Urban Residential Environment Research Articles

A hedonic model comparison for residential land value analysis

Distantial attenuation is a significant characteristic of the urban environment. In this paper we explore the relative contributions of different land uses to the urban residential environment according to distances with an analysis on the most significant scope of these factors. Two types of models are developed. One employs the distance to city center, main road, public facilities and environment factors as the variables for macro environment analysis, and the another one includes all factors to analyze the influences of the micro environment. In the models of the latter type, the contributions of the neighboring land uses are magnified with a specially designed variable measurement scheme in which variables are evaluated specially for each model so that the contributions of the variables become comparable from model to model. With an application to the case study of Danyang, China, we measure the distantial functions of the urban environment (e.g. the surrounding land uses) including both the most influential scopes and the relative contributions by means of model summary and regression coefficient comparisons. Finally, case comparison on the samples is introduced to figure out the difference of the functions under micro environment.

Characteristics of indoor/outdoor particulate pollution in urban and rural residential environment of Pakistan

Particulate pollution has emerged as a serious environmental health concern in Pakistan. The use of biomass fuels in traditional stoves produces high levels of indoor air pollutants. In Pakistan, 94% of rural and 58% of urban households depend on biomass fuel. This study investigates variations in indoor/outdoor concentrations of particulate matter during various activities for three different micro-environments in Pakistan. At a rural site, the average indoor/outdoor ratios for PM(10), PM(2.5), and PM(1), in kitchens using biomass fuels were 3.80, 4.36, and 4.11, respectively. A large variation was recorded in the mass concentration of particulate matter during cooking with concentrations in the range 4000-8555 microg/m(3). In a living room at a rural site, the average indoor/outdoor ratios for PM(10), PM(2.5), and PM(1) were 1.74, 2.49, and 3.01, respectively. At the urban site, the average indoor/outdoor ratios for the same size fractions were 1.71, 2.88, and 3.47, respectively. Cooking, cleaning and smoking were identified as principal contributors to the high indoor levels of particulate matter. This study showed considerably high concentrations of particulate matter, particularly in kitchens using biomass fuels, as compared to living areas. Thus women and children face the greatest exposure due to the amount of time they spend in the kitchen. In the developing world, particulate air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, is a substantial health hazard to the public. The very high concentrations of particulate matter in both rural and urban sites, particularly in kitchens using biomass fuels, emphasize the severity of this issue in Pakistan. Women and children are extensively at risk due to amount of time spent in kitchens. This state of affairs calls for a large-scale intervention to reduce the exposure to indoor air pollution.

Wireless nomad: Pioneer in an urban residential environment

As wireless Internet use has vastly increased over the last several years, numerous cities, community groups, and individuals have been part of the rapid growth and experimentation with wireless connectivity. Wireless Nomad (WN) is a Toronto, Canada, based Internet Service Provider (ISP) dedicated to converting existing wireless broadband backhaul into services designed to benefit communities. Wireless Nomad's development since 2005 has provided insight into several key areas of wireless Internet deployment: wireless connectivity and shared services, spectrum management, and broadband competition.

Noise and well-being in urban residential environments: The potential role of perceived availability to nearby green areas

A growing body of literature indicates that contact with nature influence people's health and psychological well-being both directly and by moderating processes. A questionnaire study was conducted in urban residential settings with high road-traffic noise exposure ( L Aeq, 24 h = 60–68 dB). Out of 500 residents, 367 lived in dwellings with access to a quiet side ( L Aeq, 24 h ≤ 45 dB free field value; “noise/quiet”-condition) and 133 had no access to a quiet side (“noise/noise”-condition). The present paper examines whether perceived availability to nearby green areas affects various aspects of well-being in these two noise-condition groups. For both those with and without access to a quiet side, the results show that “better” availability to nearby green areas is important for their well-being and daily behavior by reducing long-term noise annoyances and prevalence of stress-related psychosocial symptoms, and by increasing the use of spaces outdoors. In the process of planning health-promoting urban environments, it is essential to provide easy access to nearby green areas that can offer relief from environmental stress and opportunities for rest and relaxation, to strive for lower sound levels from road traffic, as well as to design “noise-free” sections indoors and outdoors.

