Impact of COVID-19 on Traffic Signal Systems: Survey of Agency Interventions and Observed Changes in Pedestrian Activity

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110263
Author(s):  
Patrick A. Singleton ◽  
Mark Taylor ◽  
Christopher Day ◽  
Subhadipto Poddar ◽  
Sirisha Kothuri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Signalized Intersections ◽  
Traffic Signal ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Traffic Volumes ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic, the most significant public health crisis since the 1918–1919 influenza epidemic, is the first such event to occur since the development of modern transportation systems in the twentieth century. Many states across the U.S. imposed lockdowns in early spring 2020, which reduced demand for trips of various types and affected transportation systems. In urban areas, the shift resulted in a reduction in traffic volumes and an increase in bicycling and walking in certain land use contexts. This paper seeks to understand the changes occurring at signalized intersections as a result of the lockdown and the ongoing pandemic, as well as the actions taken in response to these impacts. The results of a survey of agency reactions to COVID-19 with respect to traffic signal operations and changes in pedestrian activity during the spring 2020 lockdown using two case study examples in Utah are presented. First, the effects of placing intersections on pedestrian recall (with signage) to stop pedestrians from pushing the pedestrian button are examined. Next, the changes in pedestrian activity at Utah signalized intersections between the first 6 months of both 2019 and 2020 are analyzed and the impact of land use characteristics is explored. Survey results reveal the importance of using technologies such as adaptive systems and automated traffic signal performance measures to drive decisions. While pedestrian pushbutton actuations decreased in response to the implementation of pedestrian recalls, many pedestrians continued to use the pushbutton. Pedestrian activity changes were also largely driven by surrounding land uses.

scholarly journals Impact of Multitemporal Land Use and Land Cover Change on Land Surface Temperature Due to Urbanization in Hefei City, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 809
Author(s):  
Jing Sun ◽  
Suwit Ongsomwang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
Lulc Change ◽  
Main Components ◽  
The Impact

Land surface temperature (LST) is an essential parameter in the climate system whose dynamics indicate climate change. This study aimed to assess the impact of multitemporal land use and land cover (LULC) change on LST due to urbanization in Hefei City, Anhui Province, China. The research methodology consisted of four main components: Landsat data collection and preparation; multitemporal LULC classification; time-series LST dataset reconstruction; and impact of multitemporal LULC change on LST. The results revealed that urban and built-up land continuously increased from 2.05% in 2001 to 13.25% in 2020. Regarding the impact of LULC change on LST, the spatial analysis demonstrated that the LST difference between urban and non-urban areas had been 1.52 K, 3.38 K, 2.88 K and 3.57 K in 2001, 2006, 2014 and 2020, respectively. Meanwhile, according to decomposition analysis, regarding the influence of LULC change on LST, the urban and built-up land had an intra-annual amplitude of 20.42 K higher than other types. Thus, it can be reconfirmed that land use and land cover changes due to urbanization in Hefei City impact the land surface temperature.

scholarly journals Link between Land Use and Flood Risk Assessment in Urban Areas

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Zahra Kalantari ◽  
Johanna Sörensen
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Property Owners ◽  
Pluvial Flooding ◽  
The Impact

The densification of urban areas has raised concerns over increased pluvial flooding. Flood risk in urban areas might increase under the impact of land use changes. Urbanisation involves the conversion of natural areas to impermeable areas, causing lower infiltration rates and increased runoff. When high-intensity rainfall exceeds the capacity of an urban drainage system, the runoff causes pluvial flooding in low-laying areas. In the present study, a long time series (i.e., 20 years) of geo-referenced flood claims from property owners has been collected and analysed in detail to assess flood risk as it relates to land use changes in urban areas. The flood claim data come from property owners with flood insurance that covers property loss from overland flooding, groundwater intrusion through basement walls, as well as flooding from drainage systems; these data serve as a proxy of flood severity. The spatial relationships between land use change and flood occurrences in different urban areas were analysed. Special emphasis was placed on examining how nature-based solutions and blue-green infrastructure relate to flood risk. The relationships are defined by a statistical method explaining the tendencies whereby land use change affects flood risk.

scholarly journals Use of Automated Change Detection and VGI Sources for Identifying and Validating Urban Land Use Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-M. Olteanu-Raimond ◽  
L. See ◽  
M. Schultz ◽  
G. Foody ◽  
M. Riffler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Detection Algorithm ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
User Profiles ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
The Impact

Land use and land cover (LULC) mapping is often undertaken by national mapping agencies, where these LULC products are used for different types of monitoring and reporting applications. Updating of LULC databases is often done on a multi-year cycle due to the high costs involved, so changes are only detected when mapping exercises are repeated. Consequently, the information on LULC can quickly become outdated and hence may be incorrect in some areas. In the current era of big data and Earth observation, change detection algorithms can be used to identify changes in urban areas, which can then be used to automatically update LULC databases on a more continuous basis. However, the change detection algorithm must be validated before the changes can be committed to authoritative databases such as those produced by national mapping agencies. This paper outlines a change detection algorithm for identifying construction sites, which represent ongoing changes in LU, developed in the framework of the LandSense project. We then use volunteered geographic information (VGI) captured through the use of mapathons from a range of different groups of contributors to validate these changes. In total, 105 contributors were involved in the mapathons, producing a total of 2778 observations. The 105 contributors were grouped according to six different user-profiles and were analyzed to understand the impact of the experience of the users on the accuracy assessment. Overall, the results show that the change detection algorithm is able to identify changes in residential land use to an adequate level of accuracy (85%) but changes in infrastructure and industrial sites had lower accuracies (57% and 75 %, respectively), requiring further improvements. In terms of user profiles, the experts in LULC from local authorities, researchers in LULC at the French national mapping agency (IGN), and first-year students with a basic knowledge of geographic information systems had the highest overall accuracies (86.2%, 93.2%, and 85.2%, respectively). Differences in how the users approach the task also emerged, e.g., local authorities used knowledge and context to try to identify types of change while those with no knowledge of LULC (i.e., normal citizens) were quicker to choose ‘Unknown’ when the visual interpretation of a class was more difficult.

scholarly journals Modelling of intra-urban variability of prevailing ambient noise at different temporal resolution

Noise Mapping ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Saniul Alam ◽  
Lucy Corcoran ◽  
Eoin A. King ◽  
Aonghus McNabola ◽  
Francesco Pilla
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ambient Noise ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Traffic Volumes ◽  
Resolution Model ◽  
Noise Data ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe impact of temporal aspects of noise data on model development and intra-urban variability on environmental noise levels are often ignored in the development of models used to predict its spatiotemporal variation within a city. Using a Land Use Regression approach, this study develops a framework which uses routine noise monitors to model the prevailing ambient noise, and to develop a noise variability map showing the variation within a city caused by land-use setting. The impact of data resolution on model development and the impact of meteorological variables on the noise level which are often ignored were also assessed. Six models were developed based on monthly, daily and hourly resolutions of both the noise and predictor data. Cross validation highlighted that only the hourly resolution model having 59%explanatory power of the observed data (adjusted R2) and a potential of explaining at least 0.47% variation of any independent dataset (cross validation R2), was a suitable candidate among all the developed models for explaining intraurban variability of noise.In the hourly model, regions with roads of high traffic volumes, with higher concentrations of heavy goods vehicles, and being close to activity centreswere found to have more impact on the prevailing ambient noise. Road lengthswere found to be the most influential predictors and identified as having an impact on the ambient noise monitors.

Urban Land Use Changes by the Integration of Remote Sensing, GIS, and Dynamics Modeling

2013 ◽  
Vol 726-731 ◽  
pp. 4645-4649
Author(s):  
Jia Hua Zhang ◽  
Cui Hao ◽  
Feng Mei Yao
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Logistic Model ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Ratio Test ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Model ◽  
The Impact

We developed an approach to assess urban land use changes that incorporates socio-economic and environmental factors with multinomial logistic model, remote sensing data and GIS, and to quantify the impact of macro variables on land use of urban areas for the years 1990, 2000 and 2010 in Binhai New Area, China. The Markov transition matrix was designed to integrate with multinomial logistic model to illustrate and visualize the predicted land use surface. The multinomial logistic model was evaluated by means of Likelihood ratio test and Pseudo R-Square and showed a relatively good simulation. The prediction map of 2010 showed accurate rates 78.54%, 57.25% and 70.38%, respectively.

scholarly journals Temporal changes in greenspace in a highly urbanized region

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 763-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Dallimer ◽  
Zhiyao Tang ◽  
Peter R. Bibby ◽  
Paul Brindley ◽  
Kevin J. Gaston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
National Level ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Dramatic Shift ◽  
Urbanized Region ◽  
The Impact

