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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Measurement and Monitoring of Urban Sprawl in a Rapidly Growing Region Using Entropy

by Anthony Gar-On Yeh and Xia Li

Rapid urban development and dramatic change of landscape have been recently witnessed in some developing countries as a result of rapid economic development. The measurement and monitoring of land-use changes in these areas are crucial to government officials and planners who urgently need updated information for planning and management purposes. This paper examines the use of entropy in the measurement and monitoring of urban sprawl by the integration of remote sensing and GIS.h e advantages of the entropy method are its simplicity and easy integration with GIS. The measurement of entropy is devised based on two locational factors-distances from town centers and roads-to capture and reveal spatial patterns of urban sprawl. The entropy space can be conveniently used to differentiate various kinds of urban growth patterns. The application of the method in the Pearl River Delta, one of the fastest growing regions in China, has demonstmted that it is very useful and effective for the monitoring of urban sprawl. It provides a useful tool for the quantitative measurement that is much needed for rapidly growing regions in identifying the spatial variations and temporal changes of urban sprawl patterns.



Photos of Dongguan in China, by Chris


The Hyatt Regency Hotel Dongguan China Changan views from Lotus Hill Dongguan China views from Lotus Hill Dongguan China

Monday, July 29, 2013

Distribution and Determining of Urban Sprawl in Kerman with Emphasis on Kariz Water System

by Ali Hosseini, Mohammad Shabanifard, Mostafa Rashidi, and Mamohammad Reza Saiydzade

Problem statement: Urban sprawl is one of the contemporary issues of cities all over the world. The Kariz system consists of underground channels that convey water from aquifers in highlands to the surface at lower levels by gravity. The problem of water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions is one of low rainfall and uneven distribution throughout the season, which makes rain fed agriculture a risky enterprise. The system supplies 75% of all the water used in that country, providing water not only for irrigation but also for house-hold consumption. Approach: This study explained and determined role Karizs in urban sprawl in Kerman. Results: Absence of planning for maintaining the Kariz s within the urban planning and their extinction have led to inclination toward other methods such as digging few deep wells during forth recent decades. Conclusion: A Kariz system has a profound influence on the lives of the water users. It allows those living in a desert environment adjacent to a mountain watershed to create a large oasis in an otherwise stark environment.

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Kerman Skyline
Kerman, Iran, by Alan


more about urban sprawl in Iranian cities:

URBAN SPRAWL IN IRANIAN CITIES AND ITS DIFFERENCES WITH THE WESTERN SPRAWL

Strategy for Sustainable Urban Development: A Case Study of Urmia City, Iran

Studying the effects of urban sprawl of metropolis on tourism - climate index oscillation: A case study of Tehran city

Changes in population settlement pattern in urban system of Tehran province (1966 to 2006)

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

Friday, July 26, 2013

Evaluating Urban Sustainability Using Land-Use Transport Interaction Models

by Klaus Spiekermann and Michael Wegener

The objective of the EU research project PROPOLIS (Planning and Research of Policies for Land Use and Transport for Increasing Urban Sustainability) was to assess urban strategies and to demonstrate their long-term effects in European cities. To reach this goal, a comprehensive framework of methodologies including integrated land-use, transport and environmental models as well as indicator, evaluation and presentation systems was developed.
Sustainable development is viewed as comprising the environmental, socio-cultural and economic dimension. Thirty-five indicators were defined to measure the three dimensions of sustainability, such as air pollution, consumption of natural resources, quality of open space, population exposure to air pollution and noise, equity and opportunities and economic benefits from transport and land use.
Indicator values are derived from state-of-the-art urban land-use and transport models. A number of additional modules, including a justice evaluation module, an economic evaluation module and a GIS-based raster module, were developed and integrated to provide further indicator values. Both multicriteria and cost-benefit analysis methods are used to consistently evaluate the impacts of the policies. The environmental and social dimensions of sustainability are measured using multicriteria analysis for the evaluation of the indicators, whereas cost-benefit analysis is used for the economic dimension. The modelling and evaluation system was implemented in seven European urban regions: Bilbao (Spain), Brussels (Belgium), Dortmund (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Inverness (Scotland), Naples (Italy) and Vicenza (Italy).
A large number of policies were tested with the modelling and evaluation system in the seven urban regions. Policies investigated are land use policies, transport infrastructure policies, transport regulation and pricing policies and combinations of these. Besides a common set of policies examined in all seven urban regions, also city-specific local policies were assessed in each urban region.


more about land use planning:

The influence of neighbourhood design on travel behaviour: Empirical evidence from North East England

How the Built Environment Influences Non-Work Travel: Theoretical and Empirical Essays 

SIMULATING URBAN AND REGIONAL EVOLUTIONS: SCENARIOS OF DEVELOPMENT IN THREE STUDY CASES: ALGARVE PROVINCE (PORTUGAL), DRESDEN-PRAGUE TRANSPORT CORRIDOR (GERMANY-CZECH REPUBLIC) AND FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA REGION (ITALY)

