Wang, Z., Ito, K., & Biljecki, F. (2024). Assessing the equity and evolution of urban visual perceptual quality with time series street view imagery. Cities, 145, 104704-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104704
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Abstract
The well-being of residents is considerably influenced by the quality of their environment. However, due to the lack of large-scale quantitative and longitudinal evaluation methods, it has been challenging to assess residents' satisfaction and achieve social inclusion goals in neighborhoods. We develop a novel cost-effective method that utilizes time series street view imagery for evaluating and monitoring visual environmental quality in neighborhoods. Unlike most research that relies on site visits or surveys, this study trains a deep learning model with a large-scale dataset to analyze six perception indicators' scores in neighborhoods in different geographies and does so longitudinally thanks to imagery taken over a period of a decade, a novelty in the body of knowledge. Implementing the approach, we examine public housing neighborhoods in Singapore and New York City as case studies. The results demonstrated that temporal imagery can effectively assess spatial equity and monitor the visual environmental qualities of neighborhoods over time, providing a new, comprehensive, and scalable workflow. It can help governments improve policies and make informed decisions on enhancing the design and living standards of urban residential areas, including public housing communities, which may be affected by social stigmatization, and monitor the effectiveness of their policies and actions.
Keywords
Residential quality; Public housing; Environmental quality; Spatial equity; Street view imagery; Visual environment
Pineo, H., Clifford, B., Eyre, M., & Aldridge, R. W. (2024). Health and wellbeing impacts of housing converted from non-residential buildings: A mixed-methods exploratory study in London, UK. Wellbeing, Space and Society, 6, 100192-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2024.100192
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Abstract
Housing quality is a determinant of health, wellbeing and inequities. Since 2013, changes to Permitted Development Rights (PDR) allow conversions of non-residential buildings into housing without planning permission in England. We explored the potential health and wellbeing impacts of such ‘PDR housing’ through an online survey and semi-structured interviews in four London boroughs. We found an association between low wellbeing and lack of residential space and accommodation cooling options, fewer local amenities and lower perceived safety. Participants highlighted problems with windows and outdoor space. Poor quality PDR conversions may pose health and wellbeing risks that could be avoided through regulation and enforcement.
Keywords
Housing; Wellbeing; Health; Non-residential conversions; England; Socio-ecological; Adaptive reuse; Urban planning
The Washington Center for Real Estate Research (WCRER) has released a white paper entitled “Increasing Washington State’s Residential Development Capacity”, co-authored by WCRER Director Steven Bourassa (also the H. Jon and Judith M. Runstad Endowed Professor and Chair of the Runstad Department of Real Estate) and WCRER Associate Director Mason Virant. WCRER also recently released a report which focuses on the impacts of HB 1923 and HB 2343, legislation enacted in 2019 and 2020 which provide grants to help develop…
Colburn, Gregg, and Clayton Page Aldern. Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022.
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Associate Professor Gregg Colburn in the Runstad Department of Real Estate was cited in the Council of Economic Advisors 2024 Economic Report of the President. Chapter 4 of the report, “Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing: Economic Insights and Federal Policy Solutions” cites a book from Aldren and Colburn, 2022, entitled “Homelessness Is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns.” (Available here: https:// homelessnesshousingproblem.com/.) Read the report, and see the book from Aldren and Colburn for more information.
Kim, Y.-W., & Rhee, B.-D. (2024). Incentive-based coordination for scheduled delivery in prefab construction. Construction Management and Economics, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2305763.
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Abstract
An increasing number of projects are adopting prefabrication to economize on time, labor, and materials in fixed-position layout operations, such as construction, ship building, and aircraft manufacturing. In such contexts, independent contractor and fabricator make interdependent decisions, which calls for prudent supply chain management because performance relies on coordination between their decisions. Many studies have developed integrated systems and propose various algorithms for scheduling efficiency and reliability. Nevertheless, they pay scant attention to conflicting interests amongst independent partners, which may result in subpar performance not only for the supplier but for the contractor as well. Coordination of conflicting interests has been extensively studied in economics and supply chain management; yet, those studies focus on order-quantity decisions under demand uncertainty for profit maximization, while managers in fixed-position operations are more concerned about delivery decisions under scheduling uncertainty for cost minimization. We consider the case of construction and explore a contractual scheme that aligns the agents' decisions for coordination in a construction supply chain. Specifically, we propose a supplier rebate for coordination: the supplier grants a rebate if the contractor accepts the shipment in accordance with the delivery schedule that the contractor initially chose. We show that the optimal rebate fully coordinates the supply chain to minimize the joint supply chain costs. Thus, both the contractor and supplier benefit from the coordination by negotiating a mutually acceptable way to allocate the savings in joint costs between them. We further show that the rebate motivates the contractor to enhance its work scheduling.
