District Unit Research Articles

Developing Targeted Safety Strategies Based on Traffic Safety Culture Indexes Identified in Stratified Fatality Prediction Models

The south korea transportation safety authority (KTSA) conducts the special traffic safety culture investigation (STSCI) every year to assist local governments in promoting traffic safety. To address the issue of diversity, the local agencies were grouped into four regions by administrative district unit and offered region-specific safety promotion strategies. However, it is unclear if such a classification truly reflects the underlying differences that contribute to traffic safety. The goal of this study is to identify the most relevant attributes that affect the safety performance of local agencies (called traffic safety culture indexes in the current study) so that targeted safety promotion strategies can be recommended. To accomplish the goal, latent class cluster-based negative binomial regressions were applied for a comprehensive list of factors such as demographics, socio-economic features, roadway conditions, traffic violations and road user driver behavior; resulting in seven clusters of local governments. The following indexes were found to significantly and strongly affect crash fatalities in the clusters: rate of wearing helmet, rate of pedestrian’s signal compliance, the number of unlicensed driving violations, total paved road length, province, ratio of male to female, and population density. Further, stratified negative binomial regression models were developed to identify statistically significant factors for predicting fatal crashes within each cluster. These cluster-specific features allow the KTSA to design targeted strategies for effective safety promotion.

Disease Status of Afghan Refugees and Migrants in Pakistan.

World is facing the largest refugee crisis of its time due to continuously outgoing wars, conflicts and natural disasters. One of the important aspects of refugees and migrants is health. Till date, no comprehensive data was available related to health status of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan. Here, we present health status for Afghan refugees for last seven years and for IDPs for 2–4 years. For Afghan refugees the data was provided by Commissionerate Afghan Refugee (CAR), Pakistan, whereas data for IDPs was collected from hospitals and Basic health units (BHUs) of different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa namely Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu. Highest number of Afghan refugee's deaths occurred due to cardiovascular problems. Most prevalent reported infections were respiratory tract infections (48.05%). Skin diseases and Diarrhea collectively affected 21.08% of Afghan refugees. Overall, disease burden was more in females than males in Afghan refugee's population. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive report on health and disease status of Afghan refugees and IDPs in Pakistan.

From Administrative to Political Evaluation: Estimating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Indicators for Parliamentary Constituencies in India

With the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), India accelerated access to improved sanitation in a ‘mass movement’ emphasising people’s participation and political leadership. However, SBM continues to be implemented at the administrative unit of districts, disassociated from the political and electoral units of Parliamentary Constituencies (PC). We provide estimates of India’s 543 PCs by their performance on three important Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) indicators: unsafe disposal of child stool, unimproved drinking water supply, and unimproved sanitary facilities. We used multilevel modelling to generate precision-weighted estimates of each indicator at PC-level, based on recently developed methodologies linking cluster GPS data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 2016 to potential PCs. We found very high heterogeneity across PCs ranging from 0.95 per cent–95.85 per cent for unsafe stool disposal, 0.35 per cent–64.17 per cent for unimproved drinking water source, and 0.19 per cent–90.69 per cent for unimproved sanitation facility. Unsafe child stool disposal and unimproved sanitary facility were strongly correlated ( r = 0.85, Pearson and r = 0.83, Spearman). Monitoring of SBM data at the PC level will allow parliamentarians to effectively improve WASH conditions in their constituencies, while accounting for critical between-PC variability that may be obfuscated in an approach focussed on state or district means.

지구단위계획요소의 중요도 분석에 관한 연구: 회기 지구단위계획구역을 중심으로

본 연구의 목적은 ANP분석을 이용하여 지구단위계획 재정비 계획 수립 시 우선적으로 고려되어야 할 계획요소를 도출하고, 운영방안을 제시하고자 한다. 분석 결과, 회기지구단위계획구역의 중요한 계획요소로서 도로, 주차장, 공원, 공공공지 등의 기반시설계획 요소와 도시계획관련 계획요소의 중요도가 높았다. 시사점은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 회기 지구단위계획구역에 대한 재정비 시 우선적으로 고려하여야 할 지구단위계획요소는 기반시설계획이 최우선적으로 고려되어야 하며, 그 다음으로 용도지역.지구계획, 건축용도계획, 차량동선계획, 보행동선계획의 순으로 계획에 반영되어야 할 필요가 있다. 둘째, 기성 시가지내 지구단위계획의 효율적 운영·관리 실현을 위해서는 도시계획요소, 교통처리계획 요소 등 공공의 역할이 우선되어야 한다.<BR>셋째, 기성시가지내 회기구역의 정비·관리를 위해서는 지구단위계획요소 중 소프트웨어적인 성격의 계획요소(완화계획, 경관계획, 지원계획 등) 보다는 하드웨어적인 성격의 계획요소(기반시설계획, 교통처리계획 등)를 중점적으로 고려되어야 한다.

