The urban heat island effect is increasingly affecting the quality of life in cities, and detailed data is crucial in designing mitigation policies. However, weather stations are predominantly situated outside urban environments, limiting their ability to represent the varying air temperatures within street canyons. This data paper addresses this limitation by presenting a dataset of the modeled daily maximum urban heat island (UHImax) effect across 99 Dutch municipalities during the summer of 2023. This is achieved by implementing a semi-empirical equation that incorporates readily available meteorological variables and two key urban morphological indicators, namely the sky view factor and fractional vegetation cover. Two primary datasets are presented: (1) a high-resolution dataset of modeled UHImax, and (2) a sky view factor dataset. Both datasets are provided in GeoTIFF format at a 5-meter spatial resolution. Additionally, this paper presents a straightforward methodology for obtaining UHImax values for other periods. The datasets and accompanying methodology provide valuable resources for advancing urban climate research, urban planning and heat mitigation strategies in the Netherlands.

Researchers often use register data-based measures of neighborhood characteristics to estimate neighborhood effects. However, the underlying causal mechanisms might be based on the perception of such characteristics. The mismatch between the measures and perceptions is likely influenced by individuals’ characteristics and attitudes. This paper investigates the relationship between the measured percentages of low-income and foreign background neighbors and their perceptions. Using Dutch register data merged with survey data, we found that higher education is associated with the underestimation of both characteristics, but after controlling for individual institutional trust it becomes less significant to the perceived percentage of foreign background neighbors, and insignificant to that of low-income neighbors. Individuals with lower institutional trust are likely to overestimate both percentages. Older age, greater wealth and greater social embeddedness are associated with underestimation of both characteristics, and higher household income with the underestimation of the share of low-income neighbors. We find that trust in democratic and public institutions is associated with biased perceptions of social reality, which can be an important finding for the spatial inequality studies. Our results also suggest that urban research would benefit from augmenting administrative datasets with surveys and interviews.

Understanding the spatial patterns of social inequalities has been a longstanding concern in urban studies. Geodemographic classifications, which group neighbourhoods based on multiple social and physical dimensions, offer a useful tool for this purpose. However, most classifications rely on fixed single-scale administrative boundaries, while studies that adopt multiscale approaches often focus on a single dimension and cover only limited time periods. This limits our understanding of how urban social inequalities evolve over time and across spatial scales. In this study, we extend the geodemographic approach to incorporate multiple dimensions, time periods, and geographical scales, enabling a more comprehensive analysis of the spatio-temporal configuration of urban change. We develop multidimensional, multiscale, and longitudinal spatial profiles of residential contexts in the Metropolitan Agglomeration of Amsterdam (MAA) using bespoke neighbourhoods constructed from detailed population register data (1999–2022). Our results show that the interaction of socioeconomic status, migration background, life-course stages, and housing tenure provides a richer understanding of urban stratification than traditional models based solely on income or ethnicity. The longitudinal perspective reveals distinct timing differences in urban reconfigurations, such as gentrification and displacement, which emerge locally and consolidate more broadly over time. The multiscale approach highlights how patterns of urban change are scale-dependent, with large-scale dynamics, such as poverty suburbanisation and inner-city gentrification, coexisting with the formation of smaller enclaves in areas undergoing or at risk of change. These findings highlight the need for integrated multidimensional, temporal, and multiscale frameworks to better capture the evolving nature of sociospatial inequalities in cities.

Research on segregation and economic inequality is often limited to major capitals and conurbations, neglecting smaller cities. This oversight can lead to public policies based on insights that may not be universally applicable. Leveraging geo-coded register data, this study addresses this problem in the case of the Netherlands by computing income inequality and residential segregation annually in all urban areas from 2011 to 2022. Contrary to most literature, this paper shows that inequality and segregation have remained stable or decreased in most cases. In addition, when looking at how income is distributed among social segments, how segregated they are, and at which geographical scale segregation occurs, we find significant variation between urban areas. More unequal urban areas also tend to be more segregated, but patterns vary, and the same segregation levels can coexist with diverse inequality metrics. Four groups of urban areas are identified through a cluster analysis.

