Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The International Doctorate Programme European Urban Studies (IPP-EU), Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany

Through the Department of Architecture and its Institute for European Urban Studies (IfEU), the Bauhaus-University Weimar has developed into an important institution for interdisciplinary urban research. Countless projects, international conferences, and scholarship by professors at the Institute deal with topics that are tested against such current models as the "European city," "compact city," "social city," "net city," or "Zwischenstadt". In this way, the important questions about public space in cities, the relationship between city and country, public involvement in urban planning, the multi-functionality of the downtown area, and the social integration of the various groups of people living in cities, as well as many others, are raised and viewed in a new light. Established in 2002, the International PhD Programme builds upon the institute's strong academic achievements and offers graduate students the chance to pursue their own interests in research within this interdisciplinary and international structure.

IPP network
The IPP for European Urban Studies is counted among the nationwide network of International PhD Programmes, which, within the framework of the programme "Doctorates at Universities in Germany (PHD)", are endorsed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It is the only IPP in Germany that is dedicated to urban research. Through the PHD programme, the DAAD and DFG support implementing recommendations for reforming PhD programmes as the third cycle in the Bologna Process. The resources from these institutions serve to promote structured PhD programmes, which are being set up where research centers of scientific excellency already exist. For the IPP network see: www.daad.de/ipp

Bauhaus University, Weimar, photo by leeloosu

more PhD programmes:

PhD in Design program in North Carolina State University

PhD in Urban and Public Affairs, University of Louisville

PhD in City & Regional Planning in Georgia Tech

PhD of urban planning in The University of Melbourne, Melbourne School of Design (MSD)

Master of architecture, University of Sydney, Australia

Today, architects must increasingly move between different environmental and design disciplines to make sense of and create the contemporary world. Our Master of Architecture aims to address this need. The Master of Architecture is a 2-year full-time degree. The course centres on design studios which explore urban architecture, sustainable architecture and digital architecture, culminating in a graduation design studio which will allow you to choose from a diverse range of design projects. The studios are structured to respond to the critical issues facing contemporary architectural design and draw on extensive areas of expertise across a range of design disciplines. Each studio is supported by core units in history and theory, advanced architectural technologies and professional practice. You are also able to choose from a wide range of elective units in order to extend your knowledge and skills into other related areas.

University of Sydney, photo by Anyaka

more master programmes:

Master in Urban Planning (MUP) in Harvard University

Urban Planning Master's Program in Rutgers University

M.A. in Town and Regional Planning the University of Liverpool

PhD in Urban & Regional Planning, University of Sydney, Australia

The Urban and Regional Planning program teaches strong foundations in urban and regional planning, with the opportunity for students to develop more specialised knowledge in emergent areas, such as environmental design, planning for better structured cities, and sustainable management.
Urban and regional planners are increasingly involved in formulating policies, guiding urban and environmental initiatives, and in managing the social, environmental and economic impacts of development. The program places considerable emphasis on students learning appropriate communication, reasoning and analytical skills for making valuable contributions to the wider emergent professional roles. There is also an opportunity to specialise, by selecting from the range of options offered in the Housing Studies or Heritage Conservation streams.

Admission Requirements

Masters applicants should hold a bachelors degree with a credit average. Graduate Diploma applicants should hold a bachelors degree. Graduate Certificate applicants should hold a bachelors degree or possess experience which is considered to demonstrate the knowledge and aptitude required to undertake the course.

University of Sydney Quadrangle, photo by betta design

University of Sydney, Medicine, photo by betta design

more PhD programmes in urban and regional planning:

PhD in Design program in North Carolina State University

Ph.D. Program in Planning, Policy, and Design, University of California, Irvine

PhD of urban planning in The University of Melbourne, Melbourne School of Design (MSD)

PhD in urban planning in UCLA, School of Public Affairs

Friday, November 25, 2011

GENTRIFICATION: IS IT POSSIBLE TO AVOID IT?

