Search results

Despite city authorities in Bangladesh being concerned about urban sustainability, they often face difficulties in addressing predominant urban challenges threatening urban sustainability, due to limited relevant literature. To reduce this gap, this study aims to address the predominant urban challenges and assess their severity levels in four city corporations of Bangladesh, e.g. Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barishal, and Gazipur.

Using a mixed-method approach, this study rigorously analyzed field-level data obtained from 1,200 residents across selected cities using diverse statistical techniques. The quantitative analysis included descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and chi-square tests, whereas qualitative insights were derived through thematic analysis.

The study uncovered nine predominant urban challenges under two crucial factors “Feeble Urban Management” and “Illicit Activities” that collectively explain 62.20% variance. “Feeble Urban Management” explains 44.17% variance, whereas “Illicit Activities” accounts for 18.13%. Within these challenges, uncontrolled urban sprawl, inadequate disaster management, congested roads, and shabby drainage and waste management pose significant threats to urban sustainability. Illicit activities, manifested by encroachment on water sources, grabbing roadside, destruction of natural properties, and activities undermining social security, compound the urban sustainability issue. Severity analysis reveals Sylhet (54.5%), Rajshahi (46.4%), and Barishal (31.2%) as highly impacted, whereas Gazipur exhibits moderate severity (66.7%).

The findings of this study reveal intrinsic insights into urban challenges in Bangladesh that will provide valuable guidance to city authorities, equipping them to implement integrated and effective initiatives and programs that overcome these predominant urban challenges, with a specific focus on Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Barishal city corporations.

This study examines the public participation in the implementation of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approach for urban development. HUL has six Critical Steps and four Tools Categories relating to community engagement, knowledge and planning, regulatory system and financial instruments. The HUL public participation component has materialized variably across the adopting cities, challenged by the local implementation capacity. In response, we have singled out two research questions revolving around the participants’ characteristics and participation methods.

This study instrumentalizes case studies as a research methodology and thematic literature as a theoretical context. The HUL projects for Ballarat, Australia and Cuenca, Ecuador have been selected as sources of published information because they exhibit comparative differences in completing community engagement. We have compared the community engagement accounts of the two cities.

The Ballarat and Cuenca HUL project accounts point out to commonalities and variances in responding to the HUL public participation mandate. The findings for the participants’ characteristics involve project setting, participants categories and participants empowerment; the findings for the participation methods involve initial preparation, domestic and international expertise and public conversation.

The results of the study help define public participation practices in HUL project implementations. The results present an opportunity for city officials, HUL project planners and field administrators for making informed decisions particularly in relation to the two public participation domains, the participants’ characteristics and the engagement methods.

This paper aims to consider the relationship between urban events and urban public space, asking whether cities have enough space for events and whether events have enough space in cities.

Policy analysis surrounding events and festivals in the Netherlands is used to understand the dynamics of urban events, supported by content analysis of policy documents. A vignette of event space struggles in Amsterdam illustrates the contradictions of the event/space relationship.

The research identifies a policy shift in the Netherlands towards urban events from expansive, festivalisation strategies to defensive, NIMBYist policies. It exposes contradictions between protecting space as a living resource and the exploitation of space for regenerative purposes. Three future scenarios for urban events are outlined: conflict and competition, growth and harmony and digitalisation and virtualisation.

Develops scenarios for the future relationship between events and urban space.

Provides an analysis of the recursive spatial implications of the growth of the events sector for cities and the growth of cities for events.

This paper aims to analyse residents’ perceptions of tourism growth in Porto prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to determine the most appropriate strategies to mitigate negative tourism impacts. Studies on resident perceptions of tourism impacts are still scarce, particularly the ones addressing the topic in the context of Portuguese urban tourism areas.

Data was collected through an online survey, focusing on three categories of impacts: (i) economic, (ii) sociocultural (iii) and spatial-environmental, and the respective mitigation strategies, analysed from the perspective of Porto’s residents. Descriptive and bivariate statistics – T-test and Eta correlation – were used to analyse the collected data.

