVID-19 pandemic produced several changes in nearly every aspect of our lives. Ride-sharing platforms such as Uber and Lyft must adapt their strategies and aims to stay afloat. The analysis in this study is based on 216,120 tweets in the U.S. between January 1, 2019, and December 30, 2021, about Uber. It includes four separate analyses: Popularity and Usage Analytics, Sentimental Analytics, Voice Analytics, and Topic Mining Analytics. The result shows that usage and popularity of Uber on Twitter negatively affect Covid and death cases. In contrast, vaccination helps mitigate the shock of Covid. Additionally, ' ‘Uber's policy and business model was beneficial in improving its positive image during the pandemic;On the early breakout of Covid in the U.S. Uber had a jump on the positive sentiment, mainly because Uber provided safer service than public transportation. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Transportation Letters is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Redefining Urban Functional-Spatial Response Strategies to Covid-19 Outbreak in Iran With Emphasis on the East Asian (China) Experience

Problem statement: The urban functional-spatial structure was developed in a historical process during which it faced numerous jeopardies. It has always played a fundamental role in reacting to crises, both as a damaged center and an emergency relief center. The structure defined for urban crisis management in Iran has been mainly formed based on the management of crises due to natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. The experience of Covid- 19 has shown that in the face of the epidemic crisis, it lacked pre-conceived plans and strategies that offer practical solutions with an emphasis on the functional-spatiality of cities. Research objective: The current study aims to find out how existing experiences can be used to improve cities' functional-spatial capability. Research method: By the use of the content analysis method and analytical review of the experiences of China and other East Asian countries, the current study attempts to adopt the functional-spatial management of these countries. It has been done based on a framework including the introduction of a context for emergence, requirements of creation, continuity, and assessment criteria to investigate their feasibility for conditions of Iran based on the existing managerial structure and the trend of disease spread. Conclusion: Based on the results, the establishment of an interventional system based on integrated urban management and governance is highly important to be able to help cities first concentrate their workforce and resources strongly and regularly before the epidemic reaches them. In uncontrollable epidemic conditions, it can provide services to homogeneous areas by forming a cluster structure. It can also divide the whole city into relatively independent areas to send medical and service personnel with emphasis on the local community. The most important functional-spatial strategies include spatial management based on the local community, temporal-spatial management, smart control management, and urban resilience and governance.

Mashhad urban management practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study to identify challenges, current and future measures

This study aims to make a qualitative assessment of the urban management practices in Mashhad, the second largest metropolis of Iran, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and identify challenges, current measures, and future actions. A grounded theory approach has been used. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews, and MAXQDA-12 software was used for the analysis. The results showed that Mashhad urban management practices have faced 11 main obstacles during this pandemic. Current measures and future actions are presented by taking into account the identified obstacles and challenges. The findings can help urban managers to make decisions based on strong evidence. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Urban Research & Practice is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

To what extent the traffic restriction policies can improve its air quality? An inspiration from COVID-19.

In hazy days, several local authorities always implemented the strict traffic-restriction measures to improve the air quality. However, owing to lack of data, the quantitative relationships between them are still not clear. Coincidentally, traffic restriction measures during the COVID-19 pandemic provided an experimental setup for revealing such relationships. Hence, the changes in air quality in response to traffic restrictions during COVID-19 in Spain and United States was explored in this study. In contrast to pre-lockdown, the private traffic volume as well as public traffic during the lockdown period decreased within a range of 60-90%. The NO2 concentration decreased by approximately 50%, while O3 concentration increased by approximately 40%. Additionally, changes in air quality in response to traffic reduction were explored to reveal the contribution of transportation to air pollution. As the traffic volume decreased linearly, NO2 concentration decreased exponentially, whereas O3 concentration increased exponentially. Air pollutants did not change evidently until the traffic volume was reduced by less than 40%. The recovery process of the traffic volume and air pollutants during the post-lockdown period was also explored. The traffic volume was confirmed to return to background levels within four months, but air pollutants were found to recover randomly. This study highlights the exponential impact of traffic volume on air quality changes, which is of great significance to air pollution control in terms of traffic restriction policy. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00477-022-02351-7.

ISSUES AND WAY FORWARD FOR THE SMART SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES STANDARDS: THE MALAYSIAN CASE IN THE POST-COVID-19 ERA

Governing a city's development with the use of standards started relatively recently, in the mid-2010s. However, the issues of such city standards in systematically governing future smart cities remains largely unknown under the digital infrastructural stress of the post-COVID-19 era. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the issues and directions in developing the Malaysian smart sustainable cities and communities standards that suit the post-COVID-19 era. This study applied the multiple case study method to compare the international literatures and the local smart city webinars. The results showed that smart city standards were welcomed by policymakers and practitioners, although issues such as learning, connectivity, and citizenship rationale need to be addressed. More focus should be put on how humans relearn and responsibly participate in the post-COVID-19 cyber-physical ecosystem in order to create a healthy and sustainable digital-based society. This paper has contributed as one of the first researches examining the role of smart city standards in Malaysia. © 2022 by MIP.

