Health, well-being and sustainable housing

Sustainability of the built environment is an increasingly prominent concern in academic and policy discussions in the UK and EU. Initiatives such as the Code for Sustainable Homes in the UK have been developed to aid integration of sustainability principles into housing developments. Primary focus in this field has been largely on environmental sustainability (particularly energy efficiency) with less attention paid to social and economic factors. This article argues that health and well-being issues need greater consideration within current sustainable housing policy and developments. Three key reasons are presented in support of this argument: (i) Creation of greater market demand; public demand for sustainable buildings could be enhanced through greater promotion of the health and well-being benefits of sustainable housing: (ii) Time-scales; given the longevity of buildings, health considerations should be of paramount importance to avoid any possible future adverse effects: (iii) Indirect societal benefits; enhanced health and well-being can lead to wider societal and economic benefits such as lower healthcare costs. The paper then presents some of the seminal findings from health and housing literature review, outlining how these can be used to enhance sustainable housing policy and developments. The paper concludes by presenting the next stages of research

FACTORS AFFECTING URBANIZATION IN THE RURAL AREAS

By overviewing the developmental trends of Lithuanian cities, rapid growth in the urbanization of smaller suburb areas is observed. The aim of the research is to determine the factors impacting the urbanization of rural areas. The built-up areas of Kaunas district municipality and factors impacting their distribution are the object of this research. The largest built-up areas are in the subdistricts where cities are deployed as well as in subdistricts having the best living and recreational circumstances. When conducting the research, factors impacting the distribution of the built-up areas have been analysed.In Kaunas district municipality, beneficial circumstances for the urbanization development exist since the population growth in the last 7 years corresponds to the optimistic scenarios projected in the general plan. It has been determined that 3 factors have the greatest impact on the built-up areas: the area of the subdistrict itself, the distance to the centre of the region and the market value of the land

Urban regeneration for sustainable communities: A case study

Over the past few decades, cities have been subjected to severe social and economic pressures, which have had a disproportionate impact on the urban environment. Consequently, this has increased the concentration of the most deprived households in the worst urban neighbourhoods. The UK Governments have attempted to tackle the physical, social and economic consequences of these changes through a variety of mechanisms and policy initiatives with varying degrees of success. The current objective can be interpreted as an attempt to implement regeneration projects or create sustainable communities/places through multi‐agency or partnership programmes. The nature and extent of urban problems are now very well documented; there has been a considerable learning process in the development of different urban regeneration programmes. Over the 20th and the beginning of 21st centuries, the nature of urban regeneration policy has changed direction several times and has applied different focuses. Today, a “sustainable community” is a key issue in an ambitious Government programme “umbrella”. As an objective of the present programme, the UK Government introduced the Sustainable Community Plan in 2003, describing a vision of how our communities are to be developed over next 20 years economically, socially and environmentally, while respecting the needs of future generations. The paper assesses how closely the Regeneration Programme is aligned to the Sustainable Communities Plan. The research within several surveys focuses on sustainable communities and urban regeneration, both have certain parallels and functional overlaps. Santrauka Šiuo metu siekiama įdiegti atgaivinimo projektus ir sukurti darniąsias bendruomenes pasitelkiant partnerystės programas. Darniosios bendruomenės kūrimas yra viena svarbiausių problemų, analizuojamų JK vyriausybės programoje. 2003 m. JK vyriausybes sukurtame darniųjų bendruomenių plane pateikiama vizija, kaip mūsų bendruomenės turetų vystytis ekonomiškai, socialiai ir aplinkos atžvilgiu per ateinančius 20 metu, atsižvelgiant į ateities kartų gerovę ir poreikius. Analizuojama, kaip glaustai miestų atgaivinimo programa yra suderinta su darniųjų bendruomenių kūrimo planu. Tyrimai, pagrįsti tiesioginėmis apklausomis, įvertina darniųjų bendruomenių ir miestų atgaivinimo pletrą bei sąsajas. First published online: 21 Oct 2010 Reikšminiai žodžiai: darnumas, bendruomenė, atgaivinimas, atvejo tyrimas, Castlefields, J

Valuation of commercial premises by the method of multiple criteria analysis/Komercinių patalpų vertinimas daugiakriterinės analizės vertės nustatymo metodu

