Effects of land-use master plans in the metropolitan fringe of Japan

The complexity of the landscape in Japanese metropolitan suburbs is the result of high competition among land-demanding economic activities. Although both urban and rural planning legislation has played certain roles in the ordering of land-use, lack of coordination among different zoning systems is still a key issue in the proper development and conservation of limited land. This study investigated the effects of land-use master plans on actual control of land use through maximal utilization of detailed grid data with advanced GIS functions. We analyzed land-use changes in the Osaka metropolitan area for three periods: 1979–1985; 1985–1991; 1991–1996, and compared these changes with the zoning status in each period. This study demonstrates that disordered developments resulted in an increase of vacant areas in urban fringes, which also accelerated the fragmentation of forests and farmlands, causing a disordered spatial pattern from which it will be difficult to recover with the present land-use master plans.     

Back to Von Thunen: a Southern European perspective on mono-centric urban growth,economic structure and non-urban land decline*

This study assesses trends (1960–2010) in forest cover over a Mediterranean metropolitan region (Attica, Greece) with the aim to investigate the role of local contexts promoting changes in the use of land. Forest cover decreased in a spatially heterogeneous manner over the study period determining a land-use structure coherent with the Von Thunen mono-centric model. We used a multivariate exploratory analysis of 26 contextual variables to identify changes in the urban spatial structure at the local scale. The shift from a land-use structure based on urban–rural and cropland-forest polarizations in the early 1960s to a pattern based on the polarization in medium-density, mixed urban/agricultural areas and low-density, sparse forest land has been observed in the last 50 years. Urban expansion into rural land and the establishment of protected areas in economically marginal and remote districts has been identified as relevant drivers of landscape transformation in the area. Our study demonstrates that land-use changes driven by expansion of dispersed settlements may consolidate mono-centric urban structures. A concentric land-use distribution around the central city is compatible with urban sprawl and may be indirectly supported by ‘green belt’ regional planning and environmental policies protecting high-quality natural land.     

城市总体规划空间引导效能分析——以常熟市为例

空间引导效能历来是城市总体规划实施评估的核心内容。基于历年遥感影像数据,采用城市生长极核模型、用地调控效力指数、Logit回归和用地经济效益等定量方法,对常熟几轮城市总体规划中城市总体布局、重点地区用地增长、中心城区用地置换和乡镇撤并等空间政策的调控效力展开研究。结果表明:现实城市总体布局与规划构想存在一定偏差;建设用地扩张与土地经济效益空间不相匹配;规划调控和区位条件成为影响地块闲置率的主导因素。规划对建设用地的调控效力有所增强,但对重点镇的用地调控却出现较大偏差;中心城区工业用地的"退二进三"政策效果显著,"乡镇撤并"对城镇生活性用地的调控绩效明显,但却未能抑制工业用地的散点蔓延,"一镇多区"格局仍然存在。     

Towards Facilitative and Pro-poor Land-Use Management in South African Urban Areas: Learning from International Experience

Few would argue with the proposition that land-use management is one of the most powerful tools in the context of planning, both in South Africa and internationally, with the potential to transform the urban landscape. Yet despite its potential, it has been neglected both in terms of academic enquiry and legislative reform. This has resulted in land-use management functioning as an undesirable and unwieldy tool that perpetuates the modernist ideals of land-use separation and sprawling suburbia, and most worryingly, the perpetuation of an urban form that is essentially anti-poor. This paper initiates a search for the appropriate criteria for a land-use management system in South Africa’s urban areas. We argue for a land-use management system that moves away from the traditional exclusive emphasis on zoning towards a more flexible system based on a tiered set of plans. This system must take into account and respond to the dynamics of the urban land market, both its formal and informal dimensions, and directly address the poor and their needs as the central focus of land-use management.     

The New Frontier in Metropolitan Planning

A major change is underway in metropolitan planning. The static plan, geared to a desired end-state, will be replaced by plans and programs for growth through future time. With the clarification of the concept of land use, separate plans will be prepared for locations of populations and activities and for the locations of buildings, facilities, and other physical improvements. Transportation plans will be integrated with land use and land improvement plans, reflecting the mutual interdependence of activities and traffic. Urban renewal plans will become integral with metropolitan plans, presenting programs for both developed and developing areas. Most important, with the development of metropolitan growth models, we shall better understand the processes of continual urban change, and our master plans will themselves become continuing processes for guiding that change.     

