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Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. Jason Corburn .

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Phil Brown, Rebecca Gasior Altman, Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. Jason Corburn ., International Journal of Epidemiology , Volume 36, Issue 2, April 2007, Pages 475–476, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dym059

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This is an excellent contribution to the growing literature that examines environmental health and justice by focusing on how laypeople and their community organizations detect environmental health problems, conduct research independently or in collaboration with scientists and then effectively press for remediation and future prevention. The ‘street science’ driven by ‘local knowledge’ that Corburn documents uses ‘local insights joined with professional techniques’ to examine four efforts in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York.

Corburn applies his theoretical toolkit to examine subsistence fishing in the East River and efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency and New York City officials to document cumulative exposures, asthma in the Brooklyn Latino community, childhood lead poisoning and efforts to address sandblasting of the Williamsburg Bridge and localized air pollutants in the region. He chooses them because they are contested environmental health hazards for which there is an organized sector of the community, because the activists use environmental health science and because laypeople challenge the descriptions and prescriptions of the situation offered by professionals. It is exciting to see the creative cultural, scientific and political efforts by groups such as El Puente and the Toxic Avengers youth group.

Several notable approaches to research have become prominent in citizen campaigns and in some government and academic grant programmes—participatory action research, community-based participatory research, popular epidemiology—and these have reshaped environmental health organizing. Many scholars working in this area have found kinships with environmental justice activists who press for action on unequal racial and class distributions of hazards. Together, the scholars and activists working in this arena creatively expand the notion of environmental health and justice to include community development, traffic patterns, crime and violence, school quality, food justice and virtually all elements of social life. However, a good deal of case study research on popular epidemiology and community-based research more narrowly focus on the conduct and translation of science; Corburn extends his analysis to the multi-faceted and creative ways groups not only conduct science, but also how they leverage it to support their organizing. Corburn richly describes how citizens group merge science with other cultural and political tactics, as most vividly seen in his portrayal of the Toxic Avengers youth group, whose wall murals breathe community life into their organizing activities.

This work is grounded in science, technology and society studies. From one of his mentors, Sheila Jasanoff, Corburn applies the notion of ‘co-production’ of science in which ‘science and politics are interdependent, each drawing from the other in a dynamic iterative process’. Corburn's case studies are great examples of this dynamic interplay. For example, Corburn effectively shows us that ‘street science’ contributes extensively to many groups of actors. It helps professionals reveal problems they may have overlooked, fills data gaps, facilitates access to otherwise unreachable officials or regulators, expands the scope of implementation practices and boosts their success and improves trust and credibility. Street science helps citizens in their community organizing efforts, neighbourhood empowerment, community control, ability to engage in solutions and capacity to expand the range of responses to environmental hazards.

Perhaps one of the most compelling themes in Street Science is Corburn's portrayal of the dynamic implications of research on organizing and politics. This is a tricky issue that many analysts have been unwilling to tackle, and it is good that Corburn raises it. Corburn wisely points to one of the problems seen in some communities that strategically leverage science around environmental health; the necessity to link up with scientific allies means that social movement organizations have much competition for research partners and funds, which can thwart movement- and coalition-building.

Another tricky issue is what comes out of the citizen–science alliance. As portrayed in Corburn's El Puente case, activists learned through participation in scientific research that air pollution was not the primary cause of asthma, though in their organizing campaigns, they had been making that claim. This is another liability of engaging in science—it might create knowledge that calls into question community/movement representations of environmental health risks, exposures, or the exposure–health connections. Still, the survey work helped redirect El Puente's work, better informed them of how their constituents perceived asthma, and put into place strong asthma management and prevention trainings. In another example, Corburn portrayed one instance where activists conducted research to elicit government response; and yet, as Corburn notes, even solid scientific knowledge can be ignored by officials, as activists learned after collecting information on lead hazards from sandblasting the Williamsburg bridge.

Finally, though Corburn usefully demonstrates how activists leverage ‘street science’ to interrogate scientific expertise, we wondered how different forms of scientific expertise altered the organizing campaigns and scientific debates he describes. In Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Corburn portrays a myriad of professionals with which activists must deal: EPA regulators, state-scientists, city planners, lawyers, academic-scientists, health care workers/doctors and public health professionals. We were curious to know a little more than the book tells us about the differences across these different institutionalized forms of expertise, since activists must adapt and change tactics and strategies depending on who they are dealing with. But that is a minor problem, perhaps for further specification of ‘street science’ in reshaping institutional knowledge, expertise and scientific practice. While all readers interested in environmental health and justice will find this book a major contribution to the literature, there is a special message for public administrators and urban planners as possible intermediaries in adjudication between professionals and communities.

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Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. Jason Corburn

International Journal of Epidemiology

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What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

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When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

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Virtual reality better than video for evoking fear, spurring climate action

Virtual reality may prove more effective at promoting environmental advocacy by evoking fear, according to new research.

Depicting worst-case climate scenarios like expanding deserts and dying coral reefs may better motivate people to support environmental policies when delivered via virtual reality, according to a research team led by Penn State that studied how VR and message framing affect the impact of environmental advocacy communications. The study findings, published in the journal Science Communication, may help advocacy groups decide how best to frame and deliver their messages.

The researchers examined individuals' responses to climate change messaging when delivered through traditional video and desktop virtual reality -- VR programs like Google Earth that can run on a mobile phone or computer. They found that loss-framed messages, or those that transitioned from a positive to negative climate scenario to emphasize what humanity has to lose, were more effective at convincing people to support environmental policies when delivered via VR. Gain-framed messages, which depict a more hope-inspiring change from a negative to a positive environmental outcome, had a greater impact when delivered through traditional video format.

"The findings of this study suggest that in terms of seeking support for climate change policy, it's the combination of the medium and the message that can determine the most effective solution for promoting a particular advocacy message," said S. Shyam Sundar, senior author and the James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects at Penn State. "For consumers, the media literacy message here is that you're much more emotionally vulnerable or more likely to be swayed by a VR presentation of an advocacy message, especially if the presentation focuses on loss."

The research team created two desktop virtual reality experiences, one gain-framed and one loss-framed, using the Unity3D game engine. In addition to the loss and gain framed messages, the VR programs also depicted healthy and unhealthy coral reef ecosystems, accompanied by lighter or darker ambient lighting and hopeful or sad audio, and allowed users to explore the aquatic environments. The researchers used the programs to record loss- and gain-framed videos based on the VR experiences.