Neighborhood effects research focuses on the residential neighborhood, assuming it as the main spatial context relevant to individual outcomes. Individuals, however, are mobile and visit various spatial contexts other than the residential neighborhoods. This article conceptualizes contextual exposures to socioenvironmental factors in daily activity spaces and their relationship with residential exposures. By introducing regression toward the mean, we argue that mobility-based contextual exposures are, on average, less extreme than residential exposures. Previous neighborhood effects studies therefore tend to underestimate actual spatial contextual effects when they misrepresent residential neighborhood effects as the total contextual effects. Despite improved measurement accuracy with the transition from residence- to mobility-based exposures, we suggest the complexities remaining in the estimation of spatial contextual effects from a geographic perspective. These complexities include a possibly limited extent of neighborhood effects regression across neighborhoods and asymmetrical dispersion of between-individual contextual exposures within each neighborhood.

Traditionally, studies of spatial inequalities only consider one single dimension, such as income, and one spatial scale - usually a neighbourhood determined by administrative boundaries. Although the existing literature increasingly recognises the multifaceted nature of inequalities in cities, this paper introduces a novel approach by integrating the multidimensional and multiscale perspectives to understand the evolution of social and spatial inequalities over time. Drawing on clustering techniques based on factor analysis and using individual-level geocoded register data from the metropolitan agglomeration of Amsterdam, our methodology classifies neighbourhoods by grouping detailed residential locations with similar socioeconomic, demographic and housing characteristics across multiple geographical scales. Through sequence analysis, we identify trajectories of neighbourhood change from 1999 to 2022, revealing patterns in the timing, duration, and sequencing of shifts across various dimensions. Our results bridge gaps in the multidimensional and multiscale neighbourhood classification literatures, providing a better understanding of how social inequalities interact and overlap in space. By examining the path dependence between different dimensions of spatial and social inequalities, this study provides insights into the processes that produce and reproduce social stratification in cities that may act at different geographical scales for different groups of people. Moreover, the rich and granular data paint a detailed picture of how residential contexts are segregated and how the trajectories of neighbourhood change are distributed spatially. This research offers an innovative framework for visualise and study the dynamic evolution of urban structures over time.

Urbanizing river deltas are highly susceptible to sea level rise and extreme weather events such as floods and droughts. Water-related disasters are already happening more often due to climate change, rapid urbanization, unsustainable land use and aging infrastructure threatening a large fraction of human and natural environments in these low lying and sinking areas around the globe. As stress levels of climate change are accelerating, societal and physical transformations are essential for adapting our deltas to climate change. In the Netherlands, imagination and evidence by design in the form of a long-term spatial vision, played a pivotal role in the past century to set, share and accomplish a new direction to overcome flood disasters by altering the coastlines and riverbeds of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. The unprecedented rainfall in July 2021 and the storm in December 2021 which hit Western Europe revealed the effectiveness of this new direction. We therefore plea for a prominent role of design in climate science and delta management to imagine, analyse and communicate future perspectives for climate adaptation in urbanizing deltas.

As a growing number of Dutch higher education institutions become increasingly interested and active in university–community engagement, questions have arisen about their motivations, goals, and activities in this area. This paper aims to provide insight into the factors driving universities’ community engagement and how this is manifested in the Netherlands, considering, in particular, the role of marketization and corporate social responsibility. It thus offers an empirical foundation for understanding university–community engagement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with major stakeholders in university–community engagement at four Dutch universities, including members of the executive boards. It was found that university–community engagement shows several similarities to corporate social responsibility and is based on a complex mix of value-driven, performance-driven, and reaction-driven motivations. Three relationships between marketization and university–community engagement are identified, characterizing university–community engagement as a counteraction against marketization, an expression of marketization, and a result of marketization.

This comparative study of socio-economic segregation in European cities, involving researchers from 16 European countries, aims to examine the evolving geography of segregation over a 20-yeartimeframe and provide an up-to-date understanding of residential socio-economic segregation. By utilising three data points and a substantial number of case studies, this study stands out in its ability to offer a comprehensive observation and analysis of the levels and spatial dynamics of residential segregation in Europe. To achieve this, the study addresses the following research questions:

1. What are the current levels of residential socio-economic segregation in European cities? Do levels of segregation continue to increase?
2. How have the patterns of segregation changed over the past 20 years, and are these patterns and their trends of change similar between European cities?
3. What are the key factors contributing to the observed levels and spatial changes of residential segregation in European cities?

The paper includes the following case studies associated with the author teams with in-depth local knowledge and access to data: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bratislava, Dublin, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Riga, Rome, Stockholm, Tallinn, Vilnius and Warsaw. To ensure comparability, researchers adopted a consistent definition of functional urban areas and used small spatial units to analyse segregation levels and spatial patterns, following a pre-established and unified methodology. The empirical analysis draws on census or register-based data, from approximately 2001, 2011, and 2021. Socio-economic groups are distinguished based on occupational status and classified into Top, Middle, and Bottom categories. The study is currently in advanced progress.

