From buildings to cities: techniques for the multi-scale analysis of urban form and function

The built environment is a significant factor in many urban processes, yet direct measures of built form are seldom used in geographical studies. Representation and analysis of urban form and function could provide new insights and improve the evidence base for research. So far progress has been slow due to limited data availability, computational demands, and a lack of methods to integrate built environment data with aggregate geographical analysis. Spatial data and computational improvements are overcoming some of these problems, but there remains a need for techniques to process and aggregate urban form data. Here we develop a Built Environment Model of urban function and dwelling type classifications for Greater London, based on detailed topographic and address-based data (sourced from Ordnance Survey MasterMap). The multi-scale approach allows the Built Environment Model to be viewed at fine-scales for local planning contexts, and at city-wide scales for aggregate geographical analysis, allowing an improved understanding of urban processes. This flexibility is illustrated in the two examples, that of urban function and residential type analysis, where both local-scale urban clustering and city-wide trends in density and agglomeration are shown. While we demonstrate the multi-scale Built Environment Model to be a viable approach, a number of accuracy issues are identified, including the limitations of 2D data, inaccuracies in commercial function data and problems with temporal attribution. These limitations currently restrict the more advanced applications of the Built Environment Model

Sustainable Real Estate: Management, Assessment and Innovations

Production and consumption activities have determined a weakness of the sustainable real estate economy. The main problems are the subordination of public decision making, which is subjected to pressure from big companies; inefficient appraisal procedures; excessive use of financial leverage in investment projects; the atypical nature of markets; income positions in urban transformations; and the financialization of real estate markets, with widespread negative effects. A delicate role in these complex problems is assigned to real estate appraisal activities, called to make value judgments on real estate goods and investment projects, the prices of which are often formed in atypical real estate markets, giving ever greater importance to sustainable development and transformation issues. This Special Issue is dedicated to developing and disseminating knowledge and innovations related to most recent real estate evaluation methodologies applied in the fields of architecture and civil, building, environmental, and territorial engineering. Suitable works include studies on econometric models, sustainable building management, building costs, risk management and real estate appraisal, mass appraisal methods applied to real estate properties, urban and land economics, transport economics, the application of economics and financial techniques to real estate markets, the economic valuation of real estate investment projects, the economic effects of building transformations or projects on the environment, and sustainable real estate

Credit risk management of property investments through multi-criteria indicators

The economic crisis of 2008 has highlighted the ineffectiveness of the banks in their disbursement of mortgages which caused the spread of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) with underlying real estate. With the methods stated by the Basel III agreements, aimed at improving the capital requirements of banks and determining an adequate regulatory capital, the banks without the skills required have difficulties in applying the rigid weighting coefficients structures. The aim of the work is to identify a synthetic risk index through the participatory process, in order to support the restructuring debt operations to benefit smaller banks and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), by analyzing the real estate credit risk. The proposed synthetic risk index aims at overcoming the complexity of Basel III methodologies through the implementation of three different multi-criteria techniques. In particular, the integration of objective financial variables with subjective expert judgments into a participatory process is not that common in the reference literature and brings its benefits for reaching more approved and shared results in the debt restructuring operations procedure. Moreover, the main findings derived by the application to a real case study have demonstrated how important it is for the credit manager to have an adequate synthetic index that could lead to the avoidance of risky scenarios where several modalities to repair the credit debt occur

Sustainable Development of Real Estate

Research, theoretical and practical tasks of sustainable real estate development process are revised in detail in this monograph; particular examples are presented as well. The concept of modern real estate development model and a developer is discussed, peculiarities of the development of built environment and real estate objects are analyzed, as well as assessment methods, models and management of real estate and investments in order to increase the object value. Theoretical and practical analyses, presented in the monograph, prove that intelligent and augmented reality technologies allow business managers to reach higher results in work quality, organize a creative team of developers, which shall present more qualitative products for the society. The edition presents knowledge on economic, legal, technological, technical, organizational, social, cultural, ethical, psychological and environmental, as well as its management aspects, which are important for the development of real estate: publicly admitted sustainable development principles, urban development and aesthetic values, territory planning, participation of society and heritage protection. It is admitted that economical crises are inevitable, and the provided methods shall help to decrease possible loss. References to the most modern world scientific literature sources are presented in the monograph. The monograph is prepared for the researchers, MSc and PhD students of construction economics and real estate development. The book may be useful for other researchers, MSc and PhD students of economics, management and other specialities, as well as business specialist of real estate business. The publication of monograph was funded by European Social Fund according to project No. VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-060 Development and Implementation of Joint Master’s Study Programme “Sustainable Development of the Built Environment”

Market and Economic Modelling of the Intelligent Grid: End of Year Report 2009

The overall goal of Project 2 has been to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of distributed energy (DG) on the Australian Electricity System. The research team at the UQ Energy Economics and Management Group (EEMG) has constructed a variety of sophisticated models to analyse the various impacts of significant increases in DG. These models stress that the spatial configuration of the grid really matters - this has tended to be neglected in economic discussions of the costs of DG relative to conventional, centralized power generation. The modelling also makes it clear that efficient storage systems will often be critical in solving transient stability problems on the grid as we move to the greater provision of renewable DG. We show that DG can help to defer of transmission investments in certain conditions. The existing grid structure was constructed with different priorities in mind and we show that its replacement can come at a prohibitive cost unless the capability of the local grid to accommodate DG is assessed very carefully.Distributed Generation. Energy Economics, Electricity Markets, Renewable Energy

The end of the road for human rights in private landowners' disputes?

This article examines whether, and if so, to what extent human rights are progressively transforming the juridical basis of the law in relation to private landowners. First, the article analyses the vagaries which undermine a coherent framework for horizontality and erode stability and predictability in private land law disputes. It is argued that McDonald v McDonald is applying a species of negative obligation model with the consequence that horizontality will only apply in non-regulatory and non-consensual circumstances. Various grounds for cognitive dissonance between the analysis in McDonald and normative adjudicative reasoning are explored. It is suggested that judges may be evolving a form of contextual horizontality to deal with complexities involved in difficult circumstances. Secondly, it is examined whether vulnerability as a heuristic device can result in increased human rights protection for occupiers of privately owned land. Case law is analysed to demonstrate that flexibility to help the vulnerable is evident in deserving cases

Sustainable Smart Cities and Smart Villages Research

ca. 200 words; this text will present the book in all promotional forms (e.g. flyers). Please describe the book in straightforward and consumer-friendly terms. [There is ever more research on smart cities and new interdisciplinary approaches proposed on the study of smart cities. At the same time, problems pertinent to communities inhabiting rural areas are being addressed, as part of discussions in contigious fields of research, be it environmental studies, sociology, or agriculture. Even if rural areas and countryside communities have previously been a subject of concern for robust policy frameworks, such as the European Union’s Cohesion Policy and Common Agricultural Policy Arguably, the concept of ‘the village’ has been largely absent in the debate. As a result, when advances in sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) led to the emergence of a rich body of research on smart cities, the application and usability of ICT in the context of a village has remained underdiscussed in the literature. Against this backdrop, this volume delivers on four objectives. It delineates the conceptual boundaries of the concept of ‘smart village’. It highlights in which ways ‘smart village’ is distinct from ‘smart city’. It examines in which ways smart cities research can enrich smart villages research. It sheds light on the smart village research agenda as it unfolds in European and global contexts.