Jobs,Houses, and Trees: Changing Regional Structure,Local Land‐Use Patterns,and Forest Cover in Southern Indiana

Land‐use and ‐cover change is a topic of increasing concern as interest in forest and agricultural land preservation grows. Urban and residential land use is quickly replacing extractive land use in southern Indiana. The interaction between land quality and urban growth pressures is also causing secondary forest growth and forest clearing to occur jointly in a complex spatial pattern. It is argued that similar processes fuel the abandonment of agricultural land leading to private forest regrowth, changes in topography and land quality, and declining real farm product prices. However, the impact of urban growth and development on forests depends more strongly on changes in both the residential housing and labor markets. Using location quotient analysis of aggregate employment patterns, and the relationship between regional labor market changes, the extent of private forest cover was examined from 1967 to 1998. Then an econometric model of land‐use shares in forty southern Indiana counties was developed based on the net benefits to agriculture, forestland, and urban uses. To test the need to control explicitly for changes in residential demand and regional economic structure, a series of nested models was estimated. Some evidence was found that changing agricultural profitability is leading to private forest regrowth. It was also uncovered that the ratio of urban to forest land uses is better explained by incorporating measures of residential land value and industrial concentration than simply considering population density alone.     

我国35个大中城市建设用地结构与空气质量的典型相关分析

[目的]研究选取中国35个大中城市作为样本城市，评价了样本城市2016年空气质量和城市建设用地结构特征，[方法]利用典型相关分析方法分析城市建设用地结构与空气质量之间的关系，为合理安排城市用地结构、改善空气质量、提高城市人居环境质量提供科学依据。[结果](1)研究期间样本城市空气质量地域差异明显，空气污染较重的城市主要集中在华北地区、西北地区，东南沿海城市空气质量较好，京津冀地区空气污染问题较为严重，空气质量指数（AQI）、PM2.5、PM10、SO2、NO2年均浓度呈现出：北方城市>南方城市、内陆城市>沿海城市。(2)研究期间样本城市建设用地结构存在一定差异，居住用地和工矿仓储用地占城市建设用地总面积的比例在49%~58%之间。北方、南方城市建设用地结构差异主要体现在绿地与广场用地比例，沿海、内陆城市建设用地结构差异主要体现在公共管理与公共服务用地、工矿仓储用地和绿地与广场用地的比例。城市建设用地结构信息熵平均值呈现出北方城市>南方城市、内陆城市>沿海城市的特征。(3)典型相关分析结果表明，样本城市建设用地结构对空气质量有一定影响。不同的区域空气污染物不同，影响空气污染物浓度的建设用地结构因子也不同。从整体上，居住用地与商业服务业设施用地与SO2呈负相关，工矿仓储用地与NO2呈正相关；从区域上，居住用地、道路与交通设施用地与PM2.5呈正相关，工矿仓储用地与NO2呈正相关，居住用地、道路与交通设施用地与SO2呈负相关。[结论]样本城市建设用地结构对空气质量有一定影响。     

Measuring the Containment and Spillover Effects of Urban Growth Boundaries: The Case of the Portland Metropolitan Area

Although urban growth boundaries (UGBs) are increasingly used as a containment policy to promote contiguous and compact urban forms, little is known about how UGBs affect development within the designated area or how development is displaced to other cities. This study analyzes the UGB's containment and spillover effects, focusing on the case of the Portland metropolitan area where UGBs have long been implemented. This is accomplished by employing a spatial market disequilibrium framework in which explicit consideration is given to the containment and spillover processes when under the influences of UGBs. The findings suggest that UGBs can promote development within the boundaries, but that cooperation with neighboring municipalities is necessary to effectively attain the policy goals.     