They chose to depict coral reef ecosystems because corals are one of the species most endangered by the effects of climate change and far removed from many peoples' lived experiences.

"It's difficult to communicate environmental issues to non-scientists because the consequences are usually long-term and not easily foreseeable," said Mengqi Liao, first author and doctoral candidate in mass communication at Penn State. "Not to mention that it's usually very hard to bring people to an environment that has been damaged by climate change, such as coral reefs, which, based on decades of data collected in part from NASA's airborne and satellite missions, have declined rapidly over the past 30 years. This is where VR comes in handy. You can bring the environment to people and show them what would happen if we fail to act."

The researchers recruited 130 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk and asked them to complete a pre-questionnaire to measure variables like attitudes toward climate change and political ideology. Then they randomly assigned participants to a video or desktop VR experience. Within each of these groups, half saw the gain-framed messaging while the other half saw the loss-framed messaging.

Participants in the loss-framed experiences saw healthy then unhealthy coral ecosystems, with a message explaining the negative consequences of failing to adopt climate change mitigation behaviors. Those in the gain-framed versions saw unhealthy then healthy coral ecosystems, with messages explaining the positive impacts of adopting climate policies. After completing the experiences, participants answered a questionnaire to measure how likely they would be to support environmental policies.

The researchers found that loss-framed messages were most effective at motivating people to support climate change mitigation policies when delivered through desktop VR. Gain-framed messages were most effective when delivered in video format.

Virtual reality is inherently interesting and attention-grabbing, and it has a low cognitive barrier to entry -- even small children with limited reading ability can use it, according to Sundar.

"The nickname for VR is empathy machine. It can generate better empathy because you're one with the environment," he said. "Loss-framed messaging tends to be more effective, more about emotions like fear rather than hope. Sometimes fear can be better represented in visually resplendent media like VR."

Gain-framed messaging, on the other hand, tends to involve more thinking about the consequences of action or inaction for the environment and what humans have to gain, Sundar explained. The movement and interactivity that come with VR may distract too much from the kind of thinking needed to process the potential gains highlighted in that type of messaging, which is better suited for traditional video or text.

"With politicized topics like climate change, people are guided by their motivated reasoning, whereby an individual readily accepts information consistent with their worldview and ignores or rejects information that is inconsistent with that view," Liao said. "Our study suggests that showing stark portrayals of environmental loss can be persuasive in spurring people into action, to support climate change issues regardless of their pre-existing worldviews."

Pejman Sajjadi, who completed the work as a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State and is now with Meta, also contributed to the research.

• Virtual Environment
• Engineering
• Environmental Awareness
• Global Warming
• Virtual Reality
• Video Games
• Computer Modeling
• Environmental Policies
• Ocean Policy
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• Environmental impact assessment
• Virtual reality
• Scientific misconduct
• Funding policies for science
• Atmospheric chemistry
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Story Source:

Materials provided by Penn State . Original written by Francisco Tutella. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Mengqi Liao, Pejman Sajjadi, S. Shyam Sundar. How Does VR Affect Emotional Appeal and Persuasiveness of Gain Versus Loss-Framed Messages? Science Communication , 2024; DOI: 10.1177/10755470241229453

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Street Experiments and COVID ‐19: Challenges, Responses and Systemic Change

Lennert verhulst.

1 Department of Geography, Ghent University, Gent Belgium

Corneel Casier

Frank witlox.

2 Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Tartu Estonia

Cities have introduced street experiments, among others, in order to cope with the urgent health challenges caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic. They are primarily intended to allow people to move safely in urban spaces according to physical distancing requirements. It has been suggested that street experiments have the potential to not only respond to pressing needs, but to also trigger systemic change in mobility. This paper explores urban case studies and demonstrates how pandemic‐induced street experiments provide a solution to specific challenges to mobility and public space. There are, however, issues concerning equity and citizen participation. Finally, we find that pandemic‐induced street experiments have a higher acceptance among the public and authorities, a more permanent character and a greater embeddedness in long‐term planning agendas. The paper concludes that the pandemic stimulated the introduction of street experiments and fostered their potential to enable systemic change in urban mobility.

INTRODUCTION

The COVID‐19 pandemic required cities to respond quickly to sanitation and health challenges that were often new and previously unconsidered. Physical distancing, and thus limitations on travel, are considered a very effective way to prevent virus spread (Chu et al .  2020 ). Lockdowns were introduced in order to guarantee physical distancing, with the accompanying necessary closure of services and restrictions on gatherings in both indoor and outdoor spaces. Anticipating this last challenge, cities worldwide implemented emergency measures which were often mobility‐ and traffic‐restrictive, and took place in the public space, and more specifically in streets and on squares (Honey‐Rosés et al .  2020 ). Measures involved installing pop‐up cycling lanes and extending pavements, freeing up parking spaces for eating facilities, and blocking entire streets for recreational activities. Also referred to as ‘pandemic pop‐ups’ (Flynn & Thorpe  2021 ), many of these interventions can be regarded as ‘street experiments’. Bertolini ( 2020 ) defines a street experiment as ‘an intentional, temporary change of the street use, regulation and/or form, aimed at exploring systemic change in urban mobility, away from “streets for traffic”, and towards “streets for people”’ (Bertolini  2020 , p. 735). Street experiments are not a completely new concept in urban planning. Tactical urbanism, do‐it‐yourself urbanism, urban acupuncture, and planning‐by‐doing are some of the terms used to refer to new forms of urban planning tools, where cheap and quick short‐term actions are intended to achieve long‐term goals, mainly focused on the location of the intervention itself. They are responses to conventional city making that evolve around manifesting needs for change, developing tools for engagement and prototyping. Criticisms include that participation is often uneven, however, and may prevent public engagement and interventions in a way that might be related to gentrification, forms of displacement and state disinvestment (Thorpe et al .  2017 ).

The measures taken by cities and local authorities during the pandemic varied greatly, and some meet this definition more than others. It is still open for discussion, however, whether these measures – given that street experiments can be seen as quite disruptive in relation to more conventional or traditional planning standards (Combs & Pardo  2021 ; Glaser & Krizek  2021 ; Lowe et al .  2022 ) – offer an opportunity to transition to paradigms that prioritise forms of sustainable mobility (Glaser & Krizek  2021 ), and that could eventually lead to systemic change in the mobility system (Bertolini  2020 ).

