Skip to content

When you choose to publish with PLOS, your research makes an impact. Make your work accessible to all, without restrictions, and accelerate scientific discovery with options like preprints and published peer review that make your work more Open.

PLOS BLOGS EveryONE

World Cities Day 2023 – Recent Research at PLOS ONE

World Cities Day, designated by the UN General Assembly and first celebrated in 2014, takes place annually on October 31st. The theme of this year’s event is “Financing sustainable urban future for all” and aims to explore ways to facilitate funding for sustainable urban development, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies. This post highlights some publications in PLOS ONE relating to this topic from the preceding year.


Image showing a disused factory with plants beginning to reclaim the structure.
Image credit: Lost Places Factory by 652234, Pixabay Licence

Transforming brownfields into urban greenspaces: A working process for stakeholder analysis

Agyemang FSK, Memon R, Fox S (2023) Mapping urban living standards and economic activity in developing countries with energy data. PLoS ONE 18(9): e0291824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291824

This article reports a study carried out by a team of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, to develop a working process by which urban greenspaces can be transformed from brownfields through engagement of stakeholders, including those contributing financial resources as well as service providers and users. The authors applied the method to a study site in Polstjärnegatan, Sweden and report on the outcome. They suggest that this process can be applied to other sites in other countries.


Image showing the Earth at night above Southeast Asia and the Moon.
Image credit: Earth Moon by 51581, Pixabay Licence

Mapping urban living standards and economic activity in developing countries with energy data

Agyemang FSK, Memon R, Fox S (2023) Mapping urban living standards and economic activity in developing countries with energy data. PLoS ONE 18(9): e0291824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291824

A team of authors from the University of Manchester, UK and the University of Qatar investigate ways to address the lack of data needed to inform urban planning and policy in developing countries. Aiming to find suitable proxies for living standards and economic activity data, the authors find that night-time light data for Karachi, Pakistan to be useful in predicting population density and economic activity, while electricity meter data were more useful as a proxy for living standards.


Image showing a pavement brick with a symbol for a bicycle path on it.
Image credit: Bicycle Path Road Sign by 652234, Pixabay Licence

How much behaviour change is required for the investment in cycling infrastructure to be sustainable? A break-even analysis

Candio P, Frew E (2023) How much behaviour change is required for the investment in cycling infrastructure to be sustainable? A break-even analysis. PLoS ONE 18(4): e0284634. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284634

Researchers from the University of Trento, Italy and the University of Birmingham, UK use the Health Economic Assessment Tool to evaluate the economic value from factors including health benefits and reduced air pollution generated by an additional regular cyclist. They compare this against the cost of developing the required infrastructure to estimate the financial break-even point for such development using a planned cycleway in the UK as a case study. This tool was developed by the World Health Organization, who also observe World Cities Day each year alongside the UN and its partners. The authors demonstrate its use in providing policy information for decision makers when planning similar transport infrastructure.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Add your ORCID here. (e.g. 0000-0002-7299-680X)

Related Posts
Back to top