Urban Growth Boundaries and Betterment: Rent‐Seeking by Landowners on Melbourne's Expanding Urban Fringe

Melbourne's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) was legislated in 2002 and expanded substantially in 2010. Although based on strategic planning goals, UGBs have the capacity to influence land and housing markets. Landowners on the rural–urban fringe are a stakeholder group directly impacted by UGB policy, with multiple interests in containment policies and any land‐value effects. Following the 2010 expansion, substantial windfall profits to “instant millionaire” Melbourne landowners were openly reported. This paper critically interprets claims made by landowners in 264 public submissions responding to the proposed UGB expansion, and to an accompanying new policy instrument, the Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC). The GAIC was, in effect, a hypothecated tax on betterment expected to result from the UGB shift. Landowners commonly expressed fears that the UGB shift would not result in claimed value increases. On this basis, the GAIC was revised such that it is—at least in intention—a system wherein the tax is to be paid by housing developers and passed forward to homebuyers. The paper argues that the series of changes to the UGB and GAIC, including the modified “purchaser pays” system, may be understood as a response to rent‐seeking policy pressures from existing landowners as “insiders.” Although the unpopularity of the GAIC with landowners might have been anticipated, the outcome appears to legitimise their misinterpretation of the premise of development gain. A broader implication is that rent‐seeking behaviour by existing property owners can determine whether and how strategic planning policies are implemented.     

Innovation in suburban development zones: Evidence from Nanjing,China

While suburban areas have been typically related with urban sprawl, low density, cheap land price and low‐end manufacturing industries, relatively little attention has been paid to the spatial organization of innovation in suburban areas. In some Chinese cities, development zones (kai fa qu) in their suburban areas which are generally regarded as major spaces for traditional manufacturing industries have been transforming into spaces for innovation. This paper provides a case study of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province in Eastern China by investigating and explaining the learning and innovation processes in suburban development zones. Drawing upon a unique database on 733 state‐certified high‐tech firms in Nanjing from 2008 to 2012 which contains detailed information on their addresses and number of patents, we observe strong spatial disparity in the distribution of innovation. Suburban districts of Nanjing where its three national‐level development zones and many provincial‐level development zones are located have become major spaces for innovation of the city. The planning of industrial clusters in development zones, the place‐based investment in the suburbs, and the suburbanization of universities are three major mechanisms behind the learning and innovation processes in Nanjing’s suburban development zones.     

Big or Small Cities? On city size and economic growth

Policy makers and academics frequently emphasize a positive link between city size and economic growth. The empirical literature on the relationship, however, is scarce and uses rough indicators for the size of a country's cities, while ignoring factors that are increasingly considered to shape this relationship. In this paper, we employ a panel of 113 countries between 1980 and 2010 to explore whether 1) there are certain city sizes that are growth enhancing and 2) how additional factors highlighted in the literature impact the city size/growth relationship. The results suggest a nonlinear relationship which is dependent on the country's size. In contrast to the prevailing view that large cities are growth‐inducing, for a majority of countries relatively small cities of up to 3 million inhabitants are more conducive to economic growth. A large share of the urban population in cities of more than 10 million inhabitants is only growth promoting in countries with an urban population of 28.5 million and more. In addition, the relationship is highly context‐dependent: a high share of industries that benefit from agglomeration economies, a well‐developed urban infrastructure, and an adequate level of governance effectiveness allow countries to take advantage of agglomeration benefits from larger cities.     

基于AHP城市保障房用地空间分布研究

为了使保障性住房用地的空间布局更加科学合理,中低收入群体的住房需求能够得到充分保障。本研究通过对河北省11个地级市独立性保障房用地现状进行调查,选取距市中心距离和基准地价水平两个因素,并分别以相对距离指数和相对级别指数建立各市可比基础,运用AHP模型,设定3级评价尺度,对各市保障性住房的区位优劣度进行定量评价。结果表明河北省各市保障房建设情况总体较为均衡,张家口、唐山、石家庄在保障房选址上较其他城市更为合理,并深入分析现阶段保障房用地分布相对理想的原因,建议从立法规范、居住模式、转变观念、丰富房源等角度进行优化。

     

