Preferences for urban green space characteristics: a comparative study in three portuguese cities

Many studies have argued that a better understanding of people’s preferences about public urban green spaces may inform urban planners to effectively provide and manage urban green spaces to meet users’ needs. The aim of this study is to examine urban residents preferred public green space characteristics and investigate whether similarities and differences can be highlighted in three different Portuguese cities. Through a web-based questionnaire based on the best-worst scaling (BWS) method, residents of Lisbon, Porto and Évora (n = 750) were asked to select the most and least important public green space characteristic among thirteen attributes. The results suggest a consensus about some green space characteristics across cities but also the existence of some local variations in city residents’ preferences. Overall, this study can support public authorities and urban planners as they strive to effectively design and manage urban green spaces to meet users’ needs.0119-47CC-D459 | Teresa Cristina Fernandes Ferreira MadureiraN/

The consumer trail: Applying best-worst scaling to classical wine attributes

The main goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of the buying behavior of wine consumers in Portugal. More specifically, the study identifies extrinsic attributes that influence wine purchase choices in a retail store, crossing-tabulating the results with six classification variables. The authors use the best-worst scaling method with eighteen reference attributes for designing, implementing, and analyzing responses to a survey of 250 wine buyers. Results reveal that the most significant reference attribute is whether consumers had tasted the wine previously. These findings for Portugal are in accordance with what has been observed in other Western countries. The second most important attribute, region of origin, is also commonly identified in the literature as a significant attribute. The classification variables of age and gender help to explain the behavior of the majority attributes. Using a latent class analysis, the authors obtained a set of three segments that are representative of Portuguese wine consumers. The findings presented here have important implications for wineries and wine distributors in their efforts to know their consumers better in an off-premise context and thereby to maximize profit.0119-47CC-D459 | Teresa Cristina Fernandes Ferreira MadureiraN/

Natureza e cultura no Porto do século XIX

A estruturação social de uma cidade pode inferir-se da morfologia e estrutura dos espaços verdes. Partindo de uma carta da cidade do Porto (Portugal), de 1892, procedeu-se ao reconhecimento dos contextos tipológicos e espaciais da estrutura verde em finais do século XIX: i) cidade intramuros; ii) a área de expansão extramuros, de forte ampliação nos séculos XVIII e XIX iii) anel periférico rural, suporte do desenvolvimento urbanístico ao longo do século XX. A modernização da cidade resulta no encontro e conflito entre a produção do espaço e da natureza, a representação das suas paisagens e a prática concreta dos seus lugares.The social structure of a city may be inferred from the morphology and arrangement of green areas. Drawing on a 1892 map of Porto (Portugal), typological and spatial contexts of its green structure were delineated: i) the walled medieval city core; ii) the outer-wall expansion area (18th-19th cs.); iii) a peripheral rural belt, where 20th c. urban growth occurred. The modernization of the city is therefore related to the asserted and contested relation between production of space and nature, landscape representation and places of social practice

A infra-estrutura verde da Bacia do Leça. Uma estratégia para o desenvolvimento sustentável na região metropolitana do Porto.

Este trabalho tem como objectivo demonstrar que uma estratégia para a infra-estrutura verde da Bacia do Leça se revela um instrumento essencial ao desenvolvimento sustentável da região metropolitana do Porto. Enquadra-se, portanto, no debate sobre o estabelecimento de potenciais relações entre a infra-estrutura verde, o desenvolvimento sustentável e as formas urbanas contemporâneas. Perante a difícil aplicabilidade dos modelos ideais e abstractos que daí emergem às realidades territoriais contemporâneas, defende-se a necessidade de encontrar em cada contexto geográfico específico as características capazes de potenciarem a infra-estrutura verde como elemento activo numa estratégia de planeamento.Assim, considera-se essencial encontrar no contexto específico da Bacia do Leça a estratégia para a infra-estrutura verde que melhor responda, em simultâneo, a um modelo territorial que promova o desenvolvimento sustentável e à especificidade deste território, modelado pelos contínuos processos de transformação que lhe conferiram as suas actuais características.Conclui-se defendendo que o sistema definido pelo Rio Leça e seus principais afluentes sintetiza a solução territorial específica capaz de integrar as variadas funções atribuídas à infra-estrutura verde em regiões metropolitanas. Propõe-se, desta forma, que se inverta a tendência de progressivo negligenciamento do Rio Leça, tomando a opção de o visionar como uma infra-estrutura estratégica para o desenvolvimento sustentável da bacia e da região metropolitana do Porto.The aim of this work is to demonstrate that a green infrastructure strategy for the Leça River basin proves to be an essential tool for the sustainable development of Oporto's metropolitan area.Its frame of reference is the ongoing debate on the potential links between green infrastructure, sustainable development and contemporary urban form. The work stresses the need to point out, on each specific geographical setting, the key characteristics which will enable the green infrastructure to be an active element of a planning strategy; this site focused approach is sustained given the difficulty to accurately picture contemporary urban forms through ideal abstract theoretical models that merge the referred three levels of analysis.From this scope, finding a green infrastructure strategy for the Leça River basin context arises as essential; this strategy should simultaneously embody a sustainable development promoting territorial model and the specific characteristics of the basin, as shaped to its present form by continuous transforming processes.The work maintains that the Leça River system, with its tributaries, synthesises a specific regional solution capable of nesting the multiple functions assigned to green infrastructures inserted in metropolitan regions. It proposes to invert the trend of increasingly neglecting the Leça River system, fore-seeing it as a strategic infrastructure for the sustainable development of the basin and of Oporto's metropolitan region

