Drewnowski, A.; Moudon, A. V.; Jiao, J.; Aggarwal, A.; Charreire, H.; Chaix, B. (2014). Food Environment and Socioeconomic Status Influence Obesity Rates in Seattle and in Paris. International Journal Of Obesity, 38(2), 306 – 314.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To compare the associations between food environment at the individual level, socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity rates in two cities: Seattle and Paris. METHODS: Analyses of the SOS (Seattle Obesity Study) were based on a representative sample of 1340 adults in metropolitan Seattle and King County. The RECORD (Residential Environment and Coronary Heart Disease) cohort analyses were based on 7131 adults in central Paris and suburbs. Data on sociodemographics, health and weight were obtained from a telephone survey (SOS) and from in-person interviews (RECORD). Both studies collected data on and geocoded home addresses and food shopping locations. Both studies calculated GIS (Geographic Information System) network distances between home and the supermarket that study respondents listed as their primary food source. Supermarkets were further stratified into three categories by price. Modified Poisson regression models were used to test the associations among food environment variables, SES and obesity. RESULTS: Physical distance to supermarkets was unrelated to obesity risk. By contrast, lower education and incomes, lower surrounding property values and shopping at lower-cost stores were consistently associated with higher obesity risk. CONCLUSION: Lower SES was linked to higher obesity risk in both Paris and Seattle, despite differences in urban form, the food environments and in the respective systems of health care. Cross-country comparisons can provide new insights into the social determinants of weight and health.
Keywords
Obesity; Health & Social Status; Social Status; Supermarkets; Grocery Shopping; Physiology; Body-mass Index; Dietary Energy Density; Atherosclerosis Risk; Weight Status; Us Adults; Associations; Health; French; Access; Socioeconomic Status (ses); Access To Supermarket; Food Environment; Food Shopping
Yang, Liya; Shen, Qing; Li, Zhibin. (2016). Comparing Travel Mode and Trip Chain Choices Between Holidays and Weekdays. Transportation Research Part A: Policy & Practice, 91, 273 – 285.
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Abstract
Choices of travel mode and trip chain as well as their interplays have long drawn the interests of researchers. However, few studies have examined the differences in the travel behaviors between holidays and weekdays. This paper compares the choice of travel mode and trip chain between holidays and weekdays tours using travel survey data from Beijing, China. Nested Logit (NL) models with alternative nesting structures are estimated to analyze the decision process of travelers. Results show that there are at least three differences between commuting-based tours on weekdays and non-commuting tours on holidays. First, the decision structures in weekday and holiday tours are opposite. In weekday tours people prefer to decide on trip chain pattern prior to choosing travel mode, whereas in holiday tours travel mode is chosen first. Second, holiday tours show stronger dependency on cars than weekday tours. Third, travelers on holidays are more sensitive to changes in tour time than to the changes in tour cost, while commuters on weekdays are more sensitive to tour cost. Findings are helpful for improving travel activity modeling and designing differential transportation system management strategies for weekdays and holidays. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Choice Of Transportation; Transportation Management; Voyages & Travels; Travel Costs; Travel Time (traffic Engineering); Decision Structure; Nested Logit Model; Policy; Travel Behavior; Patterns; Behavior; Time
Yuan, Hong; He, Yuan; Wu, Yuanyuan. (2019). A Comparative Study on Urban Underground Space Planning System between China and Japan. Sustainable Cities And Society, 48.
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Abstract
In China, urban underground space (UUS) planning is still in the exploration stage, and its development is hindered by problems related to local autonomy, systemic deficiency and poor management. This paper compared and analyzed the development status of UUS planning in China and Japan to study the differences in terms of planning objectives, planning structure, and planning content of UUS, and made suggestions for the future development of China's UUS planning system. Since there are many difficulties in underground master planning in China to predict the planning scale of UUS, planning can only serve to provide planning principles and site selections. Instead, the regulatory detailed planning has legal effect in the planning system and becomes the most direct and powerful tool for the government to control and guide the urban land use. Meanwhile, Japan's underground utilization system is guided by urban agglomeration and can provide an important reference for Chinese development in terms of refined design, human concern, regulation, legislation, and coordination. Urgently, China needs to establish a system for UUS planning and management to promote three-dimensional urban development, establish coordination mechanisms for the detailed planning of UUS, and strengthen the planning of underground transportation networks, complexes, and streets.
