Walkability and Bikeability for Sustainable Spatial Planning in the City of Novi Sad (Serbia)

The proposed approach—geotourism, a new medium- and long-term post-pandemic recovery perspective—provides a theoretical foundation for future research regarding the interactions between tourism agencies and tourists, visitors and landforms, as well as cooperation and support between local residents and tourists, for Bucegi Natural Park. In the current context, the nature monuments and nature reserves within the park are located in rural and urban areas. These can be capitalized and included directly in the tourism agencies’ supply, and they can be used for zonal and regional development without degrading the surrounding environment. The “Babele and the Sphinx” landmarks with interesting shapes offer benefits for the development of geotourism in the Romanian landscape. In addition to those listed previously, this study proposes and analyses the image of the geotourism destination and a slogan for the international promotion of the park. Thus, the research presents two sources of data collection: (1) primary data, i.e., those obtained following a questionnaire and analysed with the help of the SPSS Statistics software, version 15.0, and (2) secondary statistical data from the database of the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) that are available and constantly updated. Another method used with a significant impact on tourism analysis was represented using the Geographic Information System (GIS). With its help, we mapped the tourist routes and the two elements, nature reserves and nature monuments within the park, that constitute the basis of the geotourism relaunch after COVID-19. The final objective of the paper is to strengthen the role of travel agencies in promoting geotourism by offering visits to tourist attractions in the park.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geotourism, a New Perspective of Post-COVID-19-Pandemic Relaunch through Travel Agencies—Case Study: Bucegi Natural Park, Romania

Desculțu Grigore,

Niță,

Drăguleasa

et al. 2024

“…The city encompasses an area of 702.7 km 2 and experiences a regional climate that transitions from moderately continental to continental. Novi Sad sits at an elevation of approximately 80 m above sea level [47]. According to the latest publicly available population census data from 2022 [48], the city has 367,121 inhabitants.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter and Summer PM2.5 Land Use Regression Models for the City of Novi Sad, Serbia

Dmitrašinović,

Radonić,

Živković

et al. 2024

In this study, we describe the development of seasonal winter and summer (heating and non-heating season) land use regression (LUR) models for PM2.5 mass concentration for the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. The PM2.5 data were obtained through an extensive seasonal measurement campaign conducted at 21 locations in urban, urban/industrial, industrial and background areas in the period from February 2020–July 2021. At each location, PM2.5 samples were collected on quartz fibre filters for 10 days per season using a reference gravimetric pump. The developed heating season model had two predictors, the first can be associated with domestic heating over a larger area and the second with local traffic. These predictors contributed to the adjusted R2 of 0.33 and 0.55, respectively. The developed non-heating season model had one predictor which can be associated with local traffic, which contributed to the adjusted R2 of 0.40. Leave-one-out cross-validation determined RMSE/mean absolute error for the heating and non-heating season model were 4.04/4.80 μg/m3 and 2.80/3.17 μg/m3, respectively. For purposes of completeness, developed LUR models were also compared to a simple linear model which utilizes satellite aerosol optical depth data for PM2.5 estimation, and showed superior performance. The developed LUR models can help with quantification of differences between seasonal levels of air pollution, and, consequently, air pollution exposure and association between seasonal long-term exposure and possible health risk implications.

“…Table 1 summarizes different concepts and their essential considerations when developing the metrics in the literature to assess the bicycle environment. [1,16,31,32] Bicycle Safety Index Bicycle Safety Index Motorized vehicles (speed, volume, flow, density, and infrastructure) [7,33] Bikeability Index BI, Area-Wide Bikeability Assessment Model (ABAM), Bike Score ® Safety Comfort Attractiveness Directness Coherence [34][35][36][37][38] Bikeability can be defined in different ways [39,40]. Bikeability measures how easy, safe, and convenient it is to ride a bike on a particular path or in a particular area [41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bicycle Infrastructure Design Principles in Urban Bikeability Indices: A Systematic Review

Ahmed,

Pirdavani,

Wets

et al. 2024

Bicycling is a sustainable form of micromobility and offers numerous health and environmental benefits. Scientific studies investigating bikeability have grown substantially, especially over the past decade. This paper presents a systematic literature review of the developed urban bikeability indices (BIs). The paper provides insight into the scientific literature on bikeability as a tool to measure bicycle environment friendliness; more importantly, the paper seeks to know if the BIs consider bicycle infrastructure design principles. Data extraction included identifying the geographical location, essential indicators, sample size and distribution, data source, the unit of analysis, measurement scale, methods used to weigh indicators, and identification of studies using bicycle design principles in BIs. The database search yielded 1649 research articles using different keywords and combinations, while 15 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. The studies were found to be conducted in various geographical locations. The unit of analysis for developing the index varied across studies, from street segments or bicycle lanes to zones within the city or even the entire city. The most commonly utilized method in developing urban BIs was a scoring and weighting system to weigh the indicators. The weighting methods include an equal weight system, survey-based and literature review-based methods, expert surveys, the analytic hierarchy process, and a weighted linear combination model. The essential criterion is bicycle infrastructure, such as bike lanes, routes, and bicycle paths as 14 studies considered it for the construction of the BIs. The review findings suggest a lack of consideration of all five bicycle infrastructure design principles, as only three studies considered them all, while others only included a subset. Safety and comfort are the most commonly considered principles, while coherence is the least considered principles in the BIs. It is crucial to consider all five bicycle infrastructure design principles to create a bicycle-friendly environment and attract more people to this sustainable mode of transportation.