House Lots Research Articles

Major transport mechanisms of pyrethroids in residential settings and effects of mitigation measures

The major pathways for transport of pyrethroids were determined in runoff studies conducted at a full-scale test facility in central California, USA. The 6 replicate house lots were typical of front lawns and house fronts of California residential developments and consisted of stucco walls, garage doors, driveways, and residential lawn irrigation sprinkler systems. Each of the 6 lots also included a rainfall simulator to generate artificial rainfall events. Different pyrethroids were applied to 5 surfaces—driveway, garage door and adjacent walls, lawn, lawn perimeter (grass near the house walls), and house walls above grass. The volume of runoff water from each house lot was measured, sampled, and analyzed to determine the amount of pyrethroid mass lost from each surface. Applications to 3 of the house lots were made using the application practices typically used prior to recent label changes, and applications were made to the other 3 house lots according to the revised application procedures. Results from the house lots using the historic application procedures showed that losses of the compounds applied to the driveway and garage door (including the adjacent walls) were 99.75% of total measured runoff losses. The greatest losses were associated with significant rainfall events rather than lawn irrigation events. However, runoff losses were 40 times less using the revised application procedures recently specified on pyrethroid labels. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:52–60. © 2013 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The Archaeology of Rural Affluence and Landscape Change at the Clemens Farmstead

During the 1820s, James and Sophia Clemens helped to establish Longtown, one of several farming communities settled by free persons of color in the Midwest. By the 1850s, James and Sophia were operating a prosperous farm in the Longtown community. The community was located along the Indiana and Ohio state line in Darke County, Ohio. The Clemens farm was atypical compared to other farms in Longtown. James Clemens was an economic outlier in the community, producing several times the average amount of crops and livestock compared to his neighbors during the mid-1800s. His home, a showplace, two-story, brick I-house that denoted rural success, was also unusual for the Longtown community. The example of the Clemens farm illustrates rural affluence expressed through production trends and the built environment among free persons of color in the Midwest. Landscape dynamics present in the 1800s are also illustrated by change that occurred to the house lot when the farm changed owners during the early twentieth century.

Bird species assemblages across a rural urban gradient around Kolkata, India

Urban development leads to changes in habitat structure and resource base. Bird communities are known to respond sharply to such changes. Our result from study of bird community along urbanization gradient around Kolkata metropolitan city clearly separated the urban bird community from the rural and rural 3 habitats in terms of species diversity and foraging groups. Rural and rural 3 sites had more number of rare species and higher percentage of unique species as compared to the urban habitats. Functional group analysis showed higher abundance of granivores in urban habitats and absence of insectivore and carnivorous species that were found in the rural and rural 3 habitats. The bird species assemblage along the gradient was significantly nested where bird species recorded in urban areas were subset of the species rich rural areas. There was no difference in individual counts between urban and rural habitats, therefore nullifying the hypothesis that rural areas are more species rich because of higher population size. Bird community in the urban areas was less even as compared to the rural areas due to the dominance of omnivorous guild. Bird diversity was negatively correlated to the density of house lots.

Fish and fishing in colonial New South Wales: new evidence from the Quadrant site in Sydney

Excavations at the Quadrant site in Sydney uncovered remains of 19th-century working-class houses and industrial areas including a collection of fish remains. The spatial distribution of bones of northern hemisphere ling and salmonids across house lots suggests these fish were commonly eaten. Little previous research on fish remains from post-1788 Australian sites has been reported and the study has wider research significance to Australasian archaeozoology. Documents indicate that some 19th-century British settlers preferred fish imported from Europe to local species. This study provides new insights into diet, economy and class in early colonial Sydney.

Some Principles of Retinal Design: The Proctor Lecture

Thus, across a scale of one-million-fold—theUS mapped down to your house lot—we know the retina’sbasic design (Fig. 1).Some will object to this term, because it implies a designer.But to Webster, ‘‘design’’ is simply ‘‘outline showing the mainfeatures of something to be executed.’’ So now we can ask, justwhat is this ‘‘something to be executed’’? What is the retina‘‘for’’?Obviously, it is for processing photoreceptor signals, butconsider a broader context (Fig. 2). Olfactory receptors coupledirectly to a spiking axon and so do touch receptors; auditoryreceptors use one synapse to drive a spiking axon. Butphotoreceptors require two layers of processing by asubstantial chunk of brain before finally sending a spike. Thisneural investment implies some big problem to be solved. So ifwe could identify the problem and grasp how the retina solvesit, we might find some core principles that govern retinaldesign.The problem is that a cone in daylight captures informationat tremendous rates, approximately 10,000 quanta per second.This creates a finely graded voltage that travels passively to thesynaptic terminal, ~10 lm away. Conceivably, the cone mightextend an axon over centimeters into the brain, but the passivesignals would decay with a space constant of approximately 1millimeter.