It has already been suggested that experimental approaches in street design and in mobility regulation during the pandemic played a specific role in tackling the effects of the pandemic as a whole, through responding to urgent needs. Reardon et al . ( 2020 ) state that ‘reallocating and reprogramming main street space—from parking or traffic to people and local businesses—is an essential part of a holistic pandemic recovery’ (p. 2). Honey‐Rosés et al . ( 2020 ) point out that several public health objectives are met by freeing space for pedestrians and active mobility, mainly through physical activity and the reduction of pollution exposure.

It is not only the recent need for physical distancing that urges us to change course, however (Glaser & Krizek  2021 ; Macharis et al .  2021 ). Social and ecological questions have arisen in cities worldwide in recent decades. The ongoing crisis has highlighted – and in some cases even reinforced – rather than generated, some of the key problems challenging our society, environment, and current way of living. Taylor and Laville ( 2020 ) suggest that initial schemes of mobility measures during the pandemic might ‘point the way to more radical long‐term measures that will help tackle inequality and the climate crisis’. Many of the challenges that became more apparent are related to mobility and public space, and more specifically to car traffic and city streets. These temporary changes might actually respond to more than pandemic‐caused urgencies.

This paper has two goals. First we seek to examine how street experiments work in practice, and to what extent measures taken at the level of streets and in public spaces respond to problems and challenges posed by the pandemic. We focus on two domains: (i) the use of public space, and (ii) effects on mobility, and the social interdependent component they have. Secondly, we identify the role of the pandemic in the relationship between street experiments and their potential to enable systemic change. Here we build further on the question asked by de Bruijn and Bertolini ( 2020 ), regarding whether temporary COVID‐19 measures in public spaces can be regarded as transition experiments. The hypothesis is that street experiments might offer a resolution to the problems and challenges that emerged or were reinforced throughout the pandemic in these two domains (see also Sengers et al .  2019 ).

We adopt the following structure to answer our questions. First, based on an explorative literature review of several urban case studies, we provide an overview of the challenges and problems that arose during the pandemic at street level in the two aforementioned domains, and consider in what sense a form of street experiment can help to solve these problems. This overview will then be used to analyse whether these experiments will or could have a lasting effect. To this end we focus on creating greater acceptance, embeddedness in long‐term planning agenda, and a permanent character.

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS

The pandemic had huge effects on many aspects of modern city life. At the peak of the near‐global lockdown, the daily lives of many people were disrupted, forcing them to dramatically change their everyday routines as workplaces, stores and shops closed or went online, opportunities for entertainment and socialising were banned, and travel was restricted to walking and cycling in the local neighbourhood (Hook et al .  2021 ). As a consequence, people also started to rediscover their local public space, new forms of active micro‐mobility, and the importance of their neighbouring economy. It is no coincidence that these three domains are connected to a very strong social component. The streets are key here. Streets make up a major part of public space, and are traditionally the physical space where mobility takes place. Public spaces host possibilities for commercial activities, such as esplanades and vending stalls, which are linked to the economy. Whenever one of these domains is affected, the others are as well. Figure  1 shows this interrelatedness. As the focus of this paper lies in the relationship between street experiments and systemic change in urban mobility, it will examine the domains of public space and mobility. This does not mean that the effects on the local economy domain– nor on any other aspect of urban life – could be seen, as the emphasis of pandemic interventions was (after assuring health) increasingly on enabling economic activity (Flynn & Thorpe  2021 ).

Street experiments as a means to social life.

It needs to be noted that the effect of the pandemic differed across countries (and cities), and over time, for two reasons. First, the COVID‐19 pandemic was not a homogenous period in terms of gravity and restrictions (see for example Google COVID‐19 Community Mobility Trends [GCCMT]  2021 ). Periods of strict lockdown had far greater consequences on mobility patterns and on public space use. Street experiments that involved a social interaction aspect, for example, often took place when there were fewer restrictions in place, and thus the need for physical distancing was less prominent. Still, that does not mean physical distancing could be neglected. The same is true for mobility related measures, which were necessary to smooth traffic flows and guarantee physical distancing when people could move freely outside again (Combs & Pardo  2021 ). Secondly, public space is socially produced, and, thus, lived and experienced very differently from place to place (Gottdiener  2010 ). This means that the implications for public space, both due to the pandemic and due to the implementation of street experiments, varies considerably. The same is true for mobility. The next two paragraphs will critically discuss some important challenges brought by the pandemic, in each of the two domains, and how street experiments responded to these challenges (for an overview, see Table  1 ).

An overview of challenges, problems and solutions following pandemic‐induced street experiments. The numbers between brackets in the ‘challenges and problems’ column refer to the confluence of the three domains, as indicated in Figure  1

Sources: NACTO ( 2020 ); Schlossberg et al . ( 2021 ) and various case studies.

The following methodology was employed. First, the problems and challenges that emerged during the pandemic were identified according to an exploratory literature review. Relevant keywords were then identified through this literature review, such as ‘pandemic pop‐up’, ‘COVID‐19 measure’, ‘mobility measure/restriction’, ‘street closure’, ‘temporary intervention’, ‘tactical urbanism’, and ‘street space reallocation’. These keywords were used to select the case studies by systematically searching relevant articles in the scientific Web of Science database and popular media (newspapers and magazines), after which relevant examples – meaning those with a link to the problems and challenges identified earlier – were singled out. The case studies were then assessed on their ability to respond to the challenges and problems identified, with special attention on issues that might arise.

Public space

In many parts of the world there was a restriction on the use of public space in order to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect public health (Honey‐Rosés et al .  2020 ). The overall trend shows measures which require the avoidance of public spaces during peak hours, especially during strict lockdowns. During periods when the virus was less rampant, more people start crowding outdoor spaces, which required specific regulations. Four main challenges were identified to which street experiments and public space‐related measures responded: providing physical distancing, the need for and access to qualitative open and green outdoor spaces, social interaction in a COVID‐19‐safe way, and ensuring the fair use of public spaces.

