Growing pool of public-generated bits like online social networking data provides possibility to sense social dynamics in the urban space. In this position paper, we use a location-based online social networking data to sense geo-social activity and analyze the underlying social activity distribution of three different cities: London, Paris, and New York. We find a non-linear distribution of so...

Urban renewal efforts are a priority for many American cities. As efforts to reconstitute urban centers increase, the demolition of old, deteriorated structures has accelerated. Recent studies have identified demolitions as a potential source of environmental lead exposure. We conducted a study examining the relationship between demolition activity and blood lead levels of children residing in ...

Background & objectives: The urban rail transport network is always at risk due to its special conditions. Many cases indicate the existence of threatening and risk factors for human societies in urban rail transportation systems. Therefore, in this study, with the aim of identifying and prioritizing the risks of urban rail transportation networks in order to increase resilience is on the agend...

Brent D. Ryan first visited Detroit in 1993. Describing this experience, he says: ‘‘The sense of emptiness was overpowering. ... I felt as if I was walking into the ruin of America.’’ In his book ‘‘Design after decline—how America rebuilds shrinking cities,’’ Ryan tries to understand why so many American cities have been losing population, what was and is done to change the fortune of these cit...

Self-adaptive systems need to be designed with respect to threats within their operating conditions. Identifying such threats during the design phase can benefit from the involvement of stakeholders. Using a system model, the stakeholders, who may neither be IT experts nor security experts, can identify threats as a first step towards formulating security requirements. To support it, the modeli...

Sensing systems for urban deployments are still in their infancy. An interesting unresolved issue is the precise role assumed by people within such systems. This issue has significant implications on where the complexity and main challenges in building urban sensing system reside. We discuss the two endpoints of the spectrum of conscious human involvement, namely participatory sensing and oppor...

The Sheffield Urban Contextual Databank (SUCoD) system was developed as a Web-based urban information system to host the urban data gathered by the Sheffield Urban Study programme. Our development of the SUCoD system provides user-centred dynamic retrieval and visualisation facilities for accessing multidimensional city datasets. The paper reports on a study of applying the SUCoD resources in a...

operating urban and rural councils in iran put some new hopes to improve the local situation and correct some authorized procedures in urban management affairs. the third period of local councils started in 2007. at present many councilors and officials aware about the importance of training some necessary skills and knowledge for the councilors. this article tries to adopt a relevant education...