Large Metropolitan Regions Research Articles

Global Metropolis: Assessing Economic Activity in Urban Centers Based on Nighttime Satellite Images*

This research provides new data and insight on metropolitan areas worldwide. It summarizes new data, derived from satellite images of the world at night, to provide systematic estimates of the economic activity generated by cities and metropolitan areas worldwide. It identifies 681 global metropolitan areas each with more than 500,000 people. Taken as a whole, these large global metropolitan regions house 24 percent of the world's population but produce 60 percent of global output, measured as light emissions. Asia leads the way in global economic urbanization according to our findings, followed by North America, the emerging economies, and Europe.

When the internet is not enough: toward an understanding of carpool services for service workers

For much of the twentieth century, the economies of Canada and the United States have increasingly focused on service provision. During this same time period, cities have grown into expansive urban regions characterized by dispersed workplaces complemented by a wide array of commuting patterns, dominated by single occupancy vehicle use. This study aims to understand how service worker engagement with an Internet-based carpool formation software, known as Carpool Zone, and workplace transport policies, jointly enable carpool formation and use. The piece also explores the question of difference in carpool formation between female and male service workers. The study area is the Greater Golden Horseshoe, Canada’s largest metropolitan region. Data were drawn from Carpool Zone and a 2007 survey of commuter satisfaction. Extending past work, logistic regression analysis clarifies the importance of specific workplace policies, enacted within suburban firms, to the carpool formation process, including: provision of carpool spaces and availability of an emergency ride home service. The findings indicate that the Internet may not be enough, powerful enabling tools should be situated within expert networks of human capital developed to ameliorate the negative effects of commuting.

P1-430 Smoking among Brazilian workers: influence of employment status and household context

Despite the overall decline in cigarette smoking prevalence in Brazil in past decades, social inequalities in smoking have persisted and even widened. We investigated the effect of precarious work and...

Migrações e a dispersão espacial da população nas regiões de Influência das principais metrópoles Brasileiras

An understanding of the second half of the 20th century is essential to any analysis of the spatial distribution of the Brazilian population. As part of a nationwide process of urbanization and industrialization, a large part of the population and its economic activities moved to the country’s metropolitan areas in just a few years. This process resulted largely from the dynamics of internal migrations, but since the late 1970s a number of authors have posited the hypothesis of a reversal in the polarization in Brazil, as described in models applied in developed countries. It is true that recurrent controversies on the subject have brought to the fore expressions such as “reversion of polarization,” “concentrated deconcentration, and “polygonal development.” The main objective of this study is to appraise the current magnitude of the spatial dispersion of the Brazilian population, based on areas of influence that surround the country’s largest metropolitan regions, as defined by the Brazilian Census Office (IBGE). The research was based on the 1991 and the 2000 Demographic Censuses, which made it possible to identify the migratory flows of the population. In general, the results were inconclusive for all the regions of influence. Nonetheless, in the specific case of Sao Paulo, the data related to inventories and flows, associated with the dimension of distance, indicate intensification in the occupation of spaces beyond the official boundaries of the metropolitan regions. The increased emigration to the region of influence of Sao Paulo seems to confirm a type of “polynucleated dispersion” with clear signs of expansion within the region of influence. This would seem to suggest a strengthening of certain regional centers and greater dynamism of local economies

The emerging cultural economy in Chinese cities: early dynamics

In recent years, Chinese national and municipal governments have emphasised growth of the urban cultural economy, aiming to achieve 15-20% economic output share in the largest metropolitan regions by 2020. There is wide variation in policy and physical approaches to growing the urban cultural economy, explored in Beijing, Shanghai and Foshan. Differing physical models of cultural economic development are explored: formal arts facilities, cultural preservation based redevelopment, high-tech creative zones and bottom-up clusters. Key drivers are discussed and tensions are explored between production and consumption spaces, top-down and bottom-up approaches and between authenticity and gentrification. The authors conclude the sector is becoming a major shaper of physical form, affirm the key role the private sector has played and assert that bottom-up districts, driven by the producers themselves, have been among the most successful. Spatial dynamism is emphasised, particularly the emergence of new cultural production spaces on the urban periphery, and the evolution in the urban core of former production spaces into new cultural consumption environments.

Traffic Generated by Mixed-Use Developments—Six-Region Study Using Consistent Built Environmental Measures

Current methods of traffic impact analysis, which rely on rates and adjustments from the Institute of Transportation Engineers, are believed to understate the traffic benefits of mixed-use developments (MXDs), leading to higher exactions and development fees than necessary and discouraging otherwise desirable developments. The purpose of this study is to create new methodology for more accurately predicting the traffic impacts of MXDs. Standard protocols were used to identify and generate data sets for MXDs in six large and diverse metropolitan regions. Data from household travel surveys and geographic information system (GIS) databases were pooled for these MXDs, and travel and built environmental variables were consistently defined across regions. Hierarchical modeling was used to estimate models for internal capture of trips within MXDs, walking and transit use on external trips, and trip length for external automobile trips. MXDs with diverse activities on-site are shown to capture a large share of trips internally, reducing their traffic impacts relative to conventional suburban developments. Smaller MXDs in walkable areas with good transit access generate significant shares of walk and transit trips, thus also mitigating traffic impacts. Centrally located MXDs, small and large, generate shorter vehicle trips, which reduces their impacts relative to outlying developments.

Intensification and Sprawl: Residential Density Trajectories in Canada's Largest Metropolitan Regions

This study investigates the balance between forces of standardization and differentiation in the evolution of residential density in Canada's four largest metropolitan regions between 1971 and 2006. The leading factors of standardized development are the continentwide postwar adaptation of urban form to the automobile and growing housing space consumption. The influence of these factors is manifested in increasing convergence in the density levels of the four metropolitan regions as one moves from older to newer zones. Nonetheless, inherited urban forms, topography, economic and demographic performance, and land-use and transportation policies all have the potential to shape distinct density patterns. Each metropolitan region presents a specific density trajectory: Toronto registers a pattern that can be qualified as stable and recentralized; Montreal emerges as a decentralizing metropolitan region; Vancouver shows clear signs of intensification; and in Ottawa-Hull the trajectory combines decentralization and stability. These different metropolitan trajectories offer lessons for intensification strategies. Findings suggest that continentwide tendencies are shaped by features specific to each metropolitan region, and that successful intensification policies must build on those features.

Catching a ride on the information super-highway: toward an understanding of internet-based carpool formation and use

Fluctuating fuel prices, rising congestion, longer commutes, and related environmental and human health effects have combined to once more draw the interest of governments, commuters, and firms toward the concept of travel demand management (TDM). While TDM is not new, the proliferation of mobile telephony, fixed Internet, and associated applications has created fresh prospects for the implementation of commuter focused TDM strategies. One recent example is Carpool Zone, an on-line carpool-matching tool deployed and managed by the TDM group at Metrolinx, the regional transportation planning agency within Canada’s largest metropolitan region, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Using data provided by Metrolinx, this paper broadens current thinking on carpool formation and use. The main hypothesis guiding this work is that the carpool formation and use process is sensitive to personal and household characteristics, space, time, travel cost, and workplace TDM policies. Results from a logistic regression analysis suggest that geographical proximity to other users; workplace TDM policies; the scheduling of work; and commuter role preference increase the odds of successfully carpooling. Importantly, findings regarding the positive influence of workplace TDM policies suggest that Internet based TDM tools will likely require critically important investment in human capital at the back-end to ensure program participation.

The Brussels Economy

Observations A global economic dynamics that is favourable once again Today’s global economy is favourable to the nerve centres of command and control networks which are concentrated in the largest metropolises. Since 1995, two-thirds of the large metropolitan regions in the EU countries have recorded economic performance higher than that of their country. Those that do not reach this threshold are primarily cities hampered by a history of heavy industry and lack an adequate services sector. ...

Model-Based Synthesis of Household Travel Survey Data in Small and Midsize Metropolitan Areas

Household travel data synthesis–simulation has become a promising alternative or supplement to survey data from both small urban areas and large metropolitan regions in which data are expensive to collect or the data required to support the planning process have become outdated. This paper proposes and applies model-based approaches [i.e., small area estimation (SAE) methods] to synthesize household travel characteristics. The proposed methods address the sampling-bias concerns in the existing methods. Specifically, three SAE methods–-the generalized regression estimators method, the empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP) method, and the synthetic method (an EBLUP without random area effects)–-are applied to synthesize household travel characteristics at both census tract and individual levels. The SAE framework of synthesizing household travel characteristics is demonstrated with the National Household Travel Survey data and the Census Transportation Planning Package data in the Des Moines metropolitan area in central Iowa. Results indicate that SAE methods are promising approaches to synthesize unbiased aggregate and disaggregate household travel characteristics by incorporating population auxiliary information and local, small-household travel survey data. The proposed data synthesis methods and analysis findings will provide a useful tool for practitioners, planners, and policy makers in transportation analyses. The paper also points out that by linking population synthesis with the travel data simulation framework described here, this method could be of broad application in transportation planning.

From reclamation to restoration: Trinity River common vision for the 21st century

For most of the past 150 years, the dream for the Trinity River in north central Texas was that of a federally‐funded navigation canal with barges transporting goods more than 300 miles to and from the Gulf of Mexico. An 1898 promotional button proclaimed the dream: “Dallas ‐ The Inland Seaport of Texas.” Since then the region has grown into America's largest metropolitan region located on an inland waterway. The region's population now exceeds 6 million; its area is about 33,000 square kilometers. When the 19th‐century dream of a barge canal died in the early 1980's because of changing federal priorities, it was replaced by new local pressures to fill and reclaim significant portions of the floodplain. Studies by the US Army Corps of Engineers with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) demonstrated the devastating effects that massive reclamation would have on existing properties, especially to the downstream Dallas levee system. From these important discussions emerged an unprecedented local/state/federal partnership to more comprehensively address the problems and opportunities of the river corridor and watershed towards a Trinity River Common Vision for the 21st‐century: • Safe Trinity River, with stabilization and reduction of flooding risks; • Clean Trinity River, with fishable and swimmable waters; • Enjoyable Trinity River, with recreational opportunities linked by a Trinity Trails System within a world‐class greenway; • Natural Trinity River, with preservation and restoration of riparian and cultural resources; • Diverse Trinity River, with local and regional economic, transportation, and other public needs met. This paper describes the evolution of the Trinity River Common Vision over the past 20 years, highlights successful regionwide projects to stabilize and reduce flood risks such as the innovative Corridor Development Certificate process, and shows the remarkable progress of the region's three largest cities ‐ Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington. All illustrate the movement from reclamation to restoration, from structural to non‐structural, from a 19th‐century barge canal to a 21st‐century Trinity River Common Vision.

Household context and self-rated health: the effect of unemployment and informal work

Objective:This article investigates whether the presence of residents in precarious work situations influences the self-rated health of people living in the same household.Methods:The study is based on the National Household...

Estimating Transportation Costs by Characteristics of Neighborhood and Household

Since information on U.S. household expenditures was first collected, transport expenditures have risen from the sixth-highest share of household budgets, less than 2%, in 1917 to the second-highest share since the 1970s. This rise is linked to increased automobile purchase and automobile use and a relative decline in other costs, particularly food. Studies have also linked variations in the built environment to transport expenditures, but this influence cannot be tested by the federal Consumer Expenditure Survey since it is reported at the metropolitan level. Regional travel demand models recognize the dual influence of land use and household characteristics but do not include sufficient detail on the built environment of neighborhoods. Additionally, these models report travel time, distance, and frequency but not out-of-pocket household transportation expenditures. A study was launched to create a statistical model to predict household total annual transportation expenditures for each neighborhood in the largest metropolitan regions in the United States, controlling for the built environment and household size and income. The model specifies five independent variables—density, jobs access, neighborhood services, walkability, and transit connectivity. Model parameters were calibrated to measured vehicle ownership and transit use in the pilot region, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota, and to vehicle miles traveled by households at the block group level in the National Household Travel Survey. Statistically significant results confirm the influence of the built environment and regional accessibility on transport expenditures. Intended users are households, policy makers, and planners making location, design, and investment decisions.

Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants

Much of the theoretical work on industry dynamics focuses on the role of ‘noisy’ selection and incomplete information on firm entry and survival. We extend this research by looking at the impact of firm heterogeneity on employment effects for 320 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). We find that only start-ups with greater than 20 and less than 500 employees have persistent employment effects over time and only in large diversified metropolitan regions. Therefore, both the type of entry (Gazelles) and the characteristics of the region are important for employment growth.

Seoul: Birth of a Broadband Metropolis

Following half a century of breakneck urbanization, the capital of South Korea emerged in the late 1990s as the most digitally networked city in the world. With nearly 80% household broadband penetration in 2004, Seoul surpassed global cities and ‘technopoles' in speed and comprehensiveness in embracing broadband technology. In this paper I describe the physical development of Seoul's broadband infrastructure and its frequent intersections with daily urban life. As the fourth largest urban agglomeration in the world, Seoul offers a unique case for investigating the intersection of telecommunications policy, development, and culture in large metropolitan regions, as well as the everyday implications of pervasive computing. It also highlights emerging challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid and widespread deployment of digital network infrastructure.

Urban sprawl and air quality in large US cities

This study presents the results of a paper of urban spatial structure and exceedances of the 8-h national ambient air quality standard for ozone in 45 large US metropolitan regions. Through the integration of a published index of sprawl with metropolitan level data on annual ozone exceedances, precursor emissions, and regional climate over a 13-year period, the association between the extent of urban decentralization and the average number of ozone exceedances per year, while controlling for precursor emissions and temperature, is measured. The results of this analysis support the hypothesis that large metropolitan regions ranking highly on a quantitative index of sprawl experience a greater number of ozone exceedances than more spatially compact metropolitan regions. Importantly, this relationship was found to hold when controlling for population size, average ozone season temperatures, and regional emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, suggesting that urban spatial structure may have effects on ozone formation that are independent of its effects on precursor emissions from transportation, industry, and power generation facilities.

Convergence and Mobility: Personal Income Trends in U.S. Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Regions

The authors find evidence of income convergence across all substate labor markets in the lower forty-eight U.S. states during the 1969 to 1999 period. However, convergence is not expressed in a uniform way across metropolitan/nonmetropolitan regions, across time periods, or across census regions. The authors show that catching up within the distribution is more common for nonmetropolitan regions than for metropolitan regions. Furthermore, the largest metropolitan regions show strong tendencies to converge toward the bottom of their income distribution while at the same time showing comparatively little distributional mobility. This contrasts with results for the smallest nonmetropolitan regions, which show no evidence of convergence but high levels of intradistributional mobility. The authors also examine the relationship between human capital accumulation and industry mix and subsequent distributional mobility. The results suggest that educational attainment is positively correlated with growth for metropolitan regions, but it appears to be less correlated with upward mobility within the nonmetropolitan distribution.

Limited availability of psoriasis and phototherapy care: An analysis of advertisements

Because the number of dermatologists remains stable, patients with medical dermatologic conditions such as psoriasis may find it increasingly difficult to access dermatological treatment. Measuring the competition in the marketing of dermatologic care may provide insight into the availability of dermatology services. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent dermatologists are using the Yellow Pages to advertise to patients with psoriasis. We performed a quantitative and qualitative assessment of dermatologists' Yellow Pages advertisements in small cities and the ten largest metropolitan regions in the country. Per capita, more advertisements were found in smaller markets than larger markets and a higher percentage was descriptive rather than just a name, address and phone number. Cosmetic and surgical advertisements were more common than psoriasis ads in both markets. Cosmetic ads were more prevalent in larger markets. In all regions, psoriasis and psoriasis treatment ads were least common. These findings raise the concern that incentive structures in the United States healthcare system do not adequately support delivery of dermatologic care for psoriasis. Efforts to promote psoriasis care should be encouraged.

Sustainable Development Planning Tools: Suite of Models Useful in Large Metropolitan Regions

Planning for sustainable development requires models that can represent the effects of land use and transportation policies on economic welfare, social equity, and the natural environment. Various urban models and geographic information system impact models have been in development for use in the Sacramento, California, region for several years. A comprehensive set of models is proposed. With the improvement of the urban economic model and the addition of a model for real-time scenario generation and evaluation, it is thought that a full suite of models exists for comprehensive regional planning. All the models are free, public license models, appropriate for application in large metropolitan planning organizations and other regional agencies.

Counseling Issues and Approaches Working with Families of African-American Gay Male Members with HIV/AIDS

The rate of HIV/AIDS infection continues to increase in large metropolitan areas and rural regions in the southeastern United States. African-Americans are 3.5 times more likely to contract AIDS than European-Americans and comprise about 25% of all AIDS cases in the United States. African-American males account for 32% of all AIDS cases and 47% of all new HIV infections. Despite a plethora of research over the 20 years addressing risk reduction, sexual behavior change, prevention and the medical aspects of this disease, scarce attention has been paid to the psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS on African-American gay men and their family members. A number of psychosocial issues are explored as they relate to HIV-infected gay African-American men and their family members. Briefly discussed will be the social implications of being Black and gay as well as pertinent medical aspects of the syndrome. Two counseling approaches useful to working with this population are NTU and the Africentric model of Nguzo Saba.