3,586 research outputs found

    Frontiers of Real Estate Science in Japan

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    This open access book presents recent research and hot topics in the field of real estate science in Japan. It features carefully selected English translations of peer-reviewed papers and excellent articles published in the Japanese Journal of Real Estate Sciences, as well as papers presented at the Japan Association of Real Estate Sciences (JARES) annual conference. The topics covered include market analyses of vacant houses, policies for reuse of vacant houses, property tax policy, issues of land for which the owners are unknown, disaster and real estate values, the siting optimization plan and its influence on real estate, big data and ICT technology for the real estate business, and public real estate management. Real estate science in Japan has developed in step with international research in the fields of law and economics, regional science, civil engineering, environmental science, architectonics, and related areas. At the same time, it has evolved into a unique discipline that focuses on policy-oriented practical science with arguments for the reform of outdated laws, regulations, and traditional customs. Asian countries are currently growing rapidly and are catching up with developing countries. The lessons learned and know-how accumulated by JARES is helpful for practitioners and policymakers not only in Japan, but also in other Asian countries

    Morphological response to reduced discharge on a losing Catawba River bifurcate

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    River Channel bifurcations resulting from partial avulsions are features of fluvial systems that remain poorly understood. The southeastern Piedmont of North Carolina is an area where large bifurcated rivers are uncommon, yet in an area near the foot of the Blue Ridge Escarpment several prominent contemporary examples exist. The initiation of these uncommon bifurcations and the subsequent persistence of split flow in these river reaches (Catawba, Linville, Yadkin Rivers and Wilson Creek) are yet to be fully understood. This study entailed GIS spatiotemporal analysis of planform morphology, hydraulic geometry and geomorphic analysis of river bank sedimentation and channel narrowing in the losing branch of a prominent Catawba River bifurcation, that are believed to influence the long-term stability of bifurcated channel patterns, and allows for determining pre- and post- bifurcation states, morphostratigraphic surveys of channel bank deposits, the nature of sedimentation events contributing most to channel adjustments over the last 39 years. It is important to study and understand the evolution of river bifurcations and the processes of avulsion that produce them because of the significant implications of these events pertaining to infrastructure management (roads, bridges and dwellings), flood hazard assessment and zonation, land conservation, as well as riverine ecosystems

    THE HOPES AND THE REALITIES OF AVIATION IN FRENCH INDOCHINA, 1919-1940

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    My dissertation examines how and why the French employed aviation in the five constituent parts of French Indochina (Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina, Laos, and Tonkin) during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. I argue that the French, believing that the modern technology of powered flight possessed seemingly endless potential, saw aviation as a vehicle for extending, consolidating, developing, and protecting their interests both within the colony and around Southeast and East Asia. Aircraft, whether civil or military, were viewed and used as a multi-purpose tool of empire. Indeed, planes were employed for a variety of tasks in Indochina: transportation and communication; delivery of patients and medical supplies; colonial development projects; scientific studies; imperial propaganda; internal policing and assertion of authority; and air defense of the colony. My argument is that the realities of what was accomplished with aviation fell far short of the sky-high hopes that government and military officials and aeronautics enthusiasts had for flight technology in the empire. My dissertation also examines the causes and the effects of this yawning gap between what was hoped and what was accomplished in matters of aviation. When aviation failed to “get off the ground” to the extent that the French hoped, the reasons typically related to a recurring combination of unfavorable weather and geography, insufficient funding and aeronautics materials, the limits of the era’s flight technology, and foreign competition that originated in Europe as well as Southeast and East Asia. Challenges to French aerial supremacy were present within the colony itself, although in a more indirect manner, through the ways that the colonized responded, or failed to respond, to French aviation. In sum, as much as the French envisioned aircraft as being able to rather easily vanquish the perceived challenges of the colonial landscape, aviation, in reality, failed to do so or only did so after a protracted period of time. My dissertation is positioned at the intersection of colonial aviation history and the history of French Indochina. While studies in each of these fields have considered parts of this dissertation’s subject matter, there has been a lack of sustained critical analysis on French aviation in Indochina. My project contends that Indochina presents a rich area of study for colonial aviation history because, more so than anywhere else in the French empire, the aviation efforts in Indochina encapsulated all that the French hoped to accomplish with aircraft, the era’s most modern, symbolically saturated transportation technology. In addition, my topic reveals much about the hopes and the realities of the French colonial project in Indochina as well. Thus by analyzing how aviation was viewed and used in the context of the Indochina, my dissertation provides insight into not only what the colonizers wanted to achieve in Indochina but also why this effort failed

