High-density urban environments present competing environmental exposures that jointly influence human health. Increased sky openness enhances visual quality but simultaneously intensifies thermal stress, while shading strategies that reduce heat exposure may constrain restorative benefits. Such trade-offs pose challenges for environmental assessment and urban design in dense urban settings. This study proposes a spatially explicit framework to jointly assess and optimize thermal comfort and visual restorative potential at the panorama level, integrating street-view image-based spatial metrics, XGBoost with explainable SHAP analysis, and Genetic Algorithm-based optimization, enabling interpretation of non-linear trade-offs that prior separate-domain analyses could not resolve. Using nine residential neighborhoods in Singapore, the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and Perceived Restorativeness Scale Score (PRSS) were predicted from image-based metrics and synthesized into an Integrated Thermal-Visual Score (ITVS). SHAP analysis revealed that Sky (31.9%), Tree (20.8%), and Depth (13.0%) were the dominant predictors with non-linear patterns: Tree > 0.15 and Depth > 0.35 improved integrated performance, while Sky > 0.06 degraded it as thermal penalties outweighed visual gains. Optimization achieved a mean UTCI reduction of 0.327 degrees C and PRSS increase of 0.535. Cluster analysis further identified three morphological typologies, i.e., open-exposed, dense-shaded, and green-balanced, with optimization gains ranging from 22.1% to 32.5%, underscoring the need for morphology-specific strategies. These empirically derived thresholds and the integrated optimization framework offer transferable, quantitative guidance for performance-oriented urban design in high-density tropical cities.
The 15-minute city offers a useful reference for neighbourhood services, but a single time threshold cannot represent the different roles of primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare. This study develops a tier-specific multimodal framework to assess potential healthcare accessibility across 18,998 population grids and 251 public general healthcare facilities in Chengdu, China. Gaussian two-step floating catchment area accessibility was calculated for walking, cycling, public transport, and driving using mode- and tier-specific travel-time thresholds. For tertiary hospitals, Dianping review sentiment and the DXY institutional reputation index were used as bounded destination-attractiveness proxies to adjust effective supply within fixed travel-time catchments. CRITIC–TOPSIS integrated the four mode-specific estimates, while Gini coefficients, bivariate LISA, and spatially validated machine learning assessed inequality, local mismatch, and socio-spatial associations. Public transport covered 7.89%, 42.55%, and 74.86% of the population within the thresholds for primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare, while driving covered more than 97% across all tiers. Yet broad travel-time coverage did not ensure high potential accessibility because supply, population competition, and travel-time decay produced spatial differences. The attractiveness adjustment redistributed tertiary healthcare accessibility within existing catchments but did not alter its core–periphery structure. Primary healthcare showed the highest population-weighted inequality, and older-adult weighting reversed the inequality ranking of secondary and tertiary healthcare. Machine learning revealed tier-specific nonlinear associations with population density, planned-center distance, metro proximity, and slope. The results support differentiated assessment scales across healthcare tiers and coordination between neighbourhood healthcare provision and regional transport connections.
Salt-affected soils in the Mediterranean are difficult to reclaim under organic farming, where amendment options are limited, and hydrology strongly controls salt redistribution. In an oat-triticale-barley-oat rotation, we evaluated different amendments (control, gypsum - G3, gypsum plus sulphur - G3S1, G6S2, gypsum plus farmyard manure (FYM) - G6 + OM, and gypsum plus sulphur plus FYM - G3S1 + OM) and tillage (discing and discing plus ripping) interventions on a saline-sodic Anthrosol in the Rasa valley, Croatia. Crop yields were recorded annually, and soil physical and chemical properties were determined at the beginning and end of the trial. Gypsum significantly increased exchangeable Calcium (Ca) and reduced exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP). At the end of the experiment, electrical conductivity (EC) decreased significantly. Water-stable aggregates (WSA) increased significantly in all plots with added amendments, while the control plots showed the poorest structure. Ripping generally lowered bulk density and penetration resistance compared with discing, but effects were treatment- and depth-specific. Yield benefits became most evident in the last two years: barley yield was significantly lower in the control than in all amended treatments, and oat yield was 26-50% higher in G6S2, G3S1 + OM, and G6 + OM than in the control. Overall, the results indicate that gypsum-based amendments, particularly when combined with FYM, can progressively improve soil condition and crop performance under organic management, while the benefits of deep loosening remain more variable and dependent on seasonal soil conditions.
Using data from September 2011 to November 2023, this paper examines how shocks to economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the China Iron Ore Price Index (CIOPI) propagate along China’s iron ore–steel chain. TVP-VAR estimates show the clearest adverse short-run EPU response in the steel-sector index; the direct CIOPI response is not distinguishable from zero, while downstream responses are heterogeneous. An unexpected CIOPI increase raises steel and selected downstream stock indices only briefly, and forward–reverse asymmetry is not established. Local projections show that higher EPU is followed by declines in steel-industry new orders, greater order-adjustment intensity, and short-run changes in steel and port inventories, consistent with an order–inventory adjustment channel. The spillover index is 68.77%, with machinery as the principal net transmitter. Removing the CSI 300 component reduces connectedness to 21.83%, but machinery retains this role. The findings are robust to BVAR estimation, alternative lag orders, and variance-decomposition horizons.
Population aging is increasing demand for senior residential tourism (SRT), making effective siting of SRT complexes an important land-use planning challenge. Yet existing approaches face three connected challenges: preserving stakeholder welfare, incorporating active-aging values, and combining intelligent interaction with deterministic, spatially traceable decisions. Therefore, this study develops SilverSmart, a human-centered spatial decision framework for SRT complex siting. Stakeholder-specific utilities keep the welfare of Older adults, Government, and Enterprise visible, while acceptability screening and normalized weighted Nash bargaining coordinate conflicting preferences. Additionally, a 24-criterion synergistic evaluation system broadens aging-oriented land valuation by incorporating active living, cultural participation, destination experience, and longer-stay conditions. During formal decision execution, generative artificial intelligence (AI) supports interaction and interpretation, while formal rankings remain deterministic and linked to geographic information system (GIS) geometries. SilverSmart achieved the best mean rank across 12 planning tasks (1.54; Friedman p=6.92×10−8). It significantly outperformed three conventional multicriteria baselines, while remaining comparable to weighted overlay under highly aligned preferences. Under controlled conflict, bargaining produced a jointly acceptable compromise as stakeholder optima diverged. Moreover, removing two participation-oriented criteria shifted ranks by 88.68 positions on average and substantially changed the cross-county composition of the Top-20, demonstrating that active-aging values materially reshape spatial priorities. All 1014 candidates retained numerical-to-geometric traceability, and multi-scale tests revealed resolution-dependent changes in mapped priorities. Together, SilverSmart connects stakeholder coordination, active-aging land valuation, and spatial accountability in a transparent process, providing a practical basis for pre-decision screening, stakeholder negotiation, and spatially defensible SRT land-use choices.