The Influence of the Residential Environment on Green-Space Travel: Testing the Compensation Hypothesis

We investigated whether the use of parks and other green recreational facilities is influenced by the amount of green space around a dwelling and in the immediate neighbourhood. We paid particular attention to testing the compensation hypothesis, which states that people with less green space in their own residential environment are more likely to visit parks or nature reserves. The frequency of visits to green amenities was analyzed in relation to detailed spatial data based on sociodemographic variables. The findings indicated that, although people tend to make more use of green space if it is available in the vicinity, a brown (more urban) residential environment does not result in compensation behaviour. An explanation for this may be self-selection in the residential-choice process. It is conceivable, however, that some of the people who do not live in a green neighbourhood but would prefer to do so will move to a more suburban or rural environment.

Getting strategic about environment and health

ML. Risk of congenital anomalies associated with residence near landfill sites. Environ Health Perspectives 2005;113:1362–5. 3. Sharp L, Black RJ, Harkness EF, McKinney PA. Incidence of childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the vicinity of nuclear sites in Scotland, 1968–93. Occup Environ Med 1996;53:823–31. 4. Commission of the European Communities. A European Environment and Health Strategy. Communication from the Commission to the Council the European Parliament, and the European Economic and Social Committee. http://europa. eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/cnc/2003/com2003_0338en01.pdf [COM (2003) 338 final]. 2003. 5. Lyons RA, Temple JMF, Evans D, Fone DL, Palmer SR. Acute health effects of the Sea Empress oil spill. J Epidemiol Community Health 1999;53:306–10. 6. Marmot MG. Improvement of social environment to improve health. Lancet 1998;351:57–60. 7. Pickett KE, Pearl M. Multilevel analyses of neighbourhood socioeconomic context and health outcomes: a critical review. J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:111–22. 8. Macintyre S, Ellaway A, Cummins S. Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them? Soc Sci Med 2002;55:125–139. 9. Macintyre S, Ellaway A. Neighborhoods and health: an overview. In: Kawachi I, Berkman L, editors. Neighborhoods and health. New York: Oxford University Press; 2003. p. 20–42. 10. Goldstein H. Multilevel statistical models, 3rd ed. Edward Arnold: London; 2003. 11. Cummins S, Macintyre S, Davidson S, Ellaway A. Measuring neighbourhood social and material context: generation and interpretation of ecological data from routine and nonroutine sources. Health Place 2005;11:249–60. 12. Stafford M, Bartley M, Sacker A, Marmot M. Measuring the social environment: social cohesion and material deprivation in English and Scottish neighbourhoods. Env Plan A 2003;35:1459–75. 13. Weich S, Burton E, Blanchard M, Prince M, Sproston K, Erens B. Measuring the built environment: validity of a site survey instrument for use in urban settings. Health & Place 2001:283–92. 14. Dunstan FD, Weaver N, Araya R, et al. An observation tool to assist with the assessment of urban residential environments. J Environ Psychol 2005;25:293–305. [15]. Araya R, Dunstan F, Playle R, Thomas H, Palmer S, Lewis G. Perceptions of social capital and the built environment and mental health. Soc Sci Med 2006;62(12): 3072–83. 16. Fone DL, Dunstan FD. Mental health, places and people: a multilevel analysis of economic inactivity and social deprivation. Health Place 2006;12:332–44.