Capital cities struggle with population growth that challenges existing infrastructure and affects the quality of urban life. The failure of local governments to manage urban deterioration motivates active resident groups to improve their neighborhoods, but they struggle to play a role in neighborhood governance in contexts where citizens’ engagement in public affairs is restricted. In this article we aim to understand active residents’ roles in the neighborhood governance process and how these roles unfold in a context that challenges citizen engagement in public life. We adopted a case study methodology and interviewed active residents and local officials from selected districts in Cairo, which revealed that active residents’ influence is limited mostly to neighborhood management and implementation activities. In this limited space, the role of active residents is confined to either that of the ‘fixer’ who restores existing services, or that of the struggling and intermittent ‘self-provider’, neither of whom can influence policy formulation. This study provides a structured and zoomed-out view of local activism in Cairo, offering a starting point for scholars and decision makers seeking to enhance active residents’ roles in Cairo.

This study examines how socio-spatial inequalities are associated with population concentration and de-concentration processes shaped by residential mobility. The study explores whether the patterns of residential mobility vary in different settlement system contexts. It reviews the cyclical urbanization models and the inequality of opportunities they provide in urban, suburban, and counter-urban contexts for individuals in various life stages. The theoretical models are tested by analysing individual-level data covering the entire populations of Estonia and Lithuania – two countries with similar social but different settlement system contexts. The study utilizes linked individual-level data from the 2011 and 2021 censuses, and harmonized variables in the two countries. The results show that individuals engaging in concentration, suburbanization, or de-concentration have distinct characteristics, with little differences between countries characterized with different settlement systems. While the life-course approach assumes that young people are most likely to urbanize (concentrate), those in family ages shift towards suburbanization, and older individuals tend to counter-urbanize (de-concentrate), our findings challenge these assumptions, demonstrating that young adults have a high likelihood of migration in all three directions. These findings call for more in-depth studies on the interplay between age and migration patterns that would go beyond the life-course approach and delve deeper into the residential decision-making of young people.

Compared to traditional communities, the residential environment in historic districts (HDs) is generally poor. Tourism development within HDs has affected these environments. As tailored assessment indicators are absent in HDs, this study introduces the historic district residential environment assessment indicator (HD-REAI) – a framework designed for the urban setting of HDs. The HD-REAI integrates Maslow’s theory and addresses the challenges and attributes of HDs. HD-REAI focuses on factors like housing property rights and district culture, which are pivotal for HDs. This enables a more nuanced and relevant evaluation of the residential environment in these areas. This study details the development of the HD-REAI and validates its efficacy through its application in two Northern Chinese HDs. The results demonstrate that the HD-REAI effectively assesses the environment, offering a specialized and context-sensitive tool. Moreover, different socioeconomic attributes have different effects on the assessment results. This study could provide a basis for constructing more refined and context-specific assessment tools to enhance residential environments in HDs.

Este artículo ofrece una evaluación detallada y longitudinal de la desigualdad económica y la segregación residencial en todas las zonas urbanas de los Países Bajos, cubriendo el periodo de 2003 a 2010. Al utilizar microdatos que abarcan la totalidad de la población del país, estimamos el nivel de segregación por ingresos mediante el Rank-Order Information Theory Index (ROITI), un indicador avanzado que se adapta a la naturaleza continua de la variable y no necesita establecer categorías de renta arbitrarias. Además, el ROITI permite una desagregación de la estimación al nivel de cada percentil, de forma que nos capacita para estimar la segregación de la pobreza y la segregación de la riqueza como dos elementos diferenciados. Las estimaciones muestran una asociación positiva entre desigualdad y segregación, aunque existe una variación considerable entre zonas urbanas y su evolución en el tiempo. Además, nuestros hallazgos confirman que los hogares más acomodados tienden a estar más separados en el espacio que la población más pobre. Sin embargo, los niveles de segregación de los diferentes segmentos de la distribución de los ingresos han variado de manera muy dispar entre las zonas urbanas de Países Bajos. Estos resultados indican que la segregación constituye un fenómeno distinto entre diferentes áreas geográficas, a lo largo del tiempo y entre distintos grupos sociales.

