Despite the vital role of seasonal urban vegetation dynamics in regulating temperatures and supporting sustainable climate management, this area remains largely unexplored in Benin. There is a growing need for precise insights into the cooling benefits of urban greenery to inform urban planning and climate adaptation strategies. This case study investigated the seasonal variations of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in Parakou using Landsat 7 and 8 data. Monthly NDVI series collected using Google Earth Engine (open source) were used, while the observed temperatures were obtained at the National Meteorological Agency of Benin for the city boundary. Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope tests were applied to assess the trends of NDVI and temperature in the study area. An analysis of variance, followed by the Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) test, was used to examine the significance of seasonal variation in the NDVI and temperature. Afterward, a simple linear regression was performed to show the relationship between temperature and NDVI values. The results showed a nonsignificant trend (p-value > 0.05), with no increasing or decreasing tendency for NDVI (Sen's Slope = 0.000) and temperature (Sen's Slope = 0.002) from 2000 to 2023. However, NDVI and temperature variations across seasons showed significant differences (p < 0.000). The period from January to May recorded the lowest mean NDVI. A predominantly negative correlation between NDVI and temperature was observed from June to October, whereas a positive correlation emerged from November to May, likely due to rainfall deficit stress. The findings emphasize the importance of effective urban greenery management in supporting sustainable strategies for urban temperature reduction in similar environments. The study also highlights the need for future research to incorporate more robust vegetation indices, including the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI), investigate the physiological mechanisms through which urban greenery mitigates heat, and assess the role of periodic irrigation in enhancing vegetation resilience during dry seasons.
Cash transfers, as a fundamental form of social assistance, provide timely support to disadvantaged rural households and strengthen economic resilience among disadvantaged rural households. Strengthening economic resilience is crucial for poverty alleviation and enhancing rural households' capacity to withstand economic risks. Few studies have systematically analyzed how different types of cash transfers influence rural household economic resilience, particularly within the context of China's ongoing rural development and poverty reduction efforts. This research drew on data from the CHFS2019 to investigate the impact of both conditional and unconditional cash transfers on the economic resilience of rural households. Benchmark regression results present that conditional cash transfers significantly enhance household economic resilience in rural areas of China, while unconditional cash transfers have a significant inhibitory effect, with the stronger effect being less resonant than the latter. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the influence of both conditional and unconditional cash transfers on household economic resilience is concentrated primarily in western regions. The mechanism analysis demonstrates that cash transfers can strengthen household economic resilience through two primary channels: Fostering human capital accumulation and elevating households' long-term economic expectations. However, these positive effects are partially offset by a reduction in labor supply incentives, indicative of welfare dependency, a phenomenon empirically documented in prior studies on social assistance programs. This study highlights the significance of cash transfers in strengthening rural households' economic resilience and offers key policy insights for sustaining poverty alleviation efforts and advancing common prosperity.
This paper illustrates how eco-friendly structures combined with resource-efficient approaches elevate interior air quality (IAQ), the broader interior environmental quality (IEQ), and overall human vitality. The increasing focus on eco-responsible lifestyles has spurred the development of environmentally sound construction practices, which are recognized to conserve power and lower expenses over time. An organized evaluation of 128 refereed articles was undertaken, encompassing investigations into structural planning, component choices, air surveillance innovations, and wellness consequences. Affordable detection units like the Dylos, Foobot, and AirVisual Pro models, alongside linkage protocols including WiFi, LoRa, Bluetooth, and visible light communication (VLC), were evaluated for their operational effectiveness, shortcomings, and applicability in ongoing IAQ supervision. Primary hurdles involve gradual sensor inaccuracies, routine servicing needs, reactions to the surrounding variables, and location-specific compliance restrictions. Sophisticated adjustment frameworks and merging techniques are delved into for improving the precision of information and the equipment's sustainability. The analysis underscores the necessity for an integrated, vitality-centered methodology in eco-construction.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in architecture heralds a transformative era characterized by enhanced operational efficiency and financial savings, yet it also presents significant challenges that could undermine core architectural principles. This paper critically assessed AI's impact on the architectural profession, focusing on the potential decline of human cognition, individuality in design, and the simplification of professional roles. It ultimately advocates for a balanced application of AI as a tool to enhance, rather than replace, human creativity and decision-making, ensuring that the richness of cultural and intellectual heritage in architecture is preserved. AI can serve as a powerful tool in the development of smart cities to enhance the architectural design of green buildings.
