Urban Encroachment,Economic Growth,and Land Values in the Urban Fringe

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of the local and national economy, and the rate of return on competing assets, on land prices in the urban fringe of the Scattle Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA). The data are derived from a set of nearly all land sales in King County Washington between 1969 and 1984. The size of the data set allows for the neutralization of site specific influences by examining the monthly mean price of unimproved land. The results show that, like other traditional investments, land prices are sensitive to factors such as inflation and interest rates. Population pressures and local economic conditions influence urban fringe prices as well. Land further from the urban core is less sensitive to these impacts, presumably because it is too far away from economic activity to be considered for its value in future urban uses.     

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.     

Rural‐to‐Urban Commuting: Three Degrees of Integration

Commuting ties between rural places of residence and urban places of employment are among the most visible forms of rural–urban integration. For some rural areas, access to urban employment is a key source of population retention and growth. However, this access varies considerably across rural areas, with distance representing a primary deterrent. In addition to distance, the size of the urban community will also influence rural‐to‐urban commuting opportunities. In this paper, using Canadian data, we empirically estimated the influence of local rural population and job growth on rural out‐commuting within the urban hierarchy. We find consistent support for the deconcentration hypothesis where population moves to rural areas for lifestyle and quality of life reasons, while retaining urban employment. Further, we find some evidence that in addition to distance from the nearest urban center being a deterrent, increased remoteness from the top of the urban hierarchy exerts a positive influence on out‐commuting. Recognition of these types of rural–urban linkages through commuting is essential in designing Canadian rural policy and targeted programs that may effectively support local rural populations. In particular, they point to the need to have reasonable transportation infrastructure for urban accessibility, which should be complemented by other “built” infrastructure to improve the livability of rural communities.     

Voter‐Approved Annexations in an Urban Growth Boundary Regime: The Impacts on Housing Values,Density, and Economic Equity

Oregon is known for its strict Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) policies. While UGBs are designed to accommodate land supply for 20 years of growth, land within UGBs must be annexed into city limits before it can be developed at urban densities and serviced. In Oregon, cities use a variety of municipal annexation and voter‐approved annexation policies (VAAPs), providing an opportunity to study how different annexation policies affect land and housing markets, and affect urban density. Previous research on annexation has not considered how annexation policy influences housing values. This paper examines how VAAPs impact land growth, housing development, and density at the city level. It also examines how VAAPs impact housing values. Based on city‐level and tax‐lot‐level statistical analyses from 107 cities outside Portland Metro area, the results suggest that VAAPs negatively impact the availability of developable land within city limits. VAAPs also positively impact residential density and housing value. Lastly, VAAPs inequitably affect housing value between relatively high‐value housing and relatively low‐value housing, posing economic equity impacts for lower value housing. These findings provide important lessons for Oregon and other states. While VAAPs may increase residential density in cities, the policies may exacerbate affordability problems.     

Innovation and Regional Growth in Mexico: 2000–2010

This paper looks at the factors driving regional growth in Mexico, paying special attention to the potentially growth‐enhancing role of innovation and innovation policy. The analysis combines innovation variables with indicators linked to the formation of adequate social conditions for innovation (the social filter), and spillovers for 31 Mexican states and the Mexico City capital district (the Distrito Federal) during the period 2000–2010. The results indicate that regional economic growth across Mexican states stems from direct investment in research and development (R&D) in areas with favorable social filters and which can benefit not only from knowledge spillovers, but also from being surrounded by rich neighbors with good social conditions. The results stress that, although Mexican innovation policy has been relatively well targeted in order to generate greater economic growth, its relatively modest size may have undermined the attainment of its main objectives.     

Urban Form and Household Activity‐Travel Behavior

ABSTRACT Cities and metropolitan regions face several challenges including urban sprawl, auto dependence and congestion, and related environmental and human health effects. Examining the spatial characteristics of daily household activity‐travel behavior holds important implications for understanding and addressing urban transportation issues. Research of this sort can inform development of urban land use policy that encourages the use of local opportunities, potentially leading to reduced motorized travel. This article examines the potential household activity‐travel response to a planned metropolitan polycentric hierarchy of activity centers. Behavioral observations have been drawn from an activity‐travel survey conducted in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area during the mid‐1990s. Evidence presented from exploratory analysis indicates an urban/suburban differential, with less daily travel and smaller activity spaces for urban households. Investigation of the travel reduction potential of the proposed land‐use strategy suggests that location effects could be offset by adjustments to household sociodemographic and mobility characteristics.     

