Urban Planning Tools Research Articles

Popular participation in the preparation of urban planning tools in Algeria. Case study of Blida state

This paper discusses the evaluation of poplar's participation in the preparation of urban planning tools in Algeria, by highlighting its styles, levels, and methods of application. The study is conducted on the most important municipalities of Blida province: Blida, Larbaa, Boufarik, Bougara, el-Affroun in 2016 and 2017. This research raises the most important obstacles to activating participation by proposing a set of recommendations to develop and increase the contribution of citizen participation in the decision making of urban planning and the development of their cities.

Combining geology, geomorphology and geotechnical data for a safer urban extension: Application to the Antananarivo capital city (Madagascar)

Metropolitan and suburban areas in Africa are rapidly expanding with, in general, a poor safe urban management. Urban development in zones not suitable for construction leads to significant economic loss. The aggregate building damage combined with other environmental treats like drought, flooding or landsliding are enhancing African city vulnerability. Simple cartographic products made available to the general public could facilitate the first stage of planning and management considering parameters that affect building foundation. We combine here in ARCGIS geological, geomorphological and geotechnical data to provide such a framework focusing on the capital city of Antananarivo in Madagascar. The city was initially constructed on basement hills covered with a thick loose weathered layer and is expanding into the alluvial lowland watered by the Ikopa River. About 221 boreholes with pressumeters and laboratory data provide a picture of the underground characteristics, and allow the computation of the soil bearing capacity, the key parameter we used to assess building suitability. Lithology, slope, land-use and ground water level are combine to build a first geotechnical map that is completed using a mapping of the soil bearing capacity combined with land-use and geohydrological constraints. The geotechnical maps divide the city into zones with different constructive conditions that can be use as a first tool for urban development planning.

Morphological Indices as Urban Planning Tools in Northeastern Brazil

The purpose of this article is to analyze urban form through the mapping of morphological indices, namely impervious surface fraction, building density, verticality, height/width ratio, roughness length, and porosity, to support urban planning in the city of João Pessoa, PB, in northeastern Brazil. The application of this study identifies and calculates such significant indices for the city’s urban space from a Geographic Information System (GIS) model. The spatial indices play notable roles in climate at different scales, developing guidelines to maximize environmental quality, promote improvements to thermal comfort, minimize the urban heat island in the city of João Pessoa, and provide relevant data (considering microclimate aspects), guiding decisions related to the planning process.

Sustainability cost curves for urban infrastructure planning

Global urban infrastructure spending is expected to triple by 2050 as cities try to keep up with growing populations and retrofit ageing civil works. However, long-lived infrastructure needs to be developed within local and global limits and aspirational targets such as the United Nations sustainable development goals. This paper presents an approach to measure and prioritise urban infrastructure as it relates to sustainability boundaries and targets. It provides a simple yet powerful tool for public policy and urban infrastructure planning. As an example, the method is applied to nine real transportation projects in Toronto, Canada, and these are compared with urban transport projects in Brazil, China, India and Senegal.

Front and back yard green analysis with subpixel vegetation fractions from earth observation data in a city

This paper introduces a novel approach to green space availability in cities that includes the thus-far mostly neglected urban front and backyard green space around residential buildings on privately owned ground. To quantify the full spatial scope of urban green space, we calculated subpixel vegetation fractions from RapidEye remote-sensing data for the entire city with a spectral unmixing technique that enabled us to model the extent of urban vegetation with a high degree of confidence (MAE 7%, R2 0.92). We then applied a new ‘urban front and back yard green space derivation algorithm’, namely, a masking of the fractional vegetation data using GIS vector data of land cover, in order to delineate the front and backyard greenspace of residential houses in a city with an accuracy of 96%. Combining these two approaches, we can calculate the area of urban front and back yard green space for the entire city (including different residential structure types) and compare this data to the area of public (parks, urban forests) and semi-public (allotment gardens) green spaces that have been used for prevailing per capita green space availability analyses. The new method is exemplified at the city of Leipzig, Germany, which provides different residential structures concerning house types and the surrounding green that are characteristic of many European cities. Key findings include that the total amount of urban front and back yard green space is almost 2000 ha, which is ∼40% of the amount of public green space (4768 ha). In 15 out of the 63 total districts, there is more front and backyard than public green space, which highlights the importance of these urban front and back yard green space for the analysis of urban livelihoods and a tool for detailed ecosystem services-oriented urban planning.