Daugelį problemų, su kuriomis susiduriama vertinant nekilnojamąjį turtą, galima išspręsti daugiakriterinės analizės metodais. Šie metodai pradėti taikyti tik XX a. antrojoje pusėje. Šiuo metu jie užima labai svarbią vietą pasaulinėje nekilnojamojo turto vertinimo praktikoje. Daugeliu atveju tarptautinėje praktikoje jie yra pagrįsti rinkos modeliavimu ir ekonominiu vertintojų mąstymu, todėl kartais pateikiami kaip atskiri vertinimo metodai ir vadinami šiuolaikiniais. Šiame straipsnyje siūlomas naujas daugiakriterinės analizės vertės nustatymo metodas. Jis yra pagrįstas rinkos analize bei vertinimo principu ir atitinka klasikinį lyginamosios vertės metodą. Jį galima priskirti netiesioginių lyginamosios vertės metodų grupei. Šie metodai daugiakriterinę nekilnojamojo turto analizę leidžia atlikti plačiau ir universaliau, nes remiasi daueelio skirtingų kriterijų, t. y. kokybinių, kiekybinių bei rinkos konjunktūros įvertinimu. Siūlomas metodas gali patenkinti daugelio suinteresuotų grupių tikslus bei poreikius, nes juo remiantis galima nustatyti ne tik nekilnojamojo turto rinkos vertę, bet ir kitas vertes, pvz., investicinę, naudojimo, esamo naudojimo rinkos vertę ir t. t. Šiame straipsnyje pateiktas metodo teorinis modelis, kuriuo remiantis buvo nustatyta patalpų. skirtų komercijai, rinkos vertė. First Published Online: 26 Jul 201

Land consolidation in Lithuania: aspiration and actuality

From Rural Development Policy for the period of 2007–2013 it is noticeable that land consolidation in European Union is seen as a very important instrument for sustainable rural areas development. Especially big expectations were felt from the post Soviet countries as after the Land Reform rural areas were near to the vanishing point. With the EU funding support it is expected to increase the competitiveness of the rural areas creating attractive living and working environment by introducing a complex problem solving for land owners involving land fragmentation, reduction of irrational local road network, lack of infrastructural facilities, and etc. However, today one more problem has appeared – current financial crisis with noticeable emigration of young generation that caused the fallow of many land parcels in rural areas of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). This paper, based on quantitative and qualitative surveys done with related key groups in Lithuania, reveals main problems and offers possible solutions which should reflect in legislation to avoid future degradation of rural area

Land readjustment for sustainable rural development

In the global framework, the sustainable rural development is a core objective in ensuring the vitality and viability of rural communities and agriculture. This paper identifies the existing barriers to sustainable rural development and emphasizes the land readjustment tools, which can be used to solve currently existing problems in the rural sector. The land consolidation and land banks/funds are used as land readjustment tools in number of European countries However, in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), these powerful instruments are frequently utilized in a very narrow sense, mostly focusing on the economic issues, e.g. enlargement of farms, and not taking into account climate change concerns, environment protection measures, alternative employment and etc. The aim of this research is to investigate how land readjustment tools, land consolidation and banking, can facilitate rural development ensuring a quality life and environment for the people in countryside now and in the futur

Towards sustainable rural development in Central and Eastern Europe: Applying land consolidation

Over the past twenty years, social and economic decline in rural areas has intensified in the Central and Eastern European countries. A precondition for the reversal of this decline is the implementation of new policies in relation to the fundamentals of land ownership and management. In addition to addressing the problems of land ownership fragmentation, these should include measures to improve agricultural production and employment, taxation policy, and legislation to protect land ownership rights, within the context of acknowledging environmental and sustainability considerations. In Europe, the requirement for readjusting unfavourable land fragmentation and promoting the appropriate use of land combining with positive environmental solutions is expected to create new sustainable land management systems. The consolidation of land ownerships may be an effective and active land management instrument which not only addresses the problems of land fragmentation, but also, if applied sensitively, may be an instrument for delivering sustainable rural development in a wider context. The aim of this research is to investigate land consolidation as an essential tool to create sustainable rural areas in Lithuani

Herausforderungen der englischen Raumordnungspolitik für Stadt und Land

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Factors influencing cities pedestrian street functionality and sustainable land use

ISSN 1822-3230 (ankstesnių spausdintų leidinių)The public space encourages social exchange, develops and maintains social groups and allows the exchange of public messages. When the public space and public life are not supported in the community, there is no one to communicate with, people become isolated, less inclined to help or support each other. Public space is the scene of public life that promotes a sense of community, sense of place, human connection and communication as well as dependence sensation. High-quality and well-managed public space is a benefit to the city's economy, creating shelter from the car-centred life and move to a more natural environment as well as significant urban land use. Therefore, in recent times, in order to establish the right conditions in cities for different human needs, great attention is paid not only to the development of physical infrastructure, but also to other aspects that will help to create sustainable balance of social, economic and environmental aspects. One of the quality of life in the city return ways is the release of urban spaces for pedestrians. Until these days the pedestrian zones are extended little by little, resulting in disposal of the car parking-lots and improved cycling and other transport facilities. Sustainable use of urban pedestrian zones would provide economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits only if these aspects are combined with each other. The aim of the article is to distinguish and critically analyse (on the basis of a literature review) factors influencing the functionality and sustainable development of pedestrian streets. Article object – cities pedestrian street. The study was conducted using scientific publishing content analysis and synthesis techniques. This article is an overviewVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij