Journal of Urban Planning and Development

A case study describing the application of conflict analysis to a public engagement program of urban planning in Hong Kong is presented in this paper. The technique of conflict analysis is used to investigate the possible conflicts and alliance between interest groups in order to avoid opinion domination by those groups that generate the loudest noise in the process of urban planning. The case study shows that this application helps collect public opinions more accurately that can represent the public interest in the selection of the best development and design scheme for the territory, which would not be corrupted by the “dominating opinions.”

Obtaining the equilibrium flows in transportation networks based on optimizing users’ cost is one of the important problems in urban transportation planning. Therefore, finding accurate equilibrium flows in a short time is a significant issue. The required time to solve the traffic equilibrium problem and the accuracy of the obtained results depend on the information level about the transportation system. Using more detail increases the cost of data collection and, dimensions of the problem and, therefore, creates difficulties in solving it. Certainly, a detail level of data should be proportional to the accuracy level that is required. Collecting additional data does not necessarily improve the accuracy level of the results and may only increase the design costs. In this paper, the sensitivity analysis of the equilibrium flows in traffic assignment models with respect to changes in some important transportation network attributes is considered. These attributes include: the accuracy level in measuring link specifications (e.g., width), diversity of travel time functions, intersection delay functions, the method of connecting the zone centroids to a transportation network and number of traffic zones.

This study employs United States census data to analyze changes in bicycle commuting between 1990 and 2000 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. area. A variety of perspectives are used to understand the impact of newly created facilities. The evidence suggests that bicycle facilities significantly impact levels of bicycle commuting, although the results are not totally free of uncertainty. For example, areas near new bicycle facilities showed considerably more of an increase in bicycle mode share than areas farther away. Observing increased cycling due to these physical interventions provides a starting point to which future research could add detail that would be needed to guide infrastructure investment.

This study developed the weighted scenario method (WSM) using the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) method that can optimize the weighting value for multiple criteria to make a grid-based potential surface. The potential surface has been used to simulate urban expansion using distributed cellular automata models and to generate land-use planning as basic data. This study formulated the WSM-AHP method mathematically and applied it to the test region, Suwon City, which is located in the south of Seoul, Korea, with time series land-use maps of 1986 and 1996. The WSM-AHP method generates a potential map for each pair of weighting value for all criteria, one of which is weighted with a high weighting value. The others use a low weighting value, considering that the summation for all criteria weighting values should be “1.” The potential change rate to the step of the weighted scenario for the weighting value of criteria is standardized like the AHP intensity matrix in this study. From the standard potential change rate, the WSM-AHP intensity matrix is completed, and then the optimal weighting value is calculated from the maximum eigenvector of the WSM-AHP matrix, according to the new WSM-AHP method developed in this study. The applied results of the new method showed that the optimal weighting value from WSM-AHP is more reasonable than the general AHP specialists’ evaluation for the weighting value. This study also analyzed the sensitivity of the WSM-AHP method according to a variation of nonlinear exponents for accessibility criteria, which are used to make urbanization potential maps with the optimal weighting value for multiple criteria in the grid-based geographic information system technique. This study tried also to develop WSM-AHP2, which is simplified by using a ranking of the potential value for each scenario. The results of this study showed that WSM-AHP and simplified WSM-AHP2 can be used to generate the optimal potential maps for land-use planning in the urban fringe area.

Long-term planning, efficient allocation of resources, and awareness of the future challenges of a society require comprehensive information about the state of the built environment. The objective of this study was to develop an evaluation process for assessing the state and development of the built environment in a country. The evaluation process was called “ROTI” and it was tested in 2006 by evaluation of the state of Finland’s build environment. The evaluation work was done in four areas: Buildings, Traffic Networks, Water, Waste and Environment, and Future. The evaluation report model proved to be an effective tool to communicate with politicians and other decision makers as well as with the media. The results indicated that the ROTI expert panel working is an efficient method of assessing the state of the built environment.