基于耕地保护的城市发展空间生态适宜性评价研究

针对城市边缘地带建设用地快速增长与优质农用地大量减少的矛盾,以驻马店为例,在充分考虑农田的生态服务功能的基础上,构建了建设用地生态适宜性评价系统和耕地自然生产潜力评价系统组成的生态适宜城区扩展用地评价方法,评价了城市建设用地的生态适宜性和农地的自然宜耕性,基于保护优质耕地的目标,划分了适宜性发展空间分区,将城市发展空间划分为重点开发、优化开发、限制开发和禁止开发4个类型,结合宜居城市建设对不同分区内的耕地功能用地进行了分析,探讨了扩展用地时空配置的方法和途径。结果表明：驻马店市重点、优化、限制和禁止开发区面积分别占研究区总面积的37.05%、28.87%、17.75%、16.33%。该评价方法为城市边缘地带新增建设用地的时空配置提供了参考。     

Urban Development and Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services: Too Many Unanswered Questions?

ABSTRACT It is often assumed that future urban employment will be increasingly dependent on the knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS). This underpins much of the current thinking about the development of the English “core cites.” Their example is employed to examine the more general validity of such assumptions, in terms of five critical questions to which research offers only partial and indefinite answers. For any city, how far are these activities really “knowledge intensive”? What markets do they serve? Is their future growth certain? And even when this is the case, how can they make a long‐term contribution to local urban economic success? Finally, how far do urban economic institutions and policies need to be adapted to foster knowledge‐based activities such as KIBS? It seems that, despite the growth of measured KIBS employment, most of the core cities possess few truly knowledge‐intensive KIBS, capable of serving national and international business markets, competitively adapting to future change, and adding to the competitiveness of the wider urban economy. Nationally such activities remain focused into the London region where, if anything, they have increased their concentration is recent years.     

The Spatial Dimension of Trade‐ and FDI‐driven Productivity Growth in Chinese Provinces: A Global Cointegration Approach

This paper analyses the major determinants of long‐ and short‐run labour productivity evolution for Chinese provinces between 1978 and 2010. The role played by openness to trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) constitutes the main focus of this analysis. From a methodological perspective, our main contribution is the inclusion of spatial effects into a dynamic error correction modelling framework. The results show that, in addition to domestic factors such as investment intensity and infrastructure use, trade openness and inward FDI also exert a direct impact on labour productivity. Furthermore, the geographical environment has a strong indirect influence on productivity: The more a region is surrounded by high‐productive regions with good infrastructure and linkages to the world economy, the higher are its productivity level and growth rate. The magnitude of these impacts varies by spatial regime (coastal, interior provinces) and time period in focus. Especially in the recent past, trade and FDI activity appear to be increasingly important drivers of regional productivity evolution, both for coastal and interior regions. These findings have important policy implications: In order to fully exploit the benefits from such spillovers, coordinated industrial policies which foster regional complementarities and support the free movement of production factors across regional borders are crucial.     

Public Policy and Land Conversion: Lessening Urban Growth Pressure in River Corridors

Year in and year out, flooding causes greater dollar losses than any other natural hazard. To cope with that problem, more than 17,000 communities across the US have adopted riverine floodplain management programs to reduce the amount of urban development at risk from flooding and flood-related damage. This article examines the extent to which floodplain management programs influence the investment and predevelopment decisions of owners of vacant floodplain land in ten selected cities. Such public programs are found to alleviate investment and development pressure in flood hazard areas. Community-wide factors such as the availability of non-floodplain buildable land, however, can magnify or depress this effect of public policy on investment activity. Further, landowner perceptions of the flood hazard itself have an important influence on anticipated property appreciation and investment activity.     