A longitudinal study of open space zoning and development in Hong Kong

This study evaluates the land-use zoning and development of open space in the hyper-dense, land-hungry city of Hong Kong. The existing literature has generally found that its open space provision is unsatisfactory in both quality and quantity. The study fills the research gap by undertaking an archive research and interpreting the past zoning data from a total of 1573 statutory town plans published between 1965 and 2006. It elucidates how the current ungenerous provision of public open space can be attributed to a number of historical, political and institutional factors including: inefficient division of government responsibilities, lack of public representation, pro-growth planning ideology, revenue-maximizing land sale policy and privatization of urban space. This study concludes that the development of public open space has been prejudiced under the statutory planning system and land allocation process. It suggests that the shrinking of public open space may cause excessive development density that aggravates the deteriorating urban climate in Hong Kong.     

REGULATING SCARCITY: THE EFFECTS OF ZONING ON URBAN LAND MARKET CHANGES

This paper explores the dynamics between zoning, land values and neighborhood change from 1960 to 1970. Using a sample of 352 central city and suburban census tracts contained within the Chicago SMSA, this paper examines the influence of zoning on neighborhood land value appreciation and the independent effects of land values and zoning on neighborhood housing changes. Findings show that zoning influenced land value appreciation over the decade within both central city and suburban areas. Central city zoning and land values operated jointly to influence neighborhood housing changes while in suburban areas, zoning mechanisms overrode market forces in influencing neighborhood development patterns. This paper demonstrates the forcefulness of the politics of the urban land market in regulating both land scarcity and land value changes and in influencing metropolitan spatial distributions.     

Exploring zoning scenario impacts upon urban growth simulations using a dynamic spatial model

Dynamic spatial models are being increasingly used to explore urban changes and evaluate the social and environmental consequences of urban growth. However, inadequate representation of spatial complexity, regional differentiation, and growth management policies can result in urban models with a high overall prediction accuracy but low pixel-matching precision. Correspondingly, improving urban growth prediction accuracy and reliability has become an important area of research in geographic information science and applied urban studies. This work focuses on exploring the potential impacts of zoning on urban growth simulations. Although the coding of land-use types into distinct zones is an important growth management strategy, it has not been adequately addressed in urban modeling practices. In this study, we developed a number of zoning schemes and examined their impacts on urban growth predictions using a cellular automaton-based dynamic spatial model. Using the city of Jinan, a fast-growing large metropolis in China, as the study site, five zoning scenarios were designed: no zoning (S0), zoning based on land-use type (S1), zoning based on urbanized suitability (S2), zoning based on administrative division (S3), and zoning based on development planning subdivision (S4). Under these scenarios, growth was simulated and the respective prediction accuracies and projected patterns were evaluated against observed urban patterns derived from remote sensing. It was found that zoning can affect prediction accuracy and projected urbanized patterns, with the zoning scenarios taking spatial differentiation of planning policies into account (i.e., S2–4) generating better predictions of newly urbanized pixels, better representing urban clustered development, and boosting the level of spatial matching relative to zoning by land-use type (S1). The novelty of this work lies in its design of specific zoning scenarios based on spatial differentiation and growth management policies and in its insight into the impacts of various zoning scenarios on urban growth simulation. These findings indicate opportunities for the more accurate projection of urban pattern growth through the use of dynamic models with appropriately designed zoning scenarios.     

The anti-apartment movement in the U.S. and the role of land use regulations in creating housing segregation

In the U.S., typically, poor and minority households are concentrated in central cities, which are ringed by middle class suburbs which contain a majority of the population of the metropolitan area. The resulting segregation is largely the outcome of public policy and institutional arrangements, rather than the excesses of a free market. Land use regulations have played a central role in creating segregation among the types of housing that are affordable to different income groups. Single family only zoning is a central institution in suburban areas; often multifamily housing is limited to a very tiny portion of the land zoned for housing. Land use policies regarding housing are formulated on a municipal level, in which states have only a minimal role and the federal government has no role. Decentralization of revenue sources and fiscal support for local services, including education, provides incentives for local zoning policies which exclude groups which are viewed as more costly to service, while decentralization of zoning powers make these policies possible. This article describes 1) the basic contours of the housing stock and population distribution in metropolitan areas, 2) the evolution of the single family only policy, and 3) recent efforts to counteract housing segregation patterns, which have had little success. Kenneth K. Baar is a attorney in the Berkeley, California and has a Ph.D. in urban planning. From 1991 to 1993, he was a Fulbright professor at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences. In 1994–95 he was visiting professor in the Urban Planning Department at Columbia University in New York City.     

Green belt in a compact city: A zone for conservation or transition?