Future changes in fire weather, spring droughts, and false springs across U.S. National Forests and Grasslands.

Public lands provide many ecosystem services and support diverse plant and animal communities. In order to provide these benefits in the future, land managers and policy makers need information about future climate change and its potential effects. In particular, weather extremes are key drivers of wildfires, droughts, and false springs, which in turn can have large impacts on ecosystems. However, information on future changes in weather extremes on public lands is lacking. Our goal was to compare historical (1950-2005) and projected mid-century (2041-2070) changes in weather extremes (fire weather, spring droughts, and false springs) on public lands. This case study looked at the lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service across the conterminous United States including 501 ranger district units. We analyzed downscaled projections of daily records from 19 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 General Circulation Models for two climate scenarios, with either medium-low or high CO2 - equivalent concentration (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5). For each ranger district, we estimated: (1) fire potential, using the Keetch-Byram Drought Index; (2) frequency of spring droughts, using the Standardized Precipitation Index; and (3) frequency of false springs, using the extended Spring Indices. We found that future climates could substantially alter weather conditions across Forest Service lands. Under the two climate scenarios, increases in wildfire potential, spring droughts, and false springs were projected in 32-72%, 28-29%, and 13-16% of all ranger districts, respectively. Moreover, a substantial number of ranger districts (17-30%), especially in the Southwestern, Pacific Southwest, and Rocky Mountain regions, were projected to see increases in more than one type of weather extreme, which may require special management attention. We suggest that future changes in weather extremes could threaten the ability of public lands to provide ecosystem services and ecological benefits to society. Overall, our results highlight the value of spatially-explicit weather projections to assess future changes in key weather extremes for land managers and policy makers.

Subnational health management and the advancement of health equity: a case study of Ethiopia

BackgroundHealth equity is a cross-cutting theme in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and a priority in health sector planning in countries including Ethiopia. Subnational health managers in Ethiopia are uniquely positioned to advance health equity, given the coordination, planning, budgetary, and administration tasks that they are assigned. Yet, the nature of efforts to advance health equity by subnational levels of the health sector is poorly understood and rarely researched. This study assesses how subnational health managers in Ethiopia understand health equity issues and their role in promoting health equity and offers insight into how these roles can be harnessed to advance health equity.MethodsA descriptive case study assessed perspectives and experiences of health equity among subnational health managers at regional, zonal, district and Primary Health Care Unit administrative levels. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with directors, vice-directors, coordinators and technical experts. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsSubnational managers perceived geographical factors as a predominant concern in health service delivery inequities, especially when they intersected with poor infrastructure, patriarchal gender norms, unequal support from non-governmental organizations or challenging topography. Participants used ad hoc, context-specific strategies (such as resource-pooling with other sectors or groups and shaming-as-motivation) to improve health service delivery to remote populations and strengthen health system operations. Collaboration with other groups facilitated cost sharing and access to resources; however, the opportunities afforded by these collaborations, were not realized equally in all areas. Subnational health managers’ efforts in promoting health equity are affected by inadequate resource availability, which restricts their ability to enact long-term and sustainable solutions.ConclusionsAdvancing health equity in Ethiopia requires: extra support to communities in hard-to-reach areas; addressing patriarchal norms; and strategic aligning of the subnational health system with non-health government sectors, community groups, and non-governmental organizations. The findings call attention to the unrealized potential of effectively coordinating governance actors and processes to better align national priorities and resources with subnational governance actions to achieve health equity, and offer potentially useful knowledge for subnational health system administrators working in conditions similar to those in our Ethiopian case study.