The damage to hillside embankments in Sendai city during The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake resulted in severe damage to housing and housing lots. In particular, the hillside embankments for residential use surrounding the downtown of Sendai city suffered serious damage. Many hillside lands which had been damaged during the 1978 off Miyagi-Prefecture earthquake were subjected to further damage. Typical damaged hillside embankments in Sendai city were investigated and the causes of the damage were discussed in this paper. The main cause of the damage to housing was not the seismic motion but the ground displacement of the fill embankment. A comparison of the damage from the 2011 earthquake with that from the 1978 earthquake indicates that the countermeasures constructed after the 1978 earthquake performed well in that they prevented large landslide type failure; however, they were not successful in reducing the amount of damage to housing or housing lots due to ground displacements from cracks, differential settlement, and shallow slips. A classification of failure types of fill embankment is proposed to be of assistance in the choice of countermeasures.

Carbon Stock Changes in Soil and Aboveground Biomass from House Lot Development in King County, Washington, USA

Fossil fuel burning and deforestation have driven dramatic increases in atmospheric CO2 since the industrial revolution. However, forests in the northern temperate region sequester a substantial (~0.6 Pg?yr–1) amount of carbon (C), largely through the regrowth of secondary forests that were originally cleared for timber over one hundred years ago. In the United States, however, some regions are approaching a maximum regrowth as forests are cleared again, this time for suburban and exurban development. Here we explore the effects of such development on C stocks in King County, WA, an area with high forest cover but rapid suburban expansion. We measured soil and biomass C on 18 paired-house/forest lots, and found house lots stored ~80 Mg?C?ha–1 less soil C, and between 130 and 280 Mg?C?ha–1 less above-ground biomass C than adjacent forest lots. Combining soil C losses with estimates of C emissions from forest products yields average C emissions of 130 - 280 Mg?C?ha–1, with the majority of losses occurring at the time of lot conversion. As a comparison, suburban dwellers drive ~30% more than city residents, but this increase in annual emissions from increased driving is 1% - 2.5% of the losses of C associated with converting forests to house lots. If forestland conversion in the Seattle area continues apace, in the coming decades C emissions each year from that land-use conversion will equal ~4% of King County’s 2008 C emissions.

Activitatea Primăriei Timişoara în perioada 1926-1927 / The activity of Timişoara City Hall in the period 1926 – 1927

! e present study analyses the activity of the Permanent Delegation and of the Communal Council of Timişoara City Hall between 1926–1927.As a conclusion, during the analysed period both the Permanent Delegation and the Communal Council were solicitous about the proper functioning of the communal enterprises being taken the nesessary measures for the restoration of the Hydroelectric Plant, for the development of the Water Supply Plant and of the Slaughter-house. As it concerns the Communal Cinemas the running of quality movies was decided and the increase of the number of cultural fi lms.! e two leading bodies of Timişoara City Hall took care of the fi nalization of the reconstruction works of the Communal ! eatre, delayed both because of funds shortage and of the central level redtape. At the same time new credits were voted needful for putting into use of this important cultural institution. Between the years 1926 –1927 the City Hall gave subsidies to some cultural institutions, being also donated a house lot to the National House of the city.As it concerns the education, there were accomplished works of maintenance at the primary school buildings and the necessary reparations at the apprentice halls. Attention has been given to higher education too, a grant being voted for Polytechnical School. At the same time Permanent Delegation members and those of the Communal Council were concerned with the establishing of the Commercial Academy, the mayor of the city Ioan Doboșan interceding in that direction at Vasile Goldiş and Octavian Goga ministers who promissed their support. Concomitantly, funds were assigned for the fi nalisation of the works at Commercial School. Timişoara City Hall awarded in this interval scholarships and subventions for poor pupils and for those from Timoc Valley.In health domain, the construction of a new hospital will be considered, the plans being approved by the competent authorities, a public auction being decided in view of starting the works. An auction was decided also for the construction of a pavilion at Ferdinand Hospital.As for the construction works, measures were taken for repairing the pavements, bridges, and roads, for water courses stabilization, for land drainages, being accomplished also works of protection against the fl oods. New tram lines were built in the city, being decided the digging of a new fountain too. Measures were taken for two important issues that the inhabitants of the city were facing: the purifi cation of the exploitation water from Bega and “Balta Verde” terrain innings.The management of the City Hall was interested in the social problems of the city, supporting the poor and the unemployed with the help of “popular cuisines” that functioned especially durig winter. Plans were made for the construction of five workers’ houses to shelter the homeless.In the two years there were awarded a series of subventions to charitable and students sodalities, etc. In the year 1927, the new mayor of Timișoara city, Lucian Georgevici, according to the laws in force, presented his program about the development of the city. The priorities of this program were culture and education, fact that highlights the Romanian politicians’ way of thinking between the two World War.On the cultural fi eld, they intended to fi nish the reconstruction of the Communal ! eatre and to hire a permanent troupe. Another priority was a Cultural Palace in which to carry out their activity the National Education House, the Museum and other cultural institutions. ! e construction of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral was also among the priorities.As for the education, a target was fi nishing the construction of the Commercial Academy and starting its activity and the construction of more hostels for the countryside pupils. Attention was payed for the support and developmentof the vocational schools network of utmost importance for the strengthening of the industry in Banat region.For improving the transport network of the city, they intended to move the railway line that crossed the center of city, to build new streets, to connect the suburban villages with the city through trams. ! e program also contained the development of the communal enterprises, the construction of the new hospital and of the workers’ houses.In the economic sector, model farms had to be established for the purveyance of the city inhabitants. In order to accomplish major investments, Lucian Georgevici had in mind the model before 1914, that is the commitment of long term loans.