by Julio Cesar Ribeiro Sampaio

The conservation of urban areas is nowadays part of the urban policies of the majority of cities. The framework of this subsection of the conservation of cultural property is made of a complex structure of principles, guidelines and standards. The production of this basic system is a result of a long discussion that includes the assessment of paradigmatic and/or polemic issues. This paper aims to examine one of these controversial issues: the concept of gentrification, which is regarded as the displacement of indigenous people in urban conservation plans. The focus of this analysis is the effectiveness of what the international conservation documents recommend about this topic.
This work starts with an explanation of gentrification by the specialized conservation literature, which includes the international charters, official guidance, practices, thoughts and views of individuals. Contributions from urban investigations especially related to urban segregation are also analyzed. Afterward, especial attention is dedicated to the antagonisms between two representative experiences: the revitalization of Bologna City Centre and the Marais region (Paris). An analysis of the secondary sources about the persistence of gentrification, even after publication of the international documents correlated with this theme, begins the next section, which also includes the study of Covent Garden (London), SoHo (New York), Pelourinho (Salvador) and Bairro Alto (Lisbon) conservation schemes.
Alternatives to avoid gentrification are approached in the last part of the work. Some proposals are contemplated despite perception of the extent of this problem’s complexity and complications. It is presumed that it is possible to impede displacement by strategies that prioritize solution of the social and economic deficiencies of the places vulnerable to this phenomenon. It is concluded that the theoretical, methodological and practical implications of gentrification demand the elaboration of a specific international document of conservation.

more about urban Italy:

Institutions in urban planning and urban transport; an Amsterdam /Naples case study

PhD Program in Spatial Planning & Urban Development, Milan Polytechnic

Ebook: Great Moments In Architecture

Public transportation in Venice, Italy

TOURISM, HERITAGE AND AUTHENTICITY: STATEASSISTED CULTURAL COMMODIFICATION IN SUBURBAN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

by Renee Wirth and Robert Freestone

Places are (re)constructed for tourism consumption through the promotion of certain images that have implications for the built environment. The act of consuming places itself is a place creating and place altering force. The visual and physical consumption of places also shapes the cultural meaning attached to spaces and places. New meanings of place emerge which often conflict with the meanings once ascribed by the local community. These processes of commodification are well known to cultural theorists and practitioners. This paper uses the broader literature to inform a more specific study revealing state intervention in a process now enveloping suburban centres in global cities. Newtown in Sydney, Australia finds itself being reshaped through a convergence of the market forces of gentrification and the entrepreneurial initiatives of government and in the process is seen to be losing some of the authenticity which was part of the appeal in the first place.

A sidewalk in Newtown, Sydney, photo by Vanessa Pike-Russell

more about tourism:

Cologne Carnival, 2011, and the Rose Monday

Tourism Gentrification: The Case of New Orleans’ Vieux Carre (French Quarter)

by Kevin Fox Gotham

This paper examines the process of ‘tourism gentrification’ using a case study of the socio-spatial transformation of New Orleans’ Vieux Carre (French Quarter) over the past halfcentury. Tourism gentrification refers to the transformation of a middle-class neighbourhood into a relatively affluent and exclusive enclave marked by a proliferation of corporate entertainment and tourism venues. Historically, the Vieux Carre has been the home of diverse groups of people. Over the past two decades, however, median incomes and property values have increased, escalating rents have pushed out lower-income people and African Americans, and tourist attractions and large entertainment clubs now dominate much of the neighbourhood. It is argued that the changing flows of capital into the real estate market combined with the growth of tourism enhance the significance of consumption-oriented activities in residential space and encourage gentrification. The paper contests explanations that view gentrification as an expression of consumer demands, individual preferences or market laws of supply and demand. It examines how the growth of securitisation, changes in consumption and increasing dominance of large entertainment firms manifest through the development of a tourism industry in New Orleans, giving gentrification its own distinct dynamic and local quality.

New Orleans - French Quarter: Music Legends Park, photo by wallyg

New Orleans, French Quarter, photo by CanadaGood

more about tourism:

Cologne Carnival, 2011, and the Rose Monday

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

AN EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF SORTING IN AN URBAN HOUSING MARKET: A Study of the Causes and Consequences of Residential Segregation