    Urban environmental health applications of remote sensing

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    An urban area was studied through the use of the inventory-by-surrogate method rather than by direct interpretation of photographic imagery. Prior uses of remote sensing in urban and public research are examined. The effects of crowding, poor housing conditions, air pollution, and street conditions on public health are considered. Color infrared photography was used to categorize land use features and the grid method was used in photo interpretation analysis. The incidence of shigella and salmonella, hepatitis, meningitis, tuberculosis, myocardial infarction and veneral disease were studied, together with mortality and morbidity rates. Sample census data were randomly collected and validated. The hypothesis that land use and residential quality are associated with and act as an influence upon health and physical well-being was studied and confirmed

    Truth in Soft-Focus: Photography and Abstraction in Dialogue 1914–1930

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    This thesis explores the dialogue between modernist photography and abstraction during the period between 1914 and 1930 primarily in France, Germany and the United States. The duality of photography is emphasised: binaries and antagonistic terms associated with photography are consistently challenged and disentangled to argue against the separation of realism and abstraction. A formalist-phenomenological methodology associated with art historical traditions is adopted in order to bridge photography and abstraction. Central to this argument is a consideration of atmospheres in photography that contribute to and encourage ties with abstraction. This thesis will attend to atmospheres and their effects, putting formalist-phenomenology into practice by linking realism and abstraction, and will closely read and explore embodied experiences of abstract photographs. Chapters 1 and 2 theoretically outline key contextual stakes such as the relationship between documentary and aesthetics, photography and painting, as well as perception and photographic optics. Chapter 3 positions the abstract nature photograph within and against conventions of landscape by excluding the horizon line from compositions. Alfred Stieglitz’s Equivalents series and Josef Albers’s photographs of sludge are considered alongside Arvid Gutschow’s photobook See Sand Sonne. Chapter 4 investigates the still-life photograph as well as formalist concerns relating to light, shadow, glows and blurs as contributors to the atmospheric charge of abstract photographs. Artists given particular attention here include Florence Henri, Lyonel Feininger, Ilse Bing and Paul Strand. Chapter 5 probes the theme of the machine in photography. Charles Sheeler’s River Rouge series and a still-life photograph of jugs and vases are explored in connection with AmĂ©dĂ©e Ozenfant’s theories on the ‘spirit’ of the modern age. Oblique photographs of the Eiffel Tower by Moholy-Nagy, Ilse Bing and Germaine Krull are also discussed as ‘faulty’ and disorienting abstract images

    The WalkUP Wake-Up Call: Boston

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    In the Boston metropolitan area, walkable urbanism adds value. On average, all of the product types studied, including office, retail, hotel, rental apartments, and for-sale housing, have higher values per square foot in walkable urban places than in low-density drivable locations. These price premiums of 20 to 134 percent per square foot are strong indicators of pent-up demand for walkable urbanism.Previous research has demonstrated the correlation between walkable urban places and both the education of the metropolitan work force and the GDP per capita. The current research confirms this finding: for example, since 2000, 70 percent of the population growth of young, educated workers has occurred in the walkable urban places of the Boston region. Public transit, especially rail transit, activates walkable urbanism's potential for adding real estate value, and as this report demonstrates, that potential is ample. Therefore, policymakers must weigh the costs of funding transit against its power to increase tax revenues. With the right value capture tools in place, the increased valuethat transit supports could be used to fund at least a portion of the system's maintenance and future expansion.We should also be concerned that, given the flow of capital into walkable urban places and the price premiums, the affordability of these places may be diminished. The resulting increased displacement of low-income residents to less accessible suburban locations would likely have substantial negative impacts on social equity, the environment and opportunity. As a result, it is critical to establish policies that will preserve existing affordable housing in walkable urban places and leverage private sector investments to enhance opportunities for disadvantaged families to live in high opportunity/high accessibility places. However, the ultimate solution to high housing and commercial costs is more walkable urban inventory, which will occupy less than 10 percent of the metro area's landmass. This new inventory will eventually drive down land costs, the primary reason for the price premiums