Informal urbanisation has developed in the peripheries of Tunis under specific socio-economic and institutional conditions. Public urban schemes have, at times, inadvertently contributed to the emergence of informal settlements, which were subsequently incorporated into urban plans during later revisions. The unregulated land market, initially a refuge for low-income households, has gradually expanded to include other social groups, attracted by the flexibility of transactions and the relative institutional tolerance. These dynamics reflect the shortcomings of land policies and the determination of residents to secure property ownership, even if it means circumventing formal legal frameworks. However, this situation raises several questions: Is it the result of limited awareness regarding regularisation procedures and costs or of public policies that long turned a blind eye to informal practices, which have since become structural? Despite the formal rigour of housing policies, their numerous shortcomings have enabled the expansion of illegal housing in the Tunisian peripheries. Long perceived as an urban aberration, this phenomenon reveals the capacity of residents to adapt, navigate institutional obstacles, and devise strategies for inhabiting the city. Confronted with ambiguous legal frameworks and governmental inertia, they have developed forms of urban resilience founded on ingenuity, solidarity, and territorial appropriation. This 'urbanity of adaptation' is based on self-building, collective organisation, and mobilisation to improve their living environment. To investigate these dynamics, we adopted a systemic and multi-scalar approach connecting metropolitan trends, neighbourhood organisation, and everyday practices. We also mobilised narrative mapping, a qualitative method that links discourse, memory, and spatial representation. Forty open-ended interviews were conducted across four contrasting neighbourhoods, Douar Hicher, Ettadhamen, Soukra, and Goulette, alongside resident-produced maps identifying frequented, avoided, and problematic spaces. This combination of verbal and graphic data offers insight into spatial perceptions, local participation, and symbolic vulnerabilities. Several questions therefore arise: To what extent have residents succeeded in confronting the administrative and social constraints that marginalise them? Have public authorities, whether consciously or unconsciously, contributed to perpetuating this state of ambiguity? And, above all, how might the paradigm of the right to the city today support these dynamics and transform informal housing into a lever for urban regeneration?
BackgroundProviding meals to an evacuated population is important for sustaining their health during disasters. In the 2023 wildfires in Canada, Emergency Social Services played an important role in disaster management, cooperating with restaurants. In contrast, Japan faced operational problems in disaster management during the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake.ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the national model for food service management and dietary considerations during disasters in Canada to reveal novel insights for Japan.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review to identify websites, manuals, and guidelines published between 2019 and 2024 using Google. Consequently, a nationwide manual from Canada titled 'Emergency food services: Planning for disaster' (EFS manual) was extracted, and eight nationwide guidelines or manuals from Japan were identified that contained items applicable to the EFS manual.ResultsWe found that external professional associations actively participate in emergency food services in Canada, whereas public health dietitians mainly take responsibility for food management in Japan. Volunteer organizations or professional meal provision operators, such as restaurant owners, are members of the Food Service Planning Committee in Canadian emergency food management. In Canada, a Food Service Coordinator conducts surveys on food resources that are prepared and reviews them once a year before disasters. Canada followed its national food guidelines for normal situations even in emergency cases, whereas Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare issued nutritional reference values for evacuation shelters. The Canadian EFS manual highlights the importance of providing adequate support, including meal services, to staff for effective disaster management of evacuees.ConclusionsJapan, particularly, should utilize external professional associations from the planning stage and dietary care for staff, as in Canada. Our findings may contribute to the revision of the disaster nutrition manual for Japan to improve nutritional assistance in evacuation shelters during disasters.
Terrestrial ecosystems represent some of the most extensive and human-influenced systems on Earth, playing a fundamental role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating ecological processes, and providing vital services to human societies. Assessing biodiversity and ecosystem services in terrestrial habitats is essential for understanding ecological dynamics, supporting conservation, and informing sustainable land-use policies. In this paper, we explored the theoretical underpinnings of biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships, reviewed methodological approaches for mapping and assessment, and presented selected case studies from Europe, South America, and Asia. The case studies highlighted the use of integrated frameworks such as the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), expert-based ecosystem service supply matrices, and spatial modeling techniques. By examining how biodiversity loss and land-use changes affect service delivery, we demonstrated the importance of linking ecological knowledge with socioeconomic needs. We argue that advancing interdisciplinary, spatially explicit approaches to ecosystem assessment is critical for addressing global challenges such as climate change, habitat degradation, and sustainable development.
Growing hazard exposures and deepening social disparities highlight the need for resilience frameworks that capture not only risk and vulnerability but also the processes through which communities adapt. Most existing indices rely on static indicators that describe socioeconomic or infrastructural conditions without representing the spatial and networked interactions that sustain adaptation and recovery. This paper operationalizes resilience as a process of dynamic interaction among people, infrastructure, and environment by advancing the Community Hazardscape and Amenity Placement in Provisioning of Improved Endpoints (CHAPPIE) framework. Using a production-constrained gravity model, CHAPPIE estimates potential benefit flows between households and resources within network constraints, thereby quantifying accessibility, connectivity, and equity as determinants of adaptive capacity. The paper aligns conceptual resilience capacities—education and information, basic provisioning, health and safety, and community cohesion—with measurable indicators and network metrics. By embedding spatial interaction theory within the resilience assessment, the framework provides a path toward quantifying resilience as a socio-ecological process rather than a static condition, illustrating how accessibility and structure shape adaptation potential.