The Economics of Land Use Change: Advancing the Frontiers

The pace and pattern of land use change in the United States drives many communities to demand new policies due to both the environmental and fiscal impacts associated with the increasing urban and suburban landscape as well as questions of food security and global climate change resulting from the loss of farm and forest land. Between 1982 and 1997, U.S. population grew by 17 percent, while total urbanized land area grew by 47 percent (Fulton et al. 2001). However, the total amount of resource land lost is not the only concern to society: the location, distribution, and pattern of the land use change also matter. The pattern of land use determines the local government costs of providing infrastructure such as roads, schools, sewer, water, and other public services; the amount and type of nonpoint source pollution into water bodies; loss of farmland, forest, habitat, and other open space amenities; how much time people spend commuting—commute times have increased and contributed to negative air quality as well as to global climate change; and ecological effects including hydrological disturbances and habitat fragmentation. In addition, the amount of land converted per each person for new housing has been trending upward—almost doubling in the past 20 years. Since 1994, housing lots greater than 10 acres accounted for 55 percent of total land developed in the U.S. (Heimlich and Anderson 2001). Understanding the threshold impacts of different patterns—whether they relate to the percentage of impervious surface in a watershed, the impacts of and alternatives to achieving TMDLs (total maximum daily loads), or the number of acres of interior forests—has also become more important, but these threshold impacts are difficult to analyze given the modeling methods currently available. Numerous local, state, and federal regulations have the potential to affect land use patterns. Land use planning and regulation are usually functions of state and local governments, traditionally performed through zoning regulations and subdivision ordinances, as well as other related land use tools such as adequate public facilities ordinances, differential development fees, urban growth boundaries, and public provision of water and sewer. Local governments can also use market mechanisms such as transferable development rights to create incentives for development to occur in specific regions, or they can explicitly buy parcels of remaining open space. In addition, federal government activities can indirectly affect land use patterns. These include the allocation of resources for the transportation network and the deductions of mortgage interest and property taxes in the federal income tax code. However, in many cases, government policies can result in unintended consequences on the spatial pattern of land use and land use change, as they are not always implemented specifically to affect this pattern. Given these as motivating policy issues, spatially explicit economic modeling focusing on the pattern of land use change has increased dramatically in recent years, with advances in theoretical modeling as well as with innovations in methodology. Empirical advances have been facilitated by the availability of spatially explicit social science data. Applied economists have become increasingly interested in these issues as the availability of spatial data (remotely sensed data, such as satellite data, as well as other geo-referenced _________________________________________

Water balance modelling of alternate water sources at the household scale

Alternate water sources are being implemented in urban areas to augment scheme water supplied by a water utility to homes. These sources include residential wells, rainwater tanks and greywater systems. Greater water efficiency can be achieved when these systems are designed to match a water source to a given demand based on both water quantity and quality parameters. In this way the use of an alternate water source can be maximised and the use of the high quality scheme water minimised. This paper examines the use of multiple alternate water sources sequentially to supply the same demand point potentially optimising the use of all available water sources. It also allows correct sizing of such water systems and their components to reduce scheme water demand. A decision support tool based on water balance modelling was developed that considers such water options at the household scale. Application of this tool to eight scenarios for both large and small house lots shows that using alternate water sources individually can result in significant scheme water savings. However by integrating these sources additional scheme water saving can be made.