The paper examines the evolution, implementation and performance of the green belt in the compact and land-hungry city of Hong Kong. The green belt in Hong Kong comprises over 25% of all the land areas under the statutory land-use zoning plans. Its planning policy declares that there is a presumption against development in this land-use zone. Based upon historical study, cross-sectional examination of 109 statutory zoning plans and quantitative analysis of 1230 planning application cases, this study has evaluated whether the green belt was indeed treated as a non-building area for the purpose of landscape and countryside conservation. The conclusion is that the actual planning intention of the green belt has been ambivalent and flexible and it is a transition zone rather than a zone for conservation in Hong Kong.     

Latent sprawl patterns and the spatial distribution of businesses in a southern European city

The relocation of businesses beyond the consolidated city is an important aspect of recent urbanization trends. With economic restructuring driven by suburbanization and counter-urbanization, Southern European metropolitan areas experienced distinct growth patterns compared with north-western Europe. The present study assesses the impact of recent changes in the spatial distribution of businesses on land-use structure, sprawl trends and land consumption in a Mediterranean urban region (Athens, Greece) with the aim to identify economic drivers of sprawl and to inform urban containment strategies. Businesses showed two distinct localization patterns: manufacture, publishing and transport companies, construction and hotels were concentrated in urban municipalities; real estate, finance, high-tech, telecommunication, mining and energy enterprises settled preferentially in suburban municipalities. Dispersed urban expansion mainly reflects the spatial relocation of economic activities with high returns on capital to cheaper land. High-tech enterprises and finance/real estate businesses dominated the economic structure of municipalities with sprawled settlements. Policies securing economic development and a land-saving spatial structure are increasingly required to work towards integrated measures promoting semi-compact metropolitan poles and containing deregulated urban expansion.     

辨析产权与规划权力的关系——中国控规与美国区划法的比较研究

尽管在诸多技术层面与美国区划法相近,中国的控制性详细规划在产权分配方面扮演着完全不同的角色。鉴于美国区划出现在私有产权盛行良久之后,因此象征着对现行产权的一种削减;中国的控制性详细规划则明确了政府会将何种产权授予开发商。因此,当开发商寻求规划变更时,美国对此更为宽容,而中国的制度却把这种行为视作试图变相谋取国家资源。无论如何,这两个国家的开发商都会设法对规划条件施加影响:美国开发商的做法是与当地政府公开谈判,而中国开发商不得不通过更加潜移默化的方式进行游说。长期而言,中国的规划条件调整使得政府以外的机构主导城市再开发项目的难度增大——无论其规模多小;但另一方面,国家也得以分享更多的土地使用价值。由此,虽然中国的控制性详细规划与美国区划法在形式上相似,但二者的作用并不相同,其对城市开发和再开发的影响也大相径庭。     

The Effect of Urban Containment and Mandatory Housing Elements on Racial Segregation in US Metropolitan Areas, 1990–2000

Abstract: Urban containment and state‐imposed mandatory housing elements in comprehensive land use plans attempt to reshape development patterns. Urban containment programs reign in the outward expansion of urban areas by restricting development of rural land outside urban containment boundaries and focusing the regional demand for urban development areas within them. This article assesses the effect of urban containment and mandatory housing elements on the percentage change in racial segregation change among US metropolitan areas during the 1990s. Ordinary least squares regression analysis suggests that while metropolitan areas with strong urban containment efforts saw a higher percentage decline in Anglo/African American residential segregation during the 1990s than metropolitan areas without such policies in place, urban containment had no statistically significant effect on segregation between Anglos and other races. Mandatory housing elements made no difference in racial segregation change between Anglos and any other race. Policy implications are posed.     

Land-use aspects of air-quality management

This paper describes relationships between land-use and air quality. Until very recently, strategies directed toward improved air quality relied almost exclusively upon fuel switching and employment of emission control devices. However, air quality can also be influenced through alteration of land-use patterns. Engineers during their education are generally not exposed to land-use and other socio-economic aspects of air-quality management, although federal and state policy maker are increasingly recognizing that exclusive reliance upon emission control devices is not a very satisfactory long range approach. Alteration of land use as it affects the living, working, and transportation patterns must be considered as well.The first two sections of this paper attempt to provide guidelines within which land-use alternatives can be meaningfully evaluated. Air-quality standars and other aspects of air-quality management are described and interpreted within a quantitative cost-benefit framework.The rudiments of urban geography are also provided in order to introduce the readers to the economics and social forces which shape cities. The fundamental purpose is to make technologists aware of the conflict between these forces and plans for arbitrary changes in spatial patterns. Next, energy variables are proposed as a way to meaningfully relate land-use and environmental pollution with society's quest for affluence. The section on meteorology and dispersion models describes and criticizes the modeling tools and simulations currently available for the prediction of pollution dispersion. Finally, an urban simulation is used to integrate the foregoing material. The air-pollution propensities of various land-use alternatives are assessed.Thus a diversity of topics—all with the common thread of relating urban air quality to urban land use—is addressed. Rather than providing ready-made answers, this paper describes useful evaluation tools and provides insight into the complex problems and interactions involved.     

