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Monday, August 14, 2017

A comparative study of the morphological characteristics of residential areas in San Francisco

By Mehmet TOPCU and Michael SOUTHWORTH

This study compares residential neighborhoods with different gridiron patterns in terms of some morphological properties. Nine different gridiron street patterns of San Francisco neighborhoods were chosen to assess the livability of residential areas in terms of several morphological evaluation criteria including accessibility (local and global spatial integration), intelligibility, density, livability index and time period. When measuring these criteria, the focus was on the street-block and building-lot relationships using several different methods. Accessibility and intelligibility values were measured by the ‘space syntax’ method which evaluates the street system of urban form. Density measures were calculated by the ratio of total built area within sample areas to the total sample area and by the ratio of private open spaces of sample areas to the total built area. In addition, a livability index was calculated by the ratio of pedestrian area to total built area. The contribution of time in the process of city building is also an important part of the morphology of cities. Therefore, in this study time period was used to analyze the historical background of the city. All the findings were evaluated according to these criteria by using GIS. In conclusion, based on the findings, this study stresses that the criteria of accessibility, intelligibility levels and density are inversely proportional with the degree of livability in the study areas. Therefore, we hypothesize that accessibility, density and livability index are the important inputs for making better designs for urban residential space and city design as a whole.


Russian Hill

More about urban form:

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico

Children’s Travel to School and their Body Weight; Results of a Survey in Seven European Countries: Technical Report

The Role of the Built Environment in Human Life. Selected Issues

REDUCING CRIME BY SHAPING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT WITH ZONING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF LOS ANGELES

Evaluation of Urban Sprawl Speed and Intensity Based on International Urbanization. Example from a Mexican City

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

Sustainable Urban Growth Management Using What-If?

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Urban Design and the Changing Context of Urban Regeneration in the Netherlands

By Paul STOUTEN,

Urban design schemes accompanied by avant-garde design of space have been an outcome of economic growth of cities and countries in many periods of time. At the beginning of the 21st century, Nieuw Crooswijk in Rotterdam was the largest area involved in nationally launched policies. Many times the conflicts surrounding the plan were in the news, particularly concerning the aim to attract higher incomes. Gentrification, with displacement of present and original residents forms a central issue and the discussions in Nieuw Crooswijk fit within the more general urban landscape and language of urban regeneration in Europe.


'Nieuw Crooswijk 2018' Rotterdam

More about the Netherlands:

Photos of bike lanes in Amsterdam, Netherlands (1)

Residential self-selection and travel: The relationship between travel-related attitudes, built environment characteristics and travel behaviour

The World's 7 Most Bike-friendly Cities

Graffiti photos of Rotterdam, Netherlands

BEST PRACTICE IN FACILITATING AND PROMOTING ACTIVE TRAVEL

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico

By Daniela Roque & Houshmand E. Masoumi

Car-orientated modal splits represent problems for the city in economic, environmental and social terms. The implementation of policies and other measures can fail if the causes are not well recognized. Mid-sized cities in Mexico are not well-represented in studies where only the capital and other bigger cities are studied. This research aims to recognize those causes focusing on northern mid-sized cities in Mexico. The approach involves numerical work (linear regression) complemented with a descriptive analysis of the city. The analysis takes on such areas of consideration as socio-economic factors, land-use variables and the street network of the city. Of the 16 variables, almost all presented a relationship with car ownership levels, but not all behaved as expected. The final part of the research is a reaction to the previous studies and recommendations to change the city from car-orientated to one with a sustainable modal split.