Street experiments assisted with the objective of guaranteeing physical distancing in public spaces, especially in overcrowded streets, squares and on small pavements, in multiple ways. NACTO ( 2020 ) listed some examples (see Table  1 ). In Ghent (Belgium) and in New York, temporary ‘gathering circles’ (Stad Gent  2020 ) were drawn on squares and in parks, which indicated where and how many people could sit together in a safe way. There was some opposition to this type of initiative, however, as the space could be ‘too defined or determined’ and the circles limited the imagination regarding other types of uses in this space. Shirgaokar et al . ( 2021 ) showed that pavements where physical distancing could be maintained were positively experienced. The widening of pavements not only expands walking space physically, but also visually, which in turn has a positive effect on passenger comfort (NACTO  2020 ). It also narrows street space, resulting in cars slowing down, creating a strong link between these type of interventions and the mobility‐public space domains.

Open and green outdoor spaces allow for practicing different types of activities, such as playing, exercising, and socialising. The pandemic, clearly stressed the need for these types of activities and for qualitative open and green spaces (Combs & Pardo  2021 ; Fischer & Gopal  2021 ). In most parts of the world (accept for the majority of Latin American countries), there was an increase in visits to parks and green spaces during the pandemic period, in both periods of lockdown and in periods with fewer restrictions (GCCMT  2021 ). A study by Geng et al . ( 2021 ) shows that restrictions on social gathering, movement, and the closure of workplaces and indoor recreational places had a positive effect on park visits worldwide; however, in many big cities across the globe, parks and green spaces are not equally accessible for all and are often underrepresented in low‐income and minority neighbourhoods (Abercrombie et al .  2008 ). Still, as noted by Jacobs ( 1961 ), parks and green spaces are not the only type of urban outdoor spaces which allow for physical activity, play and social interaction. Streets are often the closest and most accessible type of public space to our homes, and form the cornerstone of community life. In many cases, however, their potential as a space for leisure and encounter is neglected, as car traffic dominates their use. A street experiment can respond to this imbalance by providing a more pleasant and accessible space for residents for different types of activities. Fischer and Gopal ( 2021 ) show that urban streetscapes support outdoor recreation and act as a surrogate for greenspaces. The Vakantiestraten in Amsterdam provided more space for play and socialising, and in this way provided an alternative to a holiday abroad (Gemeente Amsterdam  2020a ). It needs to be noted that as more vulnerable population groups run a higher risk of being infected with COVID‐19 (De Smet  2020 ) – mainly as a result of living in overcrowded or bad‐quality housing, making compliance with social distancing more difficult (in Patel et al .  2020 ) – they might have an even greater need for accessible and qualitative open spaces. Critics note that pandemic‐induced street interventions often target white, middle‐class population groups, and in this way overlook the urgent needs of the most vulnerable (Beeckmans & Oosterlynck  2021 ).

Further, the limitation to social interaction had huge consequences for people and communities. Even when strict lockdowns were lifted, it was often still vital to keep enough distance between individuals when going outside. A complete reconfiguration of a street in Chillán, Chile, demonstrated how a school could organise classes, lunch, and play in a COVID‐19‐safe way by moving these activities to the adjacent street (La Discusión  2021 ). At the same time, this intervention allowed for safe active travel and social interaction by others through a clear delineation of the space through activities (play, teaching, moving around, etc.). The availability of space for walking, cycling and socialising during the pandemic has been associated with positive changes in the quality of life (Shirgaokar et al .  2021 ), and thus a positive effect in the social dimension. Temporary reconfigurations of the street could also contribute to the safe organisation of gatherings and manifestations (see Table  1 ).

Finally, under the rationale of re‐opening the economy, many catering facilities used public space to expand their outdoor seating. For example, many cities in the US adopted temporary ordinances that allowed bars and restaurants to use parking spaces for their seating (PBOT  2020 ). Although the use of street space and other public space for commercial activities might help businesses to recover, however – and might have a reducing effect on local traffic – this new allocation might trigger conflicts with pedestrians and cyclists. Seating areas were often extended onto pavements, and were thus at the cost of walking space instead of parking or street space, resulting in frustration for pedestrians (Honey‐Rosés et al .  2020 ). Another criticism is that the expansion of outdoor seating means that public space is being regulated – ironically often in an unregulated form (Flynn & Thorpe  2021 ) – on the basis of consumption, making particular public spaces less accessible for some (Beeckmans & Oosterlynck  2021 ). This unregulated form of space appropriation also means that both access to public spaces and mobility may be restricted.

Travel restrictions and lockdowns resulted in a sudden huge change in mobility (Hook et al .  2021 ). Mobility decreased everywhere during the pandemic, but particularly in public transport (GCCMT  2021 ; van Wee & Witlox  2021 ). This is mainly the result of less trust in public transport due to the risk of infection, and has resulted in a shift towards walking and cycling (Abdullah et al .  2020 ) – as far as evidence indicates for the USA, Australia, Canada and a large part of Europe (Eco‐Counter  2021 in Buehler & Pucher  2021 ). This also indicates an increase in cycle mode share. In the city of Brussels, Belgium, for example, increased numbers of cyclists can be seen during the weekends – at least outside periods of strict lockdown (Macharis et al .  2021 ). Still, the question remains of whether this is only due to pandemic‐related causes (avoidance of public transport, measures to encourage cycling – such as pop‐up cycling lanes – and measures to discourage driving) or if this change was already underway before the pandemic. This is a question which research still needs to address. A study by Kraus and Koch ( 2021 ), carried out in 106 European cities, shows that the provision of cycling infrastructure instigated an increase in cycling of between 11% and 48%, on average. On the other hand, Buehler and Pucher ( 2021 ) found that COVID‐19 accelerated the implementation of cycling facilities due to both a growth in cycling, and increased public and political support. Either way, there has also been increased interest in cycling on the part of cities themselves. Kilometres of cycling infrastructure have been implemented, often at the cost of driving lanes, and cities have been installing cycle parking and bicycle sharing facilities (Kraus & Koch  2021 ). Shirgaokar et al . ( 2021 ) note, via an analysis of Twitter data in the USA and Canada, that a limitations to space were perceived for every user other than automobiles, which argues that space should be freed for uses such as walking, cycling, and socialising. Two main challenges were identified on which street experiments and mobility‐related measures responded: road safety and access to safe travel for all, and the need for physical activity and active modes of travel.