A study on screening of high risk children for tuberculosis infection

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be one of the most devastating and widespread infections in the world. Of the 9 million annual tuberculosis cases, about 1 million (11%) occur in children (under 15 years of age). Childhood tuberculosis is a neglected aspect of the tuberculosis epidemic. The objective of the study was to screen the children who are household contacts of TB, HIV and TB -HIV patients and identify the children with the type of tuberculosis (Latent and symptomatic) and treat accordingly there by reducing the transmission of disease, as these children may become open cases in the future.Methods: All the registered cases of active TB, TB-HIV and HIV were traced out from district unit of RNTCP, PHC, CHC in and around Nellimarla town (10 kms radius). These patients were interviewed for medical history, treatment history, duration of treatment and degree and duration of house hold contacts (primarily children between 1 to 14 years.Results: Out of 160 registered patients 91 patients were diagnosed as having symptomatic TB infection and 69 were diagnosed having latent TB infection, with most of the affected children being in the age group of 1 to 5 years). Majority of the symptomatic patients (46.15%) were household contacts of TB- HIV patients and majority of children (40.57%) with latent TB Infection are direct household contacts of open cases of TB alone. Of the symptomatic TB infection 74.72% had pulmonary TB and 25.28% had extra pulmonary TB.Conclusions: Tubercular lymphadenopathy is the most common manifestation of extra pulmonary TB followed by tubercular meningitis and among the tubercular lymphadenopathy the cervical lymphnodes are most commonly involved.

Analysis of Factors Affecting Parental Participation Towards Early Childhood Education Program

The lack number of teachers in Wonogiri district urgea participation between parents and organizer of Early Childhood Education (ECE) program. Related to this issue, this study aimed at (1) knowing the implementation of ECE program in Wonogiri district (2) analyzing the forms of parental participation in ECE program (3) analyzing the factors affecting parental participation in ECE program implementation. This study can be catagorized as descriptive research with a quantitative approach. The data analysis technique was using descriptive statistics among ECE program in Wonogiri District, Central Java. The reserach findings showed that (1) ECE program in Wonogiri District was operated under the Education Office of Wonogiri District, especially Non-Formal and Informal Education Unit. It has ECE section focusing on developing ECE services in Wonogiri district (2) most of the respondents had a low level of participation in terms of policies, collaboration, information (3) factors affecting parental participation in ECE program implementation were education, occupation, income as well as distance between home and school.

Financing From Demand-Side in Education

The belief in the importance of education on economic and social development has resulted in the education expenses being largely covered by the public budget. Countries' approaches to financing education services may vary depending on the tendency to see the education as mixed, complete or private goods and the policies they follow in this direction. In order to fully meet the demands for education, it is of great importance that the available financial resources are spent on the basis of effectively and accountability, as well as the ratio of the financial resources allocated for education. The failure in education is largely attributed to the lack of funding. However, this failure is largely ignored because of the poor use of existing financing, as well as the inadequacy of funding resources. It is an important issue to observe the measures of equality and equity in the distribution of resources related to education and of efficiency and accountability in their spending. Demand-side financing approach in education includes the issues of the freedom of school choice as part of initiating inter-school competitions, giving the 'Education Cheque' or the 'Education Voucher' to student parents and their submitting this cheque or voucher to the board of the school where school stakeholders are also included and where they send their children, within the framework of a protocol, instead of spending the determined money considering the free market conditions or transferring it directly via the education center or district units to the school account for each student studying at each school level. The purpose of this study is to create awareness among education stakeholders and researchers such as decision-makers, managers and teachers regarding the education in by examining the approaches of 'Demand-Side Financing' which is based on parents/ customers' initiative in the use of financial resources allocated from the general budget for education. Key words: Demand-side financing, education financing, financing

Estimating the burden of child malnutrition across parliamentary constituencies in India: A methodological comparison.

In India, data on key developmental indicators used to formulate policies and interventions are routinely available for the administrative unit of districts but not for the political unit of parliamentary constituencies (PC). Recently, Swaminathan et al. proposed two methodologies to generate PC estimates using randomly displaced GPS locations of the sampling clusters (‘direct’) and by building a crosswalk between districts and PCs using boundary shapefiles (‘indirect’). We advance these methodologies by using precision-weighted estimations based on hierarchical logistic regression modeling to account for the complex survey design and sampling variability. We exemplify this application using the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 2016) to generate PC-level estimates for two important indicators of child malnutrition – stunting and low birth weight – that are being monitored by the Government of India for the National Nutrition Mission targets. Overall, we found a substantial variation in child malnutrition across 543 PCs. The different methodologies yielded highly consistent estimates with correlation ranging r = 0.92-0.99 for stunting and r = 0.81-0.98 for low birth weight. For analyses involving data with comparable nature to the NFHS (i.e., complex data structure and possibility to identify a potential PC membership), modeling for precision-weighted estimates and direct methodology are preferable. Further field work and data collection at the PC level are necessary to accurately validate our estimates. An ideal solution to overcome this gap in data for PCs would be to make PC identifiers available in routinely collected surveys and the Census.

