Abramson, Daniel Benjamin. (2016). Periurbanization and the Politics of Development-as-City-Building in China. Cities, 53, 156 – 162.
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Abstract
China stands out among recently urbanized societies for the planned physicality of its rural-urban transformation the extensive marshaling of labor, capital and material resources to remake its cities and to transform rural land and communities into new, formal urban space. In China, the rural and the urban are distinguished in deeply dichotomous institutions of government, and peri-urbanization, defined as the disorderly spaces, processes and conditions of becoming urban, would appear to be a temporary stage of transition between an old rural socio-spatial order to a new urban socio-spatial order. The actual contested politics of development as-urbanization suggests otherwise, however, both on a national scale and on a community scale. The definition of development itself is at stake, and emerges unpredictably from peri-urban experience. A view of periurbanization as a process of socio-ecological adaptation is better suited to societies that have evolved in long settled, densely populated anthropogenic agrarian landscapes. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords
Urban-growth; Chengdu; Urbanization; Adaptation; Resilience; Alternative Development; Socialist New Countryside Construction; New Rural Reconstruction
Tobey, Michael B.; Binder, Robert B.; Chang, Soowon; Yoshida, Takahiro; Yamagata, Yoshiki; Yang, Perry P. J. (2019). Urban Systems Design: A Conceptual Framework for Planning Smart Communities. Smart Cities, 2(4), 522 – 537.
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Abstract
Urban systems design arises from disparate current planning approaches (urban design, Planning Support Systems, and community engagement), compounded by the reemergence of rational planning methods from new technology (Internet of Things (IoT), metric based analysis, and big data). The proposed methods join social considerations (Human Well-Being), environmental needs (Sustainability), climate change and disaster mitigation (Resilience), and prosperity (Economics) as the four foundational pillars. Urban systems design integrates planning methodologies to systematically tackle urban challenges, using IoT and rational methods, while human beings form the core of all analysis and objectives. Our approach utilizes an iterative three-phase development loop to contextualize, evaluate, plan and design scenarios for the specific needs of communities. An equal emphasis is placed on feedback loops through analysis and design, to achieve the end goal of building smart communities.
Keywords
Urban Design; Planning Support System; Resilience; Sustainability; Economics; Human Factors; Big Data
Pataki, Diane E.; Alberti, Marina; Cadenasso, Mary L.; Felson, Alexander J.; McDonnell, Mark J.; Pincetl, Stephanie; Pouyat, Richard V.; Setala, Heikki; Whitlow, Thomas H. (2021). The Benefits and Limits of Urban Tree Planting for Environmental and Human Health. Frontiers In Ecology And Evolution, 9.
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Abstract
Many of the world's major cities have implemented tree planting programs based on assumed environmental and social benefits of urban forests. Recent studies have increasingly tested these assumptions and provide empirical evidence for the contributions of tree planting programs, as well as their feasibility and limits, for solving or mitigating urban environmental and social issues. We propose that current evidence supports local cooling, stormwater absorption, and health benefits of urban trees for local residents. However, the potential for urban trees to appreciably mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution over a wide array of sites and environmental conditions is limited. Consequently, urban trees appear to be more promising for climate and pollution adaptation strategies than mitigation strategies. In large part, this is due to space constraints limiting the extent of urban tree canopies relative to the current magnitude of emissions. The most promising environmental and health impacts of urban trees are those that can be realized with well-stewarded tree planting and localized design interventions at site to municipal scales. Tree planting at these scales has documented benefits on local climate and health, which can be maximized through targeted site design followed by monitoring, adaptive management, and studies of long-term eco-evolutionary dynamics.
Keywords
Outdoor Thermal Comfort; Improved Public-health; Carbon Storage; Ecosystem Services; Air-quality; Rainfall Interception; Vegetation; Cover; Design; Impact; Urban Ecology; Forestry; Sustainability; Policy; Climate Mitigation; Climate Adaptation; Ecosystem Disservices
Lindell, Michael K.; Huang, Shih-kai; Wei, Hung-lung; Samuelson, Charles D. (2016). Perceptions And Expected Immediate Reactions To Tornado Warning Polygons. Natural Hazards, 80(1), 683 – 707.