by Patrick Bayer, Robert McMillan, and Kim Rueben

This paper presents a new equilibrium framework for analyzing economic and policy questions related to the sorting of households within a large metropolitan area. At its heart is a model describing the residential location choices of households that makes explicit the way that individual decisions aggregate to form a housing market equilibrium. The model incorporates choice-specific unobservables, and in the presence of these, a general strategy is provided for identifying household preferences over choice characteristics, including those that depend on household sorting such as neighborhood racial composition. We estimate the model using restricted-access Census data that characterize the precise residential and employment locations of a quarter of a million households in the San Francisco Bay Area, yielding accurate measures of preferences for a wide variety of housing and neighborhood attributes across different types of household. The main economic analysis of the paper uses these estimates in combination with the equilibrium model to explore the causes and consequences of racial segregation in the housing market. Our results indicate that, given the preference structure of households in the Bay Area, the elimination of racial differences in income and wealth would significantly increase the residential segregation of each major racial group. Given the relatively small fractions of Asian, Black, and Hispanic households in the Bay Area (each around 10%), the elimination of racial differences in income/wealth (or, education or employment geography) spreads households in these racial groups much more evenly across the income distribution, allowing more racial sorting to occur at all points in the distribution – e.g., leading to the formation of wealthy, segregated Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. The partial equilibrium predictions of the model, which do not account for the fact that neighborhood sociodemographic compositions and prices adjust as part of moving to a new equilibrium, lead to the opposite conclusion, emphasizing the value of the general equilibrium approach developed in the paper. Our analysis also provides evidence that sorting on the basis of race itself (whether driven by preferences directly or discrimination) leads to large reductions in the consumption of public safety and school quality by all Black and Hispanic households, and large reductions in the housing consumption of upper-income Black and Hispanic households.

similar studies:

Residential Location Decisions: Heterogeneity and the Trade-off between Location and Housing Quality

Tradeoffs in residential location decisions: Transportation versus other factors

Residential Location Decisions: Heterogeneity and the Trade-off between Location and Housing Quality

by Moon-Jeong Kim

This dissertation is a socio-economic approach to the residential location model. Heterogeneity of households’ residential location decisions and actual trade-offs made in the housing market are explored. Specifically, this dissertation explores both heterogeneous residential location decisions among different categories of households and trade-offs between location and housing quality. It is assumed that social values are reflected in locations, and locations with highly valued characteristics are preferred by homebuyers, and that living in preferred locations means that the household has higher social status. In order to live in preferred locations, households may have to make a tradeoff by giving up some housing quality. This research uses a repeat homebuyers’ dataset in Franklin County, which is the central county in the greater Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area. I utilize the two-stage nested logit model with interaction terms for different household characteristics.
The estimation results provide a range of information about households’ residential location decisions. First, households with school-aged children are attracted to locations with high school quality and high-income neighbors, while choosing older houses (with more bedrooms). In other words, they make a trade-off by choosing older houses—less expensive homes in the housing market—in order to live in these preferred locations. Second, middle-income households with school-aged children are more likely to choose these same preferred locations, but they tend to choose older and smaller houses with more rooms. As expected, their relatively limited incomes seem to stimulate the trade-off between location and housing quality. They even accept higher crime rates n their community choices. Third, households with householders who are 50 years old and over prefer safer communities, indicating that safety is an important social value to this group. In their dwelling choices, this group is more likely to choose multi-family attached houses (e.g., condos, duplexes, and townhouses) with fewer bedrooms. This group’s age-specific circumstances seem to affect their housing choices significantly. The operationalization of the concept of social status with the status of locations as preferred locations is one contribution of this work. The second contribution is that this study broadens the perspective of the residential location modeling by providing a variety of determinants associated with community and dwelling characteristics. The utilization of the random utility theory—particularly the nested logit modeling—makes the third contribution. I believe that this study will help extend the understanding of actual determinants of residential location decisions in the U.S. housing market, and improve the urban residential location theory.

more urban about land use planning:

SMART GROWTH, SMART CHOICES SERIES: MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT

Land development, land use, and urban sprawl in Puerto Rico integrating remote sensing and population census data

Polycentric Urban Development and Istanbul

Land Use Planning in Metro Manila and the Urban Fringe: Implications on the Land and Real Estate Market

A STUDY ON URBAN PLANNING /URBAN TRANSPORTATION ISSUES IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES AND JAPAN’S TECHNICAL CORPORATIONINS

Tradeoffs in residential location decisions: Transportation versus other factors

by Glen Weisbrod, Moshe Ben-Akiva and Steven Lerman

There has been a substantial discussion among planners in North America concerning the role that transportation can play in affecting the residential development patterns of urban areas. The purpose of this paper is to analyze consumers' tradeoffs in the decision to move and the selection among alternative residential locations. The paper focuses on the role of transportation level-of-service changes relative to various aspects of neighborhood quality, including crime, taxes, school quality, and demographic factors. This study is based on an analysis of the actual moving decisions and residential choices of individual households. The empirical results suggest that households make significant tradeoffs between transportation services and other public service factors in evaluating potential residences, but that the role of both in determining where people choose to live is small compared with socioeconomic and demographic factors. This suggests that the potential of most available public policies for altering residential location demand may be limited, and that the coordination of policies to achieve desired changes in residential patterns may prove useful.

more about transportation land use interactions:

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

Evaluating urban transport and land use policies through the use of an accessibility modelling framework

Environmental Correlates of Walking and Cycling: Findings From the Transportation, Urban Design, and Planning Literatures

A STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PEDESTRIAN NETWORK AND PEDESTRIAN VOLUME ACCORDING TO LAND USE PATTERN

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Case for Bike-Share

via NYC Gov.