Keywords
Development Trends; Resources; Comparison Of Underground Space Planningsystem Between China And Japan; Land System; Uus Master Planning; Uus Regulatory Detailed Planning; Three-dimensional Intensification; Legalization; Environmental And Safety
McLaren, Brian L. (2021). Modern Architecture and Colonialism in the Islamic World. International Journal Of Islamic Architecture, 10(1), 193 – 202.
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Keywords
Modem Architecture; Colonialism; North Africa; Middle East; Historiography; Postcolonial Theory
El-Anwar, Omar; Aziz, Tamer Abdel. (2014). Integrated Urban-Construction Planning Framework for Slum Upgrading Projects. Journal Of Construction Engineering And Management, 140(4).
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Abstract
Slums are areas of population concentrations developed in the absence of physical planning and lack access to life essentials. Slums represent major national challenges in countries where they exist, especially developing countries. Various intervention strategies can be adopted to upgrade and/or replace slums, but are often faced with serious construction challenges, such as lack of access to sites and poor terrain conditions. Moreover, during the execution of slum upgrading projects, resident families can experience significant social and economic disruptions. The objective of this paper is present an integrated urban-construction planning framework for slum upgrading projects. This framework incorporates participatory upgrading and is designed to achieve three important objectives, including (1)maximizing the benefits of slum upgrading projects by identifying and accelerating the delivery of urgent projects; (2)providing more accurate and practical estimates of upgrading projects costs and timelines, which enables controlling and minimizing the total projects costs and durations; and (3)minimizing the social and economic disruptions for resident families during construction. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate the potential of the proposed framework and its core multiobjective optimization process.
Keywords
Construction; Industrial Economics; Optimisation; Planning; Project Management; Social Sciences; Integrated Urban-construction Planning Framework; Slum Upgrading Projects; Physical Planning; Intervention Strategies; Construction Challenges; Economic Disruptions; Social Disruptions; Urgent Projects Delivery; Project Costs; Multiobjective Optimization Process; Logistics; Constructability; Optimization; Design; Build; Urban Areas; Slums Upgrading; Logistics Planning; Multi-objective Optimization; Integrated Design-build; Project Planning And Design
Coslett, Daniel E. (2017). (Re)branding a (Post)colonial Streetscape: Tunis’s Avenue Habib Bourguiba and the Road Ahead. International Journal Of Islamic Architecture, 6(1), 59 – 96.
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Abstract
Arguably Tunis's premier public space, the iconic Avenue Bourguiba is today the product of over 150 years of manipulation, regulation and interpretation. Its development can be seen as an early example of thematic place branding, thereby complicating the notion that the widespread phenomenon is an exclusively postmodern and western one. In identifying three potential place-brand labels, this article considers the establishment of the 'Parisian Colonial' Avenue by French colonial authorities, its 'Tunisian Modern' modification at independence, and its more recent historicist 'Parisian Global' refurbishment within the contexts of colonialism, authoritarian governance and globalization. On the eve of the January 2011 revolution, the space reinforced the Ben Ali regime's maintenance of control and capitalized on the long-since entrenched image of a dual - eastern and western, traditional and modern - postcolonial city. In the revolution's wake the Avenue has become a reinvigorated public forum with a more complex character. Indeed, while the Avenue's existing form and function remain emblematic of Tunis's hybrid postcolonial identity, the thoroughfare now exemplifies the ongoing 'Arab Spring'. Its cultural brandscape and heritage content, though enhanced with new aspects of democratic empowerment, are likely to endure as the transitioning country continues to participate in the process of globalization.
