What Attributes Determine Housing Affordability?

The concept of housing affordability is a contested issue, but a pressing and widespread problem for many countries. Simple ratio measures based on housing expenditure and income are habitually used to defined and assess housing affordability. However, conceptualising and measuring affordability in this manner focuses only on financial attributes and fails to deal with wider issues such as housing quality, location and access to services and facilities. The research is based on the notion that the housing affordability problem encompasses more than the financial costs of housing and a households ability to meet such costs and must address larger issues such as social and environmental sustainability and the welfare of households. Therefore, the need arises for a broad and more encompassing set of attributes by which housing affordability can be assessed. This paper presents a system of criteria by which the affordability of different housing locations could be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. Moreover, the paper explores the way in which such criteria could be measured

CRITERIA FOR SUSTAINABLE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY

The affordability of housing is a pressing problem that not only affects individual households but also has implications for the wider economy and environment, e.g. employment, health and sustainability. Thus it is evident that providing affordable housing is not simply about cheap and decent homes, it entails having regard for a broad range of factors. Housing affordability is traditionally defined and assessed in terms of economic criteria; namely housing costs in relation to incomes. Areas are therefore often regarded as affordable simply because they are low cost. However this indicates nothing about the quality of the housing or the environment in which the housing is situated. An integral part of the research is the theory that affordability is not only affected by housing costs and incomes, but by a wider range of criteria that also influence a household’s quality of life. It is the view of the authors that housing affordability must be evaluated in a wider context if more sustainable outcomes are to be derived from housing policy. In a bid to create more successful communities for the future the paper seeks draw closer links between affordability and sustainability issues, rather than viewing affordability as a purely monetary concern. The research aims to develop a criteria system that represents sustainable housing affordability. The paper presents findings from questionnaire surveys, distributed to housing and planning professionals, which sought to verify and prioritise the criteria that are important to sustainable housing affordability. Keywords: affordable housing, housing affordability, sustainable communities, sustainable housing, sustainable living environment

An introductory review to the Special Issue: Attractive Places to Live

Presently, almost 75% of Europeans live in cities and urban areas, and this figure is expected to rise an additional 5% by 2020 (European Commission, 2010). Therefore, it is not surprising that national governments across Europe are committed to making their cities more attractive and sustainable in order to increase citizens’ quality of life, now and in the future (DETR, 2000; European Commission, 2010; ODPM, 2005; Urban Task Force, 1999). But what makes an attractive urban living environment? Attraction is a subjective preference and people of different ages, cultures and gender, for example, may have diverse views on what is attractive. Accordingly, the elements that contribute to making places attractive to live in are wide ranging and may be different for each person. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that the attractiveness of an urban area appears to centre on the quality of life of its users (Van den Berg et al., 1999). In order to increase quality of life, principles of good urban design, planning, regeneration and sustainable communities are widely promoted (DETR and CABE, 2000; DTLR and CABE, 2001; ODPM, 2003a, 2005; Urban Task Force, 1999). Good urban design is central to creating high-quality and attractive places to live (DETR and CABE, 2000; DTLR and CABE, 2001). Well-planned, well-designed and well-managed living environments are likely to create a far superior quality of life than for those who live elsewhere (DTLR and CABE, 2001)

FACTORS INFLUENCING CITIES PEDESTRIAN STREET FUNCTIONALITY AND SUSTAINABLE LAND USE

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 overview. Keywords: city, functionality and sustainability, pedestrian street

Older People’s Preferences for Housing and Environment Characteristics

Population ageing presents significant challenges for many countries, one of which is the provision of adequate housing. Developing understanding of the needs and preferences of ageing societies will be crucial in order to assist in the provision of suitable housing and communities that are sustainable in the long term. While a preference to ‘age in place’ is clear in the literature, comparatively less academic research is available on older people’s preferences for more specific housing and environment attributes. The aim of this study is to identify the main housing and environment characteristics that are linked to the health and wellbeing of the elderly and determine the preferences for such characteristics via a survey with UK residents aged 55+. The results indicate a strong preference for independent living and an increasing desire for bungalows in later life. Housing conditions, energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and home adaptions to facilitate ageing in place are particularly important housing characteristics to older people. The location and environment are also key drivers of housing preferences; a safe neighbourhood, accessibility to amenities, public transport, and a clean and walkable environment are particularly important. Preferences varied with age, but gender has a less significant impact on the preferences expressed. The findings of this study will be valuable for stakeholders engaged in housing policy and provision for older people

Identification of Heracleum sosnowskyi-Invaded Land Using Earth Remote Sensing Data

