scholarly journals A Decision-Making Tool for Urban Planners: A Framework to Model the Interdependency among Land Use, Accessibility, Density, and Surface Runoff in Urban Areas

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):  
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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saripah Abdul Latif ◽  
Mohd Shukri Omar ◽  
Yeop Hussin Bidin ◽  
Zainudin Awang

Failure in managing solid waste could result in environmental deterioration, which affects the quality of life. Recycling is argued to be a better solution to the problem. Although consumers’ awareness is increasing, participations in recycling are still low. The objective is to examine the influence of situational factors on recycling behaviour. Using cluster sampling, 300 respondents from selected urban areas in Malaysia were identified as samples. Data is analysed using structural equation modeling. Situational factors are non- significant predictors of recycling behaviour, but are significant predictors of intention to recycle. The findings have significant policy implications in ensuring the quality of life of societies. Keywords: Quality of Life; Solid Waste Management; Intention to Recycle; Recycling Behaviour; Situational Factors   eISSN 2514-7528 © 2018. 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) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Schleith ◽  
M. J. Widener ◽  
C. Kim ◽  
M. W. Horner

The degree to which U.S. cities, metro regions, and general urbanized areas have distinct centres of economic activity has been a matter of debate for many decades. In the jobs–housing literature, there is related debate about whether having many distinct mixed-use centres in cities leads to longer or shorter commutes. The excess commuting framework has been increasingly refined and applied to assess urban areas' jobs–housing balance. The framework has expanded over the years but an issue in the present research is whether its various theoretical measurements and efficiency calculations might be used to assess the degree of poly- or mono-centricity of a region, thereby contributing to debates about what kind of urban form facilitates shorter commutes. In this paper, a suite of excess commuting (EC) measures are calculated for fifty-three of the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S. From there a hierarchical clustering approach is developed and applied to demonstrate which of these metrics are most useful in describing urban form. We examine how these metrics perform for particular built environments, which gives further insights into commuting and land use trends. Results of the research show how various urban forms have specific commuting outcomes: specifically, that polycentric urban forms have shorter average commute distances than sprawling ones. This should inform policy questions about the most effective land-use planning strategies to pursue in efforts to manage travel demand via built environment interventions.


Author(s):  
Yue Lin ◽  
Mengjun Kang ◽  
Biao He

Standard address data are essential geographical information that play an important role in urban management. However, due to the complex structures of Chinese addresses, poor address quality has long been a problem in China. Although several measures were established to improve the address quality, nonstandard address data are still common in new urban areas. To investigate the potential causes of the geographical disparities in address quality, in this paper, we hypothesize that the sprawling urban form caused by rapid urban expansion in China has hindered the generation of standard addresses in new urban areas. To test this hypothesis, the spatial pattern of address quality in Shenzhen, China, is analyzed, and the potential causal paths relating urban expansion, urban form, and address quality are examined using structural equation modeling. The results indicate poorer address quality in new urban areas in Shenzhen. Rapid urban expansion has an indirect negative relation with the address quality. In addition, both road compactness and land use compactness have a direct positive effect on address quality, but the latter is insignificant. In this case, to facilitate improvements in address quality, a plan with dense and small blocks is suggested in the planning of new urban areas.


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.


Spatium ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
Bojana Ivanovic

This paper is an attempt to reveal the possibilities for using land-use planning to improve the urban metabolism (UM) circularity and sustainability, and thus its usefulness for urban planning and development. The available literature about UM is overviewed and analysed from this conceptual perspective, and a comprehensive and consistent definition of the UM concept is proposed. The Circular UM is also presented as an efficient and sustainable extension of UM. It has been found that distinct urban forms strongly influence UM, and that this influence to a great extent transfers through, and connects, the layers of the urban form, from the urban morphology, through the spatial distribution of urban functions, to the level of the building stock. These relations imply that proper intertwining of city functions in compact urban areas could have favourable impacts on many aspects of UM, reducing the consumption of land, material and energy, as well as pollution, and improving the overall quality of life. Quantification of these impacts requires a more precise determination of the effects of intertwining of urban functions, and the side-effects of doing so, and is a precondition for the effective use of MLU for UM optimisation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Nazri Muhamad Ludin ◽  
Norsiah Abd. Aziz ◽  
Nooraini Hj Yusoff ◽  
Wan Juliyana Wan Abd Razak

Land use planning plays a crucial role in creating a balance between the needs of society, physical development and the ecosystem. However, most often poor planning and displacement of land uses particularly in urban areas contribute to social ills such as drug abuse and criminal activities. This research explains the spatial relationship of drug abuse and other criminal activities on urban land use planning and their implications on the society at large. Spatial statistics was used to show patterns, trends and spatial relationships of crimes and land use planning. Data on crime incidents were obtained from the Royal Malaysia Police Department whilst cases of drug abuse were collected from the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK). Analysis of the data together with digital land use maps produced by Arnpang Jaya Municipal Council, showed the distribution of crime incidents and drug abuse in the area. Findings of the study also indicated that, there was a strong relationship between petty crimes, drng abuse and land use patterns. These criminal activities tend to concentrate in residential and commercial areas of the study area.


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):  
Monica Jamali-Phiri ◽  
Ikenna D. Ebuenyi ◽  
Emma M. Smith ◽  
Juba Alyce Kafumba ◽  
Malcolm MacLachlan ◽  
...  

This paper aims to address the information gap on the influence of socio-demographic factors on access and utilization of Assistive Technology (AT) among children with disabilities in Malawi. Thus, it contributes towards the realization of the recommendations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities and the development of a framework for creating an effective national AT policy. The paper used two statistically matched datasets, namely, the 2017 survey on Living conditions among persons with disabilities in Malawi and the 2015-16 Malawi Demographic and Health survey. Logistic regression and structural equation modeling techniques were utilized to assess the influence of socio-demographic factors on the use of AT among children with disabilities. The results indicate that there is a high level of unmet need for AT among young children aged 2 to 9 and those living in urban areas. The results further indicate that children with multiple disabilities have lower odds (OR = 0.924) of using AT for personal mobility compared to children with a single functional difficulty. These results entail that AT needs for children with multiple disabilities are not adequately addressed. Therefore, when developing policies on AT, younger children and those with multiple disabilities need to be specifically targeted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 084596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongchang Sun ◽  
Xinwu Li ◽  
Wenxue Fu ◽  
Yingkui Li ◽  
Dongsheng Tang

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