The Margins of Late Medieval London, 1430-1540

The Margins of Late Medieval London is a powerful study of medieval London’s urban fringe. Seeking to unpack the complexity of urban life in the medieval age, this volume offers a detailed and novel approach to understanding London beyond its institutional structures. Using a combination of experimental digital, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the volume casts new light on urban life at the level of the neighbourhood and considers the differences in economy, society and sociability which existed in different areas of a vibrant premodern city. It focuses on the dynamism and mobility that shaped city life, integrating the experiences of London’s poor and migrant communities and how they found their place within urban life. It describes how people found themselves marginalized in the city, and the strategies they would employ to mitigate that precarious position.

POTENTIAL RESOURCES, LOCAL COMMUNITIES’ ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS FOR OUTDOOR RECREATION AND ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN FRINGE HAREGO AND BEDEDO CONSERVED FOREST, SOUTH WOLLO ZONE, ETHIOPIA

The study identified the potential resources and examined the local communities’ attitudes and perception towards outdoor recreation and ecotourism development in the urban fringe Harego and Bededo conserved forest, Ethiopia. Mixed research approach was applied along with descriptive and sequential explanatory design. Questionnaire, interview and personal observations were data gathering instruments. Consequently, 336 respondents were randomly selected while key informants were selected purposefully. Simple descriptive analysis, crosstabs and independent t test has been applied to analyze the quantitative data while the qualitative data was analyzed using interpretative analysis technique. The study revealed that the areas have plethora of fauna and flora resources, amazing landscapes and are huge potentials for outdoor recreation and ecotourism development. More significantly, there is positive attitude and perception from the local people which is important for outdoor recreation and ecotourism, their intentions of direct involvement for the development necessities are also very promising while there is a statistically significant difference between high school and below holders (Mean=18.11, sig. 0.001) and college diploma and above holders (Mean=20.89, sig. 0.001).

Lifestyle Properties, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity Protection in Peri-Urban Aotearoa–New Zealand: A Case Study from Peri-Urban Palmerston North

Intensive agriculture and urbanization are putting pressure on natural capital in Aotearoa–New Zealand (NZ), with native ecosystems and water quality suffering degradation. As the population has increased, so development has pushed into the rural–urban fringe. Over the last 30 years, the number of lifestyle properties in NZ has increased dramatically. Many of these properties have been developed on some of NZ’s most productive soils, meaning a loss of provisioning services from this land. However, given their location, these developments present new opportunities for the enhancement and protection of other ecosystem services. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study conducted on lifestyle block residents in peri-urban Palmerston North. The results showed that these residents have a good sense of environmental stewardship and a desire to plant native species, improve connectivity, and protect their land from the invasion of pests and weeds. These residents are also quite community-focused and protective of their special place. This creates an excellent basis from which to encourage greater collaborative action towards protecting and enhancing biodiversity and to put in place land management strategies that can enhance natural capital and assist in other ecosystem service protection serving to improve the landscape ecology of peri-urban environments.

The phenomenon of urban fringe settlements in the south-north region of Malang City

The City of Malang grows annually along with the implementation of its spatial policy. One of the policies that stimulates movement into the city is the development of land for settlements. Limited land and high demands have led to the expansion of settlements towards the urban fringe of Malang City, especially for the south-north region. The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of settlements in the north-south regions of Malang City. The variables studied consisted of patterns and types of settlement, land use and land cover, land prices, housing density, and the population. The five aspects of the settlement were studied using the descriptive statistical analysis methods and spatial mapping. The results of descriptive statistical analysis show that there are different characteristics of settlements in the north-south regions of Malang City. The difference can be seen in the four aspects, such as land use and land cover, land prices, housing density, and population. Meanwhile, based on the results of spatial mapping analysis, the different characteristics occurs due to the availability of road access and proximity to city-regional-scale facilities.

