This article reviews the literature on characteristics, causes, and costs of alternative development patterns. In doing so it debunks arguments by Gordon and Richardson in favor of Los Angeles-style sprawl. Sprawl is not suburbanization generally, but rather forms of suburban development that lack accessibility and open space. Sprawl is not a natural response to market forces, but a product of subsidies and other market imperfections. The costs of sprawl are borne by all of us, not just those creating it, and include inflated public spending, loss of resource lands, and a waning sense of community. The only realistic cure for sprawl is active planning of the sort practiced almost everywhere except the United States (and beginning to appear here out of necessity).

Is Los Angeles-Style Sprawl Desirable?

It is difficult to think about environments. Because theory and explicit conceptual frameworks are scarce, the numerous environment-behavior relations (EBR) studies have not been cumulative; indeed their very number has become counterproductive. In the case of home environments there is a particularly daunting amount of diverse and unintegrated work.

Thinking about Home Environments

Physical density 
Physical density is a numerical measure of the
concentration of individuals or physical structures
within a given geographical unit. It is an objective,
quantitative and neutral spatial indicator. However, in
practice, physical density takes on a real meaning only
if it is related to a specified scale of reference.

Understanding Density and High Density

A sustainable city is an elusive goal without a sustainable transport network. A sustainable urban transport system balances social, economic, and environmental goals through inclusive decision-making. Public acceptability of sustainable transport measures is a challenge for developing cities such as Dhaka, where mobility to all income groups of the society needs to be ensured without hampering environmental balance and road safety condition. This paper sets out a comprehensive analysis of how people perceive different attributes of sustainability of the existing transport operation in Dhaka. Considering the unavailability of a standardized set of indicators to evaluate transport sustainability performance in Dhaka, this research identified a set of 14 subjective indicators based on an extensive literature survey and local expert opinion. The study explored a high level of user displeasure over the transport sustainability performance in the city. Travel time, women accessibility, and safety were identified as the top priority indicators in terms of user disgruntlement where cost issue generated fewer complaints. Variation of perception of different social groups have been explored to find that young, educated, and high-income respondents are the most concerned about sustainability issues. The research concluded discussing the probable acceptability or risk of a few transport policies based on the findings. The study developed a framework for investigating transport sustainability performance with subjective indicators that may assist policy makers in promoting inclusive decisions through the efficient use of resources.

Examining public perception over outcome indicators of sustainable urban transport in Dhaka city

This research aims to empirically examine whether continuity during the transformation process of the physical/built environment helps to sustain people’s satisfaction with life by bridging two previously independent fields of research: typo-morphology and sense of place (SoP). The former concerns the transformation process of the built environment, in paarticular continuity of urban form, represented through typological process which was theorised by the Italian Typological School. The latter is an important indicator of life satisfaction. The research proposes a mixed methodology combining typological analysis and SoP assessment, which then is applied in the Turkish context with seven selected cases of housing development in Ankara which were developed in different periods of the city’s development since the late 19th century. Each period features distinctive socio-economic, political and cultural conditions that have shaped different building types or urban types. Regarding the mixed methodology, a typological frame of a set of spatial characteristics is established against which types are defined at the building, street and neighbourhood scales. Then, spatial characteristics of the building, street and neighbourhood types of the seven cases are compared in a chronological order to identify continued and partly continued (thus in typological process), or discontinued transformation. Regarding SoP assessment, firstly, a conceptual SoP model consisting of ten indicators is proposed and interview questions for the residents of the seven housing developments are developed accordingly. Then, 20 residents from each housing development are interviewed to assess their degree of satisfaction with each indicator using a 7-point Likert scale. The research did not intend to measure SoP in its absolute value but to monitor SoP in a comparative perspective. By aligning the SoP scores with the corresponding typological changes at the three scales, the research reveals that SoP is weakened during the transformation process from the traditional types to the contemporary types. It proves that changing housing typology is one of the factors affecting SoP although the degree of its impact is not entirely clear compared to that of socio-economic and demographic factors. The results demonstrate that continuity over time at the building scale helps to maintain SoP at least at the moderate level; while mutations at the street and neighbourhood scales cause dramatic decreases of the SoP scores over time. Furthermore, the degrees to which physical changes affect SoP are different at different place scales. In detail, physical changes at the street scale affect SoP the most, followed by changes at the neighbourhood scale. Changes at the building scale affect SoP the least. The study also clarifies those spatial characteristics that contribute positively to SoP and therefore should be sustained in contemporary development in the cultural context. For example, functional zoning of the houses clearly defining the individual and shared spaces, gradual transition between public streets and the private building entrances, building accesses from pedestrianised/traffic-calmed streets, having clear boundaries of housing clusters, clear separation of public and private spaces, neighbourhood design prioritising pedestrians and integrated street network centralising open spaces and encouraging social interaction. Such characteristics are mainly relevant to the design of public spaces at the street and neighbourhood scales. In sum, this thesis has established a methodological framework for SoP assessment during the process of typo- morphological transformation. The framework can be applied to other Turkish cities or is relevant to other cultural contexts. The methodology has not only shed some light on the definition of typological process, but also contributed to the lesser extended literature on measuring SoP and understanding the impact of spatial characteristics on SoP.

An empirical investigation of the interplay between typo-morphological transformation of historic house form and sense of place

This study undertook an empirical Investigation of human response to air quality. Home interviews of 475 respondents living in 22 neighborhoods of Los Angeles County had elicited information on respondent socioeconomic characteristics, behavioral patterns, and measures of human response to air quality. This data base was then augmented with nine measures of actual air quality for six time frames for each neighborhood. An observer-based air quality index (OBAQI) was constructed based upon which combination of air quality variables correlated best with the percentage of neighborhood respondents who perceived “smoggy air.” The best combination (OBAQI 3) consisted of prevailing visibility, O3, and SO2, each measured as the annual number of days that a selected standard had been equalled or exceeded. Subsequently, multiple regression models were constructed using this index as a predictor of aggregated perception of air quality. In addition to a general model for all neighborhoods, separate models were constru...

An index and model of human response to air quality

Spiraling inflation in urban land prices and the national needs to conserve energy and promote environmental quality will continue to pressure planners to make more intensive use of residential land and yet maintain user satisfaction. To achieve this goal the site planner must understand the concept of perceived density and the physical attributes that influence it. The paper reviews both theoretical and applied literature that discuss these attributes. Empirical work is presented that suggests how selected site characteristics affect user perception of and satisfaction with density. Suggestions for future research are given.

Peter G. Flachsbart

Papers

An index and model of human response to air quality

Residential Site Planning and Perceived Densities