THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN URBAN SPRAWL AND OBESITY: IS IT A TWO‐WAY STREET?

ABSTRACT.  We empirically examine the relationship between obesity and urban development patterns where individuals reside. Previous analyses treat urban form as exogenous to weight, and find higher body mass indices (BMI) among residents of areas with sprawl patterns of development. Using samples of recent movers, we find that the causality runs in both directions. Individuals who move to denser locations lose weight. As well, BMI is a determinant of the choice of a dense or sprawling location. In sum, while moving to a dense area results in weight loss, such locations are unlikely to be selected by individuals with high BMI.     

基于多源夜间灯光数据的城市活力与城市扩张耦合关系研究——以海峡西岸城市群为例

海峡西岸城市群是中国经济快速发展的热点地区,研究其城市活力与城市扩张的耦合关系对促进城市建设意义重大。本研究以 DMSP-OLS 和 NPPVIIRS夜间灯光数据为数据源提取1992—2017年该城市群城市建成区,利用城市扩张率指数等对城市扩张的动态及其演变特征进行分析;应用熵值法、耦合协调度模型等评估城市活力,在此基础上,探究了对应城市活力和城市扩张耦合关系。结果表明：在研究期间,海峡西岸城市群城市建成区面积增加了23228.79km²;城市活力呈逐步逐年增加趋势;城市活力与城市扩张的耦合协调性逐步增强;经济发展和城市规划、地理区位优势等因素也对研究区城市活力与城市扩张及其耦合协调度的变化有影响。本研究可为城市群时空演变及其城市活力评价分析提供方法借鉴与数据支持。     

Urban sprawl in Spain: differences among cities and causes

Urban sprawl has a major impact on the environment, public health and the socio-economic evolution of cities. The causes are numerous, being mainly related to the generalized use of the automobile in modern cities. Urban sprawl has been especially relevant in US cities since the 1950s, rapidly spreading to other cities in the rest of the world. This paper studies the case of Spain using recent data. Spanish cities have grown rapidly over the 90s and 2000s. The country has completed the process of urbanization and has suffered the effects of a major real estate bubble. In this context, we are interested in measuring and explaining where and why urban sprawl has appeared in Spanish cities. Digital mapping carried out around the year 2000 providing full coverage of Spain is used to calculate an Urban Sprawl Index. It is applied to all urban areas and municipalities throughout the country, providing an objective, comparable measurement of sprawl and identifying which areas are most affected by this phenomenon. A second stage of analysis is conducted in an attempt to explain the causes of the differences in sprawl among Spanish cities with a regression model based on the literature. We have found that the cases most affected by sprawl are the latest urban developments on the Mediterranean coast as well as certain areas in the vicinity of large cities: the mountains to the north of Madrid and the coastline near Barcelona and Valencia. In some cases, urban sprawl is starting to become a problem for the environment and urban sustainability, with important consequences for the future evolution of the affected cities.     

中国城市蔓延时空动态识别及驱动因素探测

城市蔓延已成为全球性的热点问题。基于2000-2017年夜间灯光数据和LandScan人口分布数据,以中国343个地级及以上城市为研究单元,利用能够细分城市内部密度差异的蔓延度指标测度城市蔓延状况,并运用趋势分析、探索性时空数据分析技术（ESTDA）和地理探测器等方法,分析中国城市蔓延变化趋势及时空格局,探究影响城市蔓延的驱动因素。结果表明：①2000-2017年,中国城市蔓延整体表现为中高度蔓延,在空间分布上,蔓延度呈现西北高、东南低的空间格局。②18年间,47%的城市其蔓延度基本保持不变,位于省际交界处的城市其蔓延度呈现增大的趋势,而少数省会城市或区域中心城市的蔓延度则呈现减小的趋势。③蔓延度的局部空间稳定性自东南地区向西北、东北地区递减。蔓延度存在较强的空间依赖性,且城市数量由低LISA弯曲度到高弯曲度大致呈现金字塔结构,79%的城市其蔓延度的波动性较弱;蔓延度没有出现明显的时空跃迁,空间凝聚性较强,空间格局较为稳定,存在一定的转移惰性。④第三产业产值、GRP和房地产开发投资额是影响中国城市蔓延的最主要因素。     

Sprawl in Spain and Madrid: A Low Starting Point Growing Fast

This article comments upon the situation of sprawl in Spain and Madrid, especially residential sprawl. It does not appear to be a serious problem due to its low starting point, but artificial surface and residential sprawl is growing rapidly. For that reason, it may be an issue in the future. Between 2000 and 2006, urban residential land use grew 0.4% in Spain and 0.2% in Europe per year, land use of industrial and commercial areas grew 2.3% in Spain and 0.4% in Europe and total artificial surface grew 2.7% in Spain and 0.6% in Europe (EEA, 2010). Further, we will study the legislation on maximum and minimum urban density in Spain. The highest maximum urban density is established by the Basque Country, with 230 dwellings per hectare, and the highest minimum urban density is established by Catalonia, with 50 dwellings per hectare. In both cases, it is applied to only certain types of territories. Finally, we will analyse what happens in the Region of Madrid in relation to sprawl. It has very similar patterns compared with the rest of Spain, although more pronounced.     