Improving road safety and safe access to travel remains essential. For example, injuries and fatalities related to cycling accidents in Europe are still very high, and are not decreasing (Adminaité‐Fodor & Jost  2020 ). Some scholars point out that the pressure on hospitals due to COVID‐19 hospitalisations makes the need to reduce traffic‐related injuries even more relevant, and strengthening the argument in favour of allowing more experimentation in the street (Combs & Pardo  2021 ). By providing more space for cycling, street experiments could assists in making streets safer for cyclists, and instigate the further deployment of urban cycling infrastructure. Narrowing driving lanes and adding bends and furniture tend to make motorists drive more slowly, with a positive effect on road safety (Schlabbach  1997 ). Shirgaokar et al . ( 2021 ) observed that opening cycling space made it more joyful for cyclists to ride. See Table  1 for examples.

Finally, the pandemic stressed the need for physical activity in cities (Combs & Pardo  2021 ), even when periods of strict lockdown were revoked. Access to active travel modes can contribute to this (Sahlqvist et al .  2012 ; WHO  2020 ). In Brussels, the ‘Bruxelles en vacances’ project gave residents the opportunity to engage with sustainable and active mobility modes.

As already made clear in some examples, however, tactical urban interventions during the pandemic have been received with both praise and criticism. Although this might also have been the case before the pandemic, the situation during the pandemic has been quite different. Many of the interventions made, were made with a certain sense of urgency. Decisions were often taken very quickly, and in a top‐down way, and implemented in just a couple of days. It also meant that no public decision process was involved for the majority of the interventions (Combs & Pardo  2021 ; Flynn & Thorpe  2021 ) and often not all the perspectives and needs of different population groups were thus taken into account, with potential backlashes. For example, pop‐up cycling lanes were withdrawn in Berlin after a legal dispute (Krause et al .  2020 ), and there were protests by motorists in Turin as a result of traffic jams due to roads being narrowed for cycling lanes (Buzatu & Pianta  2020 ). In all of these examples, the opponents claimed that ‘their right of space has been taken’ and this mainly referred to the right to drive a car for ‘those who pay taxes’ (Reid  2020 ). Some cities have tried to find a way around this. The City of Munich decided to focus less on participation because of the difficulty organising meetings, both in‐person and digitally; however, district committees were given the responsibility to politically represent their respective districts, and they could only give consent to certain projects with the permission of the district residents itself (Grötsch, personal communication December 10, Grötsch  2021 ). People who live closer to their workplace, which is often the case when living in and around the city centre, are often more physically active commuters, and people who can afford a more expensive lifestyle often have greater access to active travel modes (Honey‐Rosés et al .  2020 ). Those who live on the periphery – often less well‐off population groups – tend to live further from their workplace, and might not benefit from investments in active transport infrastructure. They are thus at risk of being excluded from active travel modes. Beeckmans and Oosterlynck ( 2021 ) point out that the pushing back of cars can also be an attempt by the gentrifying class to appropriate public space. In other words, mobility related interventions are never ‘just interventions in the circulation of vehicles […], but always also an attempt to redistribute space’ (Beeckmans & Oosterlynck  2021 , p. 41). This therefore also raises questions about equity issues, the same issues to which street experiments try to respond in the first place. As some argue (for example Sarkin  2020 ), it is equality that is key to solving the pandemic.

Even though the discussion on equity, public participation and democratic procedure in relation to tactical urban experiments has already been begun by researchers, even before the pandemic (for example Caprotti & Cowley  2017 ; Evans et al .  2021 ; Scholl & de Kraker  2021 ; Sharp & Raven  2021 ), an increasing number of scholars are lifting their voice for more awareness on these issues in the (post‐) COVID‐19 city (Beeckmans & Oosterlynck  2021 ; Flynn & Thorpe  2021 ; Schmidt & Zhang  2022 ).

Having looked at the problem‐solving potential of street experiments, the question remains whether the effect of such interventions during the pandemic reaches further than responding to short‐term needs (Bertolini  2020 ). Can the street experiments and the mobility measures implemented during the pandemic be seen as transition experiments?

HERE TO STAY OR GONE TOMORROW?

The previous section demonstrated that the strength of street experiments lies in their ability to quickly respond to short‐term, but also more latent, societal and environmental challenges, but that it is necessary to be aware of issues concerning equity and participation. These temporary changes in the streetscape and public space have enormous potential for enabling systemic change in the mobility system, but also in public space use and design (Bertolini  2020 ; de Bruijn & Bertolini  2020 ; Honey‐Rosés et al .  2020 ; Combs & Pardo  2021 ; Glaser & Krizek  2021 ; VanHoose et al .  2022 ). This is not always taken for granted, however, and it remains an ongoing research debate. The pandemic might be just the element to drive this potential for street experiments, and to enable systemic change (de Bruijn & Bertolini  2020 ; Glaser & Krizek  2021 ).

Bertolini ( 2020 ) and VanHoose et al . ( 2022 ) have explored the potential of street experiments in enabling systemic change. Following the socio‐technical transition literature (Rip & Kemp  1998 ), they suggest a link between specific characteristics (radical, challenge drive, feasible, strategic, and communicative) of street experiments and dimensions of systemic change (individual, organisation, institutional, and material). This is a theoretical approach, and consequently requires intensive empirical research. It would be interesting to study whether the pandemic contributed to the presence of these characteristics in experiments, and to the change realised in the four domains. In this paper, however, we focus on other aspects that may be related to fostering systemic change: (i) higher acceptance, (ii) permanent character, and (iii) embeddedness in long‐term planning agenda.

Higher acceptance of streetscape changes

Resistance to change and lack of political will are the two main barriers to a transition to a more sustainable transport system (Orcutt & AlKadri  2009 ). Devine‐Wright ( 2008 ) argues that changes in the energy system can only come to fruition with the acceptance (and participation) of the public. As these changes in the energy system entail new infrastructure developments (Cohen et al .  2014 ) – which also applies to changes in the mobility system (the material dimension of systemic change as defined in VanHoose et al .  2022 ) – the same reasoning could be made for urban experiments: a higher acceptance of urban experiments might be a driver for systemic change in the mobility system.