基于AHP城市保障房用地空间分布研究——以河北省为例

为了使保障性住房用地的空间布局更加科学合理,中低收入群体的住房需求能够得到充分保障。通过对河北省11 个地级市独立性保障房用地现状进行调查,选取距市中心距离和基准地价水平两个因素,并分别以相对距离指数和相对级别指数建立各市可比基础,运用AHP模型,设定3 级评价尺度,对各市保障性住房的区位优劣度进行定量评价。结果表明河北省各市保障房建设情况总体较为均衡,张家口、唐山、石家庄在保障房选址上较其他城市更为合理,并深入分析现阶段保障房用地分布相对理想的原因,建议从立法规范、居住模式、转变观念、丰富房源等角度进行优化。     

The Effect of Development Impact Fees on Land Values*

ABSTRACT This paper presents an empirical analysis of the effect of impact fees on the value of land used in residential development. A random effects model is estimated to examine the relationship between impact fees and land values using forty‐three Texas cities that impose impact fees. Prior research suggests that higher impact fees result in higher lot values, and the results of this research support this suggestion. Results indicate that for each $1,000 increase in impact fees, lot values increase by 1.3 percent. Additionally, these results suggest that developers are able to pass a small amount of the impact fee to the owners of developable land. However, for undeveloped land the results are mixed. For each $1,000 in assessed impact fees, undeveloped land values decrease by 0.042 percent. These results support prior evidence that suggests home buyers may ultimately bear the majority of the cost of impact fees.     

Fragmentation and Sprawl: Evidence from Interregional Analysis

Recent years have witnessed widespread expansion of state and regional planning programs in the United States. A major purpose of these efforts is to reduce urban sprawl—low density, discontinuous, suburban–style development, often characterized as the result of rapid, unplanned, and/or uncoordinated growth— by promoting jurisdictional cooperation and regulatory consistency across metropolitan areas. This paper evaluates the efficacy of this approach by examining the relationship between governmental fragmentation and several measurable outcomes of urban development: density, urbanized land area, property value, and public expenditures on infrastructure. The four dimensions are modeled in a simultaneous equations framework, providing substantive evidence on how fragmentation and other exogenous factors affect metropolitan growth patterns. Fragmentation is associated with lower densities and higher property values, but has no direct effect on public service expenditures; less fragmented metropolitan areas occupy greater amounts of land due to the extensive annexation needed to bring new development under the control of a central municipality. The findings of the analysis lend support to state and regional planning efforts aimed at increasing cooperation among local governments, but also suggest that further research is needed in order to evaluate whether or not they produce their intended effects.     

The violence of homelessness: Exile and arbitrary detention in Cambodia's war on the poor

This article examines the plight of homeless peoples in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as a consequence of their enmeshment in a new logic of urban governance being rolled out by city officials and municipal planners. The widespread adoption of neoliberal economics has resulted in a globalised version of urban entrepreneurialism, to which Phnom Penh is a participant. The (re)production of enterprise zones, cultural spectacles, waterfront development, and privatised forms of local governance all reflect the powerful disciplinary effects of interurban competition as cities aggressively engage in mutually destructive place‐marketing policies. Against this neoliberal backdrop, the ongoing pattern of violence utilised by municipal authorities against homeless peoples in Phnom Penh is part of a gentrifying process that the local government has dubbed a ‘beautification’ agenda. Of particular concern is how city officials have begun actively promoting the criminalization of the urban homeless and poor through arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, holding them in so‐called re‐education or ‘rehabilitation’ centres. Yet these centres are not what they seem. Such euphemisms attempt to mask the systemic abuse of marginalised peoples who are deemed to present Phnom Penh in a negative light and are consequently unwanted on the streets of the capital city.     