Exploring the Historical Determinants of Urban Growth Patterns through Cellular Automata

Simulating land-use change in Portugal using an activitybased model

URBAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY, CANBERRA: A CRITICAL REVIEW

A new approach to the Iranian urban planning, using neo-traditional development

Correlating Densities of Centrality and Activities in Cities: the Cases of Bologna (IT) and Barcelona (ES)

Monday, July 8, 2013

Sustainable Transport and Climate Change: Environmentally Experiences and lessons from community initiatives

a UNDP report

Many development sectors contribute to production of greenhouse gases that cause global warming and affect global climate. The transport sector is a particularly significant contributor to greenhouse gases while being a key stimulus to economic development. In most cases, a vibrant transport sector is associated with a thriving business or commercial sector. If transport sector policies are not harmonized with environmental strategies, they lead to local deterioration of the quality of air while contributing enormously to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The transport sector is a vital element of national and regional development, and sound transport sector policies help to limit local pollution and anthropogenic production of greenhouse gas.
...
This publication is a result of a review of 65 sustainable transport community projects funded by the GEF Small Grants Programme. Lessons and experiences documented in the publication demonstrate that community initiatives play an important role in testing new approaches, raising awareness of new ideas, piloting innovative strategies, and informing and stimulating policy dialogue in a cost-effective way. For instance, community initiatives with local civil society organizations in Pune, India, prompted a policy shift by the city towards supporting bus rapid transit and the development of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, the municipal government is re-allocating a portion of its transport funds towards non-motorized transport infrastructure. In other cases (e.g., Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Jordan, Egypt, and Lithuania), sustainable transport community projects have resulted in government policy shifts and stimulated commercial activities, leading to sustainable strategies for addressing local transport challenges while benefiting the global climate.

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Our borrowed bicycle
Cycling in Chiang Mai, Thailand

more about sustainable transportation:

Challenges of urban transport in developing countries- a summary

Bike-sharing arrives in New York City via Citi Bike

The influence of neighbourhood design on travel behaviour: Empirical evidence from North East England

Mobility biographies. A new perspective for understanding travel behaviour

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

Impact Assessment of Sustainable Public Transportation System on Quality of Life in Tehran

China’s Hangzhou Public Bicycle: Understanding Early Adoption and Behavioral Response to Bikesharing

Chinese bike-sharing dwarfs US and European programs

Public Transport Research Challenges in India

Friday, July 5, 2013

URBAN PATTERNS FOR A GREEN ECONOMY: LEVERAGING DENSITY

by UN HABITAT

The city is one of the highest pinnacles of human creation. Concentrating so many people in dense, interactive, shared spaces has historically provided distinct advantages, that is, agglomeration advantages. Through agglomeration, cities have the power to innovate, generate wealth, enhance quality of life and accommodate more people within a smaller footprint at lower percapita resource use and emissions than any other settlement pattern.
Or so they could. Increasingly, cities are forfeiting many of the benefits that agglomeration has to offer. Two metastudies of urban land expansion have shown that over the last two decades most cities in the world have become less dense rather than more,1,2 and are wasting their potential in ways that generate sprawl, congestion and segregation. These patterns are making cities less pleasant and equitable places in which to live. They are also threatening the earth’s carrying capacity. And they are most acute in fast-growing cities, particularly those with the lowest institutional capacities, weakest environmental protections and longest infrastructure backlogs.
Increasingly, city managers wish to learn by example. Rather than more theory and principles, they want to know what has worked, what has not, and which lessons are transferrable to their own contexts. There is much information available, but little time. UN-Habitat has developed these “quick guides” for urban practitioners who need condensed resources at their fingertips. The aim is to suggest patterns that can help cities and city-regions regain these inherent advantages in a time of increased uncertainty and unprecedented demographic expansion.
More than half the global population now lives in towns and cities. By the year 2050, UN-Habitat research projects that that figure will rise to two-thirds. This rapid, large-scale concentration of humanity in the world’s cities represents new challenges for ingenuity, and numerous opportunities to improve the way in which human habitats are shaped. Most of this population growth will be in the cities of developing countries, which are expected to grow by an additional 1.3 billion people by 2030, compared to 100 million in the cities of the developed world over the same period. While urban population growth rates are stabilizing in regions which are already predominantly urban (such as Europe, North, South and Central America and Oceania), regions with a higher proportion of rural population (such as Asia and Africa) are likely to see exponential rates of urban population growth in the coming years. Most urbanization is likely to occur in cities relatively unprepared to accommodate these numbers, with potential negative repercussions for quality of life, economic development and the natural environment.

