Journal of Urban Planning and Development

Abstract

This study examines the factors that influence households’ location choice in the context of rapid urbanization in Hangzhou, China, where new housing and transportation infrastructure are expanding. A conditional logit model based on community scale is developed to consider the impact of location accessibility characteristics on households’ housing choices, as well as the differences in choices across households. Considering the background of high house prices, households will prefer house prices as the determining factor in the tradeoff between housing prices and accessibility. The multinomial logit model model of joint selection of housing prices and location is constructed to study the differences in the preferences of different types of households in housing choices. The study finds that (1) accessibility and housing prices are significant factors that affect residential location choice. Low-income families place more importance on public transportation conditions near the community. (2) Accessibility factors, including commuting time and the convenience of transportation facilities, such as the subway and expressway exit, have significant explanatory power on residential location choice. Holding other factors constant, for every minute increase in commuting time, the odds of residents choosing a residential location decrease by 0.96 times. (3) Residents with different socioeconomic characteristics exhibited certain differences in their housing price and accessibility preferences. Specifically, households with a college degree or higher are 8.59 times more likely to choose a residential area away from the city center and at a higher price than those with less education.

Practical Applications

Housing location choice is a widely discussed topic. There are diversified preferences based on the stages of urban development and social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. This study focuses on cities that are in the stage of rapid urbanization and are densely populated. Public facilities such as subways and commercial centers have been continuously improved, and cities continue to expand and have developed into multicenter spatial structures. Thus, the choice of housing location is accompanied by many other considerations, including the need for housing quality, public amenities, and housing prices. Taking Hangzhou, China, as a case study, the study finds that commuting time has a significant impact on location choice, and the proximity of transportation facilities, such as subways and expressways, has a significant positive impact on community choice. The tradeoff between housing prices and location varies from person to person. Highly educated people choose neighborhoods with high housing prices, even if their accessibility to traditional city centers is low, reflecting their relatively high housing affordability and pursuit of housing quality. Therefore, for urban governments, promoting the equalization of public services is conducive to the stable and balanced development of the housing market.

This paper examines the evolution from urbanization to ruralization in China, highlighting the role of national strategies in promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. By introducing the concept of ruralization as part of China's rural revitalization, which aims for sustainable development through a balance of top-down and endogenous forces, this study first asserts that ruralization is a rural development process initiated by rural revitalization once urbanization reaches a certain threshold and is sustained by both rural revitalization and urbanization. Then, using the Yuhang District in Zhejiang as the case, this paper discusses an interplay mechanism formed by three key drivers of ruralization, namely, industrial transformation, diversified governance, and talent gathering. Additionally, when applied to mountainous regions like Anji and Yunhe in Zhejiang, the Yuhang case serves as an adaptable model to suit local ecological and social-economic contexts. This paper concludes with recommendations for maintaining the pros of Yuhang's ruralization and offering insights into other regions.

This study explores depopulation in municipalities with a very low population density in rural Spain. This issue has risen up the political and social agendas recently and represents one of the greatest challenges that face rural communities, which threatens their viability and causes many settlements to disappear. Despite the concept’s complexity, depopulation has been approached in a partial, unilateral manner by disciplines such as geography and economics. There has been a lack of research in important fields for territorial development, such as urbanism and regional planning. This study considers the need to incorporate these two disciplines into the study and management of depopulation. It suggests a more integrated, strategic approach to land use and regional planning in rural areas that is based on statutory spatial and urban master planning. This new approach could allow realistic, effective measures to be planned and implemented to contribute to the development of rural communities and tackle the population decline that threatens their survival. This study highlights the fundamental role that is played by urban and regional planning, integrated into the management of rural depopulation, particularly in what is termed Empty Spain. Using a comprehensive and strategic approach to spatial and urban planning that was developed in relation to territorial socioeconomic policy measures, innovative initiatives are determined that contribute significantly to the sustainability and development of rural communities, which consider the particularities of each territory and the structured participation of different territorial agents. Based on this, this study proposes the design and application of integrated planning strategies to achieve integrated and sustainable territorial development and counteract the adverse effects of population decline, therefore guaranteeing the preservation and revitalization of rural areas that are at risk of socioeconomic disappearance.

