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Urban tourism growth, favoured by short term rental platforms like Airbnb, is changing the cities dramatically. All over Europe local governments have been facing unbridled growth of the so-called sharing economy and developed different regulatory approaches: full prohibition; laissez-faire; and different sorts of limitations. We take Porto as a case-study, considering the exponential growth of tourism, Airbnb and floating city users over the past decade. We make use of qualitative and quantitative methods and draw on the official AirDNA database to analyse the relation between Airbnb and urban transformation, and the governance context. We conclude that the growth of floating city-users –stimulated by Airbnb– has been the main driver of urban change. The case of Porto –which in many ways illustrates the fast growth of short-term, rental-driven urban tourism in southern Europe– demonstrates that Airbnb’s global corporate narrative around property sharing, micro-entrepreneurship and tourism democratization hardly fits the urban reality of host professionalization, income concentration and growing massification. In this context, besides laissez-faire, urban sustainability concerns call for smarter regulatory approaches associated with more widely shared visions, and clear short, medium and long-term objectives.

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OBJECTIVE: To verify the associations of leisure walking with perceived and objective measures of neighborhood environmental factors stratified by gender and socioeconomic status (SES) in Brazilian adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with a random sample of 1,130 high school students (47.3% girls; aged 14 to 20 years old) from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Leisure walking and SES were self-reported by the adolescents. Perceived environmental factors were assessed through Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale for Youth (NEWS-Y). Objective measures were evaluated using Geographic Information Systems, with road network calculated around the adolescent’s residential address, using 0.5km and 1.0km buffers. Data collection was carried out in 2017 and generalized linear regression models were used. RESULTS: Leisure walking was positively associated with access to services (0.5 km buffers [Odds ratio (OR) = 2.22] 1.0 km buffers [OR = 2.17]) and lower distance to parks and squares (0.5 km [OR=2.80] 1.0 km [OR = 2.73]) in girls from low SES. Residential density (0.5 km [OR = 1.57] 1.0 km [OR = 1.54]) and walkability index (0.5 km [OR = 1.17] 1.0 km [OR = 1.20]) were associated with leisure walking in girls from middle SES. Boys from low SES showed an inverse association between crime safety and leisure walking (0.5 km [OR = 0.59] 1.0 km [OR = 0.63]). Neighborhood recreation facilities was positively associated with leisure walking in middle SES (0.5 km [OR = 1.55] 1.0 km [OR = 1.60]). Land use mix (0.5 km [OR = 1.81] 1.0 km [OR = 1.81]), neighborhood recreation facilities (0.5 km [OR = 2.32] 1.0 km [OR = 2.28]) and places for walking (0.5 km [OR=2.07] 1.0 km [OR=2.22]) were positively associated with leisure walking in high SES. CONCLUSION: Environmental factors (objectively and subjectively measured) and leisure walking show association in boys and girls of different SES.

This research note analyses the evolving geographies of coronavirus disease research before and during the first three months of the 2020 epidemic outbreak. An examination of global networks of scientific co‐production highlights the increasing centrality and knowledge intermediation profile of Chinese organisations. It is argued that it is important to understand these global geographies and networks, as they may signal varying (and cumulative) abilities to generate, intermediate, and access relevant knowledge in the face of epidemic outbreaks.

The urban suburbs of Brazilian cities have grown without an adequate sanitation infrastructure. Different social groups try to overcome these shortcomings seeking local sanitation alternatives at individual or community levels, contrasting with the universal model of sewage networks. This study was developed in the suburban neighborhood of Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to analyze the installation process of the sewage system under a territorial approach. Data facilitated the construction of territorial schemes related to conflicts during the implementation of sewage networks in this neighborhood, where middle class groups and favela residents coexist with environmental preservation areas, beaches and commercial activities. This work revealed the need for contextualized sanitation information made available by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and state sewage collection company, which conceal these conflicts or the representation of residents about their sanitation problems. Overlapping territorial managing functions should be considered as one of the factors responsible for the conflicts identified in the neighborhood. Further studies are suggested as methodological complementation and data update.

Identificando Regiões de Referência na produção de conhecimento: o caso das publicações científicas voltadas para o Ébola Thiago M. Mendes (a), Teresa Sá Marques (b), Ana Monteiro (b), Luis Carvalho (c) (a) Centro de Estudos de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território (CEGOT) / Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

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