Segregation legal and natural: An empirical study of the legally protected and free market housing ownership on the Peak

The phenomenon of protectionism in land policy has survived in the globalised age for various reasons. This case study on the destruction of racially discriminatory zoning in laissez-faire Colonial Hong Kong shows what could happen when protectionist measures are removed by the government. Approaching the reality of discrimination from Cheung’s (1974) economic theory of price controls, this paper argues, on the basis of the records of official speeches and writings and a small sample of post-war assignments for housing lots, that the pre-World War II segregation law was motivated more by economic protectionism in favour of Europeans rather than by any social stigma against non-Europeans or genuine environmental externalities generated by Chinese housing. The paper approaches the same phenomenon from a new perspective and with a better method. It was revealed that natural or contractual, as opposed to legal, agglomeration could happen even under written discriminatory laws that allowed a degree of inclusion for the ethnic group that suffered discrimination. This revelation was based on an examination of the ethnicity of the original owners and subsequent purchasers of all identifiable 627 housing lots on the Peak in Hong Kong for 115 years from 1876 to 1990, as found in the 421 relevant Crown Leases and 1255 assignments. These housing lots fell into 23 street neighbourhoods and could be classified by altitude. The key findings lend support to the arguments that even if the post-war colonial literature evaded or even distorted the subject, there was no true racial animosity between European and Chinese citizens because the exclusionary laws were driven by economic protectionist motives and the repeal of the laws was socially and economically beneficial for both Chinese and Europeans.

A STUDY ON CHANGES IN HOUSING LOTS AND DWELLES AT SUBURBAN DETACHED HOUSING AREAS IN STAGE OF GENERATION CHANGE

This study aims to investigate the land subdivision and the movement of dwellers at a suburban detached housing area in the stage of generation change. We surveyed “H” housing area built in the 1970s in Yokohama City and compared the building agreement zone with land subdivision and non-zone. Housing lots are not divided and dwellers continue living their lots in the agreement zone. In contrast, many of lots are divided, and rebuilding and new dwellers' moving-in are active in non-zone. Therefore the subdivision control of building agreement works well only in agreement zone and influences on changes of dwellers.

The effect of urban trees on the rental price of single-family homes in Portland, Oregon

Few studies have estimated the effect of environmental amenities on the rental price of houses. We address this gap in the literature by quantifying the effect of urban trees on the rental price of single-family homes in Portland, Oregon, USA. We found that an additional tree on a house's lot increased monthly rent by $5.62, and a tree in the public right of way increased rent by $21.00. These results are consistent with a previous hedonic analysis of the effects of trees on the sales price of homes in Portland, which suggests that homeowners and renters place similar values on urban trees.

Kaleidoscopes, Palimpsests, and Clay: Realities and Complexities in Human Activities and Soil Chemical/Residue Analysis

The following article presents a new approach to the spatial and chemical analysis of residues left by the cycle of activities that interweave specialized clay griddle production with other domestic tasks at two house lots located in the Mexican town of Cuentepec, Morelos. Based upon multivariate spatial statistics and image analysis techniques, this analytical approach allows for a more robust definition of activity areas across multiple data domains. These patterns, and the general approach by which they were created, provide a framework for evaluating the potential of applying social theories in archaeology for the interpretation of chemical residue analysis.

Anthropological Fieldwork: The Undergraduate Experience in Southern Mexico

My fieldwork in Cobá, Quintana Roo, Mexico began in 1976, when I was hired to serve as a member of a larger research team involved in the detailed mapping of the Classic Maya metropolis (Folan, Kintz, and Fletcher 1983). The archaeological site of Cobá is immense, measuring 63 square km. It exhibits unique characteristics, including the remains of house foundations, vaulted buildings, stone walls enclosing properties, the remains of storage rooms, the sites of house lot gardens, small water pools, altars, metates (limestone grinding stones), columns, platforms, ceramic sherds, and fragments of obsidian, among other structures and features. The plan of the suburban zone of the ancient city was mimicked by village settlement patterns on the south side of Lake Cobá. While this early phase of research focused on the archaeological ruins of Cobá, data were complied on the village and resources pertaining to family structure, housing, making milpa (tending cornfields), and important and useful resources found in the tropical rainforest. With Cobá, operating as a small farming community, the impact of archaeologists on traditional practices and economic life was minimal. However, the outsiders did introduce wage labor.

Voices of New Philadelphia: Memories and Stories of the People and Place

A project of collecting and recording oral histories related to New Philadelphia provided a valuable avenue for understanding facets of racism, and played an integral role in establishing a community-based archaeology program that emphasizes civic engagement. These oral histories also provided details of the historical context of the town, and revealed information that aided archaeological investigations. Several interviews supplied valuable data concerning the likely locations of structures, residences, and businesses that once existed within the town site. Oral histories further contributed data for meeting the challenges of analyzing cultural, ethnic, and class differences in artifact assemblages recovered from each house lot.

House Lot Gardens as Living Space in the Brazilian Amazon

House Lot Gardens as Living Space in the Brazilian Amazon

Late Seventeenth-Century Spanish Town, Jamaica: Building an English City on Spanish Foundations

The English who captured Jamaica in 1655 found its Spanish colonial capital unfamiliar. Their adaptations of the Spanish cultural landscapes they occupied highlight alternative criteria for appraising townscapes. Spanish military resistance continued for five years, during which the English garrison started to reorient the old Spanish town. They retained the place even after the building of a new merchant port at Port Royal. Spanish Town remained an administrative center with a seasonal society. Tracing the process of anglicization and adaptation in the former Spanish town into the 1690s extends beyond identifying what was done and when, to show wider shifts in the new residents’ understanding of the topography of this place seized. Physical continuity, in terms of a preexisting framework of streets and house lots, had to combine with very different expectations about towns. The social landscape of this Caribbean city in the wilderness came to be organized around its permanent residents, women and men.

DOMESTIC OFFERINGS AT EL PALMILLO

AbstractAlthough the topic has received recent attention, relatively little is known about how pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican communities were internally organized and interconnected. In this paper, we examine that question from the perspective of the Classic-period settlement of El Palmillo, in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Previous studies of the valley have postulated that communities often were (and still are) subdivided into barrios, although the modes of integration for those segments are less fully defined. Along these lines, we have previously identified commoner and higher-status houses at El Palmillo (along with associated artifactual and architectural inventories). We also have noted that different commoner houses were involved in distinct suites of craft activity, thereby indicating a degree of economic interdependence among these units. Here we expand our analysis to domestic offerings, which we found to vary across the excavated houses. Adapting a perspective from Durkheim's distinction between mechanical and organic solidarity, we find an expected organic (hierarchical) relationship between the offering assemblages of the higher-status residences and the offerings in commoner house lots. At the same time, we see another axis of variation in domestic offerings that appears more organic (nonhierarchical) in nature. The latter axis of variation at El Palmillo has a clear spatial component, in support of previous hypotheses that barrios or spatially defined social segments were important in Valley of Oaxaca pre-Hispanic communities. At El Palmillo, the definitional features of these social segments appear to have been ideological as well as economic.

Cure for Urban Sprawl: Measuring the Ratio of Marginal Implicit Prices of Density-to-Lot-Size

S and local governments have long wrestled with sprawl, leading to the implementation of “smart growth” policies. The key principle underpinning smart growth policy is compact development to preserve open space, farmland, and critical ecological habitat. Many communities with commitments to controlling sprawl through smart growth policy are struggling with implementation. Their struggle emanates from lack of understanding about the causes of sprawl. Smart growth analysts increasingly emphasize higher-density housing as a possible cure for urban sprawl. Compact housing development may be a challenge because research suggests increasing preferences for lower density housing (Skaburskis; Gordon and Richardson). Higher-density housing could be achieved if communities could replicate the factors that increase the desirability of low-density housings. Burchell et al. suggest that typical single-family housing lots could be reduced in size by 20 to 25% if other qualities associated with a neighborhood were maintained. One popular strategy for the coexistence of compact lots and desirable neighborhood qualities is the implementation of a conservation subdivision ordinance. By clustering streets and homes closer together, developers of conservation subdivisions are able to set aside larger portions of the community, anywhere from 20 to 70%, as preserved open space (Arendt). As smart growth