Measurement of Urban Fringe Sprawl in Nanjing between 1984 and 2010 Using Multidimensional Indicators

Due to the global increases in urbanisation rates, urban sprawl has become a worldwide issue. In China, the development of rural areas has been affected by urban expansion and adjustments of metropolitan areas by administrative divisions that have led to losses in agricultural lands and ecosystem services. There is the ‘paradoxical’ desire for governments to promote rural development and protect land resources. Urban fringe sprawl is a prominent issue in the process of rural development. Identifying and measuring sprawl at the urban fringe could assist policymakers to either encourage or discourage this phenomenon. This paper demonstrates use of multidimensional indicators to effectively measure urban fringe sprawl by remote sensing, in addition to demographic and socio‐economic data. Using integrated indicators observed in the recent Chinese development context, urban fringe sprawl was measured comprehensively for Jiangning, a district in the city of Nanjing, China. This study indicates that Jiangning is sprawling rapidly. The results also show that the multidimensional indicator approach could provide decision support to create effective long‐term land‐use planning policies for controlling urban sprawl patterns.     

Decline and sprawl: an evolving type of urban development – observed in Liverpool and Leipzig1

Much of the empirical research on urban sprawl has been carried out in North America and most theoretical studies on this problem have been concerned with expanding urban areas. This study differs, firstly in that it is concerned with sprawl in two European cities, Liverpool in England and Leipzig in Germany, and secondly because both these cities are in decline. This presents an opportunity to explore whether the process of urban sprawl is somehow specific in a situation of urban decline and what its outcomes might be for both urban form and urban policy.     

基于GIS的西安市城市扩展与模拟研究

本文以西安市为研究区域,以2002年ETM影像和2007年TM影像遥感数据为城市扩展动态变化的主要信息来源,采用逻辑回归模型并结合GIS技术对西安市的城市空间扩展进行模拟。研究选取了道路、河流、地裂缝、地面沉降、人口和GDP等6个因子,建立了西安市城市扩展的逻辑回归模型,并根据所建立的模型对西安市的城市扩展进行了模拟,结果表明,所建立的逻辑回归模型能够较好地模拟西安市的城市扩展,对西安市城市扩展的驱动力具有较强的解释作用,其中对城市扩展影响最重要的因素为距道路距离。     

基于精明发展的城市扩张与土地利用效益的耦合研究——以济南市主城区为例

精明发展已成为国际化城市发展的主流。在精明发展理论的指导下，以区域中心城市济南为例，选取城市扩张与土地利用效益两个子系统，从空间形态、发展效率、外部影响、用地结构、人口变化、经济规模、公共服务和综合建设八个维度，测度济南市主城区城市扩张与土地利用效益的耦合协调关系。结果表明：①济南市城市扩张阶段性特征明显，扩张模式从单核心向多核心转变；②济南市土地利用效益总体水平较低，但其发展符合“低速-高速-平稳”的变化过程，且近年来呈持续优化趋势；③济南市城市扩张与土地利用效益不符合精明发展要求，城市扩张对土地利用效益的促进作用不足，二者间耦合协调度不高。     

The general equilibrium effects of high-occupancy vehicle lanes on congestion,sprawl, energy use,and carbon emissions

High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have been promoted to encourage carpools, reduce traffic congestion, and improve air quality. At the partial equilibrium level, commuting with three workers per automobile clearly reduces highway congestion, lowers carbon emissions, and saves energy compared with three single drivers. This paper develops a numerical urban simulation model to generate the general equilibrium effects of HOV lanes on urban spatial structure, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The major findings are that while HOV lanes reduce traffic congestion and improve welfare, the fall in transportation cost leads to urban sprawl, which results in higher dwelling energy use and a larger carbon footprint. Overall, the HOV lane policy has little effect on total energy consumption and carbon emissions. This is another classic case of general equilibrium effects reversing the partial equilibrium effects of an urban policy. In contrast, a gasoline tax policy leads to less urban sprawl but is less effective at lowering energy consumption and carbon emissions. Imposing congestion tolls is a more effective tool at reducing traffic congestion, saving energy, and lowering carbon emissions.     