Where people tend to have difficulties imagining how things could be different, the pandemic made it easier for people to be open to change (Rowe  2021 ), especially when it concerns the streetscape and public space. The Vakantiestraten in Amsterdam, for example, allow people to experience what it is like to watch a film in front of their house, or to picnic with neighbours they have never met before, giving them a perceived feeling of utility gain, which reflects greater social acceptance (Cohen et al .  2014 ). The pandemic offers an opportunity to open a conversation with the community and other stakeholders involved – if done carefully – about what the function of a street could be. This might then lead to a change in awareness and attitudes towards mobility and public space use, suggesting greater social acceptance (Cohen et al .  2014 ). Vecchio et al . ( 2021 ) argue that emergency interventions in five South American cities had a ‘symbolic role, intending to demonstrate the potential for sustainable mobility interventions in contexts usually difficult to intervene’ (p. 1832). A generally positive attitude towards mobility measures – which were mostly traffic‐ and car‐restrictive – taken during the pandemic can be seen in Brussels, Belgium (Macharis et al .  2021 ). When COVID‐19 infections decreased, however, and the perceived need for COVID‐19 measures lessened, more negative sentiments emerged. As the acceptance of such interventions is never a one‐sided story, it remains to be seen how this will evolve once the pandemic is over.

In addition to this acceptance among the public, there is also an increased openness towards street experiments among policy makers and planners. ‘Political resistance, in many cities, was replaced with enthusiasm to ‘get on board’ with what was rapidly becoming a global movement, often spurred by pressure from public health and active transport advocates’ (Combs & Pardo  2021 , p. 2). With the increasing need to adapt our streets to the pandemic, the transport sector also showed more tolerance for experimentation and for implementing infrastructure with temporary materials, rather than sticking to conventional (and often car‐centric) planning standards.

According to Combs and Pardo ( 2021 ), this suggests a link between the tolerance for experimentation and the further testing and implementation of experiments. In this way, the pandemic acted as enabler of experiments themselves, or at least of accepting them as being both part of the modern streetscape and part of a transition towards more sustainable cities. On the other hand, the authors suggest that when emergency regulations begin to take on a more top‐down character, questions about acceptance should be raised. Public engagement and citizen participation were often very limited, or even non‐existent. Whether this was for obvious practical reasons, such as the urgency of the moment, the temporary nature of the interventions, or the logistical challenges of in‐person public engagement during a pandemic, these types of arguments are critically scrutinised by opponents of mobility restrictive measures. For example, opponents of the low‐traffic neighbourhoods in London claim that the pandemic is being used as a free card for mobility, and more specifically, for implementing car‐restrictive measures (McIntyre  2021 ).

Permanent character

Some street experiments developed from an (initially intended) experimental phase to a more permanent state, and succeeded in continuing longer, and regardless of COVID‐19. Those experiments are often more strategic and challenge‐driven, and tend to be less radical (Bertolini  2020 ). Secondly, we see that that some are repeated due to their success (e.g. only in summer months), but are not permanently installed (VanHoose et al .  2022 ). This raises the question of whether the street experiments during COVID‐19 could overcome this and affect systemic change.

In the spring of 2021 the City of Munich announced that the summer parklets would remain (Süddeutsche Zeitung  2021 ). This shows that on different levels cities are ‘ready’ to shift directions. It also demonstrates that the city's government supports this idea – through the pledging of permits, funds, and so on. Another example is the Shared Streets Initiative in Amsterdam, which was outlined in the format of a ‘menu’ (Gemeente Amsterdam  2020b ). In the summer of 2020, some streets in the centre of Amsterdam were restricted for car access. Pedestrians could walk on the existing cycling lanes, and cyclists were moved onto the driving lanes. In this way, the cars were ‘hosts’ on the driving lanes, could not go faster than 30 km/h, and should give priority to cyclists. It has been claimed that car traffic in these central roads has diminished considerably (Niemantsverdriet  2021 ), but no study has yet demonstrated this. In autumn 2021 the district council proposed a plan to the city government for making these temporary arrangements permanent, and the verdict is still awaited. A survey carried out in April 2020 in the UK found that a clear majority would welcome changes to the public space and mobility as permanent, while only 9% wanted ‘a complete return to normal’ (RSA  2020 ).

Either way, and whether or not this progress demonstrates a greater potentially supportive base for mobility restrictive measures, or for experimental approaches in street design, they at least open the conversation about it, which may open the way to potential change.

Embeddedness in long‐term planning agenda

The observation of greater acceptance among policy makers and planners is linked to another point: the embeddedness in the long‐term planning agenda of both sustainable practices and experimental approaches. Many municipal authorities are changing their point of view towards mobility and public space planning, and are seeing the pandemic as a good time to start this transformation. As Combs and Pardo ( 2021 ) put it: ‘Political resistance, in many cities, was replaced with enthusiasm to ‘get on board’ with what was rapidly becoming a global movement, often spurred by pressure from public health and active transport advocates’ (p. 2). New long‐term plans are being drawn, or their implementation is suddenly seen as timely. Among these plans, street experiments and mobility restrictive measures are becoming increasingly indispensable. This indeed points to a transition towards more sustainable cities, but there is still discussion about the extent to which the pandemic acted as an enabler, as many of these plans had been in draft form before the pandemic. In general, the expansion and improvement of, for example, cycling facilities, was in many cases already included in long‐term planning agendas, but COVID‐19 accelerated the implementation (Buehler & Pucher  2021 ). Vecchio et al . ( 2021 ), however, demonstrate that the disruptive character of the pandemic acted as a catalyst and accelerator of sustainable mobility plans in five South American cities.

Milan's new mobility plan (the Strade Aperte programme), which builds on a previous plan (the Piazza Aperte plan), exemplifies how existing sustainable mobility goals gained momentum during the pandemic. The municipality noticed that interventions to safeguard public health encountered less resistance due to their urgent nature (Comune di Milano  2020 ) – see also Vecchio et al . ( 2021 ). If these interventions also entailed a change in the mobility system, it was reasoned, a win‐win situation could emerge. Street experiments form an essential cornerstone in the further development of the plan from 2021 onwards: specific action plans are being established, including participation and monitoring processes. This demonstrates how these kinds of interventions are used to support city‐wide objectives. The city of Barcelona also saw the pandemic as the perfect opportunity to further deploy a reconfiguration of its centre's mobility system (known as the Super Block system) (O'Sullivan  2020 ). The city of Portland intends to link their Safe Streets Initiative to long‐range planning projects, and sees the pandemic as an opportunity to formulate long‐term strategies (PBOT  2020 ).