Respondents who live in the city centre experience specific tourism impacts more negatively, when compared to those living outside the inner-city area. Furthermore, no strong correlation is found between the said impacts and the respective mitigation strategies. However, creating awareness among tourists about acceptable behaviour in shared spaces is the strategy that stands out, as it has a medium correlation with all three impact categories. Most impact-strategy associations are weak, meaning that the defined strategies are not the most case-appropriate, which is something that policymakers should address.

To the best of the author’s/authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to adopt this approach in tackling the negative impacts of rapid tourism growth in Porto.

This study aims to assess the spread of environmental literacy graduation requirements at public universities in the USA, and to highlight factors that mediate the adoption of this curriculum innovation.

The author analyzed the undergraduate general education curriculum requirements at all 549 public BA-granting higher education institutions in the USA between 2020 and 2022.

The study found that only 27 US public universities out of 540 have an environmental literacy graduation requirement, which represents 5% of universities and is substantially lower than previous estimates.

First, this study provides a more complete, more reliable and more current assessment of the graduation requirement’s presence at US tertiary institutions, and shows the number of universities that have implemented this innovation is lower than was estimated a decade ago. Second, it draws from the scholarship on the infusion of sustainability into the university curriculum to provide a comprehensive discussion of factors that mediate the pursuit and implementation of the graduation requirement. As well, it identifies factors that played a key role in one pertinent case.

While previous studies have highlighted the importance of incorporating environmental sustainability in building designs, there is a paucity of studies that assess the extent to which design teams in developing countries consider environmental sustainability at the building design stage. Therefore, using Zambia as a case study, this study examined the extent to which infrastructure design teams in a developing country consider environmental sustainability at the design stage.

The study used a qualitative research approach using structured interviews because there are hardly any studies which have explored the extent to which designers incorporate environmental sustainability in infrastructure designs in developing countries. The data is analysed thematically using the ATLAS.ti software.

The results show that environmental sustainability is not an important design consideration because it is secondary to functional, technical and aesthetic considerations. Environmental considerations are also made in an ad hoc manner and when it is cost-effective for the project. Regulatory requirements pertaining to environmental protection are adhered to without any cost considerations. It was, therefore, theorised that building design teams in developing countries make technical, functional and aesthetic consideration during the infrastructure design stage ahead of environmental considerations.

There is a paucity of studies that have investigated whether building infrastructure designers consider issues of environmental sustainability at the design stage in developing countries. The findings have practical implications on how developing countries can foster environmental sustainability at the design stage and avoid generating a building infrastructure stock that will require environmental resilience adaptation in the future.

Unplanned urban mobility causes negative effects on the population and the environment. This study aims to understand how higher education institutions (HEIs) are managing the transportation issues related to their activities and how they are implementing actions towards more sustainable practices in this regard.

A systematic review and bibliometric analysis were performed using the Proknow-C method, and the bibliographic portfolio was evaluated to answer guiding questions about distribution of articles over the years and around the world, the most relevant and frequent topics, the travel behavior of university life and the main methodologies used. The meta-analysis was modeled using a programming language in R to execute Bibliometrix package.

Sharing systems, active transport, public transport, urban planning, car parking management and travel behavior are the most relevant topics related to sustainable mobility in HEIs. Different strategies to reduce car use are adopted, and the geographic location of the university and the availability of housing and shopping services in close proximity directly influence travel patterns. As a result, seven guidelines and strategic actions associated were proposed to promote the engagement of institutions in the development of sustainable transport and guide future studies about new solutions to promote sustainable university commutes.

This paper presents a new perspective by performing a critical literature review based on the experiences reported by several isolated studies on the subject. Initiatives of sustainable transport guidelines can be used by academics, urban planners, higher education administrators and other stakeholders to make universities more environmentally friendly, inclusive and accessible.

