Proposal of sustainable and eco-exurban communities at the western desert development corridor in Egypt

Worldwide energy assessments now indicate that improving the energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings, and urban communities could save our planet and free-up enormous amounts of current energy expenses. In addition, greater reliance on sustainability offers countries worldwide means of maintaining economic growth and environmental quality. In this rapidurbanizing world, cities hold the key to achieving a sustainable balance between the Earth's resources and its human needs. Industrialization in developing countries has led to urban health problems on an unprecedented scale. Cities around the world affect not just the health of their people but the health of the planet. Urban areas take up very diminutive percentage of the world's surface but consume the bulk of vital resources. This research paper represents a holistic proposal which primarily aims to lessen the harm poorly designed urban communities and buildings in Egypt’s big cities like Cairo and Alexandria cause. It draws attention towards exurban developments that are able to use the best of eco-building approaches in logical combination with the best of technological advances and renewable energy resources. The ultimate goal of this proposal is to put forward a sustainable-oriented development to make possible homes, offices, even entire subdivisions of suburban and exurban for newly proposed Egyptian communities away from the narrow-valley along the Nile and towards the Western Desert Development Corridor WDDC that are net producers of energy, food, clean water and air, beauty, and healthy human and biological communities. This paper proposes the methodology that should be undertaken in order to make possible the design of such ecological urban communities

Nordic Built Cities Challenge Awards

FinalistaPostprint (published version

Less Automation More Information: A Learning Tool for a Post-occupancy Operation and Evaluation

Climate change and the pandemic generated an urgent need to have an effi-cient urban habitat that includes technological innovations to deal with the ecological and digital transitions. Italy counts about 14 million buildings, 12 of which are houses, responsible for more than 40% of final energy consumption, most of which is ascrib-able to users’ behavior and lifestyle. The increase in buildings’ energy performance is strongly related to a smart management of the demand and self-consumption, as well as a more effective and active involvement of the occupants: it is, therefore, pivotal to come up with user-friendly tools to measure and monitor the performance of the buildings and users’ habits. Tools to encourage the choices toward the environment’s comfort, rather than automation technologies, allowing the occupants and informa-tion systems to move in the direction of ecological transition. The aim is to create an aware “energy citizenship” for people living in efficient buildings. The proposal is a system that uses IoT technology and provides a global evaluation of the state of the house, from which can be extracted suggestions for better and virtuous behavior. The overall ecological footprint is measured based on five “cycles”: energy; environment; water; waste production; food. Collected data create an urban database that, along with big data, constitutes a set of boundary conditions that are crossed with single units’ data. The measures related to single units can be applied to a wider network in order to create a smart city, involving dwellers in a serious game on their homes’ performance. The proposal is part of the research on post-evaluation occupancy, in the belief that even the best model-houses perform worse in use, rather than the predictions expected on paper

The Human–Nature Relationship and Its Impact on Health: A Critical Review

Within the past four decades, research has been increasingly drawn toward understanding whether there is a link between the changing human–nature relationship and its impact on people’s health. However, to examine whether there is a link requires research of its breadth and underlying mechanisms from an interdisciplinary approach. This article begins by reviewing the debates concerning the human–nature relationship, which are then critiqued and redefined from an interdisciplinary perspective. The concept and chronological history of “health” is then explored, based on the World Health Organization’s definition. Combining these concepts, the human–nature relationship and its impact on human’s health are then explored through a developing conceptual model. It is argued that using an interdisciplinary perspective can facilitate a deeper understanding of the complexities involved for attaining optimal health at the human–environmental interface

Public entities driven robotic innovation in urban areas

Cities present new challenges and needs to satisfy and improve lifestyle for their citizens under the concept “Smart City”. In order to achieve this goal in a global manner, new technologies are required as the robotic one. But Public entities unknown the possibilities offered by this technology to get solutions to their needs. In this paper the development of the Innovative Public Procurement instruments is explained, specifically the process PDTI (Public end Users Driven Technological Innovation) as a driving force of robotic research and development and offering a list of robotic urban challenges proposed by European cities that have participated in such a process. In the next phases of the procedure, this fact will provide novel robotic solutions addressed to public demand that are an example to be followed by other Smart Cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

Survey on virtual coaching for older adults

Virtual coaching has emerged as a promising solution to extend independent living for older adults. A virtual coach system is an always-attentive personalized system that continuously monitors user's activity and surroundings and delivers interventions - that is, intentional messages - in the appropriate moment. This article presents a survey of different approaches in virtual coaching for older adults, from the less technically supported tools to the latest developments and future avenues for research. It focuses on the technical aspects, especially on software architectures, user interaction and coaching personalization. Nevertheless, some aspects from the fields of personality/social psychology are also presented in the context of coaching strategies. Coaching is considered holistically, including matters such as physical and cognitive training, nutrition, social interaction and mood.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 769830

Use of nonintrusive sensor-based information and communication technology for real-world evidence for clinical trials in dementia

Cognitive function is an important end point of treatments in dementia clinical trials. Measuring cognitive function by standardized tests, however, is biased toward highly constrained environments (such as hospitals) in selected samples. Patient-powered real-world evidence using information and communication technology devices, including environmental and wearable sensors, may help to overcome these limitations. This position paper describes current and novel information and communication technology devices and algorithms to monitor behavior and function in people with prodromal and manifest stages of dementia continuously, and discusses clinical, technological, ethical, regulatory, and user-centered requirements for collecting real-world evidence in future randomized controlled trials. Challenges of data safety, quality, and privacy and regulatory requirements need to be addressed by future smart sensor technologies. When these requirements are satisfied, these technologies will provide access to truly user relevant outcomes and broader cohorts of participants than currently sampled in clinical trials

Living Lightly on Earth: The Urban Eco Village

Imaging living a low-impact lifestyle surrounded by nature, food, freshwater and air, wildlife, and a community with a common desire. An eco village is a community with shared land that promotes positive values including ecology, solidarity, quality, tolerance, generosity, diversity, hospitality, respect, and collaboration all while being self-sufficient. These communities are more commonly found in rural and off-grid locations and have numerous benefits that should be shared on a larger scale. Although living off grid is a desirable lifestyle for some, a large amount of the population strive to live in urban settings. With sustainable living becoming a growing desire, a redesign of an urban eco village would not only satisfy multiple needs of the common individual, but will create numerous environmental benefits as well. The vertical densification of sustainable living and nature will combine the benefits of the common Eco Village with the benefits of an urban typology to attract and encourage a sustainable lifestyle and personal growth