WHAT IS A BIKE-SHARE?
Bike-share programs are networks of public use bicycles distributed around a city for use at low cost. Bicycles can be picked up at any self-serve bike-station and returned to any other bikestation, which makes bike-shares ideal for Point A to Point B transportation. A New Yorker living on Avenue D in Manhatan could, for example, ride a bike-share bicycle to Union Square, leave the bicycle there and hop on the subway without worrying about bicycle theft. A New Yorker returning home to Elmhurst, Queens, could bicycle the last mile instead of waiting for the bus or transferring trains. Designed specifically to augment public transportation offerings, bike-share programs are defined by their low cost, the high concentration of their bike-stations over the program area, and their easy, 24 hour operations. Data from existing programs indicates that bike-share programs are popular. Velib’, the Paris bike-share program, has an average of 75,000 rentals per day.1
Bike-shares differ from other forms of transportation infrastructure in the speed at which programs can be implemented. In Paris, Velib’s initial 700 bike-stations and 10,000 bicycles were installed in less than 6 months; the program doubled in size six months later. In Montreal, Bixi’s solar powered bike-station design, which is installed in pre-fabricated modular units, will reduce implementation times even further. Administrators estimate that Bixi installation time could be as short as 20 minutes per bike-station because excavation is not required.2 To use a bike-share bicycle, people sign up for daily, weekly or annual memberships. The memberships can be purchased online or at any bike-station. With their membership card in hand, users swipe their card or enter their password, select a bicycle from a bike-station, and go. Returning a bicycle is even easier. Users find a bike-station near their destination, roll the bicycle into an open docking station and are done. Most programs offer the first ½ hour free and provide a 15 minute grace period if there are no free docking stations at the users’ destination. Bicycles not returned within 24 hours are considered stolen, and a set fee is automatically charged to the users’ credit card.
The history and evolution of the bike-share concept is instructive. The first bike-share opened in Amsterdam in 1968 but was quickly overrun by theft. Many of Amsterdam’s “White Bikes” were stolen and many others found wrecked or stripped for parts in the city’s canals. The program closed shortly after its introduction.

Bixi bike sharing in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, photo by andy54321

more about bike sharing:

Tehran's "Bike House" Shines Green

sustainable transport

World’s largest bike-share system in China dwarfs popular U.S. program

City of Boston Announces Its BIXI Bike Share Program Is a Go

Tehran's "Bike House" Shines Green

via The Bike-sharing Blog

Reducing traffic on congested streets, clearing pollution from smog-laden overcast skies, and completing that last kilometer to your destination from transit points are the accepted benefits of bike-sharing no matter the political situation or location in the world. Bike-sharing has become an integral part of many cities' green economy. It comes as no surprise that even in the Islamic Republic of Iran, bike-sharing is thriving.

Tehran’s “Bike House” bikes are rolling across the city. The system, less than a year old, is funded by Tehran’s municipal government. It is currently only in one of Tehran’s 22 administrative districts.

more about bike sharing:

sustainable transport

World’s largest bike-share system in China dwarfs popular U.S. program

City of Boston Announces Its BIXI Bike Share Program Is a Go

Urban Bike Sharing System Coming to London!

sustainable transport

Paris bike sharing
Rio de Janeiro downtown revival
New York congestion pricing

by Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

On the morning after Bastille Day 2007, Paris awoke to thousands of new gleaming, pearl grey bicycles stationed at former parking spaces all over the city. Within hours of the system’s opening, the streets were filled with “freedom bicycles.” Vélib, the new bicycle-based mass transit system, proved that the revolution will be non-motorized. By the 18th day, Vélib had logged one million rides. The ubiquitous bikes are now an integral part of the city’s identity, a symbol of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and Deputy-Mayor for Transportation Denis Baupin’s multifaceted efforts to address traffic congestion, reduce air and sound pollution, and revitalize the city’s public space.
The Vélib revolution began with doubling the amount of cycleways in the City, making a fairly coherent and continuous network. In early 2001, bicycling represented about one percent of the 10.6 million trips made daily. Between 2001 and 2006, bicycle mode share increased by 48 percent while keeping the number of crashes and injuries stable. Vélib is expected to double or triple the number of daily bicycle trips and to accelerate the rate of independent bicycling. A few months ahead of the municipal elections, Vélib is indeed “a success beyond our expectations” said Pascal Cherki, Deputy Mayor for Sports.

