Sustainability of population growth: a case study of urban settlements in Israel

One of the most sensitive criteria for gauging the degree of socio-economic prosperity of an urban settlement is the ability to sustain stable rates of population growth by attracting newcomers and retaining existing population. The present paper argues that after reaching a particular size (on the average, 20–30, 000 residents), urban localities n Israel tend to experience substantial changes in components of their annual population growth. Starting with this inflection point, the growth of settlements gradually becomes less dependent on natural causes (birth and death rates) than on the ability to attract newcomers and retain current residents. On the basis of this conclusion, a strategy of "redirecting priorities" to developing the peripheral regions of the country is suggested. This strategy proposes the concentration of state and local financial resources on selected development Settlements until they reach the above population threshold and become more attractive for newcomers, followed by the sequential transfer of this support to other small urban localities in frontier areas. Although the present analysis was restricted to urban settlements in Israel, the mode of analysis and its applications for planning policy may be applicable to regional and urban physical planning elsewhere.     

The British new and expanded towns: hail and farewell?

Harloe, M. 1975: Swindon: a town in transition. Levin, P. 1976: Government and the planning process. Second Report from the Expenditure Committee Thirteenth Report of the Expenditure Committee     

国际大都市新城发展特点比较

进入21世纪,以北京、上海、广州为代表的中国大城市开始着眼于"大城市、大郊区"发展战略的实施,郊区新城成为这些城市新一轮城市发展的重要空间.早在20世纪中期,发达国家的一些大城市便实行了重点开发郊区新城的城市发展战略,在半个多世纪的发展过程中,形成了比较丰富的经验和教训.本文着重分析了国际大城市郊区新城建设的历史经验和发展趋势,期待能对我国大城市郊区新城规划建设有所裨益.     

滨海新城的发展策略

通过对我国滨海新城发展背景的回顾,总结其发展特征,认为滨海新城发展的本质是工业化超前城市化发展。未来滨海新城的发展必须面对土地、生态多方面的制约,表现在发展模式、经济形式和功能构成上有所转变。由此从区域、产业、城市空间、土地利用、生态景观、旅游等多方面展开应对性策略研究。     

The dynamics of limited breaking out: the case of the Arab manufacturing businesses in Israel

This paper investigates the dynamics of breaking out in the Arab manufacturing business sector in Israel. Based on an ethnographic study and in-depth interviews, this paper develops a three-tier model delineating those characteristics that shape the entrepreneurs' response to structural constraints and their respective mode of operation in the context of resource disadvantage. The model demonstrates that the limited break out of ethnic entrepreneurs signifies selective access to the majority market. Through the model, the paper develops a comprehensive conceptual framework that incorporates two different sets of constraints stemming from the nature of the larger market and institutional setting and community characteristics. The limited breaking out can be explained largely by the dynamics of the interrelations among the institutional environment, the local resources, and the entrepreneurs' characteristics. This implies a Janus-face perspective of breaking out, in which the Arab entrepreneurs tend to use their resources both for the maintenance of their local market and for catering to special segments in the majority market that seek relatively cheap prices or specialized products. The paper concludes that the limited breaking out reflects institutional processes that militate against the minority's ability to fully integrate into the majority market.     

新形势下小城镇发展的思路与对策——以邛崃市夹关镇为例

加快小城镇件事是统筹城乡发展和建设社会主义新农村的重要途径,建设好小城镇对于启动农村内需、增加农民收入、转移农村劳动力等方面都有积极意义。     

From consensus to fragmentation: The dynamics of paradigm change in Israel

This paper reports on the evolution of spatial planning approaches in Israel with emphasis on the relationship between planning and ideology. The major characteristics of planning studied are: (1) the role of planning; (2) the planning process and methodology; (3) the problems and goals of planning; (4) planning concepts at the national and regional level. The main findings of the research identify four major periods which represent phases in the process of paradigm change: the phase of Grand-Ideas, the phase of Action, the phase of Professionalization, and finally the phase of Ad-hocism. The development of these phases is related to geopolitical changes, socio-economic conditions, the social climate, and the planners' background. These phases are examined in the light of the theoretical framework proposed by Kuhn concerning the development of scientific paradigms.     

The shared environmental responsibility principle: new developments applied to the case of marine ecosystems

Estuaries provide advantageous sites for both harbors and fish habitats. In many countries, harbor expansion in estuaries contributed to the decline of fish populations with impacts at the global scale. Restoring these habitats is important to prevent a global biodiversity crisis but is costly and potentially unaffordable for polluters under the Polluter Pays Principle. Such affordability issues prompt decision-makers to reduce environmental targets of restoration programs. Harbor infrastructures destroy fish habitats but generate benefits for society and contribute to the public interest, raising some questions on who is responsible for environmental degradations and who can afford environmental restoration costs? One way to allocate restoration costs is to analyze the amount of harbor services consumed by economic sectors. This paper addresses these questions by computing burden sharing scenarios with an input–output matrix. These scenarios are simulated under the shared responsibility principle to distribute restoration costs among stakeholders in the Seine estuary, France.     

A simultaneous-equations analysis of urban development: migration and industrial growth in Israel's new towns

A simultaneous-equations econometric model is used to analyze the recent development of new towns in Israel. The focus is on the relationships among migration, industrial investment, employment, and other structural and policy variables affecting urban development. "Our results affirm the importance of economic opportunity, agglomeration effects, population socioeconomic and ethnic composition, and access in determining migration flows. At the same time, unemployment and investment indices are affected by local labor-market conditions, government incentives, and regional development effects as well as by population composition and migration flows. Policy implications of the analysis are considered."     

The effects of mandatory employment arbitration systems on applicants' attraction to organizations

This study draws on organizational justice theory to investigate the effects of mandatory employment arbitration on organizational attraction. Specific attention is given to the characteristics of employment arbitration procedures that moderate the adverse effects these programs have on applicants' intentions to continue with the recruitment process. A total of 389 professional and executive MBA students read simulated employment brochures. Making employment arbitration mandatory was found to have a significant negative main effect on applicant attraction. This negative effect was mitigated when procedures afforded employees more due process considerations and when employees were given a just‐cause protection in return for giving up their right to sue. Finally, this negative effect was greater among minorities than nonminorities. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

城市化社区开发的探索——以重庆北部新区大盘开发为例

本世纪初,以"睡城"为典型病症的城市病问题伴随着一大批城市新区的兴起在我国出现.究其原因,根源在于缺乏科学的统筹规划及战略引导.政府应该从城市规划入手,引导开发商在城市总体战略规划下共同参与城市的社区开发.以重庆市北部新区大盘开发为例,探讨了如何在规划实践中贯彻城市化社区开发的理念,进而提出使这个颇具潜力的城市新区健康发展的具体措施.     

锡山市的新城建设及若干问题分析

锡山市新城建设是经济发展及当前体制下县市矛盾双重作用的结果 ;在新城选址的过程中主要考虑了新城位置对城市凝聚力的影响 ;当前表现出来的问题主要有新城与无锡市的全面竞争、与市域内其它强势城镇的竞争、城市凝聚力的不足以及体制改革的迟缓等 ;结论是只有从城市体制的改革入手 ,才能较好地解决这些问题。     

The system of towns with spatial public goods

In this paper, we introduce a model of ‘spatial public goods’, whose provision costs depend on the size of the benefit area. It is assumed that there are many developers providing spatial public goods in their towns. Each developer chooses the area size of his/her town and the quality of its spatial public good so as to maximize profit, taking the market price system as given. Each consumer chooses the level of the public good, and hence the town that supplies it, so as to maximize his/her utility. We show that the competitive equilibrium allocation of this economy is efficient.     

A model for analyzing the external effects of new towns on regional development

Title VII of the New Communities and Urban Growth Act of 1970 enables the Department of Housing and Urban Development to guarantee bonds used to finance New Town development by the private sector. Large scale New Town development may drastically affect regional land use patterns. New Towns may siphon resources away from central cities, reducing their tax base, increasing their ghettos and accelerate urban decay. The model proposed in this paper is designed to analyze the effect of subsidized New Towns on a region's growth. The output of the model would enable the policy makers to expand their decision horizon in evaluating bond guarantee applications. The model is composed of four integrated submodels; a national dynamic input-output model, an interregional forecasting model, a Lowry type land use model and a financial evaluation model.     

Development Peculiarities of Peripheral Desert Settlements: The Case of Israel

Selected statistical time-series covering the 30-year period from 1965–94 were studied to determine general trends of both economic development and population growth of urban settlements in the Negev desert of Israel. The research indicated that in comparison with urban settlements located in central ‘non-desert’ districts of the country, peripheral desert localities tend to exhibit wider fluctuations of economic activity, unstable population growth, and an attenuation of general urbanization trends that manifest themselves elsewhere across the country. The research led to a set of analytical models designed to explain development peculiarities of peripheral desert settlements. In addition, several planning strategies were proposed, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic sustainability of existing settlements in peripheral desert areas and facilitating prospective urban development there. These include: (1) the establishment of development clusters consisting of urban settlements which share some essential interregional functions such as employment, educational, cultural, and recreational services and facilities; (2) the adoption of a system of progressive economic incentives to promote private investment in peripheral desert areas; and (3) stricter regulation of land use in the central, non-desert regions of the country. Although the present analysis was restricted to small and medium urban settlements in Israel, the mode of analysis and its practical applications can be useful for urban and regional planning elsewhere. Certaines périodes, sélectionnées par le moyen de statistiques et couvrant une tranche de 30 ans de 1965 à 1994, ont étéétudiées afin de déterminer les tendances générales du développement économique et de l'augmentation démographique des installations urbaines dans le désert du Negev en Israël. Cette recherche indique que, par rapport aux centres urbains situés dans les régions centrales ‘non-désert’ du pays, les localités désertiques périphériques ont tendance à faire preuve de changements d'activités économiques plus prononcés, d'une croissance démographique instable et d'une atténuation de la tendance vers l'urbanisation générale qui se révélent ailleurs dans le pays. Cette recherche a conduit à une série de modéles analytiques créés afin d'expliquer les particularités du développement des installations périphériques du désert. De plus, plusieurs stratégies de planification ont été proposées, dans le but d'augmenter la viabilité socio-économique des installations existantes dans les régions périphériques du désert et d'y faciliter le développement urbain futur. Celles-ci comprennent: (1) l'établissement de groupes de développement composés d'installations urbaines partageant certaines fonctions inter-régionales essentielles comme les services et aménagements pour l'emploi, l'éducation, la culture et les loisirs; (2) l'adoption d'un systéme d'encouragements économiques progressifs pour promouvoir les investissements privés dans les régions périphériques du désert; et (3) des réglementations plus strictes quant à l'utilisation des terres dans les régions centrales non désertiques du pays. Bien que l'analyse actuelle ait été limitée aux installations urbaines de petite et moyenne tailles en Israël, la méthode d'analyse et ses applications pratiques peuvent ? tre utiles pour la planification urbaine et régionale dans d'autres régions.     

A new approach to inter-rater agreement through stochastic orderings: the discrete case

We wish to study inter-rater agreement comparing groups of observers who express their ratings on a discrete or ordinal scale. The starting point is that of defining what we mean by “agreement”. Given d observers, let the scores they assign to a given statistical unit be expressed as a d-vector in the real space. We define a deterministic ordering among these vectors, which expresses the degree of the raters’ agreement. The overall scoring of the raters on the sample space will be a d-dimensional random vector. We then define an associated partial ordering among the random vectors of the ratings, illustrate a number of its properties, and look at order-preserving functions (agreement measures). In this paper we also show how to test the hypothesis of greater agreement against the unrestricted hypothesis, and the hypothesis of equal agreement against the hypothesis that an agreement ordering holds. The test is applied to real data on two medical observers rating clinical guidelines.