Journal of Urban Planning and Development

Urban freight transport has barely incited any modeling efforts when compared to passenger cars and public transport, which is mainly due to the lack of available data and the complexity of the delivery route patterns and the involved decision making. We present here a modeling approach consisting of a demand model followed by an entropy maximization procedure to estimate an origin-destination matrix for urban freight transport vehicles, both for business to business and home deliveries, during the morning peak hour. This approach requires relatively few data inputs in comparison with other existing models and represents an initial step toward the inclusion of freight delivery models in overall urban transport planning. The application of the model is illustrated with a case study in the city of Seville, with its efficiency tested by the validation of the results using actual traffic counts.

Different approaches related with urban flood problems treatment are evolving and there is a large set of possible engineering measures that can be applied. Lately, the traditional approach, focusing on improving channel conveyance, is being complemented by distributed structural measures and nonstructural measures, considering the basin under a systemic point of view and aiming to recover natural flow patterns prior to urbanization. In this context, it becomes necessary to evaluate the potential use of different combinations of the possible interventions, in such a way that the efficacy of these sets in terms of flood mitigation can be optimized. This kind of analysis is of crucial importance and involves technical and economic aspects. Combined effects of the chosen measures may produce a result that is not equivalent to what would be expected from the summation of its individual effects. The systemic behavior of an urban watershed, especially when the drainage system works jointly with flooded urban landscape elements, makes it possible that some design solutions become to act in a noneffective way. Sometimes, different interventions just superimpose concurrent results. On the other hand, it is possible to generate better results, with extra benefits, when proposing adequate combinations capable to join efforts. Mathematical models may act as valuable tools that are able to simulate floods in complex urban watersheds and provide an integrated assessment capability. In this context, mathematical models can evaluate the efficacy of flood control measures sets. In this paper, a mathematical model, based on the flow cell concept, was applied to study the use of a wide range of different flood control measures in the Joana River watershed, located at the northern region of Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil. This model is composed by a hydrodynamic core that works together with a distributed hydrologic model. According to the achieved results, it is possible to notice that distributed detention reservoirs—located at upstream reaches, parks and public squares, and also at urban sites—are very important flood control alternatives. It is also noticed that reforestation of slope areas, although some of which are nowadays occupied by lower income communities, is a desirable alternative. Finally, it must be stressed that even traditional flood control measures, presently avoided in many design situations as they may transfer downstream inundation problems, can be important in an integrated flood control project, if adequately combined with other measures.

Increasing limitations on property taxes, declining federal, and state investment in infrastructure, and the realization that growth should pay its own way are among the major reasons contributing to local governments’ increasing reliance on impact fees to finance their growing infrastructure, including transportation needs. Although the factors that have led to the wide spread use of impact fees have been previously examined, the earlier studies have been largely theoretical in nature. This study, through empirical analysis of jurisdictional-level attributes of 16 impact fee charging cities and towns of King County and Snohomish County, Washington, for the period of 1991–2000, identifies and provides relative importance of several factors that influence the probability of a jurisdiction charging impact fees. The results show that these factors include population size of the jurisdiction, property tax rate, per-pupil school expenditure, and the number of new single family permits issued per year.

Implementing new parking facilities amounts to an urban sustainable planning and development problem. A significant part of this problem is the estimation of the appropriate fee prior the new parking services go in operation. This paper describes the framework for estimating the value drivers place on parking facilities and uses a Greek tourist town as an illustrative case study. Alternative fee scenarios for establishing new parking facilities are formulated using the contingent valuation method with a double bound dichotomous choice question format for potential user’s willingness to pay (WTP) for these new services. Moreover, the WTP can be adopted as an effective tool to determine the parking fee in cases where demand-price curve and value of time are unknown. This approach helps also pinpoint and evaluate variables that influence the decision of potential users to pay for a parking fee. It relates WTP with the users’ socioeconomic characteristics, urban attitudes, the residence area, and the opinion of users concerning urban problems. These results are of use to urban planners, authorities, operators, investors, and survey designers when planning the establishment of new parking facilities.

The writers created a new approach to evaluate environmental performance factors and measure the current or past environmental performances from various city and exurban by aggregation steps. Defined environmental resource indices concerning natural resources development, physical environments, population, economical, and social structures were complex and appeared related to location. The writers conducted a nationwide questionnaire survey to evaluate the entire environmental performance, and give conclusions to urge central and local officials how to detect their most urgent environmental issues. A case study in Taiwan illustrates the usefulness of this approach. This study contributes to the resource management by collecting and analyzing current and past environmental performance that provides a better understanding of the empirical cases toward environmental targets.