Located in southern Cameroon, at the bottom of the Gulf of Guinea, the Kribi coast has contributed over the years to the country's economic development (seaside tourism, mining and oil exploitation, etc.). In recent decades, the coastline has been subject to a number of stresses, such as coastal erosion. However, virtually no work has been done in this area to assess the degree of vulnerability of this coastline to erosion. The objective of this article was to assess the physical and socio-economic vulnerability of a 31.5-km stretch of the Kribi coastline using geographic information systems (GIS). The results obtained have made it possible to map the vulnerable areas on this coast. More than two-thirds (68.3%) of the Kribi coastline are highly physically vulnerable to erosion risks, consisting mainly of sandy accumulations and creeks, while nearly one-third (31.7%) of the coastline has low to moderately vulnerability, consisting of rocky promontories and rocky shores. On the other hand, more than half (58.7%) of the coastline is highly vulnerable to erosion from a socio-economic perspective, consisting mainly of densely populated urban areas with well-developed road networks and a rich heritage. More than a third (41.3%) of the coastline has low to moderate socio-economic vulnerability, consisting of areas that are difficult to access and almost unexploited. The results of this study can be used as a decision-making tool to anticipate critical areas and guide development policies for sustainable coastal management, given that an industrial and port complex is gradually being built around the deep-water port of Kribi. It also contributes to enriching the assessment techniques used to date.
Urban growth in African cities has been rapid and uneven, often intensifying vulnerability to natural and human-induced hazards. This study examines the spatial patterns of urban growth and their implications for hazard vulnerability in two rapidly expanding African capitals: Windhoek, Namibia, and Accra, Ghana. Over the past three decades, both cities have experienced significant transformation, though the scale, form, and spatial distribution of growth differ markedly. The study assesses how urban expansion from 1993 to 2023 has influenced exposure to floods, droughts, fires, and related socio-environmental hazards. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates satellite-based spatial analysis with quantitative assessment and qualitative policy evaluation. Land use dynamics were mapped and complemented by 390 household surveys to capture socio-economic perspectives, while 10 stakeholder interviews and policy analysis examined existing urban resilience frameworks in Namibia and Ghana. Results show that Windhoek exhibits low-density sprawl over underdeveloped land, heightening drought-related vulnerability, whereas Accra displays compact infill growth with increased exposure to floods and fires. Informal settlements remain a key source of vulnerability in both cities. The findings indicate that existing policies emphasize physical risks but insufficiently address underlying socio-economic drivers of exposure. In response, the study proposes a resilience-oriented framework that integrates spatial planning, socio-economic inclusion, and adaptive governance to support sustainable and equitable urban development and transform growth-related vulnerabilities into resilience opportunities across African cities.
The maintenance and renewal of residential communities are central to urban sustainability. As a key financial mechanism, the Housing Maintenance Fund directly affects the community governance efficiency and the residents' living quality. The study finds that, in practice, a large proportion of homeowners exhibit systematic misunderstandings regarding the payment schedule, purpose, and management of the Housing Maintenance Fund, thus indicating a widespread knowledge gap. These gaps stem not from individual deficiencies but from a structural mismatch between policy communication and the residents' cognitive frameworks. Drawing on Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory, this research employs a quantitative analysis to examine how interactions between cognitive ability and the information environment shape these disparities. Based on international experience, the study proposes governance strategies such as multi-channel information systems and real-time transparency platforms. By introducing a social cognitive perspective, the study uncovers the underlying mechanisms of fund governance and provides theoretical and practical insights to enhance the accessibility, transparency, and citizen participation in housing policy.
This research aims to develop a holistic framework for ecovillage development tailored to the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Globally, ecovillages are gaining immense popularity as ideal models for sustainable living. Most existing models are shaped by middle- and upper-middle-class white people, thus limiting their relevance for Cherokee contexts, which are grounded in distinct traditions of land, governance, and mutual aid. Hence, this research addresses that gap by developing a holistic approach that represents Cherokee cultural values, governance traditions, and environmental ethics. A mixed-method design is employed, where the first stage of data collection consists of an exploratory factor analysis to determine the key dimensions grounded in Cherokee perspectives. In the second stage, a confirmatory factor analysis is used to validate the internal coherence of these dimensions across a broader sample. The third stage, which is a longitudinal data collection method, spans six months and incorporates diverse community voices, elders, youth, planners, and cultural leaders. The expected outcomes include an empirically grounded ecovillage framework, consisting of core pillars and the practices that constitute the identified pillars. The framework is intended to support policy development, guide sustainable infrastructure planning, and revitalize traditional lifeways. Moreover, the framework provides a broader applicability for indigenous and rural communities that seek culturally anchored approaches to sustainability through the concept of ecovillages.
