Developer-Planner Interaction in Transportation and Land Use Sustainability, MTI Report 01-21

This study argues that significant unmet demand exists for alternatives to conventional auto-oriented development; and further that planning interventions that restrict densities and land use mixing in developed areas are a major reason that this demand remains unmet. In order to explore these hypotheses, this study carried out two principal investigations. The first is a national survey of developers, randomly selected from the database of the Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC, the premiere national organization of land developers. Overall, the survey reveals considerable interest on the part of the private development community in developing in a fashion that is more compact than regulations currently allow. This interest varied by region, with the greatest interest expressed in the densely settled regions of the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. Developers in the Southwest and South Central regions (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana) expressed considerably less interest in developing in a more dense or mixed-use fashion than permitted by current regulation. Similarly, interest in developing more intensely than current regulations permit varied by setting. Little such interest exists for development in rural areas, but developers\u27 interest in such development in inner suburbs was especially keen

Design Implications of Model-Generated Urban Data

Published by the Architectural Research Centers Consortium under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.The staggering complexity of urban environment and long timescales in the causal mechanisms prevent designers to fully understand the implications of their design interventions. In order to investigate these causal mechanisms and provide measurable trends, a model that partially replicates urban complexity has been developed. Using a cellular automata approach to model land use types and markets for products, services, labour and property, the model has enabled numerical experiments to be carried out. The results revealed causal mechanisms and performance metrics obtained in a much shorter timescale than the real-life processes, pointing to a number of design implications for urban environments.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

THE INFLUENCE OF ‘GANG BARU’ TRADITIONAL MARKET ACTIVITIES IN THE USE OF PUBLIC SPACE IN SEMARANG CHINATOWN

Chinatown is one of the commercial district in Semarang city, which continues to grow in the city center. It’s a 'generator' that drives a wide variety of economic activities, also self-actualization and disclosure of aspiration, expression of the people. One landmark Semarang's Chinatown is the traditional markets Gang Baru. Activities in Gang Baru includes selling/trading, the parking, loading and unloading on public space. The purpose of this study to analyze the traditional market activity in the public space by taking the characteristics of the cultural space. There is a relationship and influence between the market activity with the condition of public spaces in Gang Baru traditional markets and surroundings. Market activity effects change the social society condition in the field of the economic activities, using the dwelling house to shophouse, social interaction takes place between merchants and owner shophouse. The majority of Chinese societies ethnic are receiving the traditional market activity Gang Baru because it is a cultural heritage activities that has historical value, they continue the family business in this market. The trade time for the activities of buying and selling traditional market in the Gang Baru street give a strong influence on public space. Market activity give effects the disruption of the circulation, use of the road and pedestrian areas to the activities of hawkers, parking and unloading of goods

Evaluation of an Australian Solar Community : Implications for Education and Training

1.1 Background What is renewable energy education and training? A cursory exploration of the International Solar Energy Society website (www.ises.org) reveals numerous references to education and training, referring collectively to concepts of the transfer and exchange of information and good practices, awareness raising and skills development. The purposes of such education and training relate to changing policy, stimulating industry, improving quality control and promoting the wider use of renewable energy sources. The primary objective appears to be to accelerate a transition to a better world for everyone (ISEE), as the greater use of renewable energy is seen as key to climate recovery; world poverty alleviation; advances in energy security, access and equality; improved human and environmental health; and a stabilized society. The Solar Cities project – Habitats of Tomorrow – aims at promoting the greater use of renewable energy within the context of long term planning for sustainable urban development. The focus is on cities or communities as complete systems; each one a unique laboratory allowing for the study of urban sustainability within the context of a low carbon lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to report on an evaluation of a Solar Community in Australia, focusing specifically on the implications (i) for our understandings and practices in renewable energy education and training and (ii) for sustainability outcomes. 1.2 Methodology The physical context is a residential Ecovillage (a Solar Community) in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia (latitude 28o south). An extensive Architectural and Landscape Code (A&LC) ‘premised on the interconnectedness of all things’ and embracing ‘both local and global concerns’ governs the design and construction of housing in the estate: all houses are constructed off-ground (i.e. on stumps or stilts) and incorporate a hybrid approach to the building envelope (mixed use of thermal mass and light-weight materials). Passive solar design, gas boosted solar water heaters and a minimum 1kWp photovoltaic system (grid connected) are all mandatory, whilst high energy use appliances such as air conditioners and clothes driers are not permitted. Eight families participated in an extended case study that encompassed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand sustainable housing (perceived as a single complex technology) through its phases of design, construction and occupation. 1.3 Results The results revealed that the level of sustainability (i.e. the performance outcomes in terms of a low-carbon lifestyle) was impacted on by numerous ‘players’ in the supply chain, such as architects, engineers and subcontractors, the housing market, the developer, product manufacturers / suppliers / installers and regulators. Three key factors were complicit in the level of success: (i) systems thinking; (ii) informed decision making; and (iii) environmental ethics and business practices. 1.4 Discussion The experiences of these families bring into question our understandings and practices with regard to education and training. Whilst increasing and transferring knowledge and skills is essential, the results appear to indicate that there is a strong need for expanding our education efforts to incorporate foundational skills in complex systems and decision making processes, combined with an understanding of how our individual and collective values and beliefs impact on these systems and processes

When Europe encounters urban governance: Policy Types, Actor Games and Mechanisms of cites Europeanization

This paper examines European Union (EU) causal mechanisms and policy instruments affecting the urban domain throughout the lenses of the Europeanization approach. Instead of looking at EU instruments that are formally/legally consecrated to cities, we use theoretical public policy analysis to explore the arenas and the causal mechanisms that structure the encounters between the EU and urban systems of governance. Policy instruments are related to policy arenas and in turn to different mechanisms of transmission thus originating a typology of European Policy Modes. The paper focuses on four different EU instruments in the in the macro-area of sustainable development and proposes potential game-theoretical models for each of them. In the conclusions we highlight the differences between this approach and the traditional analysis of EU urban policy, and suggest avenues for future empirical research based on typologies of policy instruments and modes of Europeanization

Identifying residential sub-markets using intra-urban migrations: the case of study of Barcelona’s neighborhoods

The dynamic evolution of the real estate market, as well as the sophistications of the interactions of the actors involved in it have caused that, contrary to classical economic theory, the real estate market is increasingly being thought of as a set of submarkets. This is because, among other things, the modeling of a segmented housing market allows, on the one hand, to design housing policies that are better adapted to the needs of the population, but on the other hand, it allows the generation of both marketing and supply strategies Oriented to specific population sectors. Such strategies in theory should behave as options with relatively low uncertainty, thus representing an attractive offer to all market players. However, in praxis, the segmentation of the real estate market is usually modeled on the offer. It is therefore that this paper proposes a modeling from observed preferences3 seen through intraurban migrations. In particular, it is proposed to model the market through the interaction value of Coombes, scaling the results in order to visualize the resulting submarket structure from the construction of a PAM (Partitioning Algorithm Medoids).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Effects From Living in Mixed-Income Communities for Low-Income Families: A Review of the Literature

Reviews the literature on the definitions of mixed-income communities; hypothesized and documented benefits, including poverty alleviation, desegregation and urban revitalization; and prevalence of such communities. Points to areas for future research