Currently, land valuation is being interested in the process of amending the Land Law in Vietnam. Choosing an appropriate land valuation method is one of the important factors in determining the correct land value. The study conducted experiments with the standard parcel reference method to determine land value based on the land valuation experience in South Korea. The method is applied in Phung town, the economic center of Dan Phuong district, where the real estate market is currently flourishing. In the study area, 13 factors affecting land prices have been identified, as follows: (1) legal status of the land plot; (2) business advantages; (3) transportation; (4) location; (5) frontage; (6) area; (7) shape; (8) technical infrastructure; (9) environment; (10) education, healthcare; (11) security; (12) intellectual level; and (13) Feng Shui. This study selected 209 standard parcels for the mass land valuation of 3,786 land parcels. The obtained results showed that the highest-valued land parcel was 72.5 million VND located on Road 32, and the lowest-valued land parcel was 5.9 million VND placed at House number 4 on Thuy Ung Street. The research findings have been verified through the actual investigation value combined with the opinions of experts. The mass land valuation based on the standard plot reference method will contribute to improving the valuation of residential land in particular and the land valuation in general to meet the demand for issuing land prices close to the current market prices.

This study highlights the different travel behavior between self-employed (SE) and salaried (S) workers based on 8,174 individuals in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Planning Area, NM, that employed Tobit and multinomial logit models. This study finds that SE workers have greater autonomy across travel purposes and are less affected by rush hours. For example, SE workers tend to depart early (3:00 a.m.) or late morning after 9:00 a.m. (8% and 71%, respectively). However, S workers depart between rush hours (6:00–9:00 a.m.) (58%) for work. Second, the SE status plays a negative role in the travel time and distance. For instance, the SE workers show less time and distance for work (−2.999 and −1.878). Third, the SE workers have a positive predisposition toward carpools. For example, they show positive preferences for household and interhousehold carpools (0.150 and 0.181, respectively). This study could contribute to the theoretical and practical implications for transportation planners and policymakers to develop better transportation policies and planning by highlighting the specific coefficient values of different travel times, distances, modes, and purposes between SE and S workers.

Urban regeneration projects (URPs) play a vital role in promoting urban development because they encompass a wide range of complex and systematic initiatives related to buildings, facilities, and environments. Mindlessly selecting regeneration contents often leads to difficulties in implementation and poor results of URPs. Therefore, it is essential to identify key regeneration contents based on their characteristics to enhance the effectiveness and orderly implementation of URPs. To solve this issue, this study constructed a network model of urban regeneration using social network analysis to leverage experiential knowledge. By employing text mining techniques on urban regeneration policies, a comprehensive list of potential regeneration contents was generated. Key regeneration contents were identified by considering their importance and interaction influence degree through network analysis techniques, leading to the formulation of systematic regeneration strategies. The study found that urban regeneration exhibits significant systematic characteristics. The key regeneration contents include building body and lighting facilities that meet living demands, parking facilities and road networks that offer higher quality services, and public spaces and support service facilities that are vulnerable to natural deterioration. The effectiveness of the systematic regeneration strategies, such as deeply carrying out the warm house projects, promoting the construction of complete residential areas and living circles based on human-centric ideas, and Transit-Oriented-Development (TOD)-oriented regeneration, was quantitatively validated through network simulations. This research uncovers the intricate interactions among regeneration contents and highlights the key points of URPs by analyzing the regeneration experience of the pilot cities. The findings aim to assist policymakers in comprehensively understanding the systematic characteristics of URPs and offer valuable insights for guiding the implementation of urban regeneration practices and the formulation of regeneration policies.

Abstract

Urbanization requires human comfort that leads to industrial growth that alters existing physical and atmospheric conditions and pollutes the environment. This study area covers 200 km² located in the northeast of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC). The study area is famous for industries as well as tourism due to its bowl-shape topography and rich wild flora and fauna. Study was carried out using Landsat-8 and Landsat-9 satellite data for the years 2018, 2021, and 2022 to assess land surface temperature (LST) and the impact of air pollutants to identify human health hotspots. Industrial and vehicular emissions release harmful gases such as CO₂, CO, oxides of nitrogen, sulphur, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) into the atmosphere. The LST for 2018 and 2021 results are nearly the same while the LST for 2022 decreased relatively by 3°C. Data from the monitoring stations located at the Police Barracks, Gnanapuram, and Visakhapatnam Port-Trust show that the ambient air quality with its corresponding LST in the industrial area has been identified with high LST with a 0.67°C increase from 2018 to 2021. There is a decrease of nearly 2°C from 2021 to 2022 at the monitoring stations of the Police Barracks and Gnanapuram located in urban areas, whereas Visakhapatnam Port-Trust is located in the vicinity of industries. The poor Air Quality Index (AQI) is creating discomfort and reduction of visibility in the vicinity. The relative humidity for 2018 is 72%, for 2021 is 64%, and for 2022 is 76%, which causes feelings of stickiness and sweat, and in rare cases skin irritation was reported. The regression analysis of AQI with LST shows a negative correlation in April 2018 and a positive correlation in March 2021 and April 2022. This indicates that the prominent parameter PM10 in AQI contains both cooling and warming properties.