The majority of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and urban areas are expanding faster than any other land-use type. In response to this phenomenon, two opposing arguments have emerged: whether cities should ‘sprawl’ into the wider countryside, or ‘densify’ through the development of existing urban greenspace. However, these greenspaces are increasingly recognized as being central to the amelioration of urban living conditions, supporting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision. Taking the highly urbanized region of England as a case study, we use data from a variety of sources to investigate the impact of national-level planning policy on temporal patterns in the extent of greenspace in cities. Between 1991 and 2006, greenspace showed a net increase in all but one of 13 cities. However, the majority of this gain occurred prior to 2001, and greenspace has subsequently declined in nine cities. Such a dramatic shift in land use coincides with policy reforms in 2000, which favoured densification. Here, we illustrate the dynamic and policy-responsive nature of urban land use, thereby highlighting the need for a detailed investigation of the trade-offs associated with different mechanisms of urban densification to optimize and secure the diverse benefits associated with greenspaces.

Safety-Based Left-Turn Phasing Decisions for Signalized Intersections

2017 ◽  
Vol 2619 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiriakos Amiridis ◽  
Nikiforos Stamatiadis ◽  
Adam Kirk
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Signalized Intersections ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Signal Timing ◽  
Left Turn ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
Intersection Safety ◽  
Traffic Volumes

The efficient and safe movement of traffic at signalized intersections is the primary objective of any signal-phasing and signal-timing plan. Accommodation of left turns is more critical because of the higher need for balancing operations and safety. The objective of this study was to develop models to estimate the safety effects of the use of left-turn phasing schemes. The models were based on data from 200 intersections in urban areas in Kentucky. For each intersection, approaches with a left-turn lane were isolated and considered with their opposing through approach to examine the left-turn–related crashes. This combination of movements was considered to be one of the most dangerous in intersection safety. Hourly traffic volumes and crash data were used in the modeling approach, along with the geometry of the intersection. The models allowed for the determination of the most effective type of left-turn signalization that was based on the specific characteristics of an intersection approach. The accompanying nomographs provide an improvement over existing methods and warrants and allow for a systematic and quick evaluation of the left-turn phase to be selected. The models used the most common variables that were already known during the design phase, and they could be used to determine whether a permitted or protected-only phase would suit the intersection when safety performance was considered.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Impact of Land Use and Occupation on the Biophysical Variables of the Cerrado Biome in Southwest Goiano, Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Victor H. Moraes ◽  
Pedro R. Giongo ◽  
Marcio Mesquita ◽  
Thomas J. Cavalcante ◽  
Matheus V. A. Ventura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Natural Vegetation ◽  
Agricultural Crops ◽  
Quantitative Classification ◽  
The Impact

The change in the use of natural vegetation by annual or perennial crops, sugarcane and fast-growing forests causes changes in the biophysical variables, and these changes can be monitored by remote sensing. The objective of this work was to evaluate, on a temporal scale, the impacts of land use changes on biophysical variables in the county of Santa Helena de Goias-Goias/Brazil. Between the years of 2000 to 2015 areas were identified for agricultural crops 1 (annual crops), water, agricultural crops 2 (sugarcane), natural vegetation, pasture and urban areas. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer) sensor products were selected for study: MOD11A2-Surface temperature; MOD16A2-Real evapotranspiration, MOD13Q1-Enhanced Vegetation Index and rainfall data from TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission). The geographic coordinates referring to the land uses were inserted in the LAPIG platform, searching the information of the biophysical variables referring to the selected pixel. The impact of land use change was evaluated by calculating the weighted average through the quantitative classification of the areas. It is concluded for the period of study that the index of average vegetation of the county had increase. There was an increase in the evapotranspiration volume of the county from 28% from 2000 to 2013 and the average surface temperature of the county showed a reduction of 2 °C in the period from 2000 to 2015.

scholarly journals An Assessment of Land Use Planning Activities through Development Plans in Urban Housing

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (SI4) ◽  
pp. 209-214
Author(s):  
Hamizah Yakob ◽  
Yusfida Ayu Abdullah @ Mohd Zain
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Housing Development ◽  
Planning And Control ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Housing Planning ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Land use planning is a contributing factor in achieving better housing development in urban areas. However, the ineffectiveness during the preparation of development plans and its implementation through development control has given the impact on housing development. This paper presents a study on the effectiveness of housing planning and control activities. The best approaches to assisting its effectiveness among decision-makers and implementers in housing development were revealed. Thus, the study employs a qualitative method through in-depth interviews conducted among town planners. The study discovered the most important aspects are the availability of data in improving housing planning and control. Keywords: Land Use Planning; Housing Planning; Planning Control; Development Plan eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6iSI4.3028

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