Analyzing Residents’ Landscape Preferences after Changes of Landscape Characteristics: A Qualitative Perspective

China is one of the world’s fastest-growing countries, and the scale of its cities continues to expand, causing tremendous changes to the ecological environment. The purpose of this research is to improve urban fringe future planning from the perspective of landscape preference. This study takes the area of Shenyang City as an example and selects six locations with high consensus on the tested areas. We used the narrative interview method for the landscape paradigm, combined with spatial quantification, government policies, and major events, to conduct a comprehensive analysis and summarize past environmental appearance. A content analysis method was also used to summarize the landscape features that residents prefer after 15 years of environmental changes, including three types and ten dimensions. From the perspective of landscape preference, a plan for urban fringe areas is proposed.

Evaluation of Housing Quality in a Selected Urban Fringe of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

Globally, a lot of research efforts have been put into investigating housing quality in urban areas, but little is known about housing situation in the urban fringes of developing nations. This article examines the factors influencing residents’ satisfaction with housing quality in Oke-Andi, an urban fringe in Kwara State, Nigeria. The research design for this study was quantitative in nature. Sampling was carried out at different stages during the field exercise. A preliminary survey of Oke-Andi in Ilorin through satellite imageries and reconnaissance revealed an approximate population of 593 buildings. From this, a 20% sample size, approximated to 120 buildings were randomly sampled and considered reasonable for the study. Using the housing quality criteria drawn from previous contextual studies, validated and pretested structured questionnaires were used to elicit data on respondents’ satisfaction with their dwelling unit, building unit, and neighbourhood quality. Information on residents’ socio-economic characteristics was also collected. From each selected building, a copy of the questionnaire was administered on the household heads or adult representatives. At the end of the survey, 120 questionnaires were administered, but only 100 were subsequently retrieved for data analysis. Simple frequency tables and Principal Component Analysis were used for the analysis of collected data. The result of PCA shows neighbourhood attributes, public utilities and building conditions as the factors influencing residents’ satisfaction with housing quality. The study recommends community driven urban renewal schemes for redevelopment, rehabilitation and upgrading of the quality of urban fringes.

Exploring Factors Contributing to Crash Injury Severity in the Rural-Urban Fringe of the Central City

To analyze the risk factors influencing the crash injury severity in rural-urban fringes, crash data in rural-urban fringes were collected from Harbin, China. Four risk factors, namely, time of day, vehicle type, road feature, and crash type, were investigated associated with the severity of rural-urban fringe crashes. The crash injury severity was divided into two categories, including fatal and nonfatal crash. The logistic regression was applied to explore the relationships between the severity outcomes and time of day, vehicle type, road feature, and crash type. The test methods of goodness-of-fit and badness-of-fit are conducted to examine the validity of estimation results. The results show considerable matching of the number of different crash types between calculated results and actual data. Compared with the other influencing factors, the time of day is significant factor for crash injury severity based on the study. As such, the proposed calibration procedure and the factors of choice are recommended as a validated approach to analyze and identify the main factors influencing crash injury severity in rural-urban fringes.

A Novel Model for Detecting Urban Fringe and Its Expanding Patterns: An Application in Harbin City, China

Urban fringe is an active expanding belt, indicating urban-rural interaction processes. Previous studies have attempted to define urban fringe as the transitional area between urban and rural areas, but there is a lack of quantitative analysis of the periphery boundaries. We developed a novel , the Spatial Segmentation Model (SSM), to detect the extent of urban fringe via calculating the share of the built-up land. Within the urban fringe, we statistically compared the number of built-up patches in each direction and described four urban expanding patterns (stable, sprawling, leaping, and mixing patterns) indicated by the empirical analysis. The results show that this model can reliably detect the urban fringe and could reveal urban growth characteristics. We find the spatial territory changes are highly relative with transport infrastructures in Harbin. Meanwhile, the roads density in the urban core are higher than in the urban fringe. Especially for city roads, roads density in the urban core is more than 4 times higher than in the urban fringe. The growth of the urban fringe is closely related to the development of social economies as well as the space policies and development plans designed by governments. Similar to the post-industry cities worldwide, Harbin should take action to address population decline. Effective land-use and suitable urban growth strategies play an important role in alleviating urban shrinkage. Thus, understanding the dynamics, urban expanding patterns, and driving factors in the urban fringe can help us form a basis for future urban development.