Extreme temperature and rainfall events and future climate change projections in the Coastal Savannah Agroecological Zone of Ghana

The global climate has changed, and there are concerns about the effects on both humans and the environment, necessitating more research for improved adaptation. In this study, we analyzed extreme temperature and rainfall events and projected future climate change scenarios for the coastal Savannah agroecological zone (CSAZ) of Ghana. We utilized the ETCCDI, the RClimDex software (version 1.0), the Mann-Kendall test, Sen's slope estimator, and standardized anomalies to analyze homogeneity, trends, magnitude, and seasonal variations in temperature (Tmax and Tmin) and rainfall datasets for the zone. The SDSM was also used to downscale future climate change scenarios based on the CanESM2 (RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios) and HadCM3 (A2 and B2 scenarios) models for the zone. Model performance was evaluated using statistical methods such as R2, RMSE, and PBIAS. Results revealed more changepoints in Tmin than in Tmax and rainfall. Results again showed that the CSAZ has warmed over the last four decades. The SU25, TXn, and TN90p have increased significantly in the zone, and the opposite is the case for the TN10p and DTR. Spatially varied trends were observed for the TXx, TNx, TNn, TX10p, TX90p, and the CSDI across the zone. The decrease in RX1day, RX5day, SDII, R10, R95p, and R99p was significant in most parts of the central region compared to the Greater Accra and Volta regions, while the CDD significantly decreased in the latter two regions than in the former. The trends in CWD and PRCPTOT were insignificant throughout the zone. The overall performance of both models during calibration and validation was good and ranged from 58-99%, 0.01-1.02 °C, and 0.42-11.79 °C for R2, RMSE, and PBIAS, respectively. Tmax is expected to be the highest (1.6 °C) and lowest (−1.6 °C) across the three regions, as well as the highest (1.5 °C) and lowest (−1.6 °C) for the entire zone, according to both models. Tmin is projected to be the highest (1.4 °C) and lowest (−2.1 °C) across the three regions, as well as the highest (1.4 °C) and lowest (−2.3 °C) for the entire zone. The greatest (1.6 °C) change in mean annual Tmax is expected to occur in the 2080s under RCP8.5, while that of the Tmin (3.2 °C) is expected to occur in the 2050s under the same scenario. Monthly rainfall is expected to change between −98.4 and 247.7% across the three regions and −29.0 and 148.0% for the entire zone under all scenarios. The lowest (0.8%) and highest (79%) changes in mean annual rainfall are expected to occur in the 2030s and 2080s. The findings of this study could be helpful for the development of appropriate adaptation plans to safeguard the livelihoods of people in the zone

Infra-estrutura verde na paisagem urbana contemporânea : o desafio da conectividade e a oportunidade da multifuncionalidade

The main objective of this paper is to introduce, discuss and develop the "green infrastructure" concept, trying to frame it as an aggregating concept of other previous approaches, while also specifying the reasons for the emergence of this new designation in the context of urban green areas planning approaches. After a reflection on the origin of the concept, we discuss its three fundamental dimensions. Firstly, we define the challenge of continuity/connectivity of urban green areas as a value simultaneously ecological, social and for urban composition. Secondly, we present the opportunity of the multifunctionality in a sprawled city, which inherently has a greater structural and functional diversity of green areas. Thirdly, and as a corollary, we justify the need to face the urban green areas network as an infrastructural system in the contemporary city

Os tempos dos rios e das cidades

A história dos rios pode ser inferida a partir da história das cidades que percorrem. Partindo do reconhecimento da organização territorial da bacia hidrográfica do rio Leça (Portugal) em três momentos temporais das últimas décadas, assinalam-se e contextualizam-se as relações e mútuas adaptações entre rios e cidades, evidenciando-se como os diferentes tempos de decadência e degradação ou revalorização e revitalização entretecem a sua atual condição.The history of rivers can be inferred from the history of the cities they run through. Based on a systematization of the territorial organization of the Leça river basin (Portugal) in the last decades, we contextualize the relationship and mutual adjustments between rivers and cities, discussing how different times of decay and degradation or revaluation and revitalization interweave its current condition

Paisagem Urbana e Desenvolvimento Sustentável: Apontamentos sobre uma estreita relação entre Geografia, Desenvolvimento Sustentável e Forma Urbana

CD-ROO

Bibliometric analysis of data sources and tools for shoreline change analysis and detection

The world has a long record of shoreline and related erosion problems due to the impacts of climate change/variability in sea level rise. This has made coastal systems and large inland water environments vulnerable, thereby activating research concern globally. This study is a bibliometric analysis of the global scientific production of data sources and tools for shoreline change analysis and detection. The bibliometric mapping method (bibliometric R and VOSviewer package) was utilized to analyze 1578 scientific documents (1968-2022) retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science databases. There is a chance that in the selection process one or more important scientific papers might be omitted due to the selection criteria. Thus, there could be a bias in the present results due to the search criteria here employed. The results revealed that the U.S.A. is the country with the most scientific production (16.9%) on the subject. Again, more country collaborations exist among the developed countries compared with the developing countries. The results further revealed that tools for shoreline change analysis have changed from a simple beach transect (0.1%) to the utilization of geospatial tools such as DSAS (14.6%), ArcGIS/ArcMap (13.8%), and, currently, machine learning (5.1%). Considering the benefits of these geospatial tools, and machine learning in particular, more utilization is essential to the continuous growth of the field. Found research gaps were mostly addressed by the researchers themselves or addressed in other studies, while others have still not been addressed, especially the ones emerged from the recent work. For instance, the one on insights for reef restoration projects focused on erosion mitigation and designing artificial reefs in microtidal sandy beaches