Practical Applications

The study was carried out on land surface temperature (LST) and the influence of air pollution and its impact on human health. Practical applications of LST are to identify the urban heat island (UHI) in order to predict micro- to macroclimate zones for urban human comfort and assessment of energy demand, and so on. The impact of air pollutants on LST affects human health. The research focuses on identifying human health hotspots. The LST and air pollutants are the major driving factors. The LST for 2018 and 2021 were comparatively same, while 2022 shows a decrease of LST 3°C. The ambient air quality data when overlaid on the resultant LST shows that Gnanapuram and the Police Barracks areas identified as human health hotspots. The wind speed levels are low, supporting heat retention on the surface. The relative humidity results in feelings of stickiness and sweat and some rare cases of skin irritation. In general, in 2021, the poor Air Quality Index (AQI) was creating discomfort and reduction of visibility in the vicinity. The relative humidity for 2018 was 72%, and for 2021 AQI values were high, thus creating discomfort. The prominent parameter in AQI, PM10, contains both cooling properties of sulphates and the warming nature of black carbon. Therefore, the LST with AQI shows a negative correlation in April 2018 and positive correlation in March 2021 and April 2022.

The role of tacit knowledge exchange and spillovers at microgeographical levels is pivotal in determining the performance of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This paper examined the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept at the neighborhood level, shedding light on the intricate relationship between ecosystem factors and entrepreneurial outcomes. Using comprehensive data on a 1-km-resolution grid for Beijing spanning 2011–2015, we investigated how specific entrepreneurial ecosystem factors (ecofactors) influence the inception of startups. Our findings suggest that local ecofactors, such as financial institutions and government bureaus, correlate with heightened startup activities, yet this relationship exhibits considerable variability depending on firm type. Contrary to common belief within the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature, universities and research institutions do not significantly drive the birth of startups at such a scale. However, they play a crucial role in determining the location preferences for collective innovation spaces. This research underscores the importance for urban planners and policymakers to consider location-specific amenities when fostering and nurturing urban entrepreneurial ecosystems.

In transportation system modeling, the origin–destination matrix estimation (ODME) is a critical facet that relies on traffic assignment. Extracting origin–destination (O–D) demand matrices from regional travel demand models for subnetworks is common; however, challenges persist in their quality, particularly for dynamic traffic assignment and simulation modeling. The ODME procedures have emerged to estimate O–D demands using a seed matrix and real-world measures, often segment volume counts. Recently, the availability of O–D demand data from private sector vendors has been witnessed, sourced from crowdsourced and automated vehicle identification (AVI) technologies. This paper explores the integration of crowdsourced data, segment-level measures, and demand forecasting model outputs in O–D demand estimation, which compares 12 ODME variations that employ different input variable combinations and weights. This paper aims to enhance the guidance and methodologies for analysts who utilize diverse data sources in O–D demand estimation.

Global disparities in housing and job availability pose a serious threat to urban sustainable development. This study presents a new concept of a 15-min commuting life circle, which is based on four job categories and four specific travel modes. Utilizing workplace-centric areas and travel modes as radius parameters, the study measures and compares these life circles. Results reveal substantial regional imbalances in job–housing ratios, especially in government-represented functional areas, while office building-represented functional areas face the most severe imbalances. Based on these findings, this study underlines the possibility of developing 15-min commuting life circles appropriate to various workplace-centric areas.