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Ensenada, Mexico

More about urban planning in Mexico:

An Analysis of Car Ownership in Latin American Cities: a Perspective for Future Research

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Children’s Travel to School and their Body Weight; Results of a Survey in Seven European Countries: Technical Report

By Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Zanoli, Gabriele; Papageorgiou, Athanasios; Smaga, Soultana; Miloš, Ana; Van Rooijen, Martin; Łuczak, Monika; Komorek, Joanna; Çağan, Birol; Calabrese, Carla; E. Jamerson, Gordon; Patsakas, Georgios; Parisopoulos, Georgios; Meimaridis, Ioannis; Anagnostaras, Konstantinos; Perrostis, Andreas; Dessi, Eleni; Družeta, Toni; Udović, Tatjana; Daams, Ingmar; Drużek, Paweł, and Dalcı, Ahmet 


Problem: A number or researchers have recently focused on the interdisciplinary topic of active transportation of children and adolescents, their physical activity, and their body weight as an important aspect of their health. Such studies have been dominantly undertaken in a specific geographical context. Lack of contextual studies necessitates data collection with samples covering different countries and/or regions applying a uniform methodology. Such a lack of data is observed in both Europe and overseas.
Objective: This survey attempts to collect dissaggregate data about the travel behaveior of children of 9-12 years of age and their parents, children’s body specifications, and their households characteristics as well as aggregate data about the built environment of their school.
Method: direct questioning based on a standard questionnaire consisted of 26 questions was conducted in spring and summer of 2016 in nine cities in seven European countries (Foggia, Italy; Berlin, Germany; Thessaloniki, Greece; Rijeka, Croatia; Utrecht, The Netherlands; Łódź, Poland, Konstantynow, Poland; Malatya, Turkey, and Doğanşehir, Turkey).
Results: Out of 2735 children handed out the questionnaires, the parents of 1424 schoolchildren filled out the questionnaires, 1304 of which were validated and kept for analysis. This makes an overall response rate of 52.07 percent. In this report, the researchers of M.A.P.S. project have provided detailed descriptive findings separately for each case-study citiy as well as for the whole cities together as one sample.

Warning Sign "Children" in Prague, Czech Republic

More about urban planning and children's health:

Active Transport to School and Children's Body Weight: A Systematic Reivew

Active transport to school and the risk of obesity


Systematic Review of Active Commuting to School and Children’s Physical Activity and Weight

Walking, Cycling, and Obesity Rates in Europe, North America, and Australia

Societal trends, mobility behaviour and sustainable transport in Europe and North America

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

The Role of the Built Environment in Human Life. Selected Issues

By Mariusz Lamprecht,

Creation of the built environment and research in this field pose a particularly difficult challenge nowadays. The pace of social and technological change does not allow for evolutionary development of cities and the formation of their land use according to current conditions. Creating spatial solutions that are unmatched in their contexts is becoming not only possible, but very probable (see Alexander, 1964). The development of the built environment involves not only art, technology, history, economics and law, but also philosophy, culture, medicine, psychology, sociology and many other spheres in which human life is manifested. However, only a relatively small number of disciplines such as spatial planning, urban design, urban planning, etc. (ignoring at this point the differences in the meaning of the concepts) in their application layer are meant to create space and bear responsibility for it. Also society has certain requirements of practical nature towards them.
This article attempts to outline the nature of research on space urbanised by people and to determine the four main fields of research aimed at the problems of man and the built environment. In the next part, particular attention is paid to issues related to the impact of the built environment on the life of its residents in order to highlight the particular role and complexity of this area of research. This study, acting as a kind of test of the research, cannot be considered representative. Nevertheless, the analysis prompts several reflections on the current and future role of the built environment in the development of our civilisation, as well as further challenges related to it.

Baroque Porto Portugal

more about urban sustainability:

Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies

A Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Methodologies

Sustainable Urban Development and the Chinese Eco-City: Concepts, Strategies, Policies and Assessments

Transportation and Sustainability Best Practices Background

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Active Transport to School and Children's Body Weight: A Systematic Review

By ,

Because of decreasing physical activity of children, they are becoming more obese. Moreover, commuting to school has become more passive during the past decades. The objective was to update the previous systematic reviews by narrowing down the topic to body mass index of children (3-12 years) as a representative of body composition. Applying search terms such as active transport to school, body mass index, childhood obesity, and so on in four online databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, WorldCat, and Google Scholar. Peer reviewed English journal papers published between 2005 and 2015 presenting empirical quantitative studies were eligible studies to be reviewed. 310 journal papers were screened, 27 of which were reviewed by studying the full text. The final 13 papers were limited to those that focused only on active commuting to school and body mass index of children and adolescents. Out of 13 final studies, 3 found conclusive associations, three indicate partial associations in subgroups or societal or geographical limitations, and seven show no correlations. The existing literature are still inconsistent, so this study suggests conducting surveys with larger samples on less-studied contexts and applying more complex statistical methods for adjusting some of the variables. It is also argued that this topic can be culturally and contextually specific.


177/365. School Chale Hum - We Go Towards The School

more about children's mobility and active transportation:

Active transport to school and the risk of obesity


Systematic Review of Active Commuting to School and Children’s Physical Activity and Weight

Walking, Cycling, and Obesity Rates in Europe, North America, and Australia

Societal trends, mobility behaviour and sustainable transport in Europe and North America

Friday, April 7, 2017

REDUCING CRIME BY SHAPING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT WITH ZONING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF LOS ANGELES

By JAMES M. ANDERSON, JOHN M. MACDONALD, RICKY BLUTHENTHAL & J. SCOTT ASHWOOD

The idea of using law to change the built environment in ways that reduce opportunities to commit crimes has a long history. Unfortunately, this idea has received relatively little attention in the legal academy and only limited rigorous empirical scrutiny. In this Article, we review the considerable literature on the relationship between zoning, the built environment, and crime. We then report the results of two empirical studies on these relationships. First, we conducted a study of the effect of zoning on crime using 205 blocks selected in eight different relatively high crime neighborhoods in Los Angeles that have similar demographic characteristics but different forms of zoned land use. We find that mixed commercial- and residential-zoned areas are associated with lower crime than are commercial-only  zoned areas. Second, we matched neighborhoods undergoing zoning changes between 2006 and 2010 with neighborhoods that underwent no zoning changes during this period but had similar preexisting crime trajectories between 1994 and 2005. The primary zoning change in these neighborhoods was to convert parcels to residential uses. We find that neighborhoods in which there was a zoning change experienced a significant decline in crime. Our results suggest that mixing residential-only zoning into commercial blocks may be a promising means of reducing crime.


Crime

 more about built environment:

Urban Transformations of the Mediterranean Cities in Light of Developments in the Modern Era

Urban Sprawl: A view from developing and developed Countries

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

Liveable Neighbourhoods: Street Layout, Design and Traffic Management Guidelines

Applying a CA-based model to explore land-use policy scenarios to contain sprawl in Thessaloniki, Greece

Thursday, March 30, 2017

A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF DENSITIES WITHIN THE PEDESTRIAN SHEDS AROUND METRO STATIONS: THE CASE OF TEHRAN

By HOUSHMAND E. MASOUMI and MARYAM SHAYGAN

Evaluation of spatial accessibility to public transportation has a weak background in many emerging countries, including Iran. Transit-Oriented Development is of great interest among Iranian planners and academics, but little is known about transit orientation provided by major public transport systems exemplified by the Tehran Metro. Statistical difference tests and polynomial regression done in this study show how residential densities within walking distances of metro stations established at different times after 1998 are significantly different. Both population and employment densities have decreased in more recent stations compared to those opened between 2005 and 2010. Moreover, one-way T-Tests comparing the population and densities of older lines with those of newer lines reveal that, in most cases, densities within walking distances of stations of older lines are higher. The paper concludes that lack of proper site selection and failing to locate new stations near job centers and highly populated areas threatens the transit-friendliness that emerged in the early years after establishing the first metro station in 1998.


Tehran Underground (2)

More about urban planning and mobility in the Middle East:

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY

TENSIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE MASTER PLANNING PROCESS OF ISTANBUL

Upgrading informal settlements in Egypt towards a sustainable urban development

Facilitating Urban Management Through Local SDI Case Study: The Municipality of Tehran 

THE IDENTITY OF OPEN SPACE: ADAPTING FROM THE MODEL OF TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

Impact Assessment of Sustainable Public Transportation System on Quality of Life in Tehran

Changes in population settlement pattern in urban system of Tehran province (1966 to 2006)

Studying the effects of urban sprawl of metropolis on tourism - climate index oscillation: A case study of Tehran city