Bike sharing system in Paris, photo by rekha6

more about bike sharing and sustaniable transportation:

World’s largest bike-share system in China dwarfs popular U.S. program

City of Boston Announces Its BIXI Bike Share Program Is a Go

Urban Bike Sharing System Coming to London!

Can Beijing regain its status as the world’s “bicy...

Book Review: Waiting on a Train

Monday, November 21, 2011

World’s largest bike-share system in China dwarfs popular U.S. program

By Tyler Falk

Washington D.C.’s successful bike-share system, Capital Bikeshare, has been a hit recently (I wrote about it here). But to put its success into perspective take a look at the world’s largest bike-share system. Because while Capital Bikeshare is the largest bike-sharing system in the U.S., a massive bike-share system in the Chinese city of Hangzhou makes Capital Bikeshare look like it’s still riding with training wheels.

Bike sharing system in Guangzhou, China, photo by dls14

more about bike sharing:

Urban Bike Sharing System Coming to London!

Bike Share: A slice of Paris in Chicago

Metroradruhr: Germany's Ruhr Valley Inter-City Bike Sharing

City of Boston Announces Its BIXI Bike Share Program Is a Go

by Laura K. Cowan

Boston’s Bike Czar Nicole Freedman has achieved her goal to make Boston a biking city. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has announced that his fair city, previously known as the worst cycling city in the country, will be getting one of the nation’s first public bike sharing systems, dubbed “Hubway,” from BIXI Bikes and the Public Bike Sharing Company. To be launched in early July, Boston’s bike sharing system will offer the public a green alternative to car share systems already in place and will work in a similar way. Customers can pick up a bike from any bike sharing station, then return it to any other station in the system.

Bike sahring in Boston, Hubway Station, photo by Chasqui (Luis Tamayo)

similar posts:

Urban Bike Sharing System Coming to London!

Bike Share: A slice of Paris in Chicago

Bike Parking: a Key Part of the Bicycle Planning Amenities

Urban Bike Sharing System Coming to London!

by Jorge Chapa

We’ve already seen the massive success of urban bike sharing in Paris, but now the super-smart Velib Bike program is taking to the streets of London! 15,000 bikes, 1,000 stations and more than 7.5 million miles of combined biking later have already been implemented in London, and the new scheme will contribute £75 million and 6,000 shared bikes to the mass biking scheme. Spearheaded by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the new ‘granny bike’ sharing scheme will reduce traffic congestion and help clear up the air of England’s sprawling capital city.

The program will begin with 6,000 bikes, distributed across the city in and around London. The so-called ‘granny bikes’ are super sturdy, and have been designed and assembled for high-traffic use, and for low theft appeal. They may not be the sexiest of cycles, but that’s sort of the point — as Jenny Jones, one of the organizers of the program, explains: “They are a little bit grannyish, with a basket and mudguards, and a strong frame, so they are not very attractive to steal. We want to encourage the view of bicycles as a tool rather than a fashion accessory.”

Bike sharing in London, photo by von ewwhite

more about bike planning:

Bike Share: A slice of Paris in Chicago

Bike Parking: a Key Part of the Bicycle Planning Amenities

Innovative Urban Transport Concepts Moving from Theory to Practice

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bike Share: A slice of Paris in Chicago

By Mary Schmich

It's not every day that you can stroll down a Chicago sidewalk and think you've been magically zapped to Paris.

But I was cruising down Ohio Street Thursday when — zut alors! There was a row of rental-bike docks that looked a lot like Paris' famous Velib' stations.

Half a dozen guys were fiddling with the machines, making sure everything would work on Friday when Chicago debuts its first city bike-share program.

There are only 100 bikes and only six locations, but if this experiment works, bike-sharing could become a Chicago way of life.

To find out more, I called Josh Squire. He's the founder of Bike and Roll, which is managing the program.