The road to recovery: Sensing public opinion towards reopening measures with social media data in post-lockdown cities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in cities implementing lockdown measures, causing unprecedented disruption (e.g. school/shop/office closures) to urban life often extending over months. With the spread of COVID-19 now being relatively contained, many cities have started to ease their lockdown restrictions by phases. Following the phased recovery strategy proposed by the UK government following the first national lockdown, this paper utilises Greater London as its case study, selecting three main reopening measures (i.e., schools, shops and hospitality reopening). This paper applies sentiment analysis and topic modelling to explore public opinions expressed via Twitter. Our findings reveal that public attention towards the reopening measures reached a peak before the date of policy implementation. The attitudes expressed in discussing reopening measures changed from negative to positive. Regarding the discussed topics related to reopening measures, we find that citizens are more sensitive to early-stage reopening than later ones. This study provides a time-sensitive approach for local authorities and city managers to rapidly sense public opinion using real-time social media data. Governments and policymakers can make use of the framework of sensing public opinion presented herein and utilise it in leading their post-lockdown cities into an adaptive, inclusive and smart recovery.

Urban Change in Cities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of the Nexus of Factors from Around the World

This research is concerned with understanding the context of influences the COVID-19 pandemic had/has on urban change in cities. It focuses on understanding the nexus of relations through which the pandemic impacted the urban space, urban place and public realm;specifically, the economic, environmental, social, human behavior, administrative and health factors. Using a mixed-methods approach and examples from around the world, an analysis was conducted to highlight the most important factors influencing urban change as a result of the pandemic. The research concluded that there are a multitude of direct and indirect connections between the factors that resulted in long-term and short-term impact on urban change and public realm. An understanding of this nexus of factors constitutes an important and essential step in creating more comprehensive and responsive urban planning/design policies. Thus, mitigating any undesirable urban change and better governing the public realm during similar situations and pandemics in the future. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Nurturing urban innovation and knowledge in the ongoing COVID-19 world

Amidst the catastrophe of COVID-19, segments of the population globally experienced changes in their perspectives on life and the desire to live a more fulfilling life. The study here examines this emergent trend with secondary data available as published survey reports and personal observations using the inductive-reflective method of understanding and theorizing. The findings support the identification of five facets of this new mindset, namely, rise in altruism, growing community-mindedness, increasing focus on health and financial security, searching for work-life balance, and increasing experiences with nature. To channel this emergent mindset, this study proposes five categories of urban innovations: (1) revival of neighborhoods;(2) expansion of parks and nature;(3) investment in urban transportation and greenspaces, (4) incentivizing entrepreneurs for ecology and local “maker economy,” and (5) staging community projects for collective good. The study describes the benefits of these innovations to general population and set an agenda for urban planners, city managers, and social agencies as citizens begin their ongoing COVID lives. The study closes by advancing ten research proposals for future social science contributions in innovation and knowledge

A smart urbanism management platform: Case of amenagement regulations

We all aspire to urbanism that recognizes the social, economic, political, cultural, and physical-spatial dimensions of cities: urbanism, which, based on working tools (SDAU, planning regulations, etc.), based on a quality model, will allow good practice and good translation of these systems on the territory (neighborhood, city, rural environment, etc.). Due to that, the authors propose and develop an automated urban planning amenagement platform for the generation of updates proposed by urban planning experts in order to improve the quality of amenagement regulations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Management of and Revitalization Strategy for Megacities Under Major Public Health Emergencies: A Case Study of Wuhan.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019 has meant an uphill battle for city management. However, due to deficiencies in facilities and management experience, many megacities are less resilient when faced with such major public health events. Therefore, we chose Wuhan for a case study to examine five essential modules of urban management relevant to addressing the pandemic: (1) the medical and health system, (2) lifeline engineering and infrastructure, (3) community and urban management, (4) urban ecology and (5) economic development. The experience and deficiencies of each module in fighting the pandemic are analyzed, and strategies for revitalization and sustainable development in the future are proposed. The results show that in response to large-scale public health events, a comprehensive and coordinated medical system and good urban ecology can prevent the rapid spread of the epidemic. Additionally, good infrastructure and community management can maintain the operation of the city under the pandemic, and appropriate support policies are conducive to the recovery and development of the urban economy. These precedents provide insights and can serve as a reference for how to change the course of the pandemic in megacities that are still at risk, and they provide experience for responding to other pandemics.

Mashhad urban management practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study to identify challenges, current and future measures

This study aims to make a qualitative assessment of the urban management practices in Mashhad, the second largest metropolis of Iran, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and identify challenges, current measures, and future actions. A grounded theory approach has been used. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews, and MAXQDA-12 software was used for the analysis. The results showed that Mashhad urban management practices have faced 11 main obstacles during this pandemic. Current measures and future actions are presented by taking into account the identified obstacles and challenges. The findings can help urban managers to make decisions based on strong evidence.