Influence between Drug Management Information System, Work behavior and Drug Management Activities on Organizational Performance

The Drug Management Information System (DMIS) helped to provide more fast and accurate management data. DMIS has been used in most districts/cities in East Java Province, but there were still stock out or overstock condition that potentially to disrupted health services. This study aims to analyze the effect of DMIS on work behavior, drug management activities and organizational performance in Pharmaceutical Management Unit in District and Cities of East Java Province. This study was a cross-sectional, to assess DMIS influence on work behavior, drug management activities and organizational performance use data availability of 17 drug items and value of damaged/expired drugs in 2017, the self-developed questionnaires based on Theory of Reasoned Action and Technology Acceptance Model. The questionnaire used a Likert scale, while other forms were given scoring for quantitative measurement. The relationship between variables was analyzed with the Structural Equation Model (SEM)-Partial Least Square (PLS) method on Smart PLS Application. There was the middle strong influence of DMIS application on work behavior (p=0.000) and organizational performance (p=0.044) but no influence on drug management activities. There was a moderate influence on work behavior on organizational performance (p=0.047). There were not significant influence between work behavior on drug management activities (p=0.791) and between drug management activities to organizational performance (p=0.821). The conclusion of this study was DMIS affected on work behavior and performance directly or indirectly but it did not affect drug management activities for several reasons.

Prospective 1-year follow-up study of all cured, new sputum smear positive tuberculosis patients under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program in Hyderabad, Telangana State, India.

Background:Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality in India. The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) is a robust public health system to deal with TB in India. Unless the treated patient comes back to the system with signs and symptoms of TB due to relapse or re-infection, there is no mechanism of follow-up or any method to know the relapse rate in the population. We attempted to follow the patients declared as “Cured” as per the RNTCP guidelines for 1–2 years to identify the health status of the index cases and their household contacts in posttreatment phase.Materials and Methods:In this prospective cohort study, 187 index cases, who were declared “Cured” in six randomly selected TB units of Hyderabad district, were followed up for 1–2 years through home visits by trained staff with structured data collection forms. Data were analyzed using SPSS v20.0.Results:The mean age of the index cases was 33.64 (±16.10) years, and there were 75 females and 112 males. The study sample was homogenous for gender, age, smear grade, religion, marital status, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and human immunodeficiency virus status, etc., At 1-year posttreatment follow-up of 187 index cases, 143 (76.47%) were healthy and working without any symptoms of TB. Symptoms of TB were present in 26 (13.90%) cases, and seven index cases (4.06%) were re-diagnosed with TB. The 2-year posttreatment survival was 92%.Conclusion:Long-term follow-up of cured, new smear-positive TB cases reinforce the effectiveness of anti-TB treatment under the RNTCP as assessed by improved health outcomes in more than two-thirds of cases and posttreatment survival of 92% of index cases. We recommend continuing such follow-up for all TB cases treated under the RNTCP for effective end-TB strategy.

A Study of the Specific Items and Contents of District Unit Plan for Responding to Commercial Gentrification - Focused On the 'District Unit Plan' of Seochon, Ikseon and Ttukseom surrounding area -

A Study of the Specific Items and Contents of District Unit Plan for Responding to Commercial Gentrification - Focused On the 'District Unit Plan' of Seochon, Ikseon and Ttukseom surrounding area -

Planning Standard of the Public Pedestrian Passage based on the Theory of Endurance Limit Focused on the District Units Plan for the Apartment Construction Project in Daegu

The purpose of this study is to suppose the standards of public pedestrian passage planning, when some existing roads are closed because of an apartment housing construction project. For this purpose, the theory of endurance limit is introduced and an empirical testing is performed. The results of the analysis are as follows: First, the endurance limit of increased walking distance is showed in the range of 25~150m (with a mean of 94m and a standard deviation of 31m). Second, the factors such as pedestrian s age, walking purpose, and total walking distance affect the endurance limit. Based on the results, we propose a planning standard for apartment construction project: 1)When walking distance increase by more than 70m because of the project, we should consider making a public pedestrian passage. 2)When walking distance increase by more than 100m because of the project, we should make a public pedestrian passage. With this standard, it can be expected to reduce excessive planning and to increase the effectiveness of the plan.

