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.     

Resilience of sustainability‐oriented and financially‐driven organizations

To answer key questions concerning how negative and positive financial performance gaps motivate organizations to build more resilient systems, we develop a conceptual process model to reveal the process by which financially and sustainability‐driven organizations can translate these negative and positive financial performance gaps into organizational resilience. We specify the different modes of search behaviors that these organizations pursue when encountering negative and positive financial performance gaps. We then expand on group engagement model to theorize that vicarious search is likely to encourage limiting behaviors, whereas internal search is likely to foster promotion behaviors. Finally, we explain how both promoting and limiting behaviors can be helpful in improving organizational resilience. In this way, we hope to advance research that connects and integrates relatively disparate realms and, more specifically, to contribute to the sustainability, resilience, and performance feedback literatures.     

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。     

Study of emerging air taxi network operation using discrete-event systems simulation approach

This research focuses on understanding the air taxi operations to determine the number of air taxis required to fulfill the demand for urban air mobility in New York City (NYC). We leverage the Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify (DMADV) framework and integrate it with the systems simulation approach. Upon investigation, we find that all the parameters linearly impact the vehicle utilization, while other measures are robust, specifically with respect to the seating capacity. It is also recommended to operate initially with 70 air taxis in NYC to achieve a trade-off between customer wait time and vehicle utilization. The proposed approach can act as a recommender system for air taxi companies.     

试析水文信息化技术在水利防汛工作中的应用

我国受到季风气候的影响,降水量季节变化比较大,导致河道的径流量季节变化也很大,降水异常极易引发洪水灾害。在水利防汛工作中,水文信息技术的应用,给水利防汛工作产生了积极的作用。本文在水文信息化技术应用之前水利防汛工作存在的问题的基础上,结合具体的防汛实例,对信息化技术在水利防汛工作中的应用效果进行了探讨。     

Utilizing urban form characteristics in urban logistics analysis: a case study in Lisbon,Portugal

Within the realm of urban logistics, Macário (2013) developed a hypothesis, denominated the Logistics Profile (LP) concept that suggests homogeneous groups of urban zones with respect to three dimensions, which could be used to analyze freight movement policy: (1) the social and built environment; (2) characteristics of the goods/products being moved; (3) characteristics of the deliveries at the receiver establishment. The concept was expected to ease the transferability of best practices in city logistics, by analyzing similarities and differences between zones. This research uses a quantitative methodology to apply the LP concept, and assess its potential, using the city of Lisbon as a case study. The analysis is focused on: (a) the extrapolation of freight trip generation per establishment and delivery characteristics from a sample of commercial establishments to the population within the case study, (b) proposing a methodology to test the LPs, (c) testing the existence of proposed LPs. Freight trips have been extrapolated using a Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) model. Freight delivery characteristics were attributed to establishments from a sample-based probability distribution. LPs were tested using a two-step cluster analysis. Some LPs have been matched with clusters of case-study zones, subject to case study particularities. Profile overlap was not an issue and occurrences were expected. The testing showed that Logistic Profiles have the potential for being used as a departure point for urban freight planning and policy analysis.     

How Do Squatters Deal with the State? Legalization and Anomalous Institutionalization in Madrid

Radical and autonomous urban movements like the European squatters' movement tend to resist integration into the institutions of the state, although particular legal and political conditions in each country or city may significantly alter this tendency. In this article, I examine the controversial issue of ‘institutionalization’ among squatters, focusing on the few cases of legalized squats (social centres) in the city of Madrid. Negotiations with the state authorities and processes of legalization are the major forms of institutionalization involving squatters. However, an anomalous kind of institutionalization also emerges once squats, whether legalized or not, become consolidated and socially accepted. For squatting to have a successful impact, then, depends on both the type of autonomy achieved by squatters and the different outcomes of the processes of institutionalization. The case of Madrid provides empirical evidence that: (1) negotiations with state authorities were very frequent among squatters, but most were defensive; (2) the few cases of legalization were due to specific conditions such as the urban centrality of the squats, single‐issue identities, social network solidarity, favourable media coverage, formal organizations working as facilitators and the squatters' leadership of the process. Furthermore, legalized squats in Madrid preserved a high degree of autonomy, self‐management and ties to other radical social movements. In conclusion, both the legalized squats and the squatters' movement in Madrid as a whole, avoided ‘terminal institutionalization’ and, instead, gave shape to a ‘flexible’ one.