Analyzing the Factors Influencing the Successful Design and Uptake of Interactive Systems to Support Social Networks in Urban Neighborhoods

In urban residential environments in Australia and other developed countries, Internet access is on the verge of becoming a ubiquitous utility like gas or electricity. From an urban sociology and community informatics perspective, this article discusses new emerging social formations of urban residents that are based on networked individualism and the potential of Internet-based systems to support them. It proposes that one of the main reasons for the disappearance or nonexistence of urban residential communities is a lack of appropriate opportunities and instruments to encourage and support local interaction in urban neighborhoods. The article challenges the view that a mere reappropriation of applications used to support dispersed virtual communities is adequate to meet the place and proximity-based design requirements that community networks in urban neighborhoods pose. It argues that the key factors influencing the successful design and uptake of interactive systems to support social networks in urban neighborhoods include the swarming social behavior of urban dwellers; the dynamics of their existing communicative ecology; and the serendipitous, voluntary, and place-based quality of interaction between residents on the basis of choice, like-mindedness, mutual interest and support needs. Drawing on an analysis of these factors, the conceptual design framework of a prototype system — the urban tribe incubator — is presented.

Measurement and Characterization of the Temporal Behavior of Fixed Wireless Links

We analyze the methodology and present the interpretation of results obtained in the measurement of the temporal Ricean K-factor and the time-autocovariance function of the received power for fixed narrowband wireless links in urban residential environments. Our main observation is that the time-autocovariance function (and thus both the temporal K-factor and the coherence time) fundamentally depends on a combination of the characterization of the transmit-receive path and whether the street-level moving objects are in the field of view of the antennas. In most practical cases the latter refers only to the customer premises antenna, as the base station is typically placed at a much greater distance from moving scatterers. No significant basis was found for the popular conjecture that the K-factor is mainly influenced by the excess path loss. However, a strong correlation between coherence times and temporal K-factor was observed over a wide range of link conditions. We also found that the time-autocovariance function can be quite accurately modeled by the weighted sum of two exponentially decaying functions: one with a time constant on the order of 1 s and the other typically slower by one order of magnitude. The results will be helpful in establishing design criteria for radio systems such as multiple input-multiple output that need to estimate the channel response and its persistence in time and for media access control (MAC) layer transmission protocols whose efficiency is affected by the depth and duration of channel outages.

An observation tool to assist with the assessment of urban residential environments

The effect of the built environment on the quality of life of its residents is of growing interest. To investigate this properly, a method for measuring the physical condition of residential areas is required and this paper describes the development of such a tool. The Residential Environment Assessment Tool (REAT) is designed as a survey instrument, to be completed by an independent observer, to produce a contextual measure of a neighbourhood, reflecting both physical aspects and also the extent to which residents have established territoriality over the area. The tool is based on 28 items which are aggregated to give a total score, ranging between 0 and 68, and subdivided into 5 different domains to reflect different aspects of the environment. Inter-observer comparisons show that the tool is reliable, with kappa coefficients for most of the item scores exceeding 0.9. To investigate its validity the results were compared with responses to a detailed survey of individual residents and significant positive associations were found between most relevant items. The tool is being used for studies involving common mental disorders in the community and should be valuable for local authorities in targeting interventions to improve the physical condition of their area.

Summer Investigation on Indoor Environment of Residential Buildings in Beijing and Other Four Cities

In order to understand the actual conditions of urban residential indoor environment, indoor thermal comfort and indoor air quality in Beijing during the summer season, the investigation of indoor environment was carried out in Beijing, from August 21 to August 25 of 2002. Results of this investigation were compared with the results in other cities, which was already reported.The questionnaire revealed the life style within residences of summer season, the types of air-conditioners used etc. This field survey showed that the indoor thermal comfort during the mid-day, evening hours and sleeping time in Beijing felt outside the ASHRAE comfort zone and the concentrations of formaldehyde and VOCs were relatively high in some houses.

Indoor thermal environment of urban residential buildings in China: winter investigation in five major cities

The purposes of this investigation are to look into the actual conditions of urban residential indoor environment in China during the winter season, and to discuss the thermal comfort as well as to understand the possibility of space heating energy conservation. Investigations of indoor thermal environment were carried out in Harbin, Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai and Hong Kong of China. The results showed that the indoor thermal condition in heating usage zone is good, such as Harbin, Beijing and Xi’an. The indoor thermal comfort is strongly affected by the outdoor climate in non-heating usage zone, such as Shanghai and Hong Kong.

都市居住と住環境

都市居住と住環境

Carbon profile of residential indoor PM1 and PM2.5 in the subtropical region

Carbon profiles of PM1 and PM2.5 were measured simultaneously in the indoor and outdoor air of 10 homes in the Taipei urban area in both summer and winter seasons. It was indicated that the average indoor and outdoor concentrations were found to be 25.88 and 25.86 μg m −3 for PM1, as well as 37.60 and 37.26 μg m −3 for PM2.5, respectively. In addition, the average summer and winter levels were found to be 25.13 and 26.70 μg m −3 for PM1, as well as 36.45 and 38.51 μg m −3 for PM2.5, respectively. There were no significant concentration differences observed in indoor/outdoor (I/O) and summer/winter PM1/PM2.5 levels. Moreover, the median value of I/O ratios of PM1 and PM2.5 was observed to be 1.0 which might demonstrate that there was no presence of significant indoor PM sources in this subtropical region. In addition, it was found that PM1/PM2.5 mass ratios were 0.68. Regarding carbon profiles, it was observed that mass fractions of total carbon in PM1 and PM2.5 were 0.50 and 0.46. It was demonstrated that indoor/ambient combustion-related fine particle play an important role in urban residential environments.

The Usefulness of the GIS—Fuzzy Set Approach in Evaluating the Urban Residential Environment

The authors' focus was to determine the usefulness of the fuzzy set approach in evaluating the urban residential environment, compared with the crisp (or Boolean) approach. Particular emphasis was placed upon the comparison of evaluation results produced by the two methods within a geographic information system (GIS). This comparison highlighted the advantages of the GIS-fuzzy set approach as follows. First, it was revealed that the fuzzy set approach could reduce excessive abstraction or exaggeration in environmental phenomena. Hence, without the loss of valuable information, more accurate decisionmaking can be rendered. Second, by integrating membership functions into GIS, greater efficiency of the entire evaluation process was achieved.

Storytelling Neighborhood

This article develops and tests a communication infrastructure model of belonging among dwellers of urban residential environments. The concept of a communication infrastructure—a storytelling system set in its communication action context—is discussed. Storytelling neighborhood, the communication process through which neighborhood discussion transforms people from occupants of a house to members of a neighborhood, is proposed as an essential component of people's paths to belonging, an attachment to a residential area that is evidenced in everyday exchange behaviors. A multimethod research design is employed to study seven residential areas in Los Angeles through the use of multilingual data collection to discover the relevant factors that determine belonging in new and old immigrant communities. A communication infrastructure model that posits storytelling as an intervening process between structural location and belonging is proposed and tested. Overall, the most important factor in creating belonging was found to be an active and integrated storytelling system that involves residents, community organizations, and local media. The diagnostic potentials of the communication infrastructure approach and the policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Improvement of Urban Residential Environment through Utilization of Reverse Mortgage System

It is an urgent task now to realize urban renovation by both revitalizing economic activities and reconstructing the city into peaceful and safe space.Above all, we need to cope urgently with redevelopment of widely scattered low or less utilized areas in Tokyo and other big cities, as the improvement of these areas into livable environment refers directly to the improvement of residents' living space as well as to desirable preparation for the aged society.Of those low or less utilized areas in CBD, in heavily densed residential areas where ownership are somewhat limited and complicated, it is difficult, in general, to proceed improvement projects, as conservative aged population is prone to be dominant in such areas. In Chuo City, where promotion of more efficient land use is regarded to be necessary especially, many areas are still left yet to be improved.We reckon that reverse mortgage system can effectively be applied as a new method to carry out residential environment improvement projects in densily built up CBD areas. This system can allow aged people etc. to keep on living on present site while developers are required to take enough time to promote redevelopment projects.Majority of the institutionalized reverse mortgage system in Japan so far have been linked with welfare services provided by municipal government, thus its application has been confined to individual utilization of the respective asset. “Town-Building-Type Reverse Mortgage System (tentative naming)” that we propose here not only enables landowners to extract living cost from their owned assets, but also enables them to aggregate small scaled ownership to promote larger scaled land utilization.

The physical environment of street blocks and resident perceptions of crime and disorder: implications for theory and measurement

There are two purposes to the present study. Our methodological purpose is to develop and test a procedure and instrument for assessing crime- and fear-related features of the urban residential environment. We examine three classes of cues: symbols of social and physical disorder, territorial functioning, and architectural ‘defensible space’ features. Past research examining the physical environment correlates of fear of crime has relied almost exclusively on subjective perceptions of the environment rather than on independent and objective measures thereof. Our theoretical purpose is to test the ‘disorder’ thesis of Skogan, and Wilson and Kelling, that actual physical incivilities erode resident's confidence in their neighborhood and lead them to infer that serious local problems, unrelated to the physical environment, are serious. We conducted environmental assessments and resident interviews ( n = 412) on 50 blocks in 50 Baltimore neighborhoods. The assessments demonstrated high levels of inter-rater reliability and concurrent validity, controlling for social class. Regression analyses showed that physical incivilities were independently linked to perceptions of social and crime-related problems. The results show that reliable and valid assessment of crime- and fear-related environmental features can be conducted. They also support the central kernel of the Wilson and Kelling, and Skogan thesis, that the actual presence of disorder-related cues engender perceptions of social and crime problems.

Residential differentiation and urban policy

The term "residential differentiation" is increasingly employed in the field of public housing. The underlying idea is that a finely-tuned differentiation between environments may provide a solution to such problems as a malfunctioning residential environment, or play a part in the "new elan'1 of the major cities. Public housing officers are not the only people concerned with residential differentiation. In the Netherlands this theme has also attracted the attention of physical planners. One of the questions that must be answered in order to recognize and, if necessary, combat any negative effects on the housing market at an early stage, is what sort of residential environment is needed in what location and to what extent. This article explores recent developments in demand and supply in the housing market and how these relate to the urban residential environment. The discussion will first concentrate on the background to the increased interest in residential environments.

The site selection process of speculative residential developers in an urban area

Abstract Despite the fact that speculative builder‐developers play a major role in the transformation of the residential environment, most research on urban housing has been directed towards consumption issues. This paper concentrates on housing production. The principal objectives are first, to identify the factors of importance in the site selection process of private residential developers, and second to provide a means of assessing the development potential of available sites within an urban area. It is argued that only by achieving an enhanced understanding of the preferences and perceptions of developers can local authorities achieve the goal of promoting greater private sector involvement in the reconstruction of the urban residential environment.

A multi-level, bipolar view of the urban residential environment: Local community vs. mass societal forces

A multidisciplinary review of the urban literature reveals that theory can be ranged along two bipolar continua—individual vs. aggregate levels of analysis and equilibrium vs. conflict models of behavior. Research employed such bipolar conceptualizations to examine the persistence or deterioration of local community structure in a contemporary urban environment. A two-year ethnographic community study was conducted in Syracuse, New York and Onondaga County. Also examined were program processes of an experimental program designed to enhance neighborhood organization and social networks of 157 families living in ten randomly selected neighborhoods. Data collection methods included participant observation supplemented by archival research and in-depth interviews with community leaders. It was found that both bipolar models were necessary to illuminate processes at work within a city experiencing a sharp decline in population and in economic activity. Three coping strategies employed by city institutions to counter this decline were distinguished, but it was observed that often such strategies led to disruption of residential neighborhoods. We concluded that while local community structure remains in some neighborhoods, conflict between residential and nonresidential interests poses an ever more serious threat.