Fiscal Impact of Annexation Methodology on Municipal Finances in North Carolina

Municipal annexation is the most common form of local government boundary change and can have profound impacts on the annexing municipality as well as the area being annexed. While urban scholars have often touted the economic benefits of annexation for municipalities, little research has been conducted on the effect of annexation type on the economic well‐being of a municipality. Do voluntary annexations result in a larger economic windfall for annexing municipalities? Do involuntary annexations cost more? This study examined more than 6,000 annexations conducted by North Carolina municipalities between 1990 and 2000 in order to explore the impact annexation methodology had on municipal fiscal health. The results reveal that during the study period annexation resulted in a decrease in municipal fiscal health for North Carolina municipalities and that involuntary annexation had a particularly detrimental effect. This finding contradicts much of the previous research on the economic benefits of annexation for municipalities.     

The value of a craft brewery: On the relationship between craft breweries and property values

Recent literature and public discourse emphasize the role of craft breweries in the revitalization process of economically distressed neighborhoods across the U.S. With this, many are reporting rising property values in areas surrounding craft breweries. This research examines the impacts of craft breweries on both residential and commercial property values in a case study of Charlotte, North Carolina. Estimating a series of hedonic models which incorporate a difference‐in‐difference estimator, we find that craft breweries have a positive impact on residential property values. While many areas in close proximity to a craft brewery appear to have been associated with relatively higher price premiums even before the opening of the brewery, breweries tend to add to this premium, especially in center‐city neighborhoods. We find no significant impacts on commercial property values. These results are informative to policy makers considering revising zoning laws and other regulations in efforts to promote the growth of craft breweries and spur economic development in their local economies.     

The Appreciative System of Urban ICT Policies: An Analysis of Perceptions of Urban Policy Makers

ABSTRACT Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool to promote a variety of public goals and policies. In the past years much attention has been given to the expected social benefits from deploying ICTs in different urban fields (transportation, education, public participation in planning, etc.) and to its potential to mitigate various current or emerging urban problems. The growing importance of ICTs in daily life, business activities, and governance prompts the need to consider ICTs more explicitly in urban policies. Alongside the expectation that the private sector will play a major role in the ICT field, the expected benefits from ICTs also encourage urban authorities to formulate proper public ICT policies. Against this background, various intriguing research questions arise. What are the urban policy‐makers’ expectations about ICTs? And how do they assess the future implications of ICTs for their city? A thorough analysis of these questions will provide a better understanding of the extent to which urban authorities are willing to invest in and to adopt a dedicated ICT policy. This study is focusing on the way urban decision‐makers perceive the opportunities of ICT policy. After a sketch of recent development and policy issues, a conceptual model is developed to map out the driving forces of urban ICT policies in cities in Europe. Next, by highlighting the importance of understanding the decision‐maker's “black box,” three crucial variables are identified within this box. In the remaining part of the paper these three variables will be operationalized by using a large survey comprising more than 200 European cities. By means of statistical multivariate methods (i.e., factor and cluster analysis), the decision‐makers were able to be characterized according to the way they perceive their city (the concept of “imaginable city”), their opinion about ICT, and the way they assess the relevance of ICT policies to their city. Next, a solid explanatory framework will be offered by using a log‐linear logit analysis to test the relationships between these three aspects.     

Do Development Impact Fees Reduce the Rate of Residential Development?

ABSTRACT Over the last twenty-five years local governments in the United States and Canada have increasingly used impact fees and other development exactions as methods of financing capital and infrastructure requirements mandated by residential growth. While several studies have examined the effects of impact fees on housing and land prices, rigorous empirical analysis of their effects on residential development is lacking. In this paper a sample of all municipalities in DuPage County, Illinois from 1977 through 1992 is used to examine the effects of impact fees on the rate of residential development. The empirical results show that impact fees reduce rates of residential development by more than 25 percent.     

Protected Area Designation,Natural Amenities,and Rural Development of Forested Counties in the Continental United States

Policy makers who wish to spur economic development in rural forests face challenges that include population decline and poverty. Protected land and natural amenities enhance the quality of life and prospects for economic development, but there is limited research on how different types of protected land or natural amenities affect the rural forest economy. We use county level variables for protected areas differentiated by access and extractive use, and natural amenities differentiated by climate, water area, and topography to explain spatial variation in labor and built space markets. Results show that temperate summers and water area increase wages and housing prices and explain more than 30 percent of the spatial differences in wages, housing price, employment density, built space percent, human capital, and local road density. Protected area decreases wages, but, if open access, increase housing prices and human capital and explain more than 20 percent of the spatial differences in human capital, built space percent, and local road density.     