While increasing scholarly research from various perspectives has affirmed the therapeutic role of urban green spaces for individuals with depression, there is a notable gap in understanding how different landscape features of these spaces can collectively create a soothing and healing environment. The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the impact of urban green spaces on patients with depression and conduct a comprehensive on-site audit of these spaces to reveal the rules of combination and matching of the constituent elements of healing landscapes. This research investigated 210 urban green spaces in the cities of Guangzhou and Foshan, China. The study focused on three key attributes: the healing landscape quality of urban green spaces, the perceived restorative impact on patients with depression, and the enhancement of positive emotions. Utilizing rough set analysis, the study successfully identified 16 effective rules that elucidate the combination scenarios of landscape characteristics in urban green spaces. For example, the rules that have a positive impact on the perceived recovery of patients with depression indicate that the healing landscape condition attributes should be in the following state: the openness and view of the urban green space (A₁ = 1); the color of the urban green space (A₂ = 1); public art or various installations should be located as much as possible in the visual center of the place (A₅ = 3); there are trees and shrubs around (A₈ = 2); and the location sunshine duration (A₉ = 1). This study indicates that while individual landscape healing elements are considered to have positive effects on patients with depression, their combined application within complex real-world environments may adversely affect the emotional fluctuations of these patients. Many beneficial factors do not operate in isolation but interact synergistically to produce a healing effect. These findings not only provide a theoretical foundation for the evaluation of urban green spaces but also offer valuable decision-making references for local policymakers and landscape designers.

The prevailing social-spatial disorder within urban settings has become pervasive, particularly in the misalignment between policy formulation and social perception. This underscores the potential for effectively promoting sustainable comprehensive planning coordination by measuring commute and life satisfaction metrics. However, more comprehensive research on commute and life satisfaction in complex historical environments and delving into nuanced analyses of the intricate relationships is needed. This study employed Nanjing University and Soochow University in China as a compelling case study, utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to meticulously analyze data from stakeholders’ questionnaires. The research results reveal that personal attributes and community environment impact life satisfaction significantly, particularly with the variables of emotional stability and community services. It also confirms the importance of cultural and educational elements in enhancing individuals’ perceptions. Notably, variations in influencing factors on satisfaction levels are observed across diverse historical campus-adjacent environments (HCAEs), revealing complexities in satisfaction determinants. Additionally, the contradictory relationship between commuting and life satisfaction is evident, underscoring the nonlinear characteristics within satisfaction impact factors. This study elucidates the intricate mechanisms governing satisfaction perceptions in HCAEs, providing reliable guidance and insights for urban regeneration policies and planning decision-making.

Comfort, being one of the needs for walking, is an important criterion for the propensity to walk and for route choices, particularly for recreational walkers. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive framework for assessing pedestrian comfort in urban street environments. In this study, a pedestrian comfort assessment framework has been formulated for an urban street segment by applying a multiple criteria decision analysis method and the response data collected from go-along interviews in urban streets. The collected responses revealed that built environmental criteria including sidewalks, amenities, landscape, and microenvironmental criteria including thermal comfort, air quality, and noise annoyance were all significant determinants for pedestrian comfort. Although individual microenvironmental criteria were perceived to be less important than individual built environmental criteria, the influences of microenvironmental attributes on pedestrian comfort were found to be significant, which was due especially to variations in street orientation or aspect ratio. In the context of urban street environments in Hong Kong, tree-planting arrangements and orientation should be given higher priority to enhance pedestrian comfort, and 4 m or 8 m tree-planting arrangements and a NW–SE direction are advised. Above all, our findings provide valuable suggestions on the planning of basic morphological features in creating comfortable streets in Hong Kong.

Calculating the carbon sinks in greenspaces is crucial for carbon neutrality and sustainable urban development. In this study, we chose Taiyuan, China, and calculated the indexes of landscape patterns and carbon sinks to understand the relationship between urban carbon sinks and landscape patterns. Based on the Google Earth Engine and hyperspectral remote-sensing satellites (Sentinel-2A), we estimated the greenspace carbon sinks in Taiyuan in 2021 at a fine scale by using the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach model and soil microbial respiration model (R_h) to calculate net ecosystem productivity (NEP). Besides, we calculated the landscape pattern index in Taiyuan and analyzed the relationship and the spatial dissimilarity between the index and carbon sink using the Geodetector and the Pearson correlation analysis to find the key indexes for assessing the greenspace NEP. The results showed the following: (1) The carbon sequestration of various land types in each county and district was either limited or zero, and the order of yearly mean values of NEP of diverse greenspaces in Taiyuan in 2021 was forestland > grassland > cropland. (2) The index of dispersion and juxtaposition (IJI) had the most significant influence on cropland and grassland NEP. By contrast, the largest patch index was the predominant determinant for forestland NEP at the type level. (3) At the landscape level, the main factors affecting the NEP of greenspace in Taiyuan were patch density (PD) and number of patches (NP), and each landscape index showed significant interaction effects on the NEP of greenspace in Taiyuan, with the strongest interaction between PD/NP and IJI. These findings have implications for carbon management and urban landscape pattern development and provide a theoretical basis for improving urban carbon sink capacity.