Mapping the Changes in Urban Greenness Based on Localized Spatial Association Analysis under Temporal Context Using MODIS Data

Vegetation plays an irreplaceable role for urban ecosystem services. Urban greenness represents all vegetation cover in and around cities. Understanding spatiotemporal patterns of the changes in urban greenness (CUG) provides fundamental clues for urban planning. The impact on CUG can be roughly categorized as being climate-induced and human-induced. Methods for mapping human-induced CUG (H-CUG) are rare. In this paper, a new framework, known as Localized Spatial Association Analysis under Temporal Context (LSAA-TC), was proposed to explore H-CUG. Localized spatial association analysis (LSAA) was performed first to extract local spatial outliers (LSOs), or locations that differ significantly in urban greenness from those located in the neighborhood. LSOs were then analyzed under the temporal context to map their intertemporal variations known as spatiotemporal outliers. We applied LSAA-TC to mapping H-CUG in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area, China during 2000–2015 using the vegetation index from Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 13Q1 as the proxy for urban greenness. The computed H-CUG demonstrated apparent spatiotemporal patterns. The result is consistent with the fact that the traditional downtown area presents the lowest H-CUG, while it is found that the peripheral area in the circular belt within 14–20 km from the urban center demonstrates the most significant H-CUG. We conclude that LSAA-TC can be a widely applicable framework to understand H-CUG patterns and is a promising tool for informative urban planning.

Thermal impacts of greenery, water, and impervious structures in Beijing’s Olympic area: A spatial regression approach

This paper explores the urban land-use determinants of the urban heat island (UHI) in Beijing’s Olympic Area, using different statistical models, land surface temperatures (LST) derived from Landsat 8 remote sensing, and land-use data derived from 1-m high-resolution imagery. Data are captured over grids of different sizes. Spatial regressions are necessary to capture neighboring effects, particularly when the grid unit is small. Grass, trees, water bodies, and shades have all significant and negative effects on LST, whereas buildings, roads and other impervious surfaces have all significant and positive effects. The results also point to significant nonlinear and interaction effects of grass, trees and water, particularly when the grid cell size is small (60 m-90 m). Trees are found to be the most important predictor of LST. When the grids are smaller than 180 m, the indirect impacts are larger than the direct ones, whereas, the opposite takes place for larger grids. Because of their strong performance (R2 ranging from 0.839 to 0.970), the models can be used for predicting the impacts of land-use changes on the UHI and as tools for urban planning. Finally, extensive uncertainty and sensitivity analyses show that the models are very reliable in terms of both input data accuracy and estimated coefficients precision.

Application of the eight perceived sensory dimensions as a tool for urban green space assessment and planning in China

Several evidence from the Nordic countries suggest that the eight perceived sensory dimensions, which are serene, nature, rich in species, space, prospect, refuge, social and culture, can be used as a reliable tool for urban green space assessment and planning, but whether or not this is the case for China is unknown. Using an onsite questionnaire distributed to green space users in Hefei, China, this study is the first to examine the representations of the eight sensory dimensions as perceived by Chinese people in different types of green space, and to identify the relationship between the eight sensory dimensions and preference, including the factors that most influenced their perceptions. The results showed that: (1) Social was common, while culture and rich in species the least common—which was not in line with the previous European studies; (2) The popularity of green space type was positively related to the number of highly perceived sensory dimensions; (3) Type of green space was a key determinant of perceptions of the eight sensory dimensions, and certain socioeconomic and green space use variables also had a great impact on people's perceptions. The results grant potential to the method in assessment and planning of urban green space in China.

URBESS – nature based assessment tool for smart and sustainable urban planning

The focus of the URBESS Pathfinder Project is to investigate the feasibility of a service based on the integration of a suite of existing software tools that simulate the adoption of nature based solutions NDASH specifically green infrastructure - in urban areas and estimate the multiple impacts and multidisciplinary interactions, with the aim at setting priorities for a more effective urban planning. The innovative aspect is the contemporaneous application of the three software packages to be integrated for a systemic approach with the aim at supporting and strengthening the confidence of urban planners and construction enterprises in making new sustainable interventions in the urban texture. The main goals of the project were: 1) to conduct a market scan to study and analyze in detail, opportunities, barriers, risks, competitors that the proposed approach/product can face on the market. Desk research, 1-to-1 meeting and a survey will be arranged in order to engage potential clients and stakeholders (i.e., city decision makers, urban planners, architects, water engineers) and collect feedback and directions to take into account in the development of the service according to the market needs. The study will be focused on Italy but also European city decision makers and urban planners will be engaged exploiting the Climate-KIC connections of the Urban Transition Theme network; 2) to make a strategic analysis by adopting the PEST&SWOT tool for understanding and reviewing the perceptions and crucial aspects obtained as outputs from all the aforementioned activities and by, finally, drawing a preliminary business model prior to making further decisions about the development and implementation of the service.