Bike sharing in Chicago, by simonk

Bike shring in Chicago, photo by ambimb

Bike sharing in Chicago, photo by clarkmaxwell

more abour bicycle planning:

Metroradruhr: Germany's Ruhr Valley Inter-City Bike Sharing

Bike Parking: a Key Part of the Bicycle Planning Amenities

Innovative Urban Transport Concepts Moving from Theory to Practice

Short Skirt Protest Ride Happens Tonight

Friday, November 18, 2011

High-tech HQ leaving suburbs for downtown

DSI bringing 150 high-salary jobs, says being in urban center will be just right for its recruiting efforts.

By KEVIN COLLISON

DSI, a global high-tech software company in Overland Park, is moving its headquarters and 150 employees to downtown Kansas City.

It’s believed to be the first significant suburban company to make the switch downtown since a multi-billion-dollar revival began a decade ago. The firm said it thought a downtown location would boost the recruiting of younger and more tech-savvy employees.
Reinforced by a $6.3 million incentive package from Missouri, DSI plans to occupy space in the 1201 Walnut office tower this March.
It’s now in the College Boulevard office corridor at 7801 W. 110th St.
“The space we’re in now doesn’t support the vision I have for the firm,” said Matt McGraw, president and CEO of DSI, which stands for Data Systems International. “When I started coming downtown I got the feel and vision for what it would be like being downtown.
“We need younger and more progressive people and we believe it will be a huge recruiting tool for us.”
DSI also will be bringing at least 125 high-paying jobs with a minimum salary of $100,000, according to documents filed with the Kansas City Council. The company is seeking property tax abatements from the city, and its request is on the agenda of today’s Council Planning and Zoning Committee.

Subsidies in the Suburbs

Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs

Shifting the Suburban Paradigm

Post-Urban/Suburban Landscapes: Design and Planning the Centre, Edge and In-Between

An urban legacy in need of renewal

By Anthony Flint

FIFTY YEARS ago this month, Random House published “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.’’ The author was Jane Jacobs, a housewife from Scranton who had no formal training in urban planning, but had managed to get a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and was encouraged to write a book that would change the world. And that it did. The book took on city governments, planners, the business establishment, modernist architecture, and the policy of urban renewal, charging that all were misguided, ravaging our cities with ill-conceived plans that sucked the life out of communities, while depriving residents of any say in their future.

For cities, it was the equivalent of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,’’ the sounding of an alarm, and an audacious assault on the status quo. Jacobs battled the master builder Robert Moses and rallied New Yorkers to fight City Hall.

Moses v. Jacobs: Who Lived the Abogo Lifestyle?

Jane Jacobs was the seer of the modern city

To walk the path of Jane Jacobs – review of What We See, Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs

Remote Sensing and Urban Growth Models – Demands and Perspectives

by Martin Herold, Gunter Menz and Keith C. Clarke

Urban growth and land use change models are an important and innovative tool that support planning and development of sustainable urban areas. The data requirements for parameterization, calibration and validation of urban models are intense due to the complexity of the models and their objectives. In this study several urban
land use change models are evaluated and their demands on spatial data sets are compared. These needs are discussed and evaluated based on the use of remotely-sensed high spatial and temporal resolution data. The results show especially the need for accurate urban land use information due to the Level II and III of the USGS/Anderson land cover/use classification scheme. An appropriate methodology for urban land use differentiation using high resolution remotely sensed data is presented and evaluated in test sites in the southern California city of Santa Barbara, USA. The approach is based on irregularly-shaped regions of homogenous urban land use as the defined mapping units. Within these regions, spatial and fractal metrics were applied to describe the land cover structure, to acquire urban land use information and to describe socioeconomic features.
The application of one of the evaluated urban growth models is presented, based on a seventy-year time series of air photos. The urban growth process, as well as future predictions of land use change are well represented in the model based upon the concept of cellular automata and demonstrate the potential of a combined remote sensing and modeling approach.

similar posts:

SMART GROWTH, SMART CHOICES SERIES: MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