    Urban population density and environmental quality in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: a geo-statistical analysis

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    This dissertation revolves around three issues on the urban area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti: the population distribution pattern, its estimation from remote sensing images, and its relationship with environmental quality. It follows a three-paper format. Paper 1 examines the population density pattern by the monocentric and polycentric models, based on the 2003 census data. The regression results show a poor fitting power of monocentric functions, and improved but less than satisfactory R2 by polycentric functions. A five-sector conceptual model is proposed to capture the urban structure shaped by the absence or lack of institutional enforcement of land use regulations and urban planning. Paper 2 proposes a population estimation model based on Landsat ETM+ images that are widely available. The subpixel vegetation-impervious surface-soil (VIS) fractions derived from the Landsat multispectral bands (the mean value of houses fraction image, the mean value of vegetation and the standard deviation of vegetation fraction image) are used as predictors for urban population density. The research indicates that the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, which accounts for spatial non-stationarity, performs much better than its Ordinary Least Square counterpart. Paper 3 uses multiple factors to assess and map the urban environmental quality (UEQ). In addition to parameters typically considered in previous studies, this study includes natural hazards and other parameters unique to Port-au-Prince. Crowdedness, waste, lack of vegetation, presence of slums and water body pollutions are considered as the most critical factors (negatively) affecting the quality of the environment in Port-au-Prince. All are exacerbated by population pressure on the resources, i.e., population density. The scores for corresponding factors are integrated together by weights extracted from a panel of local experts. The overall UEQ results are validated by field surveys. Each paper discusses important implications of major findings for public policy and plannin

    The application of GIS and remote sensing to assess the effect of periodic flooding on communities along the Juskeiriver: A case study of Alexandria Township, Johannesburg, South Africa

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    Floods are water induced disasters that led to temporary induction of dry and cause serious damages in the affected location such as loss of valuable assets, lives and destruction of infrastructure. Flooding had become common in Alexandra Township during rainfall season and the recorded impact of periodic flooding on communities is increasing at an alarming rate. This study seeks to identify populations vulnerable to flooding and to map-out areas at high risk of flood disasters, using GIS and RS as a tool. For GIS application different types of maps were produced, namely, flood vulnerability, hazards, risk and risk index map highlighting areas at risk of being affected by flooding. Flood risk index maps identify three categories of risk zones; low and high risk zone. The household units within each of the risk zones was calculated and the total was estimated to be 762 for low-risk and 32 486 for high risk zone. The SRTM Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and multi-temporal Satellite Probatoire d’Observation de la Terra (SPOT) satellite images for 1997, 2006 and 2013 of the area was used for land-use and land-cover (LULC) change analyses using maximum-likelihood post-classification comparison. Results reveal that tremendous urban development had taken place in the study area along the Jukskei River area for the past sixteen years. It was observed that there was a sharp decrease in vegetation from 237ha (1997) to 134ha (2006) to 68ha (2013). This may had a negative impact on the environment around this area by decreasing surface runoff. The trend however, shows that bare surface and vegetation land-cover class has no potential to recover. Questionnaires aimed at all the residents in the study area were used to assess the effect of periodic flooding on communities. Community leader and City of Johannesburg Disaster Management Unit (CoJDMU) interviews were also conducted to get more insight about floods management in the study area. Finally, strategies for alleviating flood risk in the study area were discussed and some recommendations were made to help the government and municipal authorities to improve and development sustainable flood mitigation measures
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