Temporary interventions becoming permanent also reflects their embeddedness in a long‐term planning agenda, or in city‐wide strategies. This progress also testifies to a greater acceptance of experimental approaches among citizens and governments. The request for the Shared Streets Initiative in Amsterdam to become permanent is an example of this: although these measures were initially presented as being disconnected from existing policy goals in sustainable mobility (de Bruijn & Bertolini  2020 ), the COVID‐19 crisis in the centre of Amsterdam seems to have created a testbed for modifications to public space (Niemantsverdriet  2021 ). It also seems to work as a catalyst for the long‐term city agenda to make the city car‐free.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper examined the way that cities reacted to the COVID‐19 pandemic via the implementation of emergency measures such as street experiments. It asked two relevant questions: first, how were street experiments responding to the specific challenges and problems that emerged during the pandemic; and secondly, what was the role of the pandemic in the relationship between street experiments and their potential to enable systemic change in mobility.

We focused on public space and mobility in an attempt to shed more light on these two overarching questions. There were challenges regarding public space: physical distancing on pavements and in squares; the need for, and access to, qualitative open and green outdoor spaces; social interaction in a COVID‐19‐safe way; and ensuring the fair use of public spaces. Challenges to mobility were identified for: road safety, and access to safe travel for all; and physical activity and active travel modes. Our explorative study demonstrates that – in the case studies examined – mobility and public space measures in general, and street experiments in particular, have the potential to respond to the urgent challenges identified. This certainly does not mean that all pandemic‐induced interventions in public space have a similar ability to answer the challenges we focused on, nor does it mean that other challenges are less relevant. It also does not mean that because the examples we studied seem to respond to some challenges, and in this way make a positive contribution to tackling the pandemic as a whole, that they should not be looked at critically. The implementation of public space interventions during the pandemic has clear social implications. The criticism of Thorpe et al . ( 2017 ) concerning uneven participation in tactical urban interventions is even more relevant for pandemic‐induced interventions. Serious questions regarding equity and democratic procedures should also be asked. Do these interventions treat all population groups equally, or are they targeting the more affluent citizens (Flynn & Thorpe  2021 )? The research questions themselves should also be questioned: is it really relevant to focus on a subject –street experiments – which tends to only focus on affluent population groups, while ignoring the population groups that need most support during the pandemic, without questioning how this specific issue could be solved? When undertaking research on this issue, one should be aware that perspectives are too often from a white, middle‐class point of view (Beeckmans & Oosterlynck  2021 ).

Three aspects which might indicate systemic change in the long term were identified, regarding the second goal of this paper: a higher acceptance of streetscape changes and experimental approaches during the pandemic, certain experimental approaches becoming permanent, and experimental approaches being embedded in the long‐term planning agenda. This paper argued that the pandemic increased these aspects of public space interventions, and thus promises long‐lasting effects. The great diversity of pandemic‐induced interventions in the public space is also made clear. Some interventions intend to have an impact on traffic flows and/or on more active transport. They might therefore involve a underlying rationale of exploring systemic change in urban mobility, as they are also embedded in more overarching strategies aimed at creating more liveable and sustainable cities. Many interventions are motivated by an economic rationales, however – and this might increase once the pandemic is over. These types of interventions are also more likely to survive longer after the pandemic, and bear less or almost no relation to (systemic change in) mobility. Nevertheless, cities are seeing the pandemic as ‘the right time’ to transition towards more sustainable practices.

We are aware that this study has limitations regarding case study choice, and that other methods may be preferable (e.g. the cross‐sectional research design by VanHoose et al .  2022 ). However, this approach offers more informal insights, and suggests that the pandemic acted to stimulate street experiments and enable their potential to trigger systemic change. All in all, it is an understatement to say there are high hopes that the pandemic will bring something positive after all. Street experiments could engage in a set of practices or standards to better guarantee long term change and to avoid regression back to (the previous) unsustainable practices. Wider acceptance among citizens for experimenting should be garnered, for example, the most vulnerable population groups should be supported first, a conversation should be opened with the community, and interventions should be adapted over time.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Lennert Verhulst and Corneel Casier contributed equally to this paper. They share co‐first authorship.

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Title: enhancing llm factual accuracy with rag to counter hallucinations: a case study on domain-specific queries in private knowledge-bases.

Abstract: We proposed an end-to-end system design towards utilizing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to improve the factual accuracy of Large Language Models (LLMs) for domain-specific and time-sensitive queries related to private knowledge-bases. Our system integrates RAG pipeline with upstream datasets processing and downstream performance evaluation. Addressing the challenge of LLM hallucinations, we finetune models with a curated dataset which originates from CMU's extensive resources and annotated with the teacher model. Our experiments demonstrate the system's effectiveness in generating more accurate answers to domain-specific and time-sensitive inquiries. The results also revealed the limitations of fine-tuning LLMs with small-scale and skewed datasets. This research highlights the potential of RAG systems in augmenting LLMs with external datasets for improved performance in knowledge-intensive tasks. Our code and models are available on Github.

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Rainstorms impacts on water, sediment, and trace elements loads in an urbanized catchment within Moscow city: case study of summer 2020 and 2021

• Published: 07 December 2022
• Volume 151 , pages 871–889, ( 2023 )

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• Sergey Chalov   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6937-7020 1 , 2 ,
• Vladimir Platonov 1 ,
• Oxana Erina 1 ,
• Vsevolod Moreido 1 , 3 ,
• Mikhail Samokhin 1 ,
• Dmitriy Sokolov 1 ,
• Maria Tereshina 1 ,
• Yulia Yarinich 1 &
• Nikolay Kasimov 1  

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In 2020 and 2021, the city of Moscow, Russia, has experienced two historical rainfall events that had caused major flooding of small rivers. Based on long-term observation datasets from the surrounding weather stations, regional mesoscale COSMO-CLM climate model results, and a detailed hydrological and water quality monitoring data, we performed a pioneer assessment of climate change and urbanization impact on flooding hazard and water quality of the urban Setun River as a case study. Statistically significant rise of some moderate ETCCDI climate change indices (R20mm and R95pTOT) was revealed for the 1966–2020 period, while no significant trends were observed for more extreme indices. The combined impact of climate change and increased urbanization is highly non-linear and results in as much as a fourfold increase in frequency of extreme floods and shift of water regime features which lead to formation of specific seasonal flow patterns. The rainstorm flood wave response time, involving infiltrated and hillslope-routed fraction of rainfall, is accounted as 6 to 11 h, which is more than twice as rapid as compared to the non-urbanized nearby catchments. Based on temporal trends before and after rainfall flood peak, four groups of dissolved chemicals were identified: soluble elements whose concentrations decrease with an increase in water discharge; mostly insoluble and well-sorted elements whose concentrations increase with discharge (Mn, Cs, Cd, Al); elements negatively related to water discharge during flood events (Li, B, Cr, As, Br and Sr); and a wide range of dissolved elements (Cu, Zn, Mo, Sn, Pb, Ba, La, Cs, U) which concentrations remain stable during rainfall floods. Our study identifies that lack of research focused on the combined impacts of climate change and urbanization on flooding and water quality in the Moscow urban area is a key problem in water management advances.