The transfer of surplus rural labor is crucial for urbanization and rural revitalization in developing countries. This study specifically examines China, which focuses on how household registration reform and land transfer influence the willingness to urbanize. Logit analysis indicates that land transfer significantly deters institutional urbanization, positively influences residential urbanization, and has a marginal yet positive impact on psychological assimilation urbanization. In addition, this study identifies that the land factor is negligible in affecting psychological assimilation urbanization; instead, the inclusiveness and acceptance that is offered by the city significantly enhance migrant workers’ psychological sense of belonging. Heterogeneity analysis highlights varied urbanization settlement preferences among different demographics, particularly noting the distinct tendencies of newer generations, highly educated individuals, those with limited local interactions, cross-regional migrants, and those moving to highly urbanized areas. Based on these observations, this study proposes targeted policy recommendations. These include enhancing basic education in rural regions, upgrading vocational training for migrant workers, broadening the scope of labor mobility, and improving the urban environment in tangible and intangible aspects. Overall, this study enriches the understanding of the dynamics of surplus rural labor transfer and its urbanization implications, which could provide a scientific foundation for crafting more precise and effective policies.

The county is the basic territory unit of the national governance system and sustainable development. This study aimed to assess and categorize the high-quality county development in China based on the nation’s imbalanced and inadequate development conditions. By constructing a comprehensive evaluation system for high-quality county development, employing spatial analysis and the natural breakpoint approach, the multiscale spatial pattern of high-quality county development was identified and classified. In addition, the grey relational analysis method was used to measure the influencing factors. According to the evaluation scores for the high-quality county development in this study, the counties could be classified into three categories: (1) rising developed counties; (2) steady developing counties; and (3) underdeveloped counties. Significant spatial differences and agglomeration characteristics exist in high-quality county development in China. Social livelihood has a greater impact on the rising developed countries, and the inappropriate industrial structure and a lack of human capital are the key barriers to steady developing countries. This study could contribute to the improvement in county planning and development and help to understand high-quality county development in China.

With the increasingly notable trend of urban networking and integration, urban development faces an unprecedented increase in unknown risks. Urban governance must improve various risk prevention and control capabilities as soon as possible. In this context, this study builds an integrated network based on economic, information, transportation, and innovation networks. Taking the urban agglomeration along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as the research area, we used UCINET (version 6.0), ArcGIS (version 10.2), Gephi (version 0.9.2), and other software to analyze these factors from three perspectives: hierarchy, matching, and transmission. We evaluated and analyzed the evolution characteristics of the urban agglomeration network structure resilience from 2011 to 2019. The results showed that (1) from 2011 to 2019, the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River formed a network development pattern of “three-core leading and multicenter development.” In this region, the urban network displayed an expanding trend. (2) The hierarchy within the network structure exhibited a weakening trend, yet the matching efficiency and transmission capacity experienced significant improvement. This suggests that the resilience characteristics of the integrated network structure of urban agglomerations are increasingly reinforced, enabling better adaptation to and endurance of external shocks. (3) Enhancements to matching and transmission can partially improve the agglomeration and stability of the urban agglomeration system. This also promotes the resilience and recovery ability of the urban agglomeration system while managing the impacts of uncertain internal and external factors. (4) The interruption simulation demonstrates that the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is significantly influenced by the failure of Wuhan, a city that holds a pivotal role in fostering the resilience of the urban agglomeration network structure. This study aims to provide a foundation for network structure resilience and a reference for promoting healthy regional development, aiding urban agglomeration to achieve high-quality development.

One of the goals of this paper is to outline the significant problems in the historical urban structure and marginal areas of Baghdad. It is hypothesized these challenges could affect other aspects, such as urban life, urban development, and sustainability. However, before addressing these impacts, it is essential to define the framework of the study to determine a feasible scope, which will guide the development of a research process map (RPM). The paper highlights two urban issues in Baghdad—elementary and ancillary—whereby the historical pattern of the city is perceived as an asset, while the value of the entire urban pattern is compared with that of individual memorials. Based on these two issues, the paper identifies a research problem and applies four critical questions to address it. The study adopted a case study strategy and a mixed-method approach to identify and monitor key urban problems affecting the context. Moreover, variables of the urban parameters were defined, and ethnographical analysis was performed to develop the RPM. The study concludes that four interfaces contribute significantly to the issues and morphological dialectics of Baghdad City, namely, human–edge interface, link–node interface, edge–edge interface, and human–human interface. These interfaces signify the interrelatedness between various attributes of the physical setting and the people within it.