Spectre of neoliberal gentrification in Fiji: the price Suva's poor must pay

This article seeks to examine Fiji's current housing crisis against the backdrop of neoliberal urbanism. In doing so, the article offers a fresh new perspective on the marginalisation, displacement and outright exclusion of the urban poor from the inner city areas of Suva. Among the trademark growth problems experienced by neoliberal cities across the globe, the crisis of urban housing affordability is perhaps more pronounced in Suva given economies of scale and constraints in Fiji's land tenure system. This article seeks to highlight that Suva's inner city spaces are being transformed along the lines of market fundamentalism and that this will exacerbate the social exclusion and displacement of Suva's poor.     

Regional Social Inequalities and Social Deprivation in Guangdong Province,China

This article examines social deprivation at a regional scale using the case of Guangdong province, China. Counties, county‐level cities, and districts of prefecture cities are selected as the units of analysis. At the provincial level, a significant variation is found in terms of the social deprivation index, showing a pattern of increasing deprivation from the core of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) to the peripheral areas of Guangdong province. In the PRD, social development conditions are significantly different among these units, whereas the level of economic development is less differentiated. Social deprivation in urban areas is considerably lower than in rural areas. The differences between cities are significant, showing a bifurcation trend, whereas rural areas seem to be similar. Social disparities in Guangdong province are derived from unequal economic growth as well as social and regional policies.     

Is environmental regulation a blessing or a curse for China's urban land use efficiency? Evidence from a threshold effect model

Severe land shortage causes a higher demand for domestic and foreign land‐intensive products. As a result, resource utilization, and related environmental issues, will increase in urban areas. To this respect, the analysis of the impact of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency helps to identify potential points for interventions designed to ensure sustainable land use. This study first introduces a theoretical framework to investigate the micro‐transmission mechanism of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency. Our profit decision‐making model concludes that the impact of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency is influenced by changes in the industrial structure. Empirically, our preliminary analysis suggests that in addition to population density, both formal and informal environmental regulation can promote urban land use efficiency, with a significant spatial heterogeneity across the sample regions. Further, this study shows a remarkable double‐threshold relationship between formal environmental regulation and urban land use efficiency in China. We clarify and confirm that environmental regulation promoted urban land use efficiency only when regulation intensity was higher than 0.8612. Environmental regulation increased urban land use efficiency in high‐level industrial rationalization areas, whereas it had the opposite effect in low‐level ones. Furthermore, there was a clear marginal diminishing effect of the impact of environmental regulation on urban land use efficiency when the optimization of the industrial structure was set as a threshold variable.     

长沙市土地利用生态风险及评价

摘要：城市生态环境问题已成为制约城市可持续发展的重要问题,土地利用变化是城市生态环境改变的重要因素。长沙市作为中部经济发达、人口众多的大城市,其工业化和城市化的发展速度很快。强烈的土地需求对土地利用的强度、方式、规模、布局等造成了深远的影响,同时也对城市生态环境造成强烈的冲击,生态安全受到严重威胁。本文引入城市土地利用生态风险评价的概念,分析长沙市土地利用现状,阐述城市土地利用生态风险产生的原因,识别与土地利用相关的生态环境问题,综合运用主成分分析,K均值聚类等方法,建立了土地利用生态风险评价模型,分析和评价长沙市土地利用生态风险。结果发现该区所研究时段土地利用生态风险总体上变大,土地利用生态风险值从1996年的-0.85286（Ⅴ）,变为2006年的1.321039（Ⅰ）,期间变化波动明显,风险值在1996-1999年和2003-2006年趋于上升,2000-2002年趋于下降。根据此评价结论提出一系列规避和应对生态风险,协调城市土地利用与生态环境的对策。