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Field studies were supported by Russian Science Foundation project 19–77-30004. The analytical experiments were done under Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russian Federation project 075–15-2021–574. COSMO-CLM model setup is a part of RFBR project 21–55-53039. The methodology of this study is developed under the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of Lomonosov Moscow State University «Future Planet and Global Environmental Change» and Kazan Federal University Strategic Academic Leadership Program (“PRIORITY-2030”). The research is carried out using the equipment of the shared research facilities of HPC computing resources at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Streamflow patterns analysis was carried out under Governmental Order to Water Problems Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, subject no. FMWZ-2022–0003, project 3.7.

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Sergey Chalov, Vladimir Platonov, Oxana Erina, Vsevolod Moreido, Mikhail Samokhin, Dmitriy Sokolov, Maria Tereshina, Yulia Yarinich & Nikolay Kasimov

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Conceptualization, original draft preparation—Sergey Chalov; numerical experiments conducting and evaluation, precipitation data analysis, writing—Vladimir Platonov; the rainfall-runoff patterns analysis—Vsevolod Moreido; methodology, validation, writing—Oxana Erina, Dmitriy Sokolov, Maria Tereshina, Mikhail Samokhin; precipitation data preparation and visualization—Yulia Yarinich; review, editing—Nikolay Kasimov. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Chalov, S., Platonov, V., Erina, O. et al. Rainstorms impacts on water, sediment, and trace elements loads in an urbanized catchment within Moscow city: case study of summer 2020 and 2021. Theor Appl Climatol 151 , 871–889 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04298-9

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During the 2024 solar eclipse, Texans will aid a national research effort to study the sun

Editor’s note: This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse. For more, visit dallasnews.com/eclipse .

DALLAS -- On a sunny February day at Dallas’ Frontiers of Flight Museum , a cluster of students lifted telescope equipment out of a bulky briefcase. A sticker on the case read: “stand back — we’re going to science!”

Using a compass and a spool of green thread for alignment, the students fastened their telescope on top of a tripod with the sun framed in view.

On April 8, they’ll set up the telescope again, this time on a riverbank 140 miles south of Dallas. They’ll be capturing images of the total solar eclipse , when the moon will appear to completely block the sun, causing a brief period of darkness called totality.

Their work will contribute to a national research project called the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse 2024 experiment, or CATE 2024. Led by the Southwest Research Institute, and funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, the project will task crews of volunteers with handling 35 telescopes along the U.S. path of totality, with four in North Texas.

Citizen science efforts like this one will take place across the country during the eclipse, and are designed to bring scientific research out of the ivory tower.

“An understanding of science is good for everybody,” said Amir Caspi, an astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute who is leading this year’s project. “Breaking down that disconnect between scientists and everybody else is really important.”

Studying the sun

The Citizen CATE project aims to broaden scientists’ understanding of the star that guides our existence on Earth.

“The sun is basically the reason that everything’s alive,” Caspi said. “But it’s also the reason that everything could be dead.”

The sun has a complex magnetic field that can get stressed or tangled, leading to solar flares and storms that may disrupt power grids, obscure GPS signals and cause satellites to go offline.

To predict these solar events, researchers want to gain a better understanding of the sun’s magnetic field. One way they do so is by studying the corona, the sun’s hot outer atmosphere where charged electrons bounce along magnetic field lines.

A total solar eclipse offers a rare opportunity to glimpse the corona with the naked eye during totality. The corona can get as hot as 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, but it’s not as bright as the surface of the sun, which we see during the day.

This year’s CATE project evolves the original 2017 experiment by measuring polarization: the direction that sunlight waves “wave” as they scatter in the corona. Analyzing polarization data can help scientists learn about the corona’s 3D structure.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to watch the sun’s corona change,” said Pat Reiff, an astronomy professor at Rice University who is overseeing several Texas CATE teams.

Breaking barriers to science

The North Texas CATE teams are a mix of students, teachers, community members and retirees. Learners young and old will work together to capture the sun’s corona at four sites along the eclipse’s path.

Jo Lin Gowing, a mechanical engineering professor at LeTourneau University, found out about the project from a university chat server. She saw a solar eclipse in college and thought the CATE project would be a great way for her students to learn and interact with the broader scientific community.

“People need to know what’s going on in the world around them,” she said.

The CATE project is one of many citizen science projects getting communities involved with eclipse research.

Students and faculty at Western Kentucky University have designed an app called SunSketcher that will allow users to take images of the eclipse that will be used to measure the shape of the sun. Eclipse Megamovie , organized by researchers from Sonoma State University and UC Berkeley, is soliciting eclipse images to study the movements of hot plasma bursts called solar jets.

Such projects give anyone the opportunity to be a scientist without needing to buy expensive equipment. The telescope, camera and hardware each CATE team will use to collect the data cost about $8,000.

After the eclipse, the telescopes will stay with local communities to let the learning continue. . The CATE project will disseminate educational plans so that learners at Kemp High School, LeTourneau University and the Frontiers of Flight Museum can use the equipment to look at stars and planets.

Parker Jones, a junior at Kemp High School, heard about the CATE project from her robotics teacher. Her team’s telescope site is in a field south of Dallas near a cemetery and a peach farm.

On April 8, they’ll need to build it without in-person help from the CATE organizers — all while hoping clouds don’t cover the sun entirely.

“It seems like it would be stressful in the moment, having to get it right,” she said, “and knowing that other people will be looking forward to what you produce.”

Jones has always loved space and is looking forward to collecting data on eclipse day. She’s excited to witness a celestial event not just as a student, but as a scientist.

Adithi Ramakrishnan is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.

©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.