Brazil is a Federal South American Republic, in which there are 27 federated states divided into 5 regions and Brasília, the federal capital. In 30 years, the country has almost doubled its population. From 93 millions people in 1970 to 182 millions people in 2004. Nowadays, more than 80% of Brazilian population lives in the urban centers, from which 30% are concentrated on the Metropolitan Reg...

The use of decentralised, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) for the treatment of stormwater runoff is becoming increasingly prevalent in Germany. Decentralised SUDS can offer a viable and attractive alternative to end of pipe treatment systems for stormwater runoff from urban areas. However, there is still some uncertainty regarding the long-term performance of SUDS, and the general leg...

Air pollution is the major concern and challenge of Tehran urban areas’ management. Various rules, regulation, and laws had been codifiesd on this matter. In present research, the enforcement of laws and regulation concerning air pollution in the field of land-use and transportation is being addressed. The purpose of this article is to suggest an applicable (applied) framework embracing a descr...

This paper takes stock with the results of utility privatization in Bolivia. This paper deals with the process of structural reforms in this country and the specific results that have to date been accomplished in the electricity industry. It is mostly interested in exploring whether the reformation of this industry contributed to lessen poverty levels and whether in light of the obtained result...

Understanding and studying urban evolutions is important regarding their potential consequences. In order to apprehend such phenomena, agent based urban simulations can be used. In this context, the increasing availability of 3D urban data can be put to use for simulations so as to gain a finer understanding of urban evolutions. We propose a novel approach integrating 3D data and their analysis...

Quality evaluation of urban environment is an integral part of efficient urban environment planning and management. The development of fuzzy set theory (FST) and the introduction of FST to the urban study field attempts to incorporate the gradual variation and avoid loss of information. Urban environmental quality assessment pertain to interpretation and forecast of the urban environmental qual...

As one of urban eco-environmental contents, urban heat island is very significant. Nowadays, the temperature in urban is higher than the surrounding natural terrain, as the result of vegetation cover declining and impervious surface increasing, coupled with the influence of anthropogenic heat discharge. In recent years, it is possible to study the urban heat island and its formation mechanism, ...

We compared the activity and responsiveness of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis of an urban (Phoenix, Arizona) and desert population of a male songbird species (Curve-billed Thrasher, Toxostoma curvirostre), by measuring plasma corticosterone in response to acute administration of corticotropin-releasing factor, arginine vasotocin, or adrenocorticotropin hormone. Urban adult male th...

Bureaucratic regulation shapes cities in important ways. Yet certain aspects of how state regulation operates in urban neighborhoods have been understudied in geography and cognate disciplines. This article focuses on one understudied group of state actors: property use, health, and liquor inspectors, part of a wider group of “street-level bureaucrats” who, through their face-to-face contact wi...

Much has been written about the rise of the local food movement in urban and suburban areas. This essay tackles an emerging outgrowth of that movement: the growing desire of urban and suburban dwellers to engage rural areas where food is produced not only to obtain food but also as a means of tourism and cultural activity. This represents a potentially much-needed means of economic development ...