External effects of neighbourhood parks and landscape elements on high-rise residential value

Neighbourhood parks provide recreation opportunities and amenity to nearby residents and improve the quality of the environment and life. Their provision and protection could be facilitated by a deeper understanding of their multiple values. The hedonic pricing method, using statistical techniques to estimate the part of a price due to a particular attribute of a commodity, assessed the external effects of neighbourhood parks on the transaction price of high-rise private residential units in Hong Kong. The empirical results derived from 1471 transactions in a district indicated that neighbourhood parks could lift price by 16.88%, including 14.93% for availability and 1.95% for view. Comparing with other landscape elements, neighbourhood parks induced the heaviest investment intention in home-buying behaviour. Harbour view attracted a premium of 5.1%, but mountain view was surprisingly not welcomed. Street view, considered as unappealing, suppressed price. Residents were insensitive to building landscape due to its ubiquity in the compact city. The scarcity of neighbourhood parks in the city has pushed their hedonic value to an exceptionally high level, providing guidance to revamp the policies, planning and management of urban greenspaces in tandem with the sustainable city quest.     

基于CVM法评估石家庄世纪公园使用及服务价值

随着城市化进程的加快和城市人口的高度集中,城市公园的功能日益突出,但也易被改变用途.基于CVM调查法,调查评估石家庄世纪公园的使用状况及其服务价值.结果表明,(1)公园的辐射范围主要为30分钟的距离,游人以中年和老人为主;(2)运动是游客的主要活动类型,不同年龄段活动形式呈多样化、活动区域差异较大,林荫道为所有年龄段青...     

Society's attitudes to and preferences for land and landscape

The relationship between society, land and landscape is deeply complex. Attitudes are reflected in behaviour, notably patterns of consumption through recreational activity, as well as in expressed preferences. Society attaches great importance to land. A large proportion of the population engages directly with it, through gardening and involvement in the management of allotments, community gardens and other public spaces. There is increasing evidence of the benefits of such engagement for individuals and communities. Society's attitudes and preferences have traditionally been dominated by expert or professional views, which have evolved over time and now place emphasis on everyday as well as special landscapes, and on urban greenspace and green infrastructure as much as on rural landscapes. The general public also seems to value the countryside as well as parks and green spaces nearer to home. Public attitudes are shaped by a number of different factors. Age, social and economic status, ethnic origin, familiarity, place of upbringing and residence, particularly whether urban or rural, are especially significant. Perhaps most important are environmental value orientations. At present, society seems to be polarised. At one extreme are older, more affluent, better educated, more environmentally aware people, often in social grades AB, who are often the most active users of the countryside and greenspaces. At the other extreme are younger age groups, ethnic minorities, and those who are in the DE social grades, who are often much less engaged. These groups have very different values and attitudes. But most people need to access and enjoy different types of landscape at different times and for different purposes, accessing what has been called a ‘portfolio of places’ that is particular to each person. It is by no means clear how the various factors that influence people's attitudes and preferences will play out in the future. Society may continue to become more detached from nature and landscape, and less caring about its future. Or there could be a rekindling of society's need to engage with the land and an increased desire to ensure that all sectors of society can benefit from green spaces and rural landscapes. This is likely to require interventions through education and campaigns to change attitudes and behaviour. Whether such initiatives can be effective in the face of competing drivers of attitudinal and behavioural change and over what timescale, may well determine how society's relationships with land and landscape evolve over the next 50 years.     

A hedonic analysis of the demand for and benefits of urban recreation parks

Increasing population and urbanization in U.S. cities is not only contributing to the congestion in urban recreation parks but also is likely to exceed the capacity of these parks’ recreational and amenity benefits. In order to estimate the demand for and benefit of parks, we employed a typical hedonic model, which confirmed that the urban recreation park acres increase nearby property values. Two Step Clustering, which is capable of defining the optimum number of submarkets based on the data, was employed to define the submarkets within Roanoke, Virginia and to obtain enough implicit price points to further estimate the demand for urban park acres in the second stage. Results from the second stage hedonic estimation revealed that demand for urban park acres was inelastic in price and income; and the size of the park was a substitute for living space and proximity to park. In addition, increasing the average size of parks by 20% from the current level increased the per household consumer surplus by $160. The estimated amenity benefits of urban recreation parks will be useful in urban landuse planning and open space preservation.     

Managing cities and resolving conflicts: Local people’s attitudes towards urban planning in Kumasi,Ghana

This study explores local people’s attitudes towards urban planning, and the effects of development benefits on local support for planning in Kumasi, Ghana. Kumasi is a rapidly urbanising city in Ghana where urban growth between 2000 and 2010 exceeded 5%, and where local support for urban planning has not been studied adequately. Based on Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Town and Country Planning Department and Ghana Statistical Service’s residential area classifications, household survey with 360 respondents were conducted in nine high, middle and low class neighbourhoods in Kumasi, in addition to interviews with six representatives from two planning agencies. Results indicated that two-thirds of the household respondents were positive towards urban planning and support urban planning. The household respondents were aware that more development benefits are possible from an inclusive and pro-poor urban planning. There appears to be correlation between development benefits obtained by local people from urban planning, and support for urban planning, indicating that development benefits impact people’s attitudes towards urban planning. Some of the main problems are social and spatial inequity among people living in different classes of residential neighbourhoods, and lack of locals’ inclusion in urban planning and management. There is a need to clearly address these issues, so that urban planning may get the support of local people which may lead to sustainable urban development.     

New urban planning challenges under emerging autonomous mobility: evaluating backcasting scenarios and policies through an expert survey

The future implementation of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) in cities can have significant impacts, both positive and negative, on their sustainability. The objective of this research is to investigate those impacts and evaluate which policies could be most effective in achieving the desired city scenario through a backcasting planning methodology. To this end, a survey among experts was carried out in which they expressed their opinions on the potential consequences of AVs in cities and on the effectiveness of various policy packages focused on achieving a more sustainable mobility and land use planning. The results obtained show that the experts consulted were sceptical about the positive impacts of AVs, arguing that they could induce an increase in car trips and urban sprawl. The policies that could be most effective in mitigating these effects, leading to a city more aligned with the planned objectives would be: to strengthen active (foot, bicycle) and public transport modes, to restrict access of motorised modes to central urban areas and to use freed spaces for alternative modes of transport, green areas and public facilities. A cluster analysis also showed that most of the experts consulted considered that the policy packages presented could be effective or very effective in reaching the most desirable scenario. Therefore, it is important that the implementation of AVs does not subordinate to, but enhances, the sustainable mobility and land use policies already being developed in many urban areas.     

Urban parks: Visitors’ perceptions versus spatial indicators

Urban green spaces and their role in the quality of life of residents have been studied across multiple disciplines, based on empirical measurements or qualitative studies – however, the relation, and its strength, between spatial indicators of urban green spaces and visitors’ perceptions of green spaces are less known. Addressing this knowledge deficit, the present research uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to link subjective evaluations of the physical environment and objective spatial indicators, to examine the correlation between the perceived and objective characteristics of five urban parks in the city of Szeged, Hungary. A questionnaire survey was used to collect residents’ subjective perceptions of the parks, while objective – which is to say measurable and mappable – spatially explicit indicators of the respective green spaces were calculated using GIS. The subjective evaluations of the parks were matched to the objective indicators using a multiple regression analysis. The statistical analysis yielded two moderate and two minor correlations between the human perceptions of the investigated green spaces and the nine objective environmental indicators examined. These results showed that subjective evaluations and objective data reveal different aspects of the same reality. Therefore, the recommendations from this study are to collectively use human perceptions and objective environmental indicators, both of which are fundamental for adequately capturing the role of urban green spaces in quality of life.     

Urban agriculture and land use in cities: An approach with the multi-functionality and sustainability concepts in the case of Antananarivo (Madagascar)

Urban planners are increasingly interested in agriculture around cities and have to decide whether to maintain or not areas of agricultural land use within and close to growing cities. There is therefore a need for researchers to design tools to guide public decision-making on land use. Various approaches, originating from different disciplines, may be adopted in this respect. We designed an interdisciplinary research program in order to test two related concepts: the “sustainability” and the “multi-functionality” of agriculture. We show that these concepts provide a useful framework for obtaining appropriate knowledge about urban agriculture, which urban planners could apply in real situations. In close collaboration with urban planners, we applied an interdisciplinary research methodology, based on common farm surveys and territorial approaches, to the Antananarivo area (Madagascar). The main functions analyzed were the food production and environmental roles of urban agriculture. Two aspects of sustainability were assessed: the farm sustainability and the territorial sustainability, with expert scores. This approach identified a wide diversity of farming systems that performed differently, depending on their intra- or suburban location. The food supply function appeared to be important not only for fresh produce but also for rice consumption. The function of protection against flooding is now important and this importance will increase with climate change. A diagnosis of sustainability was made and discussed with urban planners: several farming systems and zones were identified in which agriculture was considered important as a means of maintaining or developing the food supply, employment and incomes, and even landscape or environmental quality. We also identified other areas in which poor production conditions and/or the negative effects of urbanization on agriculture jeopardized its sustainability. This methodology appeared to be useful for determining the most appropriate role of urban agriculture in the land-use planning of this city. Our study raises new questions on the subject and should lead to more focused research programmes. We discuss several points of interest and the limitations and possible extension of this method.     

Valuing the benefits of an urban park project: A contingent valuation study in Thessaloniki,Greece

This paper aims to estimate the non-market benefits derived from the potential development of a new urban park in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece). The city of Thessaloniki has up to now a very low rate of proportional green space per capita. On this context a large metropolitan park was announced, as part of a large-scale redevelopment project, but the final decision has not been made yet. In order to help policy makers to their final decision, an ex-ante valuation of the potential benefits of the park is carried out in this study. A contingent valuation survey was designed and implemented aiming to estimate the willingness to pay of local residents for the provision of this park, as well as to determine the spatial scale at which these values are assessed. The main finding of this study is that people living within 20 min from the reference site are willing to contribute a significant amount of money to support this project. Another interesting outcome is that the willingness to pay for this project was not considerably modified during a period of economic recession (2010–2013), which is mainly due to the growing public awareness of the importance of green spaces, as well as of the benefits of the planned park.     

Urban green infrastructure in Europe: Is greenspace planning and policy compliant?

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) planning, based on certain principles, has emerged as a way to conceptualise connected greenspace in urbanised environments. This is achieved through the application of processes and approaches linked to policy themes to which the concept can significantly contribute. Taken together the processes, approaches and policy themes constitute the principles of UGI, which when adopted can promote, maintain and enhance quality of life in resource-efficient, compact and climate-resilient cities. In this study we explore the extent to which strategic greenspace planning in Europe is UGI compliant, as we hypothesised that the above principles are presently under-represented in planning documents and policies. This was accomplished by conducting a comparative analysis of the adoption of UGI principles in current practices of greenspace planning across European city-regions based on a systematic review of previous data and reports. The study found that many UGI principles and related concepts are present to some degree in strategic greenspace planning in Europe. However, gaps exist with regard to their scope and level of consideration. Presently, conservation emerges as the predominant task in strategic urban greenspace planning. However, enhancing network connectivity is key to the development of UGI, hence a greater focus on the restoration and creation of greenspace is required in the future. Based on our analysis it can be concluded that the advancement towards UGI planning is well established and progressing, although some areas are markedly under-represented. Strategic greenspace planning in Europe, with a few exceptions, requires further development to be effectively considered as UGI compliant.     

Toward a systemic analysis of city-agriculture interactions in West Africa: A geography of arrangements between actors

Despite the importance of urban agriculture in developing countries, urban agriculture is not well understood by public authorities. This lack of knowledge impedes its inclusion in public policies of urban planning. A substantial body of literature deals with urban agriculture but little research has analyzed the multidimensional city-agriculture interactions facilitating its enduring presence within the city. We suggest the hypothesis that informal processes are at the core of the persistence of urban agriculture and propose the concept of socio-spatial arrangements (SSAs) between the actors. To study urban agriculture in Bobo-Dioulasso, a West African city, we propose to develop a geography of arrangements to understand the social and spatial characteristics of SSAs and the way they influence urban agriculture development. Taking the example of market gardeners and pig breeders, we highlight how farmers overcome urban constraints through localized social networks. Results show that arrangements between the actors are at the core of the persistence of urban agriculture. We underline two different socio-spatial morphologies (SSMs) of urban agriculture according to differences in urban agriculture characteristics. These SSMs illustrate how market gardeners and pig breeders integrate differently into the urban space. The systemic approach of studying arrangements between actors helps us understand how urban farming activities function, and how they are connected to each other and to the urban and regional system, thus building a picture of an agri-urban system. We discuss the policy and theoretical implications of this research. This study is aimed at providing a better understanding of urban agriculture that can enhance its consideration as a viable component of the city.     

Measuring urban sprawl and exploring the role planning plays: A shanghai case study

Measuring the degree of urban sprawl largely depends on the local context and available data. This research establishes a multidimensional index which combines city expansion, urban compactness and urban form to measure sprawl. Urban planning, as part of the state-led growth approach, has exerted dramatic impact on city growth in China. Recent studies have discussed the role of planning in city growth. However, measuring the impact of planning on sprawl, has not been conducted. Taking Shanghai as a case study, this paper builds a multidimensional index to measure the spatio-temporal characteristics of urban sprawl in Shanghai from 1990 to 2010. It finds that urban sprawl was more serious in 2000s than in the 1990s, and the sprawl also presents spatial heterogeneity within different areas of the city. While quantifying the role of planning in urban sprawl, this study adopts the Geo-Detector based on spatial variation analysis of the geographical strata in order to assess the impact of planning on urban sprawl. It finds that planning is strongly correlated with urban sprawl, in other words, urban sprawl is kind of a "planned sprawl" in Shanghai. The research concludes with future planning policies necessary for a more sustainable and compact development pattern.     

Accounting for groundwater in future city visions

City planners, urban innovators and researchers are increasingly working on ‘future city’ initiatives to investigate the physical, social and political aspects of harmonized urban living. Despite this, sustainability principles and the importance of urban groundwater are lacking in future city visions. Using London as a case study, the importance of groundwater for cities is highlighted and a range of future city interventions may impact on groundwater are reviewed. Using data from water resource plans and city planning strategies, changes in the groundwater balance which may occur as a result of city interventions are calculated for two future city scenarios: a ‘strategic’ future informed by organisational policy and an ‘aspirational’ future guided by sustainability principles. For London, under a strategic future, preferential investment in industry-scale technologies such as wastewater treatment and groundwater storage would occur. Acknowledgement that behaviour change offers the potential for a faster rate of transformation than innovation technologies is ignored. The capacity of community-led action and smart-home technologies to deliver sustainable water use under an aspirational future is evident, with a measurable impact on urban groundwater. These methods may be used to inform city interventions that consider the social context in addition to environmental constraints and business drivers.     

Valuing ecosystem services of urban forests and open spaces: application of the SEEA framework in Australia*

Around two‐thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2050 requiring large urban infrastructure development. Decision‐makers and planners usually rely on standard economic accounting methods for urban planning and investments on infrastructure assets. However, standard methods fail to account for the ecosystem services benefits that living infrastructure (e.g. urban forests, open spaces) provides to city dwellers. This could generate socially inefficient configurations of urban spaces and compromise the achievement of long‐term urban sustainability targets. In this analysis, we applied a stochastic whole‐of‐life benefit–cost analysis following the System of Environmental‐Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework to compare alternative long‐term management strategies for living infrastructure in Canberra, Australia. Spatially explicit data, i‐Tree Eco and benefit transfer methods were used to estimate the stocks and flows ecosystem services benefits of urban forests and irrigated open spaces from 2018 to 2070. Our analysis suggests that a ’30 per cent canopy cover expansion’ scenario has the highest benefit–cost ratio, while the business as usual scenario, where a net loss of 400 trees is expected per year, offers the lowest benefit–cost ratio. Scenarios of expanding versus not expanding irrigated open spaces in the future both result in a benefit–cost ratio of approximately two.     

Estimating the mediating effect of privately-supplied green space on the relationship between urban public green space and property value: Evidence from Shanghai,China

Much of the housing in China’s cities built since the opening up of housing markets in the 1990s is organized in residential clubs, with neighbourhood civic goods and services constructed by private developers, financed by residents’ fees, managed by property-management companies and governed by resident associations. This means that there are now three important types of green space in Chinese cities: public green space (open-access parks), private green space (gardens, exclusive to a private home) and club green space (greenery exclusive to fee-paying estate residents). We ask a simple but profound question: how does this three-fold green space morphology and economy influence housing prices and, by implication, locational preferences in the city? More specifically, we test the hypothesis that the privately supplied green spaces withing club-communities substitute for publicly supplied green spaces in the public realm. We find evidence in support of this hypothesis, showing for example, that unlike other kinds of green space, public district parks have no measurable use value to Shanghai home-buyers, using a hedonic valuation model. If urban planners in China understood that their cities have become ‘cities of clubs’, then they would plan open space differently and scarce public funds could be redirected to other public goods and services with measurable demand.     

Urban green space qualities: An integrated approach towards GIS-based assessment reflecting user perception

For city dwellers urban green space is the primary source of contact with nature. Qualitative green space is increasingly perceived as an important factor for quality of life in urban areas and a key component of sustainable urban design and planning. In this study, the relation between different features of urban green spaces and perception of green space qualities was analyzed by combining the outcome of a survey on green space perception with GIS-based spatial metrics. A survey has been conducted among residents of the Brussels Capital Region and surroundings to assess the relative importance residents assign to different qualities of urban green spaces and how they value these qualities within visited spaces. Quietness, spaciousness, cleanliness and maintenance, facilities and feeling of safety are identified as important qualities of public green spaces, while naturalness, historical and cultural value are perceived as less important qualities. A GIS-based model was developed to infer naturalness, quietness and spaciousness as perceived by users of public green spaces from green space properties. Using variables describing biological value, land-cover composition, green space area and shape, good correlations were obtained between GIS-based assessment of naturalness and spaciousness and how green space users perceive these qualities. The model proposed may be useful for simulating green space development and improvement scenarios and assess their impact on perceived quality. Thus it may serve as a spatial decision support tool for improving the quality of urban green spaces.     

Public policy change and its impact on urban expansion: An evaluation of 265 cities in China

Public policies play a vital role in shaping our cities. However, the impact of public policies on the spatial expansion of urban areas needs to be better understood in order to achieve better policy outcomes. During the period of China’s economic reform, the central government of China has made many changes in three sets of public policies—regional development policies, the household registration (hukou) system, and urban land and housing market policies—to promote coordinated development of small, medium and large cities. This study aims to examine the effects of these public policy changes on urban expansion across 265 Chinese cities at or above prefecture level. We first quantify the spatial patterns of urban areas and evaluate the extent of urban sprawl of the 265 cities from 1995 to 2015 using multi-temporal land cover data. These cities are classified into six categories according to a city tier system used in China. Through a set of individual fixed-effects models, we then explore how changes in the three sets of policies have influenced urban expansion differently across different-tier cities. Results show that sprawling patterns of urban expansion, which have been more prominent in small and medium sized cities since 2000, are associated with shifts in policies to support stronger economic and population growth as well as real estate development. Our findings highlight the need for policymakers to take a holistic approach by considering the size of cities together with their social, environmental, and economic characteristics in order to minimise inequality and achieve coordinated urban development goals.     

Gathering plants and fungi along the urban-rural gradient: Uncovering differences in the attitudes and practices among urban,suburban, and rural landowners

Gathering non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in cities and rural areas has received growing attention in research and news media. Yet little is known about the frequency of these activities and how attitudes about and the practice of gathering differ across urban, suburban, and rural areas. We report on findings from a mail survey of landowners across two urban-rural gradients in central and eastern Massachusetts, USA. The survey queried (a) attitudes towards gathering and a variety of other environmental benefits, (b) the practice of gathering, and (c) where gatherers harvest species. Survey responses reveal that gathering is not a controversial use of land and is a relatively widespread activity across urban, suburban, and rural areas. Further, the results show that gathering occurs on a mix of private and public lands and that there are important differences in the practice of gathering among individuals living in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Our findings have implications for understanding the social and ecological dynamics of gathering and suggest that more research on gathering and other natural resource management issues is needed, particularly in (sub)urban areas.     

Pandemic stricken cities on lockdown. Where are our planning and design professionals [now,then and into the future]?

Chinese cities have been placed upon lockdown in early 2020 in an attempt to contain the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), as increasingly huge demands are being placed upon Chinese and international health professionals to address this pandemic. Surprisingly, planning and design professionals are absent in the discourses about existing and post−COVID-19 strategies and actions even though previous pandemics historically revealed major impacts on the urban fabric from social and economic perspectives. This paper is a call for action for international architectural and urban organisations to include pandemics and similar in their disaster management strategies. This need is very evident in their need to better design creative and relevant protocols in partnership with health discipine organisations, and so that their applied deployment in pandemic stricken cities can be effected integrated seamlessly within normal city environment planning activities and also in incident situations like containing the current COVID-19 pandemic.     

基于聚类分析的城市公园利用者行为特性及其管理对策——以上海市中山公园为例

城市公园是城市的重要组成部分,是调节城市生态环境的重要场所,也是城市居民休憩、娱乐和活动的重要开敞空间,因此分析城市公园设施的利用情况以及利用者的行为特性,对于城市公园的建设和管理有十分重要的意义。以上海市中山公园为例,通过对该公园利用情况的分析,了解到公园的利用者大多数为青年人和老年人,且利用者范围广,利用频率高,滞留时间也较长。同时运用数量化Ⅲ类和聚类分析方法,把城市公园利用者的行为特性分为郊游式利用型、日常利用型、临时利用型、约会利用型、幼儿同行利用型、健康注重型及非日常团体活动型7大类,分析了各类利用者行为特性的特点,为今后政府部门对公园的建设和管理提供一些新的思路。