Availability of Urban Infrastructure in Efforts to Establish Semarang Smart City in 2017

&lt;p class="ISI-Paragraf"&gt;Semarang city government has made efforts to digitize public services and provide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to establish Semarang as a smart city, but there are remaining problems. The objectives of this research are (1) to identify the availability of smart city infrastructure in Semarang; (2) to understand human resources that support the operation and utilization of infrastructure; (3) to provide direction for improvement and development of smart city infrastructure based on spatial approach. The variable of the research is the availability of urban ICT infrastructure, which consists of sub-variables of each infrastructure types. Analysis used in this research is secondary data analysis, together with district unit analysis using Guttman scale analysis, Scalogram analysis, and Centrality Index analysis. The result stated that there are no centrality of smart city infrastructure because the IS value is discovered 35.14 (medium), which is divided into 4 hierarchies of area services. The completeness level of facilities in each district ranged between medium (50-70%) and high (&amp;gt;75%). Therefore, the development of smart city infrastructure needs to be directed to southern and western regions that are in hierarchy service III and IV, balanced with the synergy between government and society in its implementation.&lt;/p&gt;

Definition and use of "valid" district level vaccination coverage to monitor Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) achievement: evidence for revisiting the district indicator.

BackgroundThe Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) Monitoring and Accountability Framework includes an indicator to reach 90% national vaccination coverage and 80% vaccination coverage in every district or equivalent administrative unit with three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis containing vaccines (DTP) across all 194 country signatories to GVAP by 2020. Assessment of progress against the district indicator component requires GVAP defined “valid” coverage. GVAP defines district coverage “valid” if the WHO and UNICEF estimate of national immunization coverage for DTP3 in the most recent year is 1) ≥90%, or 2) is identical to the reported national administrative coverage for DTP3 (regardless of coverage level). We draw attention to the potential disconnect that currently exists between GVAP vaccination coverage indicators and the practical capacity to monitor progress against those indicators.MethodsWe obtained national and aggregated district coverage data for the third dose of DTP containing vaccine (DTP3) for 194 countries for 2016 from publicly available databases maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO). We reviewed district line lists of coverage data for 96 countries for which district line lists of DTP3 coverage were available and categorized the district coverage values using the same groupings used by the GVAP Monitoring Framework. In doing so, we also tracked the number of districts with reported coverage >100%.ResultsIn 2016, at least one district with DTP3 coverage value >100% was reported in the line lists of 76 of the 96 countries. Agreement in district coverage categories across each of five coverage groupings (<50%, 50-79%, 80-89%, 90-94%, ≥95%) was observed in 43 of the 96 countries. In 2016, 46 of 194 countries were classified as achieving both national DTP3 coverage ≥90% and DTP3 coverage ≥80% in every district, thereby achieving the GVAP target. Among these 46 countries, 22 countries reported district line-listing coverage data. We identified 10 of the 22 countries that reported at least one district with DTP3 coverage >100% ranging from 8% of districts in Sri Lanka to 97% of districts in Bangladesh. Seven countries reported at least 25% of the total districts had DTP3 coverage >100%.ConclusionsThe observations of disparate district coverage from a subset of countries reporting district line lists of coverage data are a concern for the current GVAP approach ascribing the achievement of “valid” district coverage data. Our review of district line lists of coverage data does not support a current GVAP assumption that the district coverage values ≥80% fall between 80% and 100% (inclusive). We hope these results spur a review of the current approach to assess the GVAP coverage target of ≥90% national DTP3 coverage and ≥80% DTP3 coverage in all districts.

지구단위계획 수립 이후 북촌한옥마을의 가로특성별 토지이용 변화특성 분석

지구단위계획 수립 이후 북촌한옥마을의 가로특성별 토지이용 변화특성 분석

Developing and evaluating an online learning tool to improve midwives’ accuracy of visual estimation of blood loss during waterbirth: An experimental study