Social frontiers arise when there are sharp differences in the demographic composition of adjacent communities. This paper provides the first quantitative study of their impact on household mobility. We hypothesise that conflicting forces of white flight and territorial allegiance lead to asymmetrical effects, impacting residents on one side of the frontier more than the other due to differences in the range of housing options available to different groups, and different symbolic interpretations of the frontier. Using Dutch registry data for the city of Rotterdam we identify ethnic social frontier locations using a Bayesian spatial model (Dean et al., 2019), exploiting the data’s one hundred metre resolution to estimate frontiers at a very small spatial scale. Regression analysis of moving decisions finds that the ethnic asymmetry of the frontier matters more than ethnicity of individual households. On the ethnic minority side of the frontier, households of all ethnicities in the 28–37 age range have reduced probability of moving compared to non-frontier parts of the city. The opposite is true on the Dutch native side of the frontier. We supplement this analysis with flow models which again find strong frontier effects. Our findings illustrate how the study of social frontiers can shed light on local population dynamics and neighbourhood change.

Emerging longitudinal research on the relationship between commuting mode and psychological wellbeing draws exclusively from cities in developed countries and the findings are not consistent. Our study contributes to the evidence base from urban China, where rapid urban growth has raised great concerns for urbanites’ commuting problems and psychological stress risks. Drawing upon the China Health and Nutrition Survey (2006–2015), we followed a quasi-longitudinal design to examine changes in commuting mode and the associations with long-term psychological stress. Crucially, the neighbourhood-level urbanicity scale was incorporated to analyse geographic variations in the commuting-stress relationship over time. The results show that maintaining car commuting and long-duration active commuting were associated with lower levels of psychological stress, while long-duration motorised commuting trips by car or public transport were predictive of higher stress levels. Moreover, high-urbanicity areas involved more active commuting trips and short motorised commuting trips, which were beneficial to long-term psychological wellbeing. In contrast, the commuting-related stress risks were noticeable in medium urbanicity areas, where the commuting duration by public transport was extremely high. Based on the socio-institutional context of urban growth in China, we recommend that urban governments should change the focus from expanding urban development land to improving urban amenities and urbanites’ wellbeing.

In 1969 Thomas C. Schelling published his paper “Models of Segregation” and in 1971 he published a follow-up paper introducing “Dynamic Models of Segregation”. Schelling's papers developed the theoretical models of interactive dynamics of individual residential choices, resulting in pronounced patterns of residential segregation at the city level. Even after 50+ years, the topic of residential segregation and sorting remains as relevant as when Schelling published his papers. The two Schelling papers have been cited more than 8000 times together, and have made a strong impact on the residential segregation literature and beyond. In this paper, we examine how Schelling's ideas have impacted empirical research on residential segregation, and thus contributed to a greater understanding of urban processes. We find that few empirical papers explicitly test the Schelling models in residential segregation studies, and there are a growing number of influential papers in the field of segregation that do not reference Schelling. However, the papers by Schelling have served as a source of inspiration for a diverse set of empirical studies, new ways of defining neighbourhoods and developing more comprehensive theories of segregation.

It has been nearly fifteen years since a large European Union–funded project called RESTATE explored challenges in housing estates throughout several European countries and served as a clearinghouse for the exchange of ideas for counteracting negative trends in large housing estates (van Kempen et al. 2005). Since that time, a series of riots in the Paris banlieues and in the “Million Homes Programme” suburbs in Stockholm have revealed that many problems remain. Major European newspapers, including The Guardian, frequently publish articles about deep social problems in housing estates, the poor image from which they suffer, and dissident groups that reside in them. Families with resources often move away from large housing estates, and housing estates contribute to increasing segregation levels in European cities (Tammaru et al. 2016a). Immigration currently introduces new groups to European cities, and their initial places of settlement are low-cost neighborhoods, often in large housing estates (Wessel 2016). Moreover, new challenges arise, such as the ongoing aging of buildings along with their environments, which necessitates new investments and raises challenges related to sustainability, energy reduction, and aging populations. With many cities operating on austerity budgets and lacking cash to invest in improving housing and neighborhoods, now is a good time to revisit the challenges faced by large housing estates in European cities.

This essay presents the key findings of the book Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation and Policy Challenges, and is structured around ten takeaway messages. These messages convey, on the one hand, that few substantial changes have occurred in large housing estates in Europe since the RESTATE project, but they also carefully clarify some of the strategies for improvement that might help to secure a solid future for the dwellings and inhabitants of Europe’s large housing estates.