Landscape effects of environmental impact on bay-area wetlands under rapid urban expansion and development policy: A case study of Lianyungang,China

This paper presents a synthesis of rapid landscape change and regional environmental dynamics in the Lianyungang bay area from 2000 to 2006 based on remote sensing data. We quantified the annual rate of urban land-use change in the study area using classified Landsat TM (2006-05-20) and ETM⁺ (2000-09-16) images. The classified images were used to generate maps of urban expansion and salt wetlands degradation, and landscape metrics were calculated and analyzed spatiotemporally across class and landscape level for each year. Results indicate that the Lianyungang bay area has a widespread urban–rural interface with rapid land-use changes, urban expansion and wetland degradation. Rapid increases in urban built-up land, which were often associated with large-scale salt wetlands degradation, have been prominent since 2005 when the eastern coastal development policy was implemented.     

Re-thinking urban planning in India: Learning from the wedge between the de jure and de facto development in Mumbai

Cities in the global south are undergoing changes in the production structure brought about by globalization and liberalization. These cities also witness significant informalities in terms of shelter and livelihoods. These phenomena are reflected in the urban land use patterns. Planning in these cities is under pressure to adapt to the dynamic urban condition but is constrained by the technical and bureaucratic process of master/development plan making. Through an empirical study of an area in the suburbs of Mumbai (India), this paper shows the wedge between planned and actual land use and discusses the reasons for this dichotomy. The paper argues that master/development plans based on technical principles with micro-level detailing are unable to foresee and hence or otherwise adapt to the economic dynamics and spatial restructuring in Mumbai; they are partly undermined by “occupancy urbanism” (Benjamin, 2008). We discuss how these factors are accommodated within and outside the scope of the development plans. The paper calls for a re-thinking of urban planning in India so that plans are better able to reflect the requirements and needs of the citizens.     

Urban expansion in Norway ‐ development by plan?

It has been a commonly held assumption that Norwegian municipal land use planning has given few results. Case studies of two Norwegian settlements show, however, that present day urban pattern is a planned development after the introduction of master planning as a planning tool after 1970¹. In the two municipalities, respectively 96 and 98 per cent of urban expansion after 1970 is in accordance with municipal master plans. Important reasons for this unexpected success of planning is that planning had a strong legitimacy base among local politicians. Planning was introduced because of clearly visible and perceptible problems with uncontrolled urban growth such as encroachment on farmland and recreational areas, and pollution of rivers and fjords from untreated sewage. In addition, to build co‐ordinated and predictable was necessary in order to achieve an efficient and economical infrastructure. Both municipalities were active in implementing the plans through acquisition of land and development of infrastructure.     

专题型城市设计高度分区研究体系探讨

专题型城市设计的高度分区属于城市总体规划中的一个子课题,其具有研究范围的覆盖性,研究价值的引导性、研究方法的借鉴性和研究过程的衔接性特征,遵循"两极求取,因素叠加"的思路.南京市总体规划修编中城市设计高度分区研究专题在分析意象区域与总体特征的基础上,通过划分"两极"--高层建筑优先发展区及严格控制区,形成南京市高度分区...     

Accuracy and congruency of three different digital land-use maps

For numerous model applications in the earth and environmental sciences, digital land-use data are indispensable as a source of information on the geographical distribution of the land-use/cover. Therefore, the land-use data sets ATKIS, CORINE Land Cover, and Landsat TM classifications are widely used in Germany. However, the users of these data mostly do not have information on their quality. In this study, the accuracy of the three above-mentioned digital land-use maps was evaluated a posteriori based on the results of a field inventory in two test areas with a total area of 17 km². The results show that the overall accuracy of the land-use maps varies from 0.692 to 0.876. For the individual land-use classes, the user accuracy ranged from less than 0.001 to 0.991. In this paper, the positional congruency of the land-use class polygons among the three maps was also evaluated for a larger study region of 670 km² in the state of Hessen (Germany). This region is a small structured landscape with a relatively high portion of fallow land. In the analysis, the following six land-use classes were considered: urban and traffic areas, forest, water, arable land, pastures and meadows, and fallow land (including other uses). The results showed that the congruency of the land-use classes forest and urban and traffic areas is higher than the congruency of the land-use classes of the open land (arable land, pastures and meadows, fallow).