ObjectiveThe principal objective was to test the effectiveness of an online learning tool to improve midwives’ accuracy of blood loss estimations in a birthing pool environment. The secondary objective was to assess the acceptability of the online learning tool to the midwives using it. DesignA one group pre-test, post-test experiment with immediate and six weeks follow-up to test ability together with an online questionnaire to assess perceived usefulness of an online learning tool. SettingA large NHS maternity hospital comprising an acute care obstetric unit, a small district unit labour ward, one alongside midwifery-led unit and three freestanding midwifery-led units. ParticipantsVolunteer NHS employed midwives who had experience in caring for women labouring and giving birth in water (n = 24). InterventionAn online learning tool comprising six randomly ordered short video simulations of blood loss in a birthing pool in real time, and a tutorial giving verbal and pictorial guidance on making accurate blood loss estimations in water was developed then piloted. Midwives’ accuracy scores for estimating blood loss in each of the videos were calculated at three timepoints; pre and immediately post the learning component, and six weeks later. The estimated blood loss volume was subtracted from the actual blood loss volume, to give the difference between estimated and real blood loss in millilitres (ml) which was then converted to percentage difference to standardise comparison across the six volumes. The differences between pre- and post-learning for each of the six blood volumes was analysed using a repeated measures ANOVA. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. An online questionnaire incorporated questions using Likert scales to gauge confidence and competence and free text. Free text responses were analysed using a modified form of inductive content analysis. FindingsTwenty-two midwives completed the online learning and immediate post-test, 14 completed a post-test after six weeks, and 15 responded to the online questionnaire. Pre-test results showed under-estimation of all blood loss volumes and particularly for the two largest volumes (1000 and 1100 ml). Across all volumes, accuracy of estimation was significantly improved at post-test 1. Accuracy diminished slightly, but overall improvement remained, at post-test 2. Participants rated the online tool positively and made suggestions for refining it. Key conclusions and implications for practiceThis is the first study measuring the accuracy of midwives’ blood loss estimations in a birthing pool using real-time simulations and testing the effectiveness of an online learning tool to improve this important skill. Our findings indicate a need to develop interventions to improve midwives’ accuracy at visually estimating blood loss in water, and the potential of an online approach. Most women who labour and/or give birth in water do so in midwifery-led settings without immediate access to medical support. Accuracy in blood loss estimations is an essential core skill

The Effects of Local Government Characteristics and Audit Opinion on the Performance of District and City Governments in Indonesia

This study aims to examine the influence of district and city characteristics (fiscal decentralization ratio, dependency level on the central government, capital expenditure, age, regional status, population) and audit opinion on the performance of local and district government in Indonesia for the period of 2013-2015. Population of this study consists of all local government units of districts and cities in Indonesia for the years of 2013-2015. The purposive sampling method was used resulting in a total of 1,158 samples for three years period observations. The results of this study indicate that the variables of age area, population, and audit opinion have a positive effect on the performance of the studied Districts and Cities. Conversely, the dependency level on the central government has a negative effect on the performance of studied local governments. However, the ratio of fiscal decentralization, the capital expenditure, and the regional status have no effect on the performance of the local governments

Quantitative study on environment and energy information for land use planning scenarios in eco-city planning stage

In this study, we propose a series of urban planning strategies for evaluating possibilities in urban planning scenarios, with the objective of building a “low-carbon green city.” We describe the process of constructing an Environment and Energy Planning Information database (E-GIS DB) and experimentally evaluate this for a case study area in a planned city. The construction of the E-GIS DB comprises: (a) collection of urban planning data, (b) consolidation of the urban space data into a single layer and creation of an overlaying 200 m × 200 m mesh in the area of interest, (c) calculation of building contents (use, scale, and structure/material), land use/cover, and altitude, and (d) derivation of a representative value for each factor in the mesh unit, and distribution of attributes across the area of interest. Based on the E-GIS DB, we considered one baseline and 22 alternative urban planning scenarios across the three stages of zoning plan, land use plan, and district unit plan, which exhibit variations in building scale and land cover. Statistical analysis shows that the environmental planning factors in the E-GIS DB (especially urban density) differ significantly between the three planning stages. Considering the precision of environmental and energy predictions, the construction of an E-GIS DB is recommended at district unit plan, land use plan, and zoning plan stages, in that order. The district unit planning stage is the most appropriate because it is closest to the realization of the urban development plan. The urban scenarios are assigned to three representative categories based on environmental and energy use characteristics: (a) scenarios with unacceptably high urban air temperature and energy use, (b) optimal scenarios, which exhibit the best cooling effect and low energy use, and (c) sub-optimal scenarios that must either be improved to achieve optimum environmental and energy outcomes, or else be replaced with an alternative scenario from group (b). When more optimal scenarios (recommended group for improved environmental performance and lower energy use) were applied, lower bound of FAR for building complexes was formed and eco-friendly land coverage such as soil and green cover was increased by 150% and 170%, respectively, which induced and urban cooling effect and resulted in energy savings. Subsequently, urban air temperature and total daily energy demand on the hottest summer day was lowered by 1.5 °C and approximately 100 W/m2 compared to the most unacceptable scenario.