Transactions in Urban Data,Science,and Technology

Urban problems such as environmental pollution and extreme weather events caused by accelerated urbanization have further caused public health crises, so the healthy city becomes an inevitable goal for sustainable development. Studies have confirmed that health performance at block scale greatly affects the health quality of urban settlements, and human factors data is more intuitive and accurate at detecting it. Current studies mostly focus on cities with hot or mild climates, while winter cities suffer greater health impact because of the larger proportion of cold climate they deal with throughout the year, so the need to improve their health performance is more urgent. Accordingly, this study takes Harbin, a typical winter city, as an example, to track sample block experiencers’ physiological stress response in cold climate with an E4 wristband to quantify health performance, then construct an “urban block space–health performance” assessment frame through the MOS and propose a suitable optimization strategy. The research shows that the block sample health performance in cold climate is related to spatial type and crowd structure and highlights people’s concern for walking safety, thermal comfort, and transportation convenience in urban blocks. Meanwhile, an optimization strategy based on the assessment frame can enrich optimization perspectives and provide a scientific basis for the practice of health performance.

Skyscrapers, as symbols of vertical urbanisation, embody both material and symbolic dimensions of city growth. They have been associated with economic cycles, spatial constraints and global competition, yet their potential as comparative urbanisation metrics remains underexplored. Drawing on a global dataset of more than 10,000 skyscrapers taller than 100 metres, this study visualises their temporal evolution across nations and cities and introduces a relative 3-D urbanisation index to compare vertical and horizontal expansion. The results show that record-breaking towers often coincide with construction booms and sometimes precede downturns, lending partial support to the ‘Skyscraper Curse’. However, the correlation is uneven: state-led economies such as China and the UAE maintain steady construction momentum, while market-driven contexts such as the United States and Germany are more sensitive to global cycles. Within nations, similar contrasts emerge, with Shanghai’s volatility differing from Guangdong’s consistency. By linking skyscraper construction with built-up area growth, the 3-D index highlights marked disparities: only a handful of land-constrained states exceed an index value of 1, while most countries cluster near 0.7. Two trajectories emerge: constraint-driven verticalisation in small or dense territories, and expansion-driven horizontalism in larger states with extensive sprawl. Skyscrapers are thus better interpreted as temporal markers of ambition and governance rather than deterministic predictors of collapse, providing new insights into the uneven intersections of vertical and horizontal urbanisation.