农业信息化与都市型农业经济增长相关性研究

通过智能工具和信息技术的普遍应用,农业信息化促进传统农业向现代农业的转变发展,也促进以乡村旅游等农村服务业为主的都市型农业经济增长。从农业信息化研究角度出发,通过对农业信息化指数的分析,提出基于层次分析法非等权重的农业信息化指数模型,得出农业信息化与都市型农业经济增长的相关性,为进一步加快城市周边农业经济发展提供积极对策。     

Effect of Water‐Deficit Stress on Germination and Early Seedling Growth in Sugar Beet

Sugar beet progeny lines screened for both high water use efficiency and high sugar yield under drought stress conditions in the field were assessed for the rate of seed germination and early seedling growth in water deficit stress, induced by mannitol solutions. Seeds of nine different sugar beet progeny lines were grown in three experimental conditions using filter paper, perlite and water agar as substrate. Three levels of 0.0, 0.2 and 0.3 m mannitol concentrations were applied in each experiment. A factorial design was used with three replications. Germination percentage was determined in all experiments. Seedling growth parameters such as cotyledon fresh weight, cotyledon dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight (RDW) and root length (RL) were measured experimentally. Abnormality was only recorded in the filter paper experiment. The results showed that drought stress could be simulated by mannitol solution and significant differences were found between stress levels for seedling characteristics. Distinct genetic variances were found among progeny lines with respect to germination and early seedling growth characteristics, except for cotyledons and RDW. Seedling growth and germination rates severely declined at the highest concentration of mannitol. The rate of abnormality was increased progressively at the germination stage with an increase in mannitol concentration but it was more pronounced in the drought‐susceptible progeny lines. The highest values of relative germination % and relative growth % of RL were obtained for the most tolerant line. In conclusion, seedling characteristics, in addition to other physiological components involved in the seed germination process under specific stress conditions, may be considered for breeding purposes.     

Crop Coefficients,Growth Rates and Quality of Cool‐Season Turfgrasses

Determination of crop coefficients (Kc), the ratio between actual (ET_a) and reference evapotranspiration (ET₀), is necessary to schedule irrigation. Our objective was to determine Kc, turf quality and growth rate under daily irrigation to field capacity (FC = ?3 kPa tension) and drying. Minilysimeters installed in a green (mowing height 3–5 mm) and fairway (15 mm) were weighed during four periods of 4–10 days duration in 2009 and 2010. Crop coefficients on the second and subsequent days after irrigation were not significantly different among species and averaged 0.81 and 0.91 on green and fairway, respectively. On the first day after irrigation, the Kc varied from 1.67 to 2.85 and decreased in the order Agrostis capillaris > Festuca rubra ssp. litoralis > F. rubra ssp. commutata > A. stolonifera > A. canina on the green, and F. rubra ssp. litoralis > Lolium perenne > F.rubra ssp. rubra > Poa pratensis > F. rubra ssp. commutata on the fairway. Drying reduced the average daily height growth from 0.98 to 0.74 mm on the green and 1.97–1.72 mm on the fairway. Scores for turf quality were reduced but remained acceptable. Although the Kc during the first day after irrigation to FC may be overestimated due to latent soil heat and a possible oasis effect, we conclude that irrigation to FC should be avoided as it causes excessive water use.     

Factors and Correlates of Employment Growth in the Canadian Urban System, 1971–1991

The objective of this paper is to examine a number of hypotheses concerning the factors or correlates of employment growth in the Canadian urban system—a set of 152 urban areas having populations of more than ten thousand inhabitants which comprises 77.4 percent of the national population. Do observed patterns of sectoral employment growth obey some sort of underlying logic? More specifically, do the rates of employment growth that are found in individual urban areas vary significantly according to one or more of the following attributes of an urban area: a) the region in which it is located; b) its population size; c) its relative proximity to a major metropolitan area; d) its socioeconomic characteristics? While approaches involving a, e and f yield promising results, it is clear that there are few immutable laws that permit one to predict where employment growth will occur within the urban system. Perhaps the most fundamental characteristic of the analyses conducted involves the instability of the results from one decade to another; one decade’s category of winners is often the other decade’s category of losers.