Revealing travel patterns and city structure with taxi trip data

Delineating travel patterns and city structure has long been a core research topic in transport geography. Different from the physical structure, the city structure beneath the complex travel-flow system shows the inherent connection patterns within the city. On the basis of taxi-trip data from Shanghai, we built spatially embedded networks to model intra-city spatial interactions and to introduce network science methods into the analysis. The community detection method is applied to reveal sub-regional structures, and several network measures are used to examine the properties of sub-regions. Considering the differences between long- and short-distance trips, we reveal a two-level hierarchical polycentric city structure in Shanghai. Further explorations of sub-network structures demonstrate that urban sub-regions have broader internal spatial interactions, while suburban centers are more influential on local traffic. By incorporating the land use of centers from a travel-pattern perspective, we investigate sub-region formation and the interaction patterns of center–local places. This study provides insights into using emerging data sources to reveal travel patterns and city structures, which could potentially aid in developing and applying urban transportation policies. The sub-regional structures revealed in this study are more easily interpreted for transportation-related issues than for other structures, such as administrative divisions.     

Who could benefit from a bus rapid transit system in cities from developing countries? A case study from Kampala,Uganda

The present rapid urban growth of cities from developing countries causes negative externalities such as lagging infrastructure development. In combination with rapidly rising motorized vehicle use this leads to severe traffic congestion affecting the mobility of the urban residents. Therefore many urban governments are planning to improve their transport and mobility situations with mass rapid transit systems of which a bus rapid transit (BRT) is a rather easy system to implement at reasonable costs. However, due to high urban inequalities the effects of urban traffic and potential improvements of the urban transport system for the diverse group of urban residents can differ significantly. In our case study Kampala (Uganda) four main groups were identified through cluster analysis of socio-economic and residential data gathered through interviews: extreme poor, poor, middle income and rich. Each group experiences a different mobility with the extreme poor being the most vulnerable group. The planned BRT system aims to decrease the average travel time but risks to exclude the lowest income class since not enough attention is paid to the affordability of the system to all residents. Therefore we argue for a policy that works from bottom up and pays attention to the internal diversity of the population.     

九型人格理论在高校招聘配置工作中的应用

高校教师招聘进来后,必须优化配置。然而,每一个人力资源个体因性格不同,其对组织的适应性和需求不尽相同,加大了招聘配置整合的难度。本文从高校招聘配置的三大原则出发,运用九型人格理论,探讨了如何提高高校招聘配置工作的有效性。     

Between Neoliberal Governance and the Right to the City: Participatory politics in Berlin and Tel Aviv

Based on a comparison of Berlin and Tel Aviv, this article investigates the ways in which ensembles of participatory instruments mediate between neoliberal urban regimes and political agency shaping differentially the meaning of participation and the types of claims that can be advanced. The article gives an overview of the recent history of both cities through the lens of participatory politics. Two in‐depth case studies further examine the relationship between participatory politics and claim making in each setting: the recent conflict over a social center in the district of Friedrichshain‐Kreuzberg in Berlin and the Levinsky tent city of 2011 in Tel Aviv. In the concluding section, the article suggests that, rather than assuming that participatory tools either co‐opt movements or can be appropriated by them, we need to rethink the relationship between participatory tools, rights and recognition, and ask how participatory structures and political agency constitute each other in interwoven dynamics.     

A cellular automata-based land-use model as an integrated spatial decision support system for urban planning in developing cities: The case of the Bogotá region

Bogotá and the 17 neighboring municipalities make up one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Latin America. However, despite strong functional interactions within the area, there is no official government body at this level in charge of coordinating authorities and providing solutions to the wide variety of issues arising in the regional urban land system. Aiming at providing an insight on future land-use developments linked to new transport infrastructures and at offering a tool to support territorial decision-making, this paper presents a cellular automata-based (CA) model based in Metronamica® software, that allows testing different scenarios based on potential land-use policies, environmental suitability and transport alternatives.There has not been, so far, an urban planning tool that accounts for the complexities of this region. CA-based land-use simulations constitute a useful approach to understanding the impacts of urban planning policies and regulations. This tool can help to improve inter-territorial and inter-institutional coordination, which through planning and management policies seek a spatially integrated development, with a long-term perspective.The CA-based model proposed was calibrated to reproduce land-use changes between 2007 and 2016 using different methods and indicators. The model was used to simulate and analyze eight scenarios with different policy directions of transport infrastructure in the future of the region. The results of the simulations reflect the dynamics of territorial occupation. The calibration indices in the experiment indicate a high degree of suitability for the CA Bogotá model, proving its effectiveness and potential as a useful tool for decision-making. The results show that occupation scenarios with restricted developable zones within the city, tend to have the greater dispersion rate in the study area, compared to scenarios where land development plans are promoted in Bogotá, which representing a more compact development.     

Mapping Brisbane’s Casual Creative Corridor: Land use and policy implications of a new genre in urban creative ecosystems

Creative hotspots have become a key driver for urban policies to stimulate social, cultural, environmental and organisational growth of creative and knowledge-based clusters, districts and hubs. However, their functional and spatial characteristics vary due to their different evolving structure as new spaces of economic activity in different contexts. This article points to a consideration of new foci for both land use and urban economic policy through a mapping of formal and informal creative hotspots in Brisbane, Australia. The study found two distinctive development patterns: (a) earlier top-down approaches as instigated by national and international innovation policies, and; (b) recently emerging bottom-up spaces for creativity, knowledge and innovation practices. This study examines how formal creative strategies and emerging informal creative spaces shape cities and urban policies. The methodology comprises online data collection and a review of creative and knowledge strategies and implementation policies. Data was then analysed via multiple mapping techniques illustrating the spatial distribution of creative hotspots, formal and informal formations, scale and land use characteristics. The research findings consolidate our understanding of Brisbane’s creative ecosystem and suggest new urban policy mechanisms to better foster the interrelationship between top-down and bottom-up approaches in cities, that is, between formally planned and large-scale interventions and small-scale organic and informal creative activities.     

Land use regulation and urban land value: Evidence from China

Land use regulation has always been regarded as one of the most crucial means of macro-control of urban growth, which can affect a city’s land values directly and further determine related urban economic well-being. Since the New Type Urbanization Strategy proposed by the government in 2014, China’s mode of urban growth has been transformed from addressing “quantity” to “quality" in the urbanization process. In this case, the regulation of land use by the Chinese government plays a more important role in urban growth. With their planned land regulatory scheme, the various instruments employed by Chinese governments have quite different mechanisms influencing land prices. However, there are no rigorous studies focusing on the land use regulation system and its impact on land values to date, particular in China. This study seeks to explore how land use regulation affects urban land values through the systematic lens. We summarize the main land use regulatory instruments based on the analysis of China’s planned land use system and urban land banking system, including the construction land quota, constraints on the allowed floor area ratio (FAR) of each land transaction parcel, and land supply restrictions. A new dataset based on land transaction data from 2007 to 2016 that covers 286 prefectural cities from the country’s coastal, central, and western regions is used in the empirical analysis. The results show that the effects of the floor area ratio (FAR) on land values are significant and positive, with the residential and commercial land supply ratio being a key factor. Moreover, the results imply that the effects of constraints on FAR and commercial land supply vary between regions. These findings indicate that the Chinese land market is considerably distorted by excessive administrative interventions by local governments, in the stage of urban transition guided, the capable regulatory instruments could play an important role in adjusting urban land prices and hence impact on urban growth.     

Remote sensing-based detection of agricultural land losses around Greater Cairo since the Egyptian revolution of 2011

Over the last four decades, the loss of agricultural land has been observed in Egypt at high rates. However, the highest rates of losses have occurred since the January 25th revolution in 2011. Greater Cairo (GC), which is the largest metropolitan in Egypt, has witnessed a massive loss of agricultural land since the 2011 revolution. However, until now, no study or official report has revealed the volume of agricultural land losses in this region. This study quantifies agricultural land losses around the GC using Landsat satellite images from 2010 and 2018. Supervised classification was performed using the maximum likelihood algorithm in QGIS software. A post-classification comparison method was applied to detect the land use/land cover changes between the classified images; then, the loss of agricultural land was quantified using Arc GIS software. Visualizations of the gains and losses in agricultural land and the spatial trends of agricultural land losses were created using TerrSet software. The results show that 9600 ha of agricultural land were converted to urban use during 2010–2018, which means that the annual rate of agricultural land loss has tripled and now reaches approximately 1200 ha per year. Decay of executive authority, rapid population growth, real estate market speculation and fragmentation of agricultural land were the main driving factors of agricultural land losses during this period. The results of this research may help decision makers understand the current high rate of agricultural land loss. Hence, appropriate strategies may be adopted to prevent future losses of this valuable land.     

Relationship between city size and firm productivity – A new interpretation using the Chinese experience

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between city size and firm productivity by focusing on agglomeration, selection (market competition), and sorting (presence of firms with diverse productivity) effects using Chinese firm-level data for 1998–2013. Contrary to the existing literature, our parametric regression estimates from nearly two million firms show that when the selection effect is controlled, productivity advantage in big cities is reversed. This outcome is explained through a quantile regression showing the existence of left-sided sorting (inefficient firms sort themselves to larger cities) in big cities which is not captured in existing empirical literature. We further find that (1) left-sided sorting is stronger in exporters than non-exporters; (2) is also generated mainly in enterprises with high asset-liability ratios; and (3) selection has a positive effect on firm productivity, suggesting that market competition is key in an explanation of the rapid growth of big cities in China.     

转变城市发展方式之低碳城市建设——基于德国经验借鉴

首先从产业能源体系、低碳交通网络及生态环境三方面梳理德国低碳城市建设实践,然后总结德国在低碳意识培养、战略目标制定、政策体系建设等方面值得借鉴的经验,最后从“公平-效率-质量”视角为我国低碳城市建设提出建设路径:加快创新驱动,提高建设效率;提供制度支持,注重建设公平;强调以人为本,提升建设质量。