Keywords
Africa; (post)colonialism; Architectural/urban History; Place Branding; Heritage; Arab Spring; Tunis
Abramson, Daniel B. (2020). Ancient and Current Resilience in the Chengdu Plain: Agropolitan Development Re-‘Revisited’. Urban Studies (sage Publications, Ltd.), 57(7), 1372 – 1397.
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Abstract
The Dujiangyan irrigation system, China's largest, is one of the world's most important examples of sustainable agropolitan development, maintained by a relatively decentralised system of governance that minimises bureaucratic oversight and depends on significant local autonomy at many scales down to the household. At its historic core in the Chengdu Plain, the system has supported over 2000 years of near-continuously stable urban culture, as well as some of the world's highest sustained long-term per-hectare productivity and diversity of grain and other crops, especially considering its high population density, forest cover, general biodiversity and flood management success. During the past decade, rapid urban expansion has turned the Chengdu Plain from a net grain exporter into a grain importer, and has radically transformed its productive functioning and distinctive scattered settlement pattern, reorganising much of the landscape into larger, corporately-managed farms, and more concentrated and infrastructure-intensive settlements of non-farming as well as farming households. Community-scale case studies of spatial-morphological and household socio-economic variants on the regional trend help to articulate what is at stake. Neither market-driven 'laissez-faire' rural development nor local state-driven spatial settlement consolidation and corporatisation of production seem to correlate well with important factors of resilience: landscape heterogeneity; crop diversity and food production; permaculture; and flexibility in household independence and choice of livelihood. Management of the irrigation system should be linked to community-based agricultural landscape preservation and productive dwelling, as sources of adaptive capacity crucial to the social-ecological resilience of the city-region, the nation and perhaps all humanity.
Keywords
Urbanization; Economies Of Agglomeration; Agricultural Ecology; Sustainability; Urban Planning; Land Use; China; Agglomeration/urbanisation; Agroecosystems; Environment/sustainability; History/heritage/memory; Redevelopment/regeneration; Cultivated Land; Countryside; Expansion; State; Rise; Modernization; Conservation; Integration; Earthquake; Agglomeration; Urbanisation; Environment; History; Heritage; Memory; Redevelopment; Regeneration; Population Density; Production; Farming; Agriculture; Decentralization; Autonomy; Food Production; Households; Landscape; Resilience; Rural Development; Food; Farms; Regional Development; Productivity; Economic Development; Case Studies; Agricultural Production; Biodiversity; Sustainable Development; Governance; Preservation; Crops; Flood Management; Irrigation; Permaculture; Radicalism; Socioeconomic Factors; Grain; Flexibility; Heterogeneity; Variants; Urban Areas; Irrigation Systems; Rural Communities; Bureaucracy; Landscape Preservation; Agricultural Land; Flood Control; Density; Infrastructure; Urban Sprawl; Livelihood; Farm Management; Rural Areas; Urban Farming; Settlement Patterns; Agribusiness; Market Economies
Wang, Yunhong; Lee, Hyun Woo; Tang, Wenzhe; Whittington, Jan; Qiang, Maoshan. (2021). Structural Equation Modeling for the Determinants of International Infrastructure Investment: Evidence from Chinese Contractors. Journal Of Management In Engineering, 37(4).
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Abstract
International infrastructure investment can effectively accelerate infrastructure development in developing countries and thus support their social and economic progress. However, little is known of the factors that may determine the flow of international infrastructure investment to those countries. This study aims to bridge that knowledge gap, first by identifying the determinants of international infrastructure investment, and then by developing a structural equation model to reveal their underlying interrelationships. The structural equation model is applied to country-level data regarding international infrastructure investment with Chinese contractors in 141 countries worldwide over the 9-year period from 2009 to 2017. The results show that three determinants, namely infrastructure quality, labor supply, and investment interdependency, have a positive relationship with a country's international infrastructure investment inflow. However, another determinant, institutional environment, has a significantly negative impact, which suggests that when making foreign infrastructure investment, Chinese contractors enter countries with a comparatively poor institutional environment with substantial political risks. The results also highlight how much a robust infrastructure development plan can help developing countries avoid the poor-infrastructure trap, a situation in which poor infrastructure quality discourages international infrastructure investment. These research findings may assist international infrastructure investment firms to make informed decisions with regard to financing and managing projects and help policymakers who focus on attracting foreign investment in infrastructure.