Assessing Urban Fragmentation at Regional Scale Using Sprinkling Indexes

Artificial land use trends could represent an effective indicator of the settlement process quality and could also provide information about the efficacy of protection and exploitation policies in natural and rural areas. This work discusses an analytic procedure for the time series investigation of urban settlement development at the regional scale to verify the nexus between urban growth and demographic trends connected with the phenomenon of land take. In Italy, since 1950, the land take phenomenon has been a consequence of several factors: urbanization, realization of transport infrastructures including ports, airports, and highways, and the enhancement of industrial and productive systems. We analyzed all these territorial transformations that create waterproof soil, and more generally, a transition from natural and semi-natural uses toward artificial land use. After World War II, the demographic growth and the consequent housing demand generated a strong urbanization process in the main poles of economic development areas in Italy. Since the early 2000s, the situation has completely changed and the land take phenomenon is no longer mainly based on real need for new urban expansion areas based on effective urban planning tools, but is strongly related to a scattered demand for new housing in a weak territorial spatial planning system not able to drive effective urban development that minimizes speculative real estate initiatives. This uncontrolled occupation of soil generated, in Italy, a landscape fragmentation called the urban sprinkling phenomenon, different from urban sprawl, which is a wider phenomenon characterized by disordered urban growth. The present document aims to assess how uncontrolled expansion in areas characterized by low settlement density can generate fragmentation. To define if the territory is affected by the urban sprinkling phenomenon, two 50-year time series concerning urban expansion of buildings and demographic trends are analyzed calculating population and building density indices and their variation over the years. The sprinkling index is used to analyze the variation in the fragmentation degree at two different scales (regional and municipal). Finally, we discuss the context where this phenomenon has developed, analyzing the buildings located in hydrogeological risk zones and protected areas, and the correlation between demographic changes and the degree of territorial fragmentation variation.

Development of a tool for urban microgrid optimal energy planning and management

Small-sized variable renewable energy sources (RES) live a large-scale development in urban electrical systems. They increase local high dynamic unbalancing and then can create instabilities on the inertia response. Thus, setting an adequate operating reserve (OR) power to compensate the unpredicted imbalance between RES generation and consumption is essential for power system security. Indeed, effective calculation and dispatching of OR considering inaccurate forecast of both RES and load demand can provide substantial cost reductions. Thus, to facilitate the energy management and system optimization in an urban microgrid (MG), a user-friendly tool for Energy Management System and Operational Planning has been developed. The tool provides a complete set of user-friendly graphical interfaces to study the details of photovoltaic (PV) and batteries, load demand, as well as micro gas turbines (MGTs). Furthermore, this energy management system allows system operators to properly model RES uncertainty. In addition, it could assist operators for the day-ahead energy management with an efficient information system and an intelligent management.

Rapid seismic hazard assessment of the Sabarmati River basin in Gujarat State, Western India using GIS techniques

The Sabarmati River basin, Gujarat State, western India is one of the major river basins of Gujarat State, playing host to major cities such as Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, both of which are important economic and political capitals of Gujarat State. In the study reported here, we collected available information on the Sabarmati River basin, Gujarat State in terms of geology, tectonics, seismicity, and shear-wave velocity and assimilated and integrated this information into a geographical information system (GIS) platform to generate a rapid first-order seismic hazard map of the area. The integration of different criteria, such as peak ground acceleration, amplification factor, geology and geomorphology, liquefaction, and seismotectonics critical to seismic hazard, was performed following pair-wise comparison using the analytical hierarchy process, wherein each thematic map was assigned a weight on a 1 to 5 scale depending on its contribution to the seismic hazard. Seismic hazard was evaluated using a numerical rating scheme with the help of the GIS. Analysis of the generated map revealed that the seismic hazard is highest in the southeastern part of the area, moderate in the central part, and lowest in the northeastern part comprising the Aravalli Range. The seismic hazard map also shows that almost 40% of the study area, namely that comprising basins of the Sabarmati River and its tributaries, is prone to high seismic hazard. Our results show that it is possible to generate a macro-level seismic hazard map by integrating available information and that this map is a useful tool for urban planners and helps in zeroing in on the areas where seismic microzonation or site-specific studies are required.