This study aims to investigate the landscape of family-based organic farm businesses in the Kashmir Valley, India, analyzing the factors that either facilitate or hinder their adoption. The research also intends to uncover sources of information seeking. The primary purpose is to provide qualitative evidence to address existing knowledge gaps and offer insights for promoting sustainable farm practices in the region.

The research employs a qualitative approach, drawing on focus group interviews. The study thoroughly explores the background and relevant literature, utilizing a comprehensive research framework. Data is collected from family based farmers engaged in organic farming practices in the Kashmir Valley. The data is analyzed using content analysis ensuring a robust and thorough exploration of the subject matter.

This study reveals a notable transition in the agricultural landscape of the Kashmir Valley, showcasing a widespread adoption of organic farming on considerable land. The study reveals that key facilitators for organic farming among family-based farms are farm productivity, entrepreneurial intention, governance, environmental consciousness, and health concerns. The exchange of information, both through formal and informal channels, is found to be a crucial factor influencing the adoption of organic farming. The study also unveiled significant inhibitors that hinder the adoption of organic farming on commercial scales, including on-farm challenges such as difficulties in acquiring inputs and facing reduced yields, market-related concerns, and a lack of support and assistance from government agencies.

This research contributes significantly to the existing literature by advancing the understanding of organic farm business and agri-entrepreneurship. It unveils key factors that either support or hinder family-based organic farms, identifying crucial information sources and presenting valuable insights for policymakers. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidance for overcoming obstacles, enhancing infrastructure, and translating identified facilitators into successful agri-ventures in the Kashmir region.

Because of the global increase of climate change effects, floods are becoming more frequent and severer, especially in urban areas of coastal cities and islands where floodplains have turned into buildings because of rapid urbanisation, leading to a higher risk of damages. Urban heritage areas should be highly considered in the time of evacuation because of the vulnerability of streets and buildings and limitations on taking counteractions. Given these limitations, this study aims to propose a network of potential evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis of the heritage areas.

Penang Island's heritage site, namely, George Town, located on the northwest coast of Malaysia, is chosen as the case study. By using an approach of spatial configuration analysis using space syntax techniques in addition to considering the potential starting points for evacuation and flood risk map of the area, this study analysed the area's street network values for evacuation function during flood crisis time.

Potential evacuation routes were identified for flood disasters in the George Town heritage area. Furthermore, the proposed evacuation routes were evaluated in terms of time for evacuation by metric step-depth analysis of space syntax.

A few studies have focused on practical guidelines for evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis, an important yet neglected approach in this regard, especially concerning urban island areas. This study can contribute to providing strategies to reduce vulnerability and casualties in urban heritage areas.

This study aims to examine the perception and practices related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implemented in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), focussing on small hotels in London.

A qualitative research design comprising detailed semi-structured interviews was employed with 12 small hotel owner-managers in central London and its outskirts. The study adopts a social constructionist approach to explore CSR perspectives and practices, along with a social capital framework to investigate how CSR is perceived at the individual level and consequently manifested into CSR practices.

The findings indicate that a small hotel’s implementation of CSR is influenced by long-term versus short-term considerations, as well as socio-economic and socio-political conditions. Individual-level factors, like hoteliers’ CSR conceptualisation and personal and business values, affect CSR adoption in small hotels. Lastly, institutional-level factors, such as ineffective institutional participation and the hotelier’s cultural background against the cosmopolitan context of a big city, have contributed to a muted response to socially responsible issues.

This study was conducted with a limited sample of 12 participants from small hotels in London and its outskirts, which may limit the generalisability of the findings. Future research could enhance these findings by involving a larger and more diverse group of participants from various urban areas, potentially employing a quantitative research approach for broader applicability. This study’s insights can guide policymakers in educating small business owners on CSR benefits and implementation. It also proposes how governments could encourage sustainable practices among small hotels seeking to enhance their reputation. Moreover, these findings enable small businesses to develop their stakeholder strategies for greater CSR initiatives.

This study integrates social capital theory into investigating CSR in small hotels in London, broadening the literature on CSR perception and integration, particularly in SMEs and the hospitality sector.