Keywords
Foreign Direct-investment; Public-private Partnerships; Economic-growth; Transport Infrastructure; Developing-countries; Labor Productivity; Fit Indexes; Location; Energy; Firms; Infrastructure Investment; Institutional Environment; Infrastructure Quality; Foreign Direct Investment (fdi) Interdependency; Structure Equation Modeling; Belt And Road Initiative
Lee, Namhun; Schaufelberger, John E. (2014). Risk Management Strategies for Privatized Infrastructure Projects: Study of the Build-Operate-Transfer Approach in East Asia and the Pacific. Journal Of Management In Engineering, 30(3).
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Abstract
Private-public partnerships have been adopted for the development of public infrastructure to meet the growing demand for public services. Many Asian countries have used the build-operate-transfer (BOT) approach to develop public infrastructure projects. However, the potential benefits of undertaking a BOT project are accompanied by corresponding risks from the private sector's perspective. The objectives of this study are (1)to identify and discuss major risks inherent in the East Asia and Pacific regions, and (2)to propose risk management strategies for future BOT projects to be successful. This paper reports the results of five case study analyses undertaken to review their primary risks and mitigated methods. In addition, this paper proposes some strategies for future BOT projects. Two main categories of risks were analyzed: general risks and project-specific risks. Risk management strategies were suggested for each category of risk. The main finding of this study indicates that the private sector cannot be the only participant in risk management. The host government's active support is the most essential factor for the profitability and economic viability of a BOT project in the East Asia and Pacific regions.
Keywords
Organisational Aspects; Project Management; Public Administration; Public Utilities; Risk Management; Structural Engineering; Risk Management Strategies; Privatized Infrastructure Projects; Build-operate-transfer Approach; East Asia; Private-public Partnerships; Public Services; Asian Countries; Public Infrastructure Projects; Pacific Regions; Future Bot Projects; Project-specific Risks; General Risks; Build-operate-transfer; Privatized Infrastructure
Nazari, Ahad; Vandadian, Shaghayegh; Abdirad, Hamid. (2017). Fuzzy AHP Model for Prequalification of Engineering Consultants in the Iranian Public Procurement System. Journal Of Management In Engineering, 33(2).
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Abstract
Prequalification of engineering consultants in the Iranian public procurement system is suffering from arbitrary processes and criteria that cannot effectively shortlist the increasing number of potential bidders. This study aims to develop a prequalification model that can serve as the basis for revising the existing regulations and criteria. The authors conducted interviews among experts to localize a framework of prequalification criteria. Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), accompanied by a survey among industry participants, was used to determine the importance level of decision criteria. The results confirmed that the existing guidelines cannot meet the expectations of the industry due to the overemphasis on the past performance of consultants and disregarding their current capabilities. For the international audience, this study clarifies that (1)the working culture of industry participants impacts their judgments on the importance level of intangible and tangible criteria used for prequalification processes, (2)short-listing consultants for long-term and fragmented data collection in national registration or project prequalification should be avoided, and (3)researchers must test FAHP models with different fuzzy scales because the success of the widely used fuzzy extent analysis method is highly dependent on the scale of fuzzy functions and judgments of decision makers.
Keywords
Analytic Hierarchy Process; Fuzzy Set Theory; Organisational Aspects; Procurement; Project Management; Public Relations; Tendering; Fuzzy Ahp Model; Project Prequalification Criteria; Iranian Public Procurement System; Bidders; Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process; Industry Participants; International Audience; National Registration; Fuzzy Scales; Fuzzy Extent Analysis Method; Decision Makers; Engineering Consultants; Working Culture; Decision-making Model; Extent Analysis Method; Selection; Qualification; Contractors; Criteria; Consultants; Prequalification; Fuzzy; Analytical Hierarchy Process (ahp)