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Abstract
To provide people with more specific information about tornado threats, the National Weather Service has replaced its county-wide warnings with smaller warning polygons that more specifically indicate the risk area. However, tornado warning polygons do not have a standardized definition regarding tornado strike probabilities (p (s)) so it is unclear how warning recipients interpret them. To better understand this issue, 155 participants responded to 15 hypothetical warning polygons. After viewing each polygon, they rated the likelihood of a tornado striking their location and the likelihood that they would take nine different response actions ranging from continuing normal activities to getting in a car and driving somewhere safer. The results showed participants inferred that the p (s) was highest at the polygon's centroid, lower just inside the edges of the polygon, still lower (but not zero) just outside the edges of the polygon, and lowest in locations beyond that. Moreover, higher p (s) values were associated with lower expectations of continuing normal activities and higher expectations of seeking information from social sources (but not environmental cues) and higher expectations of seeking shelter (but not evacuating in their cars). These results indicate that most people make some errors in their p (s) judgments but are likely to respond appropriately to the p (s) they infer from the warning polygons. Overall, the findings from this study and other research can help meteorologists to better understand how people interpret the uncertainty associated with warning polygons and, thus, improve tornado warning systems.
Keywords
Interrater Agreement; Protective Action; Decision-making; Evacuation; Risk; Uncertainty; Residents; Disaster; Probabilities; Preparedness; Tornado Warning Polygons; Risk Perceptions; Protective Actions
Tobey, Michael B.; Binder, Robert B.; Yoshida, Takahiro; Yamagata, Yoshiki. (2019). Urban Systems Design Case Study: Tokyo’s Sumida Ward. Smart Cities, 2(4), 453 – 470.
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Abstract
Meeting the needs of increasing environmental and systematic pressures in urban settlements requires the use of integrated and wholistic approaches. The Urban Systems Design (USD) Conceptual Framework joins the metric-based modeling of rationalized methods with human-driven goals to form a combined iterative design and analysis loop. The framework processes information for the fundamental element of cities-humans-to large-scale modeling and decision-making occurring in district- and ward-level planning. There is a need in the planning and design profession to better integrate these efforts at a greater scale to create smart communities that are inclusive and comprehensive in aspects from data management to energy and transportation networks. The purpose of this study is to examine the applicability of this method as it pertains to a model and design integrated approach. Northern Sumida Ward, located in Tokyo, exemplifies the contextualized needs of Tokyo, and Japan, while forming a coherent internal community. Focusing on methodology, our process explores the creation of typologies, metric-based analysis, and design-based approaches that are integrated into modeling. The results of the analyses provide initial evidence regarding the validity of the USD approach in modeling changes to complex systems at differing design scales, connecting various qualities of the built environment, building and urban forms, and diagnostic comparisons between baseline and change conditions. Because of some inconsistencies and the need for further evidence gathering, the methods and processes show that there is much work to be done to strengthen the model and to continue building a more productive field of USD. However, in this framework's continuing evolution, there is increasing evidence that combining the planning and design of urban systems creates a more resilient, economically viable, sustainable, and comfortable city.
Keywords
Urban Planning; Resilience; Sustainability; Economics; Human Factors; Tokyo; Planning Support System; Gis
Peers, Justin B.; Gregg, Christopher E.; Lindell, Michael K.; Pelletier, Denis; Romerio, Franco; Joyner, Andrew T. (2021). The Economic Effects of Volcanic Alerts-A Case Study of High-Threat US Volcanoes. Risk Analysis, 41(10).
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Abstract
A common concern about volcanic unrest is that the communication of information about increasing volcanic alert levels (VALs) to the public could cause serious social and economic impacts even if an eruption does not occur. To test this statement, this study examined housing prices and business patterns from 1974-2016 in volcanic regions with very-high threat designations from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-Long Valley Caldera (LVC), CA (caldera); Mount St. Helens (MSH), Washington (stratovolcano); and Kilauea, HawaiModified Letter Turned Commai (shield volcano). To compare economic trends in nonvolcanic regions that are economically dependent on tourism, Steamboat Springs, CO, served as a control as it is a ski-tourism community much like Mammoth Lakes in LVC. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models predicted that housing prices were negatively affected by VALs at LVC from 1982-1983 and 1991-1997. While VALs associated with unrest and eruptions included in this study both had short-term indirect effects on housing prices and business indicators (e.g., number of establishments, employment, and salary), these notifications were not strong predictors of long-term economic trends. Our findings suggest that these indirect effects result from both eruptions with higher level VALs and from unrest involving lower-level VAL notifications that communicate a change in volcanic activity but do not indicate that an eruption is imminent or underway. This provides evidence concerning a systemic issue in disaster resilience. While disaster relief is provided by the U.S. federal government for direct impacts associated with disaster events that result in presidential major disaster declarations, there is limited or no assistance for indirect effects to businesses and homeowners that may follow volcanic unrest with no resulting direct physical losses. The fact that periods of volcanic unrest preceding eruption are often protracted in comparison to precursory periods for other hazardous events (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding) makes the issue of indirect effects particularly important in regions susceptible to volcanic activity.
Keywords
Direct Impacts; Econometric Analysis; Indirect Impacts; Risk Assessment; Volcano Alert Levels; Earthquakes; Hurricanes; Threats; Housing Costs; Business Indicators; Disasters; Disaster Relief; Declarations; Volcanoes; Resilience; Tourism; Economics; Flooding; Trends; Calderas; Geological Surveys; Housing Prices; Eruptions; Precursors; Indirect Effects; Business; Disaster Management; Economic Trends; Autoregressive Models; Floods; Employment Status; Prices; Federal Government; Housing; Eruption; Economic Impact; Seismic Activity; Volcanic Activity; Earthquake Prediction; Lakes; Communication; United States--us
McPhearson, Timon; Pickett, Steward T. A.; Grimm, Nancy B.; Niemela, Jari; Alberti, Marina; Elmqvist, Thomas; Weber, Christiane; Haase, Dagmar; Breuste, Juergen; Qureshi, Salman. (2016). Advancing Urban Ecology toward a Science of Cities. Bioscience, 66(3), 198 – 212.
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Abstract
Urban ecology is a field encompassing multiple disciplines and practical applications and has grown rapidly. However, the field is heterogeneous as a global inquiry with multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks, variable research approaches, and a lack of coordination among multiple schools of thought and research foci. Here, we present an international consensus on how urban ecology can advance along multiple research directions. There is potential for the field to mature as a holistic, integrated science of urban systems. Such an integrated science could better inform decisionmakers who need increased understanding of complex relationships among social, ecological, economic, and built infrastructure systems. To advance the field requires conceptual synthesis, knowledge and data sharing; cross-city comparative research, new intellectual networks, and engagement with additional disciplines. We consider challenges and opportunities for understanding dynamics of urban systems. We suggest pathways for advancing urban ecology research to support the goals of improving urban sustainability and resilience, conserving urban biodiversity, and promoting human well-being on an urbanizing planet.
Keywords
Urban Ecology (biology); Urban Biodiversity; Urbanization & The Environment; Life Sciences; Medical Sciences; Comparative Research; Complexity; Conceptual Frameworks; Urban Ecology; Urban Systems; Ecosystem Services; Green Spaces; Resilience; Framework; Systems; Design; Water; Tree
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
Peers, Justin B.; Lindell, Michael K.; Gregg, Christopher E.; Reeves, Ashleigh K.; Joyner, Andrew T.; Johnston, David M. (2021). Multi-Hazard Perceptions at Long Valley Caldera, California, USA. International Journal Of Disaster Risk Reduction, 52.
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Abstract
Caldera systems such as Long Valley Caldera, California; Taupo, New Zealand; and Campi Flegrei, Italy, experience centuries to millennia without eruption, but have the potential for large eruptions. This raises questions about how local residents' behavioral responses to these low-probability high-consequence events differ from their responses to events, such as wildfires and earthquakes, that have higher probabilities. To examine this issue, a multi-hazard mail survey of 229 households explored perceptions of-and responses to-volcano, earthquake and wildfire hazards in the Long Valley Volcanic Region. Response efficacy was the only significant predictor of emergency preparedness, which suggests that hazard managers can increase household emergency preparedness by emphasizing this attribute of protective actions. In addition to response efficacy, expected personal consequences, hazard intrusiveness, and affective responses were all significantly related to information seeking. This indicates that hazard managers can also increase households' information seeking about local hazards and appropriate protective actions by communicating the certainty and severity of hazard impacts (thus increasing expected personal consequences) and that they communicate this information repeatedly (thus increasing hazard intrusiveness) to produce significant emotional involvement (thus increasing affective response).
Keywords
Households Expected Responses; Risk Information-seeking; Volcanic Risk; Earthquake; Model; Adjustment; Mitigation; Communication; Preparedness; Predictors; Volcano Hazard Perception; Earthquake Hazard Perception; Wildfire Hazard Perception; Emergency Preparedness; Information Seeking
Ren Hong; Wang Peng; Cai Weiguang; Li Dandan; Du Yongjie; Sun Junqiao; Abramson, Daniel. (2016). Visitor Center Design Research Based on Resilience Theory. Open House International, 41(3), 5 – 11.
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Abstract
Visitor center plays an important role in the normal operation and sustainable development of scenic spots, especially as a portal image of its management. This paper presents resilience theory for visitor centers to identify some common issues in designing visitor centers in China scenic spots, including the lack of function, loss of architectural characteristics, and difficultly in adapting to changes in the number of visitors with periodic variations. The framework of resilience theory was set from four dimensions, namely, resilience and match in the composition of ontology function, the extended function, integration of buildings into the surrounding environment, and alternative construction technologies and materials. This theory was explained and analyzed with the application of the theory in practice in combination with the design of Mount Hua visitor center. Results showed that resilience theory yields good application effect.
Keywords
Resilience Theory; Visitor Center; Design Research; Function Space