美国城市蔓延之后的规划运动及其启示

本文以对我国城市规划的借鉴和启示为目的,探索性的从社会历史视角分析了导致美国城市蔓延的原由,并述评了美国各界针对蔓延问题引发全面反思,和在规划界形成的目前具有广泛影响力的"聪明增长"、"新都市主义"和"可持续发展"等新规划思潮、主张及其反对者的批判观点。在此基础上,指出我国城市化过程中以"前车之鉴"谋求可持续发展,探索符合国情的城市空间模式的关键点:①警惕蔓延;②完善城市交通格局;③挖掘"单位制"的新生命力;④促进混合高强度土地利用和开发模式。     

SPRAWL,BLIGHT, AND THE ROLE OF URBAN CONTAINMENT POLICIES: EVIDENCE FROM U.S. CITIES

U.S. post‐war suburbanization has reshaped the spatial pattern of growth in many metropolitan areas, with population and employment shift toward the suburbs resulting in the urban decay of central cities. This being the case, the adoption of adequate anti‐sprawl policies should lead to a reduction in city blight. Availability of detailed blight measures at the city level enables us to undertake a novel empirical analysis to test this hypothesis. The empirical specification presented here identifies the specific impact of more stringent anti‐sprawl policies adopted at the metro level, proxied by the adoption of urban containment policies, on city blight. Results indicate that the adoption of such policies has effectively contributed to the reduction of downtown deterioration.     

Kids,raccoons, and roos: awkward encounters and mixed affects

Within the Western cultural imaginary, child–animal relations are characteristically invoked with fond nostalgia and sentimentality. They are often represented as natural and innocent relations, thick with infantilizing and anthropomorphizing ‘cute’ emotions. Our multispecies ethnographic research – which is conducted in the everyday, lived common worlds of Australian and Canadian children and animals – reveals a very different political and emotional landscape. We find these embodied child–animal relations to be non-innocently entangled, fraught, and messy. In this article, we focus on some awkward encounters of mixed affect when kids and raccoons co-inhabit an urban forest setting in Vancouver, and when kids and kangaroos bodily encounter each other in a bush setting in Canberra. We trace the imbroglio of child–animal curiosities, warinesses, risks, inconveniences, revulsions, attachments, and confrontations at these sites as generative of new ethical logics.     

Using the Public Open Space Attributable Index tool to assess children’s public open space use and access by independent mobility

This study examined associations between public open space (POS) attributes and children’s use, and independent mobility to, POS in Auckland, New Zealand. Overall 240 children aged 9–12 years and their parents/caregivers participated. Data were sourced from child travel diaries and parent telephone interviews. The Public Open Spaces Attributable Index (POSAI) assessed POS quality and quantity. Associations were examined between age, sex, ethnicity, parental licence of freedom score, and POSAI with: (1) child trips to POS and (2) independently mobile trips to POS. Children made a total of 68 trips to POS over a seven-day period; 35 of these were independently mobile. Child ethnicity was related to child trips to POS. Independent trips to POS differed by ethnicity and parental licence of freedom. This research utilised a new tool, the POSAI, to examine associations of POS use and independent mobility in children living in urban neighbourhoods.     

Location Determinants of New Foreign-Owned Manufacturing Plants

In this paper we examine the county-level pattern of new foreign-owned manufacturing plants in the United States from 1989 through 1994. We construct a model to produce insights into the differences in the location of these plants among Bureau of Economic Analysis regions, as well as between rural and urban counties. Higher levels of economic size, educational attainment, the existing manufacturing base, and transportation infrastructure are found to be associated with larger numbers of new foreign-owned plants. Meanwhile, higher levels of taxes and labor-intensiveness are found to be associated with smaller numbers of new plants. Comparing regions, we find that the main advantages of the Southeast region stem from a relatively high manufacturing base and relatively low taxes. Comparing urban with rural counties, we find that urban counties possess more favorable average values for nearly all the explanatory variables.     

城市蔓延的多维度思考

半个多世纪以来,城市蔓延引起了广泛关注,取得了显著的研究进展,但也存在一些不足。本文就城市蔓延的内涵界定、测度方法、动力机制及中国大城市空间扩张的特殊性进行讨论与辨析,认为：城市蔓延是指那种盲目而无计划的、分散而非连续性的、用地功能单一且低密度的、过度依赖机动化出行且导致人地关系日趋紧张的不可持续的城市空间扩展模式;具有复杂性、阶段性、区域性、相对性等特点;是经济因素、制度因素、政策因素、技术因素、规划因素、社会因素、文化心理因素或行为因素等综合作用的结果;城市蔓延是过度郊区化的表征,是与特定的时空条件相联系的,需要从中心城区与郊区互动演进的视角来考察;中国大城市的交通拥堵和空气污染问题正在从城市中心向郊区扩展,新一轮城市规划必须对此给予足够的重视。     

Zwischenstadt as a travelling concept: towards a critical discussion of mobile ideas in transnational planning discourses on urban sprawl

This article contributes to the advancement of the critical analysis of transnational flows of planning ideas with a particular focus on debates around urban sprawl. It emphasizes that travelling concepts tend to lose their critical content en route, and explores how they could be revived. Our argument starts by identifying the drawbacks of comparative studies in planning, and suggests an exploration of Edward Said’s notion of travelling theories to avoid these dangers. Chronicling the import of the German concept of Zwischenstadt – which literally translated means ‘(in)between city’ – into the Swedish planning research discourse on urban sprawl, we examine how travelling concepts tend to become institutionalized during their journey. We then explore ways to revive the critical content of Zwischenstadt by first considering translations of the context of travelling concepts and then deliberations on their literal translation, which emphasizes the fruitfulness of a landscape perspective as a critical lens on urbanization processes.     