Keywords
Construction supply chain; coordination; delivery schedule reliability; prefabrication; rebate for scheduled delivery
Walter, R. J., Acolin, A., & Tillyer, M. S. (2024). Association between property investments and crime on commercial and residential streets: Implications for maximizing public safety benefits. SSM – Population Health, 25, 101537–101537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101537.
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Abstract
Physical property investments enhance public safety in communities while alleviating the need for criminal justice system responses. Policy makers and local government officials must allocate scare resources for community and economic development activities. Understanding where physical property investments have the greatest crime reducing benefits can inform decision making to maximize economic, safety, and health outcomes. This study uses Spatial Durbin models with street segment and census tract by year fixed effects to examine the impact of physical property investments on changes in property and violent crime over an 11-year period (2008-2018) in six large U.S. cities. The units of analysis are commercial and residential street segments. Street segments are classified into low, medium, and high crime terciles defined by initial crime levels (2008-2010). Difference of coefficients tests identify significant differences in building permit effects across crime terciles. The findings reveal there is a significant negative relationship between physical property investments and changes in property and violent crime on commercial and residential street segments in all cities. Investments have the greatest public safety benefit where initial crime levels are the highest. The decrease in violent crime is larger on commercial street segments, while the decrease in property crime is larger on residential street segments. Targeting the highest crime street segments (i.e., 90th percentile) for property improvements will maximize public safety benefits.
Keywords
Violent and property crime; Public safety; Physical property investments
Colburn, G., Hess, C., Allen, R., & Crowder, K. (2024). The dynamics of housing cost burden among renters in the United States. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2288587.
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Abstract
Housing cost burden—defined as paying more than 30% of household income for housing—has become a central feature of the American stratification system with dire consequences for the health and well-being of adults and children living in burdened households. To date, existing research has largely focused on the overall prevalence and distribution of housing cost burden—that is, the percentage of households that are cost burdened at a given time and differences in exposure to housing cost burden based on race and income using cross-sectional sources of data. To more fully understand the dynamics of housing cost burden among renter households in the United States including the frequency and duration of spells, we use 50 years of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The analysis reveals that, in contrast to the episodic nature of poverty, housing cost burden is deep, frequent, and persistent for a growing share of American households.
Keywords
Housing cost burden; rental housing; housing affordability; rent burden
Chu, A-Yong and Jeffrey Hou. 2023. Voices of Precarity in Taipei. Topos, 125: 78-84. https://shop.georg-media.de/topos-125/
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Abstract
This issue marks 125 issues of topos, the unique magazine for landscape architecture and urban planning. 1 2 5 issues of topos magazine. But: We do not want to use this anniversary to celebrate ourselves. Instead, we want to use this anniversary to focus on an urban issue that is so brutal that almost everyone would rather look the other way than take action: poverty. We want to use this issue of topos magazine to celebrate, in conversation with planners, city leaders and entrepreneurs, those people and projects, that work every day to create a more equitable metropolis of the future that provides warmth, food and shelter for everyone. So this is what’s #125 about. Celebrate with us what truly matters in the city of tomorrow.
Population Health Initiative gave 12 early-stage pilot grants to interdisciplinary teams. One team included Rebecca Walter, an associate professor in the Runstad Department of Real Estate. Project title: “Housing affordability and chronic stress in the US: Does affordability modify the effect of neighborhoods on health?” Project team: Amy J. Youngbloom, Department of Epidemiology Stephen J. Mooney, Department of Epidemiology Anjum Hajat, Department of Epidemiology Isaac Rhew, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Rebecca Walter, Runstad Department of Real Estate Project…