H. sosnowskyi (Heracleum sosnowskyi) is a plant that is widespread both in Lithuania and other countries and causes abundant problems. The damage caused by the population of the plant is many-sided: it menaces the biodiversity of the land, poses risk to human health, and causes considerable economic losses. In order to find effective and complex measures against this invasive plant, it is very important to identify places and areas where H. sosnowskyi grows, carry out a detailed analysis, and monitor its spread to avoid leaving this process to chance. In this paper, the remote sensing methodology was proposed to identify territories covered with H. sosnowskyi plants (land classification). Two categories of land cover classification were used: supervised (humanguided) and unsupervised (calculated by software). In the application of the supervised method, the average wavelength of the spectrum of H. sosnowskyi was calculated for the classification of the RGB image and according to this, the unsupervised classification by the program was accomplished. The combination of both classification methods, performed in steps, allowed obtaining better results than using one. The application of authors’ proposed methodology was demonstrated in a Lithuanian case study discussed in this paper

Dispersion of relative importance values contributes to the ranking uncertainty: sensitivity analysis of Multiple Criteria Decision-Making methods

Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods are widely used in research and industrial applications. These methods rely heavily on expert perceptions and are often sensitive to the assumptions made. The reliability and robustness of MCDM analysis can be further tested and verified by a computer simulation and sensitivity analysis. In order to address this, five different MCDM approaches, including Weighted Sum Model (WSM), Weighted Product Model (WPM), revised Analytic Hierarchy Process (rAHP), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and COmplex PRoportional ASsessment (COPRAS) are explored in the paper. Real data of the case study for assessing housing affordability are used for testing the robustness of alternative ranking and finding the most sensitive criteria to the change of criterion weight. We identify the most critical criteria for any and best ranking alternatives. The paper highlights the significance of sensitivity analysis in assessing the robustness and reliability of MCDM outcomes. Furthermore, randomly generated and model-based data sets are used to establish relationship between the dispersion of relative importance values of alternatives and ranking uncertainty. Our findings demonstrate that the dispersion of relative importance values of alternatives correlate with the Euclidian distances of aggregated values. We conclude that the dispersion of relative importance values contributes directly to the ranking uncertainty and can be used as a measure for finding critical criteria

Analysis and Identification of Abandoned Agricultural Land using the Remote Sensing Methodology

The problems of management of abandoned agricultural land as well as their effective use are relevant for any country to a greater or lesser extent. The endeavours to tackle the problems of effective utilization of abandoned agricultural land and in various ways are made in Lithuania as well as elsewhere. While analyzing the issues related to abandoned agricultural land, a clear definition of an abandoned area is important to perceive as well as potential methods for the identification of such areas are needed to analyse. Also, in order to suggest an effecticve utilisation of abandoned agricultural land for sustainable land use in the country, the analysis and statistics of such land is important to undertake. The paper discusses the analysis of abandoned agricultural land in Lithuania, providing the dynamics of changes of abandoned agricultural land and the the percentage distribution of such land across Lithuania. Also, the factors, which caused the abonded agricultural land appearance in Lithuania identified and described. The Remote Sensing method identified and analysed as the most effective methodology for abandoned agricultural land identification. A collection of spatial data on abandoned agricultural land was formed on the base of spectral images of the terrene obtained from an artificial Earth satellite and a map of abandoned agricultural areas was created upon applying remote cartographic methods

CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRY ENABLES DOCUMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENT-INDUCED DEFORMATION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Deformation, damage and permanent loss of heritage assets due to various physical and environmental factors has always been a major problem. As the availability of funds for conservation and restoration is limited, the digital documentation of heritage objects and monitoring of environment-induced deformations are increasingly important for cultural heritage preservation. Our study elucidates developments in the digital image capturing and processing for recording architectural heritage objects focusing on the digital camera calibration, close-range imaging, and photogrammetric modelling of complex structures using image matching techniques. A particular consideration in this paper is given to the ortho-photographic image compiling and accuracy assessment procedure. The practicality of the methodology is demonstrated by applying photogrammetric system PhotoMod for documentation of decorative elements in Uzutrakis manor, a national heritage site in Trakai, Lithuania

The Influence of Seasonality on the Multi-Spectral Image Segmentation for Identification of Abandoned Land

Areas of agricultural land in Lithuania have decreased from 2005 to 2021 by up to 2.4%. Agricultural lands that are no longer used for their main purpose are very likely to become abandoned and the emergence of such lands can cause a variety of social, economic, and environmental problems. Therefore, it is very important to constantly monitor changes of abandoned agricultural lands. The purpose of the research is to analyse the influence of seasonality on image segmentation for the identification of abandoned land areas. Multi-spectral Sentinel-2 images from different periods (April, July, and September) and three supervised image segmentation methods (Spectral Angle Mapping (SAM), Maximum_Likelihood (ML), and Minimum distance (MD)) were used with the same parameters in this research. Studies had found that the most appropriate time to segment abandoned lands was in September, according to the SAM and ML algorithms. During this period, the intensity of the green colour was the highest and the colour brightness of abandoned lands differed from the colour intensity of other lands