URBAN GROWTH EXTERNALITIES AND NEIGHBORHOOD INCENTIVES: ANOTHER CAUSE OF URBAN SPRAWL?*

ABSTRACT This paper suggests a cause of low density urban development or urban sprawl that has not been given much attention in the literature. There have been a number of arguments put forward for market failures that may account for urban sprawl, including incomplete pricing of infrastructure, environmental externalities, and unpriced congestion. The problem analyzed here is that urban growth creates benefits for an entire urban area, but the costs of growth are borne by individual neighborhoods. An externality problem arises because existing residents perceive the costs associated with the new residents locating in their neighborhoods, but not the full benefits of new entrants which accrue to the city as a whole. The result is that existing residents have an incentive to block new residents to their neighborhoods, resulting in cities that are less dense than is optimal, or too spread out. The paper models several different types of urban growth, and examines the optimal and local choice outcomes under each type. In the first model, population growth is endogenous and the physical limits of the city are fixed. The second model examines the case in which population growth in the region is given, but the city boundary is allowed to vary. We show that in both cases the city will tend to be larger and less dense than is optimal. In each, we examine the sensitivity of the model to the number of neighborhoods and to the size of infrastructure and transportation costs. Finally, we examine optimal subsidies and see how they compare to current policies such as impact fees on new development.     

Agricultural variation and human fertility in antebellum Pennsylvania

Focus in this discussion is on research designed to examine human fertility variation in 59 Pennsylvania counties in 1850 and 1860. The research goes beyond previous historical studies in examining the relationship between land quality and fertility and in separating the possible impacts of settlement from the availability of land for agricultural purposes. The measure of human fertility used in the analysis was the child-woman ratio, defined as the number of children aged 0-4/1000 white women aged 15-49. In 1850 the child-woman ratio ranged from 488-889. The child-woman ratio fell slightly between 1850 and 1860, and county level variation was reduced. Yet, Pennsylvania counties varied substantially in fertility levels during this period. The range between the highest and lowest fertility countries was over 400 children in 1850 and almost 350 in 1860. The set of agricultural variables displayed expected differences at the 2 time periods. The excess demand for farmsites increased between 1850 and 1860, while the variation in demand decreased by over one-half, reflecting additional settlement within all acres of the state. The settlement ratio increased over the decade; the sex ratio declined, most likely in response to outmigration westward. The agricultural variables were all negatively related to the child-woman ratio and were statistically significant, except for the labor/acre variable. The strongest correlation in 1850 was between the excess demand for farmsites and fertility. This coefficient indicated that the greater the excess demand for farmsites, the lower the child-woman ratio. This relationship was attentuated somewhat for 1860, yet it continued to be negative and statistically significant. The socioeconomic and demographic variables were all related to fertility in the expected direction, but only 5 of the 7 correlations were statistically significant in 1850 and 6 in 1860. The settlement ratio, sex ratio, percent urban, distance to urban place, and the measure of female age composition were all significantly related to fertility in 1850 and 1860. The study results support the growing body of research which has identified agricultural opportunity as a significant factor in fertility in rural areas of 19th century America. The findings also suggest that the importance of agricultural opportunity extended beyond the frontier period.     

Testing the waters of coastal urbanization: contested projects on Corsica’s protected lands

In the wake of the decentralization reforms implemented in France in the early 1980s, the Coast Protection Act (‘loi littoral’) was enacted in 1986 to counterbalance the significant regulatory powers devolved through those reforms to local municipalities in matters of urban planning. The act’s purpose was to contain urban sprawl, especially in heretofore undeveloped and protected areas such as those found on the Corsican coastline. Many local officials protested that the act would freeze any development on vast tracts of land and become a hindrance to carrying out potentially lucrative tourism projects on the most attractive coastal frontage parcels. The inquiry draws on a statistical sample of 252 legal arguments put forward in 180 claims, which were filed in the Corsican Administrative Court during the 2004–2011 period. From a sociological perspective, we examine in this article the strategies behind litigation and the use of the administrative courts as a means to resolve conflicts that have arisen over the attempted development of protected coastal areas. Special attention is paid to disputes over proposed development projects against which claims have been filed by local inhabitants and state administrators with the intention of containing urban sprawl.