Medio ambiente, crecimiento urbano y rol del Estado: planificación urbana en San Carlos de Bariloche

El presente artículo busca explorar y describir la relación entre crecimiento urbano y medio ambiente y su incidencia en la configuración territorial de las ciudades turísticas tomando como eje el rol del Estado y sus herramientas de planificación urbana. Esta relación se torna más evidente en ciudades turísticas basadas en el medio ambiente, donde la disputa por la apropiación y el uso del suelo están atravesadas por la principal actividad económica local. Como caso de estudio se propone analizar la instrumentación normativa, y aplicación efectiva, del Plan Director de 1979 de San Carlos de Bariloche, un centro turístico localizado al norte de la Patagonia argentina que históricamente tendió a crecer a lo largo de su franja costera. La metodología cualitativa empleada incluyó, principalmente, el análisis de documentos públicos —como códigos urbanos y ordenanzas modificatorias—, y entrevistas en profundidad a informantes clave. Complementariamente, también se hizo uso de imágenes aéreas y mapas de la ciudad para situar históricamente el proceso de urbanización. Se concluye que el mercado inmobiliario local traza, en definitiva, las lógicas de expansión territorial que, mediadas por el atractivo turístico, expresan la apropiación desigual del suelo y el medioambiente.

An exploration of the interaction between urban human activities and daily traffic conditions: A case study of Toronto, Canada

Understanding how citizens interact with transportation system is a key to solving a variety of urban issues in general and traffic congestion in particular. Recently, scholars have put efforts on the pertinent work ranging from developing traffic predictors to understanding human mobility and activity patterns. Multiple types of data have been used, of which crowdsourced data (e.g. social media data) plays an essential role. Due to the limitation of traffic information extraction from social media data raised in the existing work, this paper aims to develop an approach which allows us to explore the potential influence of human activities on daily traffic congestions through linking human activities derived from geotagged tweets to the daily traffic conditions. The result of a case study of Toronto, Canada exhibits that entertainment related activities are more likely to appear during evening peak hours, while it seems that morning rush hours are less sensitive to human activities. In addition, it is learned that the activities involved in international events tend to have a long-term impact on urban traffic. This work provides a new tool for urban planners and policy makers to deal with complex urban issues effectively using low-cost social media data and sheds light on the research on analyzing urban traffic and urban dynamics based on crowdsourced data.

Is new always better than old? Accessibility and usability of the urban green areas of the municipality of Rome

Urban Green Areas (UGAs) are Green Infrastructure (GI) elements widely known as a framework for applying Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), as they may preserve and increase environmental values in urbanized contexts by supporting a wide range of ecosystem services. Accessibility and usability of UGAs are important indicators of the environmental quality of urban areas to be considered in the sustainable governance, management, and design of metropolitan areas. In such a context, the present study aims at assessing accessibility and usability of UGAs from both old and new residential settlements of the 15 administrative units of the Rome municipality, considered an exemplificative case of a Mediterranean city which, in recent decades, has been subjected to a rapid transition from a ‘compact growth’ model to a more ‘dispersed’ one.Firstly, we used the European Urban Atlas geodatabase to identify and map residential areas, including those established between 2006 and 2012. Secondly, we performed a network analysis to assess the distance between urban settlements and the closest UGA access point. Ancillary data were used to check the presence of facilities and therefore to assess the usability of UGAs. 57% of residential settlements have accessible UGAs in their surroundings, but the percentage is much lower (25%) if we consider those established between 2006 and 2012. This evidence was also found at administrative unit scale. Equally, the share of population that can benefit from accessible UGAs is lower in the new settlements, notably in the more peripheral administrative units. The usability of accessible UGAs exceeds 80% in the whole study area.The proposed methodology could be applied in similar contexts, as a useful tool for urban planners and decision makers to (i) support the assessment of the quality of life of people living in new residential settlements; (ii) design new UGAs in order to increase accessibility to green spaces, and therefore the value of newly built-up areas. The implications of, future perspectives of and need for sustainable urban planning in the light of the NBS framework are reported and discussed.

Urban configurations of carbon neutrality: Insights from the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance

This paper examines configurations of carbon neutrality in the building and energy sector as expressed in the urban governance documents of the members of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA). ‘Carbon neutrality’ is a mutable idea, which makes it unclear what kinds of future urban systems are imagined. As self-identified pioneers of deep decarbonization, the CNCA members are constructing ideas about what carbon neutral means and how urban systems should be changed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, climate governance policy documents provide a window to understand how these carbon neutral imaginaries are being constructed. The analysis draws on discourse analysis and textual network analysis to unpack the sociotechnical configurations that are planned to be mobilized to constitute carbon neutral built environments. Concept map visualizations are used to scrutinize planned configurations of objects (e.g. solar photovoltaics, district energy and energy efficiency technology) and policy instruments (e.g. energy use benchmarking and urban planning tools). The analysis shows three key building and energy configurations: (1) The District Energy City, (2) The Zero Net Energy City and (3) The Natural Gas Transition City. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that urban imaginaries of carbon neutrality are incorporating complex configurations of socio-technical objects while, at the same time, distinct socio-technical configurations are being favoured in individual places. These configurations inform socio-technical imaginaries that will continue to drive policy outcomes over time.

My City Forecast: Urban planning communication tool for citizen with national open data

• Total urban future simulation was done as 14 urban indicators and compared between with and without compact city plan for almost all 1,670 local government in Japan. • This simulation was done by various kinds of national open data and its result was open as “My City Forecast ( http://mycityforecast.net )”. • Finally, online survey for 265 persons shows the attitude change before and after using My City Forecast.

Access to Emergency Medical Services: An Urban Planning Methodology for the Generation of Equity

The access and possibility of rapid response to medical emergencies is an issue that, in last decades, has been studied in many areas of research such as urban planning and transportation, as well as with the issue of equity in the provision of this healthcare service. This is true, in particular for middle- and low-income countries subject to non-equitative access to services such as medical emergency attention. In this study, a medical emergency database review is carried out in order to propose a new methodology to assess the coverage of Ambulance Dispatches and Emergency Service Facilities. This is executed using primary information relating to medical emergencies that occurred in the city of Manizales between 2010 and 2015 and secondary data relating to socio-demographic and economic conditions, analyzing their correlation using a GIS (Geographic Information System) application. This research article proposes a methodology for improving the population coverage of Ambulance Dispatches and Emergency Service Facilities, trying to reduce health inequity in terms of assistance to medical emergencies. Our results show that in order to reduce social and health inequity, the city of Manizales needs to improve its provision of emergency care attention, based on urban planning tools especially in low-income neighborhoods.

Planning in the Digital Era: Films and Social Media as Information Sources for Tourism Planning

Films deliver subliminal promotion to audience about the visual appeal of a certain place. If the place looks picturesque enough and gives a memorable impression to the audience, it has a possibility to become the next tourism magnet. Tourists tend to take pictures as keepsakes and upload them on social media. The number of social media posts of a place can be utilized as a tool to measure and map people’s interest. This process is a voluntary advertisement of the place done by community caused by the culture of content sharing in the digital era. This paper is going to elaborate the growth of Gereja Ayam (Chicken Church) in Magelang, Indonesia, as the place which were formerly insignificant and publicly unknown, but has been featured in an Indonesian film Ada Apa dengan Cinta 2. An analysis of the place’s popularity is conducted using Google search trends, looking for related keyword search about places mentioned before. The number of Instagram posts using related hashtags is used to examine how many people have visited the place.A literature review is also being carried out to find the correlation between the media exposure and the place branding, the analysis of place’s popularity through social media, and how this can contribute as tools for urban and tourism planning.

SPATIAL EXPLICIT MODELING TO UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICS OF LANDUSE SWITCH USING OPEN SOURCE SATELLITE DATA

Restless global urbanization needs to monitor in order to design a stable and sustainable urban habitat. In this regard, remote sensing and GIS are considered as an efficient monitoring and decision-support tool in sustainable urban planning and practices. In this paper we accumulate the results of a research undertaken to measure the urban sprawl and land use dynamics of the Dehradun city, Uttarakhand using vast sixteen years data and spatially explicit cellular automata CA-Markov model. Furthermore, future scenario of the city and land use was also examined. To achieve the desired goal, sixteen years large temporal images of Landsat were used to analyze the spatial decoration of land use change in the study area. The outcome of this study was clearly reviled that there was a substantial change was take place in the Dehradun city and its surroundings in last sixteen years. Modeling proposed a clear trend of various land use classes’ transformation in the area of urban built up expansions and urban encroachment whereas agricultural lands and forest covers are reduced at an alarming rate over the time. Dynamically increasing population of the city can be approximated by the predicted future scenarios. In order to promote a balance in between urban growth and environmental protection towards a sustainable urban habitat and environmental, local community involvement and capacity building program can be an efficient drive in this regard.