Findings from past studies including High-Rise Housing in Europe (Turkington et al. 2004) and the RESTATE project (Van Kempen et al. 2005) provide in-depth evidence of the varieties of change in large housing estates in Europe through the mid-2000s. A recent book entitled Socio-Economic Segregation in European Capital Cities (Tammaru et al. 2016b) documents growing levels of segregation across Europe, suggesting an increasing overlap of ethnic and social segregation often to be found in large housing estates. Our current book focuses on the formation and later socio-spatial trajectories of large housing estates in Europe. The long-term growth in social inequalities in Europe, a growing number of immigrants in European cities seeking affordable housing, and the physical aging of apartment buildings form key policy challenges related to large housing estates in Europe.

This essay provides comparative city- and metropolitan-level evidence of the origins, trajectories of change, and future prospects of large housing estates. It specifically investigates the actions needed to realistically improve the fortunes of housing estates experiencing downward trends and pathways to enhance life for the residents living in them. This chapter is organized around ten synthesized takeaway messages distilled from the sixteen chapters of the book Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation and Policy Challenges.

There is a longstanding interest in the causes and consequences of socio-spatial inequalities in cities. A large literature has emerged on so-called neighbourhood effects, which seeks to understand how living in neighbourhoods of concentrated poverty affects a range of individual outcomes, such as health, income, education and general wellbeing (Galster, 2012). The literature on neighbourhood effects has developed rapidly in the last three decades. It is now common practice that studies of neighbourhood effects use geocoded longitudinal individual-level data and employ a variety of (often econometric) approaches in an attempt to reduce bias from non-random sorting into neighbourhoods (Knies et al. 2021). Studies of neighbourhood effects have also increasingly looked to incorporate more personal geographic contexts replacing ‘off the shelf’ administrative units with bespoke neighbourhoods (Johnston et al., 2005; Andersson & Malmberg, 2014; Petrović et al. 2022). The most common example of bespoke neighbourhoods are egohoods – neighbourhoods placing everyone at the centre of their own personal residential space (Hipp & Boessen, 2013). More recently, multiscale approaches have been used, whereby neighbourhood characteristics are measured at multiple scales of bespoke neighbourhoods (Petrović et al., 2022). It has been argued that for both theoretical and empirical reasons, the term ‘neighbourhood effects’ should be replaced by the more encompassing term ‘spatial context effects’, as many of the assumed spatial effects are not confined to residential neighbourhoods and the contestable meaning of neighbourhood distracts (Petrović et al. 2019).

Rationale: Neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation is strongly related to health-risk behaviours, which are predictors of overall health and mortality. During the Covid-19 pandemic, individuals have been forced to spend more time within their residential areas, which might have had an effect on health-risk behaviours. Objective: We assess the consequences of living in a more or less deprived neighbourhood during the pandemic on individual behavioural changes in four health-related outcomes: smoking, drinking, physical activity and healthy eating. We hypothesise that the pandemic and related lock-downs had negative effects on health-related behaviours, but that this negative effect had been stronger for people living in more deprived areas. We additionally explore sex and ethnicity as sources of heterogeneity in these effects. Methods: We use data from four nationally representative cohort studies in England. We perform longitudinal individual and neighbourhood fixed effects estimations focusing on comparing the pre-pandemic period with the first lockdown (May 2020) period and up to one year after the outbreak of the pandemic (March 2021). Results: During the first lockdown, as compared to pre-pandemic levels, on average, people smoked more, drunk more and did more physical activity. However, compared to people in less deprived neighbourhoods, people living in more deprived areas showed a smaller increase in their levels of physical activity, consumed less fruit and vegetables and increased the number of cigarettes smoked. We additionally find that the combined effect of Covid-19 and area deprivation varies significantly by both sex and ethnicity. Conclusion: Results add to evidence on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns on health-risk behaviours, highlighting the relative contribution of the neighbourhood environment and individual characteristics. We argue that reducing levels of neighbourhood deprivation may contribute to positively influence behaviours, especially for some sub-groups of the population, leading to a reduction of social inequalities in health.

An extensive body of research has documented the deleterious effects of community violence on adolescent development and behavior. Much of this research focuses on how exposure to violence structures social interaction, and, ultimately, how it motivates youth to engage in troublesome behavior. This study builds upon this body of research to demonstrate how exposure to community violence strains relationships between adolescents and their caregivers, resulting in higher levels of interpersonal conflict. Drawing on five waves of longitudinal panel data (n = 778; observations = 3458; 55 % female), combined with police records of violent crime in Utrecht, the Netherlands, a hybrid tobit regression documents how exposure to local and nearby violence affects child-parent conflict. The results indicate that youth who experience high levels of neighborhood violence report higher levels of conflict with parents than youth with low exposure to neighborhood violence. These results are consistent across different levels of neighborhood aggregation.