Understanding the compactness of employment activities in high-density cities through cellphone location data

Author(s):  
Xingang Zhou ◽  
Wei Lang ◽  
Anthony GO Yeh ◽  
Xinyi Niu

Urban development in many cities worldwide presents a dispersed development with urban sprawl and excessive land use. Compact city development facilitates an efficient use of land that aims to reduce excessive land consumption and commuting. However, the ignorance of the relationships between land use and the compactness of employment activities has resulted in excessive commuting. The separation of jobs and housing due to functional zoning has caused criticism in compact city development. This research aims to examine the compactness of workers’ employment activities and its relationship with land use to enrich our knowledge on compact city development. The relationship between urban and employment activity compactness is examined through cellphone location data in Shanghai, China. A set of indicators, including intrazonal employment ratio and interzonal commuting distance, are examined to measure the compactness of employment activities. Land-use compactness is measured through building density, land-use diversity, and accessibility. The effect of land-use compactness on employment activity compactness is analyzed through structural equation modeling. A high proportion of residential land use reduces the intrazonal employment ratio and increases the average interzonal commuting distance. A high proportion of industrial and commercial land use increases the intrazonal employment ratio. These are the spatial characteristics to improve urban compactness. This study contributes to decision-making for compact development, which is of great significance to promoting compact activities. It can also provide spatial planning policies that facilitate workers’ access to local employment opportunities with short travel distances through land use planning for mixed land use.

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Samith Madusanka ◽  
Chethika Abenayake ◽  
Amila Jayasinghe ◽  
Chaminda Perera

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the four-dimensional relationship between land use, accessibility, density, and surface runoff in urban areas. In contemporary literature, a series of studies have been conducted that extensively discuss the natural components associated with the surface runoff in urban areas. However, the dynamic and complex dimensions of the urban form, such as land use, accessibility, and density, are yet to be fully understood. In this study, a 4D diagram was utilized to identify relationships between dimensions, in addition to decision tree analysis, to explore the structural flow between selected variables. Furthermore, a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was employed with the purpose of investigating the direct, indirect, and moderating effects on the targeted dependent variable, surface runoff. The results of the analysis reported a strong correlation between land use, accessibility, density, and surface runoff, with an R-squared value of 0.802, which indicates an acceptable model accuracy by the international standard. A positive relationship between the four dimensions was indicated by the higher accessibility; the higher density in terms of a higher floor space index (FSI), ground space index (GSI), and open space; the building height of the adjacent buildings; the higher diversity of the land use; and the higher surface runoff. Accordingly, the findings of the study offer policy implications in the fields of land use planning, zoning regulations and overall urban development planning towards achieving climate resilient cities.


Author(s):  
Zhongqi Wang ◽  
Qi Han ◽  
Bauke de Vries ◽  
Li Dai

AbstractThe identification of the relationship between land use and transport lays the foundation for integrated land use and transport planning and management. This work aims to investigate how rail transit is linked to land use. The research on the relationship between land use and rail-based transport is dominated by the impacts of rail projects on land use, without an in-depth understanding of the reverse. However, it is important to note that issues of operation management rather than new constructions deserve greater attention for regions with established rail networks. Given that there is a correspondence between land use patterns and spatial distribution of heavy railway transit (HRT) services at such regions, the study area (i.e., the Netherlands) is partitioned by the Voronoi diagram of HRT stations and the causal relationship between land use and HRT services is examined by structural equation modeling (SEM). The case study of Helmond (a Dutch city) shows the potential of the SEM model for discussing the rail station selection problem in a multiple transit station region (MTSR). Furthermore, in this study, the node place model is adapted with the derivatives of the SEM model (i.e., the latent variable scores for rail service levels and land use characteristics), which are assigned as node and place indexes respectively, to analyze and differentiate the integration of land use and HRT services at the regional level. The answer to whether and how land use affects rail transit services from this study strengthens the scientific basis for rail transit operations management. The SEM model and the modified node place model are complementary to be used as analytical and decision-making tools for rail transit-oriented regional development.


Author(s):  
Yang (Luna) Xi ◽  
Jeff Allen ◽  
Eric J. Miller ◽  
Steven Farber ◽  
Robert Keel

Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) has been widely used in regional planning as a key sustainability performance indicator. Many regional growth plans for reducing work trip VKT have been proposed, with a focus on land use development in employment centers. Despite the potential impact of urban form on the reduction of VKT, the fundamentals of how this takes place remain unclear. This study analyzes the relationship between urban form, VKT, and mode shares by examining office commuting patterns in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) through a structural equation modeling approach. The model supports the substantial impact of urban form on the reduction of VKT; however, it indicates that such an impact is made mostly through shifting modes, rather than directly on reduced travel distances. This model is then used to evaluate critically a regional growth plan for the GTHA, finding that strategies focusing solely on increasing land use densities in employment centers are not likely to reduce regional VKT significantly without also easing commuting auto dependency. Thus, it is recommended that more sustainable travel alternatives for workers in employment centers should be provided to achieve a sufficient reduction in VKT.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanqi Wang ◽  
Bingqing Li ◽  
Jun Yang

With the frequent human activities operating on the earth, the impacts of land use change on the regional climate are increasingly perceptible. Under the background of the rapid urbanization, understanding the impacts of land use change on the regional climate change is vital and significant. In this study, we investigated the relationships between land use change and regional climate change through a structural equation model. Southern China was selected as the study area for its rapid urbanization and different structure of land use among its counties. The results indicate that the path coefficients of “vegetation,” “Urban and surrounding area,” and “other” to “climate” are −0.42, 0.20, and 0.46, respectively. Adding vegetation area is the main method to mitigate regional climate change. Urban and surrounding area and other areas influence regional climate by increasing temperature and precipitation to a certain extent. Adding grassland and forestry, restraining sprawl of built-up area, and making the most use of unused land are efficient ways to mitigate the regional climate change in Southern China. The results can provide feasible recommendations to land use policy maker.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9316
Author(s):  
Chiranjivi Neupane ◽  
Santoso Wibowo ◽  
Srimannarayana Grandhi ◽  
Hepu Deng

This paper explores the role of stakeholders’ trust in the adoption of smart city technologies, leading to the identification of the critical determinants for adopting smart city technologies in Australian regional cities. A comprehensive review of the related literature has been conducted. Such a review leads to the development of a trust-based research model for investigating the importance of trust in technology and its adoption. This model is then tested and validated with the use of a structural equation modeling technique on the survey data collected from ICT professionals in Australian regional cities. The study results show that perceived usefulness, perceived external pressure and perceived information security influence trust in smart city technologies. Further analysis highlights the significant relationship between stakeholders’ trust and their intention to adopt smart city technologies. This study is unique, as it is one of a few studies that focus on exploring stakeholders’ trust in the adoption of smart city technologies from the perspective of ICT professionals in Australia. The study results can be used by the government agencies to formulate appropriate policies to enhance the use of smart city technologies in the active pursuit of smart city development in Australia.


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