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sprawl + everglades


more about urban density:

Correlating Densities of Centrality and Activities in Cities: the Cases of Bologna (IT) and Barcelona (ES)

Street Centrality and Densities of Retails and Services in Bologna, Italy

The characteristics, causes and costs of urban sprawl: a lecture by Reid Ewing

Journey-to-Work Patterns in the Age of Sprawl: Evidence from Two Midsize Southern Metropolitan Areas

Municipal Finance and the Pattern of Urban Growth

Research on Factors Relating to Density and Climate Change

Urban shrinkage in Leipzig and Halle, the Leipzig-Halle urban region, Germany

Challenges of urban transport in developing countries- a summary

by Manfred Breithaupt, Armin Wagner, and Carlos F. Pardo

As the world changes and governments increasingly become decentralised, cities are becoming more assertive hubs for development driven by knowledge, diversity and curiosity. Cities are becoming distinctive brands trying to attract the brightest brains and investments. By transforming into places of higher lifestyles, cities are offering high quality living areas, excellent education facilities, green areas and ever-changing cultural attractions. Complementing these features with innovative, efficient and sustainable mobility solutions is the aspiration of mayors and city dwellers. However, presently many cities are plagued by seemingly endless congestion, grave air pollution, alarming accident rates and lengthy travel times to work. As if these weren‘t enough, other recent challenges have been given great attention in media and policy: climate change and energy consumption.
Urban transport is interlinked with most (if not all) sectors of the urban setting. As such, it poses one of the most complex conundrums, when trying to improve it or solve its problems. Strategies have been sought as early as the beginning of the twentieth century. However, some strategies have been more harmful than business-as-usual scenarios: great investments on infrastructure (i.e. roads), high dependency on technological ―fast‖ fixes and ―magical solutions‖ have proven their ineffectiveness in the long term. Lessons from the oil crisis 2007/2008 have again shown that quick fixes are not available, but sustainable approaches are needed.
The good news is that smart solutions are available: During the past few years a wealth of best practices and easy-to-implement solutions for urban mobility have been developed with positive impacts in both the short and long term. In general, these solutions consist in ―reduction of vehicle energy consumption, strategies of non-transport alternatives, modal shift to more environmentally-friendly modes, and increased use of renewable energies in the sector‖.
How to achieve this change of paradigm in urban mobility? The answer lies in the hands of the policy-makers. Political will, continuity and constant enhancement of projects, creating capacity among government staff and providing them with the appropriate tools have proven effective in changing a city‘s transport situation and in making sustainable urban mobility a driver for overall advancement.



Xiamen BRT
A BRT station in Xiamen, China, photo by Edz'sta
more about sustainable transportation in developing countries:

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

Paratransit for mobility impaired persons in developing regions: Starting up and scaling up

A “STEP” TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT: A CASE STUDY OF PENANG, MALAYSIA

Impact Assessment of Sustainable Public Transportation System on Quality of Life in Tehran

China’s Hangzhou Public Bicycle: Understanding Early Adoption and Behavioral Response to Bikesharing

The bicycle's long way to China: The appropriation of cycling as a foreign cultural technique (1860-1941)

Public Transport Research Challenges in India

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

URBAN PLANNING: CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

by Mila Freire

The advent of 2007 marks the year when, for the first time in the history of humanity, half the world’s population will be living in cities. Urban populations are expected to increase by 1.5 billion over the next 20 years, while the number of megacities will double. By 2015 the UN predicts that there will be 358 "million cities" with one million or more people and 27 "mega-cities" with ten million or more. Much of this growth will happen in developing countries.
The scale and pace of urbanization is opening up unforeseen possibilities. Large concentrations of people and goods provide increased opportunities for creativity, larger labor markets, and higher levels of productivity, not to speak of the cultural and political opportunities associated with urban life. Urban explosion also poses daunting challenges. It can result in unemployment and insufficient investment in basic services with the resulting environmental and social problems.
This paper discusses some of the challenges associated with urbanization in developing countries. It uses examples from industrialized countries to extract useful insights. We begin by discussing how globalization impacts city management and continue with five specific aspects of urban growth: Metropolitan management, urban growth and environmental impact, urban development in disaster-prone sites, Property rights vs. public appropriation, and urban development added value and institutional strengthening. We conclude by summarizing the future challenges of urban planning/management in developing countries.


Sunset over Cairo
Cairo, Egypt, by 无忌 王伟


more about urban planning in developing countries:

Pedestrian shopping/leisure streets in Shanghai, China

Sustainable Urban Development and the Chinese Eco-City: Concepts, Strategies, Policies and Assessments

Emergy synthesis for the urban ecosystem health of four municipalities in China

Asian cities at highest risk to climate change, study says

URBAN TRANSPORT AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN ASIAN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The Sociology of Street Use in Edo and Colonial Manila

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

Facilitating Urban Management Through Local SDI Case Study: The Municipality of Tehran 

Changes in population settlement pattern in urban system of Tehran province (1966 to 2006)

Socio-spatial Obstacles of Urban Sustainability in Historic Center of Cities in Iran

TRADITIONAL SHOPPING: A Syntactic Comparison of Commercial Spaces in Iran and Turkey

URBAN SPRAWL IN IRANIAN CITIES AND ITS DIFFERENCES WITH THE WESTERN SPRAWL

Cairo’s Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials