Within the global architecture, engineering, and construction industry, the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology has significantly expanded. However, given the unique characteristics of road infrastructure, the application of BIM technology is still being explored. This article focuses on the Yuanchen Expressway, exploring innovative applications of BIM technology in comprehensive construction management. The project employs advanced technologies, including BIM, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and the Internet of Things (IoT), to precisely identify critical nodes and breakthroughs. Supported by a detailed BIM model and a multi-level, diversified digital management platform, the project effectively addresses construction challenges in multiple tunnels, bridges, and complex interchanges, achieving intelligent construction innovation throughout the Yuanchen Expressway with BIM technology. By guiding construction through BIM models, utilizing a BIM+GIS-based management cloud platform system, and employing VR safety briefings, the project effectively reduces the difficulty of communication and coordination in project management, shortens the project measurement cycle, improves on-site work efficiency, and ensures comprehensive control and safety management. This article provides an exemplary case for the application of full-line construction management using BIM technology in the highway sector both in China and globally, offering new perspectives and strategies for highway construction management.

Pedestrian safety, particularly for children, relies on well-designed pathways. Child-friendly pathways play a crucial role in safeguarding young pedestrians. Shared spaces accommodating both vehicles and walkers can bring benefits to pedestrians. However, active children playing near these pathways are prone to accidents. This research aims to develop an efficient method for planning child-friendly pedestrian pathways, taking into account community development and the specific needs of children. A mixed-methods approach was employed, utilizing the Datang community in Guangzhou, China, as a case study. This approach combined drawing techniques with GIS data analysis. Drawing methods were utilized to identify points of interest for children aged 2-6. The qualitative and quantitative fuzzy analytic hierarchy process assessed factors influencing pathway planning, assigning appropriate weights. The weighted superposition analysis method constructed a comprehensive cost grid, considering various community elements. To streamline the planning process, a GIS tool was developed based on the identified factors, resulting in a practical, child-friendly pedestrian pathway network. Results indicate that this method efficiently creates child-friendly pathways, ensuring optimal connectivity within the planned road network.

Expressway construction has caused a significant threat to the ecological environment in developing countries, and therefore the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along the expressway in developing countries are of major importance. This empirical study focuses on a typical area within a 2-km range of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in Cambodia and uses remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) technology to analyze the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along the expressway. The results of the study reveal that due to the construction of expressways, the land use types transferred into or out of the land use types increase and furthermore the land use types show a trend of decreasing natural attributes and increasing human attributes. It is found that expressway construction has an observed effect on the transfer rate of the center of gravity of land use type, and the direction of the center of gravity shifts in the direction of expressway construction. The impact of construction on the ecological resilience of the western region with higher vegetation coverage was higher than that of the eastern region with higher urbanization. The research develops a theoretical evaluation model based on land use type of the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along the expressway, which can be used to enable the sustainability of expressway construction and maintain the regional ecological environment.

Population growth and associated ecological space occupation are posing great risks to regional ecological security and social stability. In China, \"Ecological Conservation Redline\" (ECR) that prohibited urbanization and industrial construction has been proposed as a national policy to resolve spatial mismatches and management contradictions. However, unfriendly human disturbance activities (e.g., cultivation, mining, and infrastructure construction) still exist within the ECR, posing a great threat to ecological stability and safety. In this article, a Bayesian network (BN)-GIS probabilistic model is proposed to spatially and quantitatively address the human disturbance risk to the ECR at the regional scale. The Bayesian models integrate multiple human activities, ecological receptors of the ECR, and their exposure relationships for calculating the human disturbance risk. The case learning method geographic information systems (GIS) is then introduced to train BN models based on the spatial attribute of variables to evaluate the spatial distribution and correlation of risks. This approach was applied to the human disturbance risk assessment for the ECR that was delineated in 2018 in Jiangsu Province, China. The results indicated that most of the ECRs were at a low or medium human disturbance risk level, while some drinking water sources and forest parks in Lianyungang City possessed the highest risk. The sensitivity analysis result showed the ECR vulnerability, especially for cropland, that contributed most to the human disturbance risk. This spatially probabilistic method can not only enhance model\'s prediction precision, but also help decision-makers to determine how to establish priorities for policy design and conservation interventions. Overall, it presents a foundation for later ECR adjustments as well as for human disturbance risk supervision and management at the regional scale.

Equity in health care delivery is a longstanding concern of public health policy. Telehealth is considered an important way to level the playing field by broadening health services access and improving quality of care and health outcomes. This study refines the recently developed \"2-Step Virtual Catchment Area (2SVCA) method\" to assess the telehealth accessibility of primary care in the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area, Louisiana. The result is compared to that of spatial accessibility via physical visits to care providers based on the popular 2-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method. The study shows that both spatial and telehealth accessibilities decline from urban to low-density and then rural areas. Moreover, disproportionally higher percentages of African Americans are in areas with higher spatial accessibility scores; but such an advantage is not realized in telehealth accessibility. In the study area, absence of broadband availability is mainly a rural problem and leads to a lower average telehealth accessibility than physical accessibility in rural areas. On the other side, lack of broadband affordability is a challenge across the rural-urban continuum and is disproportionally associated with high concentrations of disadvantaged population groups such as households under the poverty level and Blacks.

Medical facilities help to ensure a higher quality of life and improve social welfare. The spatial accessibility determines the allocation fairness and efficiency of medical facilities. It also provides information about medical services that residents can share. Although critical, scholars often overlooked the level of medical facilities, the composition of integrated transportation networks, and the size of service catchment in the literature on accessibility. This study aims to fill this research gap by considering the integrated transportation network, population scale, travel impedance between medical facilities and residential areas, and the impact of medical facilities\' levels on residents\' medical choices. An improved potential model was constructed to analyze the spatial accessibility of medical facilities in Changning District of Shanghai, China. Interpolation analysis was conducted to reveal the spatial accessibility pattern. Cluster and outlier analysis and Getis-Ord Gi* analysis were applied for the cluster analysis. Results show that the spatial accessibility of medical facilities is quite different in different residential areas of Changning District, Shanghai. Among them, the spatial accessibility of medical facilities is relatively high in Hongqiao subdistrict, Xinjing Town, and part of Xinhua Road subdistrict. In addition, residents have overall better access to secondary hospitals than to primary and tertiary hospitals in the study area. This study provides a spatial decision support system for urban planners and policymakers regarding improving the accessibility of healthcare facilities. It extends the literature on spatial planning of public facilities and could facilitate scientific decision making.

As the population is aging rapidly, the irrationality of residential care facility (RCF) configuration has impacted the efficiency and quality of the aged care services so significantly that the optimization of RCF configuration is urgently required. A multi-objective spatial optimization model for the RCF configuration is developed by considering the demands of three stakeholders, including the government, the elderly, and the investor. A modified immune algorithm (MIA) is implemented to find the optimal solutions, and the geographic information system (GIS) is used to extract information on spatial relationships and visually display optimization results. Jing\'an District, part of Shanghai, China, is analyzed as a case study to demonstrate the advantages of this integrated approach. The configuration rationality of existing residential care facilities (RCFs) is analyzed, and a detailed recommendation for optimization is proposed. The results indicate that the number of existing RCFs is deficient; the locations of some RCFs are unreasonable, and there is a large gap between the service supply of existing RCFs and the demands of the elderly. To fully meet the care demands of the elderly, 6 new facilities containing 1193 beds are needed to be added. In comparison with the optimization results of other algorithms, MIA is superior in terms of the calculation accuracy and convergence rate. Based on the integration of MIA and GIS, the quantity, locations, and scale of RCFs can be optimized simultaneously, effectively, and comprehensively. The optimization scheme has improved the equity and efficiency of RCF configuration, increased the profits of investors, and reduced the travel costs of the elderly. The proposed method and optimization results have reference value for policy-making and planning of RCFs as well as other public service facilities.

To evaluate flood-prone areas, correlation analysis of flooding factors for the quantitative evaluation of hazard degree was determined to assist in further disaster prevention management. This study used flood-prone areas in 35 villages over eight townships (Changhua, Huatan, Yuanlin, Xiushui, Puyan, Hemei, Dacun, and Erlin) in Changhua County as research samples. Linear combination was used to evaluate flood-prone environmental indices, and an expert questionnaire was designed by using the analytic hierarchy process and the Delphi method to determine the weights of factors. These factors were then used to calculate the eigenvector of a pairwise comparison matrix to obtain the weights for the risk assessment criteria. Through collection of disaster cases, with particular focus on specifically protected areas where flooding has occurred or is likely to occur, public adaptation and response capabilities were evaluated by using an interview questionnaire that contains the items of perceived disaster risk, resource acquisition capability, adaptation capability, and environment understanding and disaster prevention education. Overlays in a geographic information system were used to analyze the flood-risk degree in villages and to construct a distribution map that contains flood-prone environment indices. The results can assist local governments in understanding the risk degree of various administrative areas to aid them in developing effective mitigation plans.