Spatial Planning, Urban Form and Sustainable Transport: An Introduction

Research Methods in Urban and Regional Planning

Modeling the environmental impacts of urban land use and land cover change—a study in Merseyside, UK

by Stephan Pauleit, Roland Ennos, and Yvonne Golding

There is a lack of information on the environmental effects of urban change and the dynamics of greenspace. Such information is essential for a better understanding of the sustainability of urban development processes, both planned and unplanned. We therefore investigated the changes in land use and land cover of 11 residential areas in Merseyside, UK, using aerial photographs taken in 1975 and 2000.We then modeled how these changes would alter three important environmental parameters: surface temperature, runoff of rainfall, and greenspace diversity. These changes were then related to the socio-economic status of the areas, as measured by an index of multiple deprivation. The comparisons revealed a loss of greenspace in all 11 case study sites Overall, the more affluent, low density areas lost more greenspace, especially of tree cover. A major cause was infill development whereby gardens were built over. However, greenspace was also lost in already densely built-up, deprived areas due to the reuse of derelict land. As a consequence, the models used in this study predicted negative environmental impacts for all areas. The results emphasize the need to critically review concepts such as urban densification and give more weight to the preservation and management of urban greenspaces.

more papers of this kind:

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

Evaluating urban transport and land use policies through the use of an accessibility modelling framework

A STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PEDESTRIAN NETWORK AND PEDESTRIAN VOLUME ACCORDING TO LAND USE PATTERN

INCORPORATING LAND USE AND ACCESSIBILITY VARIABLES IN TRAVEL DEMAND MODELS

URBAN LAND USE CHANGE ANALYSIS AND MODELING: A CASE STUDY OF SETÚBAL AND SESIMBRA, PORTUGAL

by Yikalo Hayelom Araya

In this paper urban land use change analysis and modeling of the Concelhos of Setúbal and Sesimbra, Portugal is accomplished using multitemporal and multispectral satellite images acquired in the years 2000 and 2006 and other vector datasets. The LULC maps are first obtained using an object-oriented image classification approach with the Nearest Neighbour algorithm in Definiens. Classification is assessed using the overall accuracy and Kappa measure of agreement. These measures of accuracies are above minimum standard accepted levels. The land use dynamics, both for pattern and quantities are also studied using a post classification change detection technique together with the following selected spatial/landscape metrics: class area, number of patches, edge density, largest patch index, Euclidian mean nearest neighbor distance, area weighted mean patch fractal dimension and contagion. Urban sprawl has also been measured using Shannon Entropy approach to describe the dispersion of land development or sprawl. Results indicated that the study area has undergone a tremendous change in urban growth and pattern during the study period. A Cellular Automata Markov (CA_Markov) modeling approach has also been applied to predict urban land use change between 1990 and 2010 with two scenarios: MMU 1ha and MMU 25ha. The suitability maps (change drivers) are calibrated with the LULC maps of 1990 and 2000 using MCE and a contiguity filter. The maps of 1990 and 2000 are also used for the transition probability matrix. Then, the land use maps of 2006 are simulated to compare the result of the “prediction” with the actual land use map in that year so that further prediction can be carried out for the year 2010. This is evaluated based on the Kappa measure of agreement (Kno, Klocation and Kquanity) and produced a satisfactory level of accuracy. After calibrating the model and assessing its validity, a “real” prediction for the year 2010 is carried out. Analysis of the prediction revealed that the rate of urban growth tends to continue and would threaten large areas that are currently reserved for forest cover, farming lands and natural parks. Finally, the modeling output provides a building block for successive urban planning, for exploring how and when urban growth is occurring, and for helping subsequent research works.

more about land use planning:

SMART GROWTH, SMART CHOICES SERIES: MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

Evaluating urban transport and land use policies through the use of an accessibility modelling framework

Modelling Policies for Urban Sustainability

OVERVIEW OF LAND-USE TRANSPORT MODELS

by Michael Wegener

The previous chapters in this Handbook have shown that spatial development, or land use, determines the need for spatial interaction, or transport, but that transport, by the accessibility it provides, also determines spatial development. However, it is difficult to empirically isolate impacts of land use on transport and vice versa because of the multitude of concurrent changes of other factors. This poses a problem if the likely impacts of integrated land-use and transport policies to reduce the demand for travel are to be predicted.
There are principally three methods to predict those impacts. The first is to ask people how they would change their location and mobility behaviour if certain factors, such as land use regulations or transport costs, would change ('stated preference'). The second consists of drawing conclusions from observed decision behaviour of people under different conditions on how they would be likely to behave if these factors would change ('revealed preference'). The third method is to simulate human decision behaviour in mathematical models.
All three methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Surveys can reveal also subjective factors of location and mobility decisions, however, their respondents can only make conjectures about how they would behave in still unknown situations, and the validity of such conjectures is uncertain. Empirical studies based on observation of behaviour produce detailed and reliable results; these, however, are valid only for existing situations and are therefore not suited for the assessment of novel yet untested policies. In addition it is usually not possible to associate the observed changes of behaviour unequivocally with specific causes, because in reality several determining factors change at the same time.

Mathematical models of human behaviour are also based on empirical surveys or observations. The difference is that the conclusions to be drawn from the survey and observation data are quantified. Strictly speaking, the results of mathematical models are no more universally valid than those of empirical studies but are only valid for situations which are similar to those for which their parameters were estimated. Nevertheless it is possible to transfer human behaviour represented in mathematical models within certain limits to still unknown situations. In addition, mathematical models are the only method by which the effects of individual determining factors can be analysed by keeping all other factors fixed.
In this chapter recent developments in the field of operational integrated land-use transport models will be reviewed with special emphasis on their ability to test both land use and transport policies and to assess their impacts.

more about land use/transportation modeling:

Environmental Correlates of Walking and Cycling: Findings From the Transportation, Urban Design, and Planning Literatures

A STUDY ON THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PEDESTRIAN NETWORK AND PEDESTRIAN VOLUME ACCORDING TO LAND USE PATTERN

INCORPORATING LAND USE AND ACCESSIBILITY VARIABLES IN TRAVEL DEMAND MODELS

New Directions for Urban Economic Models of Land Use Change: Incorporating Spatial Heterogeneity and Transitional Dynamics

Analyzing Land Use Change In Urban Environments

by USGS

Metropolitan areas in the United States are growing at unprecedented rates, creating extensive urban landscapes. Many of the farmlands, wetlands, forests, and deserts that formed the America of 1900 have been transformed during the past 100 years into human settlements. Almost everyone has seen these changes to their local environment but without a clear understanding of their impacts. It is not until we study these landscapes from a spatial perspective and the time scale of decades that we can begin to measure the changes that have occurred and predict the impact of changes to come.
The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Urban Dynamics Research (UDR) program studies the landscape transformations that result from the growth of metropolitan regions over time. Using sources such as historic maps, aerial photographs, and Landsat satellite data, USGS scientists first assemble retrospective urban land use databases that reflect several decades of change. These databases are then used to analyze the effects of urbanization on the landscape, and to model urban growth and land use change under alternative growth scenarios.

Land use change in lower Queen Anne, Seattle, 1920-1953, by Seattle Municipal Archives

more about urban land use:

SMART GROWTH, SMART CHOICES SERIES: MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT

Innovation and the American Metropolis

Spatial Planning, Urban Form and Sustainable Transport: An Introduction

Research Methods in Urban and Regional Planning

Thursday, November 17, 2011

THE ROLE OF PHYSICAL IDENTITY OF CITY IN URBAN SUSTAINABILITY (THE CASE STUDY: YAZD,IRAN)

by NIKI TAVAKOLI

Tackling with environmental social-cultural urban crisis is one of the subjects that many cities are involved with it. Although in the past years changes and transformations in urban development occurred gradually and the facilities and variety of instruments, materials, and technology were limited, but dominant rules of urban planning and design led to ideal cities with harmonic , sustainable well-formed image and responsive spaces.
But nowadays in spite of growth and development of science and technology and creation of modern concepts in sustainable development, unfortunately we are tackling with increasing destruction, unfair and unstable cities. The lost of identity that plays a vital role in urban structure, is one of the problem of modern urban spaces. The importance of this concern is related to sociocultural and conceptual aspects of urban spaces as a context of urban life. Therefore urban sustainability is a challenge that not only should be considered from environmental concepts, but also both of its physical and conceptual aspects are important to present an integrative framework in urban planning and design.
Moreover one of the most effective ways to achieve a sustainable urban form is using physical identity characteristic and hidden feature of traditional cities in order to using their design pattern and updating them along modern movements.
Therefore, first, in this paper the role of identity in quality of city is considered and then some general physical indicators of sustainable city with an approach to traditional Iranian cities are presented .Secondly, one of the traditional sustainable cities, Yazd, as a case study is selected and analyzed according to its physical identity factors. Finally, this paper concludes the importance of sense of identity and physical elements in urban sustainability, particularly in traditional urban spaces.

A preserved part of the old defensive wall of Yazd, in northwest of the historical core

Ab Anbar (traditional water reservoir) with four Badgirs